Post-traumatic stress symptoms in relatives in the first weeks after severe traumatic brain injury.

Introduction: Severe traumatic brain injury (STBI) can cause psychological stress in proxies in the long-term. This study assessed post-traumatic stress (PTS) symptoms in proxies of survivors of STBI in the short-term and investigated stress-associated factors.

Methods: Prospective cross-sectional study, conducted at three Swiss trauma centres over 1 year.

Psychological adaptation to life-threatening injury in dyads: the role of dysfunctional disclosure of trauma.

Background: CERTAIN MODES OF TRAUMA DISCLOSURE HAVE BEEN FOUND TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH MORE SEVERE SYMPTOMS OF POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS (PTS) IN DIFFERENT TRAUMA POPULATIONS: the reluctance to disclose trauma-related thoughts and feelings, a strong urge to talk about it, and physical as well as emotional reactions during disclosure. Although social-contextual influences gain more and more interest in trauma research, no study has yet investigated these "dysfunctional disclosure tendencies" and their association with PTS from an interpersonal perspective.

Objective: (1) To replicate previous findings on dysfunctional disclosure tendencies in patients with life-threatening injury and their significant others and (2) to study interpersonal associations between dysfunctional disclosure style and PTS at a dyadic level.

[Assessment of overinclusion in schizophrenia by a computer-assisted version of the Concept Overinclusion test].

Objective: A special form of formal thought disorder is the overinclusion in schizophrenia. The Begriffsumfangstest (BUT, Concept Overinclusion test) is a neuropsychological test for the assessment of this phenomenon. The test is available in a paperand- pencil version since the 1990s and now available in a computerized version.

Social influences on mental health help-seeking after interpersonal traumatization: a qualitative analysis.

Background: Despite frequent and serious mental health problems after interpersonal traumatization, only a fraction of those affected by interpersonal violence seek formal help after the event. Reasons for this mismatch can be found in the individual help-seeking process but also in the individual's social environment. These social factors are explored based on a model describing the survivor's help-seeking process.

[New diagnostic concept of adjustment disorders in psychosomatic outpatients--symptom severity, willingness to change, psychotherapy motivation].

Objectives: Adjustment disorders (AD) represent a frequently diagnosed type of disorder for which scientific interest has been limited because of insufficient diagnostic criteria. This study presents a concept comprising cognitive, behavioural, and emotional criteria (ADNM) which investigates differences in symptom severity, willingness to change, and motivation for psychotherapy in subjects with adjustment disorders.

Method: 331 outpatients were examined with a number of tools (ADNM, SCL-90-R, FPTM-23, FEVER).

Development and validation of a self-report for the assessment of adjustment disorders.

Based on a recent diagnostic proposal for adjustment disorders a self-report assessment was developed. The current study reports validation results. Psychometric properties were examined using two different samples of 687 patients with cardiac arrhythmias and 86 patients from a psychosomatic outpatient clinic.

Are empathic abilities impaired in posttraumatic stress disorder?

Trauma survivors with PTSD show social interaction and relationship impairments. It is hypothesized that traumatic experiences lead to known PTSD symptoms, empathic ability impairment, and difficulties in sharing affective, emotional, or cognitive states. A PTSD group (N=16) and a nontraumatized Control group (N=16) were compared on empathic abilities, namely the Empathic Resonance Test, Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test, and Faux Pas Test.

Posttraumatic growth, optimism and openness as outcomes of a cognitive-behavioural intervention for posttraumatic stress reactions.

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of an Internet-based CBT intervention on posttraumatic growth, openness and optimism. Ninety-six participants suffering from posttraumatic stress reactions were randomly assigned to either the treatment or a waiting-list control condition. We assessed posttraumatic stress reactions, depression and anxiety, posttraumatic growth, optimism and openness to new experiences.

[From victim to offender: characteristics of sexually abused violent and sex offenders].

Introduction: Prospective studies on victims of sexual abuse and retrospective studies on offender populations have indicated a connection between experiences of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and delinquency in adulthood.

Method: Using a representative sample of violent and sex offenders from the Canton of Zurich (Switzerland; N=354), the aim of this study was to identify the characteristics of offenders who have experienced CSA. Two multivariable models for CSA were generated.

Traumatic experiences and post-traumatic stress disorder among elderly Germans: results of a representative population-based survey.

Background: Only a few population-based studies on the epidemiology of post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSDs) are available to date. Most of the existing studies are from the U.S.

(Post-traumatic) embitterment disorder: critical evaluation of its stressor criterion and a proposed revised classification.

Background: In 2003, the German psychiatrist Michael Linden proposed the new mental disorder concept of "post-traumatic embitterment disorder (PTED)". PTED is defined as the mental reaction to a critical event that is normal, but not everyday, such as conflict at work. The patient sees this event as unjust and as a violation of basic beliefs.

Posttraumatic growth, social acknowledgment as survivors, and sense of coherence in former German child soldiers of World War II.

Objectives: To examine posttraumatic growth (PTG) and its predictors social acknowledgment as survivors, sense of coherence (SOC), trauma severity, and further factors in former child soldiers more than 60 years after deployment.

Design: Cross-sectional.

Setting: University-based geropsychiatric center in Germany.

The younger sibling of PTSD: similarities and differences between complicated grief and posttraumatic stress disorder.

Just as traumatic experiences may lead to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in some individuals, grief may also be a serious health concern for individuals who have experienced bereavement. At present, neither the DSM-IV nor the ICD-10 recognizes any form of grief as a mental disorder. The aim of this review is to summarize recent advances in definition, assessment, prevention, and treatment of complicated grief disorder (CGD) and to compare CGD with PTSD.

Effects of auricular electrical stimulation on vagal activity in healthy men: evidence from a three-armed randomized trial.

The activity of the VN (vagus nerve) is negatively associated with risk factors such as stress and smoking, morbidity and mortality. In contrast, it is also a target of therapeutic intervention. VN stimulation is used in depression and epilepsy.

Disclosure attitudes and social acknowledgement as predictors of posttraumatic stress disorder symptom severity in Chinese and German crime victims.

Objective: Only rare data exist comparing cross-cultural aspects of civilian traumatization. We compared prevalence rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in German and Chinese crime victims, and investigated the cross-cultural effect of 2 interpersonal predictors.

Method: German (n = 151) and Chinese (n = 144) adult crime victims were assessed several months postcrime.

Long-term effects of an internet-based treatment for posttraumatic stress.

Advances in communication technology offer additional strategies for providing psychological treatment. Previous trials of Internet-based treatment approaches reported significant reductions in posttraumatic stress and related symptoms in response to Internet-based treatments relative to control groups. However, empirical data on the long-term effects of those approaches are sparse.

Prolonged grief disorder: Psychometric validation of criteria proposed for DSM-V and ICD-11.

Background: Bereavement is a universal experience, and its association with excess morbidity and mortality is well established. Nevertheless, grief becomes a serious health concern for a relative few. For such individuals, intense grief persists, is distressing and disabling, and may meet criteria as a distinct mental disorder.

Seeking psychosocial care after interpersonal violence: an integrative model.

Many people experience a traumatic event at least once in their lifetime. But only a fraction of those traumatized and in need of mental health care receive psychosocial care or treatment. This may be due to barriers people experience within the help-seeking process.

Negative self-appraisals in treatment-seeking survivors of motor vehicle accidents.

Recent cognitive models stress the impact that negative appraisals have on the maintenance of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The aim of this study was to investigate the role of posttraumatic negative cognitions in 110 survivors of motor vehicle accidents (MVAs) and to examine the effect of cognitive-behavioral treatment on negative appraisals in a sample of 42 patients with full or sub-syndromal PTSD. We investigated whether posttraumatic negative cognitions predicted PTSD diagnosis and symptom severity, and whether treatment-related changes in negative appraisals were associated with PTSD symptom reduction.

Adjustment disorders after severe life-events in four postconflict settings.

Background: The present study explores whether severe life-events are associated with adjustment disorders (AD) by reanalyzing the data of a multisite epidemiological survey (de Jong et al. in Lancet 361:2128-2130, 2003). AD were diagnosed according to the new stress-response-model of AD (Maercker et al.

Posttraumatic anger in crime victims: directed at the perpetrator and at the self.

This study investigated the targets of anger that are most strongly involved in posttraumatic anger. Using a sample of 218 crime victims, the authors assessed the levels of anger at potential targets (perpetrator, criminal justice system, third persons, and the self) and their association with severity of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. The results revealed that anger was most strongly directed at the perpetrator and at the self, and that anger at other targets was low.

Adjustment disorder with depressed mood: a critique of its DSM-IV and ICD-10 conceptualisations and recommendations for the future.

Background: The volume of research involving adjustment disorder (AD) is limited. The scientific neglect of AD seems to result from the inadequate operationalisation of AD in DSM-IV and ICD-10. The aims of the present proposal are to discuss the shortcomings of AD conceptualisations and to present recommendations for the future.

Motivational reserve: lifetime motivational abilities contribute to cognitive and emotional health in old age.

The authors recently developed the concept of motivational reserve, which implies a set of motivational abilities that provide individuals with resilience to neuropathological damage. This study investigated how lifetime motivational abilities are associated with current cognitive status, mild cognitive impairment, and psychological well-being in old age. A community sample of 147 participants without dementia between 60 and 94 years of age, stratified for age group, sex, and education, completed motivation and well-being questionnaires and cognitive tests.