Evaluation of Hepatitis C Screening and Treatment Among Psychiatry Inpatients.

To evaluate uptake of hepatitis C virus (HCV) testing and treatment among psychiatry inpatients at Canada's largest mental health institution, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). We reviewed medical records for all forensic and long-stay mental health patients from January 2017 to May 2021 to examine rates of HCV testing (antibody and RNA), treatment, and follow-up and completed a logistical regression to identify predictors associated with HCV antibody (Ab) screening among inpatients. Of 1,031 patients, 73% (n = 753) were male, mean age was 44 years (range: 20-92), and mean length of stay was 7.

An Examination of Predictive Validity and Change in Risk Factors for Stalking over Time.

This study investigates the predictive validity of two risk instruments for stalking, the Guidelines for Stalking Assessment and Management (SAM) and the Stalking Risk Profile (SRP), in a sample of 86 forensic psychiatric patients. We compare these tools against a well-validated violence risk assessment measure (Historical, Clinical, Risk Management-20, Version 3 (HCR-20V3)) for violent and stalking-related outcomes. Dynamic (mutable) components of each tool were rated at three annual intervals and revealed significant change across time.

Change in Severity of Mental Disorder of Remand Prisoners: An Observational Group-Based Trajectory Study.

Background: Mental disorder is common among prisoners; however, little is known about how illness severity changes during incarceration, and especially to what extent there are different trajectories of change.

Aims: Our aims were to investigate trajectories of illness severity among male and female inmates with serious mental disorders, and to investigate whether clinical or demographic variables are associated with different trajectories.

Methods: We carried out a retrospective cohort study of newly remanded inmates who had three or more serial measures of illness severity as measured by psychiatrists using the Clinical Global Impression-Corrections (CGI-C), and used group-based trajectory modelling to identify trajectories.

A Systematic Review of Reviews of Correctional Mental Health Services Using the STAIR Framework.

Background: Rising demand for correctional mental health services (CMHS) in recent decades has been a global phenomenon. Despite increasing research, there are major gaps in understanding the best models for CMHS and how to measure their effectiveness, particularly studies that consider the overall care pathways and effectiveness of service responses. The STAIR (Screening, Triage, Assessment, Intervention, and Re-integration) model is an evidence-based framework that defines and measures CMHS as a clinical pathway with a series of measurable, and linked functions.

N400 event-related brain potential and functional outcome in persons at clinical high risk for psychosis: A longitudinal study.

Background: The N400 event-related brain potential (ERP) semantic priming effect is thought to reflect activation by meaningful stimuli of related concepts in semantic memory and has been found to be deficient in schizophrenia. We tested the hypothesis that, among individuals at clinical high risk (CHR) for psychosis, N400 semantic priming deficits predict worse symptomatic and functional outcomes after one year.

Methods: We measured N400 semantic priming at baseline in CHR patients (n = 47) and healthy control participants (n = 25) who viewed prime words each followed by a related or unrelated target word, at stimulus-onset asynchronies (SOAs) of 300 or 750 ms.

Management of COVID-19 Response in a Secure Forensic Mental Health Setting: Réponse à la gestion de la COVID-19 dans un établissement sécurisé de santé mentale et de psychiatrie légale.

Objectives: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic presents major challenges to places of detention, including secure forensic hospitals. International guidance presents a range of approaches to assist in decreasing the risk of COVID-19 outbreaks as well as responses to manage outbreaks of infection should they occur.

Methods: We conducted a literature search on pandemic or outbreak management in forensic mental health settings, including gray literature sources, from 2000 to April 2020.

Validation of the Clinical Global Impression-Corrections Scale (CGI-C) by Equipercentile Linking to the BPRS-E.

The Clinical Global Impression-Corrections (CGI-C) is an adaptation of the severity scale of the Clinical Global Impression for use in correctional facilities. Although it has been shown to have good inter-rater reliability, there have been no validation studies of this instrument. We analyzed data from 726 initial assessments of persons detained in two correctional facilities and compared clinician's ratings for the CGI-C and modified Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale-Expanded (BPRS-E).

N400 event-related brain potential as an index of real-world and neurocognitive function in patients at clinical high risk for schizophrenia.

Aim: The N400 event-related potential is a neurophysiological index of cognitive processing of real-world knowledge. In healthy populations, N400 amplitude is smaller in response to stimuli that are more related to preceding context. This 'N400 semantic priming effect' is thought to reflect activation of contextually related information in semantic memory (SM).

Negative symptoms in the clinical high-risk state for psychosis: Connection with cognition and primacy in impacting functioning.

Aim: In the clinical high-risk (CHR) state for psychosis, both negative symptoms and lower cognitive function have been associated with poorer daily functioning. Recent evidence suggests that negative symptoms share overlapping variability with cognition and may partially mediate the relationship between cognition and functioning. However, the nature of this overlap is unknown, and the reverse mediation model remains untested leaving the precise nature of these associations unclear.

Stress precedes negative symptom exacerbations in clinical high risk and early psychosis: A time-lagged experience sampling study.

The experience sampling method (ESM) has revealed associations between fluctuations in stress and positive symptoms in psychosis. It is unknown, however, how negative symptoms including anhedonia respond to stress. Stress is divided according to its source: event-related stress stemming from negative events, and activity-related stress stemming from engaging in tasks beyond one's skill or control.

Relationships between cognitive event-related brain potential measures in patients at clinical high risk for psychosis.

Neurophysiological measures of cognitive functioning that are abnormal in patients with schizophrenia are promising candidate biomarkers for predicting development of psychosis in individuals at clinical high risk (CHR). We examined the relationships among event-related brain potential (ERP) measures of early sensory, pre-attentional, and attention-dependent cognition, in antipsychotic-naïve help-seeking CHR patients (n = 36) and healthy control participants (n = 22). These measures included the gamma auditory steady-state response (ASSR; early sensory); mismatch negativity (MMN) and P3a (pre-attentional); and N400 semantic priming effects - a measure of using meaningful context to predict related items - over a shorter and a longer time interval (attention-dependent).

Mitochondrial function in individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis.

Alterations in mitochondrial function have been implicated in the etiology of schizophrenia. Most studies have investigated alterations in mitochondrial function in patients in which the disorder is already established; however, whether mitochondrial dysfunction predates the onset of psychosis remains unknown. We measured peripheral mitochondrial complex (I-V) function and lactate/pyruvate levels in 27 antipsychotic-naïve individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis (CHR) and 16 healthy controls.

Severe hypoglycemia in a juvenile diabetic rat model: presence and severity of seizures are associated with mortality.

It is well accepted that insulin-induced hypoglycemia can result in seizures. However, the effects of the seizures, as well as possible treatment strategies, have yet to be elucidated, particularly in juvenile or insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). Here we establish a model of diabetes in young rats, to examine the consequences of severe hypoglycemia in this age group; particularly seizures and mortality.