Toward best-practice post-disaster mental health promotion for children: Sri Lanka.

There is a pressing need for low-cost intervention models to promote mental health among children in the wake of natural disasters. This article describes an evaluation of one such model: the Happy/Sad Letter Box (HSLB) Project, a mental health promotion intervention designed to minimize trauma in children, resulting from the Indian Ocean tsunami of 26 December 2004. The HSLB Project was implemented in 68 schools in Sri Lanka's Hambantota District from April 2005 forward.

Patterns of salivary cortisol secretion and responses to daily events in patients with remitted bipolar disorder.

Previous studies on bipolar disorder revealed abnormalities in the function of the HPA axis, including disturbed patterns of cortisol secretion, during depressive and manic episodes. It is less clear whether these abnormalities persist after symptomatic recovery. In the present study we used the experience sampling method with intensive salivary cortisol sampling to study patterns of cortisol secretion in relation to negative and positive daily events during the normal daily life of a group of 36 patients with remitted bipolar disorder and 38 healthy controls.

Mood reactivity to daily events in patients with remitted bipolar disorder.

Information about mood reactions to naturally occurring stress in remitted bipolar patients may help elucidate the mechanism by which stressors influence the propensity to manic or depressive relapse in these patients. Using the experience sampling method (ESM), we therefore investigated negative and positive mood states and their reactivity to daily hassles and uplifts in 38 outpatients with remitted bipolar disorder and 38 healthy volunteers. Multilevel regression analyses confirmed that mean levels of negative affect (NA) were higher and positive affect (PA) lower in bipolar patients.

Multifactorial inheritance, rates of maturation and psychiatry's taxonomic dilemma: on Saugstad's "radical proposition" for two extremes of brain function and structure.

This paper reviews aspects of Letten F. Saugstad's Maturation Theory in relation to the Kraepelinian dichotomy and psychiatric classification. The maturation theory is based on existing neuroscience, cross-national and mental health case register data and offers an innovative alternative to current etiological formulations.

Daily hassles, uplifts, and time use in individuals with bipolar disorder in remission.

Although life stress has been shown to trigger relapse in bipolar disorder, little is known about how bipolar patients perceive daily hassles or their positive counterparts, uplifts. We used the experience sampling method to investigate the daily experience of hassles and uplifts in 38 patients with remitted bipolar disorder and 38 healthy controls. Largely because of current unemployment, patients were more often alone and at home and spent less time working and more time in passive leisure activities.

Mood reactivity to daily negative events in early adolescence: relationship to risk for psychopathology.

Emotional responses to negative daily experiences in young adolescents may provide important clues to the development of psychopathology, but research is lacking. This study assessed momentary mood reactivity to daily events as a function of risk profile in a school sample, ages 11-14. High-risk (HR, n=25) and low-risk (LR, n=106) subgroups completed frequent self-reports of mood and events for 5 days.

Depression among older people in Europe: the EURODEP studies.

The data from nine centres in Europe which had used the Geriatric Mental Scale (GMS) AGECAT were analysed to compare prevalence of diagnoses in subjects aged 65 years and over living in the community. Levels of depressive illness were: Iceland 8.8%, Liverpool 10.

Temperament characteristics of street and non-street children in Eldoret, Kenya.

Objective: To examine the interaction of temperament and environment and how these impact on the psychological function of street children and non-street children in Eldoret Kenya.

Method: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in Eldoret town. A Revised Dimensions of Temperament Survey (DOTS-R) a 54 item, factor-analytically-developed self-report instrument that measures nine temperament dimensions was used.

Stress, work and mental health: a global perspective.

Background: The United Nations, WHO and the World Bank have called the current prevalence rate of neuro-psychiatric disorder approaches of 1 in 4 individuals worldwide and 'unheralded public health crisis'. Rates are driven by an early onset, high impairment and high chronicity of these disorders. Most importantly, detection and treatment rates are low, estimated at les than 10% worldwide resulting in 500 million people underserved.

Culture and temperament: influences on infant temperament in three East African societies.

In this study, 178 infants from three East African societies differing on a number of environmental dimensions were examined to determine if aspects of their developmental environment influenced temperament characteristics. Data strongly suggest that cultural child-rearing patterns, degree of modernization, maternal orientation, ecological setting, and specific early life events contribute to temperament.