Publications by authors named "Melanie Eckert"

Background: Text messaging is widely used by young people for communicating and seeking mental health support through chat-based helplines. However, written communication lacks nonverbal cues, and language usage is an important source of information about a person's mental health state and is known to be a marker for psychopathology.

Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate language usage, and its gender differences and associations with the presence of psychiatric symptoms within a chat counseling service for adolescents and young adults.

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The COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing lockdowns might have had a strong impact on mental health of mothers and their infants/toddlers. For example, families had to deal with health issues and social isolation, which might have affected mental health and parent-child interactions. The aim of this study is to evaluate differences in (1) infantile regulatory disorders, (2) maternal mental health, (3) the impact of maternal mental health on infantile regulatory disorders, and (4) alterations in the mother-child interaction for participants recruited before versus after the onset of the first German lockdown.

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Background: Online helplines have shown a high acceptance, feasibility, and usability, especially with young people. Helplines usually aim to provide one-time crisis intervention; however, there are users who frequently use such services, tying a disproportionately large proportion of service capacities. To date, there is no research on the characterization of frequent users of online helplines.

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Background: Mental crises have high prevalences in adolescence. Early interventions appear to be highly important to diminish the risk of the deterioration, recurrence, or chronification of symptoms. In recent years, various providers have started offering live chat support in psychological crises.

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Background: Adolescence represents a vulnerable period to experience personal crises or mental health problems. However, many concerns stay unnoticed due to the hesitance of young people to seek help and the unavailability and inaccessibility of appropriate help services. Contemporary interventions have been developed incorporating with target group specific needs and preferred modes of communication.

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Background: The first years of life are a significant period for child development, when children are particularly sensitive and prone to crises. This early phase lays the foundation for healthy growth. Clinical assessment of psychological symptoms in early infancy and adequate treatment are both important in improving the diagnostic outcome and preventing later long-term developmental consequences.

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After the birth of a child, parents may experience episodes of stress and psychological strain. Some infants show psychological or somatic stress in the form of early regulatory disorders. While the close connection between parental psychological stress, early regulatory disorders, and the development of the parent-child relationship is well documented, current data on effective treatment options are lacking.

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Antimicrobial effector proteins are a key mechanism for the innate immune system to combat pathogens once they infect the host. We report the identification and cloning of the mouse homologue of human bactericidal permeability/increasing protein (BPI). Mouse BPI is constitutively expressed in lymphatic organs and tissues as well as in mouse testis.

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