Psychiatric Patients on Neuroleptics: Evaluation of Parkinsonism and Quantified Assessment of Gait.

Objectives: We aimed to characterize parkinsonian features and gait performance of psychiatric patients on neuroleptics (PPN) and to compare them to Parkinson's disease (PD) and healthy controls (HC).

Methods: Hospitalized PPN (n = 27) were recruited, examined, and rated for parkinsonian signs according to the motor part of the Movement Disorders Society Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale and performed a 10-m "timed-up-and-go" (TUG) test with a smartphone-based motion capture system attached to their sternum. Gait parameters and mUPDRS scores were compared to those of consecutive age-matched PD patients (n = 18) and HC (n = 27).

Understanding and knowledge of psychiatric treatment among adolescents and adults.

We evaluated the level of adolescent psychiatric patients' knowledge and understanding of their treatment in light of their competency to participate in decision-making processes related to their receiving treatment, and compared the adolescents' levels of understanding and knowledge to those of adult psychiatric patients. The study group consisted of 30 adolescents and 30 adults who were randomly selected from the inpatients of our mental health center. Consenting participants were interviewed and their objective knowledge of psychiatric treatments was evaluated by a specially designed questionnaire.