Public attitudes towards prevention of depression.

Background: Various programs for depression prevention have been shown to be effective, but preventive efforts population wide are only beginning. We examine public attitudes towards prevention of depression and beliefs about helpful preventive measures.

Method: Fully structured telephone interview with a representative population sample including people of German nationality older than 14 years (n=1016).

The association of schizophrenia with split personality is not an ubiquitous phenomenon: results from population studies in Russia and Germany.

A widely prevalent stereotype connected with schizophrenia is its misperception as split personality. We examine whether the popular meaning of the term schizophrenia differs in countries of different cultural imprint by conducting an international cross-cultural comparison of public associations with the word schizophrenia in a Western and a Non-Western industrialized country. We analyze data from two representative population surveys in Novosibirsk, Russia (n = 745), and large German cities (n = 952) that used identical questions and sampling procedures.

Residential area and social contacts in schizophrenia. Results from the European Schizophrenia Cohort (EuroSC).

Background: Social isolation is associated with poor prognosis in schizophrenia. We aim to determine the effect of rural or urban residence on frequency of social and family contacts.

Method: We analysed data from the European Schizophrenia Cohort, a two-year follow-up study of 1,208 patients in Britain, France and Germany.

[The film festival "Ausnahme|Zustand" ("State of Emergency")--a strategy against stigmatization of the mentally ill?].

Objective: From April until November 2006, the association Irrsinnig Menschlich e. V. from Leipzig carried out the film festival "Ausnahme|zustand" about the topic Mental Illnesses all over Germany.

A prospective study of Quality of life in schizophrenia in three European countries.

Only a small number of studies have tried to identify factors influencing the subjective QoL of patients suffering from schizophrenia in a longitudinal design. These studies suffer from small clinical samples or compare baseline data only with a single follow-up. The European Schizophrenia Cohort Study overcomes these shortcomings by providing data from five time points on 1208 patients in psychiatric treatment in three European countries over a period of 2 years.

Video documented follow-up of liver transplantation in Wilson's disease with predominant neurological manifestation.

Wilson's disease (WD) is a rare autosomal-recessive disorder of copper metabolism with predominantly hepatic and extrapyramidal motor symptoms. Copper chelating therapy has proven to be an effective treatment for WD. Yet, if conservative treatment fails, liver transplantation (LT) often is the only remaining therapeutic option.

[Validating the efficacy of a group intervention program on the quality of life of depressed patient's spouses].

A new group intervention program has been assessed, rating its ability to increase the quality of life in partners of patients suffering under depression. Over a period of six months 66 subjects participated in an intervention group for a total of twelve sessions. The control group consisted of 50 persons, and quality of life was assessed with the WHOQOL-BREF.

Familiarity with mental illness and approval of structural discrimination against psychiatric patients in Germany.

Structural discrimination against psychiatric patients may occur as a result of distribution of resources in the health system. We examine whether familiarity with mental illness, which reduces discrimination on the individual level, also moderates the approval of structural discrimination in health care funding. We conducted a representative survey of the German population (N=5025) in 2001 using a fully structured personal interview, including a measure of preferences for the allocation of health resources and an assessment of familiarity with mental illness.

[Efficacy of an intervention programme on burnout symptoms of partners of depressed patients].

Aim Of The Study: A newly developed group intervention programme was evaluated with regard to its effectiveness to decrease the burnout symptoms of the partners of depressed patients.

Methods: Within a period of six months, a group of 66 persons has taken part in the intervention for a total of twelve group sessions. A control group consisted of 50 persons without any intervention.

Public beliefs about the causes of mental disorders revisited.

When the lay public is asked to prioritize their causal beliefs for a vignette depicting either schizophrenia or depression, psychosocial causes are most popular for depression, but a large proportion of respondents prefers biological causes for schizophrenia. Recognition of the vignette as mental illness enhances the likelihood to endorse brain disease as a cause and reduces choices of certain psychosocial causes.

Public knowledge about causes and treatment for schizophrenia: a representative population study.

Research on public knowledge about schizophrenia has so far examined various closed questions eliciting recognition-based knowledge rather than unprompted knowledge. We aim to explore the unprompted popular knowledge regarding causes and treatment of schizophrenia. In a representative survey conducted in Germany in 2001 (N = 5025), two open questions asked respondents to name possible causes and treatment options for schizophrenia.

[Social psychiatry and psychoanalysis - "immature, jostling and rivaling siblings"?].

Aim: We want to determine the influence of psychoanalysis on social psychiatry today and 30 years ago.

Method: Systematic analyses of all articles appearing in Psychiatrische Praxis in 1974, 1975, 2004, and 2005.

Results: While almost one in five articles referred to psychoanalysis or Freud 30 years ago, currently this hardly occurs at all.

Public attitudes towards mental patients: a comparison between Novosibirsk, Bratislava and German cities.

Purpose: It is commonly assumed that reforms in the sector of psychiatric care have contributed to reducing the stigma attached to mental illness. In order to examine whether a relation between the psychiatric care set-up and stigmatisation of the patients exists we compared public attitudes towards mental patients in three countries at differing stages of progress in psychiatric reform.

Methods: Population surveys on public attitudes towards mental patients were conducted in Novosibirsk (Russia) and Bratislava (Slovakia).

Preferences of the public regarding cutbacks in expenditure for patient care: are there indications of discrimination against those with mental disorders?

Background: Increasing costs for patient care may necessitate financial cuts in the health-care budget. Our aim is to examine whether the public prefers cuts for psychiatric rather than medical conditions and how resource allocation preferences are related to illness beliefs and attitudes.

Method: A telephone survey involving German adult population was conducted in 2004 (n = 1012).

Alcoholism: Illness beliefs and resource allocation preferences of the public.

Background: Alcohol-dependent patients are at risk of being denied necessary care because of their diagnosis. We sought to find out whether public illness beliefs influence resource allocation decisions of the public, thus putting alcohol-dependent patients at a disadvantage compared to those suffering from other medical and mental disorders.

Method: A telephone survey involving the adult German population was conducted in 2004 (n = 1012).