Social disability in schizophrenia: its development and prediction over 15 years in incidence cohorts in six European centres.

Background: This paper focuses on the long-term course of social disability in schizophrenia assessed at first onset, and after 1, 2 and 15 years in incidence cohorts in six European centres in Bulgaria, Germany, Ireland, The Netherlands, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom. The study population comprises 349 patients comprising 75% of the original cohorts.

Methods: Social disability was assessed in a standardized way with the WHO Disability Assessment Schedule.

[Care requirements for chronic psychiatric patients in general practice: shared responsibility with mental health professionals].

Every year in the Netherlands, at least 41,000 patients in mental health care suffer from long-lasting (> 2 years) psychiatric problems such as psychoses, affective disorders, anxiety disorders or personality disorders. A representative survey reveals that during certain periods of time about 20% of them only receive care from their general practitioner. The general practitioner has to deal with the many and complex needs of care in the areas of, for example, psychological complaints, psychotic symptoms, social contacts and information about treatment.

Caregiver burden in recent-onset schizophrenia and spectrum disorders: the influence of symptoms and personality traits.

Earlier studies that used two symptom dimensions indicate that the caregiver burden for patients with schizophrenia is significantly determined by their negative symptoms. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between symptom severity in recent-onset schizophrenia and caregiver burden in a more differentiated way (i.e.

Does rehabilitation meet the needs of care and improve the quality of life of patients with schizophrenia or other chronic mental disorders?

The effectiveness of a rehabilitation intervention (Boston University Model) was investigated in a one-year prospective naturalistic study among 35 clients with mainly psychotic or affective disorders and dependent on mental health care with at least one hospital admission in the past five years. Rehabilitation was successful in goal-attainment after 1 year (46% fully, 34% partly). Although rehabilitation did not make clients less dependent upon care, it decreased the number of needs and had a positive effect on the match between care needed and care provided.

Are needs and satisfaction of care associated with quality of life? An epidemiological survey among the severely mentally ill in the Netherlands.

Is the quality of life of severe mentally ill patients influenced by the intensity of the care provided, their satisfaction with services and/or the amount of unmet needs? The interrelatedness of these three outcome measures was investigated in a sample of 101 patients dependent on long-term psychiatric care in the Northeast of the Netherlands. Instruments used were the Camberwell Assessment of Needs, the Verona Service Satisfaction Schedule and a health related quality of life instrument, the EuroQoL. Quality of life was unrelated to satisfaction with services but was strongly associated with unmet needs in the area of mental and physical health, and of rehabilitation.

Light emission: A temperature-tunable random laser.

Random lasers have fascinating emission properties that lie somewhere between those of a conventional laser and a common light-bulb. We have created a random laser that can be brought above and below its threshold for laser emission by small changes in its temperature, thereby creating a light source with a temperature-tunable colour spectrum. As a single random laser can be made as small as a grain of tens of micrometres in diameter, we expect our device to find application in photonics, temperature-sensitive displays and screens, and in remote temperature sensing.

Deinstitutionalisation in the Netherlands.

In the Netherlands mental hospitals and psychiatric departments in general hospitals kept the initiative in implementing community-based replacements for inpatient care. The goal of this study is to determine to what extent day treatment, sheltered residences and assertive home treatment were effective alternatives, rather than additions to inpatient care. All adult users and their use of intensive community- and hospital-based services between 1989 and 1997 were retrieved from the Groningen case register.

Reduced protein diffusion rate by cytoskeleton in vegetative and polarized dictyostelium cells.

Fluorescence recovery after photobleaching measurements with high spatial resolution are performed to elucidate the impact of the actin cytoskeleton on translational mobility of green fluorescent protein (GFP) in aqueous domains of Dictyostelium discoideum amoebae. In vegetative Dictyostelium cells, GFP molecules experience a 3.6-fold reduction of their translational mobility relative to dilute aqueous solutions.

Systematic reviews of the effectiveness of day care for people with severe mental disorders: (1) acute day hospital versus admission; (2) vocational rehabilitation; (3) day hospital versus outpatient care.

Unlabelled: ***ACUTE DAY HOSPITAL VERSUS ADMISSION FOR ACUTE PSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS***

Background: Inpatient treatment is an expensive way of caring for people with acute psychiatric disorders. It has been proposed that many of those currently treated as inpatients could be cared for in acute psychiatric day hospitals.

Objective: The aim of this review was to assess the effectiveness and feasibility of day hospital versus inpatient care for people with acute psychiatric disorders.

Reconstitution of membrane proteins into giant unilamellar vesicles via peptide-induced fusion.

In this work, we present a protocol to reconstitute membrane proteins into giant unilamellar vesicles (GUV) via peptide-induced fusion. In principle, GUV provide a well-defined lipid matrix, resembling a close-to-native state for biophysical studies, including optical microspectroscopy, of transmembrane proteins at the molecular level. Furthermore, reconstitution in this manner would also eliminate potential artifacts arising from secondary interactions of proteins, when reconstituted in planar membranes supported on solid surfaces.

Recovery from psychotic illness: a 15- and 25-year international follow-up study.

Background: Poorly defined cohorts and weak study designs have hampered cross-cultural comparisons of course and outcome in schizophrenia.

Aims: To describe long-term outcome in 18 diverse treated incidence and prevalence cohorts. To compare mortality, 15- and 25-year illness trajectory and the predictive strength of selected baseline and short-term course variables.

Cognitive behaviour therapy with coping training for persistent auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia: a naturalistic follow-up study of the durability of effects.

Objective: To investigate the durability of positive effects of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) with coping training on psychotic symptoms and social functioning.

Method: Forty patients with schizophrenia or related psychotic disorders and refractory auditory hallucinations were given CBT and coping training in an integrated single family treatment programme. In a naturalistic study patients were followed after 2 and 4 years since the start of treatment.

Femtosecond dynamics of intracellular water probed with nonlinear optical Kerr effect microspectroscopy.

A nonlinear optical Kerr effect (OKE) microscope was developed and used to elucidate the ultra-fast diffusive motions of intracellular water molecules. In the OKE microscope, a pump-induced birefringence is sensed by a delayed probe pulse within a spatially confined volume that measures 0.5 microm in the lateral direction and 4.

Increasing use of Dutch mental health care: an investigation.

Background: In the Netherlands, a previous study has shown an increase in the 1-year prevalence of patients in mental health care during the 1990s. Though the number of inpatients decreased, this decrease was far outweighed by a large increase of patients in community care, causing an increase in total year prevalence. The current study aimed at an explanation.

Real-time visualization of intracellular hydrodynamics in single living cells.

Intracellular water concentrations in single living cells were visualized by nonlinear coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy. In combination with isotopic exchange measurements, CARS microscopy allowed the real-time observation of transient intracellular hydrodynamics at a high spatial resolution. Studies of the hydrodynamics in the microorganism Dictyostelium discoideum indicated the presence of a microscopic region near the plasma membrane where the mobility of water molecules is severely restricted.

Time-resolved experiments on light diffusion in anisotropic random media.

Multiple light scattering in isotropic and anisotropic media is studied experimentally with an optical gating technique, as commonly used in fluorescence spectroscopy. The experimental setup permits an accurate analysis of the propagation of a short light pulse through disordered or partially ordered media. The diffusion constant of some isotropic systems is reported, and the anisotropy in the diffusion constant for light diffusion through liquid crystals is observed.

Change in Dutch mental health care: an evaluation.

Background: In the Netherlands there has been no distinct period of deinstitutionalization or transinstitutionalization of mental health care. Rather, the Dutch government expects local mental health services to reform their joint service provision without forceful measures like cutting budgets of large mental hospitals. This study aimed at quantifying gradual changes in the use of community- and hospital-based care.

Three-wave mixing in chiral liquids.

Second-order nonlinear optical frequency conversion in isotropic systems is only dipole allowed for sum- and difference-frequency generation in chiral media. We develop a single-center chiral model of the three-wave mixing (sum-frequency generation) nonlinearity and estimate its magnitude. We also report results from ab initio calculations and from three- and four-wave mixing experiments in support of the theoretical estimates.

Distress attributed to negative symptoms in schizophrenia.

The purpose of the study was to examine (1) to which negative symptoms schizophrenia patients attribute distress and (2) whether clinical variables can predict the levels of reported distress. With the help of a research assistant, 86 hospitalized patients completed a self-rating scale for negative symptoms. The 21 items of the self-rating scale were taken from the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS).

Reflection and transmission of waves near the localization threshold.

A theory is presented for propagation of waves in bounded media near the mobility edge, based on the self-consistent theory for localization. It predicts a spatially inhomogeneous diffusion constant that leads to scale dependence in enhanced backscattering and transmission.

Clinical predictors of discrepancy between self-ratings and examiner ratings for negative symptoms.

Little is known about the awareness of negative symptoms or its correlates. The aim of this study was to examine whether a number of clinical variables can predict the discrepancy between ratings of negative symptoms made by schizophrenic patients and by an examiner. This discrepancy could provide a measure for the awareness of negative symptoms.

Influence of timing and dose of thyroid hormone replacement on development in infants with congenital hypothyroidism.

Objectives: To test whether early treatment with a high initial dose of levothyroxine can prevent suboptimal mental development in all neonates with congenital hypothyroidism (CH).

Study Design: Sixty-one patients, 27 with severe CH and 34 with mild CH, were treated either early (<13 days) or late (> or =13 days) with either a high initial dose of levothyroxine (> or =9.5 microg/kg/d) or a low initial dose (<9.

Psychopathology and cognition in schizophrenia spectrum disorders: the role of depressive symptoms.

The cognitive correlates of five symptom dimensions based on PANSS ratings were examined in a group of 50 recent onset psychotic patients, using both objective and subjective cognitive measures. We were particularly interested in the depression dimension, since it has not been studied extensively thus far. The depression dimension showed a high number of correlations with both objective and subjective cognitive measures, such as problems with simple and divided attention, psychomotor slowing and subjectively experienced distractibility, overload and diminished attentional control.