The Interplay between Child Maltreatment and Stressful Life Events during Adulthood and Cardiovascular Problems-A Representative Study.

Psychological stress is a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. While the relevance of early life stress, such as that which is due to child maltreatment (CM), is well known to impact individual stress responses in the long-term, and data on the interplay between CM and stressful events in adulthood on cardiovascular health are sparse. Here, we aimed to assess how stressful life events in adulthood are associated with cardiovascular health infarction in later life and whether this association is independent of CM.

Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activation in a high-risk sample of children, adolescents and young adults in residential youth care - Associations with adverse childhood experiences and mental health problems.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) lead to devastating long-term health consequences that are associated with a dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Children and adolescents living in institutional care have an increased risk to experience ACEs, particularly linked to missing continuity of care, and a higher risk for consequences of ACEs such as mental disorders. In order to improve the overall quality of care, it is important to better understand the stress-physiology of this high-risk sample and to identify specific stressors linked to adverse outcomes.

A design for process-outcome psychotherapy research in adolescents with Borderline Personality Pathology.

Underage patients with Borderline Personality Pathology (BPP) are in need of specialised psychotherapeutic treatment. A handful of these treatments, including Adolescent Identity Treatment (AIT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Adolescents (DBT-A), have been adapted for adolescent patients. Psychotherapy research has shown that the outcome of different psychotherapeutic approaches can be very similar despite conceptual and practical differences between the theoretical models.

Knowledge on types of treatment pressure. A cross-sectional study among mental health professionals.

Treatment pressure restricts patients' voluntary and autonomous decisions. Yet interventions involving treatment pressure are widely used in mental health and psychosocial services. This cross-sectional study explored whether mental health professionals' knowledge on five types of treatment pressure (no coercion, persuasion or conviction, leverage, threat, and formal coercion) was associated with sociodemographic, professional and contextual factors.

Substance-use disorders, personality traits, and sex differences in institutionalized adolescents.

Background: Substance-use disorder (SUD) was found to be an aggravating factor to delinquency and is closely related to personality disorders (PDs).

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate sex differences in the relationship between PD traits and SUD in adolescents institutionalized in child welfare and juvenile justice institutions.

Methods: PD traits were measured dimensionally in a sample of 282 boys (69 with an SUD diagnosis) and 143 girls (45 with an SUD diagnosis) from child welfare and juvenile-justice institutions.

Informal coercion as a neglected form of communication in psychiatric settings in Germany and Switzerland.

Aims: Informal coercion is a frequently used form of communication among mental health professionals to influence treatment outcomes. This study investigates the recognition, attitude, and application of different forms of informal coercion by mental health professionals.

Methods: Mental health professionals of five psychiatric institutions in Germany and Switzerland (n = 424) took part in an online survey assessing the recognition of, attitudes towards, and application of different forms of informal coercion.

Higher frontal EEG synchronization in young women with major depression: a marker for increased homeostatic sleep pressure?

Study Objectives: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is often associated with disturbances in circadian and/or sleep-wake dependent processes, which both regulate daytime energy and sleepiness levels.

Design: Analysis of continuous electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings during 40 h of extended wakefulness under constant routine conditions. Artifact-free EEG samples derived from 12 locations were subjected to spectral analysis.

A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of light therapy for antepartum depression.

Objective: Affective disorder during pregnancy is a common condition requiring careful judgment to treat the depression while minimizing risk to the fetus. Following up on promising pilot trials, we studied the efficacy of light therapy.

Method: Twenty-seven pregnant women with nonseasonal major depressive disorder according to DSM-IV (outpatients, university polyclinic) were randomly assigned to 7,000 lux fluorescent bright white or 70 lux dim red (placebo) light administered at home in the morning upon awakening for 1 h/d in a 5-week double-blind trial carried out between October 2004 and October 2008.

Evening exposure to a light-emitting diodes (LED)-backlit computer screen affects circadian physiology and cognitive performance.

Many people spend an increasing amount of time in front of computer screens equipped with light-emitting diodes (LED) with a short wavelength (blue range). Thus we investigated the repercussions on melatonin (a marker of the circadian clock), alertness, and cognitive performance levels in 13 young male volunteers under controlled laboratory conditions in a balanced crossover design. A 5-h evening exposure to a white LED-backlit screen with more than twice as much 464 nm light emission {irradiance of 0,241 Watt/(steradian × m(2)) [W/(sr × m(2))], 2.