Crisis Preparedness in Acute and Intensive Treatment Settings: Lessons Learned From a Year of COVID-19.

The impact of COVID-19 changed the use and delivery of health care services, requiring an abrupt shift in treatment and staffing models . This is particularly salient in youth acute and intensive treatment services (AITS), including inpatient psychiatric hospitals (IPH), intensive outpatient programs (IOP), and partial hospitalization programs (PHP), because of challenging issues of maintaining high-quality care and a safe therapeutic milieu during increased demand for acute services, all while limiting transmission of COVID-19 on locked units, in close quarters, and for youths traveling back and forth to day-programs. Over the past year, AITS adapted and evolved without the ability to pause services and plan, increase staffing, or allocate additional resources.

Intensive psychiatric treatment with emerging adults: Addressing the problem of establishing collaboration.

The Compass Program at The Menninger Clinic was designed to assess and treat emerging adult psychiatric patients with severe disorders. Establishing a collaborative therapeutic relationship with these challenging patients is an essential step in facilitating effective assessment and treatment for them. The author presents a therapeutic model for engagement and collaboration.

Variations of emotion dysregulation in borderline personality disorder: a latent profile analysis approach with adult psychiatric inpatients.

Background: The purpose of the present study was to identify variations in emotional dysregulation patterns among adults diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD), with an eye toward implications for treatment.

Methods: Latent profile analysis (LPA) was utilized to classify 156 inpatients with BPD, based on patterns of Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS; Gratz and Roemer, J Psychopathol Behav Assess 26: 41-54, 2004) subscale scores.

Results: Results revealed that a three class solution best fit the sample (Low Impairment, Global Dysregulation, and Emotionally Aware).

Comparison of Attachments in Real-World and Virtual-World Relationships.

Objective: The burgeoning of online social networks raises questions about the quality and value of these interpersonal relationships. The present study employed an established measure of attachment security to compare the nature of individuals' attachments in virtual-world relationships with those in real-world relationships and also examined the relative strength of attachments in the two types of relationships.

Method: Participants were 125 volunteers recruited online who had established relationships in Second Life, a popular virtual world.

A closer look at the nature of anxiety in weight loss surgery candidates.

Objective: Depression among weight loss surgery (WLS) candidates is common. Anxiety in this population is less studied. Untreated anxiety persists post-surgery and is associated with poor surgical outcomes.

Outcomes of specialized residential treatment for adults with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) utilizing exposure and response prevention for obsessive- compulsive disorder (OCD) has typically been studied in the context of time-limited treatment conducted in outpatient settings. However, in practice, patients vary in their response to such treatment, and some require more prolonged participation to obtain optimal benefit. An intensive residential program is one alternative for patients who do not improve in traditional outpatient treatment.

Sociability and attachment as distinct domains of the interpersonal relationships factor of the BASIS-24.

The Behavior and Symptom Identification Scale (BASIS-24) was administered to 1972 patients in a private psychiatric hospital specializing in intensive treatment of several weeks' duration. The study was designed to investigate the factor structure in a large inpatient population with a high burden of psychiatric illness. While largely replicating previous factor analyses, the study unexpectedly yielded two factors from the items comprising the interpersonal relationships factor, which were interpreted as assessing sociability and attachment.

Avatar therapy: where technology, symbols, culture, and connection collide.

The topic of "e-therapy" is of great research and clinical interest in 2012. This article presents a case study that examines several elements of psychotherapy, as administered in the "Second Life" virtual environment. In this case, psychotherapy took place primarily via text messaging between two avatars (client and therapist) who "sat" in a virtual office.

Disseminating evidence-based practices for adults with PTSD and severe mental illness in public-sector mental health agencies.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) remains largely untreated among adults with severe mental illnesses (SMI). The treatment of psychotic symptoms usually takes precedence in the care of adults with SMI. Such oversight is problematic in that PTSD in SMI populations is common (19%-43%), contributes a significant illness burden, and hinders mental health care.

Treatment outcome for adolescent obsessive-compulsive disorder in a specialized hospital setting.

Although few data are available concerning adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), the existing literature suggests that cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is the first-line treatment of choice for adolescents with mild to moderate OCD. A combination of CBT and serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRIs) is recommended for more severe forms of OCD, based on the Expert Consensus Guidelines for the Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and the Pediatric OCD Treatment Study (POTS). Despite the effectiveness of CBT, a recent meta-analysis found that 27% of adolescent outpatients fail to show clinically significant improvement following CBT and many also fail to show improvement with pharmacotherapy.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder: update on assessment and treatment.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a frequently debilitating and often severe anxiety disorder that affects approximately 2% of the population. This article discusses the presentation of the disorder and theories of etiology and provides an overview of assessment and treatment. A case description is included to illustrate the cognitive-behavioral assessment and treatment approach.