The Effectiveness of Immersive Virtual Reality-Based Treatment for Mental Disorders: A Systematic Review With Meta-Analysis.

Background: The increasing number of studies of immersive virtual reality (VR) interventions for mental disorders call for an examination of the current level of evidence on their effectiveness. The findings may guide scalability and contribute to the advancement and optimization of immersive VR-based interventions for mental disorders.

Methods: A systematic literature search across four databases screened 2443 studies.

Broadening understanding of individual choices about psychiatric medication use in psychiatric rehabilitation.

Most individuals in recovery are likely to attempt discontinuing their prescribed medication at least once. The collection of articles in this special issue uses research with quantitative and qualitative methods, reviews of the literature, conceptualization of theory, and first-person accounts from various perspectives to begin to shift the field of psychiatric rehabilitation from a narrow focus on symptom reduction and a fear-driven emphasis on medication adherence to a new perspective in which dilemmas and strong feelings about medication use are commonplace. We issue a call to action for training psychiatric rehabilitation practitioners, who often have the most direct and frequent interactions with people in recovery, to explore their clients' experiences with using medication and its impact on a range of life domains.

REWRITALIZE your recovery: a study protocol for a randomised controlled trial (RCT) examining the effectiveness of the new recovery-oriented creative writing group intervention REWRITALIZE for people with severe mental illness.

Background: Health institutions advocate for psychosocial and recovery-oriented interventions alongside pharmacological treatment for severe mental illness. Participatory arts interventions appear promising in promoting personal recovery by fostering connectedness, hope, renegotiation of identity, meaning-making, and empowerment. Despite encouraging findings, however, the evidence base remains thin.

Consistent evidence that brain serotonin 2A receptor binding is positively associated with personality-based risk markers of depression.

Background: Using [F]altanserin, a serotonin 2A receptor (5-HTR) antagonist Positron Emission Tomography (PET) tracer, a positive association between cortical 5-HTR binding and the inward-directed facets of neuroticism has been demonstrated in healthy individuals. Psilocybin, a 5-HTR agonist, shows promise for the treatment of depression, reducing neuroticism and mood symptoms potentially via hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) modulation. 5-HTR and neuroticism are both modulated by HPA axis function.

Use and discontinuation of antipsychotic medication in 20 years following a first episode of schizophrenia: results from the OPUS trial.

Introduction: Short-term exposure to antipsychotics has proven to be beneficial. However, naturalistic studies are lacking regarding the long-term use of antipsychotics. This study aimed to investigate changes in use of antipsychotics over 20 years after a first-episode schizophrenia.

Language, Motor Ability and Related Deficits in Children at Familial Risk of Schizophrenia or Bipolar Disorder.

Background: It is known that impairments in linguistic ability and motor function tend to co-occur in children, and that children from families with parental mental illness such as schizophrenia tend to perform poorly in both domains, but the exact nature of these links has not yet been fully elucidated.

Design: In this study, we leveraged the first wave of the Danish High Risk and Resilience Study (VIA 7), which includes both genetic data and measures covering multiple developmental domains. The VIA 7 cohort comprises 522 7-year-old children born to parents with schizophrenia (N = 202), bipolar disorder (N = 120) or neither (N = 200).

Growth Differentiation Factor 15 during pregnancy and postpartum as captured in blood, cerebrospinal fluid and placenta: A cohort study on associations with maternal mental health.

Introduction: Growth Differentiation Factor 15 (GDF15) increases substantially during pregnancy and is primarily produced by the placenta. Elevated levels of GDF15 have been associated with mental health problems in non-perinatal populations, higher corticosterone levels, and decreased estrogen receptor activity. However, the role of GDF15 in mental health during the perinatal transition remains unknown.

Associations Between Mental Disorders in Donors and Matched Recipients of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplants: A Population-Based Cohort Study.

Background: Immunological mechanisms have been implicated in the development of mental disorders, and interestingly, case reports have suggested that hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) can both transmit and cure psychotic disorders by replacing immune progenitor cells.

Methods: Using Danish registers, we followed patients who received HSCT from donors with a psychiatric diagnosis or psychotropic medication use. We assessed risk of incident mental disorders or psychotropic medication use compared with recipients with unaffected donors.

Exploring the acceptability, and feasibility of a modified virtual reality-based AVATAR therapy in schizophrenia spectrum disorders: A case series report.

Schizophrenia spectrum disorder poses a complex challenge in psychiatric treatment due to its multifaceted symptomatology. Modified AVATAR therapy, an innovative virtual reality-based intervention integrating Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) techniques such as systematic desensitization, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) approach offers a promising avenue for addressing auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH). This case series report investigates the acceptability and feasibility of a modified AVATAR therapy in three patients diagnosed with schizophrenia spectrum disorder who experience distressing AVH.

Developmental language disorder - heritability and genetic correlations with other disorders affecting language.

Developmental language disorder (DLD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder primarily affecting language in the absence of a known biomedical condition, which may have a large impact on a person's life and mental health. Family-based studies indicate a strong genetic component in DLD, but genetic studies of DLD are scarce. In this study we estimated the heritability of DLD and its genetic correlations with related disorders and traits in sample of >25,000 individuals from the Danish Blood Donor Study for whom we had both genotype data and questionnaire data on language disorder and language support.

Development and temporal validation of a clinical prediction model of transition to psychosis in individuals at ultra-high risk in the UHR 1000+ cohort.

The concept of ultra-high risk for psychosis (UHR) has been at the forefront of psychiatric research for several decades, with the ultimate goal of preventing the onset of psychotic disorder in high-risk individuals. Orygen (Melbourne, Australia) has led a range of observational and intervention studies in this clinical population. These datasets have now been integrated into the UHR 1000+ cohort, consisting of a sample of 1,245 UHR individuals with a follow-up period ranging from 1 to 16.

Recognition of schizophrenia and quality of treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic: A Danish nationwide study.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic may have exacerbated the state of ill-health among patients with schizophrenia. We examined the number of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, the number of hospital admissions and outpatient contacts and the quality of treatment during the pandemic in comparison with the previous years.

Methods: We identified patients ≥18 years old registered in the Danish Schizophrenia Registry from 2016 to 2022.

Cognitive profiles across the psychosis continuum.

Cognitive impairments are core features in individuals across the psychosis continuum and predict functional outcomes. Nevertheless, substantial variability in cognitive functioning within diagnostic groups, along with considerable overlap with healthy controls, hampers the translation of research findings into personalized treatment planning. Aligned with precision medicine, we employed a data driven machine learning method, self-organizing maps, to conduct transdiagnostic clustering based on cognitive functions in a sample comprising 228 healthy controls, 200 individuals at ultra-high risk for psychosis, and 98 antipsychotic-naïve patients with first-episode psychosis.

Hypoactive sexual desire disorder in women: new possibilities to ensure better understanding, diagnosis, and response to treatment.

Background: Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD) is a frequent sex-related problem in women; however, a specific tool to characterize HSDD subtypes based on sexual inhibitory and excitatory factors is still lacking.

Aim: (1) To find a cutoff value in Sexual Inhibition Scale (SIS)/Sexual Excitation Scale (SES) scores predicting a diagnosis of HSDD in women consulting for sexual symptoms, (2) to explore the sexual inhibitory and excitatory profiles in women referred to a clinic for female sexual dysfunction by stratifying the sample according to the newfound cutoffs, and (3) to identify biopsychosocial factors significantly associated with the 2 profiles.

Methods: An overall 133 women consulting for sexual symptoms were retrospectively evaluated for clinical, biochemical, and psychosexologic data collected at the first visit.