What's it like to have schizoaffective disorder? Here, Alice describes her journey from being diagnosed and prescribed medication to starting talking therapy with the help of a friend.
Contrary to the notion that neurology but not psychiatry is the domain of disorders evincing structural brain alterations, it is now clear that there are subtle but consistent neuropathological changes in schizophrenia. These range from increases in ventricular size to dystrophic changes in dendritic spines. A decrease in dendritic spine density in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is among the most replicated of postmortem structural findings in schizophrenia. Examination of the mechanisms that account for the loss of dendritic spines has in large part focused on genes and molecules that regulate neuronal structure. But the simple question of what is the effector of spine loss, ie, where do the lost spines go, is unanswered.. Please contact the library to request a copy of this article - http://bit.ly/1Xyazai
It is generally believed that after the first episode of schizophrenia, the risk of relapse decreases with time in patients who are stabilized. Many treatment guidelines recommend that after stabilization, antipsychotic treatment should be continued for 1–5 years, and longer exposure should be avoided if possible. However, there is no published evidence to substantiate this view. The authors used nationwide databases to investigate this issue.Login at top right hand side of page using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens for full text. SSOTP- Please contact the library to receive a copy of this article - http://bit.ly/1Xyazai
Determining the extent to which relationships between duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) and outcome endure longitudinally across the lifetime course of psychotic illness requires prospective, systematic studies of epidemiologically representative incidence cohorts across decades. Transience, persistence, or heterogeneity in associations between DUP and distinct outcome domains are yet to be investigated over such time frames. To read the full article, log in using your MPFT NHS OpenAthens details.
At its re-birth 30 years ago, the neurodevelopment hypothesis of schizophrenia focussed on aberrant genes and early neural hazards, but then it grew to include ideas concerning aberrant synaptic pruning in adolescence. The hypothesis had its own stormy development and it endured some difficult teenage years when a resurgence of interest in neurodegeneration threatened its survival. In early adult life, it over-reached itself with some reductionists claiming that schizophrenia was simply a neurodevelopmental disease. However, by age 30, the hypothesis has matured sufficiently to incorporated childhood and adult adversity, urban living and migration, as well as heavy cannabis use, as important risk factors. Thus, it morphed into the developmental risk factor model of psychosis and integrated new evidence concerning dysregulated striatal dopamine as the final step on the pathway linking risk factors to psychotic symptoms. Please contact the library to request a copy of this article - http://bit.ly/1Xyazai
5-HT6 Receptor Antagonist as an Adjunct Treatment Targeting Residual Symptoms in Patients With Schizophrenia: Unexpected Sex-Related Effects (Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Trial). SSSFT staff can use the OVID link, or you can request a copy of this article by replying to this email. Please ensure you are clear which article you are requesting.
Marie Stenlund’s careful reading of values-based practice and her demonstration of its links with Martha Nussbaum’s Capabilities Framework are innovative theoretically and have potentially important implications for policy and practice in mental health. As she indicates the two approaches converge in a number of key respects. Notably, both recognise the diversity of individual human values. This diversity crucially underpins contemporary person-centred conceptions of recovery in mental health based on quality of life as defined by reference to the values of (to what is important from the perspective of) the person concerned rather than that of a generic professional ‘needs assessment’.1 2. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.
Commentary. ‘Deprescribing’ here comprises arguments against treating patients who have been psychotic beyond first episode. Nevertheless, four out of five patients relapse, compared with only two of five still taking medication. However, much first-episode psychosis is not schizophrenia, but persistent substance-induced psychotic disorder. Virtually nothing is known about factors which facilitate this in the minority who develop it, nor how to decide if the patient will relapse off medication. Patients who are well, stable and tolerating minimal doses of medication should be the first to suggest that they try to do without it, not us.. To read the full article, log in using your MPFT NHS OpenAthens details. SSOTP (legacy account) - You can request a copy of this article by replying to this email. Please ensure you are clear which article you are requesting.
The study aimed to investigate the experience of adults with a diagnosis of psychosis and who have survived childhood physical abuse. We interviewed eight participants and used interpretative phenomenological analysis to generate themes. The main themes were of perceiving an everyday world of aggression and contempt by others, pervasive mistrust, feeling isolated and for some, attacking oneself with hate. Login using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens for full text. SSOTP - You can request a copy of this article by replying to this email. Please ensure you are clear which article you are requesting.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for psychosis (ACTp) is an approach that aims to change the relationship an individual with psychosis has with difficult thoughts, emotions and experiences. It promotes the use of acceptance, defusion, mindfulness and focussing on valued outcomes as opposed to struggling with psychotic experiences. This service evaluation project explored service users’ experiences and meanings of ACTp within a medium secure mental health service.. Please contact the library to request a copy of this article - http://bit.ly/1Xyazai
This study is important because it raises awareness of available resources, such as HVGs and peer support, from which people who hear voices can access care outside mental health services. The findings can be used to inform further training for professionals working in secondary care mental health services (i.e., CMHTs) and/or those supporting people who hear voices. Healthcare professionals should be aware of the benefits of HVGs and other groups and encourage collaborations between HVGs and the NHS (i.e., via signposting or community referrals).
Hearing voices groups (HVGs) are effective avenues of support for people who hear voices in the general population yet their application and adaptation for people with learning disabilities who hear voices are scarce.. To read the full article, log in using your NHS Athens details. To access full-text: click “Log in/Register” (top right hand side). Click ‘Institutional Login’ then select 'OpenAthens Federation', then ‘NHS England’. Enter your Athens details to view the article.
A. Laenen, T. Vangeneugden, H. Geys, und G. Molenberghs. The British journal of mathematical and statistical psychology, 59 (Pt 1):
113-31(Mai 2006)Mesures de concordància; Online; ICC; Psiquiatria.