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Background: With reference to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD), a fundamental change in psychiatric care in Germany was proposed in 2019 by Zinkler and von Peter, supported by a legal perspective from Kammeier, which has since led to controversial debates. Essentially, the aim is not only to reduce coercion in psychiatry to a minimum, but also to fundamentally exclude it in a psychiatry that only provides care. The function as an agent of social control is to be returned from psychiatry to state institutions. Psychiatric hospitals will only admit patients with their consent; patients who refuse therapy will not be admitted regardless of their capacity for self-determination and will remain untreated or, if they have committed a criminal offence or threaten to commit a criminal offence, they will be taken into custody or imprisoned in accordance with the legal regulations applicable to all people. There they will receive psychiatric care if they so wish. Aim of the paper: The paper outlines the background of this concept, including international sources, traces the discussion in German specialist literature and takes a critical look at it. Results: The criticism is primarily directed against the fact that responsibility for a relevant proportion of psychiatric patients would be handed over to the police and judiciary and that, as a result, two realities of care would be established that would considerably differ in terms of quality. Conclusion: Arguments are put forward in favor of retaining the function of social control and considerations are suggested as to how caring coercion can be largely minimized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the 17 Nobel Prize nominations for the neurologist and neurosurgeon Otfrid Foerster (1873–1941). Drawing on files from the Stockholm Nobel Prize Archive, primary and secondary literature, it addresses the following questions: what were the reasons given by nominators for Foerster's nominations? What was the relationship between him and his nominators? Why was he ultimately not awarded the Nobel Prize? Most nominators of Foerster's highlighted as the main motive his Handbuch der Neurologie, which he had edited with Oswald Bumke. According to the nominators, this book together with Foerster's neurosurgical work had an enormous impact on contemporary neurology. Furthermore, his "honorable character" was underlined in the nomination letters; however, these reasons were not sufficient for the Nobel Committee: the members classified the handbook as not being original research. Despite this, Foerster's fame is reflected in the present, for example in the Otfrid Foerster Medal, which has been awarded to researchers by the German Society of Neurosurgery since 1953. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sexuality is excluded in house regulations, guidelines, instructions and regulations in German hospitals. The English literature does not show much more, but more often the wish for clear guidelines is formulated. Under the guidance of the clinical Ethics Committee a paper with recommendations was prepared, which comprises regulations for responsible handling of sexuality in the Pfalzklinikum. This includes sexuality of acute patients in psychiatry, nursing home inhabitants, forensic patients and above all patients in the department of child and youth psychiatry. The right of self-realization on the one hand, the staff's responsibility for patients with limitations in the determination of one's intent on the other hand and the rules for staff members define the range of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The assessment of legal capacity and testamentary capacity require thorough knowledge of the legal framework and the relevant case law. This paper explains the concept of the legal capacity to contract and the concept of testamentary capacity with respect to German civil law. The relevance of major mental disorders for the assessment of legal capacity and testamentary capacity is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Assessment of the severity of paraphilic disorders is an important aspect of psychiatric court reports for assessing criminal responsibility and placement in a forensic psychiatric hospital according to the German penal code (§§ 20, 21, 63 StGB). The minimum requirements for appraisal of criminal responsibility published by an interdisciplinary working group under the guidance of the German Federal Court of Justice define the standards for this procedure. Objectives and methods: This paper presents a research concept that aims to assess the severity of paraphilic disorders by using items of standardized prognostic instruments. Results and conclusions: In addition to a formal diagnosis according to the international classification of diseases (ICD) and the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental diseases (DSM) criteria, the items 'deviant sexual interests' and 'sexual preoccupations' from the prognosis instrument Stable 2007 are used to assess the severity of paraphilic disorders. Other criteria, such as 'relationship deficits' are used to support the appraisal of the severity of the disorder. The items 'sexual preoccupation', 'emotional collapse' and 'collapse of social support' from the prognosis instrument Acute 2007 are used to assess the capacity for self-control. In a next step the validity and reliability of this concept will be tested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the migration of German Jewish psychiatrists from Nazi Germany to Palestine during the 1930s. It focuses on their special assimilation process as immigrants who belonged to a culture different from the dominant Eastern European socialist Zionism and as a professional group which belonged to a marginalized discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People with severe mental disorders are often without work, although work may have a positive effect on their health. The paper presents some results in this field from the German S3 guidelines on psychosocial therapies. In terms of evidence-based medicine supported employment (SE - first place then train) has proven to be most effective. Nevertheless, SE is still rare in Germany. Pre-vocational training, however, follows the concept first train then place and is offered in rehabilitation of the mentally ill (RPK) centres in Germany. There is some evidence that the programs are beneficial for users. The UN Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities outlines an obligation for work on an equal basis with others and for vocational training. So far, the German mental health system only partly meets these requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The existing health-related quality of life questionnaires on multiple sclerosis (MS) only partially reflect the patient's point of view on the reduction of activities of daily living. Their development and validation was not performed in different languages. That is what prompted the development of the Multiple Sclerosis International Quality of Life (MusiQoL) Questionnaire as an international multidimensional measurement instrument. This paper presents this new development and the results of the German subgroup versus the total international sample. Patients and methods: A total of 1,992 MS patients from 15 countries, including 209 German patients, took part in the study between January 2004 and February 2005. The patients took the MusiQoL survey at baseline and at 21±7 days as well as completing a symptom-related checklist and the SF-36 short form survey. Demographics, history and MS classification data were also generated. Reproducibility, sensitivity, convergent and discriminant validity were analysed. Results: Convergent and discriminant validity and reproducibility were satisfactory for all dimensions of the MusiQoL. The dimensional scores correlated moderately but significantly with the SF-36 scores, but showed a discriminant validity in terms of gender, socioeconomic status and health status that was more pronounced in the overall population than in the German subpopulation. The highest correlations were observed between the MusiQoL dimension of activities of daily living and the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS). Conclusion: The results of this study confirm the validity and reliability of MusiQoL as an instrument for measuring the quality of life of German and international MS patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The practice guidelines of the German Society of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Nervous Diseases (DGPPN) include systematically developed and evidence-based treatment recommendations which assist clinicians and patients in making decisions about appropriate treatment for specific conditions. The intentions of practice guidelines are to improve the quality of care and the outcome of mental diseases. This paper describes the methodology behind the development of the guidelines and lists the already existing practice guidelines as well as the guidelines actually being developed. In addition, it is outlined how quality indicators may be derived from guidelines. A major aim of the German Society of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Nervous Diseases (DGPPN) is to assure the quality of inpatient and outpatient care of the mentally ill by developing evidence-based consensus guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]