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Irrespective of the great impact stroke exerts on the society as a whole and far-reaching advances in acute treatment and rehabilitation of stroke, so far outpatient services for post-stroke care have not been established on a national level in Germany.Against the background of this contemporary lack of care, in May 2020 the German Stroke Society (DSG) established the stroke aftercare commission. This position paper discusses structural models of future services addressing outpatient post-stroke care.The specialized care by a neurologist should be central to a multidisciplinary, interprofessional and transsectoral treatment. Structural concepts of post-stroke care must take regional differences but also effective strategies for quality control into account. Certification processes and appropriate financing of follow-up registries at state and federal levels may pave the way for improvement over the medium term. Structured outpatient post-stroke care services should be open to all subgroups of stroke patients. Additionally, innovative technologies can make an important contribution to post-stroke care; however, the implementation of specialized services demands adequate funding as well as separate financial incentives for the providers. The solution must carefully balance the advantages and disadvantages of the specific care and financing models. Currently the discussion of new models of post-stroke care is gaining new momentum, which opens up perspectives for the advancement of the otherwise still insufficient contemporary care structures.HINTERGRUND: Ungeachtet der großen gesamtgesellschaftlichen Bedeutung des Schlaganfalls sowie der Fortschritte in der Akutversorgung und Rehabilitation konnten bisher keine flächendeckenden Versorgungsstrukturen zur strukturierten ambulanten Nachsorge in Deutschland etabliert werden.Vor dem Hintergrund der bestehenden Versorgungslücken wurde im Mai 2020 die Kommission Schlaganfallnachsorge der Deutschen Schlaganfall-Gesellschaft (DSG) gegründet. Das Positionspapier diskutiert strukturelle Konzepte für zukünftige Versorgungsformen der Schlaganfallnachsorge.Eine neurologische Betreuung sollte zentraler Bestandteil einer multidisziplinären, interprofessionellen und sektorenübergreifenden Behandlungsplanung sein. Strukturelle Konzepte zur Schlaganfallnachsorge müssen sowohl regionale Strukturunterschiede als auch den Aspekt der Qualitätssicherung berücksichtigen. Zertifizierungsprozesse und die angemessene Finanzierung von Nachsorgeregistern auf Landes- und Bundesebene können den Weg hierhin mittelfristig ebnen. Das Angebot zur strukturierten Schlaganfallnachsorge sollte allen Subgruppen von Schlaganfallpatienten offenstehen. Auch innovative Technologien können einen wichtigen Beitrag zur Schlaganfallnachsorge leisten. Die Einführung und Umsetzung einer strukturierten Schlaganfallnachsorge bedarf in jedem Fall einer ausreichenden Finanzierung und eigener finanzieller Anreize für die Leistungsträger. Die Vor- und Nachteile der spezifischen Versorgungs- und Finanzierungsmodelle müssen dabei kritisch gegeneinander abgewogen werden. Die Diskussion neuer Versorgungsformen zur Schlaganfallnachsorge erfährt gegenwärtig ein neues Momentum und eröffnet Perspektiven für eine Verbesserung der aktuell noch unzureichenden Versorgungslösung.

Long-term management after stroke has not been standardized in contrast to acute and rehabilitative stroke care. The fragmented outpatient sector of healthcare allows a high degree of flexibility but also variability in the quality of care provided. The commission on long-term stroke care of the German Stroke Society developed a concept on how to provide standardized multiprofessional long-term stroke care with a focus on patient-centered comprehensive care. We propose a diagnostic work-up in stages, with an initial patient-reported screening, followed by an adapted in-depth assessment of affected domains. This includes internistic domains (management of risk factors) and also genuine neurological domains (spasticity, cognitive deficits etc.) that must be considered. This information is then merged with patient expectations and prioritization to a standardized treatment plan. Special challenges for the implementation of such a comprehensive care system are the intersectoral and intrasectoral communication between healthcare providers, patients and relatives, the need to create a compensation system for providers and the establishment of appropriate quality management services. Digital health applications are helpful tools to provide aspects of diagnostics, treatment and communication in long-term stroke care.Die Schlaganfallnachsorge ist im Gegensatz zur akuten und rehabilitativen Versorgung des Schlaganfalls wenig standardisiert. Der fragmentierte ambulante Sektor erlaubt hierbei ein hohes Maß an Flexibilität, leidet aber folglich an variabler Qualität der Nachsorge. Die Kommission Nachsorge der Deutschen Schlaganfall-Gesellschaft formuliert in diesem Positionspapier ein inhaltliches Konzept, um eine strukturierte Nachsorge mit multiprofessionellem Ansatz zu entwickeln. Diese soll im Sinne einer „Comprehensive-care“-Versorgung und patientenzentriert erfolgen. Dazu schlagen wir ein diagnostisches Stufenkonzept mit Screening und ggf. weitergehender Untersuchung vor, das in Absprache mit den Betroffenen zu einem standardisierten Therapieplan führt, der im Langzeitverlauf entsprechend angepasst werden muss. Inhaltlich sind sowohl internistische Domänen (Management von Risikofaktoren) als auch genuin neurologische Domänen (Spastik, kognitive Defizite etc.) zu berücksichtigen. Besondere Herausforderungen an dieses Konzept sind die sektorenübergreifende (inter- und intrasektorale) Kommunikation zwischen den Akteuren im Gesundheitswesen untereinander sowie mit den Patienten und Angehörigen, die Notwendigkeit zur Schaffung eines Vergütungsmodells für eine solche Nachsorge und letztlich die Etablierung eines entsprechenden Qualitätsmanagements. Digitale Lösungen erachten wir als hilfreiche Werkzeuge für Aspekte der Diagnose, Therapie und Kommunikation in der Schlaganfallnachsorge.

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a severe, life-limiting neurodegenerative disease. A disease-modifying and approved therapy with nusinersen has been available in Germany since July 2017. Gene therapies offer another promising treatment option through a once in a lifetime administration. In May 2019 a gene replacement therapy for the treatment of SMA was approved for the first time by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). An application for approval in Europe has been submitted and is currently pending.This consensus paper was compiled at the invitation of the German Society for Muscular Diseases (DGM) with the participation of all potential German neuromuscular treatment centers, the German section of the Society for Pediatric Neurology (GNP) and with the involvement of the medical scientific advisory board of the DGM. The aim was to define and establish the necessary prerequisites for a safe and successful application of the new gene replacement therapy in clinical practice.Gene replacement therapy with onasemnogene abeparvovec has the potential to significantly influence the course of SMA. Long-term data on sustainability of effects and possible adverse effects of gene replacement therapy are not yet available. The application of this innovative therapy must be carried out in specialized and appropriately qualified treatment centers under strict safety conditions. This article makes suggestions for the necessary framework conditions and gives recommendations for a systematic pretreatment and posttreatment assessment schedule under gene therapy. The effectiveness and safety of the therapy should be systematically documented in an industry-independent and disease-specific register.

Difficulties in falling asleep and maintaining sleep, nonrestorative sleep and decreased daytime wakefulness represent very common but relatively unspecific health complaints. Around 100 specific sleep-related disorders will be classified in their own major chap. 7 (sleep wake disorders) for the first time in the upcoming 11th version of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD 11). With respect to the disciplines of psychiatry and psychotherapy there is a bidirectional relationship between mental health and sleep wake disorders. Sleep wake disorders can be an independent risk factor for the onset of a mental disorder and have a negative influence on the course of the disease. In addition, sleep wake disorders can also precede a mental disease as an early symptom and therefore be an important indication for early recognition. Many sleep wake disorders can be diagnosed based on the anamnesis and routine clinical investigations. In special cases, examination in a specialized sleep laboratory and treatment in a sleep medicine center following a staged care approach can be mandatory. Polysomnography represents the gold standard for the differential diagnostics; however, there is no legal foundation in the field of neuropsychiatric disorders for remuneration in the German healthcare system. This review summarizes the current guidelines with respect to the criteria for an investigation in a sleep laboratory from the perspective of the disciplines of psychiatry and psychotherapy. From this the requirements for guideline-conform diagnostics and treatment are derived.

The regulations for ability to drive with cerebrovascular diseases in the German Driving License Regulations (Fahrerlaubnisverordnung, FeV) and German Guidelines for the Evaluation of Driving Ability of the Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt) are not up to date with the current medical knowledge and are not consistent with comparable regulations regarding cardiovascular diseases. This is particularly true for the assessment of future risks for a sudden loss of control during driving. The present position paper of six medical and neuropsychological societies in Germany presents the current conditions for the assessment of driving ability of patients a cerebrovascular diesease and recommends an estimation of the ability to drive founded on the current state of scientific knowledge. It addresses the following: 1. Physical and mental functional limitations and the possibilities for compensation, which if necessary enable a fitness to drive under conditions or within limits, including the importance of behavioral or personality changes and cognitive deficiencies that interfere with safety. 2. The potential danger due to a sudden loss of control as a result of a transient ischemic attack (TIA) new stroke event, or another cardiovascular event while driving. A summary in the form of a table provides physicians and expert assessors with assistance for the most important cerebrovascular diseases.

Complex trends in occupancy determined by many influencing factors, clear state-specific differences in imprisonment practices as well as recently implemented statutory alterations to the appropriate paragraphs in criminal law, underline the necessity for qualitative high-grade concomitant research of German forensic commitment; however, neither the structural prerequisites nor an adequate data situation are currently present in order to do justification to this aim. Not even the total number of patients currently accommodated in forensic commitment can be elucidated from the publicized (partial) statistics. This consensus paper, which was formulated by three research institutes active at the state level, describes the limited possibilities for current forensic healthcare research and raises the demand for a nationwide uniform data situation on patients in forensic commitment. Furthermore, how the appropriate elicitation instrument should be organizationally and structurally achieved, is sketched from a scientific perspective. This article aims at initiating a discussion on a sustainable improvement in the prerequisites for healthcare research in German forensic commitment and targets a sensitization of decision makers in politics and administration for this topic.

Calls are increasing for the legalization of cannabis. Some legal experts, various politicians, political parties and associations are demanding a change in drug policy. The legalization debate is lively and receiving wide coverage in the media. The German Association for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics (DGPPN) comments on the most important questions from a medical scientific perspective: can cannabis consumption trigger mental illnesses, what consequences would legalization have for the healthcare system and where is more research needed?

In October 2011 the Task Force Therapeutic Drug Monitoring of the Association for Neuropsychopharmacology and Pharmacopsychiatry (AGNP) published an update (Pharmacopsychiatry 2011, 44: 195-235) of the first version of the consensus paper on therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) published in 2004. This article summarizes the essential statements to make them accessible to a wider readership in German speaking countries.

Stroke is a serious complication of percutaneous coronary intervention and atrial fibrillation ablation procedures and patients have a high likelihood of persistent neurological deficits. Although formal criteria speak against intravenous or intra-arterial thrombolysis due to pre-existing antithrombotic and anticoagulation therapy, the conditions for recanalizing therapy are optimal due to the occurrence of vessel occlusion in the catheter suite or the chest pain unit. Brain imaging and an interdisciplinary approach are mandatory. In cases of intracerebral vessel occlusion intra-arterial thrombolysis possibly in combination with mechanical clot fragmentation is the first choice therapy. The management of the patient is always an individual therapeutic decision based on stroke severity, the pretreatment with antithrombotic and anticoagulation drugs, the availability of a neuro-interventionalist and the qualification of the local team.

To date, positron emission tomography (PET) is the most powerful method for the in-vivo investigation of human brain metabolism. Besides extensive application of this technology in the neurosciences, PET is also being increasingly used as a clinical tool. However, despite its acceptance in clinical practice a major obstacle is its high costs. The present article reviews the literature on the clinical use of PET in neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry in order to substantiate the clinical indications for PET in these specialties as established by an interdisciplinary conference.

In our study on Psychiatry, Mass Media and Public Opinion we made a content analysis of newspaper reports on ECT and electric defibrillation. We traced only few special articles on the subject in the 1994 and 1995 CD-Rom versions of the "Der Spiegel", The "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" (FAZ), the "Neue Zürcher Zeitung" (NZZ) and the "Berliner Tageszeitung" (taz), although the word "Elektroschock" was employed 118 times. Even in high standard newspapers the style of language becomes special when they deal with ECT. The articles are strongly biased and lack informations. In contrast to Defibrillation ECT is not generally accepted. Referring to ECT horror pictures of past psychiatry are cited. The language used is biased and discriminative. Referring to Defibrillation technical details are described and the language is neutral. The social representation of ECT is completely negative.

E‑mental health mainly plays a role in the outpatient treatment of patients with depressive disorders. The goal of this study was to implement and evaluate the web-based, therapist-guided self-management tool "iFightDepression" (iFD) to clarify if there is a benefit for inpatient use.In this study 78 inpatients with affective disorders (ICD-10 F32.0‑3, F33.0-3) or dysthymia (F34) were recruited. The intervention duration with the iFD tool went from admission until discharge, therapeutic support was granted by the ward staff. Symptom severity, intervention expectations and experience with therapy were processed in an online questionnaire before the intervention (T0) while intervention satisfaction was captured after the intervention shortly before discharge (T1) in a paper-pencil questionnaire.Out of 78 participating inpatients 42 used the iFD tool at least once. Moderate to high levels of expectation regarding the iFD tool and mildly above-average level of satisfaction after the intervention were observed. Of the active users 67% indicated they would continue to use the iFD tool after discharge. The main reasons for not using the iFD tool were short duration of stay, severity of disease and lack of digital literacy.An implementation of the iFD tool is feasible on principle. Active users gave positive feedback concerning the intervention and most participants claimed to continue using the iFD tool after discharge; however, low usage rates among study participants (42/78, 54%) showed barriers of implementation that have to be addressed and underline the importance of adaptations regarding the use of the intervention in a clinical setting.HINTERGRUND: E‑Mental-Health (EMH) spielt im ambulanten Versorgungssetting depressiver Störungen zunehmend eine Rolle. Ziel dieser Studie war die Implementierung und Evaluierung der Anwendbarkeit und des Nutzens des onlinebasierten Selbstmanagementprogramms „iFightDepression“ (iFD) als Zusatzangebot im Rahmen einer leitliniengerechten Behandlung auf einer Spezialstation für affektive Störungen.Es wurden insgesamt 78 stationäre PatientInnen mit einer unipolaren Depression unterschiedlichen Schweregrades (ICD-10 F32.0‑3, F33.0-3) oder einer Dysthymie (F34) rekrutiert. Die Interventionsdauer mit dem iFD-Tool belief sich vom Zeitpunkt der stationären Aufnahme bis zur Entlassung und wurde vom Stationspersonal begleitet. Die Erhebung der Symptomschwere sowie von Parametern zur Behandlungserwartung und Therapievorerfahrung erfolgte online vor der Intervention (T0), die Interventionszufriedenheit wurde unmittelbar vor der stationären Entlassung (T1) mittels eines Paper-pencil-Fragebogens erfasst.Von den 78 Teilnehmenden loggten sich 42 mindestens einmal in das iFD-Tool ein. Es zeigten sich moderat hohe Erwartungswerte sowie leicht überdurchschnittliche Zufriedenheitswerte bezüglich der Behandlung. 67 % der aktiven NutzerInnen gaben an, das iFD-Tool poststationär weiter nutzen zu wollen. Wesentliche Gründe gegen die Nutzung waren eine kurze Aufenthaltsdauer, eine schwere depressive Symptomatik und fehlende Medienkompetenz.Eine Implementierung des iFD-Tools im stationären Setting ist prinzipiell machbar und führte zu positiven Rückmeldungen seitens der NutzerInnen. Auch konnten sich die meisten aktiv an der Studie Teilnehmenden eine weitere Nutzung des iFD-Tools nach der Entlassung gut vorstellen. Allerdings weisen die insgesamt geringen Nutzungs- (42/78, 54 %) und Komplettierungsraten auf Nutzungsbarrieren hin, deren Überwindung entsprechende Anpassungen der Intervention speziell für den stationären Einsatz erforderlich machen.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common comorbidity in adult patients with substance use disorders (SUDs). The diagnostics and treatment of ADHD with SUD are often a challenge, also with respect to the prescription of stimulants. Recently, a group of international experts developed a consensus paper on the diagnosis and treatment of comorbid ADHD and SUD. In addition, the German S3 guidelines on ADHD have been published, which also give advice on the treatment of ADHD in comorbid SUD. The German S3 guidelines on alcohol-related disorders and methamphetamine-related disorders also address ADHD as a comorbidity.Summary of consensus and guideline recommendations, supplemented with the most recent literature.In recent years new findings on the comorbidity of ADHD in patients with SUD have emerged. A series of screening and diagnostic instruments have meanwhile been evaluated in this patient group. The consensus paper and various guidelines therefore provide clinicians with specific help in detecting ADHD in patients with SUD and in conducting further diagnostics and treatment of both disorders. For example, the importance of stimulants in the treatment of patients with SUD and ADHD has significantly changed and first studies on psychotherapeutic interventions specific to this comorbidity are now available.

The paper addresses possible perspectives for the future of psychiatry in Europe over the next 30 years. Initially, an historical overview over the history of psychiatry since the Enlightenment suggests that significant changes did not primarily originate in psychiatry itself but were rather the result of the given societal contexts. The paper then describes five different potential scenarios for psychiatric care in 30 years time. Following that, the current situation of psychiatrists and possible signs of a crisis are outlined, and specific aspects that characterize the job of psychiatrists, as compared to other medical disciplines and other professional groups in mental healthcare, are considered. Finally, suggestions are made to make psychiatry more attractive, effective and relevant in society, which may make the profession better equipped for future changes.

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.Dieser Aufsatz befasst sich mit den Nobelpreisnominierungen für den Neurologen und Neurochirurgen Otfrid Foerster (1873–1941). Foerster wurde 17 Mal für den Nobelpreis für Physiologie oder Medizin nominiert. Aufbauend auf Akten des Stockholmer Nobelpreisarchives, Primär- und Sekundärliteratur wird auf folgende Fragen eingegangen: Welche Gründe gab es für Foersters Nominierungen? Wie sah die Beziehung zwischen ihm und seinen Nominatoren aus? Warum hat er letztlich den Nobelpreis nicht erhalten? Das Gros der Nominatoren für Foerster hob als Hauptmotiv sein gemeinsam mit Oswald Bumke herausgegebenes Handbuch der Neurologie hervor. Den Nominatoren zufolge hatte Foerster mit diesem Handbuch einen enormen Einfluss auf die Neurologie seiner Zeit. Darüber hinaus wurde sein „ehrenvoller Charakter“ in den Nominierungsbriefen unterstrichen. Für das Nobelkomitee waren diese Begründungen jedoch nicht ausreichend: Die Mitglieder stuften das Handbuch nicht als originäre Forschungsleistung ein. Foersters Ruhm reicht trotzdem bis in die Gegenwart, etwa in Form einer seit 1953 von der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie vergebenen Ehrung, die seinen Namen trägt (Otfrid-Foerster-Medaille).

Severe mental illnesses are often associated with substantial impairments of psychosocial functioning and a high risk of social exclusion. Along with somatic and psychotherapeutic treatment approaches, psychosocial interventions are an integral component of treatment. Psychosocial therapies aim to improve participation and enable patients to live self-determined lives as far as possible.This paper provides an overview of the structure and recommendations of the German S3 guidelines "Psychosocial therapies for severe mental illnesses" of the German Association for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics (DGPPN).In the DGPPN S3 guidelines psychosocial therapies are systematically described for the first time and recommendations are formulated on the basis of a systematic processing of scientific evidence and a formalized consensus process.The evidence-based and consensus-based guidelines formulate a total of 33 recommendations and 12 statements. For many psychosocial interventions there is a broad evidence base. In the field of individual interventions psychoeducation, social skills training and health-promoting interventions have been given the highest recommendation strength (A). In the field of system level interventions, team-based, multiprofessional community psychiatric approaches, supported employment and self-determined housing with mobile support (supported housing) are given A level recommendations. For other interventions, the current evidence base is less robust.The successful implementation of guidelines depends not only on the quality but also on the dissemination. Therefore, in addition to the treatment guidelines a short version, a patient version and a waiting room version were developed.

Guideline-oriented inpatient psychiatric and psychotherapeutic treatment of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is an important part of the care available for these patients. It may not be adequately reflected in the current personnel resources available according to the German psychiatry personnel regulation (Psych-PV).The goal of this work was to assess the personnel resources necessary for a guideline-oriented inpatient psychiatric and psychotherapeutic treatment of patients with OCD and compare the necessary resources with the resources available according to Psych-PV.Based on the German national guidelines for OCD and a meta-analysis on treatment intensity, we formulated a normative weekly treatment plan. Based on this plan we calculated the necessary personnel resources and compared these with the resources available according to Psych-PV category A1 (standard care).The weekly treatment time for a guideline-oriented inpatient psychiatric and psychotherapeutic treatment of patients with OCD is 23.5 h per week. This corresponds to a weekly personnel requirement of 20.9 h. This requirement is only partly reflected in the Psych-PV (17.3 h, 82.8 %). The coverage of personnel resources by Psych-PV is even lower for psychotherapy provided by psychiatrist and psychologists (38.3 %, i. e. 183 min in the normative plan versus 70 min in Psych-PV).The current paper shows that the personal resources required for a guideline-oriented inpatient psychiatric and psychotherapeutic treatment of patients with OCD is not adequately reflected in the German psychiatry personnel regulation (Psych-PV). The actual shortage may be underestimated in our paper.

This paper aims at reconstructing the biographies of six German neurologists during and after the "Third Reich". Between 1957 and 1976, five of them were presidents of the German Neurological Society (DGN), the sixth was appointed honorary president in 1981. They all joined the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) or Storm Troopers (SA) as young doctors between the ages 20 and 35 years. According to the current state of research they thus have to be classified as formally incriminated, yet none of them developed significant (health) political activities, with the slight exception of Eberhard Bay (1908-1989), who once acted as expert witness in an Hereditary Health Court trial. Gustav Döhring (1909-1963), NSDAP member since 1937, Pette student and co-founder of the DGN, was secretary of the Society for many years and editor of a commemorative publication. Johannes Hirschmann (1910-1991), also a party comrade since 1937, served as an army and military hospital doctor from 1939 to 1945. Richard Jung (1911-1986) had joined the SA in 1934. This entailed his immediate dismissal after the war from the University of Freiburg but benefitting from the support by the dean he could pursue his career not long thereafter. Robert Charles Behrend (1919-1996) became a party member at the age of 20 years and with his time in office in 1975-1976 he was the last of the post-war presidents of the DGN connected to National Socialism in Germany. Older than these five was honorary chairman Gustav Bodechtel (1899-1983) a member of the SA, NSDAP and other Nazi organizations. He was dismissed in 1946 but reinstated just 1 week later due to the interventions by the Medical Academy Düsseldorf and the Mayor of the City. New findings on these personalities are exclusively based on archival research. This underlines the necessity of resorting to sources previously neglected when investigating biographies of twentieth century neurologists.

When Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of the Reich Otfrid Foerster was almost 60 years old and an internationally renowned neurologist, neurosurgeon and a pioneer of localization research. Since 1922 he held the chair of neurology in Breslau (Wroclaw) and from 1925 to 1932 he was president (later honorary president) of the first Society of German Neurologists. In 1934 "his" Neurological Research Institute in Breslau was inaugurated. Biographical studies have unanimously established that he has never been a member of the party, that he found himself promptly marginalized after 1933 within his own ranks, and that he never participated in eugenic measures or "euthanasia" activities. A re-reading and analysis of his relevant papers and publications on neurology reveal however reverences paid to the Nazi state, which are surprising in this clarity. A possible explanation for Foerster's overall ambivalent attitude, he was married to a non-Aryan woman (in Nazi jargon), is the threat posed to his relatives by Nazi racial hygiene laws. On the other hand, there are clear indications of his conservative German national patriotism encouraging and supporting a restrengthened state and the National Socialist vision of the German Reich as a "great power". Further investigations will have to show how the numerous influential factors that had a bearing on his biographical characteristics, political attitude, medical research interests and private motivation should be weighted.

Progressive cognitive deficits are the main clinical symptom of Alzheimer's disease; however, the precise recording of cognitive deficits and assessment of their progression pose major problems in patient care and early interventions.Which problems for care and early intervention result from the current practice of cognitive assessment of patients with memory problems and which opportunities arise from the use of mobile apps?Evaluation of current care structures, discussion of basic work, expert recommendations and current developments.The current practice of the pencil and paper-based diagnostics of cognitive deficits, which is temporally and spatially bound to a clinical environment, constrains the feasibility, validity and reliability of cognitive assessment and the quantification of progression. This limits the meaningful use of further diagnostic measures, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analyses. Recent progress in mobile app-based technologies, illustrated here with the example of the neotiv app, can help to overcome these problems.Mobile app-based technologies can help to improve the cognitive assessment of patients with the main symptom of memory complaints. They can reduce overuse and underuse of diagnostic and therapeutic pathways and enable a targeted and meaningful use of advanced diagnostics. In addition, they can structure risk-modifying preventive measures, identify iatrogenic impairment of cognition and in this respect also strengthen patient competence.

Currently, it is a topic of debate whether psychiatric hospitals can and should be managed with a full open door policy. The revised legislation of public law for involuntary commitment explicitly allows or even encourages such practice in several German federal states. In parts of Austria, open doors are required for legal reasons. A systematic literature search was conducted for articles providing empirical data related to this issue.Literature search in PubMed augmented by a manual search in references of retrieved papers and reviews with similar objectives.A total of 26 articles reporting empirical data could be identified. Most of these articles came from Germany or Switzerland. The majority were published within the past 5 years. The definition of "open doors" ranged from an only vaguely defined open door policy up to explicit set time periods with open doors. Some studies reported a decrease in coercive interventions. No study reported any associated adverse events resulting from open doors in psychiatric wards.Generally, all studies had methodological weaknesses. Prospective randomized controlled studies or quasi-experimental studies are missing in the context of European healthcare systems. The risk of bias was considerable in most studies. A final conclusion regarding the possible extent of psychiatry with open doors and the associated risks is currently not possible. There is an urgent need for future high-quality prospective studies.

This article provides an analysis of the content of 15 letters and postcards written by the Leipzig neurologist Paul Julius Möbius to his Zurich-based colleague Auguste-Henri Forel between 1889 and 1902. Moreover, they are set in the context of the works of the two correspondence partners. The 15 documents preserved at the University of Zurich Medico-Historical Institute and Museum comprise one half of the correspondence, whereas the letters Forel sent in response do not seem to have been preserved. So far, biographic research has neglected the letters analyzed here. Hypnotism and medical suggestion as well as their effects and efficiency in treating and maybe healing certain nervous and mental disorders, primarily psychoneuroses but also certain somatic disorders, formed the bond that connected Möbius and Forel. The exchange was less concerned with discussing details or concepts of hypnosis. Möbius seemed to be more interested in studying the practical application with Forel. Moreover, Möbius and Forel shared the view that contemporary, largely brain-biologically oriented conventional psychiatry had largely neglected or at least underestimated the psychological component of both nervous and mental disorders. Both shared the notion that electrotherapy, widely used at the time, had a strong suggestive component. The letters revealed that both correspondents requested reviews or discussion of their own papers from each other. Forel invited Möbius to consider writing for his Zeitschrift für Hypnotismus (Journal for Hypnotism). The correspondence also revealed that their harmony in certain views did not prevent them from refusing requests made by the other. The letters discussed in this article enrich the knowledge on these two prominent neurologists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

On the basis of mental health law, which differs between the federal states in Germany, courts can order the involuntary commitment of people with severe mental disorders in psychiatric hospitals, if they present a danger to themselves or to others. Due to decisions of the highest courts, these laws have been subject to revision since 2011. The aim of this paper is to analyze and compare the results of the revision processes in order to define the need for action for federal and state legislature.Research of the current status of the revision processes in the federal states and a comparative analysis. The state laws were compared on the basis of selected particularly relevant areas with respect to human rights and treatment.In spite of the revisions the state laws are extremely heterogeneous and in many states do not fully comply with the requirements of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN-CRPD) or the highest courts' decisions.The state laws should be harmonized, particularly where they restrict basic and human rights, e. g. regarding prerequisites and objectives of involuntary commitment and coercive measures.