Search

The concept of twin concordance involves quantifying the resemblance between co-twins in an “objective” and reproducible way. Yet, quantifying resemblance in the case of complex psychiatric traits like schizophrenic disorders leads to methodological problems, as the yes–no dichotomy of diagnostic schemata does not allow one to assess between-subject differences in psychopathology patterns sufficiently accurately. Therefore, we relied on a multidimensional, quantitative concordance measure that provided a high resolution and differentiation when assessing the resemblance of psychopathology patterns. This concordance measure was central to our investigations into the potential link between schizophrenic disorders and aberrancies of the inflammatory response system. Specifically, we aimed to determine the extent to which (1) the observed variation of between-subject psychopathology concordance among 100 schizophrenic patients and (2) the observed variation of within-pair psychopathology concordance among 71 twin pairs can be explained by immunoglobulin M (IgM) levels. To accomplish this goal, we had to “gauge” in a first step the concordance measure’s performance by (1) comparing the psychopathology patterns of 269 index cases suffering from functional psychoses with the respective patterns of the 350 “affecteds” among their first-degree relatives; (2) systematically comparing the psychopathology patterns of 100 unrelated patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenic disorders with each other; and (3) detailing the within-pair concordance of elementary traits among 2734 healthy twin pairs. As to the role of active immune processes in the context of schizophrenic disorders, we found that there exists a 20–30% subgroup of patients for whom aberrancies of the inflammatory response system, as quantified through IgM levels, appeared to be linked to the pathogenesis of schizophrenic disorders (r = 0.7515/0.8184, p

Based on a sample of 1,701 college and university students from 4 different sites in Switzerland, the U.S. and Argentina, this study investigated the interrelationships between insufficient coping skills under chronic stress and impaired general health. We aimed at developing standardized means for the “early” identification of students at risk for mental health problems, as these students might benefit from “early” interventions before psychiatric symptoms develop and may reach clinically relevant thresholds. All students completed 2 self-report questionnaires: the Coping Strategies Inventory “COPE” and the Zurich Health Questionnaire “ZHQ” which assesses “regular exercises”, “consump¬tion behavior”, “impaired physical health”, “psychosomatic disturbances”, and “impaired mental health”. The data were subjected to structure analyses by means of Neural Network approaches, using the data subsets of the different study sites as independent “learning” and “test” samples. We found 2 highly stable COPE scales that quantified basic coping behavior in terms of “activity-passivity” and “defeatism-resilience”. Excellent reproducibility across study sites suggested that the new scales represent socio-culturally independent personality traits. Correlation analyses carried out for external validation revealed a close relationship between high scores on the defeatism scale and impaired physical and mental health, thus underlining the clinical relevance of these scales. Specifically, our results suggested that (1) the proposed method provides powerful screening tools in the field of early detection and prevention of psychiatric disorders; and (2) physical activity (regular exercises) is likely to play a significant role not only in the prevention of health problems but also in early intervention programs.

Background: Epidemiological data indicate that 75% of subjects with major psychiatric disorders have their onset of illness in the age range of 17-24 years. An estimated 35-50% of college and university students drop out prematurely due to insufficient coping skills under chronic stress, while 85% of students receiving a psychiatric diagnosis withdraw from college/university prior to the completion of their education. In this study, we aimed at developing standardized means of identifying students with insufficient coping skills under chronic stress and at risk for mental health problems. Sampling and Methods: A sample of 1,217 college students from 3 different sites in the USA and Switzerland completed 2 self-report questionnaires: the Coping Strategies Inventory (COPE) and the Zurich Health Questionnaire (ZHQ), which assesses ‘regular exercises', ‘consumption behavior', ‘impaired physical health', ‘psychosomatic disturbances' and ‘impaired mental health'. The data were subjected to structure analyses by means of a neural network approach. We found 2 highly stable and reproducible COPE scales that explained the observed interindividual variation in coping behavior sufficiently well and in a socioculturally independent way. The scales reflected basic coping behavior in terms of ‘activity-passivity' and ‘defeatism-resilience', and in the sense of stable, socioculturally independent personality traits. Results: Correlation analyses carried out for external validation revealed a close relationship between high scores on the defeatism scale and impaired physical and mental health. This underlined the role of insufficient coping behavior as a risk factor for physical and mental health problems. Conclusion: The combined COPE and ZHQ instruments appear to constitute powerful screening tools for insufficient coping skills under chronic stress and for risks of mental health problems.