Search

Aim: Substantial research has focused on the examination of factors that contribute to the development of psychiatric problems. However, much less is known about factors early in life that may protect from poor mental health outcomes in midlife. This study aimed to identify the extent to which a set of key perinatal demographic variables and adolescent academic performance were associated with good mental health in mid-adulthood., Methods: In a sample of 525 individuals (aged 34-44, 55.4% male) born and raised in Jerusalem, Israel (STREAM study) we attempted to differentiate those who did and did not report psychiatric symptoms in mid-adulthood. Using χ 2 and regression analysis, we explored birth factors (year of birth, sex, birth weight, and number of older siblings, data on parental immigration and socioeconomic status), academic achievement in eighth grade and contemporaneous measures of lifestyle factors, personality traits, and perceived resilience., Results: Participants with good mental health were more often male (P = .005) and had better academic performance already at adolescence than participants who reported psychiatric symptoms in midlife (P < .001). They reported fewer physical complaints (P = .008), were less likely to smoke (P = .001) and considered themselves to be more "resilient" (P < .001)., Conclusions: The results showed that better academic performance in adolescence may be associated with better stress-coping strategies, resulting in fewer psychiatric complaints, more perceived resilience, and less stress-related behaviours in mid-adulthood. Future studies confirming this hypothesis could inform public mental health interventions., (© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.)

Aim: The aim of the present study was to examine whether healthy individuals with higher levels of neuroticism, a robust independent predictor of psychopathology, exhibit altered facial emotion recognition performance., Methods: Facial emotion recognition accuracy was investigated in 104 healthy adults using the Degraded Facial Affect Recognition Task (DFAR). Participants' degree of neuroticism was estimated using neuroticism scales extracted from the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire and the Revised NEO Personality Inventory., Results: A significant negative correlation between the degree of neuroticism and the percentage of correct answers on DFAR was found only for happy facial expression (significant after applying Bonferroni correction)., Conclusions: Altered sensitivity to the emotional context represents a useful and easy way to obtain cognitive phenotype that correlates strongly with inter-individual variations in neuroticism linked to stress vulnerability and subsequent psychopathology. Present findings could have implication in early intervention strategies and staging models in psychiatry., (© 2015 Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.)

Aim: On the basis of applying 'ultra-high-risk' (UHR) criteria, initially high rates of transition to psychosis were reported. However, a decline in transition to psychosis has been observed in recent years. The current descriptive paper aims to investigate if this drop in transition rate may be due to potential changes in patterns of referral to a large UHR clinic., Methods: One hundred fifty young people who were referred to the Personal Assessment and Crisis Evaluation (PACE) Clinic in Melbourne, Australia, between August 2000 and July 2004 were included. Their referral pathways were assessed using a semistructured interview. Results were compared with a similar study of a cohort referred to the same clinic between 1995 and 1996., Results: The mean number of contacts prior to referral to the PACE Clinic was 1.93 (standard deviation (SD) = 1.15), and the average time between symptom onset and referral to PACE was 46.5 weeks (SD = 57.4). In comparison with the earlier cohort (mean = 2.36; SD = 1.32), our results indicate a lower number of contacts (Cohen's d = 0.35, r = 0.17). Furthermore, participants in the current study were referred twice as fast to the PACE Clinic., Conclusions: Increasing awareness of UHR symptoms among professionals and in the general population seems to have resulted in faster referral of young people to specialized mental health services. The global drop in transition rate might be due to a change in referral pathways to UHR services., (© 2013 Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.)