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Background: Since child maltreatment can cause severe and lifelong developmental impairment, early evaluation by multidisciplinary child abuse evaluation clinics (CAEC) is recommended. Nevertheless, data on the evaluation outcome is rare to measure and little addressed by existing literature., Objective: To assess the evaluation outcome clarified (confirmed or excluded abuse or neglect), not clarified (remains indeterminate) of suspected child maltreatment and to find associated predictors related to a respectively high or low clarification rate., Participants and Setting: N = 3056 children between 0 and 17;11 years, who were examined at the six CAEC in Berlin, Germany during 2016-2021, with a total number of N = 4576 assigned suspicions of different types of child maltreatment., Method: Statistical analysis of differences between suspected types of child maltreatment, and correlations using diagnostic procedures as predictors and clarification as an outcome., Results: CONCLUSIONS: Overall, CAEC are a useful instrument for the evaluation of the suspicion of different types of child maltreatment. The assessment of suspected child maltreatment requires significant resources and multidisciplinary collaboration, especially concerning sexual abuse., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest All authors are working at the CAEC (clinic or associated research section)., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Objective: To determine migration related distress pattern in refugees and feasibility of a de novo established, central low-threshold outpatient clinic serving more than 80,000 newly arrived refugees in the metropole of Berlin. Methods: In an observational cohort study the relative prevalence of major psychiatric disorders by age, place of living within berlin, language and region of origin were assessed in a refugee cohort from 63 nationalities speaking 36 languages. Findings: Within 18 months, a total of 3,096 cases with a mean age of 29.7 years (11.7) have been referred from all 12 districts and 165 of 182 subdistricts of Berlin to the CCC. 33.7% of the patients were female. The three most frequent diagnoses were unipolar depression (40.4%), posttraumatic stress disorder (24.3%), and adjustment disorder (19.6%). Conclusion: The present data gives insight into the distribution of mental disorders in a large sample of refugees and provides evidence that a CCC is an effective service to quickly and broadly provide psychiatric consultations and thus to overcome classical barriers refugees usually experience in the host communities. In Berlin, Germany, and Europe treatment resources for this population should focus on stress and trauma related disorders., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Bajbouj, Panneck, Winter, Ajami, Alabdullah, Benedikt Burger, Haberlandner, Hahn, Heinz, Heuser, Hoyer, Kluge, Aichberger, Repantis, Schreiter, Seybold and Sutej.)

Background: Early life maltreatment (ELM), borderline personality disorder (BPD), and major depressive disorder (MDD) have been associated with empathy deficits in different domains. Lack of maternal empathy has also been related to child behavioral problems. As ELM, BPD, and MDD often co-occur, we aimed to identify dissociable effects on empathy due to these three factors. In addition, we aimed to investigate their indirect effects via empathy on child psychopathology., Methods: We included 251 mothers with and without MDD (in remission), BPD and ELM and their children, aged 5-12. We used the Interpersonal Reactivity Index as a measure of empathy on four different dimensions (personal distress, empathic concern, perspective taking, and fantasy) and the Child Behavior Checklist as a measure of child psychopathology., Results: Having included all three factors (ELM, MDD, BPD) in one analysis, we found elevated personal distress in MDD and BPD, and lower levels of perspective-taking in BPD, but no effects from ELM on any empathy subscales. Furthermore, we found indirect effects from maternal BPD and MDD on child psychopathology, via maternal personal distress., Conclusion: The present study demonstrated the dissociable effects of maternal ELM, MDD, and BPD on empathy. Elevated personal distress in mothers with BPD and MDD may lead to higher levels of child psychopathology.