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Filicides lead to questions about motives and missed opportunities for prevention. The development of preventive strategies is difficult due to heterogeneous perpetrator-victim dynamics. Eighteen child killings by parents over a period of 10 consecutive years in the catchment area of Dusseldorf's Institute of Legal Medicine were identified, and the autopsy reports and prosecution files were analysed. With regard to motives and psychodynamics, a heterogeneous group of perpetrators were identified; the perpetrators were responsible for 8 accidental filicides, 3 killings of unwanted children, 1 killing during perpetrator psychosis, 1 spousal revenge killing and 5 homicide-suicides. Except for the homicide-suicides, overburdening seemed to be the main risk factor for the killings. Preventive measures are difficult to establish. They should focus on awareness campaigns and increasing or establishing multi-professional support for affected families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Psychological interventions, such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and supportive counselling (SC), are used to treat people with schizophrenia and people at clinical high risk (CHR) of psychosis. However, little information is available on predictors of treatment response. This study aims to identify such predictors of psychological interventions in CHR. Methods: A total of 128 help‐seeking CHR outpatients were randomized into two groups—integrated psychological intervention (IPI), including CBT, and SC—for 12 months. Multiple regression analysis was used to identify demographic, symptomatic and functional variables that predict improvement in positive (PANSS Positive), negative (PANSS Negative) and basic symptoms (Basic symptom total score) and improvement in functioning (GAF) at 1‐year follow up. Results: In the merged group (IPI + SC), people who lived independently, were younger and presented with higher baseline functioning showed more improvement in symptomatic outcomes at follow up. Negative symptoms at baseline predicted less improvement in positive and basic symptoms. Being married or cohabiting and living in the primary family were found to correlate with good functioning at 1‐year follow up. Conclusions: Younger CHR individuals and those who are functioning well may particularly benefit from early intervention. Treatment might need to be modified for low‐functioning CHR and those who already display higher scores of negative symptoms. Registration number: NCT00204087 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The objective of this study is to test the conflicting theories concerning the association of negative self and other schemata and paranoid ideation. Methods: A risk‐based approach, including risk stratification, is used to gain insight into the association of the negative self and other schemata that may be shared by individuals or differentiate between individuals at clinical high risk (CHR) for a first‐episode psychosis and those with full‐blown psychosis. The dataset includes a sample of individuals at CHR (n = 137) and a sample of individuals with persisting positive symptoms (PPS, n = 211). The CHR sample was subdivided according to a prognostic index yielding 4 CHR sub‐classes with increasing risk for transition to psychosis. Results: Negative beliefs about the self were associated with paranoid ideation in CHR and a lower risk state. In the highest risk state and full‐blown psychosis, there is an association with negative beliefs about others. Conclusion: These findings are in line with theories suggesting a switch from a predominantly activated negative self‐schema to a malevolent others‐schema in association with paranoid ideation along the risk‐continuum. However, due to methodological limitations these results should be replicated by future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim Schizophrenia is a heterogeneous disorder that presents differently in men and women: men show a higher propensity to negative symptoms, lower social functioning, earlier age at onset and co-morbid substance abuse, whereas women display more affective symptoms. It is unknown whether these differences extend to subjects at high risk ( HR) of psychosis. Thus, the aim of the present study was to address this question. Methods Clinical symptoms and functioning were assessed using structured interviews in 239 HR subjects (female, n = 80). The definition of being at HR was based on the criteria used in the European Prediction of Psychosis Study ( EPOS). Results Men displayed more pronounced negative symptoms, higher rates of past substance abuse disorders and higher deficits in social functioning. No gender difference was found for depression, which affected almost 50% of the cohort, or age at onset for the fulfilment of HR criteria. Conclusion The higher impairment in specific symptoms observed in male schizophrenia patients was also present in subjects at HR for psychosis. Further studies are required to determine whether these symptoms are gender-specific predictors of transition to psychosis and whether they warrant gender-specific interventions. The high propensity to depression in the present cohort, which was particularly pronounced in the male cohort compared with the general population, in conjunction with the observed increase in negative symptoms and functional impairment, should alert clinicians to the necessity for the identification and treatment of HR subjects, irrespective of the degree to which these features are associated with transition risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]