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Eline C Jochems,1,2 Christina M van der Feltz-Cornelis,1–3 Arno van Dam,3,4 Hugo J Duivenvoorden,5 Cornelis L Mulder1,6 1Department of Psychiatry, Epidemiological and Social Psychiatric Research Institute, Erasmus MC University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; 2GGz Breburg, Top Clinical Center for Body, Mind and Health, Tilburg, the Netherlands; 3Tilburg University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Tranzo Department, Tilburg, the Netherlands; 4GGZ Westelijk Noord Brabant, Bergen op Zoom, the Netherlands; 5Erasmus MC University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; 6BavoEuropoort, Parnassia Psychiatric Institute, Rotterdam, the Netherlands Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of providing clinicians with regular feedback on the patient’s motivation for treatment in increasing treatment engagement in patients with severe mental illness.Methods: Design: cluster randomized controlled trial (Dutch Trials Registry NTR2968). Participants: adult outpatients with a primary diagnosis of a psychotic disorder or a personality disorder and their clinicians, treated in 12 community mental health teams (the clusters) of two mental health institutions in the Netherlands. Interventions: monthly motivation feedback (MF) generated by clinicians additional to treatment as usual (TAU) and TAU by the community mental health teams. Primary outcome: treatment engagement at patient level, assessed at 12 months by clinicians. Randomization: teams were allocated to MF or TAU by a computerized randomization program that randomized each team to a single treatment by blocks of varying size. All participants within these teams received similar treatment. Clinicians and patients were not blind to treatment allocation at the 12-month assessment.Results: The 294 randomized patients (148 MF, 146 TAU) and 57 clinicians (29 MF, 28 TAU) of 12 teams (6 MF, 6 TAU) were analyzed according to the intention-to-treat principle. No statistically significant differences between treatment groups on treatment engagement were found (adjusted mean difference =0.1, 95% confidence interval =-2.2 to 2.3, P=0.96, d=0). Preplanned ancillary analyses showed statistically significant interaction effects between treatment group and primary diagnosis on treatment motivation and quality of life (secondary outcomes), which were beneficial for patients with a primary diagnosis of a personality disorder but not for those with a psychotic disorder. There were no reports of adverse events.Conclusion: The current findings imply that monitoring and discussing the patient’s motivation is insufficient to improve motivation and treatment engagement, and suggests that more elaborate interventions for severe mental illness patients are needed. Keywords: randomized controlled trial, feedback, motivation, adherence, psychotic disorders, personality disorders

Clazien Bouwmans,1 Caroline de Sonneville,1 Cornelis L Mulder,2,3 Leona Hakkaart-van Roijen11Institute for Medical Technology Assessment, Erasmus University Rotterdam, 2Epidemiological and Social Psychiatric Research Institute, Erasmus Medical Center, 3Parnassia Psychiatric Institute, Rotterdam, the NetherlandsAbstract: A systematic review was conducted to assess the employment rate of people with schizophrenia. Additionally, information from the selected studies concerning factors associated with employment and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) was examined. Employment rates ranged from 4% to 50.4%. The studies differed considerably in design, patient settings, and methods of recruitment. The most frequently reported factors associated with employment were negative and cognitive symptoms, age of onset, and duration and course of the disease. Individual characteristics associated with unemployment were older age, lower education, and sex (female). Additionally, environmental factors, eg, the availability of welfare benefits and vocational support programs, seemed to play a role. Generally, being employed was positively associated with HRQoL. However, the causal direction of this association remained unclear, as studies on the bidirectional relationship between employment and HRQoL were lacking.Keywords: health-related quality of life, employment, work, unemployment, mental illness, patient characteristics, environment

Abstract Background Crises and (involuntary) admissions have a strong impact on patients and their caregivers. In some countries, including the Netherlands, the number of crises and (involuntary) admissions have increased in the last years. There is also a lack of effective interventions to prevent their occurrence. Previous research has shown that a form of psychiatric advance statement – joint crisis plan – may prevent involuntary admissions, but another study showed no significant results for another form. The question remains which form of psychiatric advance statement may help to prevent crisis situations. This study examines the effects of two other psychiatric advance statements. The first is created by the patient with help from a patient's advocate (Patient Advocate Crisis Plan: PACP) and the second with the help of a clinician only (Clinician facilitated Crisis Plan: CCP). We investigate whether patients with a PACP or CCP show fewer emergency visits and (involuntary) admissions as compared to patients without a psychiatric advance statement. Furthermore, this study seeks to identify possible mechanisms responsible for the effects of a PACP or a CCP. Methods/Design This study is a randomised controlled trial with two intervention groups and one control condition. Both interventions consist of a crisis plan, facilitated through the patient's advocate or the clinician respectively. Outpatients with psychotic or bipolar disorders, who experienced at least one psychiatric crisis during the previous two years, are randomly allocated to one of the three groups. Primary outcomes are the number of emergency (after hour) visits, (involuntary) admissions and the length of stay in hospital. Secondary outcomes include psychosocial functioning and treatment satisfaction. The possible mediator variables of the effects of the crisis plans are investigated by assessing the patient's involvement in the creation of the crisis plan, working alliance, insight into illness, recovery style, social support, locus of control, service engagement and coping with crises situations. The interviews take place before randomisation, nine month later and finally eighteen months after randomisation. Discussion This study examines the effects of two types of crisis plans. In addition, the results offer an understanding of the way these advance statements work and whether it is more effective to include a patients' advocate in the process of creating a psychiatric advance statement. These statements may be an intervention to prevent crises and the use of compulsion in mental health care. The strength and limitations of this study are discussed. Trial registration Current Controlled Trails NTR1166.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined whether employing mental health consumers as consumer-providers in assertive community treatment teams can enhance outcomes for clients with severe mental illness. METHODS: In a prospective longitudinal study, presence of consumer-providers and outcomes of 530 clients with severe mental illness in 20 outpatient teams were assessed at baseline and at one-year and two-year follow-ups. Measures included the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales (HoNOS), the Camberwell Assessment of Need Short Assessment Schedule (CANSAS), the Working Alliance Scale, the number of hospital days, and the number of days of homelessness. Multilevel regression was used with the independent variables consumer-provider presence, time of measurement, and their interaction. RESULTS: A positive association was found between consumer-provider presence and improvements in functioning on the HoNOS (p=.020), met needs in relation to personal recovery (p=.044), unmet needs in relation to personal recovery (p=.008), and number of homeless days (p.001). A negative association was found for consumer-provider presence and the number of hospital days (p=.019). CONCLUSIONS: Consumer-providers are important participants in outpatient teams serving clients with severe mental illnesses, although integrating these providers as part of a team is a slow process. (Psychiatric Services 63:477-481, 2012; doi: 10.1176/appi.ps.201000549). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Psychiatric intensive care units (PICU) are small wards, designed for the most difficult-to-manage patients. They have higher levels of nursing and other staff, are often locked, and sometimes have facilities for seclusion. Although PICU staff are often confronted with aggressive behavior, resulting in higher usage of coercive measures, there is need to increase understanding of the necessary infrastructure and treatment policy for successfully reducing seclusion and restraint. Aim: To investigate whether patients transferred to a newly developed PICU, focused on the effective and non-coercive management of disruptive behavior, are secluded and restrained less than during earlier stays in a psychiatric unit. Method: The effect of the newly developed PICU on reducing seclusion was evaluated in eight patients, six of whom had been diagnosed with a severe form of borderline personality disorder. The number of days in seclusion during the period before admission to the PICU was compared to the number of days in seclusion after admission to the PICU. Results: After patients' admission to PICU, the use of seclusion was almost completely eliminated, falling from 40% of admission days spent in seclusion before transfer to the PICU to 0.1% during their stay at the PICU. Conclusion: When a special non-coercive infrastructure and treatment policy is applied at a PICU, seriously disturbed patients can be treated without coercive measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: Mental health problems often emerge in young adulthood. Although effective treatments are available, young adults are unlikely to seek professional help. This study examined barriers-to-care in young adults with serious internalizing or externalizing problems. METHODS: Population-based study among 2258 19-32-year olds in the south-west region of the Netherlands. Barriers-to-care were examined in participants with serious internalizing or externalizing problems who did not seek professional help. A potential barrier was that participants denied that they had mental health problems. In those admitting problems, barriers were assessed with the Barriers-to-Care checklist and analyzed with Latent Class Analysis. RESULTS: Of 362 participants with serious internalizing or externalizing problems 237 (65.5%) did not seek professional help. Of non-help-seeking young adults 36% denied having problems; additionally Latent Class Analysis revealed that 37% Perceived Problems as Self-Limiting (e.g., they believed that problems were not serious) and 24% Perceived Help-Seeking Negatively (e.g., they believed that treatment would not help). CONCLUSIONS: Young adults' barriers-to-care reflect limitations in their knowledge of mental health problems and available treatments, but possibly also a failure of existing mental health services to engage young people. More knowledge is urgently needed about the effectiveness of mental health treatments for young adults specifically. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Treatment accessibility for young adults may be augmented by improving their mental health literacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Psychotic disorders are more common in people from ethnic minorities. If psychosis exists as a continuous phenotype, ethnic disparities in psychotic disorder will be accompanied by similar ethnic disparities in the rate of psychotic symptoms. This study examined ethnic disparities in self-reported hallucinations in a population sample of young adults.MethodA cross-sectional population survey (n=2258) was carried out in the south-west Netherlands. Seven ethnic groups were delineated: Dutch natives, Turks, Moroccans, Surinamese/Antilleans, Indonesians, other non-Western immigrants (mostly from Africa or Asia) and Western immigrants (mostly from Western Europe). Self-reported auditory and visual hallucinations were assessed with the Adult Self-Report (ASR). Indicators of social adversity included social difficulties and a significant drop in financial resources. RESULTS: Compared to Dutch natives, Turkish females [odds ratio (OR) 13.48, 95% confidence interval (CI) 5.97-30.42], Moroccan males (OR 8.36, 95% CI 3.29-21.22), Surinamese/Antilleans (OR 2.19, 95% CI 1.05-4.58), Indonesians (OR 4.15, 95% CI 1.69-10.19) and other non-Western immigrants (OR 3.57, 95% CI 1.62-7.85) were more likely to report hallucinations, whereas Western immigrants, Turkish males and Moroccan females did not differ from their Dutch counterparts. When adjusting for social adversity, the ORs for self-reported hallucinations among the non-Western immigrant groups showed considerable reductions of 28% to 52%. CONCLUSIONS: In a general population sample, several non-Western immigrant groups reported hallucinations more often than Dutch natives, which is consistent with the higher incidence of psychotic disorders in most of these groups. The associations between ethnicity and hallucinations diminished after adjustment for social adversity, which supports the view that adverse social experiences contribute to the higher rate of psychosis among migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Aims of the study were to assess, among clients receiving an outpatient treatment program (OTP), whether female crack abusers have more severe problems and/or different service needs than men.Methods: A total of 63 chronic crack abusers (34 women) participated in the study at baseline. Follow-up data were available for 33 subjects (21 women). Outcome measures included general condition at intake, and treatment compliance, outcome and satisfaction. Data were collected by means of monthly registrations, EuropAsi interviews and an evaluation form. OTP consisted of assertive outreach, a time-out provision, and intensive case management.Results: The vast majority of women were involved in street prostitution and were extremely vulnerable to deterioration. Compared to men, women who entered treatment had poorer physical health, higher rates of previous physical/sexual abuse, and more anxiety symptoms. Women reported a longer episode of cocaine abstinence than men. At discharge from OTP men reported a significantly better treatment outcome than women. Both genders gained most improvement in general living conditions. No gender differences emerged in treatment compliance. Although both men and women were satisfied with the service items offered by OTP, an outpatient walk-in service best served the needs of men, whereas women preferred a 24-hour care service including medical treatment and motivational outreach.Conclusions: Due to the harshness of street prostitution, treatment for female crack abusers should address areas of severe impairment. Integrated treatment services, tailored to the lifestyle of these women, are required to improve their general situation and safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study Objectives: Impaired sleep following trauma such as childhood maltreatment is both a prognostic factor for future mental illness and a feasible intervention point. Yet, associations between childhood maltreatment and objectively measured sleep components are rarely found. New approaches advance the use of multidimensional sleep health scores instead of individual sleep components. However, no such methodology has been used to study the consequences of maltreatment on sleep health in adolescent cohorts so far. We hypothesized that childhood maltreatment will be associated with poorer sleep health in adolescence., Methods: a cross-sectional sample of 494 adolescents at high-risk of emotional and behavioral problems (mean age 17.9) completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire short form (CTQ-SF) to assess five forms of maltreatment (emotional and physical abuse/neglect and sexual abuse) assessed as continuous sum scores. During 9 nights of actigraphy and sleep diary measurements data on sleep regularity, satisfaction, alertness, timing, efficiency, and duration was collected, which were combined into a sleep health composite score ranging from 0 to 6. Linear regression models were adjusted for age, sex, household income, ethnic origin, educational level, urbanization of living environment and parental psychopathological problems., Results: associations were found between all forms of maltreatment and poorer sleep health (p<.031), except for sexual abuse (p=.224). Partial r effect sizes ranged from -0.12 [95%CI = -0.22, -0.01] for emotional neglect to -0.18 [-0.28, -0.08] for total maltreatment., Conclusions: maltreatment was associated with impairment in everyday sleep health, reflected in both subjective and objective measurements of sleep., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Sleep Research Society.)

Over the past two decades, advances in cancer therapy have significantly improved survival rates, particularly in childhood cancers. Still, many treatments pose a substantial risk for diminishing future fertility potential due to the gonadotoxic nature of many cancer regimens, justifying fertility preservation programs for both childhood and adult cancer patients. To assure a balance between offering fertility preservation and actual chance of infertility post-treatment, guidelines are in place. However, assessing the actual risk of infertility after treatment remains challenging, given the multi-faceted approach of many cancer treatment plans, which are continuously evolving. This review discusses the evolution of cancer therapy over the past 20 years and attempts to assess their impact on fertility after treatment. Overall, cancer regimens have shifted from broadly killing fast dividing cells to more targeting therapies, reducing collateral damage in general. Although progress has been made to reduce overall toxicity, unfortunately this does not automatically translate to reduced gonadotoxicity. Therefore, current fertility preservation programs continue to be an important part of cancer care., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

The iBerry Study, a Dutch population-based high-risk cohort (n = 1022) examines the transition from subclinical symptoms to psychiatric disorders in adolescents. Here, we present the first follow-up measurement, approximately 3 years after baseline assessment and 5 years after the screening based on self-reported emotional and behavioral problems (SDQ-Y). We give an update on the data collection, details on the (non)response, and the results on psychopathology outcomes. The first follow-up (2019-2022) had a response rate of 79% (n = 807). Our results at baseline (mean age 15.0 years) have shown the effectiveness of using the SDQ-Y to select a cohort oversampled for the risk of psychopathology. At first follow-up (mean age 18.1 years), the previously administered SDQ-Y remains predictive for selecting adolescents at risk. At follow-up, 47% of the high-risk adolescents showed significant mental health problems based on self- and parent reports and 46% of the high-risk adolescents met the criteria for multiple DSM-5 diagnoses. Compared to low-risk adolescents, high-risk adolescents had a sevenfold higher odds of significant emotional and behavioral problems at follow-up. Comprehensive assessment on psychopathology, substance abuse, psychotic symptoms, suicidality, nonsuicidal self-injury, addiction to social media and/or video gaming, and delinquency, as well as social development, and the utilization of healthcare and social services were conducted. This wave, as well as the ones to follow, track these adolescents into their young adulthood to identify risk factors, elucidate causal mechanisms, and discern pathways leading to both common and severe mental disorders. Results from the iBerry Study will provide leads for preventive interventions., Competing Interests: Declarations. Conflict of interest: The authors have no competing interests to declare. Ethical approval: The study has been approved by the Medical Ethics Research Committee of the Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam and was conducted in accordance with the guidelines established by the Declaration of Helsinki. Consent to participate: Written informed consent was obtained from each participating adolescent and the participating parent., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Introduction: Chronic alcohol-related myopathy presents with proximal muscle weakness. We studied the effect of vitamin D supplementation on muscle weakness in adults with alcohol use disorder., Method: The study was a randomized controlled trial. Participants were community-dwelling adults with alcohol use disorder. Participants allocated to VIDIO, vitamin D intensive outreach, received bimonthly oral doses of 50,000-100,000 IU cholecalciferol for 12 months. Participants allocated to CAU, care as usual, received prescriptions of once-a-day tablets containing 800 IU cholecalciferol and 500 mg calcium carbonate. Data included demographic variables, laboratory tests, alcohol use, and rating scales of help-seeking and support. Main outcomes were the participants' quadriceps maximum voluntary contractions (qMVC) and serum-25(OH)vitamin D concentrations, 25(OH)D., Results: In 66 participants, sex ratio 50/16, mean age 51 years, alcohol use was a median of 52 [IQR 24-95] drinks per week. Baseline qMVC values were 77% (SD 29%) of reference values. Laboratory tests were available in 44/66 participants: baseline 25(OH)D concentrations were 39.4 (SD 23.7) nmol/L. Thirty-one participants with 25(OH)D concentrations <50 nmol/L received either VIDIO or CAU and improved in qMVC, respectively, with a mean of 51 (p < 0.05) and 62 N (no p value because of loss of follow-up) after one year of treatment. Vitamin D status increased with a mean of +56.1 and + 37.4 nmol/L, respectively, in VIDIO and CAU., Conclusion: The qMVC values improved during vitamin supplementation in adults with vitamin D deficiency and alcohol use disorder. Despite higher 25(OH)D concentrations in VIDIO, in terms of muscle health no advice could be given in favor of one vitamin strategy over the other., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest No conflict declared., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The risk of developing chronic pain is twice as high among people with a history of childhood maltreatment compared to those without these experiences. It is unclear, however, whether childhood maltreatment might lead to lower or higher perception of pain. In this paper, we investigate the association between childhood maltreatment and pain sensitivity. A sample of 187 Dutch adolescents (ages 16.7 to 20.5) was used from a population-based cohort at high-risk for emotional and behavioral problems screened at age 13. The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire short form (CTQ-SF) was completed to measure emotional, physical, sexual abuse, and emotional and physical neglect. To asses pain sensitivity, a thermal quantitative sensory testing procedure was used which measured pain from hot and cold stimuli. Individuals reporting childhood sexual abuse, emotional abuse or neglect and physical neglect could on average withstand hot and cold pain of 1.03 °C [0.13, 1.84] to 3.20 °C [0.62, 5.97] more across different types of abuse compared to those with no emotional abuse or (physical) neglect history. Physical abuse was not associated with pain sensitivity. The current findings suggest that childhood maltreatment might lead to habituation to painful stimuli as opposed to increased pain sensitivity., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest None., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

This study analyzed the association between changes over time in illness self-management skills and personal recovery in patients with schizophrenia and other severe mental illnesses and determined the degree to which this association was mediated by changes in clinical and functional recovery. The rationale for the hypothesized directions of association and mediation originated from a recent randomized controlled trial (RCT) on Illness Management and Recovery (IMR), the relations between these concepts suggested in a conceptual framework of IMR, and from the results of three meta-analyses. Moreover, earlier studies indicated the relevance of examining personal recovery as an outcome for people with severe mental illnesses. Outpatient participants' data were used in this RCT (N = 165). Difference scores were constructed for all concepts by subtracting scores measured at baseline (T1) from scores at follow-up measurement (T3). We used mediation analysis to describe pathways between changes in illness management (assessed using the Illness Management and Recovery scale client version) and changes in personal recovery (assessed using the Mental-Health Recovery Measure), mediated by changes in clinical (assessed using the Brief Symptom Inventory) and functional recovery (assessed using the Social Functioning Scale). We applied the baseline data of all concepts as covariates. As inferential tests to determine the significance of the indirect paths, confidence intervals were constructed using bootstrap techniques. The results showed that the improvement in overall illness management was directly associated with improvements in personal recovery (B = .30), and indirectly through improvements in clinical recovery (indirect effect = .13) and functional recovery (indirect effect = .08). The main conclusion is that self-reported illness management appears to be more strongly and directly associated with personal recovery than indirectly via clinical and functional recovery. This analysis supports the relevance of self-management interventions such as IMR for the personal recovery of people with severe mental illnesses., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Roosenschoon et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Background: When introduced in 2020, the Netherlands' Compulsory Mental Healthcare Act included provisions for compulsory community treatment (CCT) and compulsory treatment in patients' homes (CTH). Although CCT has been incorporated into mental health care in many countries, its effectiveness is debated. We know of no other countries in which CTH has been adopted. The aim of this study is to evaluate how an early group of participants experienced CTH. They were drawn from three stakeholder groups: patients, relatives and mental-health workers., Methods: In total, 17 open interviews were conducted with six patients, five relatives and six mental-health workers. All had experience with CTH. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the interviews., Results: Five themes were identified: 1). Reasons for applying for a court order with options for CTH. The reasons included preventing harm, avoiding hospitalization, and providing a safety net. 2.) Participants' experiences with CTH in practice. The four most noteworthy experiences were related to the process of applying for a court order; compulsory home visits and the compulsory use of medication; the involvement of relatives during treatment; and the influence of CTH on the relationship between patients and relatives.  3.) The advantages and disadvantages of CTH. The most important advantages were avoiding hospitalization; improving medication adherence; facilitating easy access to care; early signaling of deterioration; early intervention; and regained autonomy. The most important disadvantages were restricted autonomy; fewer options for monitoring compared to hospitalization; and problems regarding control of patient behavior. 4.) Participants' preferences. All preferred CTH to hospitalization. 5.) Participants' suggestions for improving CTH. These included the need not only to provide patients with better information, but also to improve the involvement of relatives during treatment., Conclusion: The interviewees found that CTH might help to avoid hospitalization by providing stakeholders with more options for arranging effective care at home. Although this suggests that initial experiences of CTH under the new Dutch mental health law were positive, it is still uncertain whether CTH as currently implemented really differs from CCT., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Objective: Police officers are often the first responders when individuals experience a mental health crisis and typically remain responsible for transport to a psychiatric emergency department. In 2014, a psychiatric ambulance (PA) was introduced in the city of Amsterdam to take over the transport of individuals in a mental health crisis. The purpose of the PA was to use fewer restrictive measures while guaranteeing safety for both patients and personnel., Methods: A preimplementation-postimplementation design was used to assess the feasibility and utility of a single-vehicle PA service compared with police transport. Data on 498 rides were collected in the 4 months before implementation of the PA (pre-PA cohort) and on 655 rides in the 6 months after implementation (PA cohort)., Results: After PA implementation, most patients were transported by the PA (82%), and rides by police vehicle were very rare (1%). Individuals in the PA cohort had a greater transportation delay, compared with those in the pre-PA cohort, but the PA reduced use of coercive measures with no increase in the incidence of patient aggression. Among individuals in the PA cohort, hospitalization was more often voluntary than among those in the pre-PA cohort., Conclusions: Transporting emergency psychiatric patients by a special PA rather than by the police reduced the use of coercive measures during transport, kept the occurrence of aggressive incidents stable, and was associated with fewer coercive hospital admissions., Competing Interests: The authors report no financial relationships with commercial interests.

Objective: In this meta-analysis, we evaluated changes in cognition for patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) with different durations of illness (DOIs)., Data Sources: Records were identified through searches in PubMed, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and Cochrane until December 2021. We used terms related to SSDs, chronicity, course, and recovery., Study Selection and Data Extraction: We included 57 longitudinal studies, with a follow-up length of at least 1 year, investigating changes in 10 domains of cognition of patients who are all diagnosed with SSD. Changes in cognition were analyzed through effect sizes of change between baseline and follow-up assessments within each study. These changes were evaluated in different subgroups of studies including patients with a DOI <5 years, 5-10 years, or >10 years. We also investigated the influence of 19 potential moderators on these changes in cognition., Results: We found marginal improvements in overall cognition ( d =0.13), small improvements in verbal memory ( d = 0.21), processing speed ( d = 0.32), marginal improvements in visual memory ( d = 0.17), executive functioning ( d = 0.19), and language skills ( d = 0.13), and no significant improvements in the other cognitive domains. The largest improvements were achieved for patients with a DOI <10 years. Changes are more favorable for patients with a younger age, no schizophrenia diagnosis, female gender, higher education level, and low negative symptom severity., Conclusions: We observed only modest cognitive improvement in SSD almost exclusively in patients with early psychosis. Future research should focus on optimizing interventions targeting cognition in specific subgroups and the interrelationships with other life domains., (© Copyright 2024 Physicians Postgraduate Press, Inc.)

Aim: To compare psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) in adolescents and young adults referred to the Mental Health Services (MHSs)., Methods: Participants scored the 16-item Prodromal Questionnaire (PQ-16) as part of the intake procedure. Data on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) classification and demographic data were collected., Results: The PQ-16 was completed by 13 783 respondents (mean age 24.63 years, SD = 6.09; 62.6% female). Overall, the scores on the PQ-16 were not higher for adolescents (11-17 years; m = 4.84, SD = 3.62) than for young adults (18-35 years; m = 5.47, SD = 3.85). On PQ-16 item level, adolescents reported seeing and hearing things more than adults did. Across all age groups, males scored lower on the PQ-16 than females. Specifically, adolescent males scored lower than other participants. For adolescents and young adults alike, PQ-16 scores were higher for participants with borderline personality disorder, PTSD, and mood disorder than for those with other DSM classifications., Conclusions: Although help-seeking adolescents did not score higher on the PQ-16 than help-seeking young adults, more of them reported perceptual anomalies. Irrespective of age, participants with borderline personality disorder, PTSD and mood disorder scored higher on the PQ-16 than those with other DSM classifications., (© 2024 The Author(s). Early Intervention in Psychiatry published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.)

Background: Verbal and physical violence in psychiatric hospitals can have harmful consequences for staff members, such as physical injury, traumatisation, and sick leave, and they often accompany involuntary admission. Harm to others may co-occur with self-harm, i.e., dual harm. However, little is known about the association between dual-harm and violent behaviour towards staff members and its clinical outcomes, such as seclusion and rapid tranquilisation after involuntary admission to a psychiatric inpatient unit., Method: A convenience sample of patients admitted involuntarily (N = 384; mean age = 48.03, SD = 19.92) between January 2016 and December 2019 in Western Brabant, the Netherlands, was used to design a retrospective file audit. Distinct harm groups, marked by the presence/absence of self- and/or other-harm, were investigated using multivariate linear regression modelling on the seriousness of violent acts and the total length of admission. Logistic regression analyses were used to study the association between harm groups and the administration of rapid tranquilisation, seclusion, and extended involuntary admissions., Results: Several harm groups were identified, including self-harm only, other-harm only, and dual-harm groups. Psychiatric patients admitted to the hospital because of (the risk of) violence towards others had a higher risk of violent incidents during admission and some restrictive measures. In a subgroup of patients with psychotic disorders, patients with dual harm committed the most serious violent incidents compared to those in the other harm groups., Conclusion: Distinct harm groups were identified in a sample of involuntarily admitted patients. In a general adult psychiatric setting, patients at risk for violent behaviour, especially dual-harm patients, should be identified and monitored as part of the risk assessment. Future research is needed to explore more clinical correlates in the proposed distinction between harmful groups and to assess long-term prognosis., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)