Psychosis Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Psychosis, including details on clinical depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder.

Patients' and psychiatrists' perceptions of clinical decisions during schizophrenia treatment.

Hamann J, Mendel RT, Fink B, Pfeiffer H, Cohen R, Kissling W

Klinik und Poliklinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie der TU München, München, Germany. j.hamann@lrz.tum.de

Shared decision making is advocated for patients with schizophrenia. However, there is limited knowledge as to which events are actually considered to be decisions by psychiatrists and patients. Semistructured interviews with regard to clinical decisions of the preceding week were performed with psychiatrists and inpatients with schizophrenia. There was good correspondence between patients and psychiatrists regarding decisional topics but poor correspondence regarding individual decisions. Medication issues were the most prominent, but other topics were also frequently cited. Not being included in decisions was associated with patients' desire to make the decisions differently. Patients treated involuntarily felt more often that they were not included in decisions and wanted to make different decisions. Thus, many patients do not feel involved in treatment decisions and are at the risk of noncompliance since they state that they would have made decisions differently from their psychiatrists. This is especially true of those being treated involuntarily.

Published 16 April 2008 in J Nerv Ment Dis, 196(4): 329-32.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

Articles on Psychosis published 16 April 2008:

Measurement of insight in patients with bipolar disorder: are self-rated scales developed for patients with schizophrenia applicable?   J Nerv Ment Dis, 196(4): 333-5.

Our aim was to study if the Birchwood Insight Scale has acceptable psychometric properties when used for patients with bipolar disorders. Patients with schizophrenia (n = 101), bipolar I (n = 57), and bipolar II disorder (n = 37) completed the self-report scale. The items form 3 subscales, awareness of illness, relabeling of symptoms, and need for treatment. The total scale had good internal consistency for patients with schizophrenia, fairly good for bipolar I, but poor for bipolar II ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Nonverbal behavior during standardized interviews in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders.   J Nerv Ment Dis, 196(4): 282-8.

Several studies have consistently shown that patients with schizophrenia or schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) can be distinguished from normal controls on the basis of their nonverbal behavior during standardized interviews, with considerable interactions between negative symptoms and poor facial expressivity. However, most studies have examined unmedicated patients, and gender of both interviewer and interviewee has not been taken into account. In this study we assessed the nonverbal ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on Psychosis published 9 April 2008:

Psychometric properties of the Psychotropic-Related Sexual Dysfunction Questionnaire (PRSexDQ-SALSEX) in patients with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders.   J Sex Marital Ther, 34(3): 227-39.

Sexual dysfunction is a disturbing and often underrecognized problem associated with schizophrenia and its treatment. The Psychotropic-Related Sexual Dysfunction (PRSexDQ-SALSEX) is a brief and relatively nonintrusive questionnaire that has shown adequate psychometric properties in patients with depression. This study examined the psychometric properties of the PRSexDQ-SALSEX in a sample of patients with schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders who were experiencing anti-psychotic-induced ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on Psychosis published 28 March 2008:

Reduced attentional engagement contributes to deficits in prefrontal inhibitory control in schizophrenia.   Biol Psychiatry, 63(8): 776-83.

BACKGROUND: Problems with the voluntary control of behavior, such as those leading to increased antisaccade errors, are accepted as evidence of prefrontal dysfunction in schizophrenia. We previously reported that speeded prosaccade responses, i.e., shorter response latencies for automatic shifts of attention to visual targets, were associated with higher antisaccade error rates in schizophrenia. This suggests that dysregulation of automatic attentional processes may contribute to disturbances ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Out-of-synch and out-of-sorts: dysfunction of motor-sensory communication in schizophrenia.   Biol Psychiatry, 63(8): 736-43.

BACKGROUND: Phase synchronization of neural activity preceding a motor act may reflect an efference copy of the motor plan and its expected sensory consequences (corollary discharge), which is sent to sensory cortex to herald the arrival of self-generated sensations and dampen the resulting sensory experience. We performed time-frequency decomposition of response-locked electroencephalogram (EEG) to examine phase synchronization of oscillations across trials (phase-locking factor [PLF]) to ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on Psychosis published 12 March 2008:

Acute treatment response and its predictors in patients with first-episode psychosis in Iran.   Australas Psychiatry, 16(2): 125-9.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this paper was to investigate the acute treatment response and its predictors in a sample of patients with first-episode psychosis admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Iran. METHOD: A total of 163 patients with first-episode psychosis were treated with antipsychotics and other medications as prescribed by their treating psychiatrists. Sociodemographic and premorbid data at baseline and clinical data at both baseline and discharge (6+/-1 weeks after admission) were ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

First-episode psychosis in rural, coastal and remote Australian communities.   Australas Psychiatry, 16(2): 119-24.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate access to care and service delivery for first-episode psychosis (FEP) in rural, coastal and remote regions. METHOD: Routine clinical outcome data were analysed for patients aged 10-25 years who presented to mental health services in either a rural, coastal or remote region of New South Wales over a 3-year period. RESULTS: The results showed rural region FEP patients travelled significantly further to access services than non-FEP patients. ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Are Australian men with psychosis spending more time homeless?   Australas Psychiatry, 16(2): 114-8.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to determine if homeless men with psychosis using emergency accommodation services are spending more time homeless. METHOD: A 12-month accommodation history was collected from all men with psychosis referred to mental health services using two emergency accommodation services in inner Melbourne over a 5-year period. RESULTS: Of the 241 men referred with psychosis, 200 (81%) were able to provide a full accommodation history. In 2001 the mean total days ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

© 2005-2008 Psychosis Research Today. All Rights Reserved.