Comprehensive Psychiatry

BACKGROUND: The sex-differential prevalence of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) varies across the lifespan, but little is known about sex differences in executive functions in adults with ADHD. METHODS: We assessed 261 adults, aged 18-40 years, diagnosed with ADHD (170 males [assigned at birth], aged 25.81 ± 5.49; 91 females, aged 27.76 ± 5.42) and 308 neurotypical adults (176 males, aged 24.62 ± 5...

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has wrought a profound impact on mental health in Sub- Saharan Africa, exacerbating existing disparities and rendering individuals undergoing treatment particularly susceptible. This comprehensive critical review delves into the scope, nature, and extent of COVID-19 impact on mental health services in Sub- Saharan Africa, while concurrently elucidating pivotal lessons and exemplary practices learnt from periods of lockdown. METHODS: The methodology was guided by Jesson & Laccy's guide on how to conduct critical literature reviews...

BACKGROUND: Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) has been documented to be effective in treating obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, the neurobiological basis of MBCT remains largely elusive, which makes it clinically challenging to predict which patients are more likely to respond poorly. Hence, identifying biomarkers for predicting treatment outcomes holds both scientific and clinical values. This prognostic study aims to investigate whether pre-treatment brain morphological metrics can predict the effectiveness of MBCT, compared with psycho-education (PE) as an active placebo, among patients with OCD...

OBJECTIVES: Addictions have recently been classified as substance use disorder (SUD) and behavioral addiction (BA), but the concept of BA is still debatable. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct further neuroscientific research to understand the mechanisms of BA to the same extent as SUD. The present study used machine learning (ML) algorithms to investigate the neuropsychological and neurophysiological aspects of addictions in individuals with internet gaming disorder (IGD) and alcohol use disorder (AUD)...

BACKGROUND: ADHD research has had a clear focus on symptoms, their negative consequences and the treatment of ADHD. However, previous qualitative research found that people with a diagnosis of ADHD also self-report to experience strengths related to their ADHD. This is one of the first quantitative studies to investigate multiple self-reported strengths in relation to ADHD traits in a general population sample. Therefore, our aim was to investigate the relationship between multiple self-reported strengths with ADHD traits in the general population using quantitative measures...

BACKGROUND: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with impaired cognitive function in adult life in the general population as well as in people living with schizophrenia (PLS). Research on cognitive function in PLS in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) is, however, limited. The objectives of this study were to investigate the association between ACE types and various cognitive domains in a sample of PLS and matched medical controls, and to determine the moderating effect of group membership (PLS vs...

BACKGROUND: The publication of South Africa's National Mental Health Policy Framework and Strategic Plan 2023-2030 and the proposed National Health Insurance (NHI) make it timely to review that state of mental health services in the country, and to emphasize the importance of prioritising mental health as a pivotal component of holistic healthcare. METHOD: We searched the published literature on mental health using Google Scholar, Pubmed, and Bing Chat, focusing on these words: epidemiology of mental health disorders, depression and anxiety disorders, mental health services, mental health facilities, human resources, financing and impact of COVID-19 on mental health in South Africa and beyond...

Previous mental health trajectory studies were mostly limited to the months before access to vaccination. They are not informing on whether public mental health has adapted to the pandemic. The aim of this analysis was to 1) investigate trajectories of monthly reported depressive symptoms from July 2020 to December 2021 in Switzerland, 2) compare average growth trajectories across regions with different stringency phases, and 3) explore the relative impact of self-reported worries related to health, economic and social domains as well as socio-economic indicators on growth trajectories...

BACKGROUND: Few population-based data sources fully recognise the intersections between stressful events, social health issues, and cannabis use in pregnancy, and little is known about sequelae for women's mental health. METHODS: We draw on two waves of population-based data for 344 families participating in the Aboriginal Families Study longitudinal cohort. We examine women's mental health in the first year postpartum and when children were aged 5-9 years in context with life experiences and use of cannabis in pregnancy...

BACKGROUND: Peripartum depression (PPD) is a major depression disorder (MDD) episode with onset during pregnancy or within four weeks after childbirth, as defined in DSM-5. However, research suggests that PPD may be a distinct diagnosis. The goal of this study was to summarize the similarities and differences between PPD and MDD by synthesizing the current research on PPD diagnosis concerning different clinical features and give directions for improving diagnosis of PPD in clinical practice...

Eating Disorders (ED) are characterized by low remission rates, treatment drop-out, and residual symptoms. To improve assessment and treatment of ED, the staging approach has been proposed. This systematic scoping review is aimed at mapping the existing staging models that explicitly propose stages of the progression of ED. A systematic search of PubMed, PsycINFO, Scopus was conducted with the terms staging, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorders, eating disorders. Eleven studies met inclusion criteria presenting nine ED staging models, mostly for anorexia nervosa...

BACKGROUND: Examination of proverb comprehension has a long tradition in clinical diagnostics of individuals with schizophrenia (iSCZ). Deficits in the comprehension are considered common. Interpretations of proverbs are traditionally measured by their degree of abstraction and concreteness ('literalness'), but iSCZ's responses may also be illogical or 'bizarre'. Experimental research on proverb comprehension starts in the 1940s. Since then, the specificity of proverb tests has often been questioned, but has never been the subject of a meta-analysis...

OBJECTIVE: Stress is a known risk factor for numerous psychopathologies, whereas evidence is lacking regarding the specific consequences of stress on the neural basis of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). A systematic literature review was thus conducted to clarify the role of stress in the association between the resulting alterations of brain structure, connectivity, and function in ADHD. METHODS: The study was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and the protocol was registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) under identifier CRD42023379809...

BACKGROUND: Evidence-based psychological interventions exist for individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), but many individuals with OCD are unable to access them because of barriers, such as geographical isolation, treatment cost, and stigma etc. Unguided self-help psychological intervention has emerged as a potential solution to this problem. However, there is limited research on its overall effectiveness. This study aimed to address this gap. METHODS: Comprehensive searches from inception to 1st Jan 2023 were conducted in both international (PubMed, Embase, PsycINFO, International clinical trials registry platform of WHO) and Chinese (China National Knowledge Infrastructure, WeiPu, WanFang, Chinese Clinical Trial Registry) databases...

AIMS: The present study investigated the potential links between Internet Use Disorder tendencies, well-being and the impact of COVID-19 on Internet usage patterns. METHOD: A sample of 2498 participants filled out the Compulsive Internet Use Scale (CIUS), the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS; the cognitive facet of well-being) and the Sofalizing Scale which comprises the Online Displacement and Social Compensation dimensions. Participants were also asked to report the extent to which changes in Internet use occurred due to COVID-19 pandemic (i...

BACKGROUND: Negative symptoms (NS) represent a detrimental symptomatic domain in schizophrenia affecting social and occupational outcomes. AIMS: We aimed to identify factors from the baseline visit (V1) - with a mean illness duration of 0.47 years (SD = 0.45) - that predict the magnitude of NS at the follow-up visit (V3), occurring 4.4 years later (mean +/- 0.45). METHOD: Using longitudinal data from 77 first-episode schizophrenia spectrum patients, we analysed eight predictors of NS severity at V3: (1) the age at disease onset, (2) age at V1, (3) sex, (4) diagnosis, (5) NS severity at V1, (6) the dose of antipsychotic medication at V3, (7) hospitalisation days before V1 and; (8) the duration of untreated psychosis /DUP/)...

BACKGROUND: Previous studies suggested social anxiety as an essential risk factor for problematic smartphone use, but the complex interactions and the most influential components affecting this relationship remain unclear. This study capitalizes on network analysis to identify the central factors and possible mediating paths among social anxiety, loneliness, five types of motivation, and problematic smartphone use. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Employing 549 emerging adults, we obtained a stable network of the above variables...

PURPOSE: Impulsivity is a common cognitive issue across several psychiatric illnesses but is most frequently associated with the DSM-5 Disruptive, Impulse Control and Conduct Disorders, ADHD, and addictive disorders. We hypothesized that a wide range of psychiatric disorders would be associated with elevated impulsivity, not just those commonly linked to impulsiveness. This study aimed to explore the relationship between impulsivity and various psychiatric disorders in young adults. PROCEDURES: 700 non-treatment seeking participants (aged 18-29 years) were enrolled from the general community, provided demographic information, and underwent a psychiatric evaluation to screen for various psychiatric disorders...

BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESIS: The negative symptoms of schizophrenia are strong prognostic factors but remain poorly understood and treated. Five negative symptom domains are frequently clustered into the motivation and pleasure (MAP) and emotional expression (EE) 'dimensions', but whether this structure remains stable and behaves as a single entity or not remains unclear. STUDY DESIGN: We examined a cohort of 153 patients taking clozapine for treatment-resistant schizophrenia in a regional mental health clinic...

BACKGROUND: The heterogeneity of gambling disorder (GD) has led to the identification of different subtypes, mostly including phenotypic features, with distinctive implications on the GD severity and treatment outcome. However, clustering analyses based on potential endophenotypic features, such as neuropsychological and neuroendocrine factors, are scarce so far. AIMS: This study firstly aimed to identify empirical clusters in individuals with GD based on sociodemographic (i...