Solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT) is a strength-based and a social constructivist approach that assumes that individuals have the ability to develop creative solutions that enhance their lives to develop a new self, modify worldviews, and implement behaviour changes.

To develop a quantitative research to determine which clinical variables and process variables are measured using the technique of judges and determine its statistical association with the outcome at termination of therapy and follow-up, using the videos of SFBT psychotherapy sessions, and a follow-up call.

To identify variables associated with outcome at termination and follow-up and to evaluate the success applying SFBT.

Sample was composed by 74 cases.

A telephone number available to make the follow follow-up call and at least 6 months since termination (6 months to 39 months, mean 15.6 months). Three questionnaire were used, The First-Session Rating Questionnaire, The Last-Session Ration Questionnaire and The Follow-up Questionnaire.

Goals were reached 88% of the cases, patients said that complaint was totally resolved were 17% and 26% when the dropouts were excluded, and that complaint was partially resolved were 76% and 65% when the dropouts were excluded. According to the judges, the successful at termination was the 86%, and the successful at follow-up was 67% according to the Follow-Up Questionnaire. No variables were statistically associated to the successful at termination or the follow-up.

SFBT reaches the “minimum efficacy permitted” according to the general consensus of experts. Clinical of process variables was not associated to success.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) has emerged as an integrative new approach with promising results in the treatment of personality-disordered patients, particularly in borderline personality disorder. Although this approach has already demonstrated its effectiveness in adults, increasingly studies try to validate it in young population, which has meant a turning point in research.

The goal of this study is to know the whole production about CAT in a double way:

–articles that describes the main theoretical concepts underlying CAT theory;

–articles with evidence supporting its effectiveness in different mental disorders.

A bibliometric review of 397 scientific articles extracted from research databases including Dialnet, EBSCO, PUBMED, Unika and Scholar Google was conducted.

The results indicate an exponential growth in published studies on CAT, from first publications in the late 1960s, particularly strong in the last two decades and reaching its peak in 2008. Total research includes 247 literature reviews, 109 clinical studies, 47 case studies, 17 letters and comments from authors, 4 studies on diagnostic tests and 1 meta-analysis. Most research has focused on borderline personality disorder or other personality disorders (35% and 12% respectively) and eating disorders (11%). Studies have been conducted with adults (49%) the same as children and adolescents (46%) whereas only the 4% has been developed for elderly population.

Cognitive analytic therapy represents a well-documented psychotherapy with a proven efficacy in a wide range of clinical contexts.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Acceptance and commitment therapy for the treatment of panic disorder and agoraphobia has been a big boost in last years, and there are preliminary studies about its efficacy. However, most studies have used individual interventions.

Evaluate the effect of an acceptance and commitment group therapy in patients with panic disorder and agoraphobia.

The sample consisted of 24 patients, aged between 18 and 55 years old, who were referred to groups by psychologists and psychiatrists of Mental Health Center. The intervention in each group consisted of 12 treatment sessions of 1 h 30 m duration, weekly. One pretest and posttest evaluation was conducted. The variables studied were: severity of panic disorder (Panic Disorder Severity Scale [PDSS]), fear of physical sensations (Body Sensations Questionnaire [BSQ]), frequency of catastrophic thoughts (Agoraphobic Cognitions Questionnaire [ACQ]) and level of experiential avoidance (Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II [AAQ-II]).

The mean scores for all variables studied decreased in the post-evaluation. Means in post-evaluation were significantly lower (t Student, a = 0.10) in three of the four variables studied: severity of the condition (P = 0.001), frequency of catastrophic thoughts (P = 0.038) and level experiential avoidance (P = 0.073). In other words, patients had fewer panic attacks after treatment, and those who had were less intense, they had less catastrophic thoughts about consequences of anxiety, and they were better to accept their feelings and thoughts.

Although it is necessary to continue the study with a larger sample, these preliminary results support the use of ACT in group format in the treatment of panic disorder and agoraphobia.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Most current psychotherapeutic approaches are self-focused in terms of focusing attention on how one thinks, feels, behaves or maintains, in one way or another, a pathological chain reactions. The aim of current is to challenge such focus by shifting the focus of attention to serving others rather than analyzing one's self.

Sixty patients were recruited after heroin detoxification, all have been subject to psycho-education about addictive behavior, craving process and risks of relapse. Half of them (group A; n = 30) were subject to weekly basis classical CBT group sessions while the other half (group B; n = 30) were subject to shifting focus approach where they were encouraged to serve on voluntary nonprofit basis at Alexandria university hospitals with weekly group support sessions to share experiences and encourage action. Patients in both arms were followed for 3 months and evaluated in terms of abstinence rate and quality of life.

Both groups were balanced in terms of age, marital status, age of onset of abuse, number of previous detoxification, criminal record and score of the Quality of Life Scale QLS at base line before psychotherapy. After 3 months, no difference as regards abstinence rate between both arms (X2 = 1.763; P = 0.288), also no difference between both groups as regards change in QLS score after 3 months (t = 0.039; P = 0.969).

Shifting focus approach shows no difference in terms of abstinence or quality of life improvement compared to classical CBT in non inferiority study.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

It is well known that students have several stressful situations to cope with and their coping strategies are of a wide range (Brougham et al., 2009, Zi et al., 2011, Pierceall and Cane, 2009).

The purpose of the study was to investigate how students coped with various stressful situations they faced.

One hundred participants, 60 men and 40 women, studying at TEI of Patras, Greece, were randomly selected and asked to describe their stressful situations and the ways they dealt with them.

The questionnaire used was based on “Échelle Toulousaine de Coping” (Tap et al., 1993) adjusted by Theodoratou et al. (2006).

Forty-five percent of the students could not control their feelings, while facing a difficult situation and might feel panic, but the majority of the students (63%) did not use medication to cope with a difficult situation. When facing a problem, the 45% of the students did not amuse themselves and 35% of the participants avoided communication with other people when they faced a problem. Moreover, 29% of the students chose to pray to face a difficult situation. Finally, 58% of the participants estimated that a counseling center in TEI of Western Greece would be necessary.

In conclusion, many students were overwhelmed by a negative emotion and most of them chose social withdrawal. Thus, they might feel helpless and suggested that a counseling center in their College and university might help them to overcome difficulties during their studies.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The number of psychiatrists continues to grow in Canada. Patient psychiatry utilization statistics, including reasons for termination of such services, are important factors that have the potential to impact future Canadian and international psychiatry service policies and practices. In addition, understanding the reasons for psychiatry service termination is necessary to improve service quality and effectiveness.

This study focused on utilization trends, perceived effectiveness of psychiatry services, and reasons for termination of psychiatry services in Canada.

Prevalence of psychiatry service use, perceived effectiveness, and reasons for termination of such services were investigated in a Canadian sample (n = 25,113). Prevalence rates were investigated by geography, sex, and age. Data were self-reported and collected through a national Canadian phone survey focused on mental and physical health.

Results highlight that a small percentage of participants reported utilizing psychiatry services. The majority of participants using such services perceived them as useful. Across geographical regions, reasons for discontinuing services were most often related to completing treatment, feeling better, or not seeing the treatment as helpful.

This study explored psychiatry utilization trends, perceived psychiatry effectiveness, and reasons for patient termination of such services. Results are explored through a geographical region breakdown, sex differences, and age stratification. Implications for policy, practice, and training are discussed from a Canadian and international perspective.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Non-adherence to antipsychotic medication is commonly found in mental health disorders (MHD), thus forming a major obstacle to long-term maintenance treatment and contributing to high relapse rates and also can influence the attitudes and beliefs of mental health professionals (MHP).

–assess the beliefs of MHP;

–assess perception of illness in patients with MHD.

Contribute to treatment adherence of patients with MHD, through developing adequate strategies to their needs.

In this cross-sectional study, we use a convenience sample of patients with MHD attending in the mental health departments of three general hospitals in Lisbon great area. Data is being collected through individual interviews. We have applied clinical and socio-demographic questionnaire and additional measures to assess symptom severity, treatment adherence and attitudes towards medication. For MHP, we used a optimism scale (ETOS), Difficulty Implementing Adherence Strategies (DIAS); Medication Alliance Beliefs Questionnaire (MABQ).

Two convenience samples were composed by 150 patients with MHD (mean age: 39.7; SD ± 9.8) and 65 MHP (mean age: 37.0; sd 8.3) working in a variety of settings is being collected. From the perspective of patients, the most important reason for adherence is to accept the illness (54,7%, n = 82). 50.8% (n = 33) of MHP believes that if patients are unmotivated for treatment, adherence strategies are unlikely to be effective. 43.1 (n = 28) of MHP agrees that if patients do not accept their illness, any adherence strategies that result.

With this study, we expect to gain further knowledge on the factors related patients and MHP that might influence compliance and, therefore, contribute to the development of effective strategies to promote treatment adherence in MHD.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Elderly institutionalization involves an emotional adaptation and the research shows that the risk of depression increases.

Evaluate the impact of a neuropsychological group rehabilitation program (NGRP) on depressive symptomatology of institutionalized elderly.

NGRP influences the decrease of depressive symptoms.

Elderly were assessed pre- and post-intervention with the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and divided into a Rehabilitated Group (RG), a Waiting List Group (WLG), and a Neutral Task Group (NTG).

In this randomized study, before rehabilitation, 60 elderly people (RG; 80.31 ± 8.98 years of age; 74.2% women) had a mean GDS score of 13.33 (SD = 9.21). Five elderly included in the NTG (80.13 ± 10.84 years; 75.0% women) had a mean GDS score of 10.60 (SD = 4.72). Finally, 29 elderly in the WLG (81.32 ± 6.68 years; 69.0% women) had a mean GDS score of 14.93 (SD = 6.02). The groups were not different in GDS baseline scores (F = 0.74; P = 0.478). ANCOVA has shown significant differences (P < 0.05) in GDS scores between the three groups after 10 weeks. Sidak adjustment for multiple comparisons revealed that elderly in the WLG got worse scores in GDS, comparing with elderly in RG (P < 0.01), and with elderly in NTG (P < 0.05).

Elderly that are not involved in a task get worse in depressive symptomatology. Being involved in a structured group task means lower depressive symptoms and being in a NGRP means even greater results.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Cognitive deficits are a core feature of the first psychotic episode patients and could be an obstacle to functional ability. Cognitive stimulation could be a promising method to surpass neuropsychological deficits.

–to implement an online training protocol to stable first psychotic episode outpatients;

–to assess adherence to the intervention;

–to measure neurocognitive, psychopathological and functional outcomes pre- and post-training.

To investigate the feasibility of an online-based resource for cognitive stimulation (COGWEB®) and explore possible benefits in different domains.

Fifteen patients were enrolled from the Early Psychosis Intervention Program (PROFIP) at the Department of Psychiatry of Santa Maria Hospital, Lisbon. The training consisted on 30-40-minute online sessions performed every weekday during 6 months at home. Assessments were performed at baseline and after program completion and included: psychopathological scores; personal and social functioning scores; Clinical Global Impression and a neuropsychological battery.

Every participant had some kind of impairment on baseline. Mean training time was 36 h. Six patients left the program before completion (half of them because they got employed). The program showed overall good feasibility and safety with no reported significant psychiatric occurrences or hospitalizations. Results regarding final neuropsychological, psychopathological and functioning showed a tendency for stability or improvement on an individual case analysis.

Our results show that cognitive training using an online-based stimulation software is a feasible intervention for first-episode psychosis patients with possible benefits for this population. However, results should be analyzed very carefully because of different participant trajectories and of study limitations.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Obesity is an increasingly common chronic disease. Its biopsychosocial basis provides the rationale of multidisciplinary interventions, such as Therapeutic Patient Education (TPE, WHO 1998), which is effective for lifestyle change and awareness improvement, thus reducing the disease's prevalence and its health care-related financial burden. However, patients’ socio-demographic and psychopathological factors may influence TPE's effectiveness.

We aimed to assess the effectiveness of an 8-week TPE program in obese patients candidates for bariatric surgery and identify factors predicting its success.

We enrolled 159 patients with a BMI > 35 Kg/m2 and obesity-related comorbidities (females = 71.3%; age range = 18-35 years) at the C.A.S.C.O. (EASO COMs) of our University Hospital. They filled out the Binge Eating Scale (BES), the Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R), and the Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36). We used Tukey's multiple comparison test to assess Quality of Life (QoL) improvement after TPE and multivariate logistic regression to estimate the size of the association between TPE and the aforementioned factors.

The SF-36 showed a significant improvement (P < 0.05) of physical and mental QoL post-TPE, especially in obese patients without binge eating disorder. The same applied to BES and SCL-90-R scores. The factors predicting TPE success were a short duration of obesity, a limited number of past diets, and low levels of anxiety/depression pre-TPE.

In obese patients candidates for bariatric surgery, TPE is useful to improve physical and mental QoL, eating behavior, and psychological status. Several factors are predictive of TPE success, allowing a personalization of the intervention to render it more effective.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The Family Assessment Device (FAD) is a self-report questionnaire, developed to assess the six dimensions of the McMaster Model of family functioning. It has been translated to the Greek language but never validated.

To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Greek version of FAD in a non-clinical sample.

In a sample of Greek families, FAD was administered together with the already validated Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale (FACES-III). In a subsample of 96 participants, the scales were administered again after 1 month.

A sample of 453 participants (194 children and 259 parents) had completed both questionnaires (151 families). Mean age of children was 23.62 (SD: 6.35), 68 (35%) were males. Mean age of parents was 51.4 (SD: 8.2), 117 (45.2%) males. All subscales of FAD had significant correlation (concurrent validity) with FACES-III (n = 453, P < 0.001). Test-retest reliability range from 0.58 to 0.82 (n = 96, P < 0.001). Internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) range from 0.47 to 0.94. A model with the 6 factors had a good statistical fit but not all the items were loading in the same components as from the theory assumed.

The Greek FAD has good psychometric properties, although its factor structure might differ from the original version. Further evaluation of the Greek version of FAD in other settings and in different samples especially clinical remains a task for future research.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The Bipolar Depression Rating Scale (BDRS) is a scale for assessment of the clinical characteristics of bipolar depression. The primary aims of this study were to describe the development of the Korean version of the BDRS (K-BDRS) and to establish more firmly its psychometric properties in terms of reliability and validity.

The study included 141 patients (62 male and 79 female) who had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, were currently experiencing symptoms of depression, and were interviewed using the K-BDRS. Other measures included the Montgomery and Asberg Depression Scale (MADRS), the 17-item Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD), and the Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS). Additionally, the internal consistency, concurrent validity, inter-rater reliability, and test-retest reliability of the K-BDRS were evaluated.

The Cronbach's α-coefficient for the K-BDRS was 0.866, the K-BDRS exhibited strong correlations with the HAMD (r = 0.788) and MADRS (r = 0.877), and the mixed symptoms score of the K-BDRS was significantly correlated with the YMRS (r = 0.611). An exploratory factor analysis revealed three factors that corresponded to psychological depressive symptoms, somatic depressive symptoms, and mixed symptoms.

The present findings suggest that the K-BDRS has good psychometric properties and is a valid and reliable tool for assessing depressive symptoms in patients with bipolar disorder.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Both genetic and environmental factors play a role in the extended psychosis phenotype which covers psychotic experiences, symptoms and disorders.

The respective contributions of genetic and environmental factors over time remain largely unknown.

To describe the objectives and design of a multistage study.

The TürkSch (Izmir mental health survey for gene-environment interaction in psychoses) is a prospective-longitudinal study consisted of several data collection stages to screen extended psychosis phenotype in a general population sample, and to assess individual, familial, genetic and neighbourhood level variables.

The study aimed to assess the prevalence of psychotic experiences and symptoms in Izmir-Turkey (stage I, cross-sectional; n: 4011), the socioeconomic deprivation and the social capital of neighbourhoods in a separate sample (stage II, cross-sectional; n: 5124) in 2008. A nested case-control study (stage III) recruited individuals with psychotic outcomes and healthy controls from stage I, and included blood sampling for gene-environment interaction and clinical reappraisal as well. After 6 years, follow-up study (stage IV) was set to assess the mental health outcomes with a focus on extended psychosis phenotype, environmental exposures of the eligiable sample (n: 2192) from the stage I, and to collect blood samples for further genetic analysis. On both stages, Composite International Diagnostic Interview was used by clinically trained interviewers, and was able to provide broad assessment of psychotic experiences, experience-related disabilities, help-seeking and health care utilization.

The TürkSch has a unique study design and yields data of high quality in the Turkish population, with a specific focus on psychosis.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Research into the relationship between the subjective perception of clinical change and the objective evidence of the same is very limited. Less is known about the relationship between clinical judgments by mental health experts and the patient's perception of symptom change, in particular across different diagnostic groups.

This study aims to determine the level of concordance between the HONOS as a tool for clinical outcome monitoring and the self-reported change in psychopathology in a total sample of psychiatric patients as well as stratified by their primary diagnosis at admission.

A consecutive sample of patients admitted to a Swiss psychiatric hospital for either alcohol use disorders, schizophrenic psychoses, mood disorders, anxiety and somatoform disorders, or personality disorders, was assessed using the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) at admission and at discharge. The HoNOS were rated by the responsible clinicians. Complete data of admission and discharge were available from approximately 600 cases. Reliable change index (RCI) will be calculated to determine a clinically meaningful change based on the HoNOS scores. Concordance of RCI and change in BSI scores will be explored and compared between different diagnostic groups.

According to our preliminary results from this ongoing evaluation program, we hope to provide a step towards a deeper understanding of the interrelationship between clinical judgments and the course of subjectively experienced mental health problems.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Narrative studies have focused on the language used by the individuals to describe stressful or traumatic experiences. Hence, linguistic procedures have been applied aiming to obtain information about autobiographical memories and trauma processing. However, there is a general lack of agreement about how to measure narrative aspects. Software programs for this purpose are limited, since they don’t capture the language context, and systems based on judge's rates are not free of subjective biases.

This study presents a coding system developed to analyze several language categories related to traumatic memories and psychological processes. Structural aspects (e.g., coherence) and content dimensions of traumatic narratives (e.g., emotional or cognitive processes) are measured. Each narrative aspect is coded by raters using both dichotomous (presence/absence) and numerical values (Likert scale).

To propose a structured coding system for traumatic narratives that considers the language context and maximizes consensus among different raters.

Traumatic narratives from 50 traumatized women and stressful narratives from 50 non-traumatized women have been evaluated according the system developed. Three blind raters coded each narrative.

Inter-rater reliability data are provided for the different narrative categories. The agreement between raters is discussed for both structural and content language domains.

The analysis of the inter-rater reliability allows exploring subjective biases in assessing different structural and content language dimensions. This study advances in the development of a procedure to analyze autobiographical narratives in a valid and reliable way, with a special focus on traumatic and other unpleasant memories.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Agitation is a psychiatric emergency that requires immediate assistance. Inhaled loxapine is a new option for achieving rapid tranquillisation avoiding coercive measures and over-sedation, which fits with patient's preferences and increases their satisfaction with treatment.

Review the experience of use of inhaled loxapine in clinical practice.

We included data from all reports of case series with 10 or more patients published by European prescribers.

Ten posters were included that reported data on 116 patients, mostly diagnosed with psychotic or bipolar diseases. Among the 60 patients that were evaluated using PANSS-EC, baseline agitation intensity was above 20 in 45 of them (75%) and between 15 and 32 in 15 (25%). Regarding patients evaluated with the CGI-S scale, 17 patients had a score between 6 and 7 points and 4 had scores between 4 and 5. All patients were able to properly inhalate the drug. In some patients agitation receded as early as 2 minutes, and almost all of them were controlled within 10 minutes. Only 6 patients required the 2nd dose of loxapine within 24 hours. When patients were asked for, they showed a preference for inhaled administration instead of intramuscular one, manifested high levels of satisfaction with inhaled treatment, and in one report inhaled loxapine was stated to contribute to avoid mechanical restraint. Inhaled loxapine was well tolerated and no over-sedation was reported or any EPS, just a case of mild orthostatic hypotension.

This pool-data review of inhaled loxapine in real world clinical practice shows that it is an effective treatment, with a very rapid response, easy to administer and well tolerated, with a good acceptance from patients.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

In recent years, researchers and clinicians have shown an increasing interest in self-compassion. Indeed, several studies have suggested that self-compassion is a positive factor for mental and physical health. The Self-Compassion Scale (SCS; Neff, 2003) has been widely used to assess six dimensions of self-compassion (self-kindness, self-judgment, common humanity, isolation, mindfulness and over-identification) among diverse populations. Recently, it has also been used in perinatal samples but its psychometric properties in pregnant women is still unexplored.

This study aims was to investigate the reliability and the validity of the SCS using Confirmatory Factor Analysis in a sample of Portuguese pregnant women.

Participants were 417 pregnant women with a mean age of 33 years old (SD = 4.74) in their second trimester of pregnancy (M = 17.26, SD = 4.78, weeks of gestation). Participants completed the Portuguese version of the SCS while waiting for the routine prenatal consultation in Maternity Hospital, Portugal.

A was tested and results showed that the six-factor model had a good fit to the data (TLI = 0.93, CFI = 0.94, RMSEA = 0.06). The total SCS presented a good internal reliability (α = 0.91) and their subscales showed Cronbach's alphas ranging between adequate (α = 0.77) and good (α = 0.87).

Overall, these findings suggest that the Portuguese version of the SCS is a valid and reliable measure to assess self-compassion among pregnant women. Thus, SCS could be useful in diverse settings in the perinatal period.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Failures in regret anticipation undermine regret avoidance, increasing regret frequency and ultimately the risk of regret-related problems. The Regret Anticipation Failures Scale (RAFS; Schmidt and Linden, 2011) was developed to evaluate interindividual differences in regret anticipation.

To investigate the psychometric properties of the RAFS Portuguese version.

A community sample composed of 108 university students and 79 employees (78.1% females; mean age = 33.16 ± 13.175; range: 17–62) answered the Portuguese preliminary version of the RAFS. To study the temporal stability, 31 participants (83.9% females; mean age = 26.54 ± 18.761) answered the RAFS again after approximately 6 weeks.

The RAFS Cronbach alpha was “very good” (a = 0.81). All the items presented significant correlations with the total (excluding the item; > 0.20); only item 2 (Even when I’m stressed, I can foresee the regrets that certain behaviors could evoke in me) had the effect of lowering the internal consistency if deleted. The test-retest correlation coefficient was high, positive and significant (0.61; P < 0.001); there was not significant difference between test and re-test scores [14.26 ± 5.170 vs. 13.06 ± 4.761, t (30) = 1.532, P = 0.136]. Following Kaiser and Cattel Scree Plot criteria, only one factor was extracted, meaning that the scale is unidimensional.

The Portuguese version of RAFS has good reliability and construct validity. It could be very useful both in clinical and research contexts, namely in an ongoing project on the relationship between regret, personality and psychological distress.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The Depressive Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21; Antony et al., 1998) had been widely used to measure psychological distress among clinical and non-clinical populations, including in Portugal (Pais-Ribeiro et al., 2004). Although DASS-21 has been considered useful to evaluate psychological distress in the perinatal period, studies reporting on its psychometrics are scarce (Brunton et al., 2015).

To investigate the psychometric properties of the DASS-21 in a Portuguese sample of pregnant women.

Four hundred and twenty-seven pregnant women (mean age: 32.56 ± 4.785 years) in their second trimester of pregnancy (17.34 ± 4.790 weeks of gestation) completed the Portuguese versions of DASS-21 and of Postpartum Depression Screening Scale (PDSS-24; Pereira et al., 2013).

The DASS-21 Cronbach's alpha was “very good” (a = 0.92). Following the Kaiser and the Cattel Scree Plot criteria, two factorial structures were explored. Three factors structure (explained variance/EV = 57.18%): F1-stress (included 8 items; α = 0.89); F2-Anxiety (7 items; α = 0.79); F3-Depression (6 items; α = 0.82). In the two factors structure (EV = 50.96), the Stress and Anxiety items load in the same factor (F1: 15 items; α = 0.91) and the F2 is composed of the Depression items (F2: 6 items; α = 0.82). Pearson correlations between DASS-21 total and dimensional scores and the PDSS-24 scores were all significant, positive and moderate to high (@.50).

The Portuguese version of DASS-21 has good reliability, construct and concurrent validity when used with pregnant women. Its factorial structure significantly overlaps with the original, with only one item loading in another factor. DASS-21 could be very useful in diverse settings in the perinatal period.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Regret is defined as an aversive negative emotion associated to specific cognitive contents, felt when we consider that our current situation could be better, if we had taken a different decision (Zeelenberg and Pieters 1997). Regret Scale/RS corresponds to the regret-trait dimension of Regret and Maximization Scale developed by Schwartz et al. (2002).

To investigate the psychometric properties of the RS Portuguese version.

A community sample composed of 108 university students and 79 employees (78.1% females; mean age = 33.16 ± 13.175; range: 17-62) answered the Portuguese preliminary versions of the RS and Bedtime Counterfactual Processing Questionnaire (BCPQ) and also the Profile of Mood States to evaluate Negative Affect/NA. To study the temporal stability, 31 participants (83.9% females; mean age = 26.54 ± 18.761) answered the RAFS again after 6 weeks.

The EA Cronbach alpha was “very good” (a = 0.72). All the items contributed to the internal consistency. The test-retest correlation coefficient was high, positive and significant (0.72; P < 0.001). Following Kaiser and Cattel Scree Plot criteria, only one factor was extracted, meaning that the scale is unidimensional. Pearson correlations of EA and BCPQ2 and NA were significant and high (r@.50).

The Portuguese version of RS has good reliability and validity. It could be very useful both in clinical and research contexts, namely in an ongoing project on the relationship between regret, personality and psychological distress.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.