Burnout among physicians account for an increase in long-time sick leave. Prevention of this burnout necessitates identification of predictors related to the individual and to the job.

Prospective mailed survey of a nationwide cohort of all the physicians that graduated in Norway 1993/94 (N=631). Approached in their graduating semester (T1), at the end of internship (T2), four years later during postgraduate training (T3) and in established jobs in their 10th postgraduate year (T4). 262 (42%) responded at all four occasions. Personality was assessed at T1 and T2; contextual variables were assessed at T2, T3 and T4. The burnout dimension of emotional exhaustion was measured at T4.

Both individual factors (age, gender, personality), stress (perceived medical school stress at T1, emotional pressure at T3, work-home interface stress at T3) and contextual factors (working hours) were examined as contributors to the variance in burnout. There were no gender differences in burnout and no differences between house officers and other physicians. Further results will be presented at the conference.

To describe physicians' observations and perceptions of patients with schizophrenia and to obtain information about antipsychotic prescribing practices.

Psychiatrists in the United States and five European countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom) who prescribed antipsychotics for ≥15 patients with schizophrenia within the preceding 3 months provided data on their patients' demographic and clinical characteristics and their antipsychotic prescribing practices and drug attributes influencing treatment choice.

Data were collected from 872 physicians on 6523 patients (85% European, 15% US). Most patients were aged 25–44 years, 63% were men, and 66% were outpatients. About 50% of patients were moderately to grossly dysfunctional; about 50% were unemployed; 34% and 75% were taking conventional or atypical antipsychotics, respectively. Frequently identified positive symptoms included delusions (73%), disordered thought (59%), and hallucinations (59%); common negative symptoms included social withdrawal (54%), impoverished thought (39%), and blunted affect (38%). Reasons for antipsychotic selection included efficacy for positive (90%) or negative symptoms (62%) and tolerability (47%). Inadequate control was reported more frequently for negative (71–77%) than positive (47–60%) symptoms. Adverse events included sedation, weight gain, and extrapyramidal symptoms.

In this large, multinational, cross-sectional survey, physicians reported that positive symptoms were more common than negative symptoms. Treatment for positive symptoms was more successful than that for negative symptoms, with physicians considering treatment inadequate for >70% of patients with negative symptoms.

The aim of the present study was to investigate possible sex differences in the recognition of facial expressions of emotion and to investigate the pattern of classification errors in schizophrenic males and females. Such an approach provides an opportunity to inspect the degree to which males and females differ in perceiving and interpreting the different emotions displayed to them and to analyze which emotions are most susceptible to recognition errors.

Fifty six chronically hospitalized schizophrenic patients (38 men and 18 women) completed the Penn Emotion Recognition Test (ER40), a computerized emotion discrimination test presenting 40 color photographs of evoked happy, sad, anger, fear expressions and neutral expressions balanced for poser gender and ethnicity.

We found a significant sex difference in the patterns of error rates in the Penn Emotion Recognition Test. Neutral faces were more commonly mistaken as angry in schizophrenic men, whereas schizophrenic women misinterpreted neutral faces more frequently as sad. Moreover, female faces were better recognized overall, but fear was better recognized in same gender photographs, whereas anger was better recognized in different gender photographs.

The findings of the present study lend support to the notion that sex differences in aggressive behavior could be related to a cognitive style characterized by hostile attributions to neutral faces in schizophrenic men.

Studies document that doctors have more mental distress, as depression and suicidal ideation, than comparable groups, and are reluctant to seek professional help. Prevention is therefore important, but there is little documentation of long-term effects from actual intervention programs. This study investigates whether a self-referral, councelling program reaches doctors in need of help, and whether changes in help-seeking and in levels of distress can be found at one-year follow-up.

Of doctors coming to the councelling centre Villa Sana, 227 (94%) of 242, consented to participate in a prospective study. 184 doctors (81% of 227) responded at one-year follow-up. Self-reporting questionnaires covering mental distress, job distress and burn-out were used. Results are compared with those from a national survey of Norwegian doctors.

Relatively more women and GPs were represented in the Villa Sana sample than among Norwegian doctors. The Villa Sana-doctors had significantly higher levels of distress as measured by Symptom Check List 5, the dimension of emotional exhaustion on Maslach's Burnout Index, job-stress on Cooper's Job Stress Questionnaire and having had serious suicidal thoughts with plans (Paykel) compared with Norwegian doctors. At one-year follow-up, the Sana doctors had significantly lower levels on the distress parameters than at base-line. Significantly more doctors had sought psycho-therapy after the councelling intervention than at base-line.

This program reaches doctors with high levels of distress, and at one-year follow-up they showed lower levels of distress and a higher proportion who had sought psycho-therapy than at base-line.

The study evaluates the association of body mass index (BMI) with functioning in male and female patients with long-term schizophrenia.

722 long-term schizophrenia patients were interviewed three years after discharge from hospital. Their weight and height were recorded and data on their background, illness history, psychosocial functioning (Global Assessment Scale; GAS), health behaviour, daily doses of neuroleptics, and psychiatric symptoms were collected.

BMI correlated significantly with GAS scores in male (r = 0.202, p = 0.000) but not in female patients. In male patients, BMI associated significantly (p = 0.005) with GAS scores even when the effects of psychiatric symptoms and other confounding variables were taken into account.

In male but not in female long-term patients with schizophrenia, low BMI associates with poor functioning. It is suggested that among male schizophrenia patients, low BMI may be an indicator of poor functioning.

Using the data of a positive d.b.c.t. comparing an hypericum extract (W55570) to placebo in depressed patients we explored whether the Ham D6 was unidimentional and in case of a positive answer whether the total score was as sensitive as the total score of the Ham D17.

The study was a 6 weeks double blind placebo controlled trial comparing 300 mg of hypericum t.i.d (n = 186), to placebo (n = 189), in patients with a single or recurrent depression according to DSM-IV. Superiority of hypericum versus placebo on the main outcome criterion (HDRS 17) was already published.

The unidimensionality of the Hamilton depression scale 6 and 17 items were tested using a Mokken scale analysis. The effect size according to the initial severity of depression was calculated on the ITT last observation carried forward population.

The Ham D6, covering the core symptoms of depression was unidimensional, implying that improving this score reflects a true antidepressant effect. The Ham D17 was not unidimensional.

Hypericum was an effective antidepressant in patients with a pre-treatment score of 12 or more (n = 208) on the Ham D6, the effect size was 0.46. No difference with placebo was observed for those with a score of less than 12 (n = 167).

For the evaluation of an antidepressant effect, because of its specificity and sensitivity, the Ham D6 should be used as a primary outcome measure rather than the Ham D17.

The EQ-5D is a generic questionnaire generating a health profile and a single index score for health-related quality of life. This study aimed to analyse the discriminative ability and validity of the EQ-5D in patients with schizophrenic, schizotypal or delusional disorders.

One hundred sixty-six patients with schizophrenic, schizotypal or delusional disorders (ICD-10 F2) completed the EQ-5D. Measures of quality of life (WHOQOL-BREF), utility (TTO), subjective (SCL-90R) and objective (PANSS, CGI-S) psychopathology, and functioning (GAF, GARF, SOFAS, HoNOS) provided comparison. Discriminative ability was analysed by assessing frequency distributions of EQ-5D scores. Validity of the EQ-5D self-classifier was analysed by assessing differences in related other scores grouped by response levels of EQ-5D items. Validity of the visual analogue scale (EQ VAS) and the EQ-5D index (UK social tariff) was analysed by assessing their correlation with all other scores.

Seventy-nine percent of respondents reported problems in at least one of the EQ-5D dimensions (anxiety/depression 57%, usual activities 45%, pain/discomfort 44%, self-care 29%, mobility 22%). The mean EQ VAS score/EQ-5D index was 65.7/0.71. The four most frequently reported EQ-5D health states covered 45% of all respondents. For almost all EQ-5D dimensions, different response levels were associated with significantly different scores of measures used for comparison. Correlation of EQ VAS score and EQ-5D index were largest with scores of subjective measures (SCL-90R: −0.50 and −0.73; WHOQOL mental subscore 0.62 and 0.58; always P < 0.001).

The EQ-5D showed a moderate ceiling effect and seems to be reasonably valid in this patient group.

Decision-making impairment is an important feature of psychiatric disorders. in a large comorbid psychiatric population, we explored the link between decision-making deficit and clinical variables.

We used the Iowa Gambling Task to measure decision-making in 317 patients. Psychiatric diagnoses were made according to the DSM-IV criteria. Self-questionnaires were used to assess several personality traits. The last and most severe suicidal acts were characterized.

(1) After controlling for age and medication intake, a past history of suicide attempt (OR = 2.0 [1.1–3.8]) and normothymic bipolar disorders (OR = 3.4 [1.1–10.5]) were significantly and independently associated with impaired decision-making. (2) Decision-making performance was significantly correlated with affective lability. (3) No association was found between decision-making skills and suicidal characteristics.

A lack of statistical power may have masked associations with obsessive-compulsive disorder and anorexia nervosa. We did not control for other cognitive functions except attention.

This study supports the independent association of decision-making impairment with vulnerability to suicidal behaviour but not with substance abuse. Normothymic bipolar disorders, but not unipolar disorders, were also linked to low performance. At the dimensional level, impulsivity and decision-making abilities may be distinct processes. Affective regulation skills appear to be a major influence on decision-making performance and following a relevant therapeutic target.

To test the reliability and validity of the DIGS in Spanish population.

Inter-rater and test-retest reliability of the Spanish version of DIGS was tested in 95 inpatients and outpatients. The resultant diagnoses were compared with diagnoses obtained by the LEAD (Longitudinal Expert All Data) procedure as “gold standard”. The kappa statistic was used to measure concordance between blind inter-raters and between the diagnoses obtained by LEAD procedure and through the DIGS.

Overall kappa coefficient for inter-rater reliability was 0.956. The kappa value for individual diagnosis varied from major depression = 0.877 to schizophrenia = 1. Test-retest reliability was 0.926. Kappa for all individual target diagnoses ranged from 0.776 (major depression) to 1. Kappa between LEAD procedure and DIGS ranged from 0.704 (major depression) to 0.825 (bipolar I disorder).

Most of the DSM-IV major psychiatric disorders can be assessed with acceptable to excellent reliability with the Spanish version of the DIGS interview. The Spanish version of DIGS showed an acceptable to excellent concurrent validity. Giving the good reliability and validity of Spanish version of DIGS it should be considered to identify psychiatric phenotypes for genetics studies.

The family history is a widely used method in psychiatry; but data on the method's objectivity, reliability and validity shows partly diverging results.

In October 2005, a Medline search was conducted that yielded 7 studies regarding objectivity/reliability and 13 studies regarding validity. Results for six main groups of psychiatric diagnoses and any mental disorder were combined qualitatively for objectivity/reliability, and quantitatively for validity.

Objectivity was generally high (κ in the 0.80 range). Reliability was high for any mental disorder, schizophrenia, substance abuse and depression (κ in the 0.70 range), and low or medium for anxiety (κ between 0.30 and 0.50). Results on validity displayed an OR = 148 for the family history for schizophrenia; OR = 64 for mania/bipolar disorder; and OR's between 8 and 194 for substance abuse, between 3 and 37 for depression, between 5 and 350 for personality disorders, between 2.5 and 49 for anxiety, and between 2.4 and 9 for any mental disorder.

There is clear evidence that the family history provides results that are better than chance for all disorders examined. But variance among diagnostic groups and among studies is considerable.

Previous studies have suggested altered structural and functional asymmetry of the brain in schizophrenia.

Functional MRI was used to assess differences in cortical activation during a verbal task in Broca's area and its contralateral homologue in four pairs of right-handed monozygotic (MZ) twins discordant and concordant for schizophrenia with low and high familial loading for the illness and four healthy control MZ twin pairs.

Pooled data from all subjects with schizophrenia showed increased activation in the right homologue of Broca's area in contrast to healthy individuals. Concordant twins (i.e. high familial loading group) showed prominent between co-twin differences in lateralization index within given region of interest. Intra-pair differences in lateralization index were significantly higher in concordant twins compared to the controls (0.69 ± 0.4 vs. 0.13 ± 0.13, P < 0.03), albeit no significant differences in the variable were shown between the discordant and control groups.

This study provides evidence of reduced cerebral dominance for language processing in patients with schizophrenia. The findings further suggest the need for additional research on relative proportion of genetic and environmental factors underlying deviations of functional asymmetry in schizophrenia.

The neurodevelopmental model of schizophrenia includes the etiological impact of fetal brain stressors possibly connected with birth seasonality. Specification of social class of origin (SES) as a related risk factor remains unexamined as does type of schizophrenia as an outcome variable. The objective of this study was to test for an interconnection between SES, type of schizophrenia and seasonality of birth.

Patients (N = 436) from a United States psychiatric hospital were separated into deficit/nondeficit presentation and bifurcated into poor/nonpoor SES. Birth seasonality was assessed by months hypothetically connected with winter-related trimesters of gestation.

Results showed that there is a significant difference (p = 0.0411) in the monthly birth patterns of poor vs. nonpoor patients and that the difference connects with the likelihood of deficit vs. nondeficit schizophrenia. Specifically, an elevated proportion of patients with deficit schizophrenia were born to impoverished women who likely conceived in January. Findings were confirmed by multiple levels of statistical assessment including log linear analysis.

The resultant model suggests the environmental location (lower SES) and timing (winter conception) of adult schizophrenia with poor outcome (deficit).

Data related to brain function may have the potential to improve the reliability and validity of assessments for the aetiologically and clinically heterogeneous syndrome of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This study investigated associations between questionnaire assessments of behavioural features of adults with ADHD and an aspect of neurocognitive performance which has been reported to be impaired in adults with ADHD.

Fifty-nine adult patients with a DSM-IV diagnosis of ADHD, and their informants, completed questionnaires related to aspects of severity of ADHD. Associations were examined between questionnaire ratings and performance on a computer-administered task of spatial working memory (SWM).

Correlations between ratings of ADHD and SWM indicated moderate but significant correlations for patients' ratings, but not for informants' ratings. Also, patients who reported a past history of ‘self-harm’ (N = 33) had a significantly worse mean performance on both measures of SWM (p = 0.004, 0.003).

The results indicate that aspects of impulsivity, i.e. self-ratings of ‘emotive’ behaviour (involving rapid response to stimuli and marked reactivity of mood) and of past ‘self-harm’, show relatively strong associations with SWM performance in adults selected on the basis of an ADHD diagnosis. A profile of neurocognitive performances may have a role in the assessment of ADHD.

Work in psychiatry can be strenuous – both in terms of caseload and the kind of work. Health care reforms have increased the pressure even further, amplifying the risk of burnout. Burnout research has been criticized for neglecting the perspective of those potentially at risk. This qualitative study seeks to throw light on the burnout literacy of mental health professionals and its implication on their help-seeking behaviour. It further seeks to identify the relevant mechanisms in transforming health literacy into action.

Focus groups were carried out with mental health providers (n=215) from different settings (in-patient/community-based), as well as professional groups. They addressed participants’ job strain and job-related resources, as well as their definition of what constitutes burnout, and what should be done about it. Group sessions were audio-taped, transcribed, and analysed by means of a qualitative procedure.

Mental health professionals are well-informed about burnout. They perceive burnout as a multidimensional syndrome that affects professionals’ mental and physical health, job motivation, job performance as well as their relationship with their clients, and propose multiple intervention strategies. However, two major obstacles are described in translating their knowledge into practice: burnout (1) goes undetected for a long time and (2) has a stigma attached to it.

While mental health professionals’ burnout literacy is high, the social perception of burnout poses a serious barrier to early detection and treatment. Burnout prevention strategies should become an integral part of continuous medical education to ensure that mental health professionals can work effectively.