Cognitive impairment has been well documented in bipolar disorder. However, specific aspects of cognition such as emotional memory have not been examined.

To investigate episodic emotional memory in bipolar disorder, as indicated by performance on an amygdala-related cognitive task.

Twenty euthymic patients with bipolar disorder and 20 matched controls were recruited. Participants were shown a slide show of an emotionally neutral story, or a closely matched emotionally arousing story. One week later, participants were assessed on a memory-recall test.

In contrast with the pattern observed in controls, patients with bipolar disorder had no enhancement of memory for the emotional content of the story (F=14.7, d.f.=1.36, P < 0.001). The subjective perception of the emotional impact of the emotional condition was significantly different from that of the neutral condition in controls but not in people with bipolar disorder.

Our data suggest that the physiological pattern of enhanced memory retrieval for emotionally bound information is blunted in bipolar disorder.

The Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) is often used in clinical trials to select patients and to assess treatment efficacy. The scale was originally published without suggested questions for clinicians to use in gathering the information necessary to rate the items. Structured and semi-structured interview guides have been found to improve reliability with other scales.

To describe the development and test-retest reliability of a structured interview guide for the MADRS (SIGMA).

A total of 162 test-retest interviews were conducted by 81 rater pairs. Each patient was interviewed twice, once by each rater conducting an independent interview.

The intraclass correlation for total score between raters using the SIGMA was r = 0.93, P < 0.0001. All ten items had good to excellent interrater reliability.

Use of the SIGMA can result in high reliability of MADRS scores in evaluating patients with depression.

There are no psychosocial interventions to address both educational needs and psychological distress among displaced children in post-conflict settings.

To assess the psychosocial status of displaced children enrolled in the Rapid-Ed intervention; and to determine whether the Rapid-Ed intervention alleviated traumatic stress symptoms that interfere with learning among war-affected children in Sierra Leone.

A randomly selected sample of 315 children aged 8–18 years who were displaced by war were interviewed about their war experiences and reactions to the violence before and after participating in the 4-week Rapid-Ed intervention combining basic education with trauma healing activities.

High levels of intrusion, arousal and avoidance symptoms were reported at the pre-test interviews conducted 9–12 months after the war. Post-test findings showed statistically significant decreases in intrusion and arousal symptoms (P < 0.0001), a slight increase in avoidance reactions (P < 0.0001) and greater optimism about the future.

The findings suggest potential for combining basic education with trauma healing activities for children in post-conflict settings, but confirmatory studies using a control group are needed. Conducting research in post-conflict settings presents unique challenges.

Partial syndromes of eating disorder are common in adolescents but the health significance of these syndromes remains uncertain.

To document the health and social adjustment in young adulthood of females assessed as having a partial syndrome of eating disorder in adolescence.

A community sample of 1943 participants was tracked over 10 years in an eight-wave cohort study. A partial syndrome was defined as the fulfilment of at least two DSM-IV criteria for either anorexia or bulimia nervosa at one assessment or more between the ages of 15 years and 17 years.

Partial syndromes were found in 9.4% of 15- to 17-year-old female participants and 1.4% of males. There were few instances of progression of partial syndromes to fully fledged anorexia and bulimia nervosa. However, among those with partial syndromes depressive and anxiety symptoms were two to three times higher in young adulthood, substance misuse was common, and a majority of those with a partial syndrome of anorexia nervosa were still underweight in their mid-20s.

Given the level of subsequent psychopathology and social role impairment, there may be justification for initiating trials of preventive and early clinical intervention strategies for adolescent partial syndromes.

Advocates of expanded mental health treatment assert that mental disorders are as disabling as physical disorders, but little evidence supports this assertion.

To establish the disability and treatment of specific mental and physical disorders in high-income and low- and middle-income countries.

Community epidemiological surveys were administered in 15 countries through the World Health Organization World Mental Health (WMH) Survey Initiative.

Respondents in both high-income and low- and middle-income countries attributed higher disability to mental disorders than to the commonly occurring physical disorders included in the surveys. This pattern held for all disorders and also for treated disorders. Disaggregation showed that the higher disability of mental than physical disorders was limited to disability in social and personal role functioning, whereas disability in productive role functioning was generally comparable for mental and physical disorders.

Despite often higher disability, mental disorders are under-treated compared with physical disorders in both high-income and in low- and middle-income countries.

Single interventions in chronic fatigue syndrome have shown only limited effectiveness, with few studies of comprehensive treatment programmes.

To examine the effect of a comprehensive cognitive-behavioural treatment (CCBT) programme compared with placebo-controlled mirtazapine medication in patients with chronic fatigue, and to study the effect of combined medication and CCBT.

A three-armed randomised clinical trial of mirtazapine, placebo and a CCBT programme was conducted to investigate treatment effect in a patient group (n=72) with chronic fatigue referred to a specialist clinic. The CCBT programme was compared with mirtazapine or placebo therapy for 12 weeks, followed by 12 weeks treatment with a mixed crossover-combination design. Assessments were done at 12 weeks and 24 weeks.

By 12 weeks the treatment effect was significantly better in the group initially receiving CCBT, as assessed with the Fatigue Scale (P=0.014) and the Clinical Global Impression Scale (P=0.001). By 24 weeks the treatment group initially receiving CCBT for 12 weeks followed by mirtazapine for 12 weeks showed significant improvement compared with the other treatment groups on the Fatigue Scale (P < 0.001) and the Clinical Global Impression Scale (P=0.002). Secondary outcome measures showed overall improvement with no significant difference between treatment groups.

Multimodal interventions may have positive treatment effects in chronic fatigue syndrome. Sequence of interventions seem to be of importance.

An earlier paper reported positive outcomes immediately following access to a cognitive–behavioural therapy (CBT) internet intervention and a depression information website.

To determine 6-month and 12-month outcomes of the interventions relative to a placebo control condition.

Participants allocated to the depression information website condition, the CBT internet intervention and the placebo control condition were followed up at 6 and 12 months by survey. The primary outcome measure was the Center for Epidemiologic Studies – Depression (CES–D) scale. Of 525 participants recruited, 79% completed their assigned intervention and 60% were retained at 12-month follow-up. Attrition was handled using mixed-model repeated-measures ANOVA.

Both the CBT site and depression information sites were associated with statistically significant benefits in CES–D score reduction compared with controls at post-test. At 6-months follow-up, the reduction seen for the people allocated to the CBT arm remained significant, whereas that for the depression information website arm was not. At 12 months, both active interventions were statistically significantly superior to the control condition.

There is some evidence that benefits of these brief internet interventions are retained beyond their endpoint. The impact of human support provided by interviewers in the trial must be considered when comparing these outcomes to routine use of both internet interventions.

There is current interest in exploring the different subtypes of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), in terms of both their epidemiology and their cognitive profile.

To examine the frequency of MCI subtypes presenting to a memory clinic and to document detailed neuropsychological profiles of patients with the amnestic subtype.

Consecutive tertiary referrals (n = 187) were psychiatrically evaluated; 45 patients met criteria for amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). A subgroup of 33 patients with aMCI as well as 21 healthy controls took part in a thorough neuropsychological examination.

Of the patients who were examined in greater neuropsychological detail, ten had pure aMCI (none with visual memory impairment only). Fifteen met criteria for non-amnestic MCI. Fifteen had normal neuropsychological profiles. Using more than one test increased sensitivity to detect episodic memory impairment.

Amnestic MCI is an important diagnosis in secondary and tertiary memory clinics. There is scope to improve the efficacy and sensitivity of the clinical assessment of this impairment.

Long-term data on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following accidents are scarce.

To assess and predict PTSD in people 3 years after severe accidental injury.

Severely injured patients were recruited consecutively from the intensive care unit (n=121) and assessed within 1 month of the trauma. Follow-up interviews were conducted 6 months, 12 months and 36 months later; 90 patients participated in all four interviews. Symptoms were assessed using the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale.

Post-traumatic stress disorder was diagnosed in 6% of patients 2 weeks after the accident, in 2% after 1 year and in 4% after 3 years. Robust predictors of later PTSD symptom level were intrusive symptoms shortly after the accident and biographical risk factors. There were individual changes over time between the categories PTSD, sub-threshold PTSD and no PTSD. Whereas PTSD symptom severity was low or decreased for most of the patients, some of them showed an increase or a delayed onset. Patients with persisting PTSD symptoms at 6 months and patients with delayed onset of symptoms are at risk of long-term PTSD.

The prevalence of PTSD was low over the whole period of 3 years.

Previous work has identified elevated prevalence rates for psychiatric disorders in individuals with medically refractory focal epilepsy, particularly temporal lobe epilepsy. Many studies were undertaken before the advent of video electroencephalogram monitoring (VEM) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

To investigate which characteristics of the focal epilepsy syndromes are associated with the presence of depression or psychosis.

Three hundred and nineteen individuals with focal epilepsy admitted for VEM were seen over an 11-year period. The lifetime history of depression and psychosis, epileptic site, laterality and type of lesion were determined by clinical assessment, VEM and MRI scan.

There was a significant association between the prevalence of depressive symptoms and non-lesional focal epilepsy. There were no significant differences in prevalence of neuropsychiatric disorders between the groups with temporal lobe epilepsy and those with extratemporal lobe epilepsy.

These findings contrast with previous findings in smaller cohorts. The association between non-lesional focal epilepsy and depression may be due to the effects of a more diffuse epileptogenic area.

An integrated multidisciplinary approach to dementia is often recommended but has rarely been evaluated.

To evaluate the clinical effects of an integrated multidisciplinary diagnostic facility for psychogeriatric patients.

Patients suspected of having complex psychogeriatric problems were randomly allocated to the intervention (n=137) or to treatment as usual (n=93). They were assessed at baseline, and at 6 months and 12 months follow-up by means of personal interviews with the patient's proxy. The primary outcome was health-related quality of life, assessed using the visual analogue scale (VAS) of the EuroQd measure, EQ-5D.

Health-related quality of life had improved at 6 months in the intervention group, whereas that of the control group had decreased. Furthermore, more patients in the intervention group experienced a clinically relevant improvement of 10 points or more on the VAS at both follow-up measurements.

An integrated multidisciplinary approach improves dementia care.

Combinations of olanzapine and carbamazepine are often used in clinical practice in the management of mania.

To assess the efficacy and safety of olanzapine plus carbamazepine in mixed and manic bipolar episodes.

Randomised, double-blind, 6-week trial of olanzapine (10–30 mg/day) plus carbamazepine (400–1200 mg/day; n=58) v. placebo plus carbamazepine (n=60) followed by open-label, 20-week olanzapine (10–30 mg/day) plus carbamazepine (400–1200 mg/day, n=86), with change in manic symptoms as main outcome measure. Safety and pharmacokinetics were also evaluated.

There were no significant differences (baseline to endpoint) in efficacy measures between treatment groups, but at 6 weeks triglyceride levels were significantly higher (P=0.008) and potentially clinically significant weight gain (⩾7%) occurred more frequently (24.6% v. 3.4%, P=0.002) in the combined olanzapine and carbamazepine group. Carbamazepine reduced olanzapine concentrations but olanzapine had no effect on carbamazepine concentrations.

The combination of olanzapine and carbamazepine did not have superior efficacy to carbamazepine alone. The increases in weight and triglycerides observed during combination treatment are a matter of concern.

Little is known about the development of stigma towards people with mental disorders.

To investigate stigma in young Australians and the influence of exposure to mental disorders, parental attitudes and information campaigns.

A national telephone survey was carried out with 3746 people aged 12–25 years and 2005 co-resident parents. Stigmatising attitudes were assessed in relation to four vignettes (depression, depression with alcohol misuse, social phobia and psychosis).

Stigma was found to have multiple components labelled ‘social distance’, ‘dangerous/unpredictable’, ‘weak not sick’, ‘stigma perceived in others' and ‘reluctance to disclose’. Exposure to mental disorders and help-seeking in oneself or others was associated with lower scores on some components of stigma but not on others. Young people's attitudes showed specific associations with those of parents. Exposure to campaigns was associated with reductions in beliefs that the person is ‘weak not sick’.

Personal experiences, parental attitudes and campaigns all affect stigmatising attitudes.

An international six-centre randomised controlled trial comparing individual placement and support (IPS) with usual vocational rehabilitation for people with serious mental illness found IPS to be more effective for all vocational outcomes.

To determine which patients with severe mental illness do well in vocational services and which process and service factors are associated with better outcomes.

Patient characteristics and early process variables were tested as predictors of employment outcomes. Service characteristics were explored as predictors of the effectiveness of IPS.

Patients with previous work history, fewer met social needs and better relationships with their vocational workers were more likely to obtain employment and work for longer. Remission and swifter service uptake were associated with working more. Having an IPS service closer to the original IPS model was the only service characteristic associated with greater effectiveness.

The IPS service was found to be more effective for all vocational outcomes. In addition, maintaining high IPS fidelity and targeting relational skills would be a valuable focus for all vocational interventions, leading to improved employment outcomes. Motivation to find work may be decreased by satisfaction with current life circumstances.

Risk assessment of future violent acts is of great importance for both public protection and care planning. Structured clinical assessments offer a method by which accurate assessments could be achieved.

To test the efficacy of the Historical, Clinical and Risk Management Scales (HCR–20) structured risk assessment scheme on a large sample of male forensic psychiatric patients discharged from medium secure units in the UK.

In a pseudo-prospective study, 887 male patients were followed for at least 2 years. The HCR-20 was completed using only pre-discharge information, and violent and other offending behaviour post-discharge was obtained from official records.

The HCR–20 total score was a good predictor of both violent and other offences following discharge. The historical and risk sub-scales were both able to predict offences, but the clinical sub-scale did not produce significant predictions. The predictive efficacy was highest for short periods (under 1 year) and showed a modest fall in efficacy over longer periods (5 years).

The results provide a strong evidence base that the HCR–20 is a good predictor of both violent and non-violent offending following release from medium secure units for male forensic psychiatric patients in the UK.