Discontinuing involuntary mental health holds for children: Does psychiatrist specialty matter? A pilot study.

BACKGROUND: Involuntary mental health detainments should only be utilized when less restrictive alternatives are unavailable and should be discontinued as soon as safety can be ensured. The study objective was to determine if child and adolescent psychiatrists discontinue a greater proportion of involuntary holds than general psychiatrists for similar pediatric patients. METHODS: Retrospective analysis of consecutive patients under 18 years placed on an involuntary hold in the prehospital setting presenting over a 1-year period to one high-volume emergency department (ED) where youth on involuntary holds are seen by child and adolescent psychiatrists when available and general psychiatrists otherwise. The primary outcome of interest was hold discontinuation after initial psychiatric consultation. The key predictor of interest was psychiatrist specialty (child and adolescent vs. general). We conducted multivariate logistic regression modeling adjusting for patient characteristics and time of arrival. RESULTS: Child and adolescent psychiatrists discontinued 27.4% (51/186) of prehospital holds while general psychiatrists discontinued only 10.6% (22/207). After adjusting for observable confounders, holds were over 3 times as likely to be discontinued in patients evaluated by child and adolescent psychiatrists rather than general emergency psychiatrists (adjusted OR 3.2, 95% CI 1.7-5.9, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Child and adolescent psychiatrists are much more likely to discontinue prehospital involuntary mental health holds compared with general emergency psychiatrists. While inappropriate hold discontinuation places patients at risk of harm, prolonged hold continuation limits patients' rights and potentially increases psychiatric boarding in EDs. Earlier access to child and adolescent psychiatry may facilitate early hold discontinuation and standardize patient care.

Redefining phenotypes to advance psychiatric genetics: Implications from hierarchical taxonomy of psychopathology.

Genetic discovery in psychiatry and clinical psychology is hindered by suboptimal phenotypic definitions. We argue that the hierarchical, dimensional, and data-driven classification system proposed by the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) consortium provides a more effective approach to identifying genes that underlie mental disorders, and to studying psychiatric etiology, than current diagnostic categories. Specifically, genes are expected to operate at different levels of the HiTOP hierarchy, with some highly pleiotropic genes influencing higher order psychopathology (e.g., the general factor), whereas other genes conferring more specific risk for individual spectra (e.g., internalizing), subfactors (e.g., fear disorders), or narrow symptoms (e.g., mood instability). We propose that the HiTOP model aligns well with the current understanding of the higher order genetic structure of psychopathology that has emerged from a large body of family and twin studies. We also discuss the convergence between the HiTOP model and findings from recent molecular studies of psychopathology indicating broad genetic pleiotropy, such as cross-disorder SNP-based shared genetic covariance and polygenic risk scores, and we highlight molecular genetic studies that have successfully redefined phenotypes to enhance precision and statistical power. Finally, we suggest how to integrate a HiTOP approach into future molecular genetic research, including quantitative and hierarchical assessment tools for future data-collection and recommendations concerning phenotypic analyses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Controvérsias sobre o uso do DSM para diagnósticos de transtornos mentais / Controversies about the use of DSM for mental disroders diagnoses

Resumo O número de diagnósticos de transtornos mentais cresceu significativamente em paralelo à disseminação das edições do Manual Diagnóstico e Estatístico de Transtornos Mentais (DSM). Neste contexto, desenvolvemos este ensaio com a finalidade de compreender o uso do DSM como instrumento para fundamentar os diagnósticos de transtornos mentais. Para embasar o presente estudo, lançou-se mão de publicações científicas de autores que discutiram as edições do DSM, assim como as classificações psiquiátricas. Constatamos que há controvérsias em relação ao Manual, as quais descrevemos por um lado como conveniências e, por outro, como críticas. Há lugares em que esta lógica do DSM é conveniente, uma vez que gera benefícios a diversos setores, como seguros de saúde e indústria farmacêutica. As principais críticas ao DSM ressaltam o fato de o Manual transformar o sofrimento psíquico em patologias de cunho cerebral.

Abstract The number of diagnoses of mental disorders has grown significantly parallel to the dissemination of the editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). In this context, we developed this essay in order to understand the use of DSM as an instrument to support the diagnosis of mental disorders. To do so, we have used scientific publications by authors who have discussed DSM issues, as well as psychiatric classifications. We find that there are controversies regarding the Manual, which we describe on the one hand as conveniences, and on the other, as criticisms. There are places where this logic of the DSM is convenient, since it generates benefits to several sectors, such as health insurance and pharmaceutical industry. The main criticisms of DSM are the fact that the Manual transforms psychic suffering into cerebral pathologies.

RDoC and shift of reference.

OBJECTIVE: This paper aims to analyse in a philosophically informed way the recent National Institute of Mental Health proposal for the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) framework. CONCLUSION: Current classification systems have helped unify psychiatry and the conditions that it is most concerned with. However, by relying too much on syndromes and symptoms, they too often do not define stable constructs. As a result, inclusions and removals from the manuals are not always backed by sound reasons. The RDoC framework is an important move towards ameliorating matters. This paper argues that it improves the current situation by re-referencing constructs to physical properties (biomarkers for disorders, for example), by allowing theoretical levels within the framework, and by treating psychiatry as a special case of the cognitive sciences.

[Historical Development of Symptomatology in Psychosis with Reference to Pathogenesis].

The role of mental symptomatology is to describe various clinical symptoms without refer- ring to their pathogenesis. This may be because of the influence of K. Jasper's General Psycho- pathology. However, from the mid-19th to early 20th century, when modern psychiatry was estab- lished, some excellent hypotheses concerning the pathogenesis of mental symptoms were pro- posed, although it was difficult to verify these hypotheses because of technical limitations. The purpose of this article was to review the historical development of symptomatology in psycho- sis with reference to the pathogenesis. W. Griesinger (1845, 1861) distinguished between the etiology and pathogenesis of a disease, and stated that every mental disease is a manifestation of brain disease. Subsequent investigators elaborated on this view : C. Wernicke (1894, 1906) proposed the disconnection of the association tracts, and P. Flechsig (1894, 1920) regarded the late myelinating "association areas"' (this term was from Flechsig) as the field of the mind. J. H. Jackson (1895) proposed the evolutionary and hierarchical organization of the nervous system. E. Kraepelin (1913) speculated on the hypoactivity of the frontal cortex-the highest cerebral centers according to Jackson's terminology-and hyperactivity of the temporal speech cortex as the pathogenesis of psychotic symptoms in dementia praecox, which were found to be the case based on neuroimaging methods over sixty years later. Currently, the pathogenesis of mental symptoms is being investigated from the viewpoint of the dysfunctions of neural cir- cuits, such as cortico-limbic, cortico-thalamic, or cortico-striatal circuitry.

Is treatment-resistance in psychiatric disorders a trap for polypharmacy?

BACKGROUND: Nowadays, more and more mental health professionals manage patients who fail treatment for major psychiatric disorders. There is not a consensus on how to deal with treatment-resistance patients, but usually psychiatrists result to polypharmacy. METHOD: In reviewing the evidence based clinical research we will try to answer some questions about treatment-resistant psychiatric disorders. Treatment-resistant symptoms complicate the clinical course of all psychiatric disorders especially schizophrenia, causing the patients not to reach the therapeutical goal and enter remission. In consequence, polypharmacy is used to try to deal with the remaining symptoms, raising other issues. SUMMARY: We will try to deal with this problematic issue through clinical studies and major research done to try and answer the question posed.

Psychodynamics and psychopharmacotherapy in the treatment of difficult patients with personality and eating disorders.

The complex inter-relationship between external and internal reality, a source of interest and controversy in psychiatry, has come to the foreground more prominently in the context of more integrative understanding of psychopharmacotherapy. This paper discusses the meaning and clinical applications of the psychodynamic related to psychopharmacotherapy for difficult personality and eating disorders patients. The one of the psychodynamic explanations for patients' being difficult is related to their perceived lack of mentalizing (reflective) capacities. Lack of mentalizing capacity implies disturbed view of psychopharmacotherapy. Therapeutic relationship and optimal alliance offers the frame for acceptance of psychiatric drugs as positive and useful for personality and eating disorder patients. Mentalization and intersubjectivity theories have direct implications for clinical practice, and that the notion of the third is particularly useful in understanding what happens in the patient-doctor relationship.

Towards Constructing a New Taxonomy for Psychiatry Using Self-reported Symptoms.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) has served as the gold standard for psychiatric diagnosis for the past several decades in the USA, and DSM diagnoses mirror mental health and substance abuse diagnoses in ICD-9 and ICD-10. However, DSM diagnoses have severe limitations when used as phenotypes for studies of the pathophysiology underlying mental disorders, as well as for clinical treatment and research. In this paper, we use a novel approach of deconstructing DSM diagnostic criteria, and using expert knowledge to inform feature selection for unsupervised machine learning. We are able to identify clusters of symptoms that stratify subjects with the same DSM disorders into cohorts with increased clinical and biological homogeneity. These findings suggest that itemized self-report symptom data should inform a new taxonomy for psychiatry, and will enhance the bi-directional translation of knowledge from the bench to the clinic through a common terminology.

[The dubious 'reality' of a psychiatric classification]. / De realiteitsaanspraak van het psychiatrisch etiket.

BACKGROUND: The latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM-5, incorporates many new classifications, but some of the classifications that appeared in earlier editions have been dropped. The article comments on and clarifies some of the items that have caused controversy. AIM: To investigate whether a psychiatric classification can ever depict reality of whether it is in fact a social construct. METHOD: The article is based on a review of the literature and provides a conceptual analysis of articles and manuals. RESULTS: An attempt has been made to distinguish between different kinds of psychiatric classifications; the 'kinds' can range from natural to artificial and can be practical , interactive or indifferent. This part of the study has led to the conclusion that the way in which we view the type of psychiatric disorders is determined by our entrenched 'subject-object' way of thinking. CONCLUSION: The dichotomy between natural (object) and artificial (subject) should be abandoned and the 'reality' of a psychiatric classification should be seen as a continuum and evolutionary process.

Identification and validation of mixed anxiety-depression.

BACKGROUND: Mixed anxiety-depression (MAD) has been under scrutiny to determine its potential place in psychiatric nosology. The current study sought to investigate its prevalence, clinical characteristics, course and potential validators. METHOD: Restricted latent-class analyses were fit to 12-month self-reports of depression and anxiety symptom criteria in a large population-based sample of twins. Classes were examined across an array of relevant indicators (demographics, co-morbidity, adverse life events, clinical significance and twin concordance). Longitudinal analyses investigated the stability of, and transitions between, these classes for two time periods approximately 1.5 years apart. RESULTS: In all analyses, a class exhibiting levels of MAD symptomatology distinctly above the unaffected subjects yet having low prevalence of either major depression (MD) or generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) was identified. A restricted four-class model, constraining two classes to have no prior disorder history to distinguish residual or recurrent symptoms from new onsets in the last year, provided an interpretable classification: two groups with no prior history that were unaffected or had MAD and two with prior history having relatively low or high symptom levels. Prevalence of MAD was substantial (9-11%), and subjects with MAD differed quantitatively but not qualitatively from those with lifetime MD or GAD across the clinical validators examined. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that MAD is a commonly occurring, identifiable syndromal subtype that warrants further study and consideration for inclusion in future nosologic systems.

A Korean survey on qualities and definition of a good psychiatrist.

The definition of a "good" psychiatrist has varied over the past decades due to changing roles of psychiatrists. Studies on the qualities of "good" psychiatrists have been completed in many countries. However, no such study has been undertaken in Korea. In Korea, recent growing interest in psychiatry demands the identification of qualities for a good psychiatrist. The purpose of this study was to define the qualities of a good psychiatrist in Korea, subsequently facilitating the improvement of psychiatric training programs. The questionnaire was based on a Singaporean survey with the permission from the original authors. Respondents were divided into patient group and psychiatrist group. The 40-item questionnaire contained items grouped into four themes: Professional, Personal Values, Academic Executive and Relationship. Of the four themes, both patient and psychiatrist groups considered Professional as the most important, whereas Academic Executive as the least important. The mean scores for all items of each theme in the patient group were higher than those in the psychiatrist group, reflecting higher expectations for good psychiatrist in the patient group. Patients emphasized Relationship more than psychiatrists did. It is concluded that a good psychiatrist in Korea can be defined as "a good communicator and listener with a professional manner, who respects confidentiality and has good doctor-patient relationships."

Enrich classifications in psychiatry with textual data: an ontology for psychiatry including social concepts.

We propose a modular approach to develop an ontology of psychiatry, ONTOPSYCHIA, based on Patient Discharges Summaries (PDS) and divided into three modules (i.e. social, mental disorders and treatments). We decided to take into account the social aspects of the patient life described in PDS to consider information such as family history, social environment or education.