Feasibility of using virtual reality in geriatric psychiatry.

OBJECTIVES: Virtual Reality-based interventions have become an important element of digital mental health, offering accessible and scalable treatment options. However, studies on VR-based approaches in elderly patients are scarce. This explorative study examined the feasibility of using Virtual Reality (VR) for elderly patients with psychiatric illness, focusing on the sense of presence as the primary outcome. METHODS: The study included N = 30 patients between the ages of 59-92 years who were currently in geriatric psychiatric inpatient and day clinic treatment. Participants were assessed before, during and after a relaxing ten-minute VR experience. Attitude towards digital media and VR, subjective digital competence, and previous experience were examined using questionnaires. Motion sickness was measured repeatedly during the VR experience using the Fast Motion Sickness Scale (FMS). Patients rated their motion sickness and their general well-being in the virtual environment. Sense of presence in the virtual environment was quantified with the Igroup Presence Questionnaire (IPQ). RESULTS: Participants reported a notable sense of presence (M = 0.41 ± 1.4) in the virtual environment, particularly in terms of spatial presence. Motion sickness was reported by a minority of patients. Three patients terminated the VR application before it was finished. The average well-being during the VR experience was reported as high (70/100). Sense of presence and motion sickness showed a significant negative correlation. Presence, motion sickness and well-being were not significantly correlated with age, nor did they differ significantly between groups. CONCLUSIONS: This study underscores the potential of VR-based experiences in the treatment of elderly psychiatric patients and highlights their willingness and ability to engage with VR technology. While the results are promising, future research should explore more interactive VR scenarios and assess their safety and feasibility in elderly populations.

Structured Interventions to Optimize Polypharmacy in Psychiatric Treatment and Nursing Homes: A Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND: Polypharmacy is a common clinical issue. It increases in prevalence with older age and comorbidities of patients and has been recognized as a major cause for treatment complications. In psychiatry, polypharmacy is also commonly seen in younger patients and can lead to reduced treatment satisfaction and incompliance. A variety of structured polypharmacy interventions have been investigated. This systematic review provides a comprehensive overview of the field and identifies research gaps. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review on structured interventions aimed at optimizing polypharmacy of psychotropic and somatic medication in psychiatric inpatient and outpatient settings as well as nursing homes. A search protocol was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42020187304). Data were synthesized narratively. RESULTS: Fifty-eight studies with a total of 30,554 participants met the inclusion criteria. Interventions were most commonly guided by self-developed or national guidelines, drug assessment scores, and lists of potentially inappropriate medications. Tools to identify underprescribing were less commonly used. Most frequently reported outcomes were quantitative drug-related measures; clinical outcomes such as falls, hospital admission, cognitive status, and neuropsychiatric symptom severity were reported less commonly. Reduction of polypharmacy and improvement of medication appropriateness were shown by most studies. CONCLUSIONS: Improvement of drug-related outcomes can be achieved by interventions such as individualized medication review and educational approaches in psychiatric settings and nursing homes. Changes in clinical outcomes, however, are often nonsubstantial and generally underreported. Patient selection and intervention procedures are highly heterogeneous. Future investigations should establish standards in intervention procedures, identify and assess patient-relevant outcome measures, and consider long-term follow-up assessments.

Loneliness in Elderly Inpatients.

PURPOSE: Loneliness among the elderly is a widespread phenomenon and is connected to various negative health outcomes. Nevertheless, loneliness among elderly inpatients, especially those with a psychiatric diagnosis, has hardly been examined. Our study assessed loneliness in elderly inpatients, identified predictors, and compared levels of loneliness between inpatients on psychiatric and somatic wards. METHODS: N = 100 elderly inpatients of a somatic and psychiatric ward were included. Levels of loneliness were assessed, as were potential predictors such as depression, psychological resilience, severity of mental illness, well-being, daily functioning, and psychiatric diagnosis. Analyses of group differences and hierarchical multiple regression analysis were conducted. RESULTS: 37% of all inpatients reported elevated levels of loneliness. Significant predictor variables were self-reported depressive symptoms, well-being, severity of mental illness, being single and living with a caregiver. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that the full model explained 58% of variance in loneliness. Psychiatric inpatients' loneliness was significantly higher than loneliness in somatic inpatients. When analyzing group differences between inpatients with different main psychiatric diagnoses, highest levels were found in patients with an affective disorder, followed by those treated for organic mental disorder. Since the study took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, potential influence of different measurement points (lockdown vs. no lockdown) were analyzed: Differences in loneliness depending on the phase of the pandemic were non-significant. CONCLUSION: Elderly inpatients experience high levels of loneliness, especially those with a mental disorder. Interventions to reduce loneliness in this population should address predictors of loneliness, preferably through multiprofessional interventions.

Validation of natural language processing methods capturing semantic incoherence in the speech of patients with non-affective psychosis.

Background: Impairments in speech production are a core symptom of non-affective psychosis (NAP). While traditional clinical ratings of patients' speech involve a subjective human factor, modern methods of natural language processing (NLP) promise an automatic and objective way of analyzing patients' speech. This study aimed to validate NLP methods for analyzing speech production in NAP patients. Methods: Speech samples from patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder were obtained at two measurement points, 6 months apart. Out of N = 71 patients at T1, speech samples were also available for N = 54 patients at T2. Global and local models of semantic coherence as well as different word embeddings (word2vec vs. GloVe) were applied to the transcribed speech samples. They were tested and compared regarding their correlation with clinical ratings and external criteria from cross-sectional and longitudinal measurements. Results: Results did not show differences for global vs. local coherence models and found more significant correlations between word2vec models and clinically relevant outcome variables than for GloVe models. Exploratory analysis of longitudinal data did not yield significant correlation with coherence scores. Conclusion: These results indicate that natural language processing methods need to be critically validated in more studies and carefully selected before clinical application.

Measuring Emotional Awareness in Patients With Schizophrenia and Schizoaffective Disorders.

The ability to mentalize (i.e., to form representations of mental states and processes of oneself and others) is often impaired in people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Emotional awareness (EA) represents one aspect of affective mentalizing and can be assessed with the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS), but findings regarding individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders are inconsistent. The present study aimed at examining the usability and convergent validity of the LEAS in a sample of N = 130 stabilized outpatients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorders. An adequacy rating was added to the conventional LEAS rating to account for distortions of content due to, for example, delusional thinking. Scores of the patient group were compared with those of a matched healthy control sample. Correlation with symptom clusters, a self-report measure of EA, a measure of synthetic metacognition (MAS-A-G), and an expert rating capturing EA from the psychodynamic perspective of psychic structure (OPD-LSIA) were examined. Regarding self-related emotional awareness, patients did not score lower than controls neither in terms of conventional LEAS nor in terms of adequacy. Regarding other-related emotional awareness, however, patients showed a reduced level of adequacy compared to controls whereas no such difference was found for conventional LEAS scores. Higher conventional LEAS scores were associated with fewer negative symptoms, and higher structural integration of self-perceptions measured by the OPD-LSIA. Higher adequacy of responses correlated with fewer symptoms of disorganization as well as excitement, higher scores of self-reflection on the MAS-A-G as well as self- and object-perception and internal and external communication as measured by the subscales of the OPD-LSIA. Findings suggest that the LEAS might not be sensitive enough to detect differences between mildly symptomatic patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorders and healthy controls. However, LEAS ratings are still suitable to track intraindividual changes in EA over time. Observing the adequacy of patients' responses when using the LEAS may be a promising way to increase diagnostical utility and to identify patterns of formal and content-related alterations of mentalizing in this patient group. Methodological indications for future studies are discussed.