[Mentalizing the pain-Implementation of a mentalization-based manual for the therapeutic support of pain patients.] / "Den Schmerz mentalisieren" ­ Implementierung eines mentalisierungsbasierten Manuals für die therapeutische Begleitung von Schmerzpatient:innen.

Chronic pain is usually a complex disorder with possible indications for an impairment at the personality functioning level. Guidelines recommend a multiprofessional interdisciplinary treatment approach. Based on the alternative model of personality disorders of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5) and the International Classification of Diseases, eleventh revision (ICD-11), an integrative manual was designed to exactly fit the interdisciplinary multimodal treatment of patients of the day clinic for pain at the orthopedic clinic of the University Hospital Heidelberg. The treatment manual specifically promotes various areas of personality functioning levels, such as emotion regulation, identity, empathy and relationships through individual and group interventions against the background of a mentalization-based therapeutic attitude. A focus group was used to qualitatively evaluate the implementation of the new treatment manual. With good applicability of the manual and satisfaction of the therapy team, a common language for the interdisciplinary team could be created to improve the therapeutic interaction.

Cognitive deficits in bipolar disorder: from acute episode to remission.

Considerable evidence demonstrates that neuropsychological deficits are prevalent in bipolar disorder during both acute episodes and euthymia. However, it is less clear whether these cognitive disturbances are state- or trait-related. We here present the first longitudinal study employing a within-subject pre- and post-testing examining acutely admitted bipolar patients (BP) in depression or mania and during euthymia, aiming to identify cognitive performance from acute illness to remission. Cognitive performance was measured during acute episodes and repeated after at least 3 months of remission. To do so, 55 BP (35 depressed, 20 hypo-/manic) and 55 healthy controls (HC) were tested with a neuropsychological test battery (attention, working memory, verbal memory, executive functioning). The results showed global impairments in acutely ill BP compared to HC: depressed patients showed a characteristic psychomotor slowing, while manic patients had severe deficits in executive functioning. Twenty-nine remitted BP could be measured in the follow-up (dropout rate 48 %), whose cognitive functions partially recovered, whereas working memory and verbal memory were still impaired. However, we found that subthreshold depressive symptoms and persisting sleep disturbances in euthymic BP were associated with reduced speed, deficits in attention and verbal memory, while working memory was correlated with psychotic symptoms (lifetime). This result indicates working memory as trait related for a subgroup of BP with psychotic symptoms. In contrast, attention and verbal memory are negatively influenced by state factors like residual symptoms, which should be more considered as possible confounders in the search of cognitive endophenotypes in remitted BP.

[Psychological comorbidity in elderly patients with cancer]. / Psychische Komorbidität bei Menschen mit chronischen Erkrankungen im höheren Lebensalter unter besonderer Berücksichtigung von Krebserkrankungen.

Human life expectancy has increased, nationally and internationally, during recent years and will continue to increase in the future. Old age is commonly associated with health-related impairments, chronic diseases, increasing multimorbidity, as well as with psychosocial burdens, such as social deprivation, reduced social participation, and impairment in activities of daily living. Against this background, studies on mental health addressing psychological distress and mental disorders of older people have gained increasing attention. The aim of the present overview is to provide insight into psychological comorbidity in elderly with chronic illnesses. The following questions are addressed: (1) what are the prevalence rates of mental disorders in the elderly in general and, specifically, in patients with cancer? (2) How are mental disorders and cancer, respectively, diagnosed in elderly patients? (3) What are common risk factors associated with the development of mental disorders? (4) Which treatment options are available, and which aspects of health care for elderly patients with chronic diseases need to be considered?

Evidence for cognitive subgroups in bipolar disorder and the influence of subclinical depression and sleep disturbances.

Recent research in bipolar disorder (BD) points to the relevance and persistence of cognitive deficits even in euthymia. Up to now, the mechanisms behind why some bipolar patients (BP) do not reach their former level of cognitive performance and psychosocial functioning while others remit completely, are not understood. In this study we aimed to identify a "cognitive deficit" vs. "non-deficit" subgroup within BD by using an extensive neuropsychological test battery. The test performance of 70 euthymic outpatients (BD-I and II, recruited as a sample of convenience from our bipolar disorder programme) was compared to 70 matched, healthy controls (HC). Furthermore, we investigated the association between demographic/clinical variables and the cognitive performance of BP. As expected, our sample of euthymic BP performed significantly worse than HC in psychomotor speed, divided attention, working memory, verbal memory, word fluency and problem solving. However, 41.4% of the patients did not have any neurocognitive deficits at all, and whether or not a patient belonged to the non-deficit group was not influenced by disease severity. Instead, our results demonstrate that patients suffering from persistent sleep disturbances and sub-threshold depressive symptomatology show more severe cognitive dysfunctions. In addition, antipsychotic treatment and comorbid anxiety disorder were associated with cognitive deficits. In sum, these results suggest that a major part of cognitive impairment is due to current symptomatology, especially sleep disorder and sub-syndromal depression. Rigorous treatment of these symptoms thus might well improve cognitive deficits and, as a consequence, overall functioning in BD.

The genetic contribution of the NO system at the glutamatergic post-synapse to schizophrenia: further evidence and meta-analysis.

NO is a pleiotropic signaling molecule and has an important role in cognition and emotion. In the brain, NO is produced by neuronal nitric oxide synthase (NOS-I, encoded by NOS1) coupled to the NMDA receptor via PDZ interactions; this protein-protein interaction is disrupted upon binding of NOS1 adapter protein (encoded by NOS1AP) to NOS-I. As both NOS1 and NOS1AP were associated with schizophrenia, we here investigated these genes in greater detail by genotyping new samples and conducting a meta-analysis of our own and published data. In doing so, we confirmed association of both genes with schizophrenia and found evidence for their interaction in increasing risk towards disease. Our strongest finding was the NOS1 promoter SNP rs41279104, yielding an odds ratio of 1.29 in the meta-analysis. As findings from heterologous cell systems have suggested that the risk allele decreases gene expression, we studied the effect of the variant on NOS1 expression in human post-mortem brain samples and found that the risk allele significantly decreases expression of NOS1 in the prefrontal cortex. Bioinformatic analyses suggest that this might be due the replacement of six transcription factor binding sites by two new binding sites as a consequence of proxy SNPs. Taken together, our data argue that genetic variance in NOS1 resulting in lower prefrontal brain expression of this gene contributes to schizophrenia liability, and that NOS1 interacts with NOS1AP in doing so. The NOS1-NOS1AP PDZ interface may thus well constitute a novel target for small molecules in at least some forms of schizophrenia.