Psychological medicine
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Psychological medicine · Aug 2013
Randomized Controlled TrialAberrant resting-state connectivity in non-psychotic individuals with auditory hallucinations.
Although auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) are a core symptom of schizophrenia, they also occur in non-psychotic individuals, in the absence of other psychotic, affective, cognitive and negative symptoms. AVH have been hypothesized to result from deviant integration of inferior frontal, parahippocampal and superior temporal brain areas. However, a direct link between dysfunctional connectivity and AVH has not yet been established. To determine whether hallucinations are indeed related to aberrant connectivity, AVH should be studied in isolation, for example in non-psychotic individuals with AVH. ⋯ Aberrant connectivity of frontal, parahippocampal and superior temporal brain areas can be specifically related to the predisposition to hallucinate in the auditory domain.
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Psychological medicine · Aug 2013
Multicenter StudyAge of major depression onset, depressive symptoms, and risk for subsequent dementia: results of the German study on Ageing, Cognition, and Dementia in Primary Care Patients (AgeCoDe).
Whether late-onset depression is a risk factor for or a prodrome of dementia remains unclear. We investigated the impact of depressive symptoms and early- v. late-onset depression on subsequent dementia in a cohort of elderly general-practitioner patients (n = 2663, mean age = 81.2 years). ⋯ Depression might be a prodrome of AD but not of dementia of other aetiology as very late-onset depression in combination with current depressive symptoms, possibly emerging as a consequence of subjectively perceived worrisome cognitive deterioration, was most predictive. As depression parameters and subjective memory impairment predicted AD independently of objective cognition, clinicians should take this into account.
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Psychological medicine · Aug 2013
Randomized Controlled TrialWhat explains post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in UK service personnel: deployment or something else?
In previous studies an association between deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan and an overall increased risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in UK armed forces has not been found. The lack of a deployment effect might be explained by including, in the comparison group, personnel deployed on other operations or who have experienced traumatic stressors unrelated to deployment. ⋯ For the majority of UK armed forces personnel, deployment whether to Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere confers no greater risk for PTSD than service in the armed forces per se but holding a combat role in those deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan is associated with PTSD. Vulnerability factors such as lower rank, childhood adversity and leaving service, and having had a serious accident, may be at least as important as holding a combat role in predicting PTSD in UK armed forces personnel.
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Psychological medicine · Aug 2013
Comparative StudyCommon mental disorders, unemployment and psychosocial job quality: is a poor job better than no job at all?
Employment is associated with health benefits over unemployment, but the psychosocial characteristics of work also influence health. There has, however, been little research contrasting the prevalence of psychiatric disorders among people who are unemployed with those in jobs of differing psychosocial quality. ⋯ Although employment is thought to promote mental health and well-being, work of poor psychosocial quality is not associated with any better mental health than unemployment. Policy efforts to improve community mental health should consider psychosocial job quality in conjunction with efforts to increase employment rates.