The Journal of nervous and mental disease
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J. Nerv. Ment. Dis. · Jan 2003
Psychiatric morbidity and low self-attentiveness in patients with environmental illness.
Controversy surrounds the origin of symptoms attributed to environmental pollutants or widely used chemicals, and the authors believed that a psychiatric evaluation could advance understanding of this contentious condition. They assessed psychiatric morbidity, somatization, and self-attentiveness in patients seen in their Environmental Clinic. Two hundred ninety-five consecutive patients underwent SCID-I and -II interviews and were investigated with self-rating scales for self-attentiveness and somatization. ⋯ Patients who did not meet diagnostic criteria for a psychiatric disorder had relatively low somatization scores and low private self-attentiveness. These "externalizers" could benefit from an intervention that teaches them to focus on their internal and emotional lives. In these patients, the authors consider low self-attentiveness a major feature that may act as a pathogenic factor for environmental illness.
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J. Nerv. Ment. Dis. · Sep 2002
ReviewDesign and reporting modifications in industry-sponsored comparative psychopharmacology trials.
This review of recently published pharmaceutical industry-sponsored comparative psychotropic drug trials aims to classify apparent design and reporting modifications that favor the sponsor's product. The modifications have been grouped into 13 discrete categories, and representative examples of each are presented. Strong circumstantial evidence suggests that marketing goals led to these adjustments. The consequences of marketing influences on comparative psychopharmacology trials are discussed in terms of conflicts of interest, the integrity of the scientific literature, and costs to consumers, as well as their impact on physician practice.
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J. Nerv. Ment. Dis. · Jun 2002
Comparative StudyThe mental health of war-wounded refugees: an 8-year follow-up.
The complex nature of recent wars and armed conflicts has forced many war-injured persons into exile. To investigate their long-term mental health, three instruments for assessing mental health (HSCL-25, PTSS-10, and a Well-Being scale) were presented to 44 war-wounded refugees from nine different countries 8 years after arrival in Sweden. ⋯ The findings suggest a high psychiatric morbidity and a need for psychiatric interventions in this refugee group. Methodological issues to be considered in research on sequels of war traumas are discussed.
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J. Nerv. Ment. Dis. · Jun 2002
CommentStates' spending for public welfare and their suicide rates, 1960 to 1995: what is the problem?
Drawing on Durkheim's theory of social integration, this discussion reports on findings from a pooled time-series analysis of states' spending for public welfare and their suicide rates, controlling for states' divorce rates, population change rates, population density, unemployment rates, sex ratio, and racial composition. The analysis spans a 35-year period, 1960 to 1995, at six different data points: 1960, 1970, 1980, 1985, 1990, and 1995. The major hypothesis was that states' suicide rates would increase with decreases in per capita spending for public welfare, controlling for the variables listed above in three different models and using OLS to analyze the data. ⋯ Of all the variables, the influence of divorce on suicide was the most persistent and pronounced, followed by the percentage of whites in states' populations. Whether the findings reflect an increase in the unendurable psychological pain associated with suicide, or the weakening of ties that bind individuals to each other and to the larger society (as measured by states' divorce rates and per capita expenditures for public welfare), or the vulnerabilities associated with race, states can help counter suicide trends and such negative influences as divorce as evidenced by states that spend more for public welfare and have lower suicide rates. Given that clinicians work with people experiencing the unendurable psychological pain associated with suicide, the findings from these analyses have relevance for their practice.
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J. Nerv. Ment. Dis. · Mar 2002
Reliability and validity of the Japanese-language version of the impact of event scale-revised (IES-R-J): four studies of different traumatic events.
The authors developed the Japanese-language version of the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R-J) and investigated its reliability and validity in four different groups: workers with lifetime mixed traumatic events, survivors of an arsenic poisoning case, survivors of the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake, and survivors of the Tokyo Metro sarin attack. Evidence includes retest reliability and internal consistency of the IES-R-J. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and partial PTSD cases indicated significantly higher scores than non-PTSD cases. ⋯ Female patients indicated higher scores than male patients. A negative weak correlation between age and the score was found only among female earthquake survivors. The IES-R-J can be used as a validated instrument in future international comparative research.