The Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry
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Aust N Z J Psychiatry · Jul 2010
Assessing cognition following petrol sniffing for Indigenous Australians.
Chronic petrol inhalation can be associated with significant cognitive impairment. While rehabilitation programs can rely on such skills to educate clients and achieve treatment outcomes, cognitive function is rarely assessed on admission. This is particularly true for Indigenous populations where standard assessments are not appropriate. This paper describes a process for assessing cognition in Indigenous Australians. Two studies investigate firstly the demographic factors impacting on cognition for healthy Indigenous Australians and secondly the utility of the assessment process for detecting petrol sniffing related cognitive impairments. ⋯ This assessment process is useful for detecting substance abuse related impairments in Indigenous Australians and when using this assessment process, age and computer familiarity in particular should be controlled for.
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Several recent studies have reported that serious violence towards self and others is more common in the first episode of psychosis than after treatment. ⋯ A large proportion of the survivors of suicide attempts by jumping were diagnosed with a psychotic illness, which confirms an association between psychosis and suicide by jumping. Some suicides might not have been linked to psychosis had the patient not survived the suicide attempt, suggesting that the contribution of schizophrenia to suicide mortality might have been underestimated in psychological autopsy studies. The finding that nearly half of the survivors diagnosed to have a psychotic illness had never received treatment with antipsychotic medication indicates a greatly increased risk of suicide by jumping in the first episode of psychosis when compared to the annual risk after treatment.
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Mental illness can be both a cause of and a reaction to being homeless. When homelessness co-exists with mental illness, the provision of care for very vulnerable people is significantly complicated. Our initiative built on a model of assertive outreach and embedded mental health staff into the daily operations of Hanover Welfare Services and Sacred Heart Mission welfare services in inner Melbourne. The initiative's aim was to facilitate closer collaboration between mental health and welfare services and develop staff capacity to better identify and support people living homeless with a mental illness. ⋯ Embedding mental health staff into the daily operations of two welfare services in inner Melbourne improved inter-service collaboration and the identification and care for people living homeless with a mental illness.
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Aust N Z J Psychiatry · Apr 2010
Randomized Controlled TrialPsychopathology and symptom remission at adolescence among children with attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder.
The aim of the present study was to examine changes of attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms and psychiatric comorbidities at adolescence, and mother-child agreement on reports of ADHD symptoms among children with ADHD as compared to unaffected controls. ⋯ The present findings are similar to those of Western studies, regarding the patterns of comorbidity, stability of core symptoms, and mother-child differences on symptom reports.
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Aust N Z J Psychiatry · Apr 2010
Vulnerability factors for disaster-induced child post-traumatic stress disorder: the case for low family resilience and previous mental illness.
The aim of the present study was to investigate whether parent report of family resilience predicted children's disaster-induced post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and general emotional symptoms, independent of a broad range of variables including event-related factors, previous child mental illness and social connectedness. ⋯ In this post-disaster sample children with existing mental health problems and those of low-resilience families were not at elevated risk of PTSD. The possibility that the aetiological model of disaster-induced child PTSD may differ from usual child and adolescent conceptualizations is discussed.