Clarissa de Rosalmeida Dantas

Assessment of Response to Lithium Maintenance Treatment in Bipolar Disorder: A Consortium on Lithium Genetics (ConLiGen) Report

Objective The assessment of response to lithium maintenance treatment in bipolar disorder (BD) is complicated by variable length of treatment, unpredictable clinical course, and often inconsistent compliance. Prospective and retrospective methods of assessment of lithium response have been proposed in the literature. In this study we report the key phenotypic measures of the “Retrospective Criteria of Long-Term Treatment Response in Research Subjects with Bipolar Disorder” scale currently used in the Consortium on Lithium Genetics (ConLiGen) study. Materials and Methods Twenty-nine ConLiGen sites took part in a two-stage case-vignette rating procedure to examine inter-rater agreement [Kappa (κ)] and reliability [intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC)] of lithium response. Annotated first-round vignettes and rating guidelines were circulated to expert research clinicians for training purposes between the two stages. Further, we analyzed the distributional properties of the treatment response scores available for 1,308 patients using mixture modeling. Results Substantial and moderate agreement was shown across sites in the first and second sets of vignettes (κ = 0.66 and κ = 0.54, respectively), without significant improvement from training. However, definition of response using the A score as a quantitative trait and selecting cases with B criteria of 4 or less showed an improvement between the two stages (ICC1 = 0.71 and ICC2 = 0.75, respectively). Mixture modeling of score distribution indicated three subpopulations (full responders, partial responders, non responders). Conclusions We identified two definitions of lithium response, one dichotomous and the other continuous, with moderate to substantial inter-rater agreement and reliability. Accurate phenotypic measurement of lithium response is crucial for the ongoing ConLiGen pharmacogenomic study.

Anorexia nervosa and Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome: a case report

IntroductionWernickes encephalopathy is an acute, potentially fatal, neuropsychiatric syndrome resulting from thiamine deficiency. The disorder is still greatly under-diagnosed, and failure to promptly identify and adequately treat the condition can lead to death or to the chronic form of the encephalopathy - Korsakoffs syndrome. Wernickes encephalopathy has traditionally been associated with alcoholism but, in recent years, there has been an increase in the number of clinical settings in which the disorder is observed.Case presentationWe report the case of a 45-year-old Caucasian woman who arrived at the emergency room presenting signs of marked malnutrition and mental confusion, ataxic gait and ophthalmoplegia. Main laboratory test findings included low serum magnesium and megaloblastic anemia. Brain magnetic resonance imaging revealed increased T2 signal in the supratentorial paraventricular region, the medial regions of the thalamus and the central and periaqueductal midbrain. The diagnosis of Wernickes encephalopathy was made at once and immediate reposition of thiamine and magnesium was started. The patient had a long history of recurrent thoughts of being overweight, severe self-imposed diet restrictions and self-induced vomiting. She had also been drinking gin on a daily basis for the last eight years. One day after admittance the acute global confusional state resolved, but she presented severe memory deficits and confabulation. After six months of outpatient follow-up, memory deficits remained unaltered.ConclusionIn this case, self-imposed long-lasting nutritional deprivation is thought to be the main cause of thiamine deficiency and subsequent encephalopathy, but adjunct factors, such as magnesium depletion and chronic alcohol misuse, might have played an important role, especially in the development of Korsakoffs syndrome. The co-morbidity between eating disorders and substance abuse disorders has emerged as a significant health issue for women, and the subgroup of patients with anorexia nervosa who also misuse alcohol is probably at a particular risk of developing Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. The present case report highlights this relevant issue.

Correlation between insight dimensions and cognitive functions in patients with deficit and nondeficit schizophrenia

Previous studies have shown correlations between poor insight and neurocognitive impairment in schizophrenia. Deficit schizophrenia has been associated with worse cognitive functioning and poorer insight. This study aimed at investigating the relationship between insight dimensions (measured by Schedule for the Assessment of Insight-Expanded Version and its factors) and specific neurocognitive functions (assessed through a battery of neuropsychological tests) considering separately patients with deficit (n=29) and nondeficit schizophrenia (n=44), categorized according to the Schedule for the Deficit Syndrome. We found that working memory correlated positively and significantly with awareness of mental illness in both groups. In nondeficit group, awareness of mental illness correlated additionally with verbal fluency and attention. If confirmed by further studies, these results may have important consequences, such as the need of tailoring differently cognitive rehabilitation for each group.

Insight controlled for cognition in deficit and nondeficit schizophrenia

Patients with deficit schizophrenia have worse cognition and poorer social functioning compared to the nondeficit ones. Insight is another domain in which these two groups might differ, but data on insight impairment in deficit versus nondeficit schizophrenia are still scarce. We compared 29 patients with deficit schizophrenia to 44 nondeficit patients and found a tendency to poorer insight in the deficit group. However such tendency disappeared when analysis was controlled for cognition, a domain in which both groups differed significantly. This finding reinforces the pressing need for simultaneous assessment of the several dimensions or domains of schizophrenic psychopathology.

Sintomas de conteúdo religioso em pacientes psiquiátricos

BACKGROUND: A number of studies have identified the role of religion in personal life, social relationships, attitudes and values related to health and mental illness. Moreover, religious personal experience has been proved to contribute to the genesis and configuration of psychiatric symptoms. Few empirical studies have investigated in Brazil the interaction of religiosity and psychopathology. OBJECTIVE: The study aims to evaluate the relationship between mental symptoms of religious content, social and cultural factors and general psychiatric symptoms. METHOD: A number of 200 consecutive admissions in a General Hospital psychiatric in-patient unit were reviewed. In order to identify symptoms of religious content, a specific item was added to the BPRS-extended form. Statistical significance was considered above the 0.01 level. RESULTS: Moderate to intense symptoms of religious content were present in 15.7% of all patients. No significant interactions were identified between religious affiliation, religious commitment and psychiatric diagnosis. Strong correlations were found between religious content and symptoms of the manic spectrum. CONCLUSIONS: Although the descriptive design of the present study refrains further conclusions, the results indicate that the relationship between manic symptoms and religious experiences should be further investigated in future studies.

Demographics and complaints of university students who sought help at a campus mental health service between 1987 and 2004

CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE Client characterization is an important step in evaluating the services offered by campus counseling and mental health centers and in their further planning and development. The objectives here were to describe reported complaints and demographics among students who sought counseling/mental healthcare at a Brazilian campus mental health service over a 17-year period and to compare these characteristics with those of the general university student body. DESIGN AND SETTING Retrospective study at the Psychological and Psychiatric Service for Students (SAPPE), Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp). METHODS The participants were all of the 2,194 students who sought counseling/mental health care at SAPPE from 1987 to 2004. Information was obtained from clients clinical charts. Unicamps database was consulted for general information on its students. RESULTS The findings indicated overrepresentation, among the clients, of undergraduates, female students, students from Brazilian states other than São Paulo, students living in the campus residence hall and those whose main source of income was a scholarship grant. We also found overrepresentation of Humanities and Arts students among the clients. The most frequently reported complaints were difficulties in interpersonal relationships, family conflicts and poor academic performance. CONCLUSION Course level (undergraduate or postgraduate), study field, living in a university residential facility and reliance on a scholarship grant were found to influence the behavior of seeking mental health counseling among Brazilian university students in this study. Course level was found to influence the pattern of complaints reported at first contact with the mental health service.

Inter-rater reliability and factor analysis of the Brazilian version of the Schedule for the Assessment of Insight: Expanded Version (SAI-E)

OBJECTIVES The Schedule for the Assessment of Insight - Expanded Version consists of 11 items that encompass: awareness of having a mental illness, ability to rename psychotic phenomena as abnormal, and compliance with treatment. The objective of the study was to evaluate the inter-rater reliability and to study the factorial structure of the Brazilian version of the instrument. METHOD The Brazilian version of the Schedule for the Assessment of Insight - Expanded Version was used for the assessment of insight of 109 psychotic inpatients, 60 of whom had the interview tape-recorded in order to be scored by an independent evaluator. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was adopted as the inter-rater reliability coefficient. In the factor analysis, principal components analysis and Varimax rotation were adopted. RESULTS Inter-rater reliability coefficients from good to excellent were found for the individual items of the Schedule for the Assessment of Insight - Expanded Version with ICC values ranging from 0.54 to 0.82. Regarding the total score, inter-rater reliability was excellent, with ICC = 0.90. A factorial structure similar to the one obtained by the original version of the Schedule for the Assessment of Insight - Expanded Version was found, with 3 factors accounting for 71.72% of variance. CONCLUSION In the Brazilian context, the Schedule for the Assessment of Insight - Expanded Version presented good inter-rater reliability and factorial structure compatible to the insight dimensions that are intended to be evaluated.

Assessing treatment response to prophylactic lithium use in patients with bipolar disorder

Objetive To identify potential clinical and epidemiological predictors of long-term response to lithium treatment. Methods A total of 40 adult outpatients followed in an university hospital, with confirmed diagnosis of bipolar disorder and with history of lithium use for at least a six months period, had their response to this medication assessed through the use of a standardized instrument. The ALDA scale is based on retrospective clinical data, in our study assessed through a thoroughly reviewed of the medical charts, and is used to evaluate the clinical improvement with the treatment (Criterion A), corrected by the acknowledgement of possible confounding factors, such as duration of the treatment, compliance and concomitant use of additional medications (Criterion B), in order to estimate the response that can be specifically attributable to lithium. Results Our study found an inverse relation between the number of mood episodes with psychotic symptoms and lithium treatment outcome. Conclusion The results reinforce the hypothesis that lithium seems to be less efficacious in patients with bipolar disorder who present psychotic symptoms.

Cartografia das pesquisas avaliativas de serviços de saúde mental no Brasil (2004-2013)

Este trabalho tem como objetivo mapear as pesquisas avaliativas de servicos de saude mental, produzidas no Brasil nos ultimos dez anos, a partir de levantamento em bases de dados de dissertacoes e teses academicas e de artigos cientificos. Foram analisadas 68 dissertacoes e teses e 103 artigos. A producao das dissertacoes e teses se concentra em instituicoes nos estados de Sao Paulo e do Rio de Janeiro, e estas se originam principalmente de programas de pos-graduacao em Saude Coletiva e em Enfermagem. Os artigos se referem a servicos localizados em numero restrito de municipios das regioes Sul e Sudeste do pais, principalmente do Rio Grande do Sul e de Sao Paulo, havendo poucos estudos de abrangencia nacional. No conjunto da producao, os servicos mais avaliados sao os Centros de Atencao Psicossocial, seguidos pela Atencao Basica em Saude. Os sujeitos de pesquisa mais frequentes sao os trabalhadores de saude mental, e em segundo lugar, os usuarios. A maioria dos trabalhos usa metodologia qualitativa. Conclui-se que as pesquisas avaliativas vem se concentrando em abordagens pouco diversificadas do processo da reforma da saude mental, e que estas nao tem abrangencia suficiente para fornecer, proximamente, elementos para prover indicadores basicos nacionais de saude mental.

Values and DSM-5: looking at the debate on attenuated psychosis syndrome

BackgroundAlthough values have increasingly received attention in psychiatric literature over the last three decades, their role has been only partially acknowledged in psychiatric classification endeavors. The review process of the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) received harsh criticism, and was even considered secretive by some authors. Also, it lacked an official discussion of values at play. In this perspective paper we briefly discuss the interplay of some values in the scientific and non-scientific debate around one of the most debated DSM-5 category proposals, the Attenuated Psychosis Syndrome (APS). Then, we point out some ethical consequences of a facts-plus-values perspective in psychiatric classification.DiscussionDifferent stakeholders participated in the APS-debate and for analytical purposes we divided them into four groups: (i) researchers in the field of high-risk mental states; (ii) the DSM-5 Psychotic Disorders Work Group; (iii) patient, carers and advocacy groups; and (iv) external stakeholders, not related to the previous groups, but which also publicly expressed their opinions about APS inclusion in DSM-5. We found that each group differently stressed the role of values we examined in the APS-debate. These values were ethical, but also epistemic, political, economic and ontological. The prominence given to some values, and the lack of discussion about others, generated divergent positions among stakeholders in the debate.SummaryAs exemplified by the APS discussion, although medicine is primarily an ethical endeavor, values of different kinds that take part in it also shape to a large extent the profession. Thus, it may be strategic to openly discuss values at play in the elaboration of diagnostic tools and classificatory systems. This task, more than scientifically or politically significant, is ethically important.