J. T. van Busschbach

The effectiveness of peer support groups in psychosis: a randomized controlled trial

Objective:  To investigate the effect of a (minimally) guided peer support group (GPSG) for people with psychosis on social network, social support, self‐efficacy, self‐esteem, and quality of life, and to evaluate the intervention and its economic consequences.

Economic aspects of peer support groups for psychosis

Peer support groups are rarely available for patients with psychosis, despite potential clinical and economic advantages of such groups. In this study, 106 patients with psychosis were randomly allocated to minimally guided peer support in addition to care as usual (CAU), or CAU only. No relevant differences between mean total costs of both groups were found, nor were there significant differences in WHOQoL-Bref outcomes. Intervention adherence had a substantial impact on the results. It was concluded that minimally guided peer support groups for psychosis do not seem to affect overall healthcare expenses. Positive results of additional outcomes, including a significant increase in social contacts and esteem support, favour the wider implementation of such groups.

Body attitude, body satisfaction and body awareness in a clinical group of depressed patients: An observational study on the associations with depression severity and the influence of treatment

BACKGROUND Apart from changes in mood and cognition, depressive disorders are also characterized by changes in body experience, changes that largely influence daily functioning and aggravate distress. In order to gain more insight into this important issue, three domains of body experience - body attitude, body satisfaction and body awareness - and their associations with symptom severity of depression were studied pre- and post-treatment in a clinical sample of depressed patients in a multidisciplinary setting. METHODS Body attitude (Dresden Body Image Questionnaire), body satisfaction (Body Cathexis Scale), body awareness (Somatic Awareness Questionnaire) and severity of depressive symptoms (Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology) were measured. Differences between pre-treatment and post-treatment scores were studied with paired t-tests. Associations between body experience and depression were analysed with Pearson correlations and partial correlations. RESULTS At the start of treatment, patients scored significantly lower than a healthy comparison sample on body attitude and body satisfaction, but not on body awareness. After treatment, depression scores decreased with large effect sizes, scores for body attitude and body satisfaction increased with medium effect sizes and body awareness scores increased slightly. Medium pre-treatment and strong post-treatment associations were found between depression severity and body attitude and between depression severity and body satisfaction. LIMITATIONS The design does not allow to draw causal conclusions. Because of the multidisciplinary treatment no information is available on the specific contribution of interventions targeting body experience. CONCLUSIONS The study provides evidence for medium to strong associations in clinically depressed patients between body attitude, body satisfaction and depression.

Neural correlates of exercise training in individuals with schizophrenia and in healthy individuals: A systematic review

A body of evidence has revealed positive effects of physical exercise on behavioral, cognitive and physical outcomes in patients with schizophrenia. Notably, the effect of exercise at the neural level may be particularly relevant as well as it is hypothesized that exercise may stimulate the brain in a way that might normalize neural alterations related to the disorder. The aim of the current systematic review was to provide an up to date overview of studies investigating the neural effects of exercise in individuals with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder and healthy individuals. The majority of included studies focused on hippocampal effects, reporting beneficial effects of exercise. In addition, in schizophrenia increased extrastriate body area (EBA) activation and increased white matter fiber integrity in tracts relevant to the disorder were found and in healthy individuals decreased connectivity of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) indicating greater cognitive efficiency was reported. Comparing individuals with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder and healthy individuals within a similar age range, most studies found similar effects on hippocampal volume and white matter tracts for both groups, although the effect in schizophrenia spectrum disorders may be attenuated which is in line with previous literature on brain plasticity. The current review indicates a lack of studies investigating neural correlates other than the hippocampus. Although those studies that did focus on other neural correlates revealed promising results, these have not been replicated in other studies and call for replication. Furthermore, future studies should expand their focus, by investigating neural mechanisms underlying positive effects of physical exercise on positive symptoms, negative symptoms and symptoms such as depression, social withdrawal and social cognition.

Body image in patients with somatoform disorder

BackgroundAlthough body-related problems are common in patients with somatoform disorder, research focusing on how patients with somatoform disorder perceive and evaluate their body is scarce. The present study compared differences in body image between patients with somatoform disorder and respondents from a general population sample. It also examined differences within the somatoform disorder group between men and women and between the diagnostic subgroups conversion disorder, pain disorder and undifferentiated somatoform disorder.MethodsData were obtained from 657 patients (67.5% female) with somatoform disorder (DSM-IV-TR 300.7, 300.11, 300.81, 300.82) and 761 participants (58.6% female) from the general population. The Dresden Body Image Questionnaire (DBIQ) was used to assess body image in five domains: body acceptance, vitality, physical contact, sexual fulfilment, and self-aggrandizement. Confirmatory factor analysis and analyses of variance were performed. Since differences in age and sex were found between the somatoform disorder sample and the comparison sample, analyses were done with two samples of 560 patients with somatoform disorder and 351 individuals from the comparison sample matched on proportion of men and women and age.ResultsPatients scored significantly lower than the comparison sample on all DBIQ domains. Men scored higher than women. Patients with conversion disorder scored significantly higher on vitality and body acceptance than patients with undifferentiated somatoform disorder and pain disorder.ConclusionsThe mostly large differences in body image between patients with somatoform disorder and the comparison sample as well as differences between diagnostic subgroups underline that body image is an important feature in patients with somatoform disorder. The results indicate the usefulness of assessing body image and treating negative body image in patients with somatoform or somatic symptom disorder.