Springer Science and Business Media LLC

This paper reviews the recent literature on menstrual cycle phase effects on outcomes relevant to anxiety and PTSD, discusses potential neurobiological mechanisms underlying these effects, and highlights methodological limitations impeding scientific advancement. The menstrual cycle and its underlying hormones impact symptom expression among women with anxiety and PTSD, as well as psychophysiological and biological processes relevant to anxiety and PTSD. The most consistent findings are retrospective self-report of premenstrual exacerbation of anxiety symptoms and the protective effect of estradiol on recall of extinction learning among healthy women. Lack of rigorous methodology for assessing menstrual cycle phase and inconsistent menstrual cycle phase definitions likely contribute to other conflicting results. Further investigations that address these limitations and integrate complex interactions between menstrual cycle phase–related hormones, genetics, and psychological vulnerabilities are needed to inform personalized prevention and intervention efforts for women.

This article reviews the current literature on false memories in schizophrenia. Increasing evidence suggests that neither memory impairment in general nor false memories in particular can reliably differentiate patients with schizophrenia or delusions from psychiatric controls. In contrast, it is proposed that a reduced metacognitive awareness of one’s own fallibility, and overconfidence in errors, may predispose a person to fixed, false beliefs (ie, delusions). Congruent with this position, a number of recent investigations suggest that the memory of patients with schizophrenia, as well as healthy subjects scoring high on delusional ideation, is corrupted by an increased number of incorrect memories held with high confidence, possibly relating to a jumping-to-conclusions or liberal acceptance bias in schizophrenia spectrum disorders. A new training approach is described that is intended to sharpen patients’ awareness of such errors and reduce confidence in fallible memories. Some empirical gaps and directions for further research are outlined. Delusional Thinking

Các bệnh phổi mạn tính vẫn phổ biến và gây ra tỷ lệ mắc bệnh và tử vong đáng kể. Có mối tương tác phức tạp giữa các vấn đề tâm thần và bệnh phổi. Bài tổng quan này nhằm tóm tắt tài liệu gần đây và những tiến bộ liên quan đến các khía cạnh tâm thần học của bệnh phổi, bao gồm bệnh phổi tắc nghẽn mạn tính, hen suyễn, bệnh phổi hạn chế và xơ nang. Các tác giả đã bao gồm những phát hiện mới nhất về dịch tễ học, tác động, nguyên nhân, sàng lọc và quản lý tình trạng đồng mắc tâm thần và phổi. Mối quan hệ giữa sức khỏe tâm thần và bệnh phổi, giống như giữa sức khỏe tâm thần và các bệnh lý thể chất khác, là đa yếu tố. Các nghiên cứu thêm sẽ tiếp tục làm rõ các vấn đề và hướng dẫn điều trị cho tình trạng đồng mắc này.

Major depressive disorder in children and adolescents is associated with significant morbidity and mortality, and benefits from intervention. However, studies have focused on acute treatment. Thus, data are limited on long-term treatment (ie, both continuation and maintenance treatment). This article discusses the naturalistic course of depression following acute treatment with psychotherapy and the efficacy of long-term psychotherapy for the prevention of relapse and recurrence in depressed children and adolescents.

Most people do not have access to adequate mental health care, and lack of skilled human resources is a major factor. We provide a narrative review of approaches to implementing task sharing—engaging non-specialist providers—to deliver mental health care. There is strong evidence both for the effectiveness of task sharing as a means of delivering care for a range of conditions across settings and for the effectiveness of non-specialist providers and health workers in delivering elements of culturally adapted psychosocial and psychological interventions for common and severe mental disorders. Key approaches to facilitate task sharing of care include balanced care, collaborative care, sustained training and supervision, use of trans-diagnostic interventions based on a dimensional approach to wellness and illness, and the use of emerging digital technologies. Non-specialist providers and health workers are well positioned to deliver evidence-based interventions for mental disorders, and a variety of delivery approaches can support, facilitate, and sustain this innovation. These approaches should be used, and evaluated, to increase access to mental health services.

In this article, we present an update on epidemiologic research that addresses the scope and impact of children’s exposure to traumatic events in daily living, as well as under special circumstances, such as natural disasters. Toward this end, we provide an overview of the findings of key selected studies that estimate the prevalence of children’s exposure to trauma and associated developmental, functional, mental, and physical health problems. Over the past few years, epidemiologic research on child traumatic stress has demonstrated that children’s exposure to traumatic events is more common than once thought and that children exposed to multiple traumatic events are at a substantially greater risk for a wide range of adverse mental and physical health problems than children who have not suffered cumulative traumatic experiences. These findings have important implications for the provision of mental health and medical services to children and adolescents who have experienced child traumatic stress.

We review the application of videoconferencing (VC) to pretrial forensic assessments of competence to stand trial (CST). We summarize the benefits, legal considerations, and reliability of VC evaluations. Based on our experience with VC in forensic settings, we provide illustrations of challenges and recommendations regarding this capability to meet increasing demands for services. CST evaluations are the most frequent type of forensic mental health assessment within the American legal system. VC can be a reliable method for conducting interviews with most defendants, including those with psychotic symptoms. Videoconferencing can improve the overall efficiency of evaluations while also improving the safety of the professionals involved with the competency evaluation. VC provides an opportunity to meet the increasing demand for evaluations and improve their efficiency. Forensic clinicians should become familiar with the uses of VC in delivering services so that VC is implemented ethically and effectively.