STIGMATIZATION OF MENTALLY ILL PEOPLE BY PARAMEDICS – PILOT STUDY

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-11
Author(s):  
Paulina Pisaniak ◽  
Joanna Żołądź ◽  
Aleksander Tarczoń ◽  
Dorota Ozga

Aim: Stigmatization is about making a division – people are grouped into better and worse, people with mental disorders are very often perceived as different, which is why they are largely stigmatized. Mental illnesses are a growing problem among the society of developed countries, therefore, the problem of stigmatization of these people has also become noticeable, which may adversely affect their mental condition and the convalescence process. The aim of the study is to assess the degree of stigmatization of mentally ill people by paramedics. Material and methods: An original questionnaire was used to collect the data, distributed from February 15, 2020 to April 7, 2020. among paramedics working in various medical rescue units and in units cooperating with the National Medical Rescue system. We collected 91 respondents replied. The research was a pilot study. Results: Paramedics are a professional group that does not show any particular signs of stigmatization in relation to the mentally ill, but single responses were obtained, which may indicate a given respondent’s lack of understanding for the mentally ill. Conclusions: In order to prevent stigmatization of the mentally ill, it is very important to educate not only paramedics, but also representatives of other medical professions who have contact with people suffering from mental disorders.

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharina Lorey ◽  
Jörg M. Fegert

Objective: Law enforcement officers often have contact to persons who show symptoms of mental disorders. Adequately designed training is necessary for developing the best possible practices in policing when coming into contact with mentally ill people, and may help to expand their general knowledge on mental disorders. To achieve a sustainable implementation of training content in daily policing work, the acceptance and proactive integration of methods by the training participants is essential.Method: This study investigates an exemplary modular training curriculum based on a survey with 2,228 German police officers (28.2% female, 71.8% male) concerning their needs and challenges when coming into contact with persons with mental disorders. This empirical end-user driven approach was used to adapt existing training concepts to the current needs and interests of law enforcement personnel in order to maximize compliance.Results: The training program draft includes basic modules which are intended to be of direct interest to all police officers, such as mental disorders with high policing relevance, encountering suicidal patients, (non-directive) communication and de-escalation skills, and mental hygiene in policing. They are arranged in more specialized modules that address specific target group audiences within police forces and the training curriculum provides information about genuine risks and self-protection, trauma sensitivity, and interaction with children and victims among other contents. The self-selectable, modular, and empirically-based continued training program also includes an introduction to local mental health service professionals and networks, trialogue sequences, and situational role play scenarios.Conclusion: Due to frequent contact law enforcement officers have to mentally ill people, improved training designed to maximize knowledge and the integration of trained methods is necessary. Gaining acceptance and proactive support by trainees is ensured through end-user driven implementation of specialized and differentiated up-to-date training programs. Our results showcase how police officers' perspectives on persons with mental illnesses is a main aspect that can and should be used to encourage training course designs.


2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 240-256
Author(s):  
Akira Hashimoto

This text, dealing with the private confinement of the mentally ill at home, or shitaku kanchi, has often been referred to as a ‘classic text’ in the history of Japanese psychiatry. Shitaku kanchi was one of the most prevalent methods of treating mental disorders in early twentieth-century Japan. Under the guidance of Kure Shūzō (1865–1932), Kure’s assistants at Tokyo University inspected a total of 364 rooms of shitaku kanchi across Japan between 1910 and 1916. This text was published as their final report in 1918. The text also refers to traditional healing practices for mental illnesses found throughout the country. Its abundant descriptions aroused the interest of experts of various disciplines.


1982 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-23
Author(s):  
I. E. Zimakova ◽  
A. M. Karpov ◽  
S. V. Kirshin

From 6 to 12% of the population of economically developed countries suffer from various mental disorders, more than 80% of which are borderline forms of neuropsychic pathology [2]. These include those psychopathological conditions that are manifested by symptoms of anxiety and fear, increased fatigue and exhaustion, increased irritability, anxious suspiciousness, low mood, obsessions, senestopathies, hypochondria, insomnia, autonomic disorders. These mental disorders are observed both in mental illnesses - neuroses, psychopathies, sluggish schizophrenia, and in neurosis-like and psychopathic conditions arising from somatic diseases [12]. The pathogenesis of borderline states has not been fully studied, but the fundamental idea that psychogenic (sociogenic) and biological (constitutional, genetic, 'exogenous) factors are combined in their origin in a dialectical unity has been established in Russian literature. It is generally accepted that the treatment of patients with borderline conditions should be comprehensive - to combine psycho- and pharmacotherapy [2, 3]. Psychotherapy addresses the psychogenic links of pathogenesis, pharmacotherapy - to biological ones.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Mewton ◽  
Briana Lees ◽  
Lindsay Squeglia ◽  
Miriam K. Forbes ◽  
Matthew Sunderland ◽  
...  

Categorical mental disorders are being recognized as suboptimal targets in clinical neuroscience due to poor reliability as well as high rates of heterogeneity within, and comorbidity between, mental disorders. As an alternative to the case-control approach, recent studies have focused on the relationship between neurobiology and latent dimensions of psychopathology. The current study aimed to investigate the relationship between brain structure and psychopathology in the critical preadolescent period when psychopathology is emerging. This study included baseline data from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study® (n = 11,721; age range = 9-10 years; male = 52.2%). General psychopathology, externalizing, internalizing, and thought disorder dimensions were based on a higher-order model of psychopathology and estimated using Bayesian plausible values. Outcome variables included global and regional cortical volume, thickness, and surface area. Higher levels of psychopathology across all dimensions were associated with lower volume and surface area globally, as well as widespread and pervasive alterations across the majority of cortical and subcortical regions studied, after adjusting for sex, race/ethnicity, and parental education. The relationships between general psychopathology and brain structure were attenuated when adjusting for cognitive functioning. There was evidence of a relationship between externalizing psychopathology and frontal regions of the cortex that was independent of general psychopathology. The current study identified lower cortical volume and surface area as transdiagnostic biomarkers for general psychopathology in preadolescence. The widespread and pervasive relationships between general psychopathology and brain structure may reflect cognitive dysfunction that is a feature across a range of mental illnesses.


1992 ◽  
Vol 26 (9-11) ◽  
pp. 2109-2112
Author(s):  
J. G. Cleary ◽  
T. J. Boehm ◽  
R. J. Geary

Schoeller Technical Papers, Inc. (Schoeller), which manufactures photographic and other specialty papers, is located in Pulaski, New York. The wastewater treatment system consists of a primary clarifier and two settling lagoons. Secondary treatment using a biotower was proposed to meet the new New York State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (SPDES) discharge limits for BOD and TSS. The effluent from each basin is discharged directly to the Salmon River, at an approximate average flow of 1.6 million gallons/day (mgd). A biotower pilot study was performed to evaluate the suitability of a biotower treatment process for treating the total effluent from Schoeller's facility. The pilot study was used to select the media for the full-scale biotower and to confirm the design loading for the full-scale biotower, which proceeded in parallel with the pilot study due to the schedule constraints. Two pilot systems were operated to compare a conventional cross-flow and vertical media. Test data were collected to evaluate the performance of each pilot treatment system at a range of loading conditions and to develop the design loading information for the full-scale plant. The pilot units were operated for a period of 10 months. BOD concentrations to the pilot units averaged 58 mg/l with a peak of 210 mg/l. Approximately 80% of the BOD was soluble. BOD loadings averaged 21 lb BOD/day/1,000 cubic feet with a peak of 77 lb BOD/day/1,000 cubic feet. Both pilot units achieved excellent BOD removals exceeding 75%, with average effluent soluble BOD concentration less than 10 mg/l and average effluent TSS concentrations of 12 mg/l. The two media achieved comparable performance throughout most of the pilot study.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 526
Author(s):  
Sławomir Murawiec ◽  
Marek Krzystanek

Despite treating depression with antidepressants, their effectiveness is often insufficient. Comparative effectiveness studies and meta-analyses show the effectiveness of antidepressants; however, they do not provide clear indications as to the choice of a specific antidepressant. The rational choice of antidepressants may be based on matching their mechanisms of action to the symptomatic profiles of depression, reflecting the heterogeneity of symptoms in different patients. The authors presented a series of cases of patients diagnosed with depression in whom at least one previous antidepressant treatment was shown to be ineffective before drug targeted symptom cluster-matching treatment (SCMT). The presented pilot study shows for the first time the effectiveness of SCMT in the different clusters of depressive symptoms. All the described patients obtained recovery from depressive symptoms after introducing drug-targeted SCMT. Once validated in clinical trials, SCMT might become an effective and rational method of selecting an antidepressant according to the individual profile of depressive symptoms, the mechanism of their formation, and the mechanism of drug action. Although the study results are preliminary, SCMT can be a way to personalize treatment, increasing the likelihood of improvement even in patients who meet criteria for treatment-resistant depression.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard S. Lee ◽  
Sophia Q. Song ◽  
Henri M. Garrison-Desany ◽  
Jenny L. Carey ◽  
Patricia Lasutschinkow ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Equal dosage of X-linked genes between males and females is maintained by the X-inactivation of the second X chromosome in females through epigenetic mechanisms. Boys with aneuploidy of the X chromosome exhibit a host of symptoms such as low fertility, musculoskeletal anomalies, and cognitive and behavioral deficits that are presumed to be caused by the abnormal dosage of these genes. The objective of this pilot study is to assess the relationship between CpG methylation, an epigenetic modification, at several genes on the X chromosome and behavioral dysfunction in boys with supernumerary X chromosomes. Results Two parental questionnaires, the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) and Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), were analyzed, and they showed expected differences in both internal and external behaviors between neurotypical (46,XY) boys and boys with 49,XXXXY. There were several CpGs in AR and MAOA of boys with 49,XXXXY whose methylation levels were skewed from levels predicted from having one active (Xa) and three inactive (Xi) X chromosomes. Further, methylation levels of multiple CpGs in MAOA showed nominally significant association with externalizing behavior on the CBCL, and the methylation level of one CpG in AR showed nominally significant association with the BRIEF Regulation Index. Conclusions Boys with 49,XXXXY displayed higher levels of CpG methylation at regulatory intronic regions in X-linked genes encoding the androgen receptor (AR) and monoamine oxidase A (MAOA), compared to that in boys with 47,XXY and neurotypical boys. Our pilot study results suggest a link between CpG methylation levels and behavior in boys with 49,XXXXY.


BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. e044622
Author(s):  
Catherine Heeney ◽  
Stephen Malden ◽  
Aziz Sheikh

IntroductionElectronic prescribing (ePrescribing) is a key area of development and investment in the UK and across the developed world. ePrescribing is widely understood as a vehicle for tackling medication-related safety concerns, improving care quality and making more efficient use of health resources. Nevertheless, implementation of an electronic health record does not itself ensure benefits for prescribing are maximised. We examine the process of optimisation of ePrescribing systems using case studies to provide policy recommendations based on the experiences of digitally mature hospital sites.Methods and analysisQualitative interviews within six digitally mature sites will be carried out. The aim is to capture successful optimisation of electronic prescribing (ePrescribing) in particular health systems and hospitals. We have identified hospital sites in the UK and in three other developed countries. We used a combination of literature reviews and advice from experts at Optimising ePrescribing in Hospitals (eP Opt) Project round-table events. Sites were purposively selected based on geographical area, innovative work in ePrescribing/electronic health (eHealth) and potential transferability of practices to the UK setting. Interviews will be recorded and transcribed and transcripts coded thematically using NVivo software. Relevant policy and governance documents will be analysed, where available. Planned site visits were suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Ethics and disseminationThe Usher Research Ethics Group granted approval for this study. Results will be disseminated via peer-reviewed journals in medical informatics and expert round-table events, lay member meetings and the ePrescribing Toolkit (http://www.eprescribingtoolkit.com/)—an online resource supporting National Health Service (NHS) hospitals through the ePrescribing process.


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