Dear colleagues,
It is my pleasure to present to you the fourth issue of 2015 featuring the first WFSBP Consensus Report on prevention of homicidal behaviour in men with psychiatric disorders and original research on cognitive and psychosocial characteristics and biological markers of major psychiatric disorders.
The first WFSBP Consensus Report on prevention of homicidal behaviour in men with psychiatric disorders reviews current literature on men's mental health with a focus on assessing and reducing homicide risk in men with psychiatric disorders. They present an opportunity to mental health clinicians to assist in the prevention of homicide by improving men's mental health.
Cevizci and colleagues set out to examine IgG antibody seroprevalence and risk factors for anti-Toxoplasma gondii and anti-Borrelia sp. in patients with schizophrenia (SCZ). While the authors found no difference with regard to seroprevalence between patients and healthy controls, they detected a difference between the groups related to hand and kitchen utensil hygiene after dealing with raw meat, with toxoplasma antibodies being higher in schizophrenia patients.
In an MRI study, Chakrabarthy and coworkers addressed the morphological abnormalities underlying verbal memory impairment early in the disease course of bipolar I disorder (BDI). They compared euthymic patients with BDI recently recovered from their first episode of mania with healthy subjects using a verbal memory test associated with frontal and medial temporal structures. The authors found patients to show decreased performance in learning, recall and recognition, with left hippocampal volumes being negatively correlated with these measures.
Gade and colleagues examined clinical, demographic and psychosocial variables that correlate with long-term functioning in major psychiatric disorders. They applied regression models to samples of patients with SCZ, bipolar disorder (BD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) and compared the magnitude of association of potential correlates with functional outcome, measured by the GAF score. In addition to various disorder-specific correlates, the authors identified shared correlates for worse functional outcome, such as poor premorbid functioning, insidious illness onset and poor premorbid work or social adjustment.
Karanovic and coworkers set out to explore the main and moderating effects of RNA editing (ADAR, ADARB1) and HTR2C genes, childhood trauma, recent stressful life events and psychiatric disorders as contributors to suicide attempt (SA) vulnerability. The authors included suicide attempters and suicide non-attempters, all diagnosed with one of major psychiatric disorders. The authors found the best minimal model to be emotional abuse, recent stressful life events, rs9983925 and rs6318 as independent SA risk factor, and general traumas as a factor moderating the effect of psychiatric disorders and emotional abuse.
Finally, a brief report by Ferensztajn and colleagues presents results on the neurobiology and temperament in the offspring of excellent lithium responders. The authors measured serum-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) in samples of offspring of excellent, partial and non-responders to lithium therapy. In addition to differences in temperament and emotion scales, the offspring of excellent lithium responders was more often treated for mood disorders, showed higher mean BDNF and MMP-9 levels as well as lower IL-6 levels.
Yours sincerely,
Siegfried Kasper, MD
Chief Editor