Dear colleagues,
It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the second issue of 2014.
In our first article Möller provides a review on the effects of DSM-5 on psychiatric diagnosis and psychopharmacotherapy. While the DSM-IV diagnostic system was largely retained, some changes were made in the field of affective disorder and criteria sets, specifically the new transnosological specifiers, severity assessments, and cross-cutting dimensional assessments might serve as facilitators to individualize treatment.
Laux and colleagues assessed the efficacy of agomelatine in depressive patients as monotherapy, combination therapy and after treatment switch. They concluded that agomelatine improved mood, daytime functioning and sleep–wake rhythm and demonstrated good tolerability in all patient groups under routine practice.
Chiesa et al. investigated the possible influences of rs4680 (COMT) and rs6276 on diagnosis and clinical outcomes in patients with major depression (MD). The results suggest that these variants might not play a major role in the etiology and clinical outcomes of MD.
Di Riso and colleagues examined the interplay of depression, anxiety, and psychological resources in adolescents. It emerged that a combined use of screening tools provided a dimensional rather than a categorical approach for the assessment of mental functioning in adolescents.
Pailhez et al. explored the association between somatotype measures and joint hypermobility (JH) in panic and agoraphobic patients. They concluded that agoraphobia may be associated with JH and that the relationship found between panic and somatotype may be mediated through JH.
Tauch and colleagues sought to determine the frequency and distribution of suicide attempts to the patients’ characteristics, the type of suicide attempt and the method of treatment proposed by the consultation-liaison service in a general hospital. It emerged that most of the patients required further therapy and that a specialized pharmacotherapy was rarely recommended by the consultation service.
Nwachukwu et al. described the profile and activities of home-based psychiatric treatment (HBT) service in Ireland. They concluded that HBT is a safe and effective treatment approach for managing common psychiatric illnesses and is well suited to rural settings.
Zahra and colleagues evaluated the reliability and sensitivity of the Work and Social Adjustment Scale (WSAS) in patients with anxiety and depression. The WSAS proved to be a useful tool. As it also measures a distinct social functioning component, the scale can also be used as an additional outcome measure.
Jahangard et al. compared premenopausal and menopausal women with regard to differences in mood, sleep, and health quality. They concluded that the differences in mood, sleep, and general health were small and the results did not support the assumption of a decrease from premenopausal to menopausal state.
In the last two articles of the issue Sansone and colleagues report their findings on sex and age differences and drug-related criminal behavior in patients with borderline personality (BP). It emerged that there were few overall symptomatic differences among individuals with BP with regard to sex and age while criminal behavior seemed to be related, at least in part, to comorbid substance abuse.
Yours sincerely,
Siegfried Kasper MD,
Chief Editor