Recommendations to the Social Security Administration on the Design of the Mental Health Treatment Study

Many beneficiaries with mental illness who have a strong desire to work nevertheless continue to seek the protection and security of disability benefits, not only because of the income such benefits provide but also for the health care coverage that comes with it. Further complicating matters is that few jobs available to people with mental illnesses have mental health care coverage, forcing individuals to choose between employment and access to care. These barriers, coupled with the limited treatment options and negative employer attitudes and even discrimination when it comes to employing people with serious metal illness, help "explain" the very rates of low labor force participation among people with psychiatric disabilities

Opinion dynamics and decision of vote in bipolar political systems

A model of the opinion dynamics underlying the political decision is proposed. The analysis is restricted to a bipolar scheme with a possible third political area. The interaction among voters is local but the final decision strongly depends on global effects such as, for example, the rating of the governments. As in the realistic case, the individual decision making process is determined by the most relevant personal interests and problems. The phenomenological analysis of the national vote in Italy and Germany has been carried out and a prediction of the next Italian vote as a function of the government rating is presented.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure. To be published in International Journal of Modern Physics

Neuropsychological and functional outcomes in recent-onset major depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia-spectrum disorders: a longitudinal cohort study

Functional disability is the lead contributor to burden of mental illness. Cognitive deficits frequently limit functional recovery, although whether changes in cognition and disability are longitudinally associated in recent-onset individuals remains unclear. Using a prospective, cohort design, 311 patients were recruited and assessed at baseline. One hundred and sixty-seven patients met eligibility criteria (M = 21.5 years old, s.d. = 4.8) and returned for follow-up (M = 20.6 months later, s.d. = 7.8). Two-hundred and thirty participants were included in the final analysis, comprising clinically stable patients with major depression (n = 71), bipolar disorder (BD; n = 61), schizophrenia-spectrum disorders (n = 35) and 63 healthy controls. Neuropsychological functioning and self-rated functional disability were examined using mixed-design, repeated-measures analysis, across diagnoses and cognitive clusters, covarying for relevant confounds. Clinical, neuropsychological and functional changes did not differ between diagnoses (all P40.05). Three reliable neuropsychological subgroups emerged through cluster analysis, characterized by psychomotor slowing, improved sustained attention, and improved verbal memory. Controlling for diagnosis and changes in residual symptoms, clusters with improved neuropsychological functioning observed greater reductions in functional disability than the psychomotor slowing cluster, which instead demonstrated a worsening in disability (Po0.01). Improved sustained attention was independently associated with greater likelihood of follow-up employment (Po0.01). Diagnosis of BD uniquely predicted both follow-up employment and independent living. Neuropsychological course appears to be independently predictive of subjective and objective functional outcomes. Importantly, cognitive phenotypes may reflect distinct pathophysiologies shared across major psychiatric conditions, and be ideal targets for personalized early intervention

A new measure of consensus with reciprocal preference relations: The correlation consensus degree

Producción CientíficaThe achievement of a ‘consensual’ solution in a group decision making problem depends on experts’ ideas, principles, knowledge, experience, etc. The measurement of consensus has been widely studied from the point of view of different research areas, and consequently different consensus measures have been formulated, although a common characteristic of most of them is that they are driven by the implementation of either distance or similarity functions. In the present work though, and within the framework of experts’ opinions modelled via reciprocal preference relations, a different approach to the measurement of consensus based on the Pearson correlation coefficient is studied. The new correlation consensus degree measures the concordance between the intensities of preference for pairs of alternatives as expressed by the experts. Although a detailed study of the formal properties of the new correlation consensus degree shows that it verifies important properties that are common either to distance or to similarity functions between intensities of preferences, it is also proved that it is different to traditional consensus measures. In order to emphasise novelty, two applications of the proposed methodology are also included. The first one is used to illustrate the computation process and discussion of the results, while the second one covers a real life application that makes use of data from Clinical Decision-Making.Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (Project ECO2012-32178

Young workers' experiences of abusive leadership

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a model of abusive leadership as experienced by young workers. Abusive leadership is understood to be subjective and as such this research seeks to explore the experience of abusive leadership through a qualitative approach. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on interviews with 30 young workers who identified themselves as having a “bad” boss, this study employs a constructivist grounded theory approach in order to identify behaviours, moderators and outcomes of abusive leadership. Findings – A definition and model of abusive leadership as experienced by young workers is proposed. The model details 11 behaviours, five moderators and six individual and two organizational outcomes of abusive leadership. Originality/value – The adoption of a constructivist grounded theory approach reveals several unique factors that moderate the relationship between behaviors and outcomes of abusive leadership in young workers. By grounding the model in the actual experiences of young workers, the paper offers possibilities for future research on abusive leadership and young workers and across demographic groups

Mental health in UK Biobank - development, implementation and results from an online questionnaire completed by 157 366 participants: a reanalysis

Background UK Biobank is a well-characterised cohort of over 500 000 participants including genetics, environmental data and imaging. An online mental health questionnaire was designed for UK Biobank participants to expand its potential. Aims Describe the development, implementation and results of this questionnaire. Method An expert working group designed the questionnaire, using established measures where possible, and consulting a patient group. Operational criteria were agreed for defining likely disorder and risk states, including lifetime depression, mania/hypomania, generalised anxiety disorder, unusual experiences and self-harm, and current post-traumatic stress and hazardous/harmful alcohol use. Results A total of 157 366 completed online questionnaires were available by August 2017. Participants were aged 45–82 (53% were ≥65 years) and 57% women. Comparison of self-reported diagnosed mental disorder with a contemporary study shows a similar prevalence, despite respondents being of higher average socioeconomic status. Lifetime depression was a common finding, with 24% (37 434) of participants meeting criteria and current hazardous/harmful alcohol use criteria were met by 21% (32 602), whereas other criteria were met by less than 8% of the participants. There was extensive comorbidity among the syndromes. Mental disorders were associated with a high neuroticism score, adverse life events and long-term illness; addiction and bipolar affective disorder in particular were associated with measures of deprivation. Conclusions The UK Biobank questionnaire represents a very large mental health survey in itself, and the results presented here show high face validity, although caution is needed because of selection bias. Built into UK Biobank, these data intersect with other health data to offer unparalleled potential for crosscutting biomedical research involving mental health