Longitudinal assessments of therapeutic alliance predict work performance in vocational rehabilitation for persons with schizophrenia

OBJECTIVES: To promote functional recovery in persons diagnosed with a psychotic disorder, vocational interventions have emerged over the last few decades which range from sheltered employment to supported employment in the community.DESIGN: Using data from a 6-month vocational rehabilitation programme, we examined whether assessments of the therapeutic alliance were related to the quality of work performed in this work placement. Our first hypothesis was that stronger alliances would be related to better work performance. Second, we expected that client assessments of the TA would better predict outcomes than therapist assessments. Third, we expected that the discrepancy between assessment scores from the client and therapist (client rating minus therapist rating) would be a better predictor for outcome than individual assessments by the therapists or clients.RESULTS: Clients systematically rated the alliance higher than therapists. Modelling the data longitudinally, we found both therapist and client ratings predictive of outcome, though client assessments over time were inversely related to work performance.CONCLUSIONS: Discrepancy in scores was also shown to be predictive of work performance during the program. Clinicians are advised to routinely assess the therapeutic alliance from both client and therapist perspectives and calculate the discrepancy between them as they may indicate ruptures are occurring and thus hamper the intervention.PRACTITIONER POINTS: Clinicians are advised to regularly assess the therapeutic alliance from both their own and the client's perspective. Growing discrepancy in scores may impede intervention effectiveness. Therapeutic alliance may help buffer against work stresses experienced by participants in a vocational programme. Be aware that therapists tend to rate the alliance lower than their clients.</p

Measuring personal recovery in people with a psychotic disorder based on CHIME:A comparison of three validated measures

Living well in spite of residual symptoms of mental illness is measured with the construct of personal recovery. The CHIME framework might be suitable to evaluate personal recovery measures and guide instrument choice. Three validated measures were evaluated in Dutch patients with a psychotic disorder (N = 52). We compared the Recovery Assessment Scale (RAS), the Mental Health Recovery Measure (MHRM), and the Netherlands Empowerment List (NEL). The measures were assessed on six criteria: content validity (based on CHIME), convergent validity with a social support measure, internal consistency, floor and ceiling effects, item interpretability, and ease of administration. The MHRM scored high on content validity with a balanced distribution of items covering the CHIME framework. The MHRM and the NEL showed moderate convergent validity with social support. In all three measures, internal consistency was moderate and floor and ceiling effects were absent. The NEL scores demonstrated a high degree of item interpretability. Ease of administration was moderate for all three measures. Finally, the CHIME framework demonstrated good utility as a framework in guiding instrument choice and evaluation of personal recovery measures. The MHRM showed the best overall result. However, differences between measures were minimal. Generalization of the results is limited by cultural and linguistic factors in the assessment for the subjective measures (i.e. content validity and item interpretability). The broad and multidimensional construct of personal recovery might lead to ambiguous interpretations. Scientific consensus on a well-defined personal recovery construct is needed

Metabolomics-Based Screening of Inborn Errors of Metabolism: Enhancing Clinical Application with a Robust Computational Pipeline

Contains fulltext : 238438.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access

Satisfaction with social connectedness as a predictor for positive and negative symptoms of psychosis:A PHAMOUS study

PURPOSE: This study examines satisfaction with social connectedness (SSC) as predictor of positive and negative symptoms in people with a psychotic disorder. METHODS: Data from the Pharmacotherapy Monitoring and Outcome Survey (PHAMOUS) was used from patients assessed between 2014 and 2019, diagnosed with a psychotic disorder (N = 2109). Items about social connectedness of the Manchester short assessment of Quality of Life (ManSA) were used to measure SSC. Linear mixed models were used to estimate the association of SSC with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) after one and two years against α = 0.01. Analyses were adjusted for symptoms, time since onset, gender and age. Additionally, fluctuation of positive and negative symptom scores over time was estimated. RESULTS: The mean duration of illness of the sample was 18.8 years (SD 10.7) with >65% showing only small variation in positive and negative symptoms over a two to five-year time period. After adjustment for covariates, SSC showed to be negatively associated with positive symptoms after one year (β = -0.47, p < 0.001, 95% CI = -0.70, -025) and two years (β = -0.59, p < 0.001, 95% CI = -0.88, -0.30), and for negative symptoms after one year (β = -0.52, p < 0.001, 95% CI = -0.77, -0.27). The prediction of negative symptoms was not significant at two years. CONCLUSION: This research indicates that interventions on SSC might positively impact mental health for people with psychosis. SSC is a small and robust predictor of future levels of positive symptoms. Negative symptoms could be predicted by SSC at one year

"Please tell me what happened":A descriptive study on prevalence, disclosure and characteristics of victimization in people with a psychotic disorder

IntroductionAlthough people with a psychotic disorder are approximately four to six times more often victimized than the general population, victimization is not routinely assessed in mental healthcare. This study investigates prevalence, context and risk factors of victimization in patients with a psychotic disorder in the Northern, relatively rural region of the Netherlands. Moreover, disclosure rates and awareness of psychiatrists are examined.MethodInformation on personal crime (threats, assaults and sexual violence), property and other forms of crime, the context of victimization and disclosure was routinely assessed in 353 patients with a psychotic disorder who received care at a mental health facility. In addition, involved psychiatrists reported on last year's victimization incidents in their patients.ResultsOne third of the patients reported victimization in the previous year. More than half of the crimes were committed by someone acquainted and took place in the victim's own home or a place familiar to the victim. Younger age, having a comorbid disorder, drug use and perpetration of a crime were all positively associated with victimization. Approximately half of the reported personal crimes were disclosed to a health care professional but only in 16% of the cases the involved psychiatrist report to know about the incident.ConclusionThis study confirms that people with a history of psychosis have an increased risk of becoming the victim of a crime. Although our results suggest that in fifty percent of cases the patients did share the information with professionals, a substantial proportion of incidents appear to go still unnoticed

Diagnostic exome sequencing in 266 Dutch patients with visual impairment

Inherited eye disorders have a large clinical and genetic heterogeneity, which makes genetic diagnosis cumbersome. An exome-sequencing approach was developed in which data analysis was divided into two steps: the vision gene panel and exome analysis. In the vision gene panel analysis, variants in genes known to cause inherited eye disorders were assessed for pathogenicity. If no causative variants were detected and when the patient consented, the entire exome data was analyzed. A total of 266 Dutch patients with different types of inherited eye disorders, including inherited retinal dystrophies, cataract, developmental eye disorders and optic atrophy, were investigated. In the vision gene panel analysis (likely), causative variants were detected in 49% and in the exome analysis in an additional 2% of the patients. The highest detection rate of (likely) causative variants was in patients with inherited retinal dystrophies, for instance a yield of 63% in patients with retinitis pigmentosa. In patients with developmental eye defects, cataract and optic atrophy, the detection rate was 50, 33 and 17%, respectively. An exome-sequencing approach enables a genetic diagnosis in patients with different types of inherited eye disorders using one test. The exome approach has the same detection rate as targeted panel sequencing tests, but offers a number of advantages. For instance, the vision gene panel can be frequently and easily updated with additional (novel) eye disorder genes. Determination of the genetic diagnosis improved the clinical diagnosis, regarding the assessment of the inheritance pattern as well as future disease perspective

Diagnostic exome sequencing in 266 Dutch patients with visual impairment

Inherited eye disorders have a large clinical and genetic heterogeneity, which makes genetic diagnosis cumbersome. An exome-sequencing approach was developed in which data analysis was divided into two steps: the vision gene panel and exome analysis. In the vision gene panel analysis, variants in genes known to cause inherited eye disorders were assessed for pathogenicity. If no causative variants were detected and when the patient consented, the entire exome data was analyzed. A total of 266 Dutch patients with different types of inherited eye disorders, including inherited retinal dystrophies, cataract, developmental eye disorders and optic atrophy, were investigated. In the vision gene panel analysis (likely), causative variants were detected in 49% and in the exome analysis in an additional 2% of the patients. The highest detection rate of (likely) causative variants was in patients with inherited retinal dystrophies, for instance a yield of 63% in patients with retinitis pigmentosa. In patients with developmental eye defects, cataract and optic atrophy, the detection rate was 50, 33 and 17%, respectively. An exome-sequencing approach enables a genetic diagnosis in patients with different types of inherited eye disorders using one test. The exome approach has the same detection rate as targeted panel sequencing tests, but offers a number of advantages. For instance, the vision gene panel can be frequently and easily updated with additional (novel) eye disorder genes. Determination of the genetic diagnosis improved the clinical diagnosis, regarding the assessment of the inheritance pattern as well as future disease perspective

Measuring personal recovery in people with a psychotic disorder based on CHIME:A comparison of three validated measures

Living well in spite of residual symptoms of mental illness is measured with the construct of personal recovery. The CHIME framework might be suitable to evaluate personal recovery measures and guide instrument choice. Three validated measures were evaluated in Dutch patients with a psychotic disorder (N = 52). We compared the Recovery Assessment Scale (RAS), the Mental Health Recovery Measure (MHRM), and the Netherlands Empowerment List (NEL). The measures were assessed on six criteria: content validity (based on CHIME), convergent validity with a social support measure, internal consistency, floor and ceiling effects, item interpretability, and ease of administration. The MHRM scored high on content validity with a balanced distribution of items covering the CHIME framework. The MHRM and the NEL showed moderate convergent validity with social support. In all three measures, internal consistency was moderate and floor and ceiling effects were absent. The NEL scores demonstrated a high degree of item interpretability. Ease of administration was moderate for all three measures. Finally, the CHIME framework demonstrated good utility as a framework in guiding instrument choice and evaluation of personal recovery measures. The MHRM showed the best overall result. However, differences between measures were minimal. Generalization of the results is limited by cultural and linguistic factors in the assessment for the subjective measures (i.e. content validity and item interpretability). The broad and multidimensional construct of personal recovery might lead to ambiguous interpretations. Scientific consensus on a well-defined personal recovery construct is needed.</p

Comment on Grivas et al. Morphology, Development and Deformation of the Spine in Mild and Moderate Scoliosis: Are Changes in the Spine Primary or Secondary? J. Clin. Med. 2021, 10, 5901

With great interest, we have read the article entitled “Morphology, Development and Deformation of the Spine in Mild and Moderate Scoliosis: Are Changes in the Spine Pri-mary or Secondary [...

Reliability and Validity of the Adapted Dutch Version of the Early-Onset Scoliosis-24-Item Questionnaire (EOSQ-24)

STUDY DESIGN: Translation and validation of the Early Onset Scoliosis-24 Questionnaire (EOSQ-24). OBJECTIVE: To cross-culturally adapt the English version of the EOSQ-24 to the Dutch language and to assess the questionnaire's reliability and validity. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: Early-onset scoliosis (EOS) has a profound impact on health-related quality of life. The EOSQ-24 is health-related quality of life questionnaire filled in by parents of children with EOS. The EOSQ-24 was already translated into multiple languages and its application was confirmed in clinical studies. However, the EOSQ-24 is not yet translated and validated for the Dutch population. METHODS: The adaption of the EOSQ-24 for the Dutch population was done in three steps: 1) translation to the Dutch language, 2) cross-cultural adaptation, and 3) cross-cultural validation. To ensure that the Adapted Dutch EOSQ-24 is applicable for clinical use, the measurement properties were tested in four steps: 1) floor and ceiling effects, 2) validation, 3) reliability, and 4) discriminative ability. One hundred three parents completed the Adapted Dutch EOSQ-24, the Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ-28 PF), and the Scoliosis Research Society Questionnaire (SRS-22r). A second EOSQ-24 was completed for test-retest reproducibility. RESULTS: The EOSQ-24 was successfully translated, adapted, and validated for the Dutch language. Almost all response items showed a normal distribution. The EOSQ-24 showed excellent reliability (Cronbach α of 0.950). The EOSQ-24 was successfully validated against the CHQ-28-PF and the SRS-22r. Test-retest was excellent (ICC ≥ 0.8). Finally, The EOSQ-24 was found capable to discriminate patients with different curve severities (P = 0.003), diagnosis (P = 0.006), and ambulatory status (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The current Dutch EOSQ-24 proved to be a valid and reliable quality of life assessment tool for patients with EOS. Currently, long follow-up studies using the EOSQ-24, including the Dutch EOSQ-24, are lacking and are needed to fully validate the EOSQ-24 for use in a clinical setting. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 2