Re-Arrest Among Juvenile Justice-Involved Youth: An Examination Of The Static And Dynamic Risk Factors

The purpose of this study is to investigate the static and dynamic risk factors for re-arrest among detained youth by examining gender, race/ethnicity, age, special education and mental health variables (i.e., anger/irritability, depression/anxiety, somatic complaints, suicide ideation, thought disturbances, and traumatic experiences). The demographic profiles of detained youth with one admit were also compared with those with multiple admits to the juvenile detention center. With regards to static risk factors, older, white, and special education were significantly at risk of re-arrest. Concerning dynamic risk factors, only anger/irritability predicted re-arrest. Practice implications are also discussed

Psichiatria e psichiatri nel cinema americano

United States cinema motion pictures from the beginning of 20th century to the present are characterized by massive use of sterotypes to represent psychiatrist's image, as well as psychiatric treatment and inpatients psychiatric facilities. Representation tends to undergo considerable changes between psychiatric different historical periods. Psychiatric disorders also are commonly depicted in movies, often in a not realistic way. The images of psychiatrist and mental disorders shown in movies are likely to impact on the beliefs and attitudes of people towards psychiatry

Psychological well-being (PWB): A natural life outlook? An Italian twin study on heritability of PWB in young adults

Background To date, the genetic and environmental architecture of the dimensions of psychological well-being (PWB) remains unexplored.Method PWB of 742 twins aged 23-24 years and enrolled in the Italian Twin Registry was assessed with the three-item version of Ryff's Scales of Psychological Well-Being (SPWB). These scales include items for evaluating the PWB dimensions of self-acceptance, positive relations with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, and personal growth. A twin design was used to obtain correlations in the PWB dimensions for monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins and to estimate the contribution of genetic and environmental factors to variation and covariation in the dimensions.Results Genetic factors explained moderate to substantial proportions of variance in the six SPWB dimensions, with heritability estimates between 37% and 64%. The estimates of genetic correlations were very high (range 0.77-0.99), indicating that genetic factors that influence the expression of the different dimensions of PWB may be shared to a large extent. Non-shared environmental correlations ranged from substantial to high, with the exception of the correlation between autonomy and the dimensions of purpose in life, self-acceptance and personal growth.Conclusions This study presents a twin analysis of PWB measured by the SPWB dimensions; it was found that both genes and non-shared environment play a role in individual differences. The genetic and non-shared environmental correlations between SPWB dimensions suggest that common underlying genetic and non-shared environmental factors influence the expression of the different facets of PWB. © 2011 Cambridge University Press

Measuring depression with questions about well-being: A study on psychiatric outpatients

SUMMARY. Background. Most depression rating scales are characterized by negatively-phrased questions, exploring the presence of various symptoms. Questions such as those regarding suicidal ideation or painful experiences may reduce acceptability or even lead the reader to withdraw participation in the study. Although positively-worded items may be useful, it should be acknowledged that without formal testing they cannot be assumed to be equivalent to negatively-worded ones. The aim of the present study was to test the reliability and validity of a depression rating scale including only positively-phrased items. Methods. Two groups were enrolled in the study: the first comprised 104 adult psychiatric outpatients, the second 88 undergraduate students. All participants completed the depression scale of the Patient Health Questionnaire, the Zung Self- Rating Depression Scale, and the Positively-phrased Depression Scale (PDS), a 10-item self-report instrument in which the items are phrased in a positive way to reflect the absence of symptoms. Psychiatric outpatients also were rated by their clinician on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. Results. The internal consistency of the PDS was satisfactory. The correlations between scores on the PDS and on the other depression scales were moderate to high. Mean PDS scores of patients with a diagnosis of depressive disorder were significantly higher than those of patients with other mental disorders. Conclusions. Despite some limitations, this study suggests that the PDS a valid and reliable instrument which might prove particularly useful for the assessment of depressive symptoms in studies where issues of acceptability are important, such as studies on non-clinical populations, occupational samples, and patients drawn from non-psychiatric settings. © Il Pensiero Scientifico Editore