Individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and separation anxiety disorder (SAD) tend to present higher morbidity than do those with OCD alone. However, the relationship between OCD and SAD has yet to be fully explored.

This was a cross-sectional study using multiple logistic regression to identify differences between OCD patients with SAD (OCD + SAD, n = 260) and without SAD (OCD, n = 695), in terms of clinical and socio-demographic variables. Data were extracted from those collected between 2005 and 2009 via the Brazilian Research Consortium on Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders project.

SAD was currently present in only 42 (4.4%) of the patients, although 260 (27.2%) had a lifetime diagnosis of the disorder. In comparison with the OCD group patients, patients with SAD + OCD showed higher chance to present sensory phenomena, to undergo psychotherapy, and to have more psychiatric comorbidities, mainly bulimia.

In patients with primary OCD, comorbid SAD might be related to greater personal dysfunction and a poorer response to treatment, since sensory phenomena may be a confounding aspect on diagnosis and therapeutics. Patients with OCD + SAD might be more prone to developing specific psychiatric comorbidities, especially bulimia. Our results suggest that SAD symptom assessment should be included in the management and prognostic evaluation of OCD, although the psychobiological role that such symptoms play in OCD merits further investigation.

Actually, in society, stigma against mental illness stills strong, making difficult to develop recovery and social integration of people suffering from mental illness, witch affects their well-being and quality of life. Studies indicates that stigma can be elicited by different social groups, which include, in addition to the general population, the relatives, the individuals with mental illness and event health professionals (Schulze, 2007).

Compare attitudes and stigma against mental illness from students who will work in mental health teams.

Data were collected using a translation of Attribution Questionnaire - AQ 27 (Corrigan, 2003), fulfil in an anonym way from 486 Portuguese students of Medicine, Psychology, Occupational Therapy and Nursing. The sample was composed by 22% male and 78% female; mean age 20.4 years, 65% at begging of the course and 35% finishing.

The data reveal that the sample has little contact with mentally ill individuals (only 19% have relatives with mental illness). Students from Medicine and Psychology present higher values in stigma dimensions, while Occupational Therapy and Nursing show lower values. Students begging the course shows higher stigma than those finishing. Having regular contact with mentally ill individuals seems to decrease stigma attitudes.

Some attitudes related to stigma were found, contradicting the actual knowledge about mental illness and politics of social inclusion. It seems necessary to modify theoretical topics about mental illness learned by students, and also pedagogical methods. Therefore, stigma and social exclusion will be discuss and avoid since the beginning of the courses.

Recent technological innovations have led to a proliferation of mobile and smartphones, which have become the cornerstone of modern societies in the 21st Century in terms of communication, notifications and entertainment. Latest research however suggests that with the advantages offered by mobile technologies, smartphone use today may have a significant impact on mental health and well being. Overuse has been associated with stress, anxiety, depression and addiction.

This talk aims to highlight results of current mobile phone addiction research.

To replicate and extend earlier research with regards to psychopathology (depression, anxiety and stress), mobile phone use and age on problematic mobile phone use and addiction.

Individuals aged 16 and above participated in an online study that contained a pool of validated psychometric measures. Data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling.

Calls per day, time spent on the phone and using social media significantly predicted prohibited and dependent mobile phone use, whereas stress predicted dependent use only. Anxiety and depression did not significantly predict problematic mobile phone use. Findings also revealed that problematic mobile phone use is prevalent across all ages and both genders.

The current results have implications for addiction to using mobile phones, and suggest teachers, parents and affected individuals may benefit from awareness and prevention efforts, respectively.

This talk is based on Kuss, D.J. et al. (2016). Problematic mobile phone use and addiction: The roles of psychopathology, mobile phone use and age. Under review, and was funded by the British Academy and NTU.

The author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.

Mindfulness is a form of meditation that cultivates present moment awareness in a non-judging way. It has a Buddhist origin but has been practiced in the last 40 years without relation to any religious belief. It has been proposed as a treatment for a variety of ailments.

To carry out an overview of systematic reviews of the evidence on mindfulness as a therapeutic tool.

To summarize the existing evidence on the efficacy of mindfulness.

We searched for systematic reviews in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (Cochrane Library).

We found nine Cochrane reviews (for fibromyalgia, aggressiveness in intellectually disabled people, mechanical neck disorders, reducing sedentariness at work, anxiety, somatoform disorders, and post-stroke fatigue), two Cochrane review protocols (stress reduction of patients with breast cancer, and substance use disorders), 50 non-Cochrane reviews (29 provisional abstracts and 21 structured abstracts from the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination) on the efficacy of mindfulness. The Cochrane reviews showed a lack of conclusive evidence for fibromyalgia, aggressiveness in intellectually disabled people, anxiety disorders, somatoform disorders and post-stroke fatigue. Mindfulness training induced a non-significant reduction in workplace sitting time. For chronic neck pain, mindfulness exercises minimally improved function but no global effect was perceived at short term.

According to the existing Cochrane reviews, there is a general lack of evidence mindfulness as an effective treatment. For chronic neck pain, mindfulness exercises minimally improved function. We have detected important areas where high quality clinical trials are needed.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Full findings from the European Commission funded EU-NET-ADB study (Safer Internet Programme) will be presented.

Empirical findings that elucidate the development of an internet addictive behaviour are still incomplete. This is also related to risk as well as protective factors of internet use. Here a process oriented approach to identify underlying conditions of an internet addictive behaviour was chosen.

The aim of the study is to enhance the knowledge and understanding of underlying processes which lead to situation were internet addictive behaviour can evolve.

In total 124 in-depth interviews were conducted with adolescents with an age of 14-17 year. Adolescents from seven different European countries (Greece, Spain, Poland, Germany, Romania, Netherlands & Iceland) participated in this study. Eligibility was granted when adolescents scored more than 30 point or equal in the Internet Addiction Test (IAT; Young, 1998). Data analysis was conducted by use of a step-wise full version of Grounded Theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1990; 1998).

Adolescents employed maladaptive and adaptive strategies in regard to their involvement in the internet. Thus different Digital Outcomes such as “I am addicted” (Stuck Online) ranging to more adaptive internet behaviour like (Juggling it All) and patterns of self-correcting (Coming Full Cycle) were identified. These Digital Outcomes were consequently linked to adolescent's developmental pathways and can be characterized by the core category “Navigating Adolescent Pathways”.

Contextual and developmental factors that mediate the development of an internet addictive behaviour could be identified and linked to multiple Digital Outcomes.

There is an ongoing debate on the effectiveness of suicidal behavior prevention measures in the military. The association of three widely used tools with severe suicide attempts was assessed in this setting.

Thirty-nine Israeli soldiers (59% males), mean age 19 yrs., who attempted suicide during military service were divided into two groups: severe (n = 14; 35.9%) and moderate suicide attempts, and were assessed using the Scale for Suicide Ideation (SSI), Suicide Intent Scale (SIS) and the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS).

Seven items from the SSI (p = 0.008), two items from SIS and one item from C-SSRS were associated with severe suicide attempts. Kendall’s tau-b correlation with bootstrap demonstrated stability of these correlations.

Greater severity of suicidal ideation was associated with more severe suicide attempts. The combination of male gender, available firearms and current severe suicide ideation is high-risk danger sign in a military setting, even when reported intent to die is low.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder associated with increased risk for poor educational attainment and compromised social integration. Currently, clinical diagnosis rarely occurs before school-age, despite behavioral signs of ADHD in very early childhood. There is no known brain biomarker for ADHD risk in children ages 2–3 years-old.

The current study aimed to investigate the functional connectivity (FC) associated with ADHD risk in 70 children aged 2.5 and 3.5 years via functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) in bilateral frontal and parietal cortices; regions involved in attentional and goal-directed cognition. Children were instructed to passively watch videos for approximately 5 min. Risk for ADHD in each child was assessed via maternal symptoms of ADHD, and brain data was evaluated for FC.

Higher risk for maternal ADHD was associated with lower FC in a left-sided parieto-frontal network. Further, the interaction between sex and risk for ADHD was significant, where FC reduction in a widespread bilateral parieto-frontal network was associated with higher risk in male, but not female, participants.

These findings suggest functional organization differences in the parietal–frontal network in toddlers at risk for ADHD; potentially advancing the understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying the development of ADHD.

Mental health is a highly stigmatized topic in Bangladesh. University students are one of the susceptible groups who are experiencing mental health problems. Different studies conducted among undergraduate student in different part of South Asia revealed that they are suffering from psychological morbidity.

This study aims to identify the major mental health problems that students face due to academic factors.

To determine the proportion of undergraduate students who are facing mental health problems and to identify factors related to academic life that are associated with mental health problems.

The study was conducted among newly admitted students who have completed one semester using cross sectional design. Simple random sampling was used to select sample. Sample size was 150. Data were collected through face to face interview using self-administered semi-structured questionnaire.

Result of the study revealed that most of the university students commonly experienced anxiety due to academic reason. Among the respondents, 24% of the students experienced both anxiety and depressive episodes. 60% students experienced anxiety, depression and panic episodes, 12% students experienced only anxiety episodes and 4% don’t have any mental episodes. The most frequently reported pressurizing academic factors were assignment & exam workload and the obligation of getting good grade.

Undergraduate university students experienced different mental episodes at different point of time due to academic pressure.

Stroke is an important cause of morbidity and is responsible for 9% of all deaths worldwide. The most frequent neuropsychiatric consequence of stroke is post-stroke depression (PSD). It has been shown to be associated with both impaired recovery and increased mortality. The aim of our study is to determine the benefits of antidepressant prescription after a stroke.

The databases from Medline and PubMed were reviewed for articles related to post-stroke depression (PSD), antidepressant treatment and stroke, post-stroke depression and functional recovery, stroke related impairment.

Antidepressant drugs have been shown to be effective in treating PSD in six double blind randomized studies. Patients treated with antidepressants had better recovery from disability than patients who did not receive antidepressant therapy: it was proved that antidepressant drugs cause an improvement in cognitive skills and functional recovery in PSD patients. In patients with ischemic stroke and moderate to severe motor deficit, the early prescription of fluoxetine with physiotherapy enhanced motor recovery after 3 months. Some studies showed that PSD can be effectively prevented: nortriptyline, fluoxetine, milnacipran and sertraline appeared to be efficacious in preventing depression after stroke and are to use without significant adverse effects in stroke patients.

Antidepressant treatment plays an increasing role in the management of patients with acute stroke. Therefore, early initiation of antidepressant therapy, in non-depressed stroke patients, may reduce the odds for development of PSD, and improve cognitive and functional recovery.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Obesity is associated with psychological, social and physical problems. The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of subjective health complaints and their impact on work ability in a sample with morbid obesity.

Fortysix patients, 31 women and 15 men, aged 23 to 65 years (mean 43.7, s.d. 10.7), with BMI from 37 to 60 kg/m2 (mean 45 kg/m2, s.d. 5.02), on a waiting list for bariatric surgery participated. Subjective health complaints were measured by the 29-items Subjective Health Complaint Inventory. Five subscales were computed; Allergy, Flu, Musculoskeletal pain, Gastrointestinal problems and Pseudoneurology.

All participants reported subjective health complaints the last month, in particular they suffered from musculoskeletal (mean 8.2, s.d. 5.46), pseudoneurological (mean 4.7, s.d. 4.31) and gastrointestinal (mean 3.2, s.d. 5.46) complaints. Mean sickness absence the last year was 185 days (s.d. 163.32). Days of sickness absence were significant correlated with the Musculoskeletal (r = .35, p= .023) and Pseudoneurological (r= .40, p= .009) subscales.

All patients reported subjective health complaints, with mean levels of symptoms considerably higher than in the general population. In particular, levels of musculoskeletal and pseudoneurological complaints were high, and these complaints were significantly related to work absence. It thus seems like subjective health complaints influence work ability to a significant degree in patients with morbid obesity.

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a type of depression with seasonal pattern. Although it involves some idiosyncratic symptoms, it can overlap with other depressive disorders such as major depressive disorder (MDD) or dysthymia. We aimed to characterize the differences in specific cognitive and clinical symptoms between SAD and depressive-related disorders.

In total, 4554 Finnish subjects from the population-based Health 2011 Survey were interviewed with the Munich version of Composite International Diagnostic Interview (M-CIDI) and filled in the Seasonal Pattern Assessment Questionnaire (SPAQ). From this sample for our analysis, we included those participants who fulfilled the criteria for SAD (n = 171), MDD (n = 153) or dysthymia (n = 84) and their 816 psychologically healthy controls matched by age and gender. In addition to M-CIDI and SPAQ, the Beck Depression Inventory, the General Health Questionnaire, an abbreviated version of the Mini-Mental State Examination, the category verbal fluency test, and the CERAD 10-word list were used.

Subjects with dysthymia showed major deficits in both clinical and cognitive domains compared to MDD, SAD and healthy controls. Although clinical comorbidity was mild in SAD, these participants showed similar cognitive deficits to dysthymic subjects and greater impairments than MDD.

SAD subjects show a differential clinical and cognitive profile compared to other depressive-related disorders. Although less severe clinical symptoms are found in these individuals, some cognitive impairment already appears in subjects with SAD recruited from a population-based study.

generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) are highly prevalent and impairing conditions among children and adolescent. There are some general population studies that have examined these conditions during the early life course.

The primary objectives of this study were to examine the prevalence, and socio-demographic factors related to GAD in representative sample of Egyptian school students (prep, middle and secondary students), and the correlation between adolescence and socio psychological factors that lead to anxiety disorders in adolescents.

The study included 1200 student (600 from rural area, and 600 from urban area), their age ranged from 12–18 years m we used GHQ (28 items with cut point 14), the anxiety scale and SCID I.

The positive clinical cases represent 20.6%, depression is the most prevalent 23.8%, anxiety was (6.69%), body dysmorphic disorder (15.2%), adjustment disorder (13.8%); GAD (9.2%); obsession (7.4%)

Findings demonstrate the clinical significance socio demographic factors related to GAD among adolescent youth, and highlighting on the paternal relations.

The author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.

Deficits in social cognition (SC) are significantly related to community functioning in schizophrenia (SZ). Few studies investigated longitudinal changes in SC and its impact on recovery. In the present study, we aimed: (a) to estimate the magnitude and clinical significance of SC change in outpatients with stable SZ who were assessed at baseline and after 4 years, (b) to identify predictors of reliable and clinically significant change (RCSC), and (c) to determine whether changes in SC over 4 years predicted patient recovery at follow-up.

The reliable change index was used to estimate the proportion of true change in SC, not attributable to measurement error. Stepwise multiple logistic regression models were used to identify the predictors of RCSC in a SC domain (The Awareness of Social Inference Test [TASIT]) and the effect of change in TASIT on recovery at follow-up.

In 548 participants, statistically significant improvements were found for the simple and paradoxical sarcasm of TASIT scale, and for the total score of section 2. The reliable change index was 9.8. A cut-off of 45 identified patients showing clinically significant change. Reliable change was achieved by 12.6% and RCSC by 8% of participants. Lower baseline TASIT sect. 2 score predicted reliable improvement on TASIT sect. 2. Improvement in TASIT sect. 2 scores predicted functional recovery, with a 10-point change predicting 40% increase in the probability of recovery.

The RCSC index provides a conservative way to assess the improvement in the ability to grasp sarcasm in SZ, and is associated with recovery.

The American Psychiatric Association introduced in Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) in the appendix as a tentative disorder in the last edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. However, currently no systematic review exists about excessive gaming viewed from a clinical perspective.

To review clinical studies on gaming addiction in order to ascertain characteristics of both clinical and research studies to provide retrospective evidence in relation with the proposed IGD classification (including criteria, measures and therapies).

A systematic literature review of studies published from 1980 to 2015 has been conducted using three major psychology databases: Academic Search Complete, PsycInfo, and PsycArticles. A total of 5033 results from peer-reviewed journals were obtained, where 32 were identified as empirical clinical papers focused on gaming addiction.

The clinical research studies on gaming identified were published between 1998 and 2015, most of which included patient samples. Categorizations identified in the research papers included: (i) patients’ characteristics (e.g., socio-demographics), (ii) criteria and measures used (e.g., scales to diagnose), (iii) types of gaming problems (e.g., game genre), (iv) and treatments (e.g., type of therapy).

Findings will be discussed against the background of the controversial IGD diagnostic criteria proposed in the DSM-5 in order to assess the extent to which previously published clinical knowledge matched the current proposal for including gaming addiction as behavioral addiction in the next diagnostic manual.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

New recommendations regarding the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) during delivery have changed the maternal birth experience. In this study, we investigated the mental perceived impact of PPE use during delivery on the development of maternal postpartum depression (PPD) and post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS).

This was a multicenter, retrospective cohort study concerning women who delivered during the COVID-19 pandemic first lockdown period in Israel. Postpartum women were approached and asked to complete a comprehensive online questionnaire. Impact of PPE was graded on a scale of 1–5, and Impact of PPE ≥4 was considered high. PPD and PTSS were assessed using the EPDS and City BiTS questionnaires.

Of 421 parturients, 36 (9%) reported high Impact of PPE. Parturients with high Impact of PPE had significantly higher PPD and PTSS scores)EPDS 8.4 ± 5.8 vs. 5.7 ± 5.3; City BiTS 9.2 ± 10.3 vs. 5.8 ± 7.8, p < 0.05 for both). Following adjustment for socio-demographic and delivery confounders and fear of COVID-19 (using Fear of COVID19 scale), Impact of PPE remained positively correlated with PPD symptoms (ß = 0.103, 95% confidence intervals [CI] 0.029–1.006, p = 0.038).

When examining the risk factors for developing postpartum PTSS—experiences during labor and PPE were found to be significant variables. As the use of PPE is crucial in this era of COVID-19 pandemic in order to protect both parturients and caregivers, creative measures should be taken in order to overcome the communication gap it poses.