Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) prevalence in the general adult population is estimated to be between 2–4%. Despite the high prevalence, until recently there was only one validated semi-structured interview available for the accurate diagnostic assessment of ADHD within the adult population: the Conners Adult ADHD Diagnostic Interview for DSM-IV (CAADID).

To examine the concurrent validity of the DIVA 2.0 interview comparing the diagnostic rate with the CAADID interview. To analyse the criterion validity of the DIVA 2.0 in the Spanish language in an adult sample.

The aim of this is to study was to evaluate criterion validity of the DIVA 2.0 in an adult sample comparing with the CAADID and other ADHD severity scales.

A transversal study was performed to check the criteria and concurrent validity of the DIVA 2.0 compared to the CAADID.

Forty patients were recruited in an adult ADHD program at a university hospital. The DIVA 2.0 interview showed a diagnostic accuracy of 100% when compared with the diagnoses obtained with the CAADID interview and goods correlations with three self-reported rating scales: the WURS, the ADHD Rating Scale and Sheehan's’ Dysfunction Inventory.

The DIVA 2.0 has good psychometric properties and is a reliable tool for the assessment of ADHD in adults.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

To estimate the prevalence of eating disorders (EDs) and associated risk factors in a sample of undergraduate students.

This is a cross-sectional study. We used a questionnaire consisting of the following sections: demographics, SCOFF questionnaire for screening EDs, the Achievement Anxiety Test (AAT) and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS). Our sample was selected randomly. Sample size was 535 students (44% men, 56% women), and 33% of students were between 18 and 20 years old (age range 16–28).

SCOFF's reliability measured by Cronbach's alpha was 0.542; AAT's alpha for its facilitating scale was 0.682 and debilitating scale 0.821; finally, DASS's depression, anxiety and stress sections’ alpha were 0.923, 0.896 and 0.876 respectively. The prevalence of EDs was 42.2%. The associated factors with the presence of EDs was gender (62% women, 38% men; X2 = 5.007, p = 0.025) and personal family status (X2 = 18.862, p = 0.002), while having divorced parents was a borderline association (OR = 1.53, 95% CI 0.97–2.42). Mann-Whitney’s U test showed that there was a significant difference in the scale of stress between those with an ED and those without (p = 0.026) but not for depression and anxiety. According to multiple logistic regression, risk factors for having an eating disorder were depression, stress, female gender, being married and searching for a romantic relationship (overall model fit p < 0.0001).

This is the first study on EDs from Greece. Depression and stress were significant predictors of EDs, which shows the importance of these two factors in the pathogenesis of EDs.

Alexithymic characteristics have been observed in antisocial personality disorder (APD). On the other hand, aggression is a particular problem commonly observed in personality disorders, especially in APD. We investigated the alexithymic features and aggression levels in outpatients diagnosed with APD in a military hospital setting.

71 male subjects diagnosed with APD and 81 sex and age matched normal subjects with no known medical or psychiatric disorder were assessed with an assessment battery using a sociodemographic data form, APD section of SCID-II, the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS)-20 items, and Aggression Questionnaire.

The subjects with APD have showed significantly higher rates of unemployment, lower educational and socioeconomic status. The APD group also displayed significantly higher scores on alexithymia and aggression than control group. APD subjects with higher scores of aggression revealed significantly higher scores of alexithymia.

Use of action to express emotions, a commonly observed feature of APD, was once considered to be a part of alexithymia. The subjects with APD may have less developed cognitive skills which lead to a failure in communicating their feelings. This may result in immature methods of communicating distress. Our study indicate that alexithymia may contribute to aggressive behavior in patients with APD. To draw a more definitive conclusion on this issue, larger community based studies that compares APD subjects with sociodemographically matched patient control groups are necessary.

It is difficult for a single investigator to study the psychosocial changes that occur over the life span of an individual affected with a chronic illness like β-thalassaemia major. Therefore, a developmental epidemiological perspective is required to understand the chain of events and problems of psychological nature.

We aimed to construct the picture of developmental epidemiology for psychosocial aspects in families of β-thalassaemia major patients attending a tertiary care hospital in north India.

The accelerated longitudinal design was used. The sample consisted of 100 children with β-thalassaemia and their 150 parents, both groups were subdivided further so that each group represented the continuum of longitudinal course.

Overall 54 per cent of children had significant psychopathology. Within the parents groups, 10 per cent had adjustment disorder, 33.3 per cent depressive disorder, and 10 per cent had anxiety disorder and 11 per cent somatoform disorder. There was significant difference only in the domain of psychological health in all the three groups of parents with respect to the quality of life. Among children, quality of life improved with their progression of illness.

Growing up with β-thalassaemic family was analyzed. Such a design can test the hypothesized aetiological or developmental function of a targeted risk factor within a developmental path and may be used in studying the psychological impact of even other chronic illnesses over the life span of an individual for conceptual and holistic understanding.

Families of individuals with schizophrenia experience disempowerment and helplessness because of unique stressors in their everyday life, mainly derived from the positive and negative symptoms of the illness (Bauml, et al., 2006). Another line of research provides evidence that working with families of people with schizophrenia is effective in reducing family burden and distress levels, through structured psychoeducational interventions (Falloon, 2003; Bauml, et al., 2006).

Despite evidence of their efficacy, psychoeducational interventions have not been widely implemented in standard clinical practice. The goal of this ongoing research project is to investigate the efficacy of a group psychoeducational intervention for parents of individuals with schizophrenia in reducing family burden and in improving their communication and problem solving skills, as well as their general family functioning.

The theoretical foundations of family psychoeducation is mainly derived from behavioral family therapy. Four couples (all parents of one or two individuals with schizophrenia) participated in this psychoeducational intervention program. Twenty three group sessions were conducted, organized around three primary goals: a) provision of information about the nature and the treatment of schizophrenia b) management of social and self-stigmatization and c) teaching family members problem-solving and communication skills (Solomon, 2000).

Pre and post treatment measures, as well as direct measures during treatment, were used to quantitatively assess family burden, family rituals, knowledge about the nature of the disorder, coping with stigma, communication and problem solving skills and general family functioning. Findings will be discussed.

The present research have done with concentration on examining the impact of selected and divided attention-shaping training in reinforcing attention and the academic improvement and self-efficacy of primary school children with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder.

The research method was a quasi-experimental design with per- and post-test and follow-up with control group. Statistical society contained all of the primary school children with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder in Rafsanjan City. Forty children with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder were chosen by the method of random sampling and randomly assigned in control and experimental groups (20 children in experimental group and 20 children in control group). At first in pretest stage used academic self-efficacy questionnaire and the software of selected and divided attention. For measurements of academic improvement were used the scores of a teacher build test mathematic and spelling. Then, experimental group take 8 sessions education of selected and divided attention-shaping Training. The data were analyzed by analysis of variance with repeated measurement test.

Results of this research show that selected and divided attention training improved the amount of divided and selected attention and academical improvement of children < but it's not effective significantly on reaction time and academic self-efficacy of children with attention deficit disorder-hyperactivity.

Attention training can be effective to increase attention and academical achievement in children with ADHD.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Truancy is correlated to many aspects of adolescent daily life: physical, mental health, social and economical conditions. WE-STAY (Working in Europe to Stop Truancy Among Youth) is a prevention program designed to reduce truancy and to promote mental health among European adolescents.

To evaluate the effectiveness of the awareness program, in truancy prevention . The awareness intervention aims to increase knowledge about a number of factors, including psychological ones, associated to truancy and how to get help.

Gather information on truancy in European adolescents and perform three school-based health- promotion interventions for adolescents in the entire study and compare the results with a control intervention.

Six European countries are participating in the WE- STAY intervention. In each country, a sample of 1600 pupils ages 14–18 will be randomized into one of four different intervention arms. Baseline evaluation of students’ lifestyle, coping styles, at-risk truancy, self-harm behaviours and mental health issues will be collected using a structured questionnaire.

In the Molise region there are 58 schools, 15 vocational schools and 43 high schools, with a total of 15393 students. After the randomization, we were left with 32 schools, 6 vocational schools and 26 high schools, encompassing a total of 9.489 students, 4.166 males and 5.323 females.

Truancy is often related to mental health problems and at-risk behaviours. WE-STAY will make it possible to evaluate outcomes of different preventive programs and to recommend effective culturally adjusted models for preventing truancy and promoting mental health for adolescents.

We investigated whether adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) show pseudoneglect—preferential allocation of attention to the left visual field (LVF) and a resulting slowing of mean reaction times (MRTs) in the right visual field (RVF), characteristic of neurotypical (NT) individuals —and whether lateralization of attention is modulated by presentation speed and incentives.

Fast Task, a four-choice reaction-time task where stimuli were presented in LVF or RVF, was used to investigate differences in MRT and reaction time variability (RTV) in adults with ADHD (n = 43) and NT adults (n = 46) between a slow/no-incentive and fast/incentive condition. In the lateralization analyses, pseudoneglect was assessed based on MRT, which was calculated separately for the LVF and RVF for each condition and each study participant.

Adults with ADHD had overall slower MRT and increased RTV relative to NT. MRT and RTV improved under the fast/incentive condition. Both groups showed RVF-slowing with no between-group or between-conditions differences in RVF-slowing.

Adults with ADHD exhibited pseudoneglect, a NT pattern of lateralization of attention, which was not attenuated by presentation speed and incentives.

Internet Addiction (IA) is discussed as a serious health problem. Epidemiologic investigations show prevalence rates of 3% of internet users that fulfil criteria for IA. Reported symptoms like tolerance, withdrawal, and craving resemble those of substance-related disorders. Although there is no final agreement on the classification of IA, it has often been referred to as a non-substance-related addiction fostering current issues on the next revision of DSM (Holden, 2010).

Although IA has been investigated in epidemiologic studies there is no research of its prevalence in patients in treatment because of a substance-related disorder. Regarding similarities between IA and substance-related disorders, theories suggest increased prevalence of comorbid IA in these patients.

This study focused on the identification of prevalence of comorbid IA among patients with a primary substance-related disorder in different in-patient clinics across Germany.

Sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Health 1826 patients were screened with a diagnostic inventory for IA. For further description additional questionnaires were given assessing aspects of personality (NEO-FFI) and psychopathology (SCL-90R, BDI-II).

4.1% of the patients fulfilled criteria of IA. In these most common primary diagnoses were pathological gambling and dependency of cannabis. Concerning personality IA-subsample showed increased neuroticism and introversion. Highest symptom burden was found in depression and social insecurity.

Among patients with substance-related disorder prevalence of IA is more common than in healthy samples. Results recommend separate screening for IA in inpatient clinics for substance-related disorders to guarantee full psychological care for patients with IA.

With typical onset in late adolescence or young adulthood psychosis often have a chronic and relapsing course with potentially devastating functional implications. Research on the period that precedes the modal age of onset psychosis has become crucial for identifying the very early stage

This study aims to determine the pre-admission clinical, socio-demographic characteristics and prodromes associated to a first psychotic episode

It's a retrospective observational study. Fifty five Tunisian patients admitted in Hedi Chaker hospital between 2007 and 2013 were recruited. Socio-demographic and clinical data were collected and patients were diagnosed using DSM-IV criteria.

The mean age was 26.5. 61.8 %lived in a rural environment.

54.5% had a family history of psychiatric disorder. 12.7% had a history of head trauma

74.5% were schizoid, 1.8 % had avoidant personality disorder, and 1.8% had schizotypal personality disorder

10.9% suffered from irritability. 67.3% had anxiety .38.2% suffered from depression. 20% experienced mood fluctuations

29.1% had frequent fatigue; 10.9% had a loss of interest

18.2% complained about difficulties with concentration, 10.9% had difficulties of recall

14.5% had loss of appetite, 78.2% suffered from sleep disturbance, 23.6 % lost weight.

25.5% had marked impairment in personal hygiene and grooming .70.9% presented social isolation and withdrawal .7.3% had Impairment in role functioning .40% had odd believes.

Since there is a variety of unspecific signs which may precede a first psychotic episode and no specific biological markers; treating even with insufficient evidence may sometimes become an alternative.

There are often substantial delays before diagnosis and initiation of treatment in people bipolar disorder. Increased delays are a source of considerable morbidity among affected individuals.

To investigate the factors associated with delays to diagnosis and treatment in people with bipolar disorder.

Retrospective cohort study using electronic health record data from the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM) from 1364 adults diagnosed with bipolar disorder. The following predictor variables were analysed in a multivariable Cox regression analysis on diagnostic delay and treatment delay from first presentation to SLaM: age, gender, ethnicity, compulsory admission to hospital under the UK Mental Health Act, marital status and other diagnoses prior to bipolar disorder.

The median diagnostic delay was 62 days (interquartile range: 17–243) and median treatment delay was 31 days (4–122). Compulsory hospital admission was associated with a significant reduction in both diagnostic delay (hazard ratio 2.58, 95% CI 2.18–3.06) and treatment delay (4.40, 3.63–5.62). Prior diagnoses of other psychiatric disorders were associated with increased diagnostic delay, particularly alcohol (0.48, 0.33–0.41) and substance misuse disorders (0.44, 0.31–0.61). Prior diagnosis of schizophrenia and psychotic depression were associated with reduced treatment delay.

Some individuals experience a significant delay in diagnosis and treatment of bipolar disorder, particularly those with alcohol/substance misuse disorders. These findings highlight a need to better identify the symptoms of bipolar disorder and offer appropriate treatment sooner in order to facilitate improved clinical outcomes. This may include the development of specialist early intervention services.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

ADHD in adults is associated with a significant impairment in many life activities increasing the risk of chronic stress in everyday life. Previous studies reported normal cortisol awakening response (CAR) in children with ADHD without comorbidities, nevertheless there is a lack of studies in adults.

The aim of the present research is to examine CAR in adults with ADHD and to assess possible differences between the combine and inattentive subtypes.

Patients were recruited from the Program for adults with ADHD in the Department of Psychiatry of the Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron. The clinical sample consisted of 50 adults, age between 18 and 51 years (mean 35.24 ± 9.21) fulfilling current diagnostic criteria for ADHD (DSM-IV criteria). All patients were naïve to stimulant medication. Psychiatric and organic comorbid disorders were excluded. To assess CAR, four salivary cortisol samples were collected at 0, 30, 45 and 60 minutes after awakening.

The mean increase in CAR for the whole group of patients was 10.34±8.79 nmols/l. T-test comparisons showed no significant differences in the mean increase of CAR between the inattentive (mean: 9.47±9.04 nmols/l) and combine (mean: 11.25±8.67 nmols/l) subtypes (t=0.610; z=0.546).

Despite there were no significant differences in salivary CAR between ADHD subtypes in adults, the mean increase of CAR was higher in combine than in the inattentive subtype. Salivary CAR needs to be further explored as an index of vulnerability to stress in these patients.

The people who seem to have less social support And suffer lack of multiple social supports are more likely at risk to drug abuse.

This research was an experimental with pre-test post-test design with randomly assigned 30 patients referred to drug addiction treatment centers in experimental and control groups. present aim at testing the effect of eight, 2- hour sessions of stress management training based on cognitive behavioral techniques. Subjects were tested at the beginning and at the end of the project with (SSQ).

Study findings showed that the subjects of experimental group that were under the intervention(training)compared with control group showed significantly better scores and test effectiveness.

Interventions based on cognitive – behavioral approaches, is effective treatment that it can alters behavioral and cognitive factors associated with substance abuse and be as an efficient model for the prevention of drug abuse and also after treatment.