Category: Mental Health Research

Palliative/End of Life Care & Lung Cancer: With & Without Schizophrenia

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Research Paper Title

Palliative and high-intensity end-of-life care in schizophrenia patients with lung cancer: results from a French national population-based study.

Background

Schizophrenia is marked by inequities in cancer treatment and associated with high smoking rates.

Lung cancer patients with schizophrenia may thus be at risk of receiving poorer end-of-life care compared to those without mental disorder.

The objective was to compare end-of-life care delivered to patients with schizophrenia and lung cancer with patients without severe mental disorder.

Methods

This population-based cohort study included all patients aged 15 and older who died from their terminal lung cancer in hospital in France (2014-2016).

Schizophrenia patients and controls without severe mental disorder were selected and indicators of palliative care and high-intensity end-of-life care were compared.

Multivariable generalised log-linear models were performed, adjusted for sex, age, year of death, social deprivation, time between cancer diagnosis and death, metastases, comorbidity, smoking addiction and hospital category.

Results

The analysis included 633 schizophrenia patients and 66,469 controls.

The schizophrenia patients died 6 years earlier, had almost twice more frequently smoking addiction (38.1%), had more frequently chronic pulmonary disease (32.5%) and a shorter duration from cancer diagnosis to death.

In multivariate analysis, they were found to have more and earlier palliative care (adjusted Odds Ratio 1.27 [1.03;1.56]; p = 0.04), and less high-intensity end-of-life care (e.g., chemotherapy 0.53 [0.41;0.70]; p < 0.0001; surgery 0.73 [0.59;0.90]; p < 0.01) than controls.

Conclusions

Although the use and/or continuation of high-intensity end-of-life care is less important in schizophrenia patients with lung cancer, some findings suggest a loss of chance.

Future studies should explore the expectations of patients with schizophrenia and lung cancer to define the optimal end-of-life care.

Reference

Viprey, M., Pauly, V., Salas, S., Baumstarck, K., Orleans, V., Llorca, P-M., Lancon, C., Auquier, P., Boyer, L. & Fond, G. (2020) Palliative and high-intensity end-of-life care in schizophrenia patients with lung cancer: results from a French national population-based study. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience. doi: 10.1007/s00406-020-01186-z. Online ahead of print.

Research: Real-Time Data Collection to Examine Relations Between Physical Activity and Affect in Adults With Mental Illness

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Research Paper Title:

Real-Time Data Collection to Examine Relations Between Physical Activity and Affect in Adults With Mental Illness.

Author(s): Danielle R. Madden, Chun Nok Lam, Brian Redline, Eldin Dzubur, Harmony Rhoades, Stephen S. Intille, Genevieve F. Dunton, and Benjamin Henwood.

Year: 2020.

Journal: Journ of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 6, pp.1-8.

DOI: doi: 10.1123/jsep.2019-0035. Online ahead of print.

Abstract:

Adults with serious mental illness engage in limited physical activity, which contributes to significant health disparities. This study explored the use of both ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) and activity trackers in adults with serious mental illness to examine the bidirectional relationship between activity and affect with multilevel modelling.

Affective states were assessed up to seven times per day using EMA across 4 days. The participants (n = 20) were equipped with a waist-worn accelerometer to measure moderate to vigorous physical activity.

The participants had a mean EMA compliance rate of 88.3%, and over 90% of completed EMAs were matched with 30-min windows of accelerometer wear. The participants who reported more positive affect than others had a higher probability of engaging in moderate to vigorous physical activity.

Engaging in more moderate to vigorous physical activity than one’s usual was associated with more negative affect. This study begins to address the effect of momentary mood on physical activity in a population of adults that is typically difficult to reach.

Research: Age-specific prevalence and determinants of depression in long-term breast cancer survivors compared to female population controls

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Research Paper Title:

Age-specific prevalence and determinants of depression in long-term breast cancer survivors compared to female population controls.

Author(s): Daniela Doege, Melissa S.Y. Thong, Lena Koch-Gallenkamp, Lina Jansen, Heike Bertram, Andrea Eberle, Bernd Holleczek, Ron Pritzkuleit, Annika Waldmann, Sylke R. Zeissig, Hermann Brenner, and Volker Arndt.

Year: 2020.

Journal: Cancer Medicine.

DOI: doi: 10.1002/cam4.3476. Online ahead of print.

Abstract:

Depression is more prevalent in breast cancer (BC) survivors than in the general population. However, little is known about depression in long-term survivors. Study objectives were: (1) to compare the age-specific prevalence of depressive symptoms (a) in BC survivors vs female population controls, (b) in disease-free BC survivors vs BC survivors with self-reported recurrence vs controls, and (2) to explore determinants of depression in BC survivors.

Methods

About 3010 BC survivors (stage I-III, 5-16 years post-diagnosis), and 1005 population controls were recruited in German multi-regional population-based studies. Depression was assessed by the Geriatric Depression Scale-15. Prevalence of mild/severe and severe depression only were estimated via logistic regression, controlling for age and education. Multinomial logistic regression was used to explore determinants of mild and severe depression.

Results

Compared with population controls, BC survivors were more likely to report mild/severe depression (30.4% vs 23.8%, p = .0003), adjusted for age and education. At all age groups <80 years, prevalence of both mild/severe and severe depression only was significantly higher in BC survivors, while BC survivors ≥80 years reported severe depression less frequently than controls. BC survivors with recurrence reported significantly higher prevalence of mild/severe depression than disease-free survivors and controls, but prevalence in disease-free survivors and controls was comparable. Age, income, living independently, recurrence, and BMI were significant determinants of mild depression in BC survivors. Age, education, employment, income, recurrence, and BMI were significant determinants of severe depression.

Conclusions

Long-term BC survivors <80 years report significantly higher prevalence of depressive symptoms than controls, which might be explained by recurrence and individual factors. The findings suggest that depression in BC survivors is common, and even more after BC recurrence. Clinicians should routinise screening and normalise referral to psychological care.

Research: Treatments for Internet Gaming Disorder and Internet Addiction: A Systematic Review

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Research Paper Title:

Treatments for Internet Gaming Disorder and Internet Addiction: A Systematic Review.

Author(s): Kristyn Zajac, Meredith K. Ginley, Rocio Chang, and Nancy Petry.

Year: 2017.

Journal: Psychology of Addictive Behaviours, 31(8).

DOI: 10.1037/adb0000315.

Abstract:

Problems related to excessive use of the Internet and video games have recently captured the interests of both researchers and clinicians.

The goals of this review are to summarise the literature on treatment effectiveness for these problems and to determine whether any treatments meet the minimum requirement of an evidence-based treatment as defined by Chambless et al. (1998).

Studies of treatments for Internet gaming disorder (IGD) and Internet addiction were examined separately, as past studies have linked IGD to more severe outcomes. The systematic review identified 26 studies meeting predefined criteria; 13 focused on treatments for IGD and 13 on Internet addiction.

The results highlighted a paucity of well-designed treatment outcome studies and limited evidence for the effectiveness of any treatment modality. Studies were limited by methodological flaws, including small sample sizes, lack of control groups, and little information on treatment adherence, among other problems. In addition, the field is beset by a lack of consistent definitions of and established instruments to measure IGD and Internet addiction.

The results of this review highlight the need for additional work in the area of treatment development and evaluation for IGD and Internet addiction. Attention to methodological concerns identified within this review should improve subsequent research related to treating these conditions, and ultimately outcomes of patients suffering from them.

You can download a copy of the full paper here.

Research: Relationship between Internet Addiction and Academic Performance among Foreign Undergraduate Students

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Research Paper Title:

Relationship between Internet Addiction and Academic Performance among Foreign Undergraduate Students.

Author(s): Najmi Hayati, Masoumeh Alavi, and Syed Mohamed Shafeq.

Year: 2014.

Journal: Procedia – Social and Behavioural Sciences, 114 (Conference: 4th World Conference on Psychology, Counseling and Guidance).

DOI: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.12.795.

Abstract:

The purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between Internet Addiction (IA) and academic performance among foreign undergraduate students in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM).

This study also identified the differences in internet addiction in terms of gender and country of original.

Four countries were selected through simple random sampling; there were China, Yemen, Somalia and Indonesia. Then, a total of 120 students were selected randomly from those countries. In order to measure IA, Internet Addiction Test (IAT) based on Young’s (1998) survey which modified by Pee and Shafeq (2009), was used.

The data collected was analysed using SPSS. The statistical techniques frequency and percentage were used to identify the patterns of using the Internet; t-test and one-way ANOVA were used to examine the differences in IA in terms of demographic factors. Pearson correlation technique was also used to determine the relationship between IA and academic performance.

The results of the study showed that there were no significant differences in IA in terms of gender, country of origin. The results also indicated that there were no significant differences in IA in terms of CGPA. This suggests that future research needs to work on large-scale using multiple-campus technology assessments.

You can download a copy of the full paper here.

Research: Risk Factors of Internet Addiction and the Health Effect of Internet Addiction on Adolescents

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Research Paper Title:

Risk Factors of Internet Addiction and the Health Effect of Internet Addiction on Adolescents: A Systematic Review of Longitudinal and Prospective Studies.

Author(s): Lawrence T. Lam.

Year: 2014.

Journal: Current Psychiatry Reports, 16(11), pp.1-9.

DOI: 10.1007/s11920-014-0508-2.

Abstract:

Internet gaming addiction was included in the latest version of the DSM-V as a possible disorder recently, while debate is still on-going as to whether the condition called “Internet Addiction” (IA) could be fully recognised as an established disorder.

The major contention is how well IA could fulfil the validation criteria as a psychiatric disorder as in other well-established behavioural addictions. In addition to various proposed validation criteria, evidence of risk and protective factors as well as development of outcomes from longitudinal and prospective studies are suggested as important.

A systematic review of available longitudinal and prospective studies was conducted to gather epidemiological evidence on risk and protective factors of IA and the health effect of IA on adolescents. Nine articles were identified after an extensive search of the literature in accordance to the PRISMA guidelines. Of these, eight provided data on risk or protective factors of IA and one focused solely on the effects of IA on mental health.

Information was extracted and analysed systematically from each study and tabulated. Many exposure variables were studied and could be broadly classified into three main categories:

  • Psychopathologies of the participants, family and parenting factors; and
  • Others such as Internet usage, motivation, and academic performance.

Some were found to be potential risk or protective factors of IA. It was also found that exposure to IA had a detrimental effect on the mental health of young people. These results were discussed in light of their implications to the fulfilment of the validation criteria.

You can download a copy of the full paper here.

Research: Bipolar Disorder and Alcohol Use Disorder: A Review

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Research Paper Title:

Bipolar Disorder and Alcohol Use Disorder: A Review.

Author(s): Conor Farren, Kevin P. Hall, and Roger D. Weiss.

Year: 2012.

Journal: Current Psychiatry Reports.

DOI: 10.1007/s11920-012-0320-9.

Abstract:

Bipolar disorder and alcohol use disorder represent a significant comorbid population, which is significantly worse than either diagnosis alone in presentation, duration, co-morbidity, cost, suicide rate, and poor response to treatment.

They share some common characteristics in relation to genetic background, neuroimaging findings, and some biochemical findings.

They can be treated with separate care, or ideally some form of integrated care.

There are a number of pharmacotherapy trials, and psychotherapy trials that can aid program development.

Post-treatment prognosis can be influenced by a number of factors including early abstinence, baseline low anxiety, engagement with an aftercare programme and female gender.

The future development of novel therapies relies upon increased psychiatric and medical awareness of the co-morbidity, and further research into novel therapies for the comorbid group.

You can download a copy of the full paper here.