Suche nach der Ursache des chronischen Ersch?pfungssyndroms

The etiology of chronic fatigue syndrome is subject to a longstanding controversy between scientists, healthcare providers, patients and self-help groups. The reasons for this, sometime heated, dispute are most likely not only due to the diversity and complexity of scientific facts alone but can also be seen as the consequences of the desired legitimation or dreaded delegitimation of the syndrome by the respective etiological model. The mechanisms of these processes will be described one the basis of the current discussion regarding the role of xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus in chronic fatigue syndrome.     

Seelische Gesundheitsvorsorge f��r Kinder krebskranker Eltern

Children of cancer patients are increasingly being paid attention to as target group for family-based mental health prevention concepts in psychosocial oncology. Based on the long-term experiences with the concept Children of Somatically Ill Parents (COSIP) for child-centred medical family counselling, which was developed at the counselling service COSIP at the Hamburg University Medical Centre, a specialized manual was developed for the context of psychosocial care in oncology, which is currently being tested in a multi-center approach. In this article the theoretical framework and the practical steps of this manualized concept in caring for families with a parent having cancer are summarized. Characteristic elements are the flexible handling of the three system levels parents, family and child in the counselling setting as well as focussing on previously defined intervention goals which are expected to strengthen the coping resources in the family and the children. Perspectives for clinical practice and research are discussed.     

Winners love winning and losers love money

Salience and satisfaction are important factors in determining the comparisons that people make. We hypothesized that people make salient comparisons first, and then make satisfying comparisons only if salient comparisons leave them unsatisfied. This hypothesis suggests an asymmetry between winning and losing. For winners, comparison with a salient alternative (i.e., losing) brings satisfaction. Therefore, winners should be sensitive only to the relative value of their outcomes. For losers, comparison with a salient alternative (i.e., winning) brings little satisfaction. Therefore, losers should be drawn to compare outcomes with additional standards, which should make them sensitive to both relative and absolute values of their outcomes. In Experiment 1, participants won one of two cash prizes on a scratch-off ticket. Winners were sensitive to the relative value of their prizes, whereas losers were sensitive to both the relative and the absolute values of their prizes. In Experiment 2, losers were sensitive to the absolute value of their prize only when they had sufficient cognitive resources to engage in effortful comparison.     

Abh?ngigkeitserkrankungen und Pers?nlichkeitsst?rungen

Substance use disorders and personality disorders often co-occur in clinical treatment. In this review the association between substance use disorders and personality disorders is described and discussed. Clinical and neurobiological data as well as psychodynamic concepts are included to focus on the therapeutic implications for patients with these comorbidities. The consumption of substances often begins as a kind of self-medication. Patients suffering from severe personality disorders need these substance effects to avoid severe destructive affects and to regulate their self-esteem. Patients with chronic substance dependence often show changes in brain structure. In the dependency stage of addiction clinical symptoms can make the diagnosis of a specific personality disorder very difficult. The treatments can be classified by the severity of substance use disorders and personality disorders. Substance misuse can be treated with psychotherapy. In substance dependence, specific forms of addiction therapy should be included. In patients with the frequent comorbidity of substance use disorders and severe personality disorders, disorder-specific treatment can be used with good results.     

Klinisch-psychologische Intervention im Internet

Background

Currently a multitude of Internet-based intervention (IBI) programs exist for various disorders. These programs generally have the potential to reach a wide spectrum of the low threshold population and encourage them to play a more active role in managing individual healthcare. How effective are disorder and problem-specific IBI programs? This review aims to give a systematic overview of controlled evaluation studies available to date and contrast them with the state of research in 2003 (Ott 2003).

Method

References were analyzed in three steps: 1. Research in pertinent international scientific databases using specified keywords (result: more than 1,000 publications since 2003). 2. Selection: exclusion of publications which did not contain empirical evidence of effectiveness (with control group design) (result: 89 studies published between 2003 and 2009 as opposed to 30 up to 2003). 3. Systemization: classification of the analyzed studies based on two dimensions (type of syndrome, function of intervention).

Results

In most of the studies on hand (91.0%) the effectiveness of IBI could be confirmed. Among the methods used cognitive behavioral methods (cognitive, behavioral therapy, CBT) were used almost exclusively. In nearly three quarters of all studies (71.9%), IBI procedures were used for treatment. The remaining studies were on prevention (19.1%) and rehabilitation (9.0%).

Conclusion

Evaluation studies of IBIs are now available, particularly for anxiety disorders, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, eating disorders including adiposity, substance-related and behavioral medical disorders, psychological problems related to physical illnesses, compulsive gambling and burnout. For each type of disorder, exemplary programs are described. Subsequently the methodical limitations of several of the studies are pointed out.     

Kulturdynamisches Modell der bikulturellen Identit?t

In intercultural psychotherapeutic treatment, the psychological integration of different cultures within an individual has to be involved as an additional developmental dimension. Individual change during the process of migration considered as desirable adaptation has often been conceptualized in terms of a bicultural identity, which includes aspects of the culture of origin as well as aspects of the host culture. The theoretical foundation of the concept of bicultural identity, however, has remained insufficient. The culture-dynamic model presented here differentiates personal and social identity according to the identity concept proposed by Mead (Geist, Identit?t und Gesellschaft, 1988, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt a.?M.). Personal identity is essentially formed by an individual??s culture of origin, while influences of the host culture primarily affect the social identity. For healthy coping with the challenges associated with migration and adequate support of this process in intercultural psychotherapy, it can be assumed that a stabilization of personal identity is required to allow for a dynamization of social identity. Implications for identity constitution in second generation immigrants, in different stages of lifespan development and in the process of learning the language of the host culture are discussed.     

On the acquisition of pattern encoding skills

These experiments evaluated two potential sources of developmental changes in pattern encoding: advances at a perceptual level enabling better representation of the spatial relations among elements, and acquisition of metaperceptual knowledge supporting a deliberate search for distinguishing features. Children 6, 10, and 12 years old, as well as adults encoded high level distortions of random dot configurations. These materials were originally used by Posner and Keele (1968). In the first experiment, subjects matched exemplars to their prototypes. In two other experiments, subjects learned to categorize distortions under two different training conditions—one designed to focus attention on individual exemplars, the other designed to facilitate comparison of exemplars within and across categories. Following training, subjects classified new instances into the learned categories. The same pattern of developmental change was found in the matching task and in the classification task: major gains between ages 6 and 12 and continued gains to adulthood. Several aspects of the results identify change at a perceptual level after age 10 as a source of this development, independent of possible contributions from metaperceptual advances.