Enhancing Emotional and Social Competence in a Group of South-African School Beginners: A Preliminary Study

This study piloted the efficacy of a short-term intervention program for socio-emotional development in pre-schoolers.in a South African setting. Participants were 48 learners, aged between 5 and 6 years (22 boys, 26 girls). A proportion of the participants (n=26) took the socio-emotional competence development intervention. Programme effects were measured using the Social Competence and Behavioural Evaluation, Preschool Edition (SCBE) and the Griffiths Developmental Scales—Extended Revised (GMDS-ER). Between group comparisons showed significant gains in internalization and social competence skills in favour of the intervention group as compared to the control group.     

Entwicklungstendenzen psychotherapeutischer Praxis und Forschung

This review presents an analysis of articles in the journal “Psychotherapeut” during the years 2000 and 2001 with the focus on new efforts in the field of psychotherapeutic practice and research. The main topics of the journal are the presentation of new therapeutic approaches, some of them integrating different theoretical orientations, and the emphasis on the therapeutic relationship as a specific contribution to the process and the results of psychotherapy. In addition, this article presents a survey of the various subjects in psychotherapeutic research including a) the application and testing of new questionnaires to measure the effectiveness and the process of psychotherapy and b) research in the epidemiology of selected forms of stress, their consequences and lasting effects.     

Qualifizierung und Qualit?tskontrolle in der forensischen Psychiatrie

At the end of the last decade severely violent and sexual crimes by previously convicted persistent offenders initiated a discussion about the necessity of quality control in the forensic psychiatric practice in Switzerland. Subsequently, measures similar to those in Germany were adopted, e.g. the implementation of a specialisation in forensic psychiatry. In addition, they included the creation of commissions with the duty of evaluating the dangerousness of serious offenders, the implementation of a standardized and certificated postgraduate training in forensic psychiatry and guidelines for the qualification of forensic assessment experts and the quality of reports. The following article presents the implemented measures and discusses their possible consequences for the quality of forensic psychiatric work.     

Psychoanalytisch-orientierte Fokaltherapie der Depression bei Krebskranken

Emotional distress connected to a cancer disease may result in comorbid mental and especially depressive disorders. Although psychodynamic therapy is one of the most frequently applied forms of psychotherapy of depression in cancer patients there is a lack of empirical studies which meet the criteria of evidence-based psychotherapy research. This is especially true with regard to randomized controlled trials of psychodynamic psychotherapy. As far as we know no manual for psychodynamic treatment of cancer patients has yet been published. In this article a manual for a 20-session short-term psychodynamic treatment is presented. The treatment is based on Luborsky’s supportive-expressive (SE) therapy. The SE treatment manual of depressions in cancer patients presented here is an adaptation of the general SET manual as well as the SE manual for depression. In the first part the general principles of SE therapy are presented. In the second part a manual specifically adapted to the treatment of depressive cancer patients is described. The treatment manual is presently being used in a large-scale randomized controlled multi-centered study comparing short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy and treatment as usual.     

Begutachtung der Kriminalprognose

A variety of standardized instruments allows risk assessment based upon empirical data. This paper calls attention to the pitfalls immanent to the application of popular prognostic instruments (Violence Risk Appraisal Guide, Static-99, Historical Clinical Risk Management-20, Psychopathy Checklist-Revised). Psychopathological assessment, however, has not been superseded by standardized instruments but serves as a valuable addition in terms of an integrative approach.     

Psychische Gesundheit von Studierenden der Medizin

Objectives and methods

Concerning mental disorders, both physicians and alumni of medical sciences report a higher symptom load than the average population. Up to now however only a few studies have been conducted concerning the mental health of medical students. The aim of this study is to explore, whether medical students show a higher symptom load than their peers and whether there are differences concerning sex, phases of the studies and point of origin. For this survey the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ) was applied to 390 medical students from the University Leipzig. Their results were compared to a representative sample of peers (n=225).

Results

The analysis of variance shows significant differences between the male and female student samples on the one side and the same sex peer samples on the other. Both student samples scored significantly higher on the scales Other Anxiety Syndrome, Major Depressive Syndrome and Stress. Additionally, male students scored higher on the Other Depressive Syndrome scale and the Somatoform Syndrome scale. Further analysing the medical students sample, the females’ measures were significantly higher for the Somatoform Syndrome, Depression and Stress scales. In addition, an interaction was found between sex and point of origin.

Conclusions

Medical students report more symptoms of mental disorders than their peers. Therefore extensive prevention concepts are needed for this group.