Publications by authors named "Andreas Bechdolf"

Background: Young people in mental health crises have severely limited access to clinical care and show the lowest adherence to conventional clinical services. Low-threshold and integrated services (integrated youth mental health services, IYMHS) are recommended to overcome these barriers and provide early detection, early intervention and psychosocial care appropriate for young people.

Objective: The aim is to provide an overview of low-threshold IYMHS globally and in Germany and to report on international experiences with these services and evidence of their effectiveness.

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Background: High levels of trait anger and aggressive behavior are common and problematic phenomena in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD). In BPD, patterns of reactive aggression often lead to functional impairment affecting important areas of life. Despite the high burden on individuals and their social environment, there are no specific, cost-effective treatments to reduce aggression in BPD.

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Background: Mental diseases occur particularly frequently between the ages of 12 and 25 years, with important implications for the pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment.

Objective: Against this background this article outlines a youth mental health paradigm which prioritizes the early detection, early intervention and prevention of mental disorders, e.g.

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Importance: Intensive home treatment (IHT) is regarded as a safe and effective alternative to psychiatric inpatient care during acute crises.

Objective: To estimate the cost-effectiveness of implementing IHT in comparison with inpatient treatment for persons with severe mental illness in acute crisis in the German health care system.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This health economic evaluation was performed as part of a quasiexperimental nonrandomized trial conducted at 10 sites in Germany from January 2021 to December 2022.

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Objective: To explore the efficiency of IPS on employment, education, and training (EET) outcomes in young adults with early psychosis.

Methods: Monocenter parallel arm, randomized controlled trial.

Intervention: Individual placement and support (IPS) according to the IPS-Y Fidelity Scale with an add-on of up to eight sessions of adherence therapy.

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Introduction: Persistent poor psychosocial functioning, which is associated with impairments in cognition, is one of the main barriers to recovery in schizophrenia. Although cognitive remediation therapy (CRT) has shown general efficacy in improving cognition and functioning, simultaneously focusing on social cognition and social behavioural processes may increase its efficacy.

Methods: In a multicenter, rater-blinded, randomized controlled trial, schizophrenia patients (N = 177) were assigned to six months of either Integrated Social Cognitive and Behavioral Skills Therapy (ISST) or, as an active control intervention, Neurocognitive Remediation Therapy (NCRT).

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Background: Improving quality of life (QoL) is important for the treatment of people with bipolar disorder (BD). Early-BipoLife is a German multicentre naturalistic, prospective-longitudinal observational cohort study investigating early recognition and intervention in people at increased risk of developing a BD. This analysis aims to investigate influencing factors and changes in QoL as a basis for the development of early intervention strategies in patients with at risk syndrome for BD.

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The PreVCo study ('Prevention of Violence and Coercion') investigated the effects of a structured programme for the implementation of guideline recommendations for the management of aggression and the prevention of violence and coercion in psychiatric hospitals in a multicentre randomised controlled trial with 55 participating wards. The intervention was a 1-year individually tailored implementation programme supported by external consultants. An independent evaluation of the individual wards' process aimed at identifying barriers and facilitators in implementation.

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Background: In Germany, there are hardly any studies that investigated the care pathways in the early course of psychosis and the duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) and took the migration background into account.

Objective: The study examined whether young adults with (PwM) and without a migration background (PoM) who had a first psychotic episode or first contact with the psychiatric care system within the last 5 years differ in their utilization of care services and DUP.

Material And Methods: The data collection and post hoc analyses were carried out as a part of a cohort study (84 inpatients) at the Early Intervention and Therapy Center (FRITZ) in Berlin.

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Aim: Different access routes to inpatient-equivalent home treatment (IEHT) were examined.

Methods: Baseline differences were examined using exploratory group comparisons, treatment effects by type of admission using regression analysis.

Results: Of 200 StäB users, 144 (72%) were admitted directly to IEHT, while 56 (28%) were transferred.

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Aim Of The Study: This study examines the extent to which a structured implementation of guidelines for the prevention of coercion leads to an improvement in guideline-compliant work and the reduction of coercion in routine clinical practice.

Methods: This is a secondary analysis of the shift of outcomes in the PreVCo study, which was conducted on 55 psychiatric wards throughout Germany.

Results: The number of coercive measures decreased significantly during the observation period.

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Objective: To identify the COVID-19 pandemic impact on well-being/mental health, coping strategies, and risk factors in adolescents worldwide.

Method: This study was based on an anonymous online multi-national/multi-language survey in the general population (representative/weighted non-representative samples, 14-17 years of age), measuring change in well-being (World Health Organization-Five Well-Being Index [WHO-5]/range = 0-100) and psychopathology (validated composite P-score/range = 0-100), WHO-5 <50 and <29, pre- vs during COVID-19 pandemic (April 26, 2020-June 26, 2022). Coping strategies and 9 a priori- defined individual/cumulative risk factors were measured.

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Importance: Home treatment (HT) has been associated with fewer inpatient treatment (IT) readmission days but lacks evidence on reducing combined psychiatric hospital service use (IT, HT, day clinic).

Objective: To assess the association of intensive home treatment (IHT) compared with IT regarding readmission rate, social outcomes, and clinical outcomes.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This quasi-experimental, nonrandomized trial was conducted from 2020 to 2022 in 10 psychiatric hospitals in Germany.

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Background: Mindfulness-based interventions are promising psychological treatment approaches that may have more substantial long-lasting intervention effects than cognitive behavioral therapy when treating individuals with early psychosis. A pilot study analyzed mindfulness-based inpatient group therapy's feasibility and potential efficacy (Feel-Good).

Objective: This paper explores the subjective experiences of participants in the Feel-Good inpatient therapy group to gain insight into the possible changes brought about by the mindfulness-based intervention.

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Aim: Inpatient-Equivalent Home Treatment (IEHT) for mental health is new in Germany and therefore requires quality development. A best practice model (BPM) for IEHT is being developed from a service user perspective.

Methods: 1.

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Article Synopsis
  • The COH-FIT study is a large, multi-country survey aimed at identifying factors affecting wellbeing and mental health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic, involving a representative sample of 121,066 adults.
  • Researchers analyzed both modifiable (like coping strategies and pre-pandemic stress) and non-modifiable factors (such as age, gender, and socioeconomic status), finding significant negative effects on wellbeing and psychopathology scores during the pandemic.
  • The study identified 15 modifiable and 9 non-modifiable risk factors, alongside 13 modifiable and 3 non-modifiable protective factors, emphasizing the importance of social support and coping strategies in mental health outcomes.
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Article Synopsis
  • There is a lack of comprehensive international studies examining multidimensional mental health and wellbeing before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly identifying at-risk groups and effective coping strategies.
  • The COH-FIT survey, conducted from April 2020 to June 2022 in 30 languages, assessed changes in well-being and psychopathology among over 121,000 participants, revealing significant declines in mental health during the pandemic.
  • Key findings indicated that certain demographics, such as young adults and people in low-income countries, were particularly affected, while coping strategies like exercise, internet use, and maintaining social contacts emerged as the most effective for managing stress.
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Background And Hypothesis: Clinical high risk for psychosis (CHR-P) offers a window of opportunity for early intervention and recent trials have shown promising results for the use of -acetylcysteine (NAC) in schizophrenia. Moreover, integrated preventive psychological intervention (IPPI), applies social-cognitive remediation to aid in preventing the transition to the psychosis of CHR-P patients.

Study Design: In this double-blind, randomized, controlled multicenter trial, a 2 × 2 factorial design was applied to investigate the effects of NAC compared to placebo (PLC) and IPPI compared to psychological stress management (PSM).

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Article Synopsis
  • Individuals with severe mental illnesses often face barriers to entering the workforce but seek support through methods like Individual Placement and Support (IPS) to help them find and retain jobs.
  • A study examined the integration rates of IPS in psychiatric settings and found a 51.7% success rate for patients who engaged in at least four coaching sessions.
  • Key factors associated with successful job reintegration included a shorter time since their last job, specific diagnoses, treatment setting changes, and higher adherence to IPS protocols.
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Article Synopsis
  • Minors need special protection in research, so studies involving them are often avoided, leading to incomplete data for treatment.
  • The CARE study shows that including minors in research is important for fair and effective healthcare, considering their unique developmental needs.
  • The article suggests ethical principles to support including minors and proposes protective measures to ensure their safety during research.
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Background: Individuals at risk for bipolar disorder (BD) have a wide range of genetic and non-genetic risk factors, like a positive family history of BD or (sub)threshold affective symptoms. Yet, it is unclear whether these individuals at risk and those diagnosed with BD share similar gray matter brain alterations.

Methods: In 410 male and female participants aged 17-35 years, we compared gray matter volume (3T MRI) between individuals at risk for BD (as assessed using the EPI scale; = 208), patients with a DSM-IV-TR diagnosis of BD ( = 87), and healthy controls ( = 115) using voxel-based morphometry in SPM12/CAT12.

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Globally, 75% of depressive, bipolar, and psychotic disorders emerge by age 25 years. However, these disorders are often preceded by non-specific symptoms or attenuated clinical syndromes. Difficulties in determining optimal treatment interventions for these emerging mental disorders, and uncertainties about accounting for co-occurring psychopathology and illness trajectories, have led many youth mental health services to adopt transdiagnostic clinical staging frameworks.

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Aim: A substantial gap between young people's need for mental health care services and their actual access to such services led worldwide organizations (e.g., the WHO) to recommend the implementation of early intervention programs and youth mental health services.

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