LAUSR

Dear colleagues, It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the third issue of 2019. In our first article, Liu et al. study the attentional bias and response inhibition of facial expressions in manic patients, focussing on eye movement. Abnormal processing of emotional information and having aberrant inner-experiences of emotion are key features of bipolar disorders. Manic patients have been found to have a slower processing speed compared to healthy controls and focus less on sad expression, suggesting avoidance of those. However, no impairments of response inhibition could be detected in manic patients. Mestdagh et al. review the effect of underperformance in neuropsychological testing in diagnosing solvent-induced chronic toxic encephalopathy (CSE). 54.1% of CSE patients were identified as having underperformed on one or both neuropsychological tests. In case of underperformance, the results of the neuropsychological assessment should be disregarded when weighing the final multi-disciplinary diagnosis, with the exception of letternumber sequencing. Riffer et al. investigate the psychopharmacological treatment of patients with borderline personality disorder and compare data from routine clinical care with recommended guidelines. Even though guidelines for the pharmacotherapy of borderline personality disorder have been found to lack consensus, clinicians frequently prescribe psychotropic medications, often leading to polypharmacy. A positive association between the number of medications and the effectiveness of the inpatient treatment program, as well as the absence of a relationship between number of medications and comorbidity contradicts the often-suggested iatrogenic effect of polypharmacy. Bonete Ll acer et al. examined hyperprolactinemia (HPRL) in psychotic patients treated with long-acting injectable antipsychotics in monotherapy. HPRL has been found to be a common adverse effect of the treatment with antipsychotics. Treatment with long-acting injectable (LAI) formulations of paliperidone and risperidone resulted in the highest levels of HPRL. Sex and age were significantly associated with PRL levels in patients treated with LAI antipsychotic drugs, with younger women presenting higher rates of HPRL than men. Goodall et al. investigate what the critical incidents are that affect how people cope with being detained under Section 136 of the Mental Health Act. Section 136 (S136) of the Mental Health Act (1983, 2007) provides legislative powers for police officers to detain those suspected of being ‘mentally disordered’ for a mental health assessment. The authors provide different categories for helpful and unhelpful incidents and provide specific ways to improve the experience of detention. Xia et al. analyse the association of functional polymorphism of matrix metalloproteinase-9 gene (MMP-9 rs3918242) with schizophrenia. It is concluded that this polymorphism may not be associated with schizophrenia, but this should be verified by more studies with scientifically rigorous design and a larger population. Skapinakis et al. investigate prevalence, comorbidity, quality of life and use of services of obsessive-compulsive disorder and subthreshold obsessive-compulsive symptoms in the general adult population of Greece. Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) has been found to be common in the general population with few sociodemographic associations apart from subjective financial difficulties. Quality of life is greatly reduced but comorbidity with depression may increase the chances of consultation with a mental health professional. Zhang et al. discuss differential impairment patterns of the corticospinal tract (CST) segments in alcohol dependence. Authors reconstructed the CST using tractography based on diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Alcohol-dependent patients showed decreased axial (AD) and mean diffusivity (MD). Furthermore, the left-superior segment exhibited decreased fractional anisotropy and increased radial diffusivity, while the right one exhibited increased AD and MD. The finding suggests that CST impairments may vary with the fiber arrangement patterns of its segments in alcohol dependence. Narita et al. review the factors associated with the use and longer duration of seclusion and restraint (SR) in psychiatric inpatient settings. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to examine factors associated with the use of SR in an unmatched case-control study. Furthermore, for patients that underwent SR, multivariable linear regression analysis was used to determine factors contributing to the duration of SR. An F00 diagnosis, a history of epilepsy and antipsychotics usage were significantly associated with the use of SR, whereas the use of antidepressants may decrease the use of it. Also, F00 and F32 diagnoses significantly extended the duration of SR.