Fluoroquinolones (FQs) and extended-spectrum cephalosporins (ESCs) are associated with higher risk of Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI). Decreasing the unnecessary use of FQs and ESCs is a goal of antimicrobial stewardship. Understanding how prescribers perceive the risks and benefits of FQs and ESCs is needed.

We conducted interviews with clinicians from 4 hospitals. Interviews elicited respondent perceptions about the risk of ESCs, FQs, and CDI. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using a flexible coding approach.

Interviews were conducted with 64 respondents (38 physicians, 7 nurses, 6 advance practice providers, and 13 pharmacists). ESCs and FQs were perceived to have many benefits, including infrequent dosing, breadth of coverage, and greater patient adherence after hospital discharge. Prescribers stated that it was easy to make decisions about these drugs, so they were especially appealing to use in the context of time pressures. They described having difficulty discontinuing these drugs when prescribed by others due to inertia and fear. Prescribers were skeptical about targeting specific drugs as a stewardship approach and felt that the risk of a negative outcome from under treatment of a suspected bacterial infection was a higher priority than the prevention of CDI.

Prescribers in this study perceived many advantages to using ESCs and FQs, especially under conditions of time pressure and uncertainty. In making decisions about these drugs, prescribers balance risk and benefit, and they believed that the risk of CDI was acceptable in compared with the risk of undertreatment.

Structural and functional deviations in schizophrenic patients with formal thought disorder (FTD) point towards a dysfunction within left sided language network.

Independent component analysis (ICA), a new approach to fMRI analysis, enables to target the question of a network dysfunction directly. Using this method in healthy controls it was possible to identify the language networks separately for the left and the right hemispheres In the present study we use ICA analysis to examine changes of the language network separate for each hemisphere in relation to the severity of FTD.

We hypothesize increasing disintegration with increasing severity of FTD only in the left sided language network while the right language network should remain unaffected.

We investigated 16 schizophrenic patients with different severity of FTD and matched healthy controls using ICA decomposition of the BOLD signal. The spatial similarity of the individual language networks was correlated to the severity of FTD.

The integrity of the left language network decrease with increasing severity of FTD (r = -0.79, p < 0.01), while the integrity of the right language network show no significant correlation to the severity of FTD.

For the first time the isolated breakdown of the left sided language network was linked specifically to schizophrenic FTD. This result unites older manly left hemispheric findings of structural and functional abnormalities in schizophrenic FTD.

Clinical studies point toward a potential role of the serotonin transporter (SERT) binding as a predictor of clinical outcome in the treatment of depression. After long-term treatment with clinical doses of SSRIs the expected SERT occupancy is about 80%. Here, we were interested to investigate the relationship of SERT occupancy values between short- and longterm treatment.

To test if the SERT occupancy at steady-state can be predicted based on the single dose occupancy by escitalopram (S-citalopram) or citalopram (racemate of S-citalopram and R-citalopram).

18 patients with major depressive disorder received either escitalpram (10 mg/d) or citalopram (20 mg/d) in a double-blind, randomized, longitudinal study. They underwent three PET scans using the radioligand [11C]DASB: PET1 baseline, PET2 6 hours after first drug intake and PET3 after three weeks of daily oral treatment. Occupancy of SERT was quantified in six subcortical regions: thalamus, N. caudatus, putamen, mibrain, dorsal raphe and median raphe nuclei. Data was analyzed by means of multiple linear regression models corrected for baseline SERT availability values using SPSS 15.0.

Single dose occupancy of the SERT significantly predicted steady-state occupancy after three weeks in three regions: thalamus (r2 = 0.45, p = 0.009), N. caudatus (r2 = 0.4, p = 0.006) and putamen (r2 = 0.43, p = 0.005). Other regions did not show significant relationships.

In this study we demonstrated that single-dose occupancy in SERT rich regions such as thalamus, N. caudatus and the putamen could serve as reliable predictors for steady-state occupancy. However, a linear model failed to explain the relationship in regions known for serotonergic cell origin.

Major depression is associated with altered neural function in frontal and limbic areas.

The findings have been inconsistent, especially those derived from cerebral blood flow (CBF) measures.

To identify differences in regional CBF between patients and controls using arterial spin labeling (ASL) at rest.

20 patients with major depression and 20 matched healthy controls were scanned in the morning with a pCASL-sequence at a 3 T Siemens scanner. Mean Hamilton Depression Score (21 item version) was 26.2 ± 5.7 for patients, mean Beck Depression Inventory scores were 28.9 ± 8.9. Mean age did not differ between groups (39.6 vs. 44.4 years). Whole brain voxelwise T-Tests were correct for multiple comparisons using a False Discovery Rate of q < 0.05.

Mean global resting CBF was not different between groups (66.1 vs. 63.0 ml/100 mg/min, T = 0.95, p = 0.35). FDR correction at q < 0.05 led to a T-value threshold of 3.71 (p < 0.001) for group comparison. Hypoperfusion in patients was detected in left middle temporal gyrus, left middle frontal gyrus, right precentral gyrus. Hyperperfusion in patients was seen in the right superior temporal gyrus.

ASL revealed frontotemporal hypoperfusion in patients with major depression. This is in line with previous work and the current concept of depression. However, we were unable to replicate hyperperfusion in limibic areas.

Motor behavior is altered in schizophrenia. Most patients have less physical activity than the general population. We have shown that actigraphic means of motor activity are influenced by negative syndrome scores, schizophrenia subtype and antipsychotic use.

The neural correlates of reduced motor activity in schizophrenia are widely unknown.

To elucidate possible mechanisms, we correlated objective motor activity with measures of grey and white matter structure, as well as resting state perfusion.

We report the results of four studies from our lab. Schizophrenia patients and controls were scanned using a 3 T MRI scanner assessing resting perfusion (arterial spin labeling), structure and diffusion tensor imaging. In all participants, continuous actigraphy was performed for 24 hours in order to measure motor activity.

Resting perfusion in schizophrenia correlated with activity in bilateral prefrontal areas in patients, while in controls correlations were exclusively in the ventral anterior nucleus of the thalamus. In both groups, white matter integritiy in various frontal regions and the corticospinal tract correlated with motor activity. The group difference, however, was the inverse correlation of integrity and activity underneath the right supplemental motor area in patients. Grey matter volume did not correlate with activity in controls, but it did correlate in the posterior cingulate in patients.

Interindividual differences in brain structure and perfusion are associated with varying motor activity. Multiple imaging approaches point to altered cortical motor control in schizophrenia.

Motor symptoms are frequent in patients with schizophrenia. Although recent DTI studies point to white matter alterations of the motor system in schizophrenia little is known about specific changes.

To date there is a lack of approaches with hypothesis driven quantification of specific anatomical fibre tracts. Therefore, we aimed to compare structural connectivity between specific parts of the motor system such as the pre-supplementary motor area (SMA), the SMA-proper, the primary motor cortex and the basal ganglia in patients with schizophrenia and in healthy controls in a DTI-fibre-tracking study.

It is the aim of this study to investigate whether fibre tract integrity of the motor system is altered in patients with schizophrenia.

DTI-data were measured in 21 patients with schizophrenia and in 21 healthy controls. Applying a probabilistic fibre tracking approach the most probable anatomical pathways between key regions of the motor system of each participant have been identified. The resulting probabilistic maps were normalized to obtain values between 0 and 1, normalized into the standard MNI-space and smoothed using an isotropic 3-mm Gaussian kernel. Group comparisons have been calculated using two-sample-t-tests.

First results point to altered fibre tract microstructure of loops including cortical motor areas and the basal ganglia. The data analysis is preliminary. Definite results will be presented at the conference.

Altered motor behaviour might be reflected by altered white matter integrity of loops including cortical motor areas and the basal ganglia.

Various studies have reported a positive relationship between child maltreatment and personality disorders (PDs). However, few studies included all DSM-IV PDs and even fewer adjusted for other forms of childhood adversity, e.g. bullying or family problems.

We analyzed questionnaires completed by 512 participants of the ZInEP epidemiology survey, a comprehensive psychiatric survey of the general population in Zurich, Switzerland. Associations between childhood adversity and PDs were analyzed bivariately via simple regression analyses and multivariately via multiple path analysis.

The bivariate analyses revealed that all PD dimensions were significantly related to various forms of family and school problems as well as child abuse. In contrast, according to the multivariate analysis only school problems and emotional abuse were associated with various PDs. Poverty was uniquely associated with schizotypal PD, conflicts with parents with obsessive-compulsive PD, physical abuse with antisocial PD, and physical neglect with narcissistic PD. Sexual abuse was statistically significantly associated with schizotypal and borderline PD, but corresponding effect sizes were small.

Childhood adversity has a serious impact on PDs. Bullying and violence in schools and emotional abuse appear to be more salient markers of general personality pathology than other forms of childhood adversity. Associations with sexual abuse were negligible when adjusted for other forms of adversity.

Research into the relationship between the subjective perception of clinical change and the objective evidence of the same is very limited. Less is known about the relationship between clinical judgments by mental health experts and the patient's perception of symptom change, in particular across different diagnostic groups.

This study aims to determine the level of concordance between the HONOS as a tool for clinical outcome monitoring and the self-reported change in psychopathology in a total sample of psychiatric patients as well as stratified by their primary diagnosis at admission.

A consecutive sample of patients admitted to a Swiss psychiatric hospital for either alcohol use disorders, schizophrenic psychoses, mood disorders, anxiety and somatoform disorders, or personality disorders, was assessed using the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) at admission and at discharge. The HoNOS were rated by the responsible clinicians. Complete data of admission and discharge were available from approximately 600 cases. Reliable change index (RCI) will be calculated to determine a clinically meaningful change based on the HoNOS scores. Concordance of RCI and change in BSI scores will be explored and compared between different diagnostic groups.

According to our preliminary results from this ongoing evaluation program, we hope to provide a step towards a deeper understanding of the interrelationship between clinical judgments and the course of subjectively experienced mental health problems.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Compulsory admission can be experienced as devaluing and stigmatising by people with mental illness. Emotional reactions to involuntary hospitalisation and stigma-related stress may affect recovery, but longitudinal data are lacking. We, therefore, examined the impact of stigma-related emotional reactions and stigma stress on recovery over a 2-year period.

Shame and self-contempt as emotional reactions to involuntary hospitalisation, stigma stress, self-stigma and empowerment, as well as recovery were assessed among 186 individuals with serious mental illness and a history of recent involuntary hospitalisation.

More shame, self-contempt and stigma stress at baseline were correlated with increased self-stigma and reduced empowerment after 1 year. More stigma stress at baseline was associated with poor recovery after 2 years. In a longitudinal path analysis more stigma stress at baseline predicted poorer recovery after 2 years, mediated by decreased empowerment after 1 year, controlling for age, gender, symptoms and recovery at baseline.

Stigma stress may have a lasting detrimental effect on recovery among people with mental illness and a history of involuntary hospitalisation. Anti-stigma interventions that reduce stigma stress and programs that enhance empowerment could improve recovery. Future research should test the effect of such interventions on recovery.

Patients with psychosis display the so-called ‘Jumping to Conclusions’ bias (JTC) – a tendency for hasty decision-making in probabilistic reasoning tasks. So far, only a few studies have evaluated the JTC bias in ‘at-risk mental state’ (ARMS) patients, specifically in ARMS samples fulfilling ‘ultra-high risk’ (UHR) criteria, thus not allowing for comparisons between different ARMS subgroups.

In the framework of the PREVENT (secondary prevention of schizophrenia) study, a JTC task was applied to 188 patients either fulfilling UHR criteria or presenting with cognitive basic symptoms (BS). Similar data were available for 30 healthy control participants matched for age, gender, education and premorbid verbal intelligence. ARMS patients were identified by the Structured Interview for Prodromal Symptoms (SIPS) and the Schizophrenia Proneness Instrument – Adult Version (SPI-A).

The mean number of draws to decision (DTD) significantly differed between ARM -subgroups: UHR patients made significantly less draws to make a decision than ARMS patients with only cognitive BS. Furthermore, UHR patients tended to fulfil behavioural criteria for JTC more often than BS patients. In a secondary analysis, ARMS patients were much hastier in their decision-making than controls. In patients, DTD was moderately associated with positive and negative symptoms as well as disorganization and excitement.

Our data indicate an enhanced JTC bias in the UHR group compared to ARMS patients with only cognitive BS. This underscores the importance of reasoning deficits within cognitive theories of the developing psychosis. Interactions with the liability to psychotic transitions and therapeutic interventions should be unravelled in longitudinal studies.