In a large and comprehensively assessed sample of patients with bipolar disorder type I (BDI), we investigated the prevalence of psychotic features and their relationship with life course, demographic, clinical, and cognitive characteristics. We hypothesized that groups of psychotic symptoms (Schneiderian, mood incongruent, thought disorder, delusions, and hallucinations) have distinct relations to risk factors.

In a cross-sectional study of 1342 BDI patients, comprehensive demographical and clinical characteristics were assessed using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID-I) interview. In addition, levels of childhood maltreatment and intelligence quotient (IQ) were assessed. The relationships between these characteristics and psychotic symptoms were analyzed using multiple general linear models.

A lifetime history of psychotic symptoms was present in 73.8% of BDI patients and included delusions in 68.9% of patients and hallucinations in 42.6%. Patients with psychotic symptoms showed a significant younger age of disease onset (β = −0.09, t = −3.38, p = 0.001) and a higher number of hospitalizations for manic episodes (F11 338 = 56.53, p < 0.001). Total IQ was comparable between groups. Patients with hallucinations had significant higher levels of childhood maltreatment (β = 0.09, t = 3.04, p = 0.002).

In this large cohort of BDI patients, the vast majority of patients had experienced psychotic symptoms. Psychotic symptoms in BDI were associated with an earlier disease onset and more frequent hospitalizations particularly for manic episodes. The study emphasizes the strength of the relation between childhood maltreatment and hallucinations but did not identify distinct subgroups based on psychotic features and instead reported of a large heterogeneity of psychotic symptoms in BD.

Despite various studies, supportive evidence for the efficacy of exercise in treatment of mental illness is still weak.

The aim of this study was to compare two forms of exercise, namely running therapy (RT) and physiotraining therapy (PT), on stationary devices.

Patients in a day treatment programme for treatment of affective disorders were randomly allocated to one of the exercise groups or to a control group. Depression scores, self-efficacy, physical conditions and appreciations of the training programme were measured.

After 6 weeks, no significant differences were found between both the training groups and the control group; however, after 12 weeks, the physiotraining group showed significant improvement on scores for blind-rated Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression and on scores for self-rated Beck Depression Inventory 21-item version.

Our results suggest that PT has advantages over RT. We speculate that an improved feeling of self-efficacy may be a mediating factor.

Sleep disorders are widespread among patients with schizophrenia and contribute to adverse clinical outcomes. Antipsychotic drugs exert varying effects on sleep, and the effects of atypical agents may differ from those of conventional neuroleptics.

To review the literature on the effects of atypical medication on subjective and objective sleep quality in patients with schizophrenia.

A non-systematic literature review of Medline was performed in August 2003 searching the period from January 1985 to August 2003 for studies of the effects of atypical antipsychotics on sleep.

We found published studies of clozapine, olanzapine, and risperidone, but none on quetiapine or ziprasidone. Studies with clozapine showed that it increased total sleep time, sleep efficiency, stage-2 non-rapid eye movement sleep and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep density, and decreased stage-4 sleep, slow wave sleep (SWS) and stage-1 sleep. Single-dose studies with olanzapine have shown that it increases SWS, sleep continuity, total sleeping time, subjective sleep quality, and delta sleep. Long-term studies with risperidone have shown improvements in total sleep, sleep efficiency, sleep continuity, SWS, and stage-2 sleep, and reductions in sleep latency, number of awakenings, and proportion of time awake. These benefits were paralleled by improvements in subjective sleep assessment and psychopathology, and psychosocial functioning.

The evidence presented in this review suggests that atypical antipsychotics exert favorable effects on sleep profile compared with conventional agents, including improvement of subjective sleep quality and modification of specific sleep stages known to be associated with better clinical outcome.