Needs assessment has been highlighted as a crucial factor in the development, organisation and evaluation of mental health services. Moreover, meeting self-reported needs is of prime importance for ensuring quality of life and reducing social disability for people with severe mental disorders.

Service evaluation based on patients’ need assessments has never taken place in Greece. Furthermore there are no standardized needs assessment instruments. Given the underfunding of psychiatric services due to the current economic crisis, systematic need assessment is expected to contribute to the efficient use of their limited resources.

To examine the concurrent validity, inter-rater and test-retest reliability of the Greek research version of the Camberwell Assessment of Need (CAN-R).

Fifty-three schizophrenia patient–staff pairs were interviewed twice to test the inter-rater and test-retest reliability of the CAN-R (Greek version). The WHOQOL-BREF and WHODAS 2.0 were administered to the patients to examine concurrent validity.

The inter-rater and test-retest reliability of patient and staff interviews for the 22 individual items and the eight summary scores of the instrument's four sections were good to excellent. Significant correlations emerged between CAN scores and the WHOQOL-BREF and WHODAS 2.0 domains for patient and staff ratings, indicating good concurrent validity.

Our results suggest that the Greek version of the CAN-R is a reliable instrument for assessing mental health patients’ needs. This is the first CAN-R validity study with satisfactory results using WHOQOL-BREF and WHODAS 2.0 as criterion variables.

The harmful use of alcohol causes a large disease, social and economic burden in societies. Metacognition is a complex concept referring to the cognitive control and regulation of many types of cognitive processes.

Metacognitions are considered to be an important factor in the development and continuance of psychological disorders.

The purpose of this study is to examine the probable relations between alcohol abuse and Metacognitions with the Metacognitions Questionaire – 30 (MCQ-30).

Twenty-three men and 16 women, aged between 22 and 64 years, inpatients in Eginition Hospital, due to alcohol dependence, completed the Greek-Version of the MCQ-30.

The mean total scores of alcoholics were higher than the ones of the healthy subjects. Namely, the group of the alcohol abused patients presented a higher score in comparison with the normal group in three of the five metacognitive dimensions. Additionally, alcoholic men outscored alcoholic women in two of the five factors. Specifically, alcoholic men appeared to be less confident about their memory and attention than alcoholic women. Furthermore, alcoholic men, compared to alcoholic women claimed in a significant greater level that worrying helped them to function.

The above findings suggest that metacognitions could play a role in the orientation and maintenance of alcoholic abuse behavior. Moreover, these results may pose the question of whether these metacognitive beliefs could be seen as an indicator of differentiating alcoholic men from women. Overall, further research could provide additional information concerning the relation between Metacognitions and alcoholic dependence.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Premorbid adjustment (PA) is one of the main prognostic indicators of schizophrenia. Both social and cognitive deficits observed during the premorbid period hold a predictive value for the onset of schizophrenia.

To investigate how cognitive functions are related to aspects of PA.

To examine the relationship of each PA domain (academic and social) at each of the three developmental stages (childhood, early adolescence and late adolescence), as well as their course with the cognitive functions in schizophrenia patients.

PA, intellectual quotient (IQ), verbal learning, memory, processing speed, executive functions and verbal fluency were assessed using PAS, WAIS, RAVLT, TMT, WCST and COWAT measures respectively in a sample of 85 clinically stabilized male schizophrenia inpatients.

Negative correlations emerged between academic PA during adolescence and both verbal IQ and processing speed, while positive correlations were found with working memory. Negative correlations emerged between deterioration in academic PA during adolescence and both processing speed and immediate auditory verbal recall, while correlations with verbal learning were positive. There was no relationship between cognitive functions and either social PA or its deterioration.

Our findings revealed significant associations between both academic PA and its course with cognitive functions in schizophrenia patients. In summary, deficits in several fields of cognitive functions seem to follow a different path long before and after the onset of the disease, but further investigation is necessary.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

According to time perspective (TP), theory behaviour is influenced by the individual's perception of his/her past, present and future. Boyd and Zimbardo postulate that a healthy balance between orientation to the past, present and future exists.

Investigation of TP in the context of psychopathology.

To investigate and compare TP in Obsessive Compulsive (OCD) and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).

Twenty-eight OCD and 28 BPD patients (36% of men), matched for age and education, completed the Greek version of the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI); a 56-item self-administered questionnaire measuring individuals’ orientations to the past, present, and future. ZTPI consists of five factors: Past Negative (PN), Past Positive (PP), Present Hedonistic (PH), Present Fatalistic (PF) and Future (F).

BPD patients scored significantly higher in PH and PF and significantly lower in PP factors than OCD patients. No significant gender differences emerged for either group. In the BPD group, age correlated significantly negatively with PH, while education correlated positively with F.

The study's findings suggest that BPD patients have a hedonistic orientation towards time and life and a helpless/hopeless attitude towards the future to a significantly greater degree than OCD patients, whereas OCD patients seem to have a more positive and nostalgic attitude towards the past than BPD patients. Further research would provide additional information concerning the role of TP in OCD and BPD patients.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Outcome assessment has been highlighted as a crucial factor in the evaluation and transformation of mental health services, providing evidences for the improvement of clinical practice.

This is the first clinical study in Greece to investigate the relationship between the crucial outcome measures of needs, quality of life, disability and psychopathology for patients suffering from schizophrenia. Furthermore, service evaluation based on the assessment of the above outcome measures has never taken place in the country.

To examine the associations between the patients’ needs and other treatment outcome indicators:

– quality of life;

– disability;

– dimensions of schizophrenia symptomatology.

The CAN-R, WHOQOL-BREF, WHODAS 2.0 and PANSS scales were administered to a sample of fifty-three schizophrenia patients and the correlations between the above outcome measures were computed.

(1) Significant negative correlations emerged between the total number of needs and unmet needs and subjectively assessed quality of life. (2) Significant positive correlations emerged between the total number of needs and unmet needs and subjectively assessed disability. (3) Significant positive correlations were found between the dimensions of schizophrenia symptomatology (positive/negative/general) and the total number of needs in our sample.

According to our findings:

– as the number of unmet needs increases patients’ quality of life is lowered;

– a possible relationship exists between unmet needs and subjectively assessed disability;

– a possible relationship exists between needs and all the dimensions of schizophrenia symptomatology.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.