Mental illnesses - understanding, prediction and control

472 Pages·2011·6.361 MB·English

by  Luciano L'Abate

MENTAL ILLNESSES –
UNDERSTANDING,
PREDICTION AND CONTROL

Edited by Luciano L'Abate
Mental Illnesses – Understanding, Prediction and Control
Edited by Luciano L'Abate

Published by InTech
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First published December, 2011
Printed in Croatia

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Additional hard copies can be obtained from [email protected]

Mental Illnesses – Understanding, Prediction and Control, Edited by Luciano L'Abate
p. cm.
ISBN 978-953-307-662-1
free online editions of InTech
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Contents

Preface IX
Part 1 Introduction – General Background 1
Chapter 1 Public Attitudes, Lay Theories and Mental Health Literacy:
The Understanding of Mental Health 3
Adrian Furnham and Kate Telford
Chapter 2 The Psychology of Immigration, Relief or a Burden?
Immigrant Need and Use of Psychiatric Care 23
John E. Berg
Chapter 3 Stigma and Mental Disorders 37
Vesna Švab
Chapter 4 Culture, Psychiatry and Cultural Competence 69
Arabinda Narayan Chowdhury
Chapter 5 Epidemiology of Psychological Distress 105
Aline Drapeau, Alain Marchand and Dominic Beaulieu-Prévost
Part 2 Understanding Etiological Factors 135
Chapter 6 Psychosis and Adhesion Molecules 137
Tsuyoshi Hattori, Shingo Miyata, Akira Ito,
Taiichi Katayama and Masaya Tohyama
Chapter 7 Phenotype in Psychiatric Genetic Research 157
Javier Contreras
Chapter 8 Abuse in Childhood and HPA Axis
Functioning in Mentally Ill Patients 169
Śpila Bożena and Urbańska Anna
Chapter 9 Breaking a Diagnosis of Dementia 197
M. Dalvi
VI Contents

Chapter 10 Mentalizing Skills Deficits in Schizophrenia
as a Clue for Drug Choice: Clozapine Versus Other
Antipsychotics on Keeping Outpatients Stable 207
Rosó Duñó, Klaus Langohr, Diego Palao and Adolf Tobeña
Chapter 11 Childhood Maltreatment and County-Level Deprivation
Jointly Modify the Effect of Serotonin Transporter Promoter
Genotype on Depressive Symptoms in Adolescent Girls 225
Monica Uddin, Erin Bakshis and Regina de los Santos
Chapter 12 An Update on Psychotic Depression 239
John Matthews
Part 3 Prediction 261
Chapter 13 Craving and Indicators of Depression
and Anxiety Levels in Different Time Points
of Intensive Alcohol Dependence Treatment 263
Maja Rus-Makovec
Chapter 14 Risk Factors for Delirium in the Acute Stroke 281
Zikrija Dostović, Dževdet Smajlović,
Ernestina Dostović and Omer Ć. Ibrahimagić
Chapter 15 Employment and Mental Illness 293
Mary Ditton
Chapter 16 Workplace Functional Impairment
Due to Mental Disorders 341
Charl Els, Diane Kunyk, Harold Hoffman and Adam Wargon
Part 4 Control 371
Chapter 17 Early Intervention in
Psychiatry Challenges & Opportunities 373
Mamdouh El-Adl
Chapter 18 Lost in the Social World:
How Social Cognitive Deficits Affect Social
Functioning of People with Asperger Syndrome 385
Mónica Figueira, Inmaculada Fuentes and Juan C. Ruiz
Chapter 19 Bibliotherapy for Chinese Patients
with Depression in Rehabilitation 407
Yang Wang
Chapter 20 Suicidal Cut Throat Injuries: Management Modalities 423
Adeyi A. Adoga
Contents VII

Part 5 Conclusion – An Attempt at Integrating
Understanding, Predicting, and Controlling 437
Chapter 21 Selfhood: A Theory-Derived Relational Model
for Mental Illness and Its Applications 439
Luciano L’Abate and Mario Cusinato

Preface

If the purposes of any science is to understand, predict (correctly), and control
(positively), then this volume fulfills these purposes well. Mental illnesses, in their
various intensities and types, are indeed beginning to be understood from a variety of
viewpoints, most of them contained in this volume. If we can all predict how and
when they will occur, in addition to understanding them generally (Section I) and
specifically (Section II), so much the better. We are not perfect in predicting their
course, but we are getting there. If we can also learn to improve them and reduce
suffering in those affected by mental illnesses and their dear ones (Section IV), one
giant step toward an improvement in their control has been taken.
One aspect of understanding mental illnesses includes the general, cultural and
societal background in which they occur. In the first chapter of the introductory
section, Adrian Furnham and Kate Telford reviewed three areas of research about
public attitudes toward mental health and illness. Specifically, schizophrenia and
depression, lay theories of mental health about the nature, causes, and treatments for
mental illness, and level of mental health literacy, that is, public knowledge and
recognition of mental disorders.
In Chapter 2, John E. Berg gives an overview of the existing scientific literature and his
own research pertaining to immigrants needs in their psychosocial functioning,
distress, and psychiatric diseases among different groups of immigrants to Western
Europe. Immigrant groups are composed of refugees according to UN rules, asylum
seekers, and other immigrants, such as economic immigrants and family reunions.
The complexity of this area covers an relatively new specialty: trans-cultural
psychiatry.
In Chapter 3, Vesna Švab defines stigma as an extreme of prejudices, with all their
myths and blatant discriminations. Stigma occur everywhere: at work, in the family, in
neighborhoods, with friends and partnerships, and in many other settings and
relationships. The outcome of stigma is disability. if they cannot be overcome, one has
to fight to overcome them. Fortunately, stigmas are a current area of substantive
research that is paying dividends in many cultures and societies. Nonetheless, a great
deal of work (and fighting) is still necessary to eradicate them from the face of the
earth.
X Preface

In line with the importance of stigmas in many societies, in Chapter 4, Arabinda
Narayan Chowdhury emphasizes that the study of culture and its clinical applications
are important aspects of mental health services. Anthropological, sociological, and
cross-cultural research has clearly demonstrated that the causes, course, and outcome
of major psychiatric disorders are influenced by cultural factors. Naturally, there are
wide variations of psychiatric disorders across geographic regions and ethnocultural
groups that have been documented in a great many publications.
In Chapter 5 of Section II, Aline Drapeau, Alain Marchand and Dominic Beaulieu-
Prévost give the readers basic information about the widespread existence of mental
illnesses. In their critical review of the literature on psychological distress, the authors
argue that this is a common mental health problem, consisting mostly of depression,
and anxiety linked to somatic and behavioral symptoms. It is usually used in the
literature as a non-specific indicator of mental health functioning. Indeed, age and
gender differences in psychological distress have been observed worldwide. If one
were to extrapolate from their own country to other countries, depending on different
cultural and psychiatric criteria, one could easily reach an estimate of 5% for severe
mental illness and 15 to 20% for personality disorders overlapping with criminal
behaviors. This essentially means that the whole statistical notion of “normality” flies
out the window, since this notion does not also include superior functioning.
Section II of Chapter 6 is dedicated to understanding etiological factors in mental
illnesses. Tsuyoshi Hattori, Shingo Miyata, Akira Ito, Taiichi Katayama, and Masaya
Tohyama argue that adhesion molecules such as cadherins and integrins are a
superfamily of proteins that regulate many cellular functions, including cell adhesion,
cell-matrix adhesion, and migration. These molecules are important for neuronal
development and synaptic formation, with many members of these families being
expressed in the brain. Moreover, recent reports have shown that members of the
adhesion molecules are associated with psychiatric disorders. In this chapter, these
authors focus on the role of adhesion molecules in psychiatric disorders, especially
schizophrenia and depression.
In Chapter 7, Javier Contreras argues that schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, though
unique illnesses, may share common genes. Both are major public health burdens
whose biology is still largely unknown. Identifying genes that contribute to the risks
should provide critical information that might lead to the development of new
diagnostics and therapeutic strategies. The author reports on a study in Central Valley
of Costa Rica that supports the joint influence of both genetic and environmental
factors in the genesis of both disorders.
In line with internal antecedents of mental illnesses in Chapter 8, Śpila Bożena and
Urbańska Anna found numerous reports substantiating connections between stress
and neurological changes observed in mental disorders. This research concentrates on
the role of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) system as the marker of
organism response to stress. An additional transmitter of feedback inhibition of