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J Klosterkötter

Publications and source records attributed to J Klosterkötter.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

[Efficacy and tolerability of quetiapine in hospitalised schizophrenic patients during the acute treatment phase: a PMS study].

We performed a post marketing surveillance study (PMS study) to reveal the efficacy and tolerability of orally administered quetiapine in the treatment of acute psychosis over a period of up to three weeks. 398 respective inpatients were assessed in 88 psychiatric departments in Germany by use of the Clinical Global Impression Scale (CGI) and the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) as well as the clinical impression of psychiatric raters. Safety and tolerability were assessed by vital parameters such as blood pressure, hearth rate and weight as well as the clinical impression of the psychiatric raters. In addition, dosing, concomitant and/or previous pharmacotherapies as well as certain aspects of psychiatric and medical history were documented. A significant reduction of psychopathology was found during three weeks of drug treatment. Daily dosages of quetiapine between 400 and 1200 mg were well tolerated with a limited number of adverse and no serious adverse events. Noteworthy, more than 35 % of all patients received and tolerated excellently more than 800 mg of quetiapine per day under naturalistic treatment conditions, well above the approved maximum daily dosage. This study reflects the clinical efficacy and good tolerability of quetiapine under real world treatment conditions and is in line with the results of the controlled clinical trials of phase II and III.

Acute Disease↗

Impulsiveness in obsessive-compulsive disorder: results from a family study.

OBJECTIVE: Although obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is usually conceptualized as an anxiety disorder some studies suggested it to be a deficit of impulse control. The purpose of this study was to assess impulsiveness in OCD families and compare it to control families. METHOD: Seventy cases and their 139 relatives were compared with 70 controls and their 134 relatives from a German family study on OCD (German Epidemiologic Network for OCD Studies). All subjects were interviewed and diagnosed according DSM-IV criteria and were administered the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS) and PADUA-Inventory to assess obsessive-compulsive symptoms. RESULTS: OCD subjects had significantly higher scores of cognitive impulsiveness. However, first-degree relatives of OCD cases and of controls had comparable BIS-11 scores. Significant associations of aggressive obsessions and checking with cognitive impulsiveness were found. CONCLUSION: OCD is a severe mental disorder that is characterized by a lack of cognitive inhibition. However, impulsiveness does not represent a familial trait in families of OCD subjects.

Adult↗

Improvement of cognitive functions in chronic schizophrenic patients by recombinant human erythropoietin.

Schizophrenia is increasingly recognized as a neurodevelopmental disease with an additional degenerative component, comprising cognitive decline and loss of cortical gray matter. We hypothesized that a neuroprotective/neurotrophic add-on strategy, recombinant human erythropoietin (rhEPO) in addition to stable antipsychotic medication, may be able to improve cognitive function even in chronic schizophrenic patients. Therefore, we designed a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized, multicenter, proof-of-principle (phase II) study. This study had a total duration of 2 years and an individual duration of 12 weeks with an additional safety visit at 16 weeks. Chronic schizophrenic men (N=39) with defined cognitive deficit (>or=1 s.d. below normal in the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS)), stable medication and disease state, were treated for 3 months with a weekly short (15 min) intravenous infusion of 40,000 IU rhEPO (N=20) or placebo (N=19). Main outcome measure was schizophrenia-relevant cognitive function at week 12. The neuropsychological test set (RBANS subtests delayed memory, language-semantic fluency, attention and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST-64) - perseverative errors) was applied over 2 days at baseline, 2 weeks, 4 weeks and 12 weeks of study participation. Both placebo and rhEPO patients improved in all evaluated categories. Patients receiving rhEPO showed a significant improvement over placebo patients in schizophrenia-related cognitive performance (RBANS subtests, WCST-64), but no effects on psychopathology or social functioning. Also, a significant decline in serum levels of S100B, a glial damage marker, occurred upon rhEPO. The fact that rhEPO is the first compound to exert a selective and lasting beneficial effect on cognition should encourage new treatment strategies for schizophrenia.

Adult↗

[A telephone hotline as an easily accessible service for questions on schizophrenia].

Public relations activities of the German Research Network on Schizophrenia (GRNS) have shown that there is a demand for more information about schizophrenia disorder. This confirms international research findings that relatives of schizophrenia patients are particularly in need of information and support. In response, the GRNS has maintained a telephone hotline since 2001. The hotline is manned by clinical experts, psychiatrists, or psychologists once a week. The telephone calls are documented in a systematic manner. From 2001 to 2003, 3,909 calls were registered. This volume exceeds the limit of the hotline's resources. The telephone hotline is mainly used by relatives of psychotic patients. Most questions relate to the symptoms of schizophrenia and pharmaceutical treatment. The need for emotional support is also a high motivational factor for dialing the hotline number. The telephone hotline seems to be a worthwhile addition to the already existing crisis telephones and should be maintained even after public funding of the network expires.

Caregivers↗

[Motivational interviewing for patients with comorbid schizophrenia and substance abuse disorders: a review].

Patients with schizophrenia and substance abuse disorders [dually diagnosed patients (DD)] show an unfavourable course of the illness and little interest in participating on specific integrated treatment programmes. Motivational interviewing (MI) has been shown to be effective among other substance abuse disorders and it aims to enhance intrinsic motivation to change problem behaviour. MI has been adapted for DD. The present paper reviews the empirical evidence for the efficacy of MI in DD. A search in the databases MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO was conducted and the methodological quality of the identified trials was assessed according to the Cochrane Collaboration and to the JADAD Scale. We identified 4 randomised studies with a total of 346 participants, in which MI interventions of 1 to 3 sessions were compared with various control conditions over a follow-up period of up to 6 months. With regard to the main outcome measures "subsequent participation at integrated treatment programme" (1 x positive, 2 x negative) and "substance use" (1 x positive, 1 x negative,) the studies gained contradictory results. In all 4 studies, there were relevant general methodological limitations (randomisation, blindness of raters, description of the reasons for drop-outs) and specific methodological shortcomings (sample size and sample homogenity, numbers of MI sessions, assessment of motivational status). Hence, at present the evidence for supporting MI in DD is not clear. This may be due to the methodological problems mentioned above or it may be that there is, in fact, no effect. Therefore, there is an urgent need for further research of MI in DD.

Diagnosis, Dual (Psychiatry)↗

A randomized comparison of group cognitive-behavioural therapy and group psychoeducation in acute patients with schizophrenia: outcome at 24 months.

OBJECTIVE: We compared the effects of a brief group cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) and a group psychoeducational (PE) programme in acute patients with schizophrenia 2 years after treatment. At 6-month follow-up, the CBT group had shown significantly less re-hospitalization rates and on a descriptive level higher compliance with medication. METHOD: Eighty-eight in-patients with acute schizophrenia were randomized to receive a therapy envelope of 8 weeks including either 16 sessions of CBT or eight sessions of PE. RESULTS: From the initial sample, 43 patients (48.9%) completed the 24-month follow-up. There were no significant group differences regarding re-admission, symptoms or compliance with medication. However, on a descriptive level patients who received CBT on average experienced 21.8% less re-hospitalizations, 71 days less in hospital and higher compliance ratings at the 24-month follow-up. CONCLUSION: The significant advantages of CBT at short-term follow-up were lost at long-term follow-up. However, on a descriptive level some advantages for CBT remained after 2 years.

Acute Disease↗

[Early course of illness in first episode schizophrenia with long duration of untreated illness - a comparative study].

When a long duration of untreated illness (DUI) is correlated with an unfavourable progression of schizophrenia in the same way as that of a long duration of untreated psychosis (DUP), the characteristics of patients with a long DUI are of particular interest for early recognition and early intervention programmes. With this background, demographic data and early symptoms were collected from 82 first time in-patients with schizophrenia using the IRAOS (Interview for the Retrospective Assessment of the Onset of Schizophrenia). In the total sample, the average DUI was almost 5.9 years. On the basis of the DUI median (5.2 yrs), the random sample was divided into two groups: one with long (n = 41) and one with short (n = 41) DUI. When comparing both groups in terms of socio-demographic data, no significant differences could be found (with the exception of age at first admission: 28 - 32 yrs). On a psychopathological level, patients with long DUI were prone to depressive moods, anxiety, compulsive symptoms and showed early signs of disturbances in bodily perception. An educational campaign should sensitize both employees working in primary care and experts who diagnose and treat psychological illnesses, to the fact that these symptoms could point to a prodrome even when the patient has passed the typical age of being at risk from schizophrenia.

Adolescent↗

[Pathways to care: help-seeking behavior in first-episode psychosis].

Several studies on first episode schizophrenia suggest that a longer duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) results in poorer clinical outcome. The same is expected for the duration of untreated illness (DUI). It is therefore important to expose people at risk of schizophrenia to adequate treatment early on. The improvement of pathways to adequate treatment within the health care system might well be helpful. Therefore, an analysis of the pathways to care is necessary. Thus, in this present study 80 in-patients with first episode psychosis were investigated using the semi-structured interview IRAOS ("Interview for the Retrospective Assessment of the Onset of Schizophrenia") and data about the pathways to care before psychiatric admission were collected. The results indicate that patients contact on average three carers. Contact to a psychiatrist or a psychotherapist was only made two and a half years after onset of illness; general practitioners were only contacted after more than five years. However, there was a significant time lapse between first contact to psychiatrist/ psychotherapist and psychiatric admission. Only 31 % of patients sought help in the prodromal phase of the illness. Two strategies for a public campaign can be derived from these results: firstly, a public awareness campaign has to be implemented to shorten the interval from onset of illness to first help-seeking behaviour and secondly, professionals need to have more knowledge and better awareness of prodromal signs in order to reduce the time between diagnosis and adequate treatment.

Adolescent↗

A randomized comparison of group cognitive-behavioural therapy and group psychoeducation in patients with schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE: Although the efficacy of cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) in schizophrenia has been established in a number of studies, no information is available on the differential efficacy of CBT in comparison with patient psychoeducation (PE). METHOD: Eighty-eight in-patients with schizophrenia were randomized to receive a therapy envelope of 8 weeks including either 16 sessions group CBT or eight [correction] sessions group PE treatment. Assessments took place at baseline, post-treatment and 6 month follow-up. RESULTS: Patients, who received CBT were significantly less rehospitalized than patients in the PE group during the follow-up period. On a descriptive level, CBT resulted in lower relapse rates and higher compliance ratings at post-treatment and at follow-up than PE. Both forms of therapy led to significant psychopathological improvement at post-treatment and at follow-up. CONCLUSION: The brief group CBT intervention showed some superiority to the PE programme, which could be of considerable clinical and economical importance.

Adolescent↗

[DRGs and Psych-PV].

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Diagnosis-Related Groups↗

Early detection and intervention in the initial prodromal phase of schizophrenia.

Attenuated and transient psychotic symptoms as well as a combination of different risk indicators and a recent significant deterioration in global functioning are currently used as a preliminary definition of the initial prodromal or at-risk mental state by the vast majority of investigators in research on early psychosis detection and intervention. Recently published results demonstrated a mean progression to frank psychosis within one year in 36.7 % of cases showing emerging symptoms, indicating that these criteria already seem to provide a satisfying assessment for risk of an imminent psychosis. However, as functional decline often sets in before this time, detection in earlier prodromal stages seems necessary. In a prospective study, certain basic cognitive and perceptive symptoms showed good to excellent predictive accuracy for schizophrenic psychosis, thus potentially offering a reasonable approach for earlier detection. Early intervention is aimed at improving prodromal symptoms, avoiding functional deterioration, and suppressing or delaying transition to psychosis. Initial study results targeting an earlier or later prodromal phase are promising, but longer follow-ups and larger samples are needed.

Disease Progression↗