There is considerable interest in understanding further the factors that increase the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for military personnel. This study aimed to investigate the relative contribution of demographic variables; childhood adversity; the nature of exposure to traumatic events during deployment; appraisal of these experiences; and home-coming experiences in relation to the prevalence of PTSD ‘caseness’ as measured by a score of ⩾50 on the PTSD Checklist (PCL) in UK Armed Forces personnel who have been deployed in Iraq since 2003.

Data were drawn from the first stage of a retrospective cohort study comparing UK military personnel who were deployed to the 2003 Iraq War with personnel serving in the UK Armed Forces on 31 March 2003 but who were not deployed to the initial phase of war fighting. Participants were randomly selected and invited to participate. The response rate was 61%. We have limited these analyses to 4762 regular service individuals who responded to the survey and who have been deployed in Iraq since 2003.

Post-traumatic stress symptoms were associated with lower rank, being unmarried, having low educational attainment and a history of childhood adversity. Exposure to potentially traumatizing events, in particular being deployed to a ‘forward’ area in close contact with the enemy, was associated with post-traumatic stress symptoms. Appraisals of the experience as involving threat to one's own life and a perception that work in theatre was above an individual's trade and experience were strongly associated with post-traumatic stress symptoms. Low morale and poor social support within the unit and non-receipt of a home-coming brief (psycho-education) were associated with greater risk of post-traumatic stress symptoms.

Personal appraisal of threat to life during the trauma emerged as the most important predictor of post-traumatic stress symptoms. These results also raise the possibility that there are important modifiable occupational factors such as unit morale, leadership, preparing combatants for their role in theatre which may influence an individual's risk of post-traumatic stress symptoms. Therefore interventions focused on systematic preparation of personnel for the extreme stress of combat may help to lessen the psychological impact of deployment.

Numerous studies have reported high rates of psychosis in the Black Caribbean population in the UK. Recent speculation about the reasons for these high rates has focused on social factors. However, there have been few empirical studies. We sought to compare the prevalence of specific indicators of social disadvantage and isolation, and variations by ethnicity, in subjects with a first episode of psychosis and a series of healthy controls.

All cases with a first episode of psychosis who made contact with psychiatric services in defined catchment areas in London and Nottingham, UK and a series of community controls were recruited over a 3-year period. Data relating to clinical and social variables were collected from cases and controls.

On all indicators, cases were more socially disadvantaged and isolated than controls, after controlling for potential confounders. These associations held when the sample was restricted to those with an affective diagnosis and to those with a short prodrome and short duration of untreated psychosis. There was a clear linear relationship between concentrated disadvantage and odds of psychosis. Similar patterns were evident in the two main ethnic groups, White British and Black Caribbean. However, indicators of social disadvantage and isolation were more common in Black Caribbean subjects than White British subjects.

We found strong associations between indicators of disadvantage and psychosis. If these variables index exposure to factors that increase risk of psychosis, their greater prevalence in the Black Caribbean population may contribute to the reported high rates of psychosis in this population.

Being a small and culturally different minority, or having a different appearance, has been invoked to account for the increased prevalence of psychotic disorders among immigrants. The majority of the Jewish Israeli population are first- or second-generation immigrants from Europe, North Africa or Asia, and during the late 1980s and 1990s, 885 000 persons immigrated to Israel from the former Soviet Union and 43 000 immigrated from Ethiopia. These Ethiopian immigrants came from a very different culture compared to the rest of the population, and have a distinct appearance. To further understand the association between immigration and schizophrenia, we compared risk for later schizophrenia between adolescents who immigrated from Ethiopia with risk among the other immigrant groups, and with native-born Israelis.

Of 661 792 adolescents consecutively screened by the Israeli Draft Board, 557 154 were native-born Israelis and 104 638 were immigrants. Hospitalization for schizophrenia was ascertained using a National Psychiatric Hospitalization Case Registry. All analyses controlled for socio-economic status (SES).

Risk for schizophrenia was increased among both first- [hazard ratio (HR) 1.62, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.18–2.22] and second-generation immigrants [HR 1.41, 95% CI 1.01–1.95 (one immigrant parent) and HR 1.49, 95% CI 1.11–2.0 (two immigrant parents)]. When risk for schizophrenia was calculated for each immigrant group separately, immigrants from Ethiopia were at highest risk of later schizophrenia (HR 2.95, 95% CI 1.88–4.65).

This comparison between diverse groups of immigrants supports the notion that immigrants who differ in culture and appearance from the host population are at increased risk for schizophrenia.

Little is known about the pattern of genetic and environmental influences on symptoms of anxiety and depression (SxAnxDep) from childhood to early adulthood.

Parental- and self-reported levels of SxAnxDep were assessed at ages 8–9, 13–14, 16–17 and 19–20 years in 2508 twins from the Swedish Twin Study of Child and Adolescent Development (TCHAD). Analysis conducted using the Mx program included SxAnxDep by parental and self-report.

The best-fit model revealed one genetic risk factor for SxAnxDep acting at ages 8–9, 13–14, 16–17 and 19–20, and new sets of genetic risk factors ‘coming on line’ in early adolescence, late adolescence and early adulthood. Together, these genetic factors were very strong influences on the levels of SxAnxDep reported in common by parents and twins with heritability estimates, correcting for rater- and time-specific effects, ranging from 72% to 89%. The first genetic factor, which accounted for 72% of the variance in SxAnxDep at ages 8–9, attenuated sharply in influence, accounting for only 12% of the variance by ages 19–20. No evidence was found for shared environmental influences. Although not statistically significant, the correlation between genetic risk factors for SxAnxDep in males and females declined with advancing age.

Genetic effects on SxAnxDep are developmentally dynamic from middle childhood to young adulthood, demonstrating both genetic innovation and genetic attenuation. The attenuation might explain the low levels of continuity observed for anxiety and depressive disorders from childhood to adulthood. Differences in genetic risk factors for SxAnxDep in males and females may increase during development.

South Africa's history and current social conditions suggest that mental disorders are likely to be a major contributor to disease burden, but there has been no national study using standardized assessment tools.

The South African Stress and Health Study was a nationally representative in-person psychiatric epidemiological survey of 4351 adults (aged ⩾18 years) that was conducted as part of the WHO World Mental Health (WMH) Survey Initiative between January 2002 and June 2004. Twelve-month prevalence and severity of DSM-IV disorders, treatment, and sociodemographic correlates were assessed with Version 3.0 of the WHO Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI 3.0).

The 12-month prevalence of any DSM-IV/CIDI disorder was 16.5%, with 26.2% of respondents with disorder classified as severe cases and an additional 31.1% as moderately severe cases. The most common disorders were agoraphobia (4.8%), major depressive disorder (4.9%) and alcohol abuse or dependence (4.5%). Twenty-eight percent of adults with a severe or moderately severe disorder received treatment compared to 24.4% of mild cases. Some 13.8% of persons with no disorder received treatment. Treatment was mostly provided by the general medical sector with few people receiving treatment from mental health providers.

Psychiatric disorders are much higher in South Africa than in Nigeria and there is a high level of unmet need among persons with severe and moderately severe disorders.

Genetic epidemiology data suggest that younger age of onset is associated with family history (FH) of depression. The present study tested whether the presence of FH for depression or anxiety in first-degree relatives determines younger age of onset for depression.

A sample of 1022 cases with recurrent major depressive disorder (MDD) was recruited at the Max Planck Institute and at two affiliated hospitals. Patients were assessed using the Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry and questionnaires including demographics, medical history, questions on the use of alcohol and tobacco, personality traits and life events. Survival analysis and the Cox proportional hazard model were used to determine whether FH of depression signals earlier age of onset of depression.

Patients who reported positive FH had a significantly earlier age of onset than patients who did not report FH of depression (log-rank=48, df=1, p<0.0001). The magnitude of association of FH varies by age of onset, with the largest estimate for MDD onset before age 20 years (hazard ratio=2.2, p=0.0009), whereas FH is not associated with MDD for onset after age 50 years (hazard ratio=0.89, p=0.5). The presence of feelings of guilt, anxiety symptoms and functional impairment due to depressive symptoms appear to characterize individuals with positive FH of depression.

FH of depression contributes to the onset of depression at a younger age and may affect the clinical features of the illness.

Fatigue is the central symptom in chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and yet very little is known about its neural correlates. The aim of this study was to explore the functional brain response, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), to the imaginal experience of fatigue in CFS patients and controls.

We compared the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) responses of 12 CFS patients and 11 healthy controls to a novel fatigue provocation procedure designed to mimic real-life situations. A non-fatiguing anxiety-provoking condition was also included to control for the non-specific effects of negative affect.

During the provocation of fatigue, CFS patients reported feelings of both fatigue and anxiety and, compared to controls, they showed increased activation in the occipito-parietal cortex, posterior cingulate gyrus and parahippocampal gyrus, and decreased activation in dorsolateral and dorsomedial prefrontal cortices. The reverse pattern of findings was observed during the anxiety-provoking scenarios.

The results may suggest that, in CFS patients, the provocation of fatigue is associated with exaggerated emotional responses that patients may have difficulty suppressing. These findings are discussed in relation to the cognitive-behavioural model of CFS.

Chemical weapons exercise an enduring and often powerful psychological effect. This had been recognized during the First World War when it was shown that the symptoms of stress mimicked those of mild exposure to gas. Debate about long-term effects followed the suggestion that gassing triggered latent tuberculosis.

A random sample of 103 First World War servicemen awarded a war pension for the effects of gas, but without evidence of chronic respiratory pathology, were subjected to cluster analysis using 25 common symptoms. The consistency of symptom reporting was also investigated across repeated follow-ups.

Cluster analysis identified four groups: one (n=56) with a range of somatic symptoms, a second (n=30) with a focus on the respiratory system, a third (n=12) with a predominance of neuropsychiatric symptoms, and a fourth (n=5) with a narrow band of symptoms related to the throat and breathing difficulties. Veterans from the neuropsychiatric cluster had multiple diagnoses including neurasthenia and disordered action of the heart, and reported many more symptoms than those in the three somatic clusters.

Mild or intermittent respiratory disorders in the post-war period supported beliefs about the damaging effects of gas in the three somatic clusters. By contrast, the neuropsychiatric group did not report new respiratory illnesses. For this cluster, the experience of gassing in a context of extreme danger may have been responsible for the intensity of their symptoms, which showed no sign of diminution over the 12-year follow-up.

Cannabis use appears to be a risk factor for schizophrenia. Moreover, cannabis abusers show impaired decision-making capacities, linked to the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). Although there is substantial evidence that first-episode schizophrenia patients show impairments in cognitive tasks associated with the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), it is not clear whether decision making is impaired at schizophrenia onset. In this study, we examined the association between antecedents of cannabis abuse and cognitive impairment in cognitive tasks associated with the DLPFC and the OFC in a sample of first-episode patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders.

One hundred and thirty-two patients experiencing their first episode of a schizophrenia-spectrum psychosis were assessed with a cognitive battery including DLPFC-related tasks [backward digits, verbal fluency (FAS) and the Trail Making Test (TMT)] and an OFC-related task [the Iowa Gambling Task (GT)]. Performance on these tasks was compared between patients who had and had not abused cannabis before their psychosis onset.

No differences were observed between the two groups on the performance of any of the DLPFC-related tasks. However, patients who had abused cannabis before their psychosis onset showed a poorer total performance on the gambling task and a lower improvement on the performance of the task compared to no-abusers.

Pre-psychotic cannabis abuse is associated with decision-making impairment, but not working memory and executive function impairment, among first-episode patients with a schizophrenia-spectrum psychosis. Further studies are needed to examine the direction of causality of this impairment; that is, does the impairment make the patients abuse cannabis, or does cannabis abuse cause the impairment?

We hypothesized that gender differences in average levels on the internalizing and externalizing factors that account for co-morbidity among common psychopathological syndromes in both men and women account for gender differences in the prevalence of specific syndromes.

The latent structure of 11 syndromes was examined in a middle-aged (mean age=52.66 years, s.d.=5.82) sample of 2992 (37% men) members of the community-based Minnesota Twin Registry (MTR) assessed using 10 scales of the Psychiatric Diagnostic Screening Questionnaire (PDSQ) and an adult antisocial behavior scale. Confirmatory factorial invariance models were applied to a best-fitting, internalizing–externalizing model.

A ‘strong gender invariance model’ fit best, indicating that gender differences in the means of individual syndromes were well accounted for by gender differences in mean levels of internalizing and externalizing. Women exhibited higher mean levels of internalizing (d=0.23) and lower mean levels of externalizing (d=−0.52) than men.

These findings suggest that risk factors for common mental disorders exhibiting gender differences may influence prevalence at the latent factor level. Future research may benefit from focusing on both the latent factor and individual syndrome levels in explaining gender differences in psychopathology.

Lone mothers experience higher rates of psychiatric morbidity, while rates in lone fathers have never been studied. We aimed to determine the relative contributions of financial strain and decreased social support to the excess of depression and common mental disorders (CMD) in lone parents.

We investigated whether parent status (lone parent, partnered parent, others) was associated with psychiatric morbidity measured using the revised Clinical Interview Schedule, after controlling for self-reported financial strain (income and debt) and social support.

Lone mothers were twice as likely to have a CMD (OR 1.8, 95% CI 1.4–2.3) as other women. This was not significant after controlling for financial strain or social support. Lone fathers were nearly four times more likely to have a CMD than other men (OR 3.9, 95% CI 2.3–6.8), and this risk remained undiminished by controlling for age, income, debt and levels of social support.

Debt management would be a rational strategy to reduce psychiatric morbidity in lone mothers. More studies are needed to inform prevention strategies in lone fathers.

Source monitoring consists in identifying the origin of mental events. Recent research suggests that confusions over internally generated mental events may represent a cognitive marker for increased proneness to psychotic symptoms and disorders. We have examined source monitoring for actions in adolescents with the 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS), a neurogenetic disease associated with high rates of schizophrenia during adulthood, and expected to observe source monitoring deficits in comparison to IQ-matched and typically developing controls.

Eighteen adolescents with 22q11DS, 17 adolescents matched for age and IQ, and also 17 adolescents matched for age participated in this study. Our adapted action monitoring paradigm asked subjects to visualize a series of actions in three different conditions: (1) visualize themselves performing the action; (2) visualize the experimenter performing the action; or (3) simply repeat the action statements without visualization of the action performer.

The adolescents with 22q11DS performed adequately in terms of recognition (hits), but in comparison to both control groups, they committed more source confusions on correctly recognized items. Further examination revealed that the adolescents were more likely to demonstrate confusions between exterior sources in which the self was not involved.

Source monitoring deficits can be observed in adolescents with 22q11DS, a syndrome putting them at high risk for developing schizophrenia. These deficits are discussed in terms of early cognitive processes associated with genetic risk for schizophrenia.

Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) therapy is associated with a decrease in seizure frequency in partial-onset seizure patients. Initial trials suggest that it may be an effective treatment, with few side-effects, for intractable depression.

An open, uncontrolled European multi-centre study (D03) of VNS therapy was conducted, in addition to stable pharmacotherapy, in 74 patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Treatment remained unchanged for the first 3 months; in the subsequent 9 months, medications and VNS dosing parameters were altered as indicated clinically.

The baseline 28-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD-28) score averaged 34. After 3 months of VNS, response rates (⩾50% reduction in baseline scores) reached 37% and remission rates (HAMD-28 score <10) 17%. Response rates increased to 53% after 1 year of VNS, and remission rates reached 33%. Response was defined as sustained if no relapse occurred during the first year of VNS after response onset; 44% of patients met these criteria. Median time to response was 9 months. Most frequent side-effects were voice alteration (63% at 3 months of stimulation) and coughing (23%).

VNS therapy was effective in reducing severity of depression; efficacy increased over time. Efficacy ratings were in the same range as those previously reported from a USA study using a similar protocol; at 12 months, reduction of symptom severity was significantly higher in the European sample. This might be explained by a small but significant difference in the baseline HAMD-28 score and the lower number of treatments in the current episode in the European study.

Whether alexithymia is a personality trait that increases the risk of major depression (MD) is still debated. In this prospective study, alexithymic levels were evaluated before, during and after a depressive episode.

The alexithymic levels, the presence of MD and the severity of anxious-depressive symptoms were evaluated at intervals of about 1 month in pregnant women attending the Centers for Prenatal Care, using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS), the Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders (PRIME-MD) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).

Sixteen women affected by MD, 21 affected by subthreshold depression and 112 non-depressed women were included in the study. Women who developed depression, compared to non-depressed women, showed similar TAS and HADS scores during the pre-morbid phase, a significant increase in the scores during depression and a significant decrease after remission, whereas no change was observed in non-depressed women.

Our data suggest that in pregnant women alexithymia does not represent a personality trait that increases the risk of developing a depressive episode, and they support the hypothesis that alexithymia is a state-dependent phenomenon in depressed pregnant women.

Screening of patients for common mental disorders (CMDs) is needed in primary-care management programmes. This study aimed to compare the screening properties of five widely used questionnaires.

Adult attenders in five primary-care settings in India were recruited through systematic sampling. Four questionnaires were administered, in pairs, in random order to participants: the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ, 12 items); the Primary Health Questionnaire (PHQ, nine items); the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10, 10 items), and from which we could extract the score of the shorter 6-item K6; and the Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ, 20 items). All participants were interviewed with a structured lay diagnostic interview, the Revised Clinical Interview Schedule (CIS-R).

Complete data were available for 598 participants (participation rate 99.3%). All five questionnaires showed moderate to high discriminating ability; the GHQ and SRQ showed the best results. All five showed moderate to high degrees of correlation with one another, the poorest being between the two shortest questionnaires, K6 and PHQ. All five had relatively good internal consistency. However, the positive predictive value (PPV) of the questionnaires compared with the diagnostic interview ranged from 51% to 77% at the optimal cut-off scores.

There is little difference in the ability of these questionnaires to identify cases accurately, but none showed high PPVs without a considerable compromise on sensitivity. Hence, the choice of an optimum cut-off score that yields the best balance between sensitivity and PPV may need to be tailored to individual settings, with a higher cut-off being recommended in resource-limited primary-care settings.

We compared adult offspring of depressed or control parents who were followed for 23 years. Comparisons were on depression symptoms, physical functioning and disability, social functioning, and utilization of help and coping. Also examined was whether the parent's course of depression (stably remitted, partially remitted, non-remitted) was associated with offspring functioning.

Depressed parents successfully followed at 23 years (n=248, 82%) identified 215 adult offspring; 67% returned questionnaires. Matched control parents successfully followed (n=235, 79%) identified 261 adult offspring; 68% completed questionnaires.

Adult offspring of depressed parents were more impaired than adult offspring of controls (with gender and education controlled) in the domains of depression and disability, and obtained more help for mental health problems. They also reported more severe recent stressors and relied more on active cognitive coping and seeking alternative rewards to cope. Adult offspring of depressed and control parents were comparable in a number of domains: psychiatric and behavioral problems other than depression, physical functioning and pain, social functioning, and hospitalizations and medication use for depression. Adult offspring of parents with a non-remitted course of depression were the most likely to show impaired functioning compared with controls.

Having a parent with depression is associated with more depression and disability in adulthood, but does not have debilitating effects in other life domains. Nonetheless, it may be important for offspring of depressed parents, particularly offspring of parents with a non-remitting depression course, to recognize their elevated risk of depression and potential need for help.

Schizophrenic patients tend to attribute internal events to external agents, a bias that may be linked to positive symptoms. We investigated the effect of emotional valence on the cognitive bias.

Male schizophrenic subjects (n=30) and an experimenter alternatively produced neutral and negative words. The subject then decided whether he or the experimenter had generated the item.

External misattributions were more common than self-misattributions, and the bias was greater for patients with active hallucinations and delusions relative to patients in remission. Actively psychotic patients but not patients in remission were more likely to generate external misattributions with negative relative to neutral words.

Affective modulation of the externalizing cognitive bias in source monitoring is evident in patients with hallucinations and delusions.

Foetal nutrition and growth seem to affect the risk of developing schizophrenia. Exposure to famine during foetal development and low birthweight increase the risk. However, few studies have investigated the association between schizophrenia and adult height and weight or patterns of growth.

The study population consisted of two subpopulations: families with at least one member with schizophrenia, and families of offspring of mothers with psychotic disorder, and controls. Using a seven-parameter model of height growth curves, we compared the parameters of persons who later developed schizophrenia and their unaffected siblings from the same families. We also studied how growth curve parameters differed in children with genetic risk for schizophrenia and controls, and whether weight, height and body mass index (BMI) at different ages predicted later development of schizophrenia.

The predicted growth curves based on a parametric model were nearly identical for persons with schizophrenia and their unaffected siblings. Adult height of daughters of mothers with psychoses was borderline significantly (p=0.0536) lower compared to controls, while no difference was detected among sons (p=0.3283).

No association between growth characteristics and schizophrenia in families with at least one member with schizophrenia was found. Family-related factors should be taken into account as possible confounders in future studies on growth and schizophrenia.

A tendency to make hasty decisions on probabilistic reasoning tasks and a difficulty attributing mental states to others are key cognitive features of persecutory delusions (PDs) in the context of schizophrenia. This study examines whether these same psychological anomalies characterize PDs when they present in the context of psychotic depression.

Performance on measures of probabilistic reasoning and theory of mind (ToM) was examined in five subgroups differing in diagnostic category and current illness status.

The tendency to draw hasty decisions in probabilistic settings and poor ToM tested using story format feature in PDs irrespective of diagnosis. Furthermore, performance on the ToM story task correlated with the degree of distress caused by and preoccupation with the current PDs in the currently deluded groups. By contrast, performance on the non-verbal ToM task appears to be more sensitive to diagnosis, as patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders perform worse on this task than those with depression irrespective of the presence of PDs.

The psychological anomalies associated with PDs examined here are transdiagnostic but different measures of ToM may be more or less sensitive to indices of severity of the PDs, diagnosis and trait- or state-related cognitive effects.

Due to neuropsychological conceptualizations of orbitoprefrontal cortex (OFC) dysfunction underpinning impulsive aggression and the incidence of such behaviour in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), this study aimed to explore olfactory identification (OI) ability in war veterans with PTSD as a probe of putative OFC dysfunction; and to explore the utility of OI ability in predicting aggressive and impulsive behavior in this clinical population.

Participants comprised 31 out-patient male war veterans with PTSD (mean=58.23 years, s.d.=2.56) recruited from a Melbourne Veterans Psychiatry Unit, and 31 healthy age- and gender-matched controls (mean=56.84 years, s.d.=7.24). All participants were assessed on clinical measures of PTSD, depression, anxiety, and alcohol misuse; olfactory identification; neurocognitive measures of dorsolateral prefrontal, lateral prefrontal and mesial temporal functioning; and self-report measures of aggression and impulsivity.

War veterans with PTSD exhibited significant OI deficits (OIDs) compared to controls, despite uncompromised performance on cognitive measures. OIDs remained after covaring for IQ, anxiety, depression and alcohol misuse, and were significant predictors of aggression and impulsivity.

This research contributes to emerging evidence of orbitoprefrontal dysfunction in the pathophysiology underlying PTSD. This is the first study to report OIDs as a predictor of aggression and impulsivity in this clinical population. It prompts further exploration of the potential diagnostic utility of OIDs in the assessment of PTSD. Such measures may help delineate the clinical complexity of PTSD, and support more targeted interventions for individuals with a greater susceptibility to aggressive and impulsive behaviors.