Psychosocial interventions in workplace mental health promotion: an overview.

A review based on the DataPrev final report concerning workplace mental health promotion is presented. Out of 4865 studies identified in a comprehensive bibliographical data search, 315 were selected for abstract screening and 79 were included in the final review. The studies were categorized in terms of their aims/expected outcomes and evaluated for quality on the grounds of their design and type of analysis. The most frequent aims were stress reduction and better coping, followed by increased job satisfaction and effectiveness, mental health enhancement and reduction in mental health-related absenteeism. In the 79 intervention studies, 99 outcome variables were measured using 163 instruments, mostly developed for the study purposes. Different intervention categories turned out to be used to attain the same aim, with skills training being the most popular (other approaches included improvement of occupational qualifications and working conditions, physical exercise, relaxation and multicomponent interventions). Among the few intervention programs that were implemented and evaluated in two or more studies, the Stress Inoculation Training (Cecil and Forman, in Effects of stress inoculation training and coworker support groups on teachers' stress. Journal of School Psychology, 28, 105, 1990) based on the model by Meichenbaum (Meichenbaum, in Stress Inoculation Training. Pergamon Press, New York, 1985) seemed to be the most promising. Its effectiveness, evidenced in a majority of the measures, was evaluated in studies using the randomized controlled design. This paper is illustrated by high-quality intervention studies. In high and moderate quality studies, positive effects were reported in about a half of the examined outcome variables. However, conclusive evidence of intervention programs effectiveness would require further research-repetition of studies using treatments equivalent to the experimental ones, and outcome evaluation taking into account other criteria, e.g. behavioural.

Neuropsychological assessment of language functions during functional magnetic resonance imaging: development of new tasks. Preliminary report.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Due to the complex and extended cerebral organization of language functions, the brain regions crucial for speech and language, i.e. eloquent areas, have to be affected by neurooncological surgery. One of the techniques that may be helpful in pre-operative planning of the extent of tumour removal and estimating possible complications seems to be functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The aim of the study was to develop valid procedures for neuropsychological assessment of various language functions visualisable by fMRI in healthy individuals. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In this fMRI study, 10 healthy (with no CNS pathology), right-handed volunteers aged 25-35 were examined using four tasks designed to measure different language functions, and one for short-term memory assessment. A 1.5-T MRI scanner performing ultrafast functional (EPI) sequences with 4-mm slice thickness and 1-mm interslice gap was used to detect the BOLD response to stimuli present-ed in a block design (30-second alternating blocks of activity and rest). The analyses used the SPM software running in a MATLAB environment, and the obtained data were interpreted by means of colour-coded maps superimposed on structural brain scans. RESULTS: For each of the tasks developed for particular language functions, a different area of increased neuronal activity was found. CONCLUSIONS: The differential localization of function-related neuronal activity seems interesting and the research worth continuing, since verbal communication failure may result from impairment of any of various language functions, and studies reported in the literature seem to focus on verbal expression only.

Cerebrospinal fluid free-radical peroxidation products and cognitive functioning patterns differentiate varieties of normal pressure hydrocephalus.

The aims of the study were as follows: first, to verify the hypothesis that free radical peroxidation may be one of the factors implicated in pathophysiology of normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) and, second, to find out whether these biochemical characteristics together with neuropsychological cognitive deficits can differentiate between various types of NPH. This provides prognostic criteria for selection of patients for shunt surgery. Lipid peroxidation was measured in terms of thiobarbituric acid-reactive material (TBAR) and protein sulphydryl (SH) groups were measured as CSF content. Cognitive deficits were assessed using a number of neuropsychological tests. In the sample of NPH patients (n = 24), three categories were distinguished using these criteria: idiopathic active hydrocephalus (A), arrested hydrocephalus (AH), and post-traumatic hydrocephalus (PT). TBAR levels for NPH patients were higher than that of controls without CNS pathology (n = 2). Moreover, NPH patients had increased levels of total and soluble protein groups, and decreased levels of protein SH groups, which suggests the occurrence of processes that activate peroxidation of free radicals in normal pressure hydrocephalus. Levels of these indicators varied across NPH types. Two categories of NPH patients, with active (A) or posttraumatic (PT) hydrocephalus differed significantly from the controls (C)--their TBAR levels were 0.58, 0.56 and 0.28 nmol/mg protein, respectively; soluble SH levels: 41.5; 58.15 and 11.3 nmol/mg protein, and protein SH levels: 34.3, 21.8 and 57.5 nmol/mg protein. In PT group, many individual differences were noticed. These findings seem promising because the studied biochemical indicators may serve as additional diagnostic criteria for selection of NPH patients for shunting.

Self-rated emotional functioning of patients with neurological or asymptomatic form of Wilson's disease.

Psychopathology was assessed in 50 patients with the neurological form of Wilson's disease (WD-N) and in 17 asymptomatic patients (WD-A) compared to matched healthy controls and to rheumatoid arthritis (RA) control patients using The Hopkins Symptom Checklist. As hypothesized, WD-N patients had significantly lower interpersonal sensitivity and aggression/hostility scores than had healthy controls, but did not differ from them either in depression or anxiety levels. Retarded depression and anxiety were higher among RA patients than in WD-N patients. This nondistressed response to the chronic disabling disease was even more salient in 19 WD patients with lesions in basal ganglia only. WD-A patients did not differ from their healthy peers, which suggests a tendency towards hypercompensation and denial in the former. WD-N patients' limited awareness of their deficits (including impaired control of affective behavior) seems to result from their brain damage implicating the basal ganglia.