[The Six Factor Test--a personality questionnaire for clinical practice and research]. / Der Sechs-Faktoren-Test zur Erfassung der Persönlichkeit in der klinischen Praxis und Forschung.

BACKGROUND: The Six factor Test (SFT) is a personality questionnaire for assessment of the "big five" (neuroticism, extraversion, conscience, aggressivity, openness to experiences) and piety in patients with mental disorders and healthy subjects. METHODS: In a study of 360 probands (125 depressive and bipolar patients, 150 first-degree relatives of these patients, and 85 controls), the reliability and validity of the SFT was examined. Thirty-five controls and 79 relatives were reinvestigated after around 6.5 years. RESULTS: The factorial structure could be replicated, and the concurrent validity was moderate to high. Acceptable internal consistency was observed, with the exceptions of "openness" and "agreeableness". The retest reliability was high, with the exception of "openness". Patients differed from controls in neuroticism and "openness". These factors were also predictive for the first onset of psychiatric disorders in controls and relatives, respectively. CONCLUSION: The SFT is a short und simple instrument for the assessment of personality in clinical samples and controls. Reliability and validity of the three main scales (neuroticism, extraversion, and conscience) were acceptable. The corresponding coefficients of the three shorter scales, in particular of openness, were partly much lower.

[Psychotropic drug-induced change of weight: a review]. / Gewichtsveränderungen unter Therapie mit Psychopharmaka.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to give a systematic review of change of weight associated with commonly used psychotropic drugs. METHODS: Mainly based on a MEDLINE-supported review until April 2005, data from clinical studies with antidepressants, anticonvulsants, mood stabilizers and neuroleptics were scanned for change of weight during treatment. RESULTS: Among antidepressants amitryptiline and nortriptyline have the highest incidence of weight gain followed by imipramine. Maprotiline and mirtazapine have an intermediate weight increasing potential. SSRI (except paroxetine) and MAOI had no or only slight weight inducing effects. In contrary, bupropion was associated with weight reduction. Regarding mood stabilizers and anticonvulsants, a marked gain in weight with lithium and sodium valproate was reported frequently. With gabapentin and vigabatrin a slight to moderate gain in weight was found. Minor changes of weight were found with carbamazepine and lamotrigine. Treatment with topiramate and felbamate reportedly lead to weight loss. The atypical neuroleptics clozapine and olanzapine were frequently related to a strong gain in weight followed by risperidone. Quetiapine has intermediate effects. Stable weight was found with aripiprazole and ziprasidone. A gain in weight is less frequent with older/typical neuroleptics. CONCLUSION: Beside some methodological restrictions like inconsistent information of weight changes (e. g. percent vs. mass) and the small sample of available long term studies, this review specifies the incidence of weight changes for commonly used psychotropic drugs and might be helpful to look for alternatives.

The Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology: German translation and psychometric validation.

The Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (IDS) is a rating scale for depression, widely used in international multicentre studies. There are two corresponding versions: a self-rated (IDS-SR) and a clinician-rated (IDS-C) scale. The aim of this study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the German versions of the IDS-SR and IDS-C in comparison to the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD) and to the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). The sample consisted of 59 inpatients and outpatients treated for unipolar or bipolar disorders. Internal consistency of the IDS-SR and IDS-C was found highly acceptable (alpha = 0.94 and alpha = 0.93). Item-total-correlations of the IDS-SR revealed that 68% of the items were strongly correlated with the sum score (> or =0.50). This was in the same range with the IDS-C (54%), the HRSD (53%) and the BDI (76%). Furthermore, there is a high concurrent validity (r > or = 0.88) of the IDS-SR with the IDS-C, the BDI and the HRSD. Substantial score-differences between inpatients and outpatients indicate a good discriminant validity. It is concluded that the German version of the IDS is a useful instrument for the assessment of depressive symptoms and that it has the same highly acceptable psychometric properties as the original English version.