[Dangerous or in need of care? Professional judgements of individuals with confused behavior]. / Gevaarlijk of hulpbehoevend? Professionele oordelen over personen met onbegrepen gedrag.

BACKGROUND: The number of police reports about nuisance caused by ‘confused persons’ in the Netherlands has been increasing for years. Psychological problems are suspected in a significant amount of the persons concerned. Stigmatization of these persons as dangerous and violent can influence the decision to send someone into mental healthcare or the judicial system. AIM: To investigate initial judgment of a person with confused behavior in a public place by police officers and mental healthcare providers. METHOD: Police officers (n = 53) and mental healthcare providers (n = 78) were presented footage of a person with agitated, hallucinatory and unpredictable behavior in a park. They were asked to answer a number of questions about this person on an online platform. RESULTS: Both groups of professionals considered deployment of mental health care more suitable than deployment of the police. Both groups found the person more needy than dangerous. There were no significant differences between the two groups. No relationship was found between judgment and initial decision. CONCLUSION: Police officers and healthcare providers seem consentient with regard to their first estimation and the approach of the person with confused behavior portrayed by us. Recommendations are made for daily practice and future scientific research.

[Feasibility of MMPI-2-RF in patients with borderline intellectual functioning]. / Toepasbaarheid van de MMPI-2-RF bij patiënten met zwakbegaafdheid.

BACKGROUND: There are few psychometrically sound diagnostic instruments available to assess personality characteristics and psychopathology in patients with borderline intellectual functioning (BIF). It is important to assess personality characteristics and psychopathology in this target group because of their high risk on psychopathology. AIM: To determine whether the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF) is feasible in patients with BIF (Verbal Comprehension Index = 70-85) and psychopathology. METHOD: We examined scores on validity scales of the MMPI-2-RF of patients with BIF and compared these scores to those of a matched group of individuals with average intellectual functioning without psychopathology. RESULTS: Scores on the validity scales indicated that patients with BIF can report in a consistent and valid way about their complaints and personality characteristics. Compared to the comparison group they reported equally consistent and showed significantly more psychopathology. CONCLUSION: The MMPI-2-RF is feasible in the assessment of personality characteristics and psychopathology in patients with BIF..

[Treatment plan for female adolescents in the grip of chronic suicidality]. / Behandelbeleid bij vrouwelijke adolescenten gegijzeld door chronische suïcidaliteit.

BACKGROUND: A psychological autopsy study (Mérelle e.a. 2020) demonstrates a subgroup of female adolescents with chronic suicidal behavior and severe internalizing problems. AIM: To describe characteristics of the suicidal process and the challenges experienced in providing mental health care for this subgroup. METHOD: A case description and review of literature. RESULTS: The persistent suicidal threat and the following despair of the patient and its parents are forcing care providers into an impasse: the primary focus of treatment is to guarantee the patient's safety, whereby the treatment of underlying problems is underexposed. Based on expert knowledge we make recommendations including autonomy-promoting treatment policy, treating suicidality as a transdiagnostic phenomenon, creating a multidisciplinary network of care providers and making chronic suicidality tolerable for care providers. CONCLUSION: We propose preliminary practical recommendations in our quest for optimal mental health care for chronic suicidal adolescents.

[The Dutch Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5-NL): psychometric properties and clinical application]. / De Nederlandstalige DSM-5 Persoonlijkheidsvragenlijst (PID-5-NL): psychometrische eigenschappen en klinische toepassing.

BACKGROUND: The Dutch Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5-NL) is the APA recommended questionnaire to assess maladaptive personality traits as defined in the Alternative DSM-5 model of personality disorders. AIM: To describe of the psychometric qualities of the PID-5-NL, present of normative data and apply the PID-5-NL in clinical practice. METHOD: The PID-5-NL was administered in a sample of adults from the general population in Flanders (Belgium) and in a sample of patients with a personality disorder in mental health care in the Netherlands. Scores on the PID-5 of a patient with borderline personality disorder are illustrated in a case vignette. RESULTS: Reliability and validity of the PID-5-NL were satisfactory to good, and comparable with results from international research on the PID-5. It was remarkable that in the current research group, patients scored as low as or even lower than the group from the general population on a number of trait facets. CONCLUSION: The PID-5-NL questionnaire is a useful tool to gain insight in a straightforward way into a wide range of relevant personality traits for diagnosis and treatment planning; provisional reference groups for the clinical practice in regular mental health care are made available on the basis of this study. Further refinement of the reference groups and further research within patients with externalizing personality problems is recommended.

[Faster recovery of work participation through collaboration between specialist mental health care and Employee Insurance Agency (UWV): a pilot study]. / Sneller herstel van arbeidsparticipatie bij samenwerking van specialistische ggz en UWV; een pilotstudie.

BACKGROUND: Mental health complaints are among the most important causes for drop-out in the of labour market. At the same time, work has a positive influence on people's psychological health.
AIM: To describe and evaluate the integrated approach of specialist mental health care and Employee Insurance Agency (UWV).
METHOD: The integrated approach was evaluated for a group of 15 clients with anxiety and depressive disorders. Experiences with the approach were explored by treatment evaluation reports and semi-structured interviews with clients, practitioners, an insurance physician, a labour expert and several reintegration coaches. The degree of work participation was measured with the Participation Scale and the complaints were measured by regular ROM measurements.
RESULTS: The degree of work participation increased during the integrated approach: 8 clients found an unpaid work experience placement, 2 found a paid job. No indications were found that the approach negatively influenced complaint recovery. The interviews showed that clients felt helped and that they experienced a clearly supportive network of committed professionals.
CONCLUSION: The integrated approach, including work-focused therapy, was evaluated positively by all stakeholders and seems to contribute to work participation.

[Burn-out, commitment, personality and experiences during work and training; survey among psychiatry residents]. / Bevlogenheid en burn-out in relatie tot persoonlijkheid en context bij aiossen psychiatrie: een verkennend onderzoek.

BACKGROUND: In the last few years international studies have reported on increase in burn-out and depressive symptoms among psychiatry residents. In the field of research, however, commitment and dedication are now being mentioned more frequently as positive factors that counterbalance burn-out. AIM: To find out how a group of Dutch psychiatry residents feel about their work, to discover their degree of burn-out and commitment and to clarify the various factors involved. METHOD: 59 psychiatry residents from four teaching hospitals were asked to complete questionnaires concerning burn-out (U-BOS-C), commitment (UWES-15) and personality (BFI-NL). Respondents were also asked to describe how they felt about their experiences during their work and to give their views on the instruction and training they were receiving. RESULTS: In the U-BOS-C section only four trainees (almost 7%) met the criteria for burn-out. In the BFI-NL section the psychiatry residents obtained significantly lower scores on neuroticism and higher scores on empathy than did a comparable norm group of a similar age. The scores of the psychiatry residents indicated that the term 'being proud of your work' was significantly related to a feeling of commitment and particularly to all subscales that reflected commitment. CONCLUSION: In our study the percentage of psychiatry residents with burn-out is significantly lower than the percentage reported elsewhere in the literature. In fact, our results demonstrate that the psychiatry residents who were the subject of our study regarded themselves as being emotionally stable, friendly and committed to their work.

Comparability of scores on the MMPI-2-RF scales generated with the MMPI-2 and MMPI-2-RF booklets.

In most validity studies on the recently released 338-item MMPI-2 (Butcher, Dahlstrom, Graham, Tellegen, & Kaemmer, 1989) Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF; Ben-Porath & Tellegen, 2008; Tellegen & Ben-Porath, 2008), scale scores were derived from the 567-item MMPI-2 booklet. In this study, we evaluated the comparability of the MMPI-2-RF scale scores derived from the original 567-item MMPI-2 booklet with MMPI-2-RF scale scores derived from the 338-item MMPI-2-RF booklet in a Dutch student sample (N = 107). We used a counterbalanced (ABBA) design. We compared results with those previously reported by Tellegen and Ben-Porath (2008). Our findings support the comparability of the scores of the 338-item version and the 567-item version of the 50 MMPI-2-RF scales. We discuss clinical implications and directions for further research.

Psychometric evaluation of the MMPI-2 Restructured Clinical scales in two Dutch samples.

In this article, we evaluate internal validity, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability of the MMPI-2 Restructured Clinical (RC) scales in the Dutch MMPI-2 normative sample (N = 1,244) and a Dutch outpatient psychiatric sample (N = 1,066). We pay special attention to a critique regarding construct drift of RC3 and the redundancy of the RC scales with existing MMPI-2 scales. The results indicate that the RC scales in both samples show comparable or better internal consistencies than the Clinical scales. Also, in both samples, the RC scales demonstrate lower scale-level intercorrelations than the Clinical scales. As to the structural characteristics, principal component analysis of the RC scales provided a clearer pattern than an analysis of the Clinical scales. Furthermore, mean raw scores on the RC scales for men in the Dutch normative sample corresponded highly with those in the U.S. normative sample except for RC2 and RC4. Less correspondence was found for women. Overall, we conclude that the RC scales show satisfactory reliability and promising internal validity in our Dutch samples. We suggest that U.S. validation studies on the RC scales may be generalized to the Dutch-language version of the MMPI-2 RC scales.