Integration of mental health comorbidity in medical specialty programs in 20 countries.

METHODS: A systematic analysis was performed of the medical specialization academic programs of 20 different countries to establish which medical specialties take into account mental health issues in the specialty curricular design and which mental health content these programs address. The criteria that were explored in the educational programs include: 1) name of the medical specialties that take into account mental health content in curriculum design, 2) name of the mental health issues addressed by these programs. After independent review and data extraction, paired investigators compared the findings and reached consensus on all discrepancies before the final presentation of the data. Descriptive statistics evaluated the frequency of the data presented. RESULTS: Internal medicine, family medicine, neurology, pediatrics and geriatrics were the specialties that included mental health topics in their programs. In four countries: Bangladesh, Serbia, the Netherlands and France, 50%of all graduate specialty training programs include mental health content. In ten countries: Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Belgium, India, Russia, Canada, Israel and Spain, between 20% and 49% of all graduate specialty training programs include mental health content. In six countries - Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Kenya, and the United States-less than 20% of all graduate specialty training programs include mental health content. DISCUSSION: The proposal that we have made in this article should be taken into account by decision-makers, in order to complement the different postgraduate training programs with mental health issues that are frequently present with other physical symptoms. It is not our intention that the different specialists know how to treat psychiatric comorbidities, but rather pay attention to their existence and implications in the diagnosis, evolution and prognosis of many other diseases. The current fragmentation of medicine into ever finer specialties makes the management of comorbidity ever more difficult: a reorientation of post- graduate training might improve the situation.

Validity and reliability of the Chinese version of the Kutcher Adolescent Depression Scale / 中国心理卫生杂志

Objective:To assess the validity and reliability of the Chinese version of the eleven-item Kutcher Adolescent Depression Scale (KADS-11)in Chinese adolescents,calculate its optimal cut-off value and the sensi-tivity and specificity,and explore the possibility of providing a useful tool to assess the severity of adolescent de-pressive symptoms.Methods:Totally 3180 students aged 11 -17 years were selected from schools in 6 provinces and Shanghai.All of them were asked to complete the KADS-11 and Children Depression Inventory (CDI). Students whose CDI scores were above 19 (including 19)were diagnosed with the DSM-IV criteria of depressive disorder,73 students from Shanghai sample were assessed with KADS-11 and CDI to analyze the test-retest reliabil-ity 1 month later.Results:Exploratory factor analysis showed that KADS-11 had 2 factors,and confirmatory factor analysis tested proved the 2-factor model fit better than the one-factor model.The KADS-11 total scores were posi-tively correlated with CDI total scores (r =0.74,P <0.01 ),and the KADS-11 scores were higher in depressive group than those in non-depressive group.The mean area under the curve (AUC)of KADS-11was 0.94,the mean area under the curve of each item ranged from 0.7 to 0.9.The optimal cut-off point of KADS-11 was total score≥9,sensitivity and specificity were 89% and 90% respectively.The Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the KADS-11 was 0.84,the spilt-half reliability coefficient was 0.71 (P <0.01),and the test-retest coefficient was 0.77 (P <0.01).Conclusion:The KADS-11 is appropriate for Chinese adolescents because of its good validity,reliability and diagnosis accuracy,it could be used to assess depressive symptoms for adolescents.