Epidemiology and Treatment Guidelines of Negative Symptoms in Schizo-phrenia in Central and Eastern Europe: A Literature Review

AIM: To gather and review data describing the epidemiology of schizophrenia and clinical guidelines for schizophrenia therapy in seven Central and Eastern European countries, with a focus on negative symptoms. Methods : A literature search was conducted which included publications from 1995 to 2012 that were indexed in key databases. Results : Reports of mean annual incidence of schizophrenia varied greatly, from 0.04 to 0.58 per 1,000 population. Lifetime prevalence varied from 0.4% to 1.4%. One study reported that at least one negative symptom was present in 57.6% of patients with schizophrenia and in 50-90% of individuals experiencing their first episode of schizophrenia. Primary negative symptoms were observed in 10-30% of patients. Mortality in patients with schizophrenia was greater than in the general population, with a standardized mortality ratio of 2.58-4.30. Reasons for higher risk of mortality in the schizophrenia population included increased suicide risk, effect of schizophrenia on lifestyle and environment, and presence of comorbidities. Clinical guidelines overall supported the use of second-generation antipsychotics in managing negative symptoms of schizophrenia, although improved therapeutic approaches are needed. Conclusion : Schizophrenia is one of the most common mental illnesses and poses a considerable burden on patients and healthcare resources alike. Negative symptoms are present in many patients and there is an unmet need to improve treatment offerings for negative symptoms beyond the use of second-generation antipsychotics and overall patient outcomes

Subjective Well-Being Under Neuroleptics Scale short form (SWN-K):Reliability and validity in an Estonian speaking sample

BACKGROUND: The Subjective Well-Being Under Neuroleptic Treatment Scale short form (SWN-K) is a self-rating scale developed to measure mentally ill patients' well-being under the antipsychotic drug treatment. This paper reports on adaptation and psychometric properties of the instrument in an Estonian psychiatric sample. METHODS: In a naturalistic study design, 124 inpatients or outpatients suffering from the first psychotic episode or chronic psychotic illness completed the translated SWN-K instrument. Item content analysis, internal consistency analysis, exploratory principal components analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis were used to construct the Estonian version of the SWN-K (SWN-K-E). Additionally, socio-demographic and clinical data, observer-rated psychopathology, medication side effects, daily antipsychotic drug dosages, and general functioning were assessed at two time points, at baseline and after a 29-week period; the associations of the SWN-K-E scores with these variables were explored. RESULTS: After having selected 20 items for the Estonian adaptation, the internal consistency of the total SWN-K-E was 0.93 and the subscale consistencies ranged from 0.70 to 0.80. Good test–retest reliabilities were observed for the adapted scale scores, with the correlation of the total score over about 6 months being r = 0.70. Confirmatory factor analysis replicated the presence of a higher-order factor (general well-being) and five first-order factors (mental functioning, physical functioning, social integration, emotional regulation, and self-control); the model fitted the data well. The results indicated a moderate-high correlations r = 0.54 between the SWN-K-E total score and the evaluation how satisfied patients were with their lives in generally. No significant correlations were found between the overall subjective well-being score and age, severity of the psychopathology, drug adverse effects, or prescribed drug dosage. CONCLUSION: Taken together, the results demonstrated that the Estonian version of the SWN-K is a reliable and valid instrument with psychometric properties similar to the original English version. The potential uses of the scale in both research and clinical settings are considered

A reference material with close to Lambertian reflectance and fluorescence emission profiles

Fluorescent brightening agents are widely used in various industries to enhance the appearance of materials. The angular profiles of emission and reflectance of fluorescent surfaces have been shown to deviate from Lambertian behaviour, however, in industry and calibration facilities single geometry measurements are often used, which requires assumptions to be made on the angular distributions. In addition, the angular distribution of reflectance has been shown to deviate from that of fluorescence. In this work, it is shown that the angular distribution of reflectance is dependent on the excitation wavelength and the effect is explained by qualitative and quantitative models. These angular and spectral effects may cause measurement errors when single geometry bidirectional measurements are carried out. The angular distributions can be taken into account by using goniometrical measurements, which however, result in increased calibration time and cost. Alternatively, a reference material could be used where the angular dependencies are minimised. In this work, a novel material is presented which demonstrates more Lambertian emission and reflectance profiles than conventional polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) based materials and a smaller dependence of angular reflectance on the absorbance of the sample

Metrology for Earth Observation and Climate 2 (MetEOC 2)

12th International Conference, Otaniemi, Espoo, Helsinki (Finland), 24-27 June, 2014; http://newrad2014.aalto.fi/Although not complete, the EMRP project MetEOC 1 (see other paper for this conference) has made major progress towards improving the traceability of remote sensing instrumentation and the direct physical measurands such as spectral radiance/reflectance. Whilst this is essential it is not enough to address the needs of the climate science community who are looking to monitor Essential Climate Variables (ECVs) which are in general biogeophysical parameters derived from the direct measurand through use of an additional retrieval algorithm. MetEOC 2 extends the scope of the work to address these needs.This work was funded through the European Metrology Research Programme (EMRP) Project ENV53 METEOC2. The EMRP is jointly funded by the EMRP participating countries within EURAMET and the European Union.Peer Reviewe

Technical notes: A detailed study for the provision of measurement uncertainty and traceability for goniospectrometers

The measurement uncertainty and traceability of the Finnish Geodetic Institutes¿s field gonio-spectro-polarimeter FIGIFIGO have been assessed. First, the reference standard (Spectralon sample) was measured at the National Standard Laboratory of MIKES-Aalto. This standard was transferred to FGI¿s field reference standard (larger Spectralon sample), and from that to the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), reference standards (1 m2 plates). The reflectance measurement uncertainty of FIGIFIGO has been estimated to be 0.01 in ideal laboratory conditions, but about 0.02–0.05 in typical field conditions, larger at larger solar or observation zenith angles. Target specific uncertainties can increase total uncertainty even to 0.1–0.2. The angular reading uncertainty is between 1° and 3°, depending on user selection, and the polarisation uncertainty is around 0.01. For UAV, the transferred reflectance uncertainty is about 0.05–0.1, depending on, how ideal the measurement conditions are. The design concept of FIGIFIGO has been proved to have a number of advantages, such as a well-adopted user-friendly interface, a high level of automation and excellent suitability for the field measurements. It is a perfect instrument for collection of reference data on a given target in natural (and well-recorded) conditions. In addition to the strong points of FIGIFIGO, the current study reveals several issues that need further attention, such as the field of view, illumination quality, polarisation calibration, Spectralon reflectance and polarisation properties in the 1000–2400 nm range