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Objective: To test the application of fully automated telephone screening using computerized digital voice recordings and touch-tone responses to assess symptoms of depression.Design: A cross-sectional study of a 2-week-long telephone survey.Setting: Toll-free telephone calls placed from home, work, or school to a central telephone/computer system at a telecommunications company in the Boston, Mass, area.Participants: A total of 1812 participants called the system. Of these, 278 were students and faculty at a large midwestern state university, 725 were employees of a large northeastern high-technology firm, and 809 did not identify which site they were calling from.Main Outcome Measures: The 20-question multiple-choice Zung Depression Scale was used to screen for depressive symptoms, and additional questions gathered demographic and caller satisfaction information.Results: No technical problems were encountered during the trial. Of 1812 callers, 1597 (88.1%) completed all questions. Of these, 412 callers (25.8%) met criteria for "moderate or marked" depression and another 194 (12.1%) met criteria for "severe or extreme" depression. The majority of callers scoring positive for depression had received no previous treatment for depression. Of callers who completed the screening questionnaire, 74.6% reported the call to have been at least "moderately" helpful.Conclusion: Readily available low-cost technology provides a fully automated, widely accessible, and confidential method of screening for a common mental illness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Importance: Prior studies have demonstrated reduced dendritic spine density in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in schizophrenia. However, it remains unclear how generalizable this finding is in schizophrenia and if it is seen in bipolar disorder, a historically distinct psychiatric condition., Objective: To assess whether spine loss is present in the DLPFC of individuals with schizophrenia and individuals with bipolar disorder., Design, Setting, and Participants: This study used postmortem human brain tissue from individuals with schizophrenia (n=14), individuals with bipolar disorder (n=9), and unaffected control participants (n=19). Tissue samples containing the DLPFC (Brodmann area 46) were Golgi-stained, and basilar dendrites of pyramidal cells in the deep half of layer III were reconstructed., Main Outcomes and Measures: The number of spines per dendrite, spine density, and dendrite length were compared across groups. We also assessed for the potential effects of clinical and demographic variables on dendritic parameters., Results: The mean (SD) spine density was significantly reduced (ie, by 10.5%) in individuals with bipolar disorder (0.28 [0.04] spines/μm) compared with control participants (0.31 [0.05] spines/μm) (P=.02). In individuals with schizophrenia, the mean (SD) spine density was also reduced (by 6.5%; 0.29 [0.03] spines/μm) but just missed significance when compared with control participants (P=.06). There was a significant reduction in the mean (SD) number of spines per dendrite in both individuals with schizophrenia (72.8 [24.9] spines per dendrite) and individuals with bipolar disorder (68.9 [12.9] spines per dendrite) compared with controls (92.8 [31.1] spines per dendrite) (individuals with schizophrenia vs controls: 21.6% reduction [P=.003]; individuals with bipolar disorder vs controls: 25.8% reduction [P=.005]). In addition, both individuals with schizophrenia and individuals with bipolar disorder had a reduced mean (SD) dendrite length (246.5 [67.4] and 245.6 [29.8] μm, respectively) compared with controls (301.8 [75.1] μm) (individuals with schizophrenia vs controls: 18.3% reduction [P=.005]; individuals with bipolar disorder vs controls: 18.6% reduction [P=.005])., Conclusions and Relevance: Dendritic spine loss in the DLPFC was seen in both individuals with schizophrenia and individuals with bipolar disorder, suggesting that the 2 disorders may share some common pathophysiological features.