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The article "D3G-certified core curriculum for psychodynamic group therapy - an update" reports on the revision of the core curriculum for psychodynamic group therapies. The aim of the core curriculum is to provide a common basic literature for training and to standardize the training content. It is emphasized that further education and supervision in psychoanalytic group psychotherapy is often inadequate. The need for group psychotherapies for mentally and psychosomatically ill children and adolescents is also mentioned. Studies have confirmed the effectiveness of group psychotherapies compared to individual psychotherapies. The article deals with the diversity and differences of group psychotherapies in terms of praxeology and theory. Various aspects such as patient preparation, different settings, admission of new patients, group leadership, frequency, indication, and type of supervision are considered. It is emphasized that high flexibility and ambiguity tolerance are required from the teachers. Furthermore, the requirements for further training regulations for specialist psychotherapists and the importance of inpatient and day clinic concepts in group psychotherapy are explained. The clinic and day clinic management plays an important role in conceptualizing the therapeutic milieu and preparing for group psychotherapy. The tasks of group therapy supervisors and the core curriculum for psychodynamic group therapy are also discussed. The given text presents various concepts and literature for modules on group analysis and group psychotherapy. Recommendations for literature on psychoanalysis, group analysis, attachment theory, and group psychotherapy are given. Various concepts and interventions in group leadership and in inpatient and day clinic settings are also discussed. The literature includes works by authors such as Bion, Foulkes, Schultz-Venrath, and Yalom. Specific topics such as psychoeducation, structural disorders, and online group therapy are also addressed. The present list contains a variety of books and articles on the subject of group analysis and group psychotherapy. The works cover various aspects such as the application of group analysis in children and adolescents, the implementation of online group therapy, intercultural aspects, and ethical issues. Topics such as diagnosis, supervision, and research are also addressed. The list includes both theoretical works and practical guides and recommendations for the implementation of group psychotherapy. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses a research on the mental disorders in people affected by thalidomide, which was sold in Germany as an over-the-counter sedative. It examines actions taken by Hamburg, Germany-based pediatrician Dr. Widukind Lenz about thalidomide, first scientific article that described an association between thalidomide and child malformation, and concerns of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about the drug.

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic posed major challenges to the healthcare system worldwide and led to particular stress among healthcare workers. The aim of this analysis was to investigate the level of global mental stress of direct healthcare workers in Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic., Methods: In this prospective cross-sectional study with four measurement points (T1: 4-5/2020, T2:11/2020-1/2021, 5-7/2021, 2-5/2022), psychological distress symptoms were recorded in an online survey with the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-4) among hospital staff working in direct patient care (N = 5408 datasets). The total dataset was exploratively analyzed according to field of activity, gender, and professional group affiliation., Results: Clinically relevant psychological distress (PHQ-4 ≥ 5) was present in 29.3% (n = 419/1429) of intensive care staff. A comparison of the four cross-sectional surveys showed a significant increase in the rate of clinically relevant mental distress in the first pandemic year (23.2% at T1 vs. 30.6% at T2; p < 0.01), which stabilized at a high level in the second pandemic year (33.6% at T3 and 32.0% at T4). Women did not differ from men in this respect (n = 280/919, 30.4% vs. n = 139/508, 27.4%; p = 0.74). Nursing staff were significantly more often psychologically stressed than physicians (n = 339/1105, 30.7% vs. n = 80/324, 24.7%; p = 0.03). Intensive care staff did not show significantly higher stress than staff working in nonintensive care areas (n = 419/1429, 29.3% vs. n = 1149/3979, 28.7%, p = 0.21)., Conclusion: German healthcare workers reported high levels of mental distress during the pandemic, which increased during the course of the pandemic, but no significant difference was found between intensive care and nonintensive care staff in our sample. This may be due to the fact that the pandemic in Germany was comparatively moderate internationally and neither a collapse of the healthcare system in general nor a collapse of intensive care structures in particular took place., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Medizin Verlag GmbH, ein Teil von Springer Nature.)

Background: Episodic breathlessness is often accompanied by panic. A vicious cycle of breathlessness-panic-breathlessness leads to emergencies with severe breathlessness and/or fear of dying. However, the interaction between episodic breathlessness and panic is poorly understood. Thus, the aim is a better understanding of the interaction between panic and episodic breathlessness to develop appropriate support for patients suffering from this symptom., Methods: Patients suffering from episodic breathlessness due to life-limiting diseases answered questions on the characteristics of episodic breathlessness and panic-spectrum psychopathology, including underlying mechanisms. Using the Patient Health Questionnaire and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Diagnoses (SCID), patients were screened for panic disorder. An open-ended question captured the patients' descriptions of panic during breathlessness episodes., Results: Forty-six patients [52% women, mean age =66 years; standard deviation (SD) 7.3 years] provided information: 61% suffered from panic during the entire breathlessness episode, 39% experienced panic in every episode, and 25% were diagnosed with panic disorder. Exploratory data analysis was conducted. Patients with high scores in breathlessness catastrophizing thoughts experienced more panic in a breathlessness episode (P<0.001) and considered themselves more panic than low-scorers (P=0.024). There was a significant indirect effect of episodic breathlessness intensity on the panic experienced in an episode, and this effect was mediated by catastrophizing thoughts regarding breathlessness (b=0.164; 95% CI: 0.105, 0.222). Patients described in the open-ended question experiencing only panic or breathlessness, or a combination of both. Some patients managed to differentiate panic from episodic breathlessness, and used strategies to avoid panic in an episode., Conclusions: Research on treatment options for episodic breathlessness should not only focus on panic in breathlessness episodes, but also on underlying mechanisms such as catastrophizing thoughts, as they aggravate the burden.

Introduction: Germany is one of the few countries with a medical specialty of psychosomatic medicine and psychotherapy and many treatment resources of this kind., Objective: This observational study describes the psychosomatic treatment programs as well as a large sample of day-hospital and inpatients in great detail using structured diagnostic interviews., Methods: Mental disorders were diagnosed according to ICD-10 and DSM-IV by means of Mini-DIPS and SCID-II. In addition to the case records, a modified version of the CSSRI was employed to collect demographic data and service use. The PHQ-D was used to assess depression, anxiety, and somatization., Results: 2,094 patients from 19 departments participated in the study after giving informed consent. The sample consisted of a high proportion of "complex patients" with high comorbidity of mental and somatic diseases, severe psychopathology, and considerable social and occupational dysfunction including more than 50 days of sick leave per year in half of the sample. The most frequent diagnoses were depression, somatoform and anxiety disorders, eating disorders, personality disorders, and somato-psychic conditions., Conclusions: Inpatient and day-hospital treatment in German university departments of psychosomatic medicine and psychotherapy is an intensive multimodal treatment for complex patients with high comorbidity and social as well as occupational dysfunction., (© 2022 The Author(s). Published by S. Karger AG, Basel.)

In 2021, a national network of multidisciplinary medical competence-centers has established itself in Germany that is committed to ensuring the care of people with thalidomide embryopathy. This article would like to draw attention to this competence network and give an overview of the most important medical care needs of aging people with thalidomide-induced body and sensory impairments. Here, the available scientific evidence and clinical peculiarities in medical care from a general medical-internal, orthopedic-paintherapeutic, sociomedical and psychosomatic-psychotherapeutic perspective will be presented and necessary tasks for the future will be discussed., Competing Interests: RB, KP und VS erhielten finanzielle Förderungen zum Aufbau Multidisziplinärer Medizinischer Kompetenzzentren von der Conterganstiftung für behinderte Menschen.JSH ist Mitglied der Medizinischen Kommission der Conterganstiftung. Darüber hinaus haben die Autoren keine Interessenkonflikte., (Thieme. All rights reserved.)

Objective: The aim of the study was to show the frequency, localisation, intensity, quality and degree of chronic pain in people with thalidomide-induced congenital defects (thalidomide embryopathy) and to investigate the association with biopsychosocial factors more closely., Methods: A group of 202 people from North Rhine-Westphalia with thalidomide embryopathy were studied for the first time both physically for the pattern of the original damage and also psychiatrically in a structured diagnostic interview (SCID I & SCID II). The results were combined with a standardized pain interview (MPSS) and questionnaires on further pain-related (SF-36, painDETECT) and sociodemographic variables and analysed. In the analysis 167 completed datasets were included., Results: The prevalence of pain in the sample population was 94%. The majority (107, 54.0%) already showed an advanced stage of chronicity in the MPSS: 63 subjects with Stage II (37.7%) and 44 with Stage III (26.3%). In 74 subjects (44.3%) the PainDetect score showed a possible or neuropathic pain component. The factors that most reliably influenced the chronicity of pain proved to be hip pain (p<0.001) and also mental health disorders (p=0.001), above major depression (p<0.001) and also somatic symptom disorders and substance-related disorders (p=0.001 in each case). Social variables proved non-significant here (p=0.094 for living alone, p=0.122 for unemployment, p=0.167 for lack of college education), as did the care situation (p=0.191 for care dependency) and the underlying pattern of organ damage (p=0.229 for damage to hearing, p=0.764 for dysmelia)., Conclusions: People with thalidomide defects frequently suffer from a separate pain disorder which can be seen as secondary thalidomide-induced damage and which requires specialized and personalized multimodal pain management., Competing Interests: K. M. Peters hat Honorare für Referententätigkeit der Firmen Amgen und Kyowa Kirin erhalten. Die anderen Autorinnen/Autoren erklären, dass kein Interessenkonflikt besteht., (Thieme. All rights reserved.)

Upcoming challenges in providing care for thalidomide impaired individuals Abstract. Background: Between 1957 and 1962 an approximate 5000 children were born in Germany with severe birth defects as their mothers took the substance Thalidomide during pregnancy as a sedative and effective relief from morning sickness. Objective: The aim of this study was to describe the care and assistance needed by the individuals impaired by Thalidomide and indicate upcoming challenges. A further aim was to determine the association between the impairment type and the care needed. Methods: Cross sectional study, 202 individuals impaired by Thalidomide were examined by two orthopedists as well as surveyed via questionnaire. They were also evaluated mentally by either a psychiatrist or psychotherapist. The need for care was determined by the acquired legal status for long-term care. Results: The sample divides roughly into two groups: the ones with impairments in their extremities and those who are not affected in their extremities. Many of the ones affected in their extremities are already dependent on assistance and need to be nursed. Those who are depending on assistance and care are mostly informally cared for. Conclusions: The prevalence for long-term care is already higher than in the age-adjusted general population in Germany, while formal care is underutilized. Therefore a challenge will be to make a shift from informal care to professional care providers as the informally caring (sometimes actually the parents of the impaired) are aging along with the ones they care for.

This article aims to provide an overview of the nature and extent, risk factors and treatment strategies of co-morbid mental disorders in the context of intensive care medicine. Depressive, anxious and posttraumatic syndromes as well as deliria are common phenomena in critical care patients, which correspond with the course and outcome of the underlying physical illness. The most important factors for the occurrence of mental comorbidity and general principles of care are described., Competing Interests: Disclosure The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)