The Transdiagnostic Self-Injury Interview: A Feasibility Study

Introduction

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is associated with emotional distress and mental disorders. In clinical samples NSSI is reported by 21% to 60% of all psychiatric patients. Developed NSSI instruments are not suitable for clinical settings because they are too time-consuming or lack validation across psychiatric diagnoses.

The Transdiagnostic Self-Injury Interview (TSI) is semi-structured interview that accesses onset, frequency, methods, and severity of NSSI. It is transdiagnostic and developed for clinical settings.

Objectives

The purpose of the study is to evaluate the feasibility of a TSI validation study. The study will also provide preliminary validation of the instrument.

Methods

The feasibility study will recruit participants at in- and outpatient units from a university hospital. Participants can be included in the study if they are 18 years old and admitted to a psychiatric in- or outpatient unit.

Instruments: The Deliberate Self-Harm Inventory will be used to test concurrent validity. Convergent validity will be tested with the Columbia Suicidality Severity Rating Scale, the Personal and Social Performance scale, the Affective Lability Scale-short, and the Brief Trauma Questionnaire. Interrater reliability will be evaluated in groups of medical doctors, psychologist, and other clinical professionals.

Feasibility are measured by inclusion of participants per week, the time each participant takes to complete the study instruments, and number of dropouts.

Results

Recruitment of participants will start in the fall of 2021. We aim to recruit 50 participants.

Conclusions

When TSI has been validated, it can be used to assess prevalence and severity of NSSI and clarify the need for treatment and supervision.

Disclosure

No significant relationships.

Home visits in the Danish High Risk and Resilience Study - VIA 7: assessment of the home environment of 508 7-year-old children born to parents diagnosed with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder

OBJECTIVE

The home environment provided by the caregivers of a child is an influential single factor for development and well-being. We aimed to compare the quality of the home environment of children at familial high risk of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder with population-based controls.

METHODS

Danish nationwide registers were used to retrieve a cohort of 522 7-year-old children of parents diagnosed with schizophrenia (N = 202), bipolar disorder (N = 120) or none of these diagnoses (N = 200). The home environment was assessed using the Middle Childhood-Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment Inventory (MC-HOME Inventory).

RESULTS

The proportion of children living in home environments that were evaluated not to meet the needs of a 7-year-old child was significantly larger in the two familial high-risk groups. This was true for 21% of the children with familial predisposition for schizophrenia and 7% of children with familial disposition for bipolar disorder.

CONCLUSION

Children born to parents diagnosed with schizophrenia and to a lesser extent bipolar disorder are at an increased risk of growing up in a home environment with an insufficient level of stimulation and support. Identifying families with inadequate home environments is a necessary step towards specialized help and support to at-risk families.

Associations between cognition in parents with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder and their 7-year old high-risk offspring

Introduction

Neurocognitive and social cognitive impairments are central characteristics of schizophrenia and, to a lesser extent, of bipolar disorder. Birth cohorts and familial high risk studies have described cognitive impairments in subjects before onset of diagnosis as well as in children with increased genetic risk for development of the disorders.

Objectives

To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the correlations between neurocogntion and social cognition in parents and offspring simultaneously and with the same methodology. We will divide the parents into subgroups (cognitive impairment and good cognitive functioning) and use these subgroups to describe correlations with their offspring. Identifying associations between parents and offspring can add important clues to risk factors for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and, on the long-term, help the development of more effective and potentially preventive treatments.

Methods

This study is part of the Danish high risk and resilience study–VIA7. The VIA7 cohort consists of 522 children age 7 with zero, 1 or 2 parents diagnosed with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder and both of their biological parents. We assessed neurocognition and social cognition with a comprehensive test battery including: intelligence (RIST), executive functions (WAIS-IV, D-KEFS, CANTAB), verbal memory (TOMAL2), attention, emotion recognition, decision making and response control (CANTAB), theory of mind (animated triangles) and social perception (TASIT). Parental subgroups were based on the 95% CI of the controls (cognitive impairment < 95%CI and good cognitive functioning > 95% CI).

Results

Data analysis is ongoing and results will be presented at the conference.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.