Lee K, et al. J Korean Med Sci. 2013 May;28(5):763-768. http://dx.doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2013.28.5.763

Background: The purpose of this study was to develop a social and emotional competence enhancement (SECE) program as an intervention for adolescents who bully, and to investigate its effects on school bullying behavior and mental health. Methods: A pre-posttest, 1-month follow-up nonequivalent control group quasi-experimental design was used. In total, 71 school bullies were included in the analysis. Results: The effects of this program were significant with regard to group-by-time interaction effects on social competence, emotional regulation, empathy, and school bullying behavior at the 1-month follow-up. Conclusions: The results indicate that the SECE program was effective at reducing school bullying behavior in adolescents who bully. School and community-based mental health professionals can provide feasible interventions that can be used in the short term to reduce school bullying behavior in adolescents who bully.

α-Lipoic acid (ALA) has been reported to be effective in reducing body weight in rodents and obese patients. Our previous open trial showed that ALA may play a role in reducing weight gain in patients with schizophrenia on atypical antipsychotics. The present study evaluated the efficacy of ALA in reducing weight and BMI in patients with schizophrenia who had experienced significant weight gain since taking atypical antipsychotics. In a 12-week, double-blind randomized placebo-controlled study, 22 overweight and clinically stable patients with schizophrenia were randomly assigned to receive ALA or placebo. ALA was administered at 600-1800 mg, as tolerated. Weight, BMI, abdomen fat area measured by computed tomography, and metabolic values were determined. Adverse effects were also assessed to examine safety. Overall, 15 patients completed 12 weeks of treatment. There was significant weight loss and decreased visceral fat levels in the ALA group compared with the placebo group. There were no instances of psychopathologic aggravation or severe ALA-associated adverse effects. ALA was effective in reducing weight and abdominal obesity in patients with schizophrenia who had experienced significant weight gain since beginning an atypical antipsychotic regimen. Moreover, ALA was well tolerated throughout this study. ALA might play an important role as an adjunctive treatment in decreasing obesity in patients who take atypical antipsychotics.

The involvement of patients with mental health issues in their own treatment decision-making has often been overlooked. This study aimed to investigate the impact of shared decision-making between mental health nurses and patients with alcohol use disorders (AUD) on medication adherence. The provider-patient communication pathway model was utilized to examine the ways in which therapeutic communication strategies employed by mental health nurses positively influence medication adherence. The study employed a percentile bootstrap method and pairwise comparison tests in structural equation modeling. The results revealed that shared decision-making between AUD patients and mental health nurses directly enhanced medication adherence, as well as indirectly influenced adherence through the mediating factors of therapeutic alliance and alcohol abstinence self-efficacy. These findings hold both theoretical and practical implications for involving patients with AUD in therapeutic decision-making within psychiatric and mental health nursing settings, as well as for improving medication adherence among this patient population.

Background: This systematic review aimed to examine the study protocol of Digital Mental Health Interventions (DMHIs) and to review the effect of DMHIs among patients with Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorder (SSD). Methods: This review followed the guideline of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). A systematic literature search was performed using PubMed, CINAHL, Embase, and PsycINFO electronic databases to identify randomized clinical trials without any limit on the publication year. Overall, 18 studies were selected and evaluated for the quality assessment utilizing the Risk of Bias 2 tool of Cochranes' Collaboration. In the quality assessment, four studies evaluated as overall high risk of bias were excluded from the selection, and the final 14 studies were chosen. Results: No DMHIs were provided for acute schizophrenia-related symptoms, and there were some studies related to schizophrenia-related symptoms (26.4%). Some studies for improving cognitive function (42.9%) were reported, and there was a significant effect when interventions that were proven to be effective when implemented in a face-to-face manner were delivered using various online devices and sensory stimuli. Nearly half of the studies reported intervention frequency and time (57.1%), and those with unclear reports relied either on a mobile app or telemedicine and were designed to self-pace the frequency and speed of the intervention. Conclusion: Based on our findings, it will be possible to understand the characteristics of DMHIs, without physical contact, for only SSD patients, providing a basis for digital mental health services.