NervenarztPub Date : 2025-03-05DOI: 10.1007/s00115-025-01805-x
Lilly Rüthrich, Tina Haase, Lorenz Harst, Markus Kösters
{"title":"[Development of outpatient psychotherapeutic care in Saxony].","authors":"Lilly Rüthrich, Tina Haase, Lorenz Harst, Markus Kösters","doi":"10.1007/s00115-025-01805-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00115-025-01805-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The care of mentally ill people should be carried out in a timely, needs-based and community-based manner. The structure of the outpatient care is a cornerstone in achieving this goal. Against this background, this study presents the development of psychotherapeutic care in Saxony.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Data on outpatient psychotherapy between 2014 and 2023 from the medical register of the Saxony Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians were retrospectively evaluated and mapped using geodata analyses. Publicly available data from the Saxony geodatabase were used to analyze distances between local districts in Saxony and the private practices.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The number of psychotherapists in private practice increased between 2014 and 2023, particularly in rural regions. The number of psychotherapists for adults increased from 761 to 1224. In 2023 all psychotherapeutic practices for adults were within 20 km of all districts in Saxony so that the provision of care improved with respect to the spatial coverage. In contrast, the availability of pediatric and adolescent psychotherapists and specialists in the child and adolescent sector as well as for adults has improved only slightly.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>The number of practices for psychotherapy has improved in urban and rural areas; however, there is a lack of data to reliably assess the coverage of needs. An analysis of the need for psychotherapeutic treatment is therefore urgently required.</p>","PeriodicalId":49770,"journal":{"name":"Nervenarzt","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143558457","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
NervenarztPub Date : 2025-03-01Epub Date: 2025-01-28DOI: 10.1007/s00115-025-01798-7
Jörg Signerski-Krieger, Lara Schleifenbaum
{"title":"[Interplay between depression and sexuality].","authors":"Jörg Signerski-Krieger, Lara Schleifenbaum","doi":"10.1007/s00115-025-01798-7","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00115-025-01798-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Disorders of sexual function are a frequent comorbidity of depression and have complex interactions on psychological, sexual and relationship qualities.</p><p><strong>Objective: </strong>To determine the prevalence of sexual functional disorders in depressed patients, the effects of antidepressant drugs and development of treatment recommendations.</p><p><strong>Material and method: </strong>Evaluation of the current literature and discussion of fundamental studies.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Depression and sexual dysfunction frequently affect each other in complex ways which makes it important to address interpersonal relationship dynamics and to include these in the therapy. The use of serotonergic antidepressants can greatly increase the risk for sexual dysfunction by up to 27 times. In addition to (couples) therapeutic interventions, reducing the dose or switching medications to, e.g., bupropion or using additive medications can also be treatment options.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Despite the shame associated with the topic, it is crucial for therapists to address sexual topics early and openly. Relationship dynamics should be considered during therapy. If antidepressant medications are used it is recommended to provide a more detailed clarification for patients about their potential sexual side effects and their limited treatment options before starting the medication.</p>","PeriodicalId":49770,"journal":{"name":"Nervenarzt","volume":" ","pages":"153-158"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143061445","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
NervenarztPub Date : 2025-03-01Epub Date: 2024-12-12DOI: 10.1007/s00115-024-01784-5
Winfried Rief, Tobias Kube
{"title":"[Placebo effect in the treatment with antidepressants : Implications for the scientific evaluation and clinical use of pharmaceutical treatments of depression].","authors":"Winfried Rief, Tobias Kube","doi":"10.1007/s00115-024-01784-5","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00115-024-01784-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Blinded placebo treatment arms in clinical trials often achieve up to 80% of the clinical improvements of the verum groups. Apparently, the majority of the effects found in the antidepressant groups in clinical trials are due to factors that are not specific to antidepressant treatment. This article reviews the factors that contribute to the high effectiveness of placebo interventions for antidepressants.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A narrative literature review is presented with particular emphasis on placebo effects in antidepressant clinical trials.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>There is a particularly strong placebo effect in depression compared to other mental disorders. The magnitude of this effect can be modulated by helpful versus nonhelpful instructions, by patient participation in the decision-making process but also by personal attention, especially if the clinician is perceived as competent and warmhearted. The occurrence of subtle side effects can also reinforce placebo effects. Placebo effects are not only reflected in subjective patient-reported outcome variables but are also evident in neurochemical changes in the body.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Clinicians essentially contribute to the effectiveness of antidepressant treatment through their own behavior. At the same time, the relatively small overall difference between verum and placebo treatments for depression leads to the necessity of a critical evaluation of the cost-benefit ratio, adapted to the individual case. Study designs for the evaluation of antidepressants are required that better reflect the complex interactions between the genuine drug effects and placebo effects.</p>","PeriodicalId":49770,"journal":{"name":"Nervenarzt","volume":" ","pages":"128-137"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11876280/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142819929","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
NervenarztPub Date : 2025-03-01Epub Date: 2024-07-25DOI: 10.1007/s00115-024-01709-2
Angela Luzia Herscheid, Nicoleta Carmen Cosma
{"title":"[Catatonia in the context of somatic illness].","authors":"Angela Luzia Herscheid, Nicoleta Carmen Cosma","doi":"10.1007/s00115-024-01709-2","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00115-024-01709-2","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":49770,"journal":{"name":"Nervenarzt","volume":" ","pages":"188-191"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11876279/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141762104","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
NervenarztPub Date : 2025-03-01Epub Date: 2024-08-22DOI: 10.1007/s00115-024-01714-5
Ulrich S Zimmermann, Clemens Plickert, Christel Lüdecke, Markus Stuppe, Christian Rosenbeiger, Yvonne Krisam, Tobias Link, Jean Keller, Gero Bühler, Deborah Scholz-Hehn, Ursula Havemann-Reinecke, Dirk Wedekind, Mathias Luderer, Maik Spreer
{"title":"[Patient and quality characteristics in the treatment with disulfiram (Antabus) in the German \"Network for Alcohol Aversive Pharmacotherapy\"].","authors":"Ulrich S Zimmermann, Clemens Plickert, Christel Lüdecke, Markus Stuppe, Christian Rosenbeiger, Yvonne Krisam, Tobias Link, Jean Keller, Gero Bühler, Deborah Scholz-Hehn, Ursula Havemann-Reinecke, Dirk Wedekind, Mathias Luderer, Maik Spreer","doi":"10.1007/s00115-024-01714-5","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00115-024-01714-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>More than a decade ago disulfiram lost its approval for use in Germany. Nonetheless, a considerable number of psychiatric hospital outpatient departments as well as practicing physicians continue to prescribe it. These professionals have formed the \"Network for Alcohol Aversive Pharmacotherapy\" (NAP) to maintain a high quality of this treatment approach.</p><p><strong>Objective: </strong>To describe the current use of disulfiram with respect to patient numbers and characteristics, side effects, and use of concomitant multimodal treatment forms.</p><p><strong>Material and methods: </strong>Since 2019 the NAP has conducted an annual retrospective survey among its members regarding the aforementioned parameters.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>From 2019 to 2023 a total of 1579 treatment cases were described by 33 centers, 152 patients reported a total of 241 drinking events, 26 of them resulting in hospitalization but none causing complications or permanent harm. The most frequent side effects, in descending order, were unpleasant body odor (2.5%), fatigue, male sexual dysfunction, mildly elevated liver enzymes, allergic skin reactions and polyneuropathy (0.8%). More than one quarter of the patients suffered from comorbid depression, and approximately 5% from ADHD, borderline or other personality disorders, trauma-related disorders and anxiety disorders, respectively. Of the patients 33% were treated with antidepressants and 12% with sedating antipsychotics. Various forms of concomitant group therapy were offered to 66% of the patients.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Treatment with disulfiram is legally possible, generally well-tolerated and safe. It is offered in most treatment centers as part of a comprehensive treatment plan that includes multimodal treatment of comorbid psychiatric disorders.</p>","PeriodicalId":49770,"journal":{"name":"Nervenarzt","volume":" ","pages":"159-165"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11876189/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142019335","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
NervenarztPub Date : 2025-03-01DOI: 10.1007/s00115-025-01814-w
{"title":"Mitteilungen der DGPPN.","authors":"","doi":"10.1007/s00115-025-01814-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00115-025-01814-w","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":49770,"journal":{"name":"Nervenarzt","volume":"96 2","pages":"214-216"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143544172","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
NervenarztPub Date : 2025-03-01Epub Date: 2025-01-22DOI: 10.1007/s00115-025-01803-z
V Sondermann, J C Gerber, W H Polanski, M Brandt, J Schäfer, E Dinter, R Haußmann
{"title":"[Brain sagging dementia-A rare potentially reversible cause of dementia].","authors":"V Sondermann, J C Gerber, W H Polanski, M Brandt, J Schäfer, E Dinter, R Haußmann","doi":"10.1007/s00115-025-01803-z","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00115-025-01803-z","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":49770,"journal":{"name":"Nervenarzt","volume":" ","pages":"192-196"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143014975","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
NervenarztPub Date : 2025-03-01Epub Date: 2024-12-12DOI: 10.1007/s00115-024-01785-4
Marlene Krabs, Tom Bschor, Jonathan Henssler, Christopher Baethge
{"title":"[Second-step strategies in antidepressant pharmacotherapy : Results of current meta-analyses].","authors":"Marlene Krabs, Tom Bschor, Jonathan Henssler, Christopher Baethge","doi":"10.1007/s00115-024-01785-4","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00115-024-01785-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Antidepressant pharmacotherapy often does not result in the desired effect despite adequate duration and dose. Better evidence on second-step strategies is needed.</p><p><strong>Objective: </strong>Overview of the current evidence for various pharmacological second-step strategies after nonresponse to antidepressant monotherapy.</p><p><strong>Material and methods: </strong>Summary of recent systematic reviews with meta-analyses of the group of authors on pharmacological second-step treatment.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>A meta-analysis showed no advantage of switching to a second antidepressant compared with continuing the previously ineffective monotherapy. Another two meta-analyses showed no benefit of increasing the dose of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI). For serotonin and noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors (SNRI) and tricyclic antidepressants (TCA) in each case a meta-analysis showed no clear advantage of increasing the dose. Another two meta-analyses showed a superiority of a combination therapy consisting of a reuptake inhibitor (SSRI, SNRI, TCA) with a presynaptic alpha‑2 autoreceptor antagonist (e.g., mirtazapine) compared with an antidepressant monotherapy.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>In accordance with the recommendations of the German national treatment guideline, in the event of nonresponse to antidepressant monotherapy, the combination of two antidepressants is preferable to repeated switching of the antidepressant.</p>","PeriodicalId":49770,"journal":{"name":"Nervenarzt","volume":" ","pages":"138-145"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142819932","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
NervenarztPub Date : 2025-03-01Epub Date: 2025-02-24DOI: 10.1007/s00115-025-01801-1
Gerhard Gründer, Lea J Mertens, Moritz Spangemacher, Christian N Schmitz
{"title":"[Can antidepressants negatively alter the long-term course of depressive disorders?]","authors":"Gerhard Gründer, Lea J Mertens, Moritz Spangemacher, Christian N Schmitz","doi":"10.1007/s00115-025-01801-1","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00115-025-01801-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The prescription of antidepressants has been steadily increasing in Germany and worldwide for decades; however, there are no indications that this leads to an improvement in public mental health.</p><p><strong>Objective: </strong>The question is investigated whether antidepressant pharmacotherapy, when administered over a long period of time, can adversely affect the course of depressive disorders.</p><p><strong>Material and method: </strong>A selective literature search was carried out in the PubMed and ScienceDirect (since 1969) databases. In addition to the keyword \"antidepressants\", the search included the terms \"tolerance\", \"withdrawal\", \"relapse\", \"loss of effectiveness\" and \"treatment resistance\".</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>If antidepressant treatment is stopped, the interval until the next episode of illness decreases compared to the inter-episode interval before initiation of drug treatment and the faster the antidepressant is stopped, the shorter the interval becomes. The relatively high frequency of relapses during ongoing treatment suggests that tolerance to the effects of the drugs has developed. In some cases, treatment resistance must also be considered to be a biological (counter)reaction of the brain to the intervention.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The literature summarized in this narrative review indicates that long-term antidepressant drug treatment can have an adverse effect on the course of the disease in some patients. The undisputed benefits of acute antidepressant drug treatment are offset by potential risks when taken chronically or when discontinued, which are probably due to adaptive brain changes. This must be taken into account when initiating any antidepressant pharmacotherapy.</p>","PeriodicalId":49770,"journal":{"name":"Nervenarzt","volume":" ","pages":"146-152"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143484337","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
NervenarztPub Date : 2025-03-01Epub Date: 2025-01-16DOI: 10.1007/s00115-024-01786-3
Moritz Spangemacher, Jonathan Reinwald, Hana Adolphi, Laura Kärtner, Lea J Mertens, Christian N Schmitz, Gerhard Gründer
{"title":"[Mechanisms of action of antidepressive pharmacotherapy: brain and mind-body and environment].","authors":"Moritz Spangemacher, Jonathan Reinwald, Hana Adolphi, Laura Kärtner, Lea J Mertens, Christian N Schmitz, Gerhard Gründer","doi":"10.1007/s00115-024-01786-3","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00115-024-01786-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Novel antidepressive substances are challenging the explanations for the mechanisms of action of traditional psychopharmacology.</p><p><strong>Objective: </strong>What could be the shared effects of various antidepressants and in this context what role do extrapharmacological factors, such as the body and environment, play?</p><p><strong>Material and method: </strong>The available literature on clinical and preclinical data for assumed combined active factors of serotonergic psychedelic drugs, (es)ketamine, monoaminergic antidepressants and zuranolone are presented and the influence of context factors on the individual mechanisms of action is discussed.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>There are many indications that classical and novel pharmacological approaches could share similar mechanisms of action in the treatment of depression. These mechanisms favor long-term neuroplasticity, which can trigger subsequent molecular cascades and vice versa. Furthermore, an improvement in the negative bias in emotional processing could be detected for most antidepressive substances. The influence of extrapharmacological factors appears to be necessary so that the biopsychological alterations can have an antidepressive effect.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Instead of attributing factors such as environment, body and social interaction to placebo effects, they should be tested as essential components of the antidepressive effect and considered in the clinical practice.</p>","PeriodicalId":49770,"journal":{"name":"Nervenarzt","volume":" ","pages":"119-127"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11876238/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143014982","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}