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Objective: The transgenerational transmission of mental disorders is one of the most prominent risk factors for the development of psychological disorders. Children of mentally ill parents are a vulnerable high risk group with overall impaired development and high rates of psychological disorders. To date there are only a few evidence based intervention programs for this group overall and hardly any in Germany. We translated the evidence based Family Talk Intervention by Beardslee (2009) and adapted it for groups. First results of this pilot study are presented.Method: This investigation evaluates a preventive group intervention for children of mentally ill parents. In a quasi-experimental design three groups are compared: an intervention group (Family Talk Intervention group: n = 28), a Wait Control group (n = 9), and a control group of healthy children (n = 40). Mean age of children was 10.41 years and parental disorders were mostly depressive/affective disorders (n = 30), but a small number also presented with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (n = 7).Results: Children of mentally ill parents showed higher rates of internalizing/externalizing disorders before and after the intervention compared to children of parents with no disorders. Post intervention children's knowledge on mental disorders was significantly enhanced in the Family Talk Intervention group compared to the Wait Control group and the healthy control group. Parental ratings of externalizing symptoms in the children were reduced to normal levels after the intervention in the Family Talk Intervention group, but not in the Wait Control group.Discussion: This pilot study of a group intervention for children of mentally ill parents highlights the importance of psycho-education on parental mental disorders for children. Long-term effects of children's enhanced knowledge about parental psychopathology need to be explored in future studies.

Infertility represents a serious stressor for some patients as well as a risk factor for a decrease in sperm quality. The purpose of the present study was to identify coping strategies that went along with both better emotional and physical adjustment to infertility. The sample consisted of 63 patients who contacted an andrological clinic more than one time. Prior to clinical examination, patients filled out a questionnaire referring to the way in which they coped with their wives' previous menstruation. Participants also completed a scale assessing perceived distress due to infertility. Change in sperm concentration since baseline semen analysis and the level of distress were used to evaluate patient's adjustment. The better-adjusted patients showed less prominent overall coping efforts, and a higher proportion of distancing coping strategies. An improvement in sperm quality also was associated with a low cognitive involvement in infertility. Situational uncontrollability of infertility could be a moderator of the effectiveness of coping employed by the better-adjusted patients. In addition, the coping behaviour related to better adjustment could be due to a dispositional stress resistance factor. For clinical implementation of the findings, the attitudes of a patient and the expectations of his wife have to be taken into consideration.

Background: In this study we examined whether stress has a negative influence on sperm quality. To investigate this issue we developed a scale assessing perceived stress resulting from infertility. Methods and Results: The Infertility Distress Scale was constructed based on the data of 158 infertility patients contacting an andrological clinic for the first time. The Infertility Distress Scale consists of items assessing self-reported stress, different appraisals of infertility and cognitive involvement in infertility. The scale was shown to have good psychometric properties. Changes in sperm quality were predicted by this scale for 69 patients. Changes in sperm concentration and sperm motility were predicted correctly 75.4 and 65.6% of the time, respectively. While these prediction accuracies were significantly better than chance prediction, the Infertility Distress Scale had no predictive value for changes in morphology. Conclusion: Results indicate that distress caused by infertility is a risk factor for a decrease in sperm quality.

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