In the last decade, there has been an increasing interest in cognitive alterations during the early course of schizophrenia. From a clinical perspective, a better understanding of cognitive functioning in putative at-risk states for schizophrenia is essential for developing optimal early intervention models. Two approaches have more recently been combined to assess the entire course of the initial schizophrenia prodrome: the predictive "basic symptom at-risk" (BS) and the ultra high-risk (UHR) criteria. Basic symptoms are considered to be present during the entire disease progression, including the initial prodrome, while the onset of symptoms captured by the UHR criteria expresses further disease progression toward frank psychosis. The present study investigated the cognitive functioning in 93 subjects who met either BS or UHR criteria and thus were assumed to be at different points on the putative trajectory to psychosis. We compared them with 43 patients with a first episode of psychosis and to 49 help-seeking patient controls. All groups performed significantly below normative values. Both at-risk groups performed at intermediate levels between the first-episode (FE) group and normative values. The UHR group demonstrated intermediate performance between the FE and BS groups. Overall, auditory working memory, verbal fluency/processing speed, and declarative verbal memory were impaired the most. Our results suggest that cognitive impairments may still be modest in the early stages of the initial schizophrenia prodrome and thus support current efforts to intervene in the early course of impending schizophrenia because early intervention may prevent or delay the onset of frank psychosis and thus prevent further cognitive damage.

Background: Parent-child treatments have been shown to be superior to child-focused treatments of childhood obesity. Yet until now, the comparative effectiveness of parent-only and parent-child approaches has been little studied. Method: Fifty-six obese children and their families were randomly assigned to a 16-session cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for the parents only or for a combined treatment of parents and children. Children’s percent overweight, the body mass index of their mothers, and behavioral and psychological problems of children and mothers were assessed. Results: Both treatments reduced children’s percent overweight significantly and equally by 6-month follow-up. Also both treatments provided similar results in reducing general behavior problems (externalizing and internalizing behavior problems), global and social anxiety, and depression. Conclusions: Our results point to a comparable efficacy of the two treatments. Further, psychological well-being of both mothers and children can be improved in a CBT for obese children and their parents. Future studies should focus on finding ways to improve the adherence of families to long-term treatment of obesity in childhood.

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Fragestellung: Ziel der vorliegenden Studie ist, die Interrater-Reliabilität des Diagnostischen Interviews bei psychischen Störungen im Kindes- und Jugendalter (Kinder-DIPS; Schneider, Unnewehr & Margraf, 2009 ) anhand von Eltern- und Kinderinterviews für verschiedene Störungsklassen zu ermitteln. Zusätzlich wird geprüft, ob sich in Abhängigkeit des Alters oder des Geschlechtes des Kindes, Unterschiede hinsichtlich der Interrater-Reliabilität ergeben. Methodik: 264 Eltern- und 213 Kinderinterviews wurden von 48 geschulten Interviewern in kinder- und jugendpsychiatrischen und schulpsychologischen Einrichtungen sowie im Rahmen eines Forschungsprojektes durchgeführt. Ergebnisse: Die Übereinstimmungsmaße der Eltern- und Kinderinterviews zeigen eine gute bis sehr gute Interrater-Reliabilität der Oberklassen Expansive Störungen, Ticstörungen, Ausscheidungsstörungen, Affektive Störungen, Essstörungen, Schlafstörungen sowie einem Großteil der spezifischen Diagnosen und für den Ausschluss psychischer Störungen. Das Geschlecht und das Alter der interviewten Kinder hatten keinen Einfluss auf die Reliabilitätswerte. Schlussfolgerung: Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass es sich beim Kinder-DIPS mit trainierten Interviewern für die Oberklassen psychischer Störungen um ein reliables Eltern- und Kinderinterview zur Diagnostik psychischer Störungen handelt.