[How good are teachers at recognising mental health issues and assistance needs in adolescents? A vignette-based study]

INTRODUCTION

Teachers can help identify mental health issues in adolescents and act as gateway-providers by referring adolescents at risk to a mental health professional. Studies have so far investigated awareness concerning mental health issues among primary school teachers in the USA. The present study uses case vignettes to examine whether secondary school teachers in Germany can detect and assess the presence and severity of mental disorders in adolescents, and which factors predict referral to professional support services.

METHODS

N=136 secondary school teachers completed an online questionnaire with case vignettes depicting students with moderate or severe internalizing and externalizing disorders. We assessed the ability to recognize mental health issues and evaluate the level of severity, worry and perceived prevalence of the problem as well as the helping behaviour among teachers.

RESULTS

66 and 75% of the teachers were able to identify mental health issues in case vignettes of externalizing and internalizing disorders, respectively. 60% and 61%, respectively, designated the mental disorder correctly as externalizing or internalizing, and the true positive rates did not differ between externalizing vs. internalizing disorders. However, moderate and externalizing disorders were identified with less precision, and recommendations to seek professional mental help were more seldom made for these disorders.

DISCUSSION

The results indicate that teachers can validly and probably intuitively identify (at least severe cases of) mental disorders in their students. Given the uncertainty expressed and the substantial interest of teachers, further education and training on mental health conditions disorders in adolescents is recommended.

Disturbance of verticality perception and postural dysfunction in Parkinson's disease

OBJECTIVES

Verticality perception is known to be abnormal in Parkinson's disease (PD), but in which stage respective dysfunctions arise and how they relate to postural disorders remains to be settled. These issues were studied with respect to different dimensions of the subjective visual vertical (SVV) in relation to clinical parameters of postural control.

MATERIALS & METHODS

All participants had to orientate a luminous line at random planar orientations to a strictly vertical position using an automated operator system. The SVV was analyzed in 58 PD patients and 28 control subjects with respect to (i) the angle between true and subjective vertical (deviation) and (ii) the variability of this across five measurements (variability). Results were referred to the subjective upright head position (SUH), the disease stage, and clinical gait/balance features assessed by the MDS-UPDRS and the Tinetti test.

RESULTS

Parkinson's disease patients had significantly higher SVV deviation and variability than controls. With respect to disease stage, deviation developed before abnormal variability. SVV variability was associated with poor balance and gait performance, as well as postural instability. Deficits in SUH and SVV deviation were correlated and mostly unidirectional, but did not correspond to the side of motor symptom dominance.

CONCLUSIONS

Visual verticality perception in PD is deviated already in early stages, conceivably as a relatively static internal misrepresentation of object orientation. Variability about verticality perception emerges in more advanced stages and is associated with postural and balance abnormalities.

Assessing the efficacy of an academic hearing peer tutor for a profoundly deaf student

This study assessed the efficacy of using a hearing peer tutor to provide math instruction for a profoundly deaf sixth-grade girl. Instruction was provided for twenty minutes each day. A changing criterion design was employed to measure the tutee's progress across four math objectives she had not previously mastered. The peer tutoring intervention was highly successful, with the tutee meeting the criterion of 70 percent accuracy for three consecutive days for each of the four curriculum objectives after only a brief period of intervention. Peer tutoring is discussed as a potentially useful vehicle for mainstreaming deaf children.

Tissue culture of bovine subcommissural organ

Tissue of the secretory, glial subcommissural organ (SCO) of adult, male cattle was cultured in serum-free medium for 70 days in vitro. Only minor alterations in the histoarchitecture and the cytology of the explanted SCOs could be observed by light and electron microscopy. Light- and electron-microscopic immunocytochemical investigations with an antiserum raised against bovine SCO secretory proteins revealed intra- and extra-cellularly localized immunoreactive material in tissue sections of SCO explants cultured up to 69 days in vitro. An indirect competition enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed to detect minor quantities of SCO secretory products. By means of this assay, approximately 35 ng RF protein per ml was detected in culture medium supernatants conditioned for 3 days in SCO tissue cultures at 3, 38, and 69 days in vitro. These studies demonstrate that the bovine SCO can maintain its secretory activity throughout long periods in vitro.

[Dosage reduction of d-phe-6-GnRH for the regulation of ovulation by complexation with polyglycine]

The gonadotropin-releasing-hormone analogue D-Phe6-GnRH was complexed with polyglycine under non-denaturing conditions. The liberation behaviour of these complexes was investigated in vitro in dependence of hormone content. The "effective dose 50" (ED 50) could be decreased by factor 34 in vivo in mouse ovulation test by reason of protection effect of polyglycine for the hormone against untimely proteolytical degradation.

[Occupational disability among teachers and its relation to subjective health status and professional performance]

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between absenteeism and functional health state, action competence, realization of professional goals and essential needs as well as subjective strain in job and family and type A behaviour pattern. The results of discriminant analyses from a sample of 774 teachers (group 1; no sickness leave days, group 2: sickness leave days greater than 28) are discussed.

[Insulin polyamino acid complexes--a variable principle in the preparation of sustained-release forms]

Polyglycine, polyalanine, polyleucine, poly-alpha-glutamic acid, poly-gamma-glutamic acid and poly-alpha-lysine were complexed with insulin under non denaturating conditions. The liberation behaviour of the hormone was investigated in vivo and in vitro in dependence of the insulin content, mole mass, ionic interaction and hydrophobicity of the polyamino acid. The in vitro results were mainly confirmed by animal experiments and indicated distinct effects of the physiochemical parameters to the bioavailability of insulin. The complex of poly-alpha-lysine and polyglycine were shown to be the most suited retard form, producing significant blood glucose lowering effects up to 12 hours.

Immuno-electron-microscopic analysis of the basal route of secretion in the subcommissural organ of the rabbit

Low-temperature-embedded tissue of the subcommissural organ (SCO) of the rabbit was analyzed for the basal route of secretory product by means of indirect immuno-metal cytochemistry (protein A-gold technique) at the electron-microscopic level. By use of (1) an antiserum against bovine Reissner's fibre (see Sterba et al. 1981) and, thereafter, (2) particulate gold-marker solution, immunoreactive sites could be clearly visualized within the extracellular matrix of both (a) the basal part of the ependymal cell layer, and (b) the hypendyma proper. Abundant secretory material was identified within (i) dilated intercellular spaces (a + b) as well as (ii) branching basal lamina labyrinths and distinct perivascular spaces (b). All these compartments are thought to belong to a system of extracellular channels, which may function in secretion directed toward hypendymal blood vessels.

Preparation and discharge of secretion in the subcommissural organ of the rat. An electron-microscopic immunocytochemical study

The secretion of the subcommissural organ (SCO) of the rat was studied by means of immunocytochemistry at the electron-microscopic level with the use of (1) the polar embedding medium Lowicryl K4M at -30 degrees C, (2) the protein A-gold technique, and (3) a rabbit antiserum against bovine Reissner's fiber (see Sterba et al. 1981). Two different substructures of the ependymal and the hypendymal SCO-cells display a positive immunocytochemical reaction: (1) sacs containing flocculent secretion, which originate from the granular endoplasmic reticulum, and (2) vacuoles filled with fine granular secretion, which are pinched off from the Golgi apparatus. The secretory material of the sacs and the vacuoles is discharged both (i) apically into the cerebrospinal fluid and (ii) basally into intercellular spaces of the SCO-hypendyma. The apically released secretion is condensed to a lamina-like formation, which more caudally assumes the form of Reissner's fiber. The route of the basally released secretion remains, however, vague. The "periodically striated bodies", which were thought to be morphological mediators of the discharge of the secretion into the capillaries, are never labeled by gold particles.

Immunocytochemical investigation of the subcommissural organ in the rat

The results of a preliminary immunocytochemical investigation on the subcommissural organ (SCO) in rats show that (1) Reissner's fiber (RF) or essential compounds of the RF are produced by the SCO, (2) the immunoreactive material is produced in the epithelial cells of the SCO as well as in the hypendymal cells, and (3) the immunoreactive material of the SCO belongs to a category of endogenous peptides to date not demonstrable immunocytochemically in other brain structures.

Peptide containing vesicles within neuro-neuronal synapses

In the descending part of the classical neurosecretory system, the axon terminals are not differentiated or they take the form of presynaptic elements which then form synaptoids or synapses with pituicytes or adenohypophyseal glandular cells respectively. In contrast, the axon terminals of the ascending part fulfil the criteria of true presynaptic elements which form synapses with other neurones. The presence of neurophysin vesicles in the presynaptic element is a particular morphologic feature of these neuro-neuronal synapses.

Ultrastructural studies on neurophysine-containing vesicles of the neurosecretory system of vertebrates

A new method described in the present paper allows identification of neurophysine-containing (NP) vesicles of the magnocellular neurosecretory system of vertebrates. After oxidation of ultrathin sections, the content of NP vesicles can be dissolved specifically in an alkaline medium. This procedure marks NP vesicles selectively in all portions of the classical neurosecretory system.