The Latvian translations of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS; Cox et al., 1987) and the Gotland Male Depression Scale (GMDS; Zierau et al., 2002), which also includes anger as a symptom of masked depression, were used in a longitudinal study examining the bidirectional effects of perinatal depression of mothers and fathers in relation to perceived social support and their infants’ temperament. This presentation will focus upon the internal consistency and convergent validity of the Latvian versions of the two depression measures. The sample included women (n=258), who were recruited during the third trimester of pregnancy, and their partners (n=258), both of whom completed both depression questionnaires prior to and following the birth of their child, and also at three and six months postpartum. Results show good internal consistency and moderate to strong correlations between the two depression measures both for mothers and for fathers. Mothers reported higher rates of depression on both measures at all three points of measurement. Variations exist in regard to associations of the EPDS and the Distress and Depression subscales of the GMDS acccording to gender. Implications of these findings will be discussed.

Neurasthenia, a diagnosis less favored in Western psychiatric nosology, is more accepted in China due to an emphasis on physical manifestation of distress. The goal of this study is to explore the extent to which depression and neurasthenia represent the same or different underlying dimensions of psychiatric distress in China. 765 Chinese adults’ data were obtained using stratified random sampling utilizing spatial epidemiological methods with home based face-to-face interviews conducted in Guangzhou, China. The Patient Health Questionnaire (Authors: Spitzer R.L., Williams J.B. and Kroenke K.) and the Composite International Diagnostic Inventory measured depression and neurasthenia respectively. The prevalence of depression and neurasthenia was 5.3% and 15.4%. People with one disorder were nearly 6 times more likely to have the other disorder (OR=5.75, [CI=2.98,11.08], p<.001) and women were more likely to have comorbid depression and neurasthenia disorders. Poor health and poor sleep quality was reported across disorders, but those with depression reported poorest sleep. Seeking counseling was most frequent for those with neurasthenia (4.0%, compared to 0% with depression) and those with comorbid disorders (21%), (p<0.001). Participants reported low treatment seeking, with higher prevalence for neurasthenia relative to depression. Neurasthenia is a useful diagnostic category for exploring psychological distress among Chinese populations.

Resilience enables people to develop mental health in the face of adversity. The study aims to develop a new Bipolar Disorder (BD) specific resilience measure, to test its psychometric properties in BD sample, and to examine its relationships with mental-health-related variables in BD and general population samples. 113 participants diagnosed of BD (mean age = 45.48; SD = 10.65; 69 women, 44 men) completed the developed 41-item Resilience to Bipolar Disorder (RBD) questionnaire, obtaining satisfactory Cronbach α = .93, and correlating positively with the Resilience Scale-25 (RS-25) (r = .65, p < .001). The RBD correlated positively with quality of life, well-being and personal recovery, and negatively with functional impairment and symptoms. Additionally, when divided BD sample into “Active” and “Recovered” subsamples, recovered subsample showed higher scores in mental health indicators (higher quality of life, well-being, and personal recovery; and lower functional impairment and symptomatology) than both, general population sample and active subsample. Reliability and convergent validity was supported for the RBD questionnaire. Consistent with previous research, resilience is associated with recovery-related indicators, and recovered patients indicated higher scores in resilience and mental-health-related variables than people who have not gone through those difficulties, or have their disease yet activated.

According to DSM-V the premenstrual dysphoric disorder occurs in about 1.8% women without functional impairment and 1.3% with functional impairment. Premenstrual dysphoric disorder has been observed in females in the United States, Europe, India, and Asia. The primary objective of this study was to develop a measure to screen the premenstrual dysphoric disorder in a community sample of females from Pakistan. We have developed a 26 items questionnaire on the basis of symptoms mentioned in the diagnostic criteria of premenstrual dysphoric disorder in DSM-V. The measure was administered together with Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21) on 286 female college students in Karachi, Pakistan. The age range of participants was 16-25 years. Analysis of results indicated that, the internal consistency of 26 items measures, as estimated by coefficient of Cronbach’s alpha is .87 and advocating good reliability of the measure. To analyze construct validity we calculated correlation coefficient of the measure with depression (r=.56), anxiety (r=.54) and stress (r=.54) subscales of DASS-21. Findings indicated adequate construct validity. The measure would be useful for researchers and clinicians to screen the DSM-V based premenstrual dysphoric disorder for Pakistani community females.

The cognitive behavioral therapy refers to one of the most effective therapeutic approaches in which identifying and modifying cognitive distortions plays the central role, but measurements evaluating specific cognitive errors are still sparse. The present study investigates the psychometric properties of the Georgian version of Cognitive Distortion Scale (G-CDS) (Covin, Dozois, 2011). 500 individuals across two studies (M of age = 33.39, SD = 14.82) completed the CDS. The confirmatory factory analyses showed the best model fit with nine factors solutions compare with the one or two factors solutions. Examining the relations of G-CDS with the primary psychiatric symptom dimensions (The Hopkins Symptom Checklist, HSCL-90) showed the coherent correlations. A multivariate analysis of variance revealed a significant main effect for group with high indices on global psychiatric severity index scoring significantly higher on most of the cognitive errors than the group of individuals with low severity indices. The Georgian version of the Cognitive Distortion Scale because of respectable clinical and research potential may certainly be used for practical as well as for research purposes.