To Örebro University

There has been considerable international research on formal coercion in psychiatry in recent decades but less on informal coercion, especially from a staff perspective. This study was based on previous research which identified five forms of coercion in psychiatry: persuasion, interpersonal leverage, inducement, threats and formal coercion. The purpose was to describe the staff's reflections on the forms and the use of informal coercion against patients. We conducted four focus group interviews with psychiatric social workers, psychologists and physicians at four different clinics. The purpose was to create a reflective conversation about informal coercion. The interviews were analysed with qualitative content analysis. In addition to the five previously identified forms of coercion we found three other forms in our material: cheating the patient, an upbringing attitude, and using rules and procedures. Participants also described coercion from other stake-holders such as relatives and other authorities. Other reflections were interpreted as professionalism and coercion, where the participants stressed the importance of staff members' approach to patients, having clear communication with patients, individualized care, and good cooperation with each other and with other stakeholders. According to the participants, informal coercion was often used, but at the same time they were hesitant about using it. The participants had very different views of how patients perceived informal coercion and how interpersonal leverage should be used. They also reported difficulties in dealing with the informal coercion that relatives and other authorities use, as it may threaten the patient's ability to recover. Informal coercion should not only be seen as a legal or clinical issue. The fact that there are important ethical aspects in matters of informal coercion should also be acknowledged.

The professionals’ beliefs about the meeting with the patient have a crucial impact on the framing of the situation and thereby on patient’s possibilities to participate in the process. It is possible to identify three ethical perspectives through history in the normative medical and psychiatric ethics literature: paternalism, autonomy and social inclusion, which reflect a historical development of complementary values in psychiatry. The latest of these perspectives, social inclusion can be defined as a process to improve the terms of participation in society; to enhance the opportunities for people who are disadvantaged to get access to resources, get their voice heard and rights respected. The meetings with caregivers should be characterized by participation of the patient. The research of prevention of violence have been quite instrumental, it has focused on “what works”. Interestingly, this empirical perspective has essentially given recommendations that have been in line with the values in social inclusion and the recovery approach. The aim of this presentation is to investigate the possibilities and obstacles for patients to be socially included in his/her own care and in the psychiatric inpatient environment. The empirical material comes from the project “Prevention of violence in psychiatric inpatient care, aspects of ethics and safety in encounters with patients”. Included participants in this study is 13 patients, 17 staff members in three focus groups, and six ward managers on three clinics, a general psychiatric, a psychiatric addiction and a forensic psychiatric clinic. We will analyse all interviews with stakeholders with the framework method in order to describe inclusion and exclusion processes in psychiatric inpatient care. Through a literature review and pre-study of the material four main areas were identified: •Interpersonal meetings: to have respectful meetings and “see the patient” was important according to all stakeholders. •Patient involvement in care: Staff stress the importance of patient involvement and being honest to the patient, they seem to describe a more inclusive care than patients. •Organizational conditions for care: Delayed care, the competence of the present staff and other organizational issues could affect the relation between patients and staff. •Coercive measures. All stakeholders tried to minimize these in various ways, even though there were suspicions that some staff members wanted to provoke patients into conflicts. At the conference we will present the complete result from the analysis and discuss how stakeholders look at the possibility of social inclusion in the limited environment of a psychiatric ward. Educational goals 1.Learn about the possibilities of social inclusion of patients in the limited environment of a psychiatric ward. 2.To gain understanding of the role of social inclusion in primary prevention of violence. 3.To get some ideas and facts to the discussion on values in primary prevention of violence.

Background: Anorexia Nervosa (AN) destroys developmentally important early years of many young people and knowledge is insufficient regarding course, treatment outcome and prognosis. Only a few naturalistic studies have been conducted within the field of eating disorder (ED) research. In this naturalistic study we included adolescents with AN or subthreshold AN treated in outpatient care, and the overall aim was to examine sample characteristics and treatment outcome. Additional aims were to examine potential factors associated with remission as an outcome variable, and possible differences between three time periods for treatment onset.

Methods: Participants were identified through the Swedish national quality register for eating disorder treatment (SwEat), in which patients are registered at treatment onset and followed up once a year until end of treatment (EOT). Inclusion criteria were: medical or self-referral to one of the participating treatment units between 1999 and 2014, 13-19 years of age at initial entry into SwEat and diagnosed with AN or subthreshold AN. The total sample consisted of 3997 patient from 83 different treatment units.

Results: The results show that 55% of the participants were in remission and approximately 85% were within a healthy weight range at EOT. Of those who ended treatment according to plan, 70% were in remission and 90% within a healthy weight range. The average treatment duration was approximately 15 months. About one third of the patients terminated treatment prematurely, which was associated with a decreased chance of achieving remission. Remission rates and weight recovery increased over time, while treatment duration decreased. Considering treatment outcome, the results did not show any differences between patients with AN or subthreshold AN.

Conclusions: The present study shows a relatively good prognosis for adolescent patients with AN or subthreshold AN in routine care and the results indicate that treatment for adolescents with ED in Sweden has become more effective over the past 15 years. The results of the present study contribute to the scope of treatment research and the large-scale naturalistic setting secures the generalizability to a clinical environment. However, more research is needed into different forms of evidence, new research strategies and diversity of treatment approaches.

We identified clusters of atypical sensory functioning adults with ASC by hierarchical cluster analysis. A new scale for commonly self-reported sensory reactivity was used as a measure. In a low frequency group (n = 37), all subscale scores were relatively low, in particular atypical sensory/motor reactivity. In the intermediate group (n = 17) hyperreactivity, sensory interests and sensory/motor issues were significantly elevated in relation to the first group, but not hyporeactivity. In a high frequency subgroup (n = 17) all subscale scores were significantly elevated and co-occurrence of hyper- and hyporeactivity was evident. In a population sample, a cluster of low scorers (n = 136) and high scorers relative to the other cluster (n = 26) was found. Identification of atypical sensory reactivity is important for targeting support.

OBJECTIVE: Social skills group training (SSGT) for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is widely applied, but effectiveness in real-world practice has not yet been properly evaluated. This study sought to bridge this gap.

METHOD: This 12-week pragmatic randomized controlled trial of SSGT compared to standard care alone was conducted at 13 child and adolescent psychiatry outpatient units in Sweden. Twelve sessions of manualized SSGT ("KONTAKT") were delivered by regular clinical staff. Participants (N = 296; 88 females and 208 males) were children (n = 172) and adolescents (n = 124) aged 8 to 17 years with ASD without intellectual disability. The primary outcome was the Social Responsiveness Scale rating by parents and blinded teachers. Secondary outcomes included parent- and teacher-rated adaptive behaviors, trainer-rated global functioning and clinical severity, and self-reported child and caregiver stress. Assessments were made at baseline, posttreatment, and 3-month follow-up. Moderator analyses were conducted for age and gender.

RESULTS: Significant treatment effects on the primary outcome were limited to parent ratings for the adolescent subgroup (posttreatment: -8.3; 95% CI = -14.2 to -1.9; p = .012, effect size [ES] = 0.32; follow-up: -8.6; 95% CI = -15.4 to -1.8; p = .015, ES = 0.33) and females (posttreatment: -8.9; 95% CI = -16.2 to -1.6; p = .019, ES = 0.40). Secondary outcomes indicated moderate effects on adaptive functioning and clinical severity.

CONCLUSION: SSGT for children and adolescents with ASD in regular mental health services is feasible and safe. However, the modest and inconsistent effects underscore the importance of continued efforts to improve SSGT beyond current standards.

CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION INFORMATION: Social Skills Group Training ("KONTAKT") for Children and Adolescent With High-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders; https://clinicaltrials.gov/; NCT01854346.

Background: A common alternative treatment for substance abuse is auricular acupuncture. The aim of the study was to evaluate the short and long-term effect of auricular acupuncture on anxiety, sleep, drug use and addiction treatment utilization in adults with substance abuse.

Method: Of the patients included, 280 adults with substance abuse and psychiatric comorbidity, 80 were randomly assigned to auricular acupuncture according to the NADA protocol, 80 to auricular acupuncture according to a local protocol (LP), and 120 to relaxation (controls). The primary outcomes anxiety (Beck Anxiety Inventory; BAI) and insomnia (Insomnia Severity Index; ISI) were measured at baseline and at follow-ups 5 weeks and 3 months after the baseline assessment. Secondary outcomes were drug use and addiction service utilization. Complete datasets regarding BAI/ISI were obtained from 37/34 subjects in the NADA group, 28/28 in the LP group and 36/35 controls. Data were analyzed using Chi-square, Analysis of Variance, Kruskal Wallis, Repeated Measures Analysis of Variance, Eta square (η(2)), and Wilcoxon Signed Ranks tests.

Results: Participants in NADA, LP and control group improved significantly on the ISI and BAI. There was no significant difference in change over time between the three groups in any of the primary (effect size: BAI, η(2) = 0.03, ISI, η(2) = 0.05) or secondary outcomes. Neither of the two acupuncture treatments resulted in differences in sleep, anxiety or drug use from the control group at 5 weeks or 3 months.

Conclusion: No evidence was found that acupuncture as delivered in this study is more effective than relaxation for problems with anxiety, sleep or substance use or in reducing the need for further addiction treatment in patients with substance use problems and comorbid psychiatric disorders. The substantial attrition at follow-up is a main limitation of the study.

Trial registration: Clinical Trials NCT02604706 (retrospectively registered).

Background: Unusual reactions to sensory stimuli are experienced by 90-95% of people with an autism spectrum condition (ASC). Self-reported sensory reactivity in ASC has mainly been measured with generic questionnaires developed and validated on data from the general population. Interest in sensory reactivity in ASC increased after the inclusion of hyper- and hypo-reactivity together with unusual sensory interest as diagnostic markers of ASC in the DSM-5.

Aims: To develop and pilot validate a self-report questionnaire designed from first-hand descriptions of the target group of adults diagnosed with high functioning ASC. Psychometric properties of the questionnaire were evaluated on a sample of participants with ASC diagnoses (N = 71) and a random sample from the general population (N = 162).

Results: The Sensory Reactivity in Autism Spectrum (SR-AS is intended to be used as a screening tool in diagnostic processes with adults and for support in adapting compensating strategies and environmental adjustments. The internal consistency was high for both the SR-AS and its subscales. The total scale Cronbach's alpha was 0.96 and the subscales alphas were 0.80. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) showed best fit for a four-factor model of inter-correlated factors: hyper and hypo-reactivity, strong sensory interest and a sensory/motor factor. The questionnaire discriminated well between ASC-diagnosed participants and participants from the general population.

Conclusions: The SR-AS displayed good internal consistency and discriminatory power and promising factorial validity.

Background: There has been considerable interest in normative ethics regarding how and when coercive care can be justified. However, only a few empirical studies consider how professionals reason about ethical aspects when assessing the need for coercive care for adults, and even less concerning children and adolescents. The aim of this study was to examine and describe how professionals document their value arguments when considering the need for coercive psychiatric care of young people.

Methods: All 16 clinics that admitted children or adolescents to coercive care during one year in Sweden were included in the study. These clinics had a total of 155 admissions of 142 patients over one year. Qualitative content analysis with a deductive approach was used to find different forms of justification for coercive care that was documented in the medical records, including Care Certificates.

Results: The analysis of medical records revealed two main arguments used to justify coercive care in child and adolescent psychiatry: 1) the protection argument - the patients needed protection, mainly from themselves, and 2) the treatment requirement argument - coercive care was a necessary measure for administering treatment to the patient. Other arguments, namely the caregiver support argument, the clarification argument and the solidarity argument, were used primarily to support the two main arguments. These supportive arguments were mostly used when describing the current situation, not in the explicit argumentation for coercive care. The need for treatment was often only implicitly clarified and the type of care the patient needed was not specified. Few value arguments were used in the decision for coercive care; instead physicians often used their authority to convince others that treatment was necessary.

Conclusions: One clinical implication of the study is that decisions about the use of coercive care should have a much stronger emphasis on ethical aspects. There is a need for an ethical legitimacy founded upon explicit ethical reasoning and after communication with the patient and family, which should be documented together with the decision to use coercive care.

BACKGROUND: This qualitative study addresses adolescents' perception of treatment for eating disorders. The importance of involving parents in treatment of young people with eating disorders, especially young people with Anorexia Nervosa, is emphasized in a number of studies. Even so, this form of treatment does not work for everybody, not even within a limited diagnostic group. Previous research has revealed that many young people are not entirely satisfied with their treatment. However, there is a lack of knowledge concerning the perspectives of adolescents in outpatient treatment, whose treatment often involves family. The aim of the present study was to investigate how young people with experience from adolescent outpatient treatment for eating disorders, involving family-based and individual based interventions, perceive their time in treatment.

METHODS: This study was conducted using a hermeneutic phenomenological approach. Fifteen participants were recruited in collaboration with four specialized eating disorder units and interviewed with the purpose to gather narratives.

RESULTS: The analysis revealed that the adolescents sometimes felt more or less forced into treatment, and strong ambivalent feelings about if and how to participate in treatment permeated the adolescents' narratives. The common factors which emerged in the narratives were assembled under the two major themes: Having to involve family in treatment - in one way or another and Making progress in treatment - a matter of trust.

CONCLUSIONS: It is of great importance to involve family in treatment in order to understand the problems of the adolescents in their context and be able to take advantage of the resource that parents constitute. However, in certain situations, it is necessary to prioritise individual treatment interventions so that instead of sorting out difficult family situations the therapist focuses on enhancing the young people's resilience, thus enabling them to tackle problematic situations in life.