Bipolar disorder is a complex and severe mental disorder. Despite evidence-based pharmacological and psychosocial interventions, complete stability is only reached by a small proportion of people...Show moreBipolar disorder is a complex and severe mental disorder. Despite evidence-based pharmacological and psychosocial interventions, complete stability is only reached by a small proportion of people who have BD, with over 90% of BD patients relapsing into new mood episodes during their lifetime. However, tools to differentiate patients who benefit sufficiently from standardized guideline treatment from patients who need more intensive or highly specialized treatment are lacking. The aim of the current study is to develop a decision tool for bipolar disorder that aids clinicians in early identification of a complex disease course in patients with bipolar disorder that are in need of highly specialized tertiary treatment. An earlier literature review led to the identification of 37 factors associated with a more unfavorable and complex disease course. Based on two expert rounds, using the Delphi method seven items were selected for the final tool: insufficient symptomatic recovery, comorbid personality problems, rapid cycling pattern, trauma, somatic comorbidity, psychiatric comorbidity, (the wish to become) pregnant. The pilot validation study indicated that the tool demonstrated good validity to identify patients for highly specialized tertiary care. A total score of ≥3 was found to represent an optimal cut-off point for identifying bipolar patients in need of highly specialized care. The currently developed decision tool could aid clinicians in identifying complex and severe pathology in bipolar disorder in early stages of diagnoses and treatment and subsequently allocating patients to highly specialized treatment. Validation in larger samples sizes is needed to make this tool generalizable to healthcare systems where early identification of severe cases is needed, across and beyond the Netherlands.Show less
Recently, there has been a renewed interest in understanding the linguistic behaviour of humans when profanity is used. However, much of the current literature focuses on adult participants, the...Show moreRecently, there has been a renewed interest in understanding the linguistic behaviour of humans when profanity is used. However, much of the current literature focuses on adult participants, the factual usage of swear words or the distinction between English as an L1 and L2 when using profane expressions. Thus, the perceived profane behaviour amongst Dutch adolescents still has to be understood. Hence, this research aimed to analyse the perception of frequency and severity with regard to profane behaviour amongst Dutch adolescents. As a result, four research questions were posed in order to compare the perceptions of adolescents to profanity in relation to two demographic factors, namely, socioeconomic status and urbanity. The different social contexts and the perception of severity related to such contexts were also explored. The current study employed a crosslinguistic approach using both a questionnaire and follow-up interviews as tools. The results of this research show that the lower socioeconomic status group perceived their swearing behaviour as less frequent compared to average and higher socioeconomic statuses. The degree of urbanity for the places in which the schools were situated was divided into three categories: urban, semi-urban, and rural, based on the official ranking of the Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek considering the address density (CBS, 2019). When regarding the perceptual parameter for frequency and severity, the findings yield similar results, concluding that the students in rural areas perceive to use the most frequent, and severe profane words. Lastly, the different social environments in which Dutch adolescents perceive to use profane words were analysed. The findings show a general tendency of profanity being expressed in informal environments, and in particular in the presence of friends. However, it seems unacceptable to utter swear words when in the presence of a family member or an authoritative figure. This study implies that Dutch adolescents perceive to use swear words frequently, distinguishing between mild swear words such as ""kut"" ""fuck"", and ""shit"" versus more severe expressions such as ""kanker"" ""tyfus"" and ""homo"". This is in line with the existing literature 4 (see, e.g. Jay, 1992; Jay & Janschewits, 2008). In order to gain more insight into the perspective of Dutch adolescents, further research could be required.Show less
Research master thesis | Developmental Psychopathology in Education and Child Studies (research) (MSc)
open access
2016-10-29T00:00:00Z
Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is an autosomal dominant genetic disorder associated with multiple cutaneous, physical and neurological symptoms. The aim of this study was to validate current NF1...Show moreNeurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is an autosomal dominant genetic disorder associated with multiple cutaneous, physical and neurological symptoms. The aim of this study was to validate current NF1 severity scales using PCA, and relating the NF1 severity scale and components to cognitive and behavioural outcomes. Participants were 18 children diagnosed with NF1 aged 8 to 16 years. The PCA showed that NF1 symptoms could be divided into neurological and appearance symptoms. The presence of more neurological symptoms was associated with a lower score on the task Comprehension. More symptoms in the appearance were associated with less assertiveness. A higher total number of NF1 symptoms was negatively related to the scale meta-cognition of the BRIEF, indicating poorer executive functioning in daily life for children with more NF1 symptoms. Also, elevated autistic traits were observed using the SRS, and poorer emotion recognition as measured with the ANT. Together, these results might indicate that children with NF1 share a neuropsychological profile commonly seen in children with ASD, which might be related to neurological symptoms.Show less
