Formal elements are often used in art therapy assessment. The assumption is that formal elements are observable aspects of the art product that allow reliable and valid assessment of clients’ mental health. Most of the existing art therapy assessment instruments are based on clinical expertise. Therefore, …

Objective Central sensitization is present in different pain conditions, including chronic whiplash-associated disorders. In the absence of a gold standard method of assessment to determine the presence of central sensitization, quantitative sensory testing is currently understood as an optimal proxy. …

Victim-offender contact has been studied extensively in prisons, but research on contact between victims and mentally disordered offenders in forensic mental health settings is lacking. Therefore, an exploratory study was conducted on contact between victims and offenders in four Dutch forensic psychiatric …

In everyday life, non-linear causal relationships can be investigated excellently and that is precisely why applied science appeals to me. Practice is leading in applied science. In the context of psychopathology, this means that we do not only look at general knowledge that can be derived from a large …

Dual diagnoses in a sample of severely criminal female offenders

Gender differences in victimization were retrospectively examined in 218 male and 218 female patients who have been admitted to one of four Dutch forensic psychiatric hospitals between 1984 and 2014. Case files were studied and variables relating to victimization and psychopathology were coded. It was …

Background: Both childhood trauma and negative memory bias are associated with the onset and severity level of several psychiatric disorders, such as depression and anxiety disorders. Studies on these risk factors, however, generally use homogeneous noncomorbid samples. Hence, studies in naturalistic …

Pregnancy care for vulnerable women is often perceived as a burden by caregivers as vulnerable clients require complex case management, additional time, and more often show adverse perinatal outcomes. Vulnerable clients bring about additional work strain for the caregiver, especially when the workload …