Manfred Beutel

Universitätsmedizin der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz · Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy

Objectives: Personality organization or functioning describes biographically acquired characteristics for the regulation of psychological processes. Limitations correlate with symptom load. This study examines whether significant improvement in personality functioning can be achieved in the framework of a multimodal psychodynamic treatment and its...

Background Evidence-based treatments for internet use disorders (IUDs) are limited, and online therapy approaches are poorly studied. We investigated the efficacy of a manualised therapist-guided online intervention (OMPRIS) to reduce IUD symptoms and improve psychological well-being. Methods In this multicentre, two-arm, single-blinded trial, ind...

Hintergrund: Zum Zusammenhang zwischen psychosozialen Belastungen und Gesundheit oder Arbeitszufriedenheit existieren eine Vielzahl von Querschnittstudien – Längsschnittstudien zur Prüfung der Kausalität sind aber aufwändig und daher selten. In der großen bevölkerungsrepräsentativen „Gutenberg Health Study“ (N=15.000) wurden die Instrumente COPSOQ...

Background Epidemiological research on the prevalence of traumatic events and PTSD has shown that there are significant differences between countries, due to their different history and socialization processes. In the case of Germany, this is particularly relevant. Germany was divided into two states from 1949 to 1990. This study examines the preva...

Background Due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, healthcare workers (HCWs) are experiencing tremendous levels of emotional and physical stress. Hospitals are trying to help personnel cope with work-related pressure. The aim of this study was to assess HCWs’ awareness and utilization of counseling and support services during the pandemic, HCWs’ unmet coun...

Background Reliable outcome data of psychosomatic inpatient and day hospital treatment with a focus on psychotherapy are important to strengthen ecological validity by assessing the reality of mental health care in the field. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of inpatient and day hospital treatment in German university departments of Ps...

Introduction: Long-term psychodynamic/psychoanalytic psychotherapy (LTPP) is a prevalent treatment option for complex mental disorders. Yet, little is known about the role of treatment intensity in LTPP. We present a study protocol for a systematic review and individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis aggregating and analysing individual data...

Due to the division of Germany into the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany following the Second World War, large parts of the population of today's Germany were socialized under different socio-economic, political, and legal conditions, which could possibly lead to different experiences with corporal punishment as a meth...

Associations of preterm birth with later-life mental distress are well-established. A research gap concerns the role of psychosocial factors such as the family context. This study investigated associations of recalled parental rearing behavior with both preterm birth characteristics and psychological symptom burden later in life. Based on birth re...

Keratoconus appears to be a rare corneal disease with a prevalence previously estimated at 1:2000. The aim of our study was to investigate the prevalence of keratoconus in a large German cohort and to evaluate possible associated factors. Method In the population-based, prospective, monocentric cohort study, Gutenberg Health Study, 12,423 subjects...

Background: Students were at an increased risk for elevated mental symptoms during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to pre-pandemic levels. As universities remained closed much longer than anticipated, the mental burden was expected to persist through the second year of the pandemic. The current study aimed to investigate the preva...

Purpose Anti-retinal autoantibodies are assumed to be associated with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). To our knowledge, this is the first evaluation of autoantibodies in human sera of participants with different stages of AMD in a large population-based, observational cohort study in Germany. Methods The Gutenberg Health Study (GHS) is a p...

Background: Research has found that patients with suicidal ideation (SI) are at high risk for unfavorable outcomes. The present work aimed to expand the knowledge about their characteristics and treatment success. Methods: Data were drawn from a routine assessment of N = 460 inpatients. We used patients' self-report data as well as therapists' r...

Purpose Mental distress has become a major public health concern. Temporal trends in psychological distress are complex and depend on numerous factors. In this study, we examined age-period-cohort effects for mental distress including gender and German region over a 15 years’ time span. Methods Data on mental distress from ten cross-sectional surv...

Background: Loneliness is a major public health issue and the identification of risk factors is crucial for prevention and intervention. While previous research has often investigated sociodemographic and external factors (e.g., living situation), personality variables received less attention. This study aimed to harness recent advances in the dime...

With the increasing numbers of long-term cancer survivors, their long-term quality of life and mental health are becoming increasingly important foci in research and practice. Long-term survivors form a heterogeneous group with wide-ranging stresses and resources, which are influenced by individually diverse biological, psychological, and social co...

Background and Objectives: Tinnitus is a common symptom in medical practice, although data on its prevalence vary. As the underlying pathophysiological mechanism is still not fully understood, hearing loss is thought to be an important risk factor for the occurrence of tinnitus. The aim of this study was to assess tinnitus prevalence in a large Ger...

Background Loneliness is a highly relevant public mental health issue. This work presents the validation of a single-item measure of loneliness and its subjective experience: “I am frequently alone/have few contacts”. It can be used in large-scale population surveys where an economical assessment is of key importance. Methods Data was drawn from t...

Background: Short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy (STPP) is frequently used to treat depression, but it is unclear which patients might benefit specifically. Individual participant data (IPD) meta-analyses can provide more precise effect estimates than conventional meta-analyses and identify patient-level moderators. This IPD meta-analysis examin...

Background: The present study aimed to investigate how depressive symptoms affect bodyweight change (gain and loss), and how this association is intertwined with other psychosocial and biomedical factors in the adult general population. Methods: In a population-based, prospective, observational single-center cohort study in the Rhine-Main-Region...

Aim: The present study investigated regional differences in response behaviour for the Patient Health Quetionnaire-9. We tested for measurement invariance and differential item and test functioning between formerly divided East- and West-Germany: the former German Democratic Republic and Federal Republic of Germany. Diverging socialization experie...

Background: Hearing is a basic ability that is needed for participation in daily life. Hearing loss often greatly reduces a person's quality of life. Nevertheless, epidemiological data on the prevalence of hearing disorders in Germany are sparse. This study investigated the prevalence of hearing disorders and the actual provision with hearing aids...

Background: Research over the past years has shown that exposure to thin and beauty ideals in the media can be associated with disordered eating and related variables. Nowadays, interactive media, such as social networking sites, have gained growing popularity and represent a major part of people's lives. It is therefore crucial to investigate how...

Objective: According to ICD-11 gaming disorder is currently defined as a behavioral addiction. While our understanding of crucial aspects of this new condition including other subtypes of internet use disorders is growing, less is known about treatment strategies and their effectiveness. Particularly, dimensions of life satisfaction and their mean...

Tinnitus is a common symptom reported in otolaryngologic practice. Although the pathophysiology of tinnitus has not been fully understood, clinical studies suggest that psychological symptoms of depression, anxiety, and somatization are increased in tinnitus patients. However, patients seeking medical treatment for tinnitus may be especially vulner...

Eine zu geringe Impfbereitschaft zählt zu den größten globalen Gesundheitsgefahren und war in der COVID-19-Pandemie auch in Deutschland eine der großen Herausforderungen der öffentlichen Gesundheit. Die Identifikation potenzieller Einflussfaktoren auf das Impfverhalten ist deshalb für eine zielgruppengerechte Gesundheitskommunikation von großer Bed...

Background Internet-based mental health interventions are considered effective in providing low-threshold support for people with mental health disorders. However, there is a lack of research investigating the transferability of such online programs into routine care settings. Low treatment adherence and problems with technical implementation often...

Previous evidence suggested that non-COVID-19-related medical care was reduced during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it remained unclear whether or to which extent this effect lasted beyond the first wave, or existed in a longer time frame. Here, we consider questionnaire data of the Gutenberg-COVID-19 study together with pre-pandemic...

Previous studies reported significantly altered tryptophan catabolite concentrations in major depression. Thus, tryptophan catabolites were considered as potential biomarkers of depression and their modulators as potential targets for psychopharmacotherapy. However, the results were based mainly on studies with small sample sizes limiting their gen...

Deficits in mentalization are indicated by impaired emotional awareness and self-reflectiveness, and are associated with various mental disorders. However, there is a lack of validated research instruments. In this study, the psychometric properties of the Mentalization Questionnaire (MZQ) were evaluated in a representative German population sample...

Objective Previous research on psychotherapy treatment response has mainly focused on outpatients or clinical trial data which may have low ecological validity regarding naturalistic inpatient samples. To reduce treatment failures by proactively screening for patients at risk of low treatment response, gain more knowledge about risk factors, and t...

Introduction: Germany is one of the few countries with a medical specialty of psychosomatic medicine and psychotherapy and many treatment resources of this kind. Objective: This observational study describes the psychosomatic treatment programs as well as a large sample of day-hospital and inpatients in great detail using structured diagnostic i...

Background: While chronic exposure to high levels of noise was demonstrated to increase the risk of various cardiovascular diseases, the association between noise annoyance and risk of cardiovascular disease remains still inconsistent. Recently, we showed that noise annoyance is associated with prevalent atrial fibrillation in the general populatio...

To a large extent health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is a product of life-course experiences. Therefore, we examined employment, marital, and reproductive life-course typologies as predictors of HRQoL in women and men. To determine life course clusters, sequence and cluster analysis were performed on the annual (waves 1990–2019) employment, mar...

Objective: The reunification of Germany after the separation between 1949 and 1990 has offered a unique chance of studying the impact of socialization, political transformation, and migration on mental health. The purpose of this article was to compare mental distress, resources, and life satisfaction (1) between residents of East and West Germany...

Background Mental distress is suspected to influence the morbidity of cardiac patients. Evaluating mental distress in cardiac patients is rare and the impact on surgical outcome is still not certified. Methods In 94 cardiac surgical patients, mental distress was assessed by the Patient Health Questionnaire-4 (PHQ-4). We defined length of stay in ho...

Background Individuals living at-risk-of-poverty have an increased risk of poor mental health. The pandemic and its societal impacts might have negative effects especially on this group widening the gap between rich and poor and also exacerbate gender gaps, which in turn might impact social cohesion. Aim The objective of this longitudinal study wa...

Background The EQ-5D and the SF-6D are examples of commonly used generic preference-based instruments for assessing health-related quality of life (HRQoL). However, their suitability for mental disorders has been repeatedly questioned. Objective To assess the responsiveness and convergent validity of the EQ-5D-3L and SF-6D in patients with depress...

Social media disorder (SMD) is a frequently occurring subtype of Internet-related disorders (IRD), which has recently become a focus of research. It is noticeable that women are among those affected, whose nosological characteristics need to be examined. A clinical sample of n = 294 women (14–68 years, M = 36.88 years) was generated. The questionna...

Objective: The current study was undertaken to prospectively explore whether having low levels of von Willebrand factor (vWF) antigen and vWF activity reduce the risk for cardiovascular disease and death. Methods: VWF antigen and vWF activity were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and an immunological-based assay, respectively, in a...

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between a person’s psychological distress, subjective physical health and their attitudes towards the COVID-19 pandemic. The evaluation was performed on the basis of data from two waves of the Saxon Longitudinal Study, carried out in 2019 (pre-pandemic) and 2021. The number of study participants in bot...

Background Child maltreatment is a risk factor for a range of mental disorders later in life, including dangerous self-harm and suicide attempts. A better understanding of the mechanisms underlying this association can inform prevention and intervention. Objective To investigate personality functioning as a potential mediator of the association of...

Objective Research has described positive psychological outcomes after severe illness, including posttraumatic growth. The aim of the present research was to evaluate a short scale assessing posttraumatic growth within a sample of cancer survivors to provide an efficient instrument for research and care settings. Methods Using data of a registry-b...

Background During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, preventive measures like physical distancing, wearing face masks, and hand hygiene have been widely applied to mitigate viral transmission. Beyond increasing vaccination coverage, preventive measures remain urgently needed. The aim of the present project was to assess the effect of protective behavior on S...

Vaccination hesitancy has been a major challenge for health authorities and societies during the COVID-19 pandemic. The general determinants of vaccination intentions and behavior include sociodemographic and health-related, psychological, and communication-related factors, with varying relevance for different types of vaccinations, countries, and...

Purpose Research on prevalence rates of traumatic events and PTSD has shown significant differences between countries, due to their different history and socialization processes. In the case of Germany, with its history of two divided states, this is highly relevant. This study explores the prevalence of traumatic events and PTSD in formerly divide...

Objective: Psychotherapy of chronic depression has remained a challenge due to limited prognosis and high rates of recurrence. We present five-year outcome data from a multicenter trial comparing psychoanalytic (PAT) and cognitive-behavioral (CBT) long-term treatments with randomized and preferred allocations analyzing symptom (N=227) and structur...

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund Zur Erreichung einer flächendeckenden Immunität gegen COVID-19 in der Bevölkerung ist entscheidend, wie sich die Impfbereitschaft bislang Ungeimpfter entwickelt. Schlüsselrolle dabei spielt das medizinische Personal, welches die Gesundheitsversorgung während der Pandemie gewährleistet und vielen Menschen als Information...

Objectives: Quality of life (QOL) is increasingly used as indicator in health research. The aim of this paper was an updated psychometric validation and a new standardization of the German version of the EUROHIS-QOL using a sample of the German general population assessed in 2021. The study focused on socio-economic characteristics and on anxiety a...

Zusammenfassung Ziel der Studie Das Ziel dieser Studie ist es, zu untersuchen, inwiefern innerdeutsche Migration (Binnenmigration) mit allgemeiner psychischer Belastung, Somatisierung, Depressivität und Angst assoziiert ist. Methode Daten aus zwei bevölkerungsrepräsentativen Befragungen (2020 und 2021; N=4922) wurden genutzt, um mit Hilfe von linea...

Zusammenfassung Erste Ergebnisse einer bundesweiten Studie deuten auf geschlechtsspezifische Muster mit weniger berichteten Fällen von Kindesvernachlässigung und Gewalt in den Neuen im Vergleich zu den Alten Bundesländern. Ziel der vorliegenden Studie war es diese Ergebnisse in zwei größeren regionalen Stichproben zu überprüfen. Methode: Prävalenze...

Zusammenfassung: Zielsetzung: Internetnutzungsstörungen werden als wichtiges gesundheitsrelevantes Phänomen akzeptiert und sind bekanntermaßen mit hohen Raten an komorbiden psychischen Erkrankungen assoziiert. Jedoch ist das Wissen über das gleichzeitige Auftreten mit einer weiteren Verhaltenssucht begrenzt. Die vorliegende Arbeit bietet eine erste...

Right-wing extremism and authoritarianism have been identified as major, if not the major threats to democracy in recent years. The rise of right-wing extremist and populist parties in many democratic countries throughout the world has renewed the interest in identifying the roots and determinants of these anti-democratic attitudes. Even though fac...

Background Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are potentially traumatic events that occur before the age of 18. The term encompasses various adverse childhood experiences, e.g., physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, physical and psychological neglect, and family dysfunction. Prevalence estimates for a broad spectrum of ACEs against the backg...

Chronic exhaustion is a consequence of detrimental working conditions and demands, as well as inadequate coping techniques, potentially resulting in burnout. Previous research has studied occupational environment and individual factors as predictors of exhaustion. Although these differ between former East and West German states, the regional distin...

Results: 18,335 eyes of 9,559 participants aged 40 to 80 years were included in the analysis. Median pupil diameter was 4.19 mm in right eyes and 4.12 mm in left eyes. A smaller pupil was associated with older age, hyperopic refractive error, previous cataract surgery, diabetes, obesity, and ACE inhibitor intake, whereas wider pupil was associated...

Seit 2019 hat eine Leitliniengruppe mit 35 Expert*innen die 2014 erschienenen deutschen Leitlinien zur Behandlung von Angststörungen überarbeitet 1, 2, 3. Vertreten waren insgesamt 29 deutsche Fachgesellschaften und Berufsverbände sowie Patientenselbsthilfeorganisationen. Dieser Beitrag fasst die wichtigsten Empfehlungen sowie die Neuerungen der üb...

Einleitung In Deutschland müssen Arbeitgeber langzeit-arbeitsunfähige Beschäftigte bei der beruflichen Rückkehr durch das Angebot eines Betrieblichen Eingliederungsmanagements (BEM) unterstützen und sollten ihnen eine ärztlich empfohlene Stufenweise Wiedereingliederung (StW) ermöglichen. Allerdings scheinen Umsetzungslücken insbesondere bei kleinen...

BACKGROUND Participant recruitment poses challenges in psycho-oncological intervention (POI) research, such as psycho-oncological online intervention studies. Strict consecutive recruitment in clinical settings provides important methodological benefits, but is often associated with low response rates and reduced practicability and ecological valid...

Background Participant recruitment poses challenges in psycho-oncological intervention research, such as psycho-oncological web-based intervention studies. Strict consecutive recruitment in clinical settings provides important methodological benefits but is often associated with low response rates and reduced practicability and ecological validity....

Background Adult depression is a common consequence of adverse childhood experiences. There is also a higher likelihood of being affected by economic burdens after having experienced a traumatic event in childhood. As depression has been associated with economic burden, these long-term sequelae of childhood adversity are likely to interact. Goals...

Objective: As changes in mental representations have been discussed as mechanisms of change in psychotherapy, the question arises whether recollections of childhood abuse and neglect are altered as well and how they relate to symptom changes.Method: Individuals in psychosomatic inpatient treatment (N = 488, 60.5% women) filled out the Childhood Tra...

Zusammenfassung Ziel der Studie Um die Behandlungsergebnisse der medizinischen Rehabilitation zu sichern und den Transfer von erlernten Strategien in den Alltag zu unterstützen, ist oftmals eine ambulante Nachsorge indiziert. Dies trifft besonders auf Patient*innen der psychosomatischen Rehabilitation mit beruflichen Belastungen zu, für welche die...

An einer chronischen Depression erkrankte Patientinnen und Patienten gelten oft als schwer behandelbar. Häufig hängt die chronische Depression mit schweren traumatischen Erfahrungen zusammen. Das in diesem Band vorgestellte Behandlungsmanual berücksichtigt diese Gegebenheit und legt den Fokus auf traumatisierte, chronisch depressive Patientinnen un...

Objective: As changes in mental representations have been discussed as mechanisms of change in psychotherapy, the question arises whether recollections of childhood abuse and neglect are altered as well and how they relate to symptom changes. Method: Individuals in psychosomatic inpatient treatment (N = 488, 60.5% women) filled out the Childhood...

Background: Smoking is a well-established risk factor for chronic non-communicable diseases. However, the relationship between cigarette smoking and the risk of developing mental health conditions remains largely elusive. This study examined the relationship between cigarette smoking as well as smoking cessation and prevalent and incident symptoms...

Background In Germany there is a large wealth gap between East and West Germans as well as a gap in life satisfaction, with people in East Germany reporting to be less satisfied. This paper intends to shed light on the role of the different levels of wealth and their association with life satisfaction. On a wider scale, this paper examines psycholo...

In der psychosomatisch-psychotherapeutischen Versorgung bestehen noch Unsicherheiten bezüglich des Auftretens von Verhaltenssüchten in der täglichen Routine. Im Poster sollen behandlungssuchende Patientinnen mit detektierten Verhaltenssüchten die aufgrund von anderen psychischen Diagnosen klinisch vorstellig wurden, charakterisiert werden. Das hier...