European Psychiatry - Volume 33 - March 2016

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S266 24th European Congress of Psychiatry / European Psychiatry 33S (2016) S116–S348
4 University of Oxford, Department of Psychiatry, Oxford, United
Kingdom
∗ Corresponding author.
Introduction Mood instability is an important problem but has
received relatively little research attention. Natural language
processing (NLP) is a novel method, which can used to automat-
ically extract clinical data from electronic health records (EHRs).
Aims To extract mood instability data from EHRs and investigate
its impact on people with mental health disorders.
Methods Data onmood instabilitywere extracted using NLP from
27,704 adults receiving care from the South London and Maudsley
NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM) for affective, personality or psychotic
disorders. These data were used to investigate the association of
mood instability with different mental disorders and with hospi-
talisation and treatment outcomes.
Results Mood instability was documented in 12.1% of people
included in the study. It wasmost frequently documented in people
with bipolar disorder (22.6%), but was also common in personality
disorder (17.8%) and schizophrenia (15.5%). It was associated with
a greater number of days spent in hospital (B coefficient 18.5, 95%
CI 12.1–24.8), greater frequency of hospitalisation (incidence rate
ratio 1.95, 1.75–2.17), and an increased likelihood of prescription
of antipsychotics (2.03, 1.75–2.35).
Conclusions Using NLP, it was possible to identify mood instabil-
ity in a large number of people, which would otherwise not have
been possible by manually reading clinical records. Mood insta-
bility occurs in a wide range of mental disorders. It is generally
associated with poor clinical outcomes. These findings suggest that
clinicians should screen for mood instability across all common
mental health disorders. The data also highlight the utility of NLP
for clinical research.
Disclosure of interest The authors have not supplied their decla-
ration of competing interest.
EW434
Automatic attentional processing of
faces with disease cues
S. Soares , A.C. Magalhães , A.F. Oliveira , B. Silva , J. Dias ,
M.J. Godinho , S. Xavier ∗, J. Ferreira
1 Center for Health Technology and Services Research, University of
Aveiro CINTESIS-UA, Department of Education, Aveiro, Portugal
2 Karolinska Institutet, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Division
for Psychology, Sweden, Sweden
3 University of Aveiro, Department of Education, Aveiro, Portugal
4 University of Coimbra, Psychological Medicine, Coimbra, Portugal
5 Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Institute for Biomedical
Imaging and Life Sciences IBILI, Coimbra, Portugal
∗ Corresponding author.
Introduction Stimuli that are relevant to our survival, especially
those that signal the presence of a threat in the environment (e.g.,
threatening faces), automatically attract our attention.
Objective The same may be true for faces displaying subtle dis-
ease cues as they may signal danger of potential contamination
and, hence, disease-avoidance behaviour, which was the focus of
the present research.
Aim The present study investigated, for the first time to our
knowledge, whether faces with disease cues (DF), compared to
control stimuli (faces without such cues) (CF), interfered with the
participants’ performance in a letter discrimination task.
Method Eighty-six (44 women) university students volunteered
to participate in a letter discrimination task where 240 DF and 240
CF were presented.
Results The results confirmed our hypothesis by showing that
for DF, compared to CF, participants took longer to discriminate
the target letters. Moreover, the results from a further rating task
showed that DF, compared to CF, were rated as significantly more
disgusting and associated with disease, thus confirming our exper-
imental manipulation and suggesting that disgust may be driving
automatic attention to DF.
Conclusions Our findings provide important insights on the pos-
sible influence of exogenous attention to disease cues in social
avoidance behaviour, whichmay have relevant implications in clin-
ical disorders with disgust at its core.
Disclosure of interest The authors have not supplied their decla-
ration of competing interest.
EW435
Sensory processing disorders,
duration of current episode, and
severity of side effects in major
affective and anxiety disorders
G. Serafini ∗, B. Engel-Yeger , G.H. Vazquez , M. Pompili ,
M. Amore
1 S. Martino Hospital, University of Genoa, Neuroscience DINOGMI,
Genoa, Italy
2 Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences, University of Haifa,
Occupational Therapy, Haifa, Israel
3 Palermo University, Neuroscience, Buenos Aires, Argentina
4 Sant’Andrea Hospital, Sapienza University of Rome, Neuroscience,
Rome, Italy
∗ Corresponding author.
Introduction Longer duration of untreated illness, longer dura-
tion of current episode, and severity of medication side effects may
negatively influence the psychosocial functioning inmajor affective
and anxiety disorders. Studies also suggested the involvement of
sensory perception in emotional and psychopathological processes.
Objective The objective of this study is to investigate the nature
of the association between duration of untreated illness, duration
of current episode, and severity of medication side effects.
Aims The study is aimed to examine the relationship between
sensory processing disorders (SPD), duration of untreated illness,
duration of current illness episode, and the severity of side effects
related to psychoactive medications.
Methods The sample included 178 participants with an age
ranging from 17 to 85 years (mean = 53.84 ± 15.55); psychiatric
diagnoses were as follow: unipolar major depressive disorder
(MDD) (50%), bipolar disorder (BD) (33.7%), and anxiety disorders
(16.3%). subjects completed a socio-demographic questionnaire,
the Udvalg for Kliniske Undersøgelser (UKU), and Adolescent/Adult
Sensory Profile (AASP) questionnaire.
Results Longer duration of current episode correlated with
greater registration of sensory input and lower avoidance from
sensory input among unipolar patients, lower registration of sen-
sory input, and higher tendency for sensory sensitivity/sensation
avoidance among bipolar participants. In addition? longer duration
of current episode correlated with lower sensory sensitiv-
ity/avoidance among anxiety participants, respectively. Mean UKU
total scores were associated with lower sensory sensitivity among
bipolar individuals as well.
Conclusions SPD expressed in either hypo-/hypersensitivity may
be used to clinically characterize subjects with major affective and
anxiety disorders.
Disclosure of interest The authors have not supplied their decla-
ration of competing interest.