This is a habilitation thesis submitted to and accepted by the council of the faculty of life sciences at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany. The thesis is written in English, but some formal parts (e.g., on the title page) and acknowledgements are written in German language. / Die Research-Domain-Criteria-Initiative und andere haben vorgeschlagen, zur Konzeption psychischer Störungen dimensionale psychologische Konstrukte zu verwenden. Die vorliegende Arbeit beschreibt mehrere Experimente, in denen mit Augenbewegungsaufgaben das Konstrukt der kognitiven Kontrolle evaluiert wurde. Die Studien sollten klären, welche kognitiven und neuronalen Mechanismen zu den bei Menschen mit Schizophrenie oder Zwangsstörung erhöhten Latenzen volitionaler Sakkaden beitragen. In drei Studien wurden Anforderungen der Antisakkadenaufgabe isoliert und funktionelle Magnetresonanztomographie angewendet. Die Ergebnisse legen nahe, dass die verlangsamte volitionale Sakkadengenerierung bei Schizophrenie durch eine dysfunktionale Aktivierung des lateralen präfrontalen Cortex und der supplementären Augenfelder vermittelt wird, was mit Defiziten in der proaktiven Handlungskontrolle verbunden sein könnte. Fünf weitere Experimente sollten Teilprozesse aufklären und haben gezeigt, dass die Defizite möglicherweise aus einer Beeinträchtigung der volitionalen Loslösung der Fixation und der motorischen Vorbereitung resultieren. Zwei weitere Studien legen nahe, dass auch die Zwangsstörung mit erhöhten Latenzen volitionaler Sakkaden assoziiert ist. Effekte experimenteller Variation haben jedoch gezeigt, dass diesen Defiziten wahrscheinlich eine Verlangsamung der Reaktionsauswahl zugrundeliegt. Die bei beiden Patientengruppen vermutlich betroffenen Mechanismen dienen zielgerichteten Verhaltensweisen. Man kann vermuten, dass die Defizite eine Störung auf der Ebene eines allgemeinen Faktors exekutiver Funktionen widerspiegeln. Die experimentellen Ergebnisse weisen jedoch auch auf störungsspezifische Funktionsbeeinträchtigungen hin. Zukünftige Forschung muss den Zusammenhang zwischen diesen Beeinträchtigungen und Symptomen besser aufzuklären, wenn Konzepte psychischer Störungen, die auf experimentell definierten psychologischen Konstrukten basieren, am Ende erfolgreich sein sollen. / The research domain criteria initiative and others have suggested to conzeptualize mental disorders on the basis of dimensional psychological constructs. The present work describes several experiments using eye movement tasks to evaluate the construct of cognitive control. The studies aimed at uncovering cognitive and neural mechanisms involved in increased latencies of volitional saccades as found in individuals with schizophrenia or obsessive-compulsive disorder. Three studies used functional magnetic resonance imaging and isolated different demands of the antisaccade task. The results suggest that slowed volitional saccade generation in schizophrenia is mediated by dysfunctional activation of the lateral prefrontal cortex and the supplementary eye fields, which may relate to deficits in proactive control of action. Five additional behavioral experiments aimed at specifying sub-processes and showed that the deficits might result from impairments in volitional fixation disengagement and motor preparation. Two studies in individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder suggest that this disorder is also associated with increased latencies of volitional saccades. However, experimental variation revealed that these deficits may reflect a slowing in response selection. The mechanisms affected in both groups are serving goal-directed behaviors and may reflect a disturbance on the level of a common executive functions factor. However, the experimental results also suggest disorder specific functional impairment. Future research will have to improve our understanding of the relationship between these impairments and symptoms if concepts based on experimentally defined psychological constructs shall be successful in the end.

These British Association for Psychopharmacology guidelines cover the range and aims of treatment for anxiety disorders. They are based explicitly on the available evidence and are presented as recommendations to aid clinical decision making in primary and secondary medical care. They may also serve as a source of information for patients and their carers. The recommendations are presented together with a more detailed review of the available evidence. A consensus meeting involving experts in anxiety disorders reviewed the main subject areas and considered the strength of evidence and its clinical implications. The guidelines were constructed after extensive feedback from participants and interested parties. The strength of supporting evidence for recommendations was rated. The guidelines cover the diagnosis of anxiety disorders and key steps in clinical management, including acute treatment, relapse prevention and approaches for patients who do not respond to first-line treatments.

These British Association for Psychopharmacology guidelines cover the range and aims of treatment for anxiety disorders. They are based explicitly on the available evidence and are presented as recommendations to aid clinical decision making in primary and secondary medical care. They may also serve as a source of information for patients and their carers. The recommendations are presented together with a more detailed review of the available evidence. A consensus meeting involving experts in anxiety disorders reviewed the main subject areas and considered the strength of evidence and its clinical implications. The guidelines were constructed after extensive feedback from participants and interested parties. The strength of supporting evidence for recommendations was rated. The guidelines cover the diagnosis of anxiety disorders and key steps in clinical management, including acute treatment, relapse prevention and approaches for patients who do not respond to first-line treatments.

This revision of the 2005 British Association for Psychopharmacology guidelines for the evidence-based pharmacological treatment of anxiety disorders provides an update on key steps in diagnosis and clinical management, including recognition, acute treatment, longer-term treatment, combination treatment, and further approaches for patients who have not responded to first-line interventions. A consensus meeting involving international experts in anxiety disorders reviewed the main subject areas and considered the strength of supporting evidence and its clinical implications. The guidelines are based on available evidence, were constructed after extensive feedback from participants, and are presented as recommendations to aid clinical decision-making in primary, secondary and tertiary medical care. They may also serve as a source of information for patients, their carers, and medicines management and formulary committees.