Student mental health was a public health problem long before the pandemic. However, first one needs to define what mental health means. Fried (2017) showed that there was a great heterogeneity in the symptoms assessed by the depression scales. Similarly, other factors (study design, assessment period, chosen scale and chosen cut-off or threshold, response rate, data management, etc.) can have an impact on the prevalence found. In addition, theoretical and modelling considerations on mental health need to be answered.

The french Observatoire de la Vie Etudiante measured an increase in student psychological distress since 2016, particularly between 2020 and 2021. Data from three surveys conducted in 2016 (n=18,875), 2020 (n=60,014), and 2021 (n=4,901, longitudinal follow-up from 2020) were used to model psychological distress as a latent common cause or a network with emergent properties.

Preliminary results show that from a latent perspective, measurement invariance does not hold. From a network perspective, the modelled systems showed differences in three aspects (van Borkulo et al., 2022). For participants in the 2020 and 2021 surveys, an increased vulnerability of the modelled system was observed. Prevention and intervention targets in the system were tested with simulation techniques (Lunansky et al., 2022).

Caution is advised for prevalence comparisons when measurement invariance does not hold. The network approach offers an alternative to studying psychological distress as an emergent property of a complex system. However, regardless of the statistical approach, with subjective measures and without measurement error control and qualitative data or cognitive interviews: it is difficult to partition between a change or increase in the phenomenon we wish to measure and a change in the way people tend to respond to a questionnaire, since the representation they have of the specific questions designed to describe this phenomenon might also have changed.

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There is a high prevalence of stress, anxiety, depression, and substance use disorders in college students globally. Financial stressors, course workload, peer pressure and other personal, family, and societal stressors contribute to the high incidence of mental disorders among college students. Despite the high prevalence of mental disorders in college students, barriers such as lack of mental health literacy, stigma of mental health, inadequate numbers of mental health counsellors and clinical psychologists supporting students in colleges in both low- and high-income countries, financial and geographical barriers often hinder college students from accessing the needed mental supports.

In this article, we provide a perspective on the ResilienceNHope program, an evidence-based text and email messaging innovation to close the psychological treatment gap and improve the mental health literacy of university and college students.

Review of literature. There is increasing evidence on the effectiveness and feasibility of mobile technology in health promotion and closing psychological treatment gaps. College students are well adapted to the use of mobile technology, particularly text and email messaging daily, which presents a unique opportunity for an innovative way to offer support for their mental health.

There’s evidence to support the findings that ResilienceNHope program, which involves the use of text and email messaging is an innovative tool which can be adopted to close the psychological treatment gap and improve the mental health literacy of university and college students

Supportive text messaging can be adopted to help support and improve the mental health of university and college students.

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Numerous preclinical and clinical studies established the contribution of childhood adversity to acute stress vulnerability at adulthood. Several different physiological, psychological and behavioral factors have been suggested as putative mediators of this association. Sleep, and more specifically sleep disruption, has emerged as one such promising candidate. First, adverse childhood experiences have been repeatedly associated with adult sleep disorders. Second, individuals that suffer from stress-related psychopathology at adulthood often exhibit sleep disturbances, to the extent that sleep difficulties are diagnostic criteria for many of these disorders. Third, inefficient sleep pre and post exposure to acute stress was shown to increase the likelihood for maladaptive outcome, potently by impairing critical processes that occur during sleep as arousal regulation and memory consolidation.

To date, very few studies integrated these independent lines of research. Also, previous studies mostly assessed sleep via self-reported diary or a single night measurement at laboratory settings. The current study aimed to provide a more ecological and continuous account for sleep patterns, and their putative associations with childhood adversity on the one hand and vulnerability to acute stress at adulthood on the other hand.

Ninety-six healthy adult female participants completed the well-established childhood trauma questionnaire (CTQ) before wearing a wearable sensor for seven consecutive days and nights while maintaining their regular life routine. Following that, participants all underwent an acute laboratory stress induction procedure while their psychological and endocrine responses were recorded at multiple time points throughout.

Sleep patterns fully mediated the association between childhood adversity and psychological response to acute stress at adulthood (Figure 1). Specifically, elevated levels of childhood trauma were associated with more variation in sleep duration across the recording period, which in turn was associated with higher stress-induced negative affect. Interestingly, this association did not emerge with respect to mean sleep time nor with stress-induced cortisol release.

Results imply that childhood trauma may lead to irregular sleep patterns which in turn contribute to exaggerated emotional response to acute stress at adulthood. These findings support the mediating role of sleep in the link between childhood adversity and acute stress vulnerability at adulthood, and highlight sleep as a viable target for early or even preventive intervention.

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As one of the most basic social institutions, the family plays an important role in different periods of people’s lives. One of these periods, which are usually associated with a crisis and change in the physical and mental conditions of women, is menopause, which requires the provision of suitable conditions for transition, especially in the family.

the purpose of this research is to study the role of interactions within the family in the psychological well-being of postmenopausal women.

To achieve this goal, qualitative content analysis method has been used. The main question of this research is how do family interactions play a role in the life of postmenopausal women? The participants of this research were 15 menopausal women aged 45 to 60 years old in Shiraz (Iran) who were selected using the purposeful sampling method. Data were collected, coded and analyzed using in-depth and semi-structured interviews. In order to achieve the accuracy and reliability of the data, Guba and Lincoln reliability criteria have been used.

The analysis of the interviews of the participants in this research led to the extraction of 6 subcategories included, “mental rumination in sexual relations”, “changes in marital intimacy”, “insufficient interactions in the family”, “resistant normative femininity and motherhood”, “fear of aging”, “female shame and taboo”, and the two main categories included “lack of awareness as a relationship parasite” and “destructive resistance”.

The findings of the research indicate that the family members’ lack of knowledge about this period and the prevailing culture of female shame and the taboo of women’s bodies make the family unable to provide the necessary support to menopausal women. On the other hand, keeping menopause a secret and emphasizing on maintaining pre-menopausal conditions by women is a destructive resistance that ultimately leads to psychological damage to them. Therefore, it is suggested that in addition to holding training programs for women in order to enter and face this period properly, trainings should also be considered for other family members and especially husbands (men). It seems that family members can play an effective role in various stages of menopause, including preparation and psychological adaptation of women by receiving correct training.

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The use of alcohol, in particular its harmful use and alcohol dependence, represent a public health problem of interest to all age groups. Indeed, alcohol is responsible for a heavy burden of disease and a considerable socio-economic burden.

To determine the prevalence of alcohol use and the main factors associated with it in a sample of Tunisian students.

This is an analytical cross-sectional study carried out during the 2020/2021 academic year with a sample of Tunisian students. We used an anonymous self-administered questionnaire distributed online via social networks. Our questionnaire included a section focusing on socio-demographic characteristics and the AUDIT test (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test) to detect alcohol addiction.

Our study enrolled 772 students .The average age of the study population was 23.29 ±3.25.Two hundred ninety-nine students (38.7%) consumed alcohol. The mean age at first use was 18.44 (3.09). Fifty-two alcohol users (17.4%) presented a risk of alcohol dependence. The first consumption contexts were mostly “between friends” (57.4%) and “party time “(23.5%).The main effects sought were the effect of disinhibition (64.5%) and social integration (41.1%) were predominant responses. The determining factors of alcohol consumption were age (p<10-3), male gender (p<10-3), and the presence of grade repetition (p<10-3), wealthy socioeconomic level (p<10-3), and participation in community life (p<10-3).

Alcohol use and especially alcohol dependence may have harmful effects on student’s life. It is relevant to screen this addiction to better its prevention.

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Organizing pneumonia (OP) is a clinical, radiological and histological entity that is classified as an Interstitial Lung Disease. It can be either cryptogenic (of unknown cause) or secondary to a lung injury such as infection, drug toxicity, inhalation of a pathogen or toxic gas, gastroesophageal reflux, collagenosis, organ transplant, or radiotherapy (B.J. Roberton, D.M. Hansell. Organizing pneumonia: a kaleidoscope of concepts and morphologies. Eur Radiol, 21 (2011), pp. 2244-2254). We were called for a psychiatric consultation for a 50 years old male patient who presented to Emergency service of our hospital with symptoms of acute respiratory failure and bilateral pneumonia. This was his fourth hospital admission within two months with the same symptoms. In previous stays, he was given four different antiobiotics.

The objective of our psychiatric consult was to determine whether the clinical presentation of bilateral pneumonia could in fact be a side effect of one of the psychiatric drugs he was taking.

We reviewed the patients prescribed medication and their side-effect profile. Additionally, the patient underwent a series of diagnostic tests, with the most important one being histology analysis of the biopsy samples.

Upon reviewing the available medical sources, we were able to find a few articles that link organizing pneumonia and use of Na-valproate (Nanau RM, Neuman MG. Adverse drug reactions induced by valproic acid. Clin Biochem. 2013;46:1323–1338). The said medication was discontinued and the patient started receiving corticostroids. After only a few days, his condition improved drastically and was discharged to home care.

The mutual cooperation between internal medicine specialists and liaison psychiatrists is vital in cases like this when there is a psychiatric patient presenting with unspecific somatic symptoms or is responding poorly to standard treatment. We must sensitize the staff to the specifics of care for a psychiatric patient and at the same time provide him with adequate medical assistance.

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Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is an inflammatory rheumatic disease characterized by spinal and/or peripheral involvement, enthesitis, dactylitis, and several extra-articular manifestations. Chronic inflammation often leads to reduced spinal mobility and functional disability. The frequency of psychological problems has increased in AS patients.

The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of symptoms of anxiety and depression among AS patients and explore the underlying associated factors.

The Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Functional Index (BASFI), the Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI), and other clinical measures were collected during the clinical trial. We evaluated also the hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADs). P values < 0.05 were considered statistically significant.

Sixty-two patients with AS were included in the study. The average age was 41 years [18-65]. The diagnostic delay varied from one year to 26 years with an average of 4 years. Twenty-nine years is the average age of onset of symptoms with a standard deviation of 10 years. The mean duration of the disease was 10 ± 8 years. At baseline, the mean BASFI score was 53.9 ± 2 and BASDAI was 4.5± 2.

Clinically significant symptoms of anxiety and depression were present in 48.4% and 54.8% of patients, respectively. Depression was noted with a mean HADS depression of 10,5 ± 5,2. Anxiety was noted with a mean HADS anxiety of 11,3 ± 4,6.

In univariate analysis, anxiety was associated with the low educational level of patients (p = 0.038) and with CRP level (p= 0.041). There was a significant association between depression and anxiety (p=0.000). There was no relationship between these psychiatric disorders and disease activity, treatment modalities or functional status (p>0.05)

In patients with Ankylosing spondylitis, the prevalence of risk of mental disorders is high.

Anxiety and depression are common in AS and even alter the quality of life.

Patients should be regularly screened for these disorders.

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The field of treatment and understanding in psychosis is evolving at an unprecedented pace with advances in neuroscience. It takes time before research findings are translated to clinical practice. Daunting as it is, clinicians need to keep up with findings which change our practice straightaway (new medication), findings which suggest that changes are expected in future (new theories about how illness develops and can be predicted) and findings which remind us of continuing practice and the evidence behind them (long term follow-up studies which give no big surprises but consolidate existing knowledge).

In a snap shot, I bring to you a range of five papers published in 2022 which enrich our understanding of psychosis, its development and treatment.

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Psychiatry has been diagnosing its pathologies through the evaluation of the symptoms reported by patients, relying on a few complementary exams to exclude organic causes. Studies about transcranial magnetic stimulation and electroencephalography (TMS-EEG) are bringing, from a clinical point of view, crucial information to characterize the different pathophysiological biomarkers of the psychiatric diseases, leading not only to the evolution of diagnosis, but also to an improved, more individualized treatment.

Characterizing the state of the art of TMS-EEG and its use in psychiatric diagnosis and treatments of different diseases.

We undertook a narrative literature review by performing a search on PubMed for English-written articles from the last 10 years. The query used was “TMS-EEG”; “TMS-EEG” AND “Schizophrenia” OR “Major Depressive Disorder” OR “Bipolar Disorder”.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a safe and reliable method of non-invasive brain stimulation that allows for the local activation of cortical areas through electromagnetic induction. When combining this method with electroencephalography (EEG), it enables the underlying mechanisms of brain diseases.

TMS is a powerful therapeutic technic in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). The literature refers to an enhanced N45 and N100 amplitude, which indicates a baseline cortical inhibition that can indicate a depressed state, which can be used as a clinical biomarker to evaluate TMS treatments.

In Schizophrenia (SCZ), TMS-EEG reveals a decreased cortical inhibition and excitation. Indices of inhibition and excitation reductions were also related to cognitive deficits.

The current studies regarding Bipolar Disorder (BD) are not so consistent, revealing that there are shared neural pathways with MDD and SCZ. This is a pathology often misdiagnosed with MDD, so biomarkers would help to diagnose BD earlier and improve its prognostic.

TMS-EEG can be used to provide more accurate neural targets, leading to more powerful and personalized interventions in psychiatric disorders, as well as more accurate diagnoses.

As for future studies, it would be relevant to assess not only TMS treatment effects, but also pharmacological results in these different pathologies.

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Despite the fact that, age is a strongest know risk factor for onset of dementia, and developing countries are projected to have highest number of ageing population, few national dementia strategies have been put in place to address this impending scourge. In 2017, World Health Organization(WHO) released and called for countries to adapt and contextualize the Global Action Plan on the Public health response to dementia, few Sub-Saharan countries have slowly adopted plan. The outcome of the unprecedented increase populations with dementia will be immense. The substantial increase in morbidity and mortality pose a threat to the over stretched health care system and undermine the potential to achieve sustainable development goal (SDGs).

Understading the implementation of Global Action Plan on the Public health response to dementia in the developing countries

This paper is a view of published and grey literature relevant to Global Action Plan On the Public Health Response to Dementia (GAPD) in sub-Saharan Africa. The overall approach to the review had an exploratory and inductive focus. Articles were categorized around a guiding conceptual framework. Like; A description of structural arrangements and content of national dementia strategy development and normative underpinnings within policy frameworks

Nearly all countries within the SSA hadn’t developed the national dementia strategy plans. Countries like South African, Ghana, Kenya and Ethiopia had drafts of national dementia strategy, though not yet operationalized. Few countries highlighted some of the parallel targets of GAPD within their national mental health policy and strategy, but it was not comprehensive. Countries where Civil societies that advocate/champion dementia activities were strongly presently were more likely to possess a draft of GAPD.

Although there some initiatives for different countries to develop national strategy for dementia plans, there are gaps in the extent of engagement of different stakeholders and how these strategies will be operationalized may limit the impact on addressing the escalating burden of dementia in Sub-Saharan Africa.

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Mental Illness Stigma is a barrier in access to healthcare. Stigma also influences population health outcomes by worsening, undermining adequate processes. The healthcare professionals show several stigmatising behavirous and cognitions, which may impair the adequate provision of care of this population with mental illness.

We aimed to measure mental health stigma in healthcare professionals at a portuguese hospital center.

A cross-sectional study of health profissionals was performed using a survey that included socio-economic and job related questions, personal and familiar questions regarding mental health, and Attribution Questionnaire 27 (AQ-27), a translated and validated stigma questionnaire with nine stigma sub-scales (Responsability, Pity, Anger, Dangerousness, Fear, Help, Coercion, Segregation and Avoidance).

The sample included a total of 388 participants. The majority of the respondants were female (82,5%). The age ranged from 22 to 69 (mean = 40,05). According to the job place distribution, we found statistically significant differences in various stigma subscales among several healthcare settings within our center. The inpatient unit professionals showed lesser stigmatising attitudes in anger, coercion, segregation and avoidance domains; and higher stigmatising attitudes in pity and help domains. However, professionals who work at surgery room showed higher stigmatising attitudes in danger and fear, but lesser levels of help domains. We also found differences in five stigma subscales among various health professions. The study didn’t show differences in stigma domains regarding personal or professional contact with mental illness, neither academic studies in mental health.

Our findings suggest that workplace environment and profession may impact mental ilness stigma levels in healthcare professionals. We propose that future studies could be done to investigate methods to mitigate mental illness stigma, tailored to address different stigma domains in different workplace settings.

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People with mental illness are overrepresented throughout the criminal justice system. In Italy, an ongoing process of deinstitutionalization has been enacted: the Judicial Psychiatric Hospitals are now on the edge of their closure in favor of small-scale therapeutic facilities (Residenze per l’Esecuzione delle Misure di Sicurezza - REMS). Law 81/2014 prescribes that a patient cannot stay in a REMS for a period longer than a prison sentence for the same index offense. Therefore, when patients end their duty for criminal behaviors, their clinical management moves back to outpatient psychiatric centers. Elevated risks of violent behavior are not equally shared across the spectrum of psychiatric disorders. In the past several years, multiple studies in the field of forensic psychiatry confirmed a close relationship between violent offenders and comorbid substance abuse.

In order to broaden the research in this area, we analyzed sociodemographic, clinical and forensic variables of a group of psychiatric patients with a history of criminal behaviors, attending an outpatient psychiatric service in Milan, with a focus on substance abuse.

This is a cross-sectional single center study, conducted in 2020. Seventy-six subjects with a history of criminal behaviors aged 18 years or more and attending an outpatient psychiatric service were included. Demographic and clinical variables collected during clinical interviews with patients were retrospectively retrieved from patients’ medical records. Appropriate statistical analyses for categorical and continuous variables were conducted.

Data were available for 76 patients, 51,3% of them had lifetime substance abuse. Lifetime substance abuse was significantly more common in patients with long-acting injectable antipsychotics therapy, >3 psychiatric hospitalizations, history of previous crimes and economic crime (Table 1). Additionally, this last potential correlation was confirmed by logistic regression.Table 1.

Data emerging from this survey provide new information about offenders in an Italian mental health service with a focus on lifetime substance abuse in these patients. Our preliminary results should be confirmed in larger sample sizes.

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Worldwide epidemiological studies estimate that around 1% of the world population suffers from schizophrenia and 2 to 3% from compulsive-obsessive disorder (OCD). Moreover, a significant percentage of schizophrenia patients present an OCD comorbidity.

These statistics testify to a close relationship between the two pathologies, which sometimes causes difficulties in differentiating between the two diagnoses, complicated by the fact that many schizophrenia patients can suffer from obsessive and/or compulsive symptomatology similar to OCD.

This literature review aims to explore the frequency of association between schizophrenia and OCD and the administrated treatment through articles exploration.

We conducted a literature review about the association frequency between schizophrenia and OCD and the administrated treatment, which implies scientific literature exploration and selecting several articles treating this topic.

For our review, keywords used to search in Scopus and PubMed were: “schizophrenia and OCD” and “schizophrenia and OCD treatment” found more than 1500 results between 1988 and 2022. With the application of exclusion criteria, we included approximately 40 recent articles treating the frequency of association between schizophrenia and OCD and administrated treatment.

We organized These articles by counties, association frequency, and the administrated treatment.

Our review of these articles and studies finds mostly a percentage between 10% to 30 % worldwide (countries from Asia, America, Africa, and Europe) of schizophrenia patients suffering also from OCD. The difficulty of diagnosis between schizophrenia and OCD, and the frequency of existence of obsessive and/or compulsive symptoms in schizophrenia remains one of the most relevant challenges for diagnosis and treatment in these countries.

We also found that administrated treatment was commonly pharmacological with psychotherapy association sometimes.

Our review explored the frequency of schizophrenia and OCD association and the administrated treatment. We found significant comorbidity between the two pathologies. With these findings, we may suggest systematic research for OCD with adapted scales in every schizophrenia case.

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In Morocco, the only legal setting for sexuality is marriage, which presumes automatic consent between the couple, as much so that Islam has authorized any sexual practice between spouses except for anal sex .

In our socio-cultural context, it is difficult to determine the extent of the phenomenon, the subject being taboo with a jurisprudence that refuses to recognize the reality of rape between spouses.

The objective of this work is to emphasize this phenomenon of marital rape, its psychological repercussions, its legal and religious framework in order to debanalize this phenomenon and act in favor of women’s mental health.

Our study is conducted on 3 patients seen in liaison psychiatry admitted to the surgical departments for organic complications of medium to severe severity, secondary to rape in the marital context where our expertise was requested in front of the great psychic distress of the latter.

We collected information by taking notes after our psychiatric examination.

Our three patients were victims of rape and violence by their husbands on several occasions, prior to this hospitalization but never reported such an incident. Our patients presented a wide spectrum of psychiatric pathologies: post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, generalized anxiety, suicidal ideas. One of them has acted out on the latter . In addition to these psychological repercussions, two patients had presented complications of a gyneco-obstetrical nature (a miscarriage and a premature delivery). It should be mentioned that these acts of rape in our three patients were always accompanied by physical violence.

In our Moroccan context, rape within a married couple is not yet recognized by our society, which admits that a woman does not have the right to refuse sexual relations to her husband.

Much remains to be done to familiarize and sensitize society to the reality of marital rape and to ensure that women victims obtain adequate support and care.

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Haloperidol is one of the first-generation antipsychotics which is used widely around the world and still has its place in psychotic disorders along with his documented antimanic properties.

It acts by blocking essentially dopaminergic receptors but also serotonergic and alpha-adrenergic receptors.

Haloperidol has many side effects, especially extrapyramidal symptoms. Oedema associated with haloperidol is a rare side effect.

The aim of this presentation is to describe the case of a young female who developed a rare side effect of haloperidol.

we conducted a review of literature on different data base about this side effect in order to discuss its potential underlying mechanisms.

Here we report a case of a 24-year-old female with the history of bipolar disorder type 1, and an allergy to chlorpromazine. She was admitted to our psychiatric department for a manic episode with psychotic features and was initially treated with 50 mg of Haloperidol in addition to 30 mg of valium per day. She developed pronounced oedema of the face and upper limbs after two weeks of treatment. All of the paraclinical examinations including blood cell count, liver function tests, renal function tests, serum electrolytes, ECG, urine test didn’t show any abnormalities. We solicited the opinion of both nephrology and pharmacovigilance and concluded to an allergic oedema.

The symptoms disappeared 10 days after the discontinuation of haloperidol which suggested a potential incrimination of this drug

As far as we know, there are very few reports of allergic oedema with haloperidol in the literature. Potential underlying mechanisms will be discussed.

Through this case study, we aimed to focus attention on this very rare but still possible side effect.

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Psychiatric diseases are often accompanied by medical comorbidities, and cardiovascular system disease is one of the most important causes of death in bipolar disorder (BD) and schizophrenia (SCH) [1]. The QRISK3 algorithm calculatesa person’s risk of developing cardiovascular disease over the next ten years and it has been used in psychiatric research in recent years [2].

In this study, we aimed to evaluate the relationship between cardiovascular risks (by using QRISK3 algorithm) and treatment options in patients of BD and SCH.

Thirty-six patients with bipolar disorder and thirty-two patients with schizophrenia recruited between the years 2016-2022. All of the patients were treated with long-acting injectable (LAI) antipsychotics. Sociodemographic information, clinical features and medical treatment agents of individuals were recorded. The risk of development of cardiac disease of the patients were evaluated by the QRISK3 algorithm. Descriptive and regression statistical analysis was performed with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).

More than half of the patients were male (n= 39, 57.4%) and single (n= 40, 58.8%). The mean duration of education was 9.2 ±3.5 years and the mean age was 39.7 ±11.9 years of the patients. Nearly half of the patients had a diagnosis of BD (n= 36, 52.9%) while others had SCH (n:32, 47.1%). Most of the patients were treated with LAI of aripiprazole (n= 36, 59.2%) and the rest of them were treated with LAI of paliperidone (n= 32, 40.8%). When demographic and clinical data of BD and SCH patients were compared, there was no significant difference in terms of age. However, SCH patients had a longer disease duration (t= 2.56, p= 0.013) and more hospitalization (t= 3.35, p= 0,002) than BD patients. Our findings showed positive correlations between age (r= 0.74, p<0.01), duration of disease (r= 0.57, p< 0.01), and duration of LAI use (r= 0.55, p< 0.01) with QRISK. A regression analysis to examine related factors associated with QRISK found that having a diagnosis of schizophrenia (β= 0.27, t= 2.58; p= 0.01) and a long disease duration (β= 0.67, t= 6.50, p< 0.01) were associated with the development of cardiovascular disease. However, there was no relationship between LAIs (paliperidone vs aripiprazole) used in the treatment and QRISK.

The significant correlation found between duration of disease and QRISK -that indicate the risk of development of cardiac disease- confirming the progressive nature of the BD and SCH. Moreover, the significant correlation between SCH and QRISK suggests that SCH is a chronic and severe disease that causes more cardiac dysfunction than BD. However, we could not find a significant difference between LAIs in terms of QRISK, these results can be changed by evaluating other variables such as comorbidities, other medical treatments and physical activities in future research.

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Like many under-resourced settings, there is a large gap between burden of mental illness and availability of services in South Africa. Because South Africa also bears a high burden of adverse childhood events (ACEs) and adult trauma, mental illness is often preceded in individuals by either or both. While studies within South Africa have examined the association between ACEs and distress in adulthood and adult trauma and adult mental distress, there is less knowledge of how these preceding factors interact to affect mental distress together, particularly in clinical populations.

Using path analysis, this study seeks to ascertain the impact that ACEs and adult trauma have on mental illness in urban South Africa. Understanding the perceptions and experiences of people living with mental illness is key not only to expanding biomedical services and ensuring appropriate and effective mental health treatment, but can also help identify ways to prevent mental illness in the future.

This study uses data collected from 309 psychiatric out-patients at two public psychiatric hospitals in Johannesburg. Ethics approval was received and data were collected in-person between January and June of 2022. Patients 18 years and above, of African descent, and willing to provide informed consent were invited to participate. The survey included questions about demographics COVID-19, adverse childhood events, adult traumatic events, depression, anxiety, and stress. Participants were also invited to take part in a brief, semi-structured interview. Data were analyzed via path analysis, using the lavaan package in R, version 4.1.1.

Incidences of both ACEs and adult trauma were significantly associated with three mental illness outcomes – depression, anxiety, and stress. An aggregated adult trauma score was found to partially mediate the association between total ACEs and depression, anxiety, and stress. When analyzed separately, total adult trauma partially mediated the association between ACEs including childhood verbal abuse, sexual abuse, emotional neglect, and mental illness in the household and depression, anxiety, and stress. Total adult trauma also partially mediated the association between childhood physical abuse and depression and anxiety, but not stress.

This study highlights the importance of dis-aggregating adverse childhood events when exploring their effects, while also reinforcing previous findings that ACEs increase the likelihood of experiencing adult trauma and mental illness. Future studies should attempt to pinpoint which ACEs are most impactful, and target those in particular for prevention in childhood and intervention in adulthood, to mitigate their deleterious impacts.

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The last decade has seen an enormous expansion on our knowledge of the human gut microbiome and its importance for human physiology. The gastrointestinal inhabitants have taken centre stage as regulators of the bidirectional gut to brain communication. The gut microbiota is not only critical for metabolism, glucose homeostasis and body composition, but increasing evidence is demonstrating the significant effects of the gut microbiota on mood and mental wellbeing and its role in the development of affective disorders, such as anxiety and depression, and other neuropsychiatric conditions. Studies in the field of nutritional neuroscience and nutritional psychiatry are now increasingly including the gut microbiota as a key factor mediating the impact of diet on central nervous system function. Accumulating evidence from cell-based in vitro studies, animal models and preclinical intervention studies are linking the gut microbiota to the effects of diet on brain function, but the precise mechanism are still not fully understood and studies have had limited translation to human intervention studies. Overall, the increase in our understanding of interconnectedness of the gastrointestinal microbiota of human health and disease, has led to a strong focus on the development of microbiota-targeted strategies to influence all host physiological responses, including those that can modulate central nervous system function. In this talk, I will provide an overview of the most recent advances in the nutritional psychiatry–microbiome field, highlighting significant opportunities for future research.

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Schizophrenia is a chronic disease that deteriorates the functionality of patients, especially when raising a family and caring for children. We are interested in analyzing the characteristics of mothers and fathers diagnosed with schizophrenia and their degree of global activity when switching from oral treatments to injectable treatments.

1 To evaluate the quality of life and functional level of mothers with schizophrenia treated with quarterly paliperidone palmitate. 2. To compare the quality of life and functional level when switching from oral treatment to long-acting injectables.

Participants were 3 mothers and 3 fathers, 33-40 years old, with a diagnosis of schizophrenia in monotherapy who changed treatment with monthly paliperidone palmitate to quarterly paliperidone palmitate LD IM (525 mg/every 12 weeks). Retrospective data collection. QLS quality of life scale.

Six patients were included, caregivers of 1 child (80%), 2 children (20%) who met the inclusion criteria and completed the questionnaires. After its application and correction by means of non-parametric tests (N<30). During oral treatment, scores are observed in the QLS questionnaire of: intrapsychic functions mean 34.2, interpersonal relationships mean 19, instrumental role mean 8, daily activities mean 8. After 12 months of treatment with intramuscular paliperidone palmitate (injectable every 12 weeks ) scores were obtained: intrapsychic functions mean 36, interpersonal relationships mean 23, instrumental role mean 15, daily activities mean 11. A better functioning of the patients was observed in the instrumental categories and daily activities. As well as the patients referred better adherence to treatment.

In our experience, injectable long-acting Paliperidone Palmitate every 12 weeks is associated with the perception of a better quality of life in parents with schizophrenia and increases administration facilities as well as planning in their daily lives.

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S100B is a calcium-binding astrocyte-specific cytokine, that is considered a biomarker of neurodegeneration; which may be involved in the imbalance of the inflammatory response observed in several brain disorders, including major depression and schizophrenia. Two meta-analyses have reported higher serum levels of S100B in patients with schizophrenia respect to healthy controls.

Different studies have described circadian and seasonal variations of biological variables, such as melatonin or cortisol. It has been reported that there is not circadian rhythm of S100B blood levels in healthy subjects. However, it is not known whether there are circadian oscillations in S100B blood concentrations in patients with schizophrenia.

The aim of this study is to describe S100B serum levels in patients with schizophrenia and to analyse whether they follow a circadian rhythm.

Our sample consists in 47 patients in acute phase and stabilized status. Blood samples were collected at 12:00 and 00:00 hours by venipuncture. Serum levels of Protein S100B were measured three times: at admission, discharge and three months after discharge. Protein S100B was measured by means of ELISA (Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) techniques.

There is a significance difference between 12:00 and 24:00 at admission for the Protein S100B.However, these difference did not occur at discharge and at three months after discharge.It can be interpreted as there is a circadian rhythm of Protein S100B when the patient has got a psychotic outbreak and disappears at discharge and when is psychopathologically stable.

With respect to our results we can hypothesize that schizophrenic patients in acute relapse present circadian S100B rhythm that is not present when the patients are clinically stable.Furthermore, the decrease of serum protein S100B levels at discharge is indicative of a reduction of the cerebral inflammation, thus it can be a biomarker of cerebral inflammation and this reduction can be the effect of the treatment. Finally, its circadianity could be a guide of this process and clinical improvement.

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