To study “Quality of Life” (QOL) features in MVP patients suffering anxiety disorders.

We examined 290 MVP patients and 73 healthy subjects.

30 patients received medication with alprazolam within 10 weeks.

18 patients attended courses about rational-emotive therapy (16 sessions, individual assessments).

Psychological and clinical examinations of the patients were made before and after psychotherapy courses and medication. Psychological testing embraced the assessment of anxiety indicators (Spilberger Scale); and QOL indicators were assessed through the Ryff Scales of Psychological Well-Being, the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) - the “health” dimension, and the Disability Scale (DISS) - the dimensions of “work,” “social life,” and “personal life.”

MVP patients are distinguished from healthy subjects by lower rates of QOL indicators, and increased anxiety.

A significant reduction in anxiety were found, as well as increase in QOL indicators after medication, and after psychotherapy. However improvement of QOL indicators was more expressed after psychotherapy.

Physical examination of the patients revealed a significant reduction in the frequency and intensity of panic attacks, chest pain, and thermoregulation disorders in both groups of patients, as well as the decrease of prolapse depth in all the patients after psychotherapy.

The research showed a significant improvement in QOL indicators, and also in a number of clinical symptoms in MVP patients suffering anxiety disorders after psychotherapy.

These results are important for the therapy and psychological assistance to MVP patients.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether deficits of behavioral or/and N400 semantic priming (SP) effect observed in patients with schizophrenia is a stable cognitive feature of the disorder or whether it may be influenced by the severity of the actual symptomatology that may fluctuate over time.

A Test-Retest one year study was conducted on fifteen patients with schizophrenia and 10 healthy participants who performed a SP task. Both behavioral measures and Event-related potentials (ERPs) of SP were recorded twice (Test and Retest sessions).

At Test, patients exhibited a deficit of SP as revealed by both the behavioral and the ERP measures (the amplitude of the N400 component). At Retest, behavioral SP remained impaired in contrast to the N400 SP which was significantly improved in relation probably to the patients' clinical improvement.

The results conveyed evidence that the N400 SP impairments in schizophrenia may not be considered as stable cognitive markers of the disorders. Significance: The behavioral and the N400 measures of SP had different level of sensitivity to subtle cognitive and brain processes which were subjected to change over the clinical course of schizophrenic disorder.

With aging, the risk of many diseases increases. The prevalence of somatic diseases in psychiatric patients is high. This comorbidity is more common that the subject is old.

The aim of our study was to determine the different somatic pathologies associated with various psychiatric disorders in the elderly.

This is a retrospective study conducted in the outpatient hospital razi, involving 90 patients aged consultant during 2011. The data were collected from patient records.

Ninety patients were found during the study period. The average age of patients was 77.5 years. The sex ratio (M / F) was 1.04. The majority of consultants had an iron status of married (51.1%) and widowed (41.1%). 63% of patients were retired and 49% of cases were low socioeconomic level. Personal psychiatric histories were found in 12% of patients consultants. 51 patients (56.6%) had somatic pathology associated with psychiatric disorders.

Elderly patients' organic disease is unknown in most cases and is a causal or aggravating the mental disorder.

Type II diabetes is more common in patients with schizophrenia than in the general population. Although disorders of glucose metabolism have been described in patients with schizophrenia before the introduction of atypical antipsychotics, a diabetogenic effect of these has been implicated.

The aims of our study were to:

1. - assess the prevalence of diabetes in a population of patients with schizophrenia.

2. - determine the relationship between diabetes, atypical antipsychotics and schizophrenia.

This is a retrospective study of 60 patients with schizophrenia. Data collection was done based on patient records.

The majority of patients were male with a sex ratio of 2. The average age of our patients was 38 years. 40% of patients (25) had diabetes. 33% of patients were put under an atypical anti psychotic. The diagnosis of diabetes succeeded that of schizophrenia in 40% of cases.

Our results indicate that patients with schizophrenia are more likely to develop type II diabetes. We caution clinicians to consider the risk and be vigilant about this development.

To show the course of the disease and the clinical manifestation in schizophrenic patient, who during several annual treatment developed symptoms of Capgras syndrome and Mignon delusion.

72 year old female patient was admitted to the hospital due to deterioration of mental state.On admission in mental status dominated: accelerated opinion in form and in content with plenty paranoid ideas she also said: This is not my husband. Sometimes I know that this man wears a mask, so he looks like him, but my husband is not here he is in the U.S. Insight into previous medical records,showed that in the previous hospitalization she amounted symptoms of Mignon delusion and was saying that her parents were not hers and that she is a descendant of a noble family. It is Significant that those symptoms were followed after minor head injury.

Dynamics of changes in symptoms indicates the importance of further processing in order to determine whether these symptoms were result of underlying disease or may be caused by an organic lesion that is very often in the same substrate.

To study the features of interoception experience and pain perception in MVP patients.

The psychosemantic technique «Classification of sensations» was used. Testees had only 80 Russian words to describe their interoception experience and pain perception. They had to select words which can be used for the description of interoception experience; then it was necessary to choose consistently familiar sensations, the painful sensations, often felt sensations, and, at last, words which are suitable for the description «sensations in heart».

We examined 134 MVP patients and 73 healthy subjects.

MVP patients reliably distinguish (p< 0.05) from healthy individuals by fairly large amount of interoception vocabularies (see Table 1).

[Table 1.Interoception vocabularies (descriptors)]

Qualitative analysis of the results showed that the expansion of interoception vocabularies of MVP patients is due to inclusion of the words that describe the mental states and emotions.

Received results prove a role of psychological factors in an etiology of pain syndromes in MVP patients.

Suicide and self-injurious behaviour are one of the most common causes of consulting in the hospital emergency services. Most of the cases, are attempts made by intake of great quantities of drugs (drug overdosing).

Review of the drug overdosings attended in our Hospital emphasizing our interest in the presence of psychiatric history, characteristics of the attempt and case management.

Retrospective review of clinical histories of patients attended by the Emergency Service.

We identified 112 drug overdosings.

68'8% of the patients attended were women, being the most frequent age range from 31 to 40 years (33%).

80'4% of the patients collected had psychiatric history, being the most common diagnosis: Mood-Anxiety disorders 60'7%, Substance-Related Disorders 41'1%, Personality disorder 30'4% and Psychotic disorder 10'7.

Previous attempts were found in 43'8% of the patients.

The most common drug used were benzodiacepines (73% of the cases), followed by antypsichotics (17'9%). Up to 32'1% of the patients used non psychitrict drugs.

The most common diagnosis was suicide attempt (41'1%), followed by parasuicide attempt. 41'4% of the drug overdosings were not considered as self injurious behavior.

When we compared those diagnosed of personality disorder with the rest of the patients, we found that although they were more often diagnosed of parasuicide (50% Vs 32'1%), they needed more hospitalizations (41% Vs 21%)

Self-injurious behaviour are one of the most common causes of consulting in the hospital emergency services. Patients diagnosed of personality disorder are more commonly hospitalized after making a suicide attempt.

There is substantial evidence indicating that pharmacological treatments targeting glutamatergic transmission are of potential utility in the treatment of drug addiction. The aim of this study was to evaluate the long-term outcome of glutamatergic treatments in patients with pathological gambling.

Fifteen patients fulfilling criteria for pathological gambling and receiving drugs with effects on glutamatergic transmission (amantadine, N-acetylcysteine, gabapentin, pregabalin and topiramate) were enrolled. Gambling craving (Gambling Symptom Assessment Scale, G-SAS, and visual analogue scale, VAS) and relapse (Gambling Timeline Follow Back, G-TLFB) rating scales were administered before and after treatment (1, 3, 6 months follow-up).

Gambling craving and behavior were significantly reduced (p < 0.001) during the study period. Glutamatergic medications also yielded an improvement in treatment retention.

Our results are discussed in the context of the glutamatergic hypothesis of addiction. Our data seem to confirm the utility of targeting the glutamatergic system for the treatment of PG, in particular by acting on craving and increasing treatment retention. in particular, glutamatergic medications may offer some advantages in preventing relapse.

Aim of the study is to evaluate the oral-motor speech disorders in Alzheimer's disease as compared to the speech disorders occurring in the physiological process of aging.

We examined 22 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) at the age of 68 to 90 years. The control group (C) consisted of 22 people. The test has 5 parts: dialogic speech, descriptive speech, naming, repeating and speaking automated verbal sequences.

Statistically significant differences between AD and C groups in the number of correct and incorrect answers were found. The greatest difference was found between AD and C groups in the descriptive speech. During the repetition of monosyllabic and polysyllabic words in AD occurred significantly more often the articulation errors on repeated speech productions of the same utterance.

The results confirmed the presence of oral-motor speech disorders in Alzheimer's disease. It was stated articulation errors, periphrases and jams. These errors occur in the structure of lexical-semantic and phonological system of the language. No abnormalities were noted in the area of grammar.

Various psychomotor dysfunctions are observed in opioid addicts and HIV- and HIV+ persons. Finding markers and methods for accurately determining the psychomotor functioning has practical importance in the diagnosis, monitoring and modification of treatment.

The aim of the study is to evaluate the sensory-motor coordination, procedural memory and motor learning in HIV- and HIV+ opioid addicts during methadone maintenance treatment.

28 HIV- (19 men and 9 women) and 39 HIV+ (23 men and 16 women) addicts treated with opioid replacement therapy (ORT) were examined. The mean age of participants: 40.1 years HIV-, 38.4 years HIV+, the mean daily dose of methadone: 69.82 ml HIV-, 69.95 ml HIV+, the average duration of addiction: 23.2 years HIV -, 20.4 years HIV+. To evaluate the hand-eye coordination and motor learning Pursuit Rotor Task (PRT) was used.

It was found that HIV+ addicts are more than 25% lower psychomotor performance for hand-eye coordination as compared to HIV- addicts and 50% lower efficiency compared to healthy ones. in HIV+ addicts compared to the HIV- addicts and the healthy ones were more tremor with high amplitude and low frequency and less tremor with small amplitude and high frequency.

The HIV+ opioid addicts have worse motor coordination compared to HIV- addicts and healthy ones but no impairment of motor learning.

The role of social factors in suicidal behaviour is long established. There is growing evidence supporting the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide (ITS), as developed by Joiner et al., which postulates that two psychological dimensions linked to thwarted fundamental interpersonal needs, perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness are linked to the onset of suicidal desire. The Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire (INQ) has been designed to assess those dimensions for use in research on the aetiology of suicidal behaviour and as a component of risk assessment in clinical settings. There is currently no available French version.

Our objective was to provide a French adaptation of the INQ. We translated the INQ, and then examined the construct validity of INQ-F in a clinical setting.

The INQ was translated and administered to 50 patients admitted for suicide attempt or suicidal ideation. Scales with validated French versions were used to assess the following dimensions: suicide risk (Ducher Suicide Risk Assessment Scale (RSD), depression (BDI-SF and MADRS), hopelessness (Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS) and social vulnerability (EPICES).

INQ-F was significantly correlated with suicide risk (rho= .737, p < .001), depression, hopelessness and social isolation. Internal consistency was high (Cronbach's alpha = .9137).

Our results support the construct validity of the INQ-F, although complementary studies are needed to further establish it, as well as the relevance of the ITS for suicide risk assessment in clinical settings.

The aim of this study is to assess the relationship between the use of opioid drugs and speech intelligibility and discrimination of sound frequencies.

44 opioid addicts (10 women and 34 men) during methadone maintenance treatment were examined. The mean age of participants 33 ± 9 years; the average duration of addiction: 12 years. The Polish Sentence Test (PTZ) for speech intelligibility measurements was used. The test consists of the presentation of 26 sentences, which were disrupted by the babble-noise. in the study of frequency discrimination experimental method is used. Two signals of different frequencies were presented. The task of the study is to identify the frequency-modulated stimulus (target). The study was conducted in a soundproof booth. The Psychoacoustics and Speech Workstations by Tucker Davis Technologies was used.

The difference in speech intelligibility and frequency discrimination between opioid addicts and healthy ones was found. The average value of the intensity of speech sounds in noise (Signal-to-Noise Ratio - SNR) in opioid addicts was -3.7 dB and in healthy ones was -5.6 dB. There was no correlation between the duration of addiction and the speech intelligibility in noise or frequency discrimination.

The influence of taking opioids for speech intelligibility and frequency discrimination was found.

The aim of research is to assess a speech perception in alcohol addicts and healthy ones.

65 alcohol addicts (mean age 38 years, min. 22, max. 66 years) were examined. Patients admitted hearing impaired were excluded. The average duration of addiction: 8.8 years. The measure of speech understanding is the ratio of correctly received phonetic elements to the total number of presented ones. Speech understanding is often determined in the presence of masking noise. Respondents are to arrangement of sentences with words heard in the noise. The test determines the intensity of speech, for which - if it is presented in the noise - observed in 50% of correct answers. This parameter is called the Threshold Reception Speech (SRT). The logatom intelligibility test consists with over 150 presented stimuli. Both tests were conducted in a soundproof booth

In the speech understanding test were found significant difference of average SRT between alcohol addict and healthy ones. The better understanding of speech was found in healthy individuals. in a study conducted in the final phase of detoxification treatment, it was found that the level of speech understanding in addicts was improved (statistically significant). in the logatom intelligibility test wasn’t differences.

It was found that alcohol dependence is associated with worse perception of speech.

A comparison of addiction patterns and occurrence rates between European and United States Veterans will be the backdrop for introducing strategies for treatment and recovery models. Addiction therapists and Case Managers working within the context of the Department of Veterans Affairs in the United States have reported successful use of movies as motivational instruments and sources of heightened insight.

To introduce a catalog of movies that support motivational treatment strategies for addiction.

To explore the experiences of therapists working with movies as treatment adjuncts

To provide an analysis of the effect of the creative impact on therapy within current recovery models.

To encourage therapists and increase confidence in utilizing movies within treatment contexts.

A compendium of relevant movies will be presented. Special attention will be paid to legal issues in Europe/US with regard to when permission is needed to use movie material within the context of treatment. Material from large group of addiction therapists will be made available and analyzed within addiction treatment models.

The anonymous case examples and therapists’ experiences using movies as therapeutic adjuncts will increase awareness, confidence and ability to integrate this approach into approaches to addiction treatment.

Use of movies in addiction treatment increases awareness, creates insights and provides explicit emotional points of identification for patients and clients that facilitate understanding and engagement as treatment is introduced and progresses.

Because of the different receptor profiles, atypical antipsychotics are known to cause metabolic changes such as increased weight gain, type 2 diabetes and hyperglycemia,.

In this study, we aimed to observe metabolic side effects of drug use of patients receiving antipsychotic medication in first-episode psychotic disorder.

49 male patients who were hospitalized at Gulhane Military Medical Academy Psychiatry Department with a diagnosis of psychotic disorder according to DSM-IV criteria between May 2011–2012 were included in the study. Blood lipid profiles and liver and renal function tests of the patients before treatment and after 8 weeks of treatment were evaluated.

Of the patients participating in the study of 16 were using olanzapine, 15 risperidone, 6 quetiapine, 5 aripiprazole and 7 haloperidol. There was no statistically significant difference between patients before and after treatment in terms of blood lipid profile, the liver and kidney functions. There was also no significant difference according to the antipsychotic drug used.

In studies with long-term follow-up of 6 months or 1 year or a short-term follow-up as 1 month with atypical antipsychotics these values usually seems to have changed. As a result of 2-month follow-up at our study, patients that were being treated with atypical antipsychotics have not shown any changes in the metabolic values.