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The field of psychosomatics has experienced many waves of “celebrity” since its origin. Its historical origin is impossible to precisely locate in time, one may argue that medicine since its very beginning has been psychosomatic in nature. In very recent times, many clinicians and researchers even from different backgrounds than psychosomatic medicine or psychiatry have expressed disappointment and worry about the excessive fragmentation of medical sciences, providing evidence in support and advocating towards the so-called holistic approach and integrated care. The old lesson of psychosomatic medicine, then, appears more contemporary than ever. This is also because it has been able to stay coherent but at the same time integrate the enormous progresses in the understanding of physiology and pathophysiology that medical sciences have witnessed in the last decades.
The presentation will focus on the most striking scientific production of 2023 in the field of psychosomatics, to show the contributions in its three souls of research, training and clinical activities and to outline the stimulating though sometimes difficult dialogue between this area of behavioural sciences and the rest of psychiatry.
It is widely described in the scientific literature that patients who suffer from some type of congenital syndrome such as Di George Syndrome are more likely to present some type of psychopathological alteration during their development that may require intervention and treatment by infant and juvenile mental health teams in coordination with neuropediatrics (1). On this occasion, we will present the clinical case of a patient who regularly attends psychiatry consultations for management of anxious symptoms with impulse control deficits associated with intellectual disability, diagnosed since childhood with tetralogy of Fallot and later with Di George syndrome. In this type of case, treatment is usually considered taking into account possible comorbidities at the organic level (since there may be cardiological involvement, which can be an added difficulty when taking into account the adverse effects of some psychotropic drugs) (2).
Objectives
This is followed by the presentation of the clinical case, which can serve to exemplify this type of case and clarify any doubts that may arise regarding treatment.
Methods
Presentation of the clinical case and review of updated scientific literature on the subject.
Results
Patient who first came to the infantile-junior consultations at the age of 8 years due to delay in the acquisition of verbal language and impulsivity. The patient had a history of pediatric follow-up since birth for different physical symptoms that finally led to the diagnosis of Di George syndrome.
Given the difficulties he presented both at home and at school, different psychometric tests were performed and it was determined that it could be beneficial to initiate treatment with extended-release methylphenidate. Prior to treatment, psychomotor restlessness (without aggressiveness) and difficulty in concentration prevailed, which improved significantly after upward adjustment of the dose to a guideline corresponding to his age and weight. It was not necessary in this case to administer other treatments (the possibility of starting Aripiprazole in case of episodes of agitation was considered, but it was not necessary). The patient has continued to be monitored by cardiology to assess the possible side effects of the treatment (since it can increase heart rate and blood pressure (3), but so far no complications have been detected).
Thanks to psychotherapeutic and educational intervention, language acquisition was achieved, although to date he still requires support due to the difficulties he still presents.
Conclusions
It is important to take into account the possible side effects of psychopharmacological treatment in patients with an associated congenital syndrome. Intensive and comprehensive follow-up by psychiatry and pediatrics (and later by their primary care physician) should be performed.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic has had a serious impact on the psychological state of the population, the individual experience of COVID-19 disease may affect the content of perceptions about coronavirus in those who have been ill with it.
Objectives
The aim of the research was to study the connection between patients’ experience of the disease and their perceptions about COVID-19.
Methods
A Short questionnaire of Disease Perception (E. Broadbent) was used to study patients’ perceptions about COVID-19 disease. The wording “disease” was replaced with “COVID-19 disease”.
The study was conducted from January 2021 to November 2022. The sample consisted of 390 patients (64 men and 326 women), whose average age was 28.58±10.74.
Results
The subjective assessment of the duration of COVID-19 disease and its impact on the patient’s life is higher if the patient is still sick with COVID-19 (r=0.340, p=0.008; r=0.312, p=0.000), in a more severe form (r=0.341, p=0.000; r=0.298, p=0.000), less satisfied with the attitude of medical workers during illness (r=0.151, p=0.003; r=0.143, p=0.005), more afraid for the health of their loved ones (r=-0.194, p=0.000; r=-0.181, p=0.000). At the same time, greater concern about COVID-19 and a greater assessment of its impact on the emotional state is associated with patients’ fear for the health of loved ones (r=-0.267, p=0.000; r=-0.242, p=0.000) and more severe course of the disease (r=0.107, p=0.035; r=0.126, p=0.013). Less sense of control in a COVID-19 disease situation is associated with a more severe course of the disease and greater fear for the health of loved ones (r=-0.174, p=0.001; r=0.154, p=0.002).
Conclusions
Thus, whether the patient has recovered after COVID-19 or not yet, how severe this disease was, how satisfied he was with the attitude of medical workers towards him during the illness and how much he fears for the health of loved ones during the pandemic, is related to such perceptions about COVID-19 disease as an assessment of the disease duration, its impact on life, emotional state, concern about one’s own illness and understanding of its nature.
Disclosure: Research is supported by the Russian Science Foundation, project No. 21-18-00624.
Emotional dysregulation is central to the problem of the overlap between attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and cyclothymia.
Objectives
We aimed to compare clinical characteristics, psychiatric comorbidity, affective temperament, and emotional dysregulation among subjects with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and cyclothymia.
Methods
In this cross-sectional study, 187 participants were consecutively recruited between January 2018 and December 2019 at the outpatient clinic of the 2nd Psychiatry Unit of the University Hospital of Pisa. Eighty-one subjects were diagnosed with ADHD, 62 with cyclothymic disorder, and 44 with both conditions. Participating psychiatrists collected socio-demographic and clinical data, psychiatric comorbidities according to DSM-5 criteria, familiarity for psychiatric disorders, and any previous responses to antidepressant drug therapy. To study the temperamental characteristics of the participants, the short version of the Memphis, Pisa, Paris and San Diego Temperament Assessment (Brief-TEMPS-M) was administered, while emotional dysregulation was measured through the Reactivity, Intensity, Polarity, Stability questionnaire (RIPoSt-40).
Results
Cyclothymic subjects, both with and without ADHD, were more often female (p<0.001) than subjects with ADHD. Participants with ADHD showed significantly lower educational attainment than subjects without ADHD (p<0.001). In addition, participants with ADHD alone showed comorbid substance use disorder more frequently (p<0.001) than subjects with cyclothymia alone. On the other hand, the latter showed higher rates of eating disorders (p=0.033) and familiarity for major depressive disorder (p=0.009) and panic disorder (p=0.029). Depressive and anxious temperament was significantly more represented in cyclothymic subjects without ADHD, as was negative emotionality, while hyperthymic temperament showed an opposite trend. No significant differences were observed between groups for cyclothymic temperament and overall negative emotional dysregulation, but patients comorbid with both conditions had the highest scores in these subscales.
Conclusions
ADHD and cyclothymia show high and overall similar levels of emotional dysregulation. However, cyclothymic patients may be more prone to negative emotionality (“dark cyclothymia”). It is possible that individuals with “sunny” cyclothymic features may escape clinical attention if ADHD is not present in comorbidity.
In some clinical scenarios obsessive and delusive symptoms exhibit several similarities, making it challenging to differentiate between schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SSD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). There are numerous reports of patients suffering from those disorders and manifesting both psychotic and obsession-like features, which makes accurate distinction even more complicated. We found several conflicting theories attempting to elucidate this overlap, one being the existence of the separate clinical entity - schizo-obsessive disorder.
Objectives
The aim of this study is to consolidate current knowledge, synthesize existing theories and explore diagnostic implications.
Methods
We conducted a systematic literature review following the PRISMA protocol, we scrutinized studies addressing obsession-like symptoms in SSD, psychotic symptoms in OCD, and comorbidity of those disorders. We included peer-reviewed non-interventional studies published in English and Polish from 2013 onwards. The search was performed in the following medical databases: PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, and Web of Science. Synthesis utilized a narrative approach due to diverse study designs, outcomes and observational nature of the collected data.
Results
We identified several dozen articles, which revealed a range of diverse findings, often inconclusive, and occasionally conflicting, Although, the collected data indicate the schizo-obsessive spectrum exhibits clinical relevance.
Conclusions
The ambiguity in results emphasizes the necessity for further investigations into pathomechanism of schizophrenia and OCD. Future research, particularly involving children and adolescents, should strive for a comprehensive understanding of the nuanced manifestations of obsessive-like and psychotic symptoms in both disorders, aiding in refining diagnostic criteria and developing effective intervention strategies.
We present the case of a patient with schizoaffective disorder and Parkinson’s disease (PD), requiring treatment adjustment, with the use of high doses of quetiapine for the treatment of psychotic symptomatology.
Objectives
The aim is to briefly review the treatment of dopaminergic psychosis in the elderly.
Methods
Patient aged 86 years, institutionalised, presenting severe episodes of behavioural alteration, high anxiety and delusions of harm, together with auditory and visual hallucinations. As relevant physical history, the patient has AHT, aortic insufficiency, and bladder cancer operated on in 2012. As psychiatric history of interest, the patient has been diagnosed since his 30s with schizoaffective disorder, Parkinson’s disease and moderate-severe cognitive impairment secondary to the previous two.
As usual treatment, in addition to anticoagulation and antihypertensive therapy, the patient has been receiving L-dopa for his PD for years, antidepressant treatment with escitalopram 10mg, haloperidol 80 drops a day, divided into three doses, and lormetazepam 2mg as a hypnotic.
In addition to the symptoms described above, the patient had episodes of confusional features, as well as marked stiffness in the cogwheel and significant gait disturbance, having suffered several falls without serious repercussions.
Results
Due to the comorbid neurological pathology, it was decided to progressively modify the treatment, withdrawing the benzodiazepine due to the risk of confusional disorder and replacing it with trazodone. Antipsychotic treatment was gradually replaced by extended-release quetiapine, reaching a maximum dose of 800mg. Likewise, escitalopram treatment is replaced by sertraline.
With this adjustment, there was an improvement in the psychotic symptoms, as well as in the anxious symptoms. Episodes of distress are NOT observed, and the patient’s functionality improves, allowing him/her to participate in daily activities, both cognitive stimulation and physiotherapy.
Conclusions
The Spanish Society of Psychogeriatrics recommends that before using antipsychotics, it is advisable to first treat the underlying potentially treatable causes (pain, infections, toxic effects of drugs…), assess non-pharmacological interventions and always, if the use of antipsychotics is required, assess the risk-benefit ratio.
In relation to the above, it is not surprising that in the elderly, the use of second-generation antipsychotics is recommended in the first place, as opposed to the classical ones. The latter are only recommended in emergency situations where an almost immediate effect is required.
For dopaminergic psychosis, there are only controlled trials with clozapine. However, due to prescribing difficulties, aripiprazole or quetiapine is recommended in the first instance.
Peripartum mental disorders (PPMD) are characterized by heterogeneous psychopathological symptoms related to specific personality traits, which are only taken into account by a few preventive and therapeutic strategies. Traumatic experiences during childhood could predispose to develop those disorders during adulthood, especially in more stressful conditions, such as pregnancy and postpartum.
Objectives
Our study aims to evaluate the correlation between mother’s childhood trauma and the development of certain psychopathological dimensions during peripartum and which of these dimensions could be indicative of mother’s childhood trauma.
Methods
The sample included 74 women, recruited from Sant’Andrea Hospital in Rome between 2011 and 2022, diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder during peripartum, according to criteria of DSM-5. All recruited women were administered the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire – Short Form (CTQ-SF) and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2). We performed a linear regression using the total CTQ score as a dependent variable and the MMPI-2 scale’s scores as independent variables.
Results
The linear regression used showed two significant models, of which the most inclusive explained 60% of the variance (R2 = 0.597), resulting significant (F = 31.141; p < 0.001). This model showed that a greater expression of childhood traumatic aspects was associated with greater expression of Pa (paranoia) (t = 4.04; p < 0.001) and Ma (hypomania) (t = 3.873; p < 0.001) in the clinical scales of the MMPI-2, which were indicative of childhood trauma.
Conclusions
Our study shows that paranoiac and hypomanic symptoms in PPMD, assumed by the MMPI-2 scale, are indicative of previous traumatic dimension. Thus, in the presence of a positive history of trauma, clinicians should pay attention especially to these aspects, in order to optimally set both pharmacological and psychotherapeutic treatment.
Early diagnosis and intervention are essential for managing and improving long-term outcomes of severe mental illness, highlighting the need for reliable early biomarkers. This longitudinal study explores whether the development of the brain during childhood and adolescence differs between offspring of parents with and without schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Moreover, we will assess if the age-dependent change over time in brain volume, cortical thickness and surface, structural network indices, and cortical gyrification are related to the presence and severity of psychiatric symptoms and level of IQ.
We obtained 286 T1-weighted MRI scans of 184 offspring (aged 8–18 years at baseline) of at least one parent diagnosed with bipolar disorder (n=78) or schizophrenia (n=52) and offspring of parents without severe mental illness (n=54); 102 offspring underwent a follow-up scan (on average 3.9 years between scans).
Group comparisons and the associations with clinical and cognitive measures were analysed with linear mixed-effects models. To correct for multiple comparisons, we applied a Benjamini-Hochberg false discovery rate (FDR) correction (q=0.05).
A significant effect of age was found on most of the included brain features, with suggestive evidence for subtle deviations in trajectories in the cortical thickness, structural network indices but not in gyrification index, sulcal depth, length and width or surface area in offspring of parents with schizophrenia. Interestingly, these deviations in brain development in schizophrenia offspring remained significant after taking the presence of a diagnosis or level of IQ into account. These findings suggest the aberrant brain development in familial high-risk youngsters is associated with being at familial risk and not with (also) being at clinical high-risk.
Bariatric surgery is an effective treatment for patients with obesity. Rates of obesity are increasing worldwide as are the number of bariatric procedures performed. Following bariatric surgery patients have increased contact with psychiatric services, there is an increased risk of deliberate self-harm, suicide attempts and completed suicide. Compared to the general population there is 8 fold higher than average suicide rate. In Ireland wait lists for bariatric surgery are long, resulting in many patients seeking surgery abroad. Bariatric ‘tourism’ often results in reduced psychological supports both pre and post op as well as reduced pre surgical screening for psychiatric illness. Bariatric surgery is also associated with ‘addiction transfer’. The literature suggests that patients often substitute the maladaptive coping mechanism of eating with other impulsive behaviors such as substance misuse or gambling.
Objectives
Case report highlighting the issue of addiction transfer among patients that have undergone bariatric surgery.
Methods
Case report: A 38 year old woman admitted to the acute psychiatric unit with self harm, suicidal ideation, low mood, and recent overdose of venlafaxine. On initial presentation, she was intoxicated with alcohol, her toxicology was positive for cocaine and benzodiazepines. She had undergone a gastric bypass 14 months previous, having travelled abroad to have the procedure. She had not attended for any bariatric follow up with her GP post operatively. She was not taking any vitamins post operatively despite advice from the clinic. The patient was admitted to the acute psychiatric unit. She admitted to drinking excessively in the last year. She denied any history of mood disturbance or substance or alcohol misuse prior to surgery. She had no previous contacts with psychiatric services. Her GP had commenced her on venlafaxine for low mood 6 months prior to psychiatric admission. She was admitted to the acute unit for 5 days after which she left against medical advice. She was followed up in the day hospital and referred to addiction services.
Results
case report
Conclusions
There is growing evidence about the psychiatric and addiction implications of bariatric surgery. Offering psychological support for patients post operatively is essential. Unfortunately, because of long wait lists in Ireland many patients chose to travel abroad and often are unable to avail of MDT support. The emerging field of bariatric psychiatry could provide a useful addition to the bariatric specialist services.
This article collects and analyses passages about male and female domestic slaves in the Persian Rivāyats. The Rivāyats consist of correspondence between Iranian and Indian Zoroastrians (Parsis) from the late fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries ce. In these letters, Parsis sought the opinions of Iranian Zoroastrians on various doctrinal and ritual issues. The passages in question cover a range of subjects, including the issue of converting household slaves to Zoroastrianism, their participation in domestic religious ceremonies, the exposure of their dead bodies in the towers of silence, and marrying female slaves. These references to slaves challenge the conventional narrative that pre-modern Zoroastrians were oppressed, marginalized, and poor communities. This narrative has overshadowed these pieces of evidence and has caused them not to be studied seriously. This paper seeks to go beyond this traditional reconstruction by examining these texts based on their context. The passages reflect the actual socio-religious issues of Zoroastrians, especially Parsis, and demonstrate their participation in the slave-owning milieu of late medieval and early modern Gujarat and Iran rather than mere anachronistic elements or rhetorical tools reflecting a scholastic treatment of a defunct legal question.
Various mechanisms have been identified to explain the relationship between gender-based violence, screening, and cancer. Biological mechanisms, primarily related to chronic stress and allostatic load, have been associated with high rates of chronic diseases among victims of violence, impairing the functioning of the immune and endocrine systems. Victims of abuse simultaneously show less initiative for screening exams, such as mammograms, as they perceive them as invasive and retraumatizing. They also demonstrate a greater tendency toward maladaptive coping behaviors and unhealthy lifestyles, such as abusive substance use. A significant number of these patients develop psychosocial dysfunction and body image disturbance during breast cancer treatments.
Objectives
This work aims to provide a descriptive and narrative analysis of body image and psychosocial changes in women breast cancer survivors with prolonged experiences of violence, supported by a non-systematic literature review on the central aspects under study.
Methods
For the introductory literature review, a search was conducted on search engines such as Google Scholar and PubMed, with no date limitations, using the following terms (or combinations): “intimate partner violence,” “violence AND cancer,” “body image AND psychossexual adjustment AND breast cancer.” Additionally, a narrative analysis of body image and psychosocial changes in women breast cancer survivors with prolonged experiences of violence was conducted. For this purpose, participants were asked to complete two validated scales in the Portuguese language, and first-person testimonials were collected.
Results
The analysis of scale results and participant testimonials highlights a consensus on the significant impairment of psychosocial functioning and the experience of sexuality. There is evidence of avoidance behaviors in terms of affectionate and sexual contact due to feelings of fear, shame, and discomfort. The breast is valued as a sensual, erotic, and essential sexual element, and impactful changes in body image persist. However, in some cases, these changes are experienced as transformative and liberating, fostering a more generous view of the body, identity, and femininity.
Conclusions
Women with breast cancer should be screened for the possibility of being victims of violence, as this context predicts a higher likelihood of emotional difficulties during surgical treatments, including psychological distress, post-traumatic stress, body shame, and self-blame. A significant number of women, including those in this study, consider the approach to self-image and sexuality in oncology consultations deficient. Psychological programs and interventions should be developed to empower patients to adjust to the sexual changes arising from treatments and disease progression and to promote positive intimate relationships and effective communication.
The beneficial effects of yoga have been researched for decades, and in some countries it is also used in health care to maintain physical and mental health. Its effectiveness in the treatment of stress and anxiety, as well as in achieving a relaxed state, is supported by numerous studies.
Objectives
In the present research, our aim was to investigate the direct and subclinical effects of yoga, where the subjects did at least 10 minutes of yoga a day for two weeks. Our hypotheses are that the participants experience relaxation, mindfulness and positive emotions significantly (1) more often and (2) more intensely as a result of yoga.
Methods
We included 25 average population, healthy people between the ages of 18 and 30, who exercised at least 10 minutes of yoga a day for two weeks with the help of a mobile app. We used the Smith Relaxation States Inventory (SRSI3) and its disposition-measuring version (SRSI3d), which examine 19 relaxation states (R-states) presumably related to relaxation, divided into 4 categories: basic relaxation, mindfulness, positive energy and transcendence. During the statistical analyses, the values taken at the beginning of the research, before practice, were compared with the values taken directly after the last practice using the Wilcoxon test. Bonferroni correction was used to correct the first-order error that increases when testing several hypotheses simultaneously.
Results
Immediately after practicing yoga, the participants had significantly higher basic relaxation (M0=2.74, M1=4.24, p<0.0001), awareness (M0=2.71, M1=2.89, p<0.0001) and positive energy (M0=3.88, M1= 4.81, p<0.0001) and in the long term they experienced significantly more relaxation (M0=3.12, M1=3.94, p<0.0001), awareness (M0=3.41, M1=4.40, p<.0001), positive energy (M0= 4.39, M1=5.14, p<0.001) and transcendence (M0=3.23, M1=4.05, p=0.001).
Conclusions
Based on our results, yoga can be an effective additional tool in maintaining and improving health, but also in improving the condition and quality of life of mental and somatic patients.
Antipsychotics disrupt intracellular cholesterol traffic and prevent the exit of low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-derived cholesterol from the endosome/lysosome compartment. It was showed that curcumin accelerated the release of cholesterol-containing exosomes from cells with impaired intracellular cholesterol traffic due to antipsychotic treatment and suggested that curcumin may help minimize the negative metabolic effects associated with chronic antipsychotic treatment.
Objectives
This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of orally administered curcumin to rats in preventing and treating metabolic syndrome-related side effects such as weight gain and dyslipidemia caused by clozapine.
Methods
In our research, a total of 32 male rats (Wistar Albino), 12 weeks old, produced at Selçuk University Experimental Research and Application Center, were used. All animals divided into 4 groups. Venous blood collection and weight measurements were taken from all groups at the beginning. 32 rats were randomly divided into 4 separate groups: control, only oral clozapine, oral clozapine + 50 mg/kg curcumin, and the oral clozapine + 100 mg/kg curcumin group. Groups II-III-IV were given 15 mg/kg clozapine orally daily for 3 weeks. AST, ALT, glucose, total cholesterol, Triglyceride, HDL, LDL and insulin were studied from the blood samples taken at the beginning and at the end of the experiment.
Results
There was no statistically significant difference in comparisons of weight and insulin measurements between the groups at the end of the experiment (p>0.05). In glucose measurements at the end of the experiment, the control group was found to have significantly higher glucose values compared to the other groups (p <0.001). As a result of posthoc analyses, LDL measurements in the control group were found to be lower than those in the CLZ and CLZ +50 c groups (p<0.05). AST value of the control group was significantly higher than the CLZ+100c group (p=0.011). Measurements of the control group for ALT were found to be higher than those of the CLZ+50c and CLZ+100c groups (p<0.05). There was no statistically significant difference between the groups in HDL, TG, Cholesterol comparisons (p>0.05).
In the control group, the average weight at the end of the experiment was significantly higher than at the beginning (p = 0.045). In the CLZ group, the mean glucose at the end of the experiment was significantly lower than at the beginning (p<0.001).
Conclusions
Metabolic problems due to antipsychotics negatively affect treatment compliance. Treatment support methods that can solve or help this problem may be useful. Our study ended in conflicting results. Needs for new experiments…
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a leading cause of excess mortality in people with severe mental illness (SMI). Physical activity (PA) is widely acknowledged with multiple health benefits, but associations of PA with incident CVD, all-cause and CVD mortality in people with SMI remain unclear.
Objectives
To determine dose-response and intensity-specific associations of PA with incident CVD, all-cause and CVD mortality in people with SMI.
Methods
This prospective cohort study was conducted on 6313 SMI participants with accelerometry data from UK Biobank (mean age 61.05 years) from February 2013 to November 2021 (median 7-year follow-up). Moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) was categorized by meeting the guideline level or not, while total PA and light-intensity PA (LPA) were grouped by tertiles. Incident CVD, all-cause and CVD mortality ascertained by hospital and death registries were main outcomes.
Results
PA was inversely associated with the risk for incident CVD (Poverall < 0.05 for total PA and MVPA, Pnonlinearity > 0.05 for all PA), all-cause mortality (Poverall < 0.05 for all PA, Pnonlinearity < 0.05 for total PA and LPA), and CVD mortality (Poverall < 0.001 for total PA and LPA, Pnonlinearity < 0.05 for all PA). Performing guideline-recommended volume of MVPA was associated with a reduced risk of 19% for incident CVD (95% CI, 0.67-0.98), 42% for all-cause mortality (95% CI, 0.43-0.79), and 50% for CVD mortality (95% CI, 0.31-0.82). A combination of recommended MVPA and a moderate volume of LPA was associated with the lowest risk, mitigating 21% risk for incident CVD, 59% for all-cause mortality, and 78% for CVD mortality.
Conclusions
Primary engagement of guideline-recommended MVPA, supplemented with moderate amount of LPA, was associated with lower risks for incident CVD, all-cause and CVD mortality among people with SMI.
Acknowledgements
This research has been conducted using the UK Biobank Resource under Application Number 58082.
Funding Support
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 32100880), Guangzhou Municipal Key Discipline in Medicine (2021-2023), Guangzhou High-level Clinical Key Specialty, and Guangzhou Research-oriented Hospital. The funders had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication.
Introduction: LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) people often do not seek health care and do not identify as LGBTQ people because of fear of judgment, stereotyping, and discrimination by health professionals. All of this is a particularly worrying phenomenon, because various mental difficulties, risky behaviors, and certain types of somatic and psychosomatic diseases may appear in a higher proportion among them.
Objectives
Attitudes related to LGBTQ people were examined in several areas in Hungary. Most of our data comes from psychologists, however, a comprehensive examination of health professionals’ attitudes towards LGBTQ people has not yet been carried out.
Methods
In a cross-sectional online survey, we ask healthcare professionals (medical doctors, nurses, other graduate healthcare professionals and medical university students) to fill out our questionnaire. The participants complete the Modern Homonegativity Scale and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Clinical Skills Development Scale.
Results
We assume that the majority of Hungarian healthcare professionals have a neutral or positive attitude towards LGBTQ people, but they struggle with a significant lack of affirmative skills. We will present our results in detail in the presentation of the symposium.
Conclusions
There is an urgent need to provide the appropriate affirmative knowledge material to Hungarian healthcare workers.
Patient care suffers when practitioners do not understand the patient’s experience of the illness. This is especially true in psychiatry relative to patients having learned the jargon and studying the diagnostic criteria for various mental disorders using internet search engines, especially Google. Patients more commonly present with a list of symptoms that match the checklist for their self-diagnosis. Their experience may be quite different from the words they use to present their symptoms to medical personnel. More than ever, psychiatric providers need to unpack the words their patients use to discover the actual experience. K. Toombs has written exquisitely about clinical phenomenology in the context of her diagnosis of multiple sclerosis and her negotiation of a medical system that largely ignored her lived experience. This algorithmic, checklist approach to human suffering derives from an understanding of clinical practice in which the practitioner applies scientific knowledge of the bodily processes of diseases, recognizing those diseases by inquiring about the presence of symptoms characterizing those diseases and then rendering treatments based upon statistical studies (preferably randomized, controlled trials) of large groups of individuals. Within this approach, little need exists to encounter the person with the disease as an actual human being, an Other in the sense of Levinas. This approach suffers because even history-taking requires an encounter with an Other in which the internal, private experience of this Other must be heard and made part of the clinical process. This approach can ignore the role of the doctor-patient relationship and the clinical encounter in symptom relief.
Objectives
To describe an educational program in clinical phenomenology that was well received by trainees who rated that it improved their practice.
Methods
In this presentation, we will describe our efforts at teaching clinical phenomenology and psychiatry within a residency training program, in which we encourage trainees to develop deeper listening skills through conducting life story interviews, motivational interviewing techniques, and narrative approaches in which they search for the metaphors underlying the patients’ illness. We will describe factors influencing trainees’ acceptance or rejection of these approaches and the change in the culture of our training program and clinic that have arisen from their implementation.
Results
One hundred and twenty residents have taken this course. Eighty-eight percent reported improved clinical skills and ability to relate to patients.
Conclusions
The practice of medicine does not exist independently from the relationships in which medicine is practiced and a thorough understanding of the lived experience and experience of the patient is necessary for accurate diagnosis, psychiatric or medical, and for discovery of a treatment approach with the patient.
Previous theoretical models and reviews have documented a strong connection between emotion dysregulation and eating disorders (ED) psychopathology among the general and clinical populations.
Objectives
We aimed to assess the link between emotional dysregulation and ED in the Tunisian general population.
Methods
We conducted a cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical study among Facebook group members, using an online questionnaire, over the period from February 17, 2023 to May 26, 2023. Emotional dysregulation was assessed via the “Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale” (DERS), which is composed of six sub-scores : “Non-acceptance” (N), “Strategies” (S), “Impulse” (I), “Goal” (G), “Clarity” (C) and “Awareness” (A). The Eating Attitude Test (EAT-26) was used to assess the risk of developing ED.
Results
A total of 528 responses were included. The mean EAT-26 score was 12.36±10.34; and 12.3% of our population were at high risk of developing an ED. The mean N, S, I, B, Cl, C and overall DERS scores were 7.78; 8.24; 7.08; 9.57; 6.46; 7.61 and 46.74, respectively.
We showed that the EAT-26 score was correlated with the overall DERS score (r=0.260; p<0.001) as well as with the N (r=0.208; p=0.002), S (r=0.228; p<0.001), I (r=0.212; p=0,025), B (r=0.198; p<0.001), C (r=0,122; p=0,005) and Cl (r=0.136; p=0.002) scores.
Conclusions
Our study showed that participants with a high risk of developing an ED seem to have more difficulties with emotional regulation. Thus, our findings call for interventions that target emotion regulation in the treatment of ED.
Mentalizing helps us to understand the behaviour of others in our everyday social interactions. Spontaneous mentalizing without explicit instructions refers to representing mental state attribution. Several studies have described social cognitive deficit in schizophrenia, which largely determines the functional outcome of the disease.
Objectives
To better understand the involvement of spontaneous mentalizing in schizophrenia, we consider it important to summarize the results of studies that used indirect instruction to measure spontaneous mentalizing performance in schizophrenia.
Methods
In our meta-analysis, we conducted a systematic search of four large databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials [CENTRAL], Web of Science). A total of 14 articles were involved.
Results
Based on our findings, the performance of patients with schizophrenia is significantly weaker than in the average population for both scripts with mentalizing interactions (MD: -0.63; 95%CI (-0.90, -0.35); p=0.0021), and with goal-directed movements (SMD: -0.55; 95%CI (-0.97, -0.13); p=0.02). The intentionality of expressions used by patients with schizophrenia is significantly lower compared to the average population (for both animations with complex social interactions: MD: -0.99; 95% CI (-1.39, -0.59); p=0.0003; and with goal-directed movements: MD: -0.31; 95% CI (-0.53, -0.08); p=0.0218). We have found no significant difference neither in appropriateness nor in intentionality of verbal terms between the two goups in the case of animations with random movements.
Conclusions
Based on the meta-analysis, we found poorer performance in schizophrenia in spontaneous mentalizing. We also found poorer performance in tasks with goal-directed movements used as control tasks, suggesting a more pervasive impairment of mentalizing in schizophrenia. These deficits may affect the functional outcome of the disease and could potentially have therapeutic implications.
The relationship between Borderline Personality Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder has been highlighted in different studies over the last few years, with an estimated prevalence of around 15-35% of ADHD in adult patients diagnosed with BPD and a 7.4 times higher risk of developing BPD in patients diagnosed with ADHD.
Objectives
To conduct a pragmatic review of the recent literature on the relationship between ADHD and BPD, so that it serves as a starting point for an in-depth study of the sociodemographic, clinical and cross-sectional dimensional factors of both disorders.
Methods
A bibliographic review of scientific articles published in recent years, in English and Spanish, extracted from the MEDLINE database, which delve into the relationship between BPD and ADHD, will be carried out. In addition, the common psychopathological dimensions, such as impulsivity or emotional dysregulation, as well as the weight of other dimensional factors related to both disorders, will be studied.
Results
The results of the selected articles will be grouped, for a better understanding, in the following sections:
- Clinical factors and shared comorbidities.
- Psychopathological dimensions: impulsivity and emotional dysregulation.
- Other common dimensional factors.
Conclusions
There are common symptoms and etiological or perpetuating factors, as well as comorbidities shared in both conditions, which in many cases make the correct diagnosis and, therefore, the appropriate therapeutic approach to these patients, quite difficult. Taking into account the differential characteristics of BPD and ADHD, it is possible to create different profiles that allow a precise approach to both disorders in those cases in which they coexist in the same patient.
Impairment in mentalization, interpreting and perceiving social relevant information has been found to play a part in the development and maintenance of depression. Major depressive disorders showed significant impairment in social cognition and such impairment appears to be positively associated with the severity of depression. Self-referential gaze perception, as a measurement of mentalization, was predominantly measured in patients with psychosis but rarely examined in late-life depression (LLD).
Objectives
To assess the effect of cognition on the interpretation bias of mentalization
Methods
This will be a cross-sectional case-controlled study on Chinese older adults with major depressive disorder recruited from outpatient departments of the public mental health service in Hong Kong. The same inclusion and exclusion criteria, with the exception of the history of major depressive disorder, will be used to recruit the control group. Assessments included sociodemographics, cognitive assessments and depressive symptoms. The primary experimental task was Gaze Perception Task using E- prime Professional 2.0. The stimuli of task are photographs of six Chinese models (3 men and 3 women) facing straight to camera with 13 different gaze directions (0°, 5°, 10°, 15°, 20°, 25° and 30° to the left and to the right, respectively). Participants shall be instructed to respond with a “yes” or a “no” to the question (for self-referential gaze): ‘Do you feel as if the person in the picture is looking at you?’.
Results
41 patients and 41 healthy controls have been recruited. The group comparison in SRGP revealed that there was only significant difference in the unambiguous-SRGP (U=561.000, Z=-2.62, N=82, p=0.009). Patients had higher unambiguous self-referential gaze accuracy (Mean=0.16) than controls (Mean= 0.075). With a cut-off score of 22, patients with better HK-MoCA scores had better unambiguous SRGP scores than those with lower HK-MoCA scores (p=0.024). This difference was not observed in healthy controls. HK-MoCA could predict ambiguous SRGP rate F(1,80)=14.85, p<.001, R square=15.7%. and redict unambiguous SRGP rate F(1,80)=14.85, p<.001, R square=15.7%.
Conclusions
LLD subjects had a significant interpretation bias in the unambitious averted gaze (20°, 25° and 30°) interpretation compared with healthy controls. LLD subjects tend to have more self-referential perception of the clear averted gaze. This misinterpretation of the eye gaze is probably due to the interpretation bias in processing external information, which is commonly reported as mentalization impairment in depression (Weightman et al., 2014).