An epidemiological study in the field, in our territory, isinteresting from an operational perspective. The main objective of this presentation is to describe the socio-demographic characteristics of people who committed suicide in Romania.

Was performed a retrospective study based on data provided by the Romanian Institute of Statistics and “Mina Minovici” Institute. Suicide events occurring between 2009-2013 in Romania were analysed, focusing on age, sex, seasonality, marital condition, occupation status and religion.

Male / Female ratio = 5.52, mean age was 49.82 years, with a range between 8 and 97 years. Suicide is more common in men than in women under 60 years, but after this age the situation is reversed. Suicide was statistically significantly more frequently in rural areas, the retired and unemployed people. In terms of marital status, it is observed that suicide is more common among married people, followed a short distance from the unmarried. From the distribution of suicides according to marital status and sex are significant differences in favor of unmarried men and widows. A secondary level of education predominated, followed by professional and primary. Method suicidal prevalent in both men and women was strangulation.

The study provides a comprehensive analysis of socio-demographic who committed suicide in Romania in the last 5 years. Suicide is more common among rural men, unmarried, unemployed, professional training level.

Sleep disturbance is common among patients with Parkinson's disease and occurs in approximately two thirds of patients.

The main objective of this study was to examine the prevalence of sleep disturbances in patients with Parkinson's disease in Romania.

To asses risk factors associated with excessive daytime sleepiness and nocturnal sleep disorders.

44 consecutive inpatients with Parkinson's disease (41% females) were included in a study of non-motor symptoms, including sleep disturbances. All participants responded to the Parkinson's Disease Sleep Scale (PDSS), where an overall score below 82 or a score below 5 on a sub-item indicate sleep disturbances. Factors associated with sleep were also investigated, with special emphasis on severity of Parkinson's disease, fatigue, mental health and restless legs syndrome (RLS).

The mean age was 67.8 years (range 35-74); the mean Hoehn and Yahr stage was 2.4 (SD 0.8), and the mean UPDRS part III was 22.6 (SD 11.5). Sleep disturbances were common among patients with Parkinson's disease. While only 17% of the sample had an overall score below 82 on the PDSS, 70% of the patients had a score below 5 on one item. There was no significant association between Parkinson's disease severity and any of the sleep items in the PDSS.

The current findings call for increased awareness of sleep problems in patients with Parkinson's disease, especially focusing on the association with mental health problems, fatigue and RLS.

Bipolar disorder is a recurrent disease that can be unpredictable. Several guides provide clinicians evidence- based treatment options for bipolar depression.

The main objective of this study is to investigate the most frequently administered combinations of psychotropic substances and focuses on the use of single drugs in hospitalized patients with bipolar depression.

To assess concordance between clinical acute treatment and recommendations of the guides for bipolar depression.

A cross-sectional study was conducted by interviewing and physical examination of a group of 45 consecutive patients who were hospitalized between February 1 and 30 July 2012, in University Hospital of Psychiatry “Socola” and were diagnosed with bipolar depression according to ICD-10 criteria.

In our cross-sectional study average age of patients with bipolar depression was 55.7 ± 8.55 years, 66.7% female. Average number of drugs received by hospitalized patients with bipolar depression was 1.73 (SD 0.44), which increased to 3 (SD 0.81) drugs if adding sedatives. Classes of drugs most commonly prescribed in the acute treatment were benzodiazepines 86.7%, antidepressants 66.7%, antipsychotics 60% followed by anticonvulsants 40%. Monotherapy had a prevalence of 33.3% of the patients with bipolar depression.

Combinations of antidepressants with mood stabilizers and / or atypical antipsychotics are common in every day acute treatment for patients with bipolar depression. Evaluating indications and conditions of polytherapy are critical issues in future studies on the acute treatment on patients with bipolar depression.

Bipolar patients have a high risk for somatic comorbidities that need to be treated by non-psychiatrist medics. Factors related to unhealthy lifestyle, disease and treatment may confer some additional risk of morbidity in people with bipolar disorder.

The primary endpoint of the study was to detect risk factors for the development of somatic comorbidities in patients with bipolar disorder.

To identify somatic comorbidities in patients with bipolar disorder and to allow appropriate treatment to improve their quality of life.

The study was conducted by interviewing and physical examination of a group of 21 consecutive patients who were hospitalized between 1 to 28 February 2011 in the Clinical Hospital of Psychiatry “Socola” Iasi and were diagnosed with bipolar disorder according to DSM-IV-TR criteria.

Patients age range was 24 to 58 years. Of the subjects 57.1% were female and 42.9% men. The study shows that 38.1% of patients with bipolar disorder smoked regularly, and 47.6% consumed alcohol abusively. The most common somatic diseases associated were dyslipidemia 57.1%, obesity 52.4%, hypertension 38.1%, type 2 diabetes mellitus 33.3%, pulmonary disease 19.0%, hypertensive heart disease 28.6%, peripheral sensory polyneuropathy 23.8%, liver disease 15.3%, and angina pectoris 14.3%. Metabolic syndrome criteria were met in 33.3% of the patients.

The patients with bipolar disorders showed a high proportion of alcohol abuse and smoking. Most somatic diseases recorded were related to metabolic syndrome and other disturbances typically caused by unhealthy diet and lifestyle.

Depression and apathy are among the most common psychiatric and behavioral disorders associated with Parkinson’s disease (PD). This two psychiatric disorders are major determinants of quality of life for patients with Parkinson’s disease.

The main objective of this study was to establish the prevalence and demographic and clinical correlates of depression and apathy in a sample of inpatients with Parkinson’s disease.

To identify depression and apathy in a group of patients diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and to allow appropriate treatment to improve their quality of life.

A number of 44 inpatients with Parkinson’s disease were investigated with the Starkstein’s Apathy Scale (AS), the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS-17), the Hoehn and Yahr staging (HY), the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) and the Mini -Mental State Examination (MMSE).

Apathy coexisted with depression in 34.1% of PD patients, compared with depression without apathy in 4.6%, and apathy without depression in 22.7%. Apathy was associated with higher UPDRS score, lower MMSE score and earlier HY stages. Depression was correlated with more advanced HY stages and younger age of patients with Parkinson’s disease.

Apathy and depression are common in patients with Parkinson’s disease. Therefore these two conditions should be screened and considered in the management of patients with Parkinson’s disease.

Although lithium is one of the oldest drugs in neuropsychopharmacology that can prevent suicide in people with mood disorders, it is uncertain whether lithium in drinking water could also help lower the risk in the general population.

The potential benefits of low levels of lithium in reducing the risk of suicide have not been widely investigated. The objective of this study is to review the relationship between lithium levels in tap water and suicide rates across different geographical regions.

Was done a literature review on Medline and PubMed using the keywords: lithium, tap (drinking) water, suicide rates and suicide mortality.

The large majority of studies show a negative association between lithium level in tap water and suicide standardised mortality ratio (SMR) averages for 2006–2013. Total diurnal intake of lithium from tap water in lower than the minimum dose used for the treatment of psychiatric disorders. Antisuicidal effectiveness of lithium at very low doses can imply that this efect is distinct from its mood-stabilizing or antidepressant augmenting actions.

These findings suggest that even very low levels of lithium in drinking water may play a role in reducing suicide risk within the general population. Enrichment of drinking water with lithium can provide a valuable help for primary preventionof suicide.

Since 1897, Émile Durkheim noted that suicides occur more often during the economic changes that disrupt the social structure of society.

The objective of this study is to analyze the consequences of last global economic crisis on mortality by suicide in the EU countries in period 2007–2012.

We extracted data on mortality from the WHO database and unemployment trends from the EUROSTAT database. We had used this data to calculate the effect of unemployment on suicide rate, in pre-2004 and post-2004 EU countries.

If the number of suicides from 2007 was maintained in 2008–2012 period, EU 27 countries would have registered with 16,572 fewer suicides. The increase of suicides is based on the increasing number of suicides in men. The small increase in the suicide rate was recorded in Austria, France, Hungary and Slovenia. Luxembourg was the only country where the number of suicides was lower compared to 2007. In 2008, we can notice a slight decrease in the unemployment rate compared to 2007 and an increase in suicide by 3% in both groups of countries, followed by increasing suicide only in the post-2004 EU, where reach 10% in 2010, followed by a slight decrease in the coming years, while the unemployment rate gradually increases to 46% compared with 2007.

In European Union countries, suicides have increased both before and during the crisis, in periods in which unemployment rose. States that joined the EU after 2004 are more vulnerable in times of crisis.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.