Psychological trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may have an intensive negative impact on a patient’s spiritual beliefs or his/her belief in God; this effect may diminish the social and ...professional skills of many survivors. In the same time researches showed that religion plays a coping role among patients with medical and mental health illnesses. During the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina (1992-1995) the whole population, regardless of age, gender, nationality or profession, suffered severely. During the pre-war period in communistic Yugoslavia religious believes altered with atheistic public life styles. Additionally, war traumatization had a negative impact on spirituality and religious beliefs. In the series of case reports we intended to describe and assess the impact of a session of group psychotherapy, with spiritual topics and content, which was offered to patients who needed to reestablish religious beliefs. The patients who come to the Psychiatry Clinic because of trauma-induced mental health problems and who we are interested in strengthening their spirituality met each other in the group regardless of their religious or spiritual conviction. We described the conceptualization and development of such a group and present some self-reported views of clients who took part in these groups. The supportive and empathetic presence of such group in the community helps to prevent withdrawal and isolation, alienation and deviation of traumatized persons. The presence of such group facilitates the rehabilitation process of the victims, allowing them to understand that people are available to them in certain critical moments, to help, to offer protection or to console. Groups like this one, offer long term social and spiritual support to extremely severely traumatized victims.
The aim of the research is to examine depression in parents of children with cerebral palsy, with hypothesis to have more depressive symptom among mothers of children with cerebral palsy. The sample ...of examinees (between 23 and 62 age) was used in this research. The first subsample of examinees (N=23) was made of mothers (average 33±5.83) of children with cerebral palsy. The second subsample of examinees (N=12) was made of fathers of children with cerebral palsy (average 38±9.8). The third subsample of examinees (N=16) represented the control group, and it was made of mothers of children without disorders (average 38±6.57). For the purpose of quantitative measurement of depression, the Zung self-evaluated method for depression was applied. All data research were processed by parametric and nonparametric statistics. The frequencies and percents were also calculated, and Kruskal-Valis single-factor analysis of variants was applied for checking the hypothesis. According to the results of this research, it was concluded that there was no statistically significant difference in the evaluation of depression between mothers and fathers of children with cerebral palsy, as well as there is no statistically significant difference in relation to mothers of children without disorders.
Psychiatric disorders (PDs) in neurology are more frequent then it verified in routine exam, not only in the less developed but also in large and very developed neurological departments. Furthermore, ...psychiatric symptoms (PSs) in neurological disorders (NDs) among primary health care physicians and other specialties are often neglected. Anxiety and depression are most common, but hallucinations, delusions, obsessive-compulsive disorder and delirium or confusional state are also frequent comorbidity in many neurological conditions such as stroke, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson disease (PD). Depression and NDs also have a bidirectional relationship, as not only are patients, for example with stroke at greater risk of developing depression, but patients with depression have a two-fold greater risk of developing a stroke, even after controlling for other risk factors. Dementia or cognitive impairment are part of clinical picture of PD, stroke patients, patients with MS, Huntington disease etc. The prototype of dementia in PD and other NDs is a dysexecutive syndrome with impaired attention, executive functions and secondarily impaired memory. So-called "functional" (or psychogenic or hysterical/conversion) symptoms are relatively infrequent in "neurological" conditions, but very often unrecognized and not properly treated. Treatment of PSs in neurology, basically are not different then treatment of these symptoms in psychiatry and should be include pharmacotherapy and psychiatry. This presentation gives an overview of frequency and type of PSs underlying necessity to recognize these disorders in every day routine exam and properly treatment.
We present a case of a patient with Anton’s syndrome (i.e., visual anosognosia with confabulations), who developed bilateral occipital lobe infarct. Bilateral occipital brain damage results in ...blindness, and patients start to confabulate to fill in the missing sensory input. In addition, the patient occasionally becomes agitated and talks to himself, which indicates that, besides Anton’s syndrome, he might have had Charles Bonnet syndrome, characterized by both visual loss and hallucinations. Anton syndrome, is not so frequent condition and is most commonly caused by ischemic stroke. In this particular case, the patient had successive bilateral occipital ischemia as a result of massive stenoses of head and neck arteries.
Anatomical variations in the innervation of intrinsic hand muscle are well known as Martin - Gruber anastomosis (MGA) that spread from the median to the ulnar nerves in the forearm. Although ...anatomical studies have shown that a crossover of sensory fibers is not rare in forearm MGA, it has been electrophysiologically described only in rare subjects. We hypothesized that the sensory fibers are not rare in MGA, and often follow the motor fibers.
The study included 59 of subjects with a total of 111 arms, with electrodiagnostically confirmed the presence of MGA on the forearm for motor fibers. In order to demonstrate the presence of sensory fibers in MGA, we stimulated the median nerve at the elbow and recorded the antidromic sensory potential from ulnar innervated digit (5th finger).
Sensory MGA were present in 42 out of 111 arms (37.8%) with CI 95. There were 54 left hands with motor MGA, of which 18 (33.3%) had sensory fibers MGA, and 57 right hands with motor MGA, and 24 (42.1%) of which had sensory MGA.
This electrophysiologically study demonstrated the high incidence of sensory fibers in MGA anastomosis. Presence of sensory fibers as a possible anatomical variation should be taken into consideration during electroneurography analysis, diagnosis and surgical therapy.
To compare the outcomes among war veterans who pray/do not pray and who were not suffering mental disorders after the Bosnia-Herzegovina war (1992–95). The sample consists of 100 healthy Bosnian war ...veterans divided in two equal groups—one, a highly religious group inside which were individuals who perform five obligatory prayers every day, and another group of individuals who do not practice any daily prayer. We used Minnesota Multiphase Personal Inventory (MMPI), Profile Index of Emotions (PIE) and Life Style Questionnaire (LSQ). War veterans who prayed had significantly higher levels for: incorporation, self-protection, and for reactive formation; but significantly lower levels for regression, compensation, transfer, no-controlling, oppositional and aggressiveness than their peers who did not pray. Practicing religion (regular performing daily prayers) is associated with reduction of tendencies towards the tendency for risk, impulsiveness, and aggression. It is also associated with successful overcoming of emotional conflicts in war veterans who practiced religion than their peers who did not practice religion.
Although many aspects of stroke are similar at both sexes, however, there are some differences and characteristics as well. The aim of this study was to analyze sex differences in patients with acute ...ischemic stroke (IS) regarding to risk factors, subtypes, stroke severity and outcome. From January 1st 2001 to December 31st 2005 at the Department of Neurology Tuzla 2833 patients were admitted with acute ischemic stroke (IS). We were analyzed risk factors, subtypes, stroke severity (Scandinavian Stroke Scale), and thirty-day outcome. There were 1484 (52.3%) female, and they were older than male (67.8 +/- 10.6 vs. 65.7 +/- 10.5, p<0.0001). Hypertension (78% vs. 67%, p<0.0001), heart diseases (50% vs. 45%, p=0.009), atrial fibrillation (22% vs. 14%, p<0.0001) and diabetes mellitus (33% vs. 21%, p<0.0001) were frequently in female, while smoking (45% vs. 14%) and alcohol overuse (18% vs. 0,6%) in male (p<0.0001). Atherothrombotic type of ischemic stroke was frequently in male (37.4% vs. 31.6%, p=0.0013) and cardioembolic in female (21.7% vs. 15.5%, p<0.0001). At admission female had lower SS (SS 31.0 +/- 15 vs. 34.0 +/- 15, p<0.0001). Thirty-day mortality was significantly higher in female (23.3% vs. 18.4%, p=0.0015), and favourable outcome within one month (Rankin Scale <or= 2) had 58% male and 51% female (p=0.001). The frequency of ischemic stroke is higher in female who are older than male. There are some sex differences according to the distribution of risk factors and subtypes of ischemic stroke. Stroke severity at admission, thirty-day mortality, and disability are higher in female.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is very frequent in children with intellectual disability. The aim of this study was to examine the occurrence of ADHD in children with intellectual ...disability in Bosnia and Herzegovina with regard to their sex, etiology and level of intellectual disability. The method for data collection was the examination of the children's medical records. The sample consisted of 167 children attending two special education facilities in Sarajevo. Overall occurrence of the disorder was found to be 20.4%, a finding which is in accordance with existing studies. The results in this study revealed different male to female ratio (1.5:1) of the disorder as compared to existing studies. A difference in the prevalence of ADHD was found in relation to the level of intellectual disability. There are many children with dual diagnosis of intellectual disability and ADHD. It is necessary that multidisciplinary team is involved in the creation of behavioral and educational programs for these children.
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