Since the declaration of the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak as pandemic, health workers have shown an incredible commitment to their patients, sometimes in apocalyptic conditions. We explored ...ways to deal with the coronavirus stressor and psychological outcomes among physicians and nurses.
124 healthcare workers in General Hospital Nasice (Croatia) were invited to participate in a study by performing within the period of March 26 to April 6 2020 questionnaire collected information on socio-demographic characteristics and living conditions that may be risk factors for covid-19 concern, Short form health survey-36, Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21) and Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WOC; consisting of 8 subscales: Confrontive Coping, Distancing, Self-Controlling, Seeking Social Support, Accepting Responsibility, Escape-Avoidance, Planful Problem Solving, Positive Reappraisal).
11% healthworkers reports moderate to very-severe depression, 17% moderate to extremely-severe anxiety and 10% for moderate to extremely-severe stress. 67% of medical staff are worried. No statistically significant differences in the scales of depression, anxiety, and stress were found between nurses and physicians, but differences were found on Escape-Avoidance and Positive Reappraisal subscales. Nurses use significantly more avoiding coping style and positive reappraisal than doctors. Seeking social support is more pronounced in those over 40 years old, while those under 40 use more avoidable stress management techniques.
Monitoring and ensuring the mental health of coronavirus care staff is crucial for global health. The education of medical staff in the field of stress management is a conditio sine qua non of the issue of an adequate relationship with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Suicide and mood disorders (especially major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar affective disorder (BD)) represent a significant global health burden. Major depressive disorder and bipolar ...affective disorder have been associated with increased risk for suicide. Some specific suicide risk factors might be found in underlying individual personality traits. Specific personality features may predispose an individual to mood disorders (MDD or BD) hence increased suicide risk. The specificity of this research is in the assessment of personality features during the acute phase of illness immediately after suicide attempt which resulted in psychiatric inpatient treatment.
The study included 119 unrelated Caucasian participants with MDD-severe depressive episode without psychotic symptoms (MDD) and BD-severe depressive episode without psychotic symptoms (BD-sDE). Both groups of patients with MDD and BD-sDE were divided into the suicide attempters and non-suicidal group. The diagnoses of the severe depressive episode without psychotic symptoms in major depressive disorder (MDD; F32.2) and bipolar disorder (BD-sDE; F31.4) were made according to ICD-10 (WHO 1992) diagnostic criteria. Methods of suicide attempts were also assessed according to ICD-10 and a self-report questionnaire, the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) was applied.
The participants who exhibited suicide attempt had significantly higher scores on harm-avoidance (HA) (p<0.001), significantly lower score on persistence (PS) (p=0.037) and lower score, however not statistically significant, on novelty-seeking (NS) (p=0.319) regarding temperament dimensions. In character dimensions, the patients with suicidal attempt had significantly lower scores on self-directedness (SD) (p<0.001) and significantly lower scores on cooperativeness (CO) (p=0.001).
Patients who had suicide attempt may have some significantly different personality traits than non-suicidal patients with mood disorders. The combination of high harm-avoidance (HA) and low self-directedness (SD) may be specific for depressive episode while the combination of high HA, novelty-seeking (NS), and self-transcendence (ST) with low SD may be related to suicide attempts during the depressive episode in bipolar disorder. The novelty-seeking (NS), self-transcendence (ST) and self-directedness (SD) may be specific for suicidal group of bipolar patients.
Background and objectives. Diet is the crucial environmental factor in sporadic colorectal cancer. Its complexity and diversity reflect our cultural and historical background, and could potentially ...explain why the existing public health strategies focused on colorectal cancer are failing. Materials and methods. An observational cross-sectional study encompassed 60 non-metastatic CRC patients to assess dietary factors related to colorectal cancer, with regard to their traditional diet i.e. the region they come from. Patients were recruited from two regions (30 patients per region), in one (Slavonia) traditional diet is abundant in well-known dietary risk factors for colorectal cancer, and in the second (Dalmatia) traditional diet is the Mediterranean type. Results. Based on the logistic regression analysis, patients from Dalmatia have a 24% higher risk for the high-risk diet in comparison to patients from Slavonia (OR = 1.240, 95% CI 1.195 – 9.990, P=0.022). Identified independent risk factors include weight loss in the last 3 months along with daily alcohol consumption which were found to increase CRC risk by 61.4% and 53.1%, respectively. Conclusions. Our results support statistical data showing that colorectal cancer incidence is higher in the Mediterranean region, suggesting a shift in the Mediterranean dietary pattern, which in our case were higher obesity rates, daily alcohol consumption and abundance of unfavorable dietary habits.
Understanding causes and consequences of untreated psychosis is important since the duration of psychosis prior to the treatment initiation is a potentially modifiable prognostic factor, and ...comprehending its impact on outcome may enhance therapeutic strategies.
This cross-sectional study was performed on a consecutive sample of 105 participants, 47 first episode participants and 58 with multiple episodes. Primary outcome was the duration of untreated psychosis (DUP). We observed three independent variables: childhood trauma measured by Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, psychotic symptoms measured by Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and personality dimensions measured by the Inventory of Personality Organization (IPO) (primitive defences, identity diffusion and reality testing). All outcomes were observed among total sample and subgroups of first and multiple episode participants.
Median DUP in total sample was 60.0 (IQR 14.5-285) days. In the subgroup of multiple episode participants, an association between multiple childhood trauma and shorter DUP was found, while no association between DUP and the existence of any specific trauma was found in neither subgroup, or in total sample. With regards to personality dimensions, in the first episode subgroup, significant positive correlations between DUP and primitive defences and reality testing subscales were found, while no correlations in total sample, nor in multiple episode subgroup were observed. Positive symptoms and general psychopathology correlated positively with DUP in total sample, and in first episode subgroup, while in multiple episodes subgroup only a positive correlation with positive symptoms was found. Total PANSS score positively correlated with the DUP only in the first episode subgroup.
DUP was not associated with specific type of childhood trauma. First episode participants with longer DUP had predominant primitive defences and severely decreased ability to test reality, while there were no correlations between personality dimensions and DUP in multiple episode subgroup.
Adolescent non-suicidal self-injurious behavior (NSSI) is a major public health concern. Although widespread, it is yet often a hidden problem. The purpose of this study was to explore the ...characteristics of self-injurious behavior in youth treated in an in-patient psychiatric unit.
The study included 105 adolescents with a history of NSSI (mean age 15 years, 80% females) that underwent inpatient psychiatric treatment at a specialized facility. The factors assessed were sociodemographic data, frequency and type of NSSI, history of psychiatric disorder in family, existence of past traumatic event, alcohol, cigarettes and drug dependance and clinical psychiatric diagnosis. Retrospective-chart review study.
Of all assessed, patients with NSSI were predominantly female adolescents. Mean age onset of NSSI in the sample was 15 years. Equal number of patients showed occasional and repetitive NSSI, using self-cutting as a most common mean of self-injury. Approximately ¼ of adolescents met criteria for an adjustment disorder and ¼ for a mixed disorder of conduct and emotions. A low 7.8% met the criterion for borderline personality disorder. We found a statistically significant correlation between alcohol consumption and frequency of self-injurious behavior.
Our study points to the fact that there has been an increase in prevalence of NSSI. Also, NSSI showed to be associated with female gender, alcohol consumption and a broad spectrum of comorbidities. Future research should focus not only on adolescents being hospitalized and treated, but should be representative of the whole young population because there are no national statistics on NSSI among young people in Croatia. Furthermore, future studies should focus on the origin of NSSI as opposed to its characteristics, in order for professionals to be able to prevent the issue.
Influence of dietary supplementation with selenium on blood metabolic profile and thyroid hormones activities in fattening lambs Antunovic, Z. (University of Josip Juraj Strossmayer in Osijek, Osijek (Croatia). Faculty of Agriculture); Novoselec, J. (University of Josip Juraj Strossmayer in Osijek, Osijek (Croatia). Faculty of Agriculture); Speranda, M. (University of Josip Juraj Strossmayer in Osijek, Osijek (Croatia). Faculty of Agriculture) ...
Pakistan veterinary journal,
2016, Letnik:
34, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The aim of the investigation was to determine influence of dietary supplementation with selenium on blood metabolic profile and thyroid hormones activities in fattening lambs. The study included 36 ...Merinolandschaf lambs during fattening period (50 days) divided into three groups (control, Exp-I and Exp-II). The control group diet was not supplemented with Se, whereas the diet of Exp-I was supplemented with 0.3 mg/kg inorganic selenium (sodium selenite) and Exp-II with 0.3 mg/kg organic selenium (Sel-Plex). Concentration of minerals (Ca, P-inorganic, K, Na, Fe and Cl), biochemical indicators (urea, glucose, cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, creatinine, total protein, albumin), enzyme activity (ALT, AST, GGT, LDH and GSH-Px) and thyroid hormone activities (T3, T4) were determined. Significantly higher (P less than 0.01) selenium content and GSH-Px activity as well as the lower content of Ca was determined in the blood of Exp-II and Exp-I groups compared to control group (93.89 and 67.69: 34.11 mug L-1; 607.98 and 556.92: 247.52 mukat L-1; 2.38 and 2.39: 2.76 mmol L-1). Significantly higher (P less than 0.01) selenium content in the in blood of lambs from Exp-II compared to Exp-I group was determined. Significantly higher (P less than 0.05) concentrations of HDL-cholesterol and T3 hormone activity were found in Exp-II group compared to the Exp-I and control groups. The results showed lower blood selenium content in control group and indicate the justification of adding selenium, especially organic selenium in lamb's diets, raising the concentration of Se, GSH-Px enzyme, HDL-cholesterol and T3 hormones improving the health status, especially in areas deficient in selenium.
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