Background: The covert or indirect type of aggression has a risk of converting in violent acts and, considering that, it is very important to identify it in order to apply effective preventive ...measures. In cases of psychotic patients, the risk of becoming violent is harder to predict, as even neuter stimuli may be perceived as threat and trigger aggression. Treating all the psychiatric patients as potential aggressive subjects is not the best preventive measure as only a few of them are aggressive and this measure may further enhance the stigma on mentally ill patients. There is a current need for better understanding of covert aggression and to find objective measures, such as biological markers, that could be indicative of potential violent behavior. In this work, we try to investigate the role of cortisol and oxytocin as potential biomarkers of aggression in patients with psychosis. Material and Methods: We analyzed the level of peripheral oxytocin (pg/mL) and cortisol level (ng/mL) in 28 psychotic patients (they were not on psychotropic treatment at the moment of admission and those with substance abuse or personality disorder were excluded from the study) and correlated it with the intensity of aggression reported by the patient (overt and covert type) using the Overt Covert Aggression Inventory and the level of observed aggression of the patient in the past 7 days (rated by the health care provider) using the Modified Overt Aggression Scale. Results: We found that psychotic patients with a higher level of covert aggression had a lower level of cortisol (61.05 ± 8.04 ng/mL vs. 216.33 ± 12.6.9 ng/mL, p ˂ 0.01) and a higher level of oxytocin (102.87 ± 39.26 vs. 70.01 ± 25.07, p = 0.01) when compared with patients with a lower level of covert aggression. Furthermore, we observed significant negative correlation between cortisol and covert aggression (r = −0.676, p < 0.001) and between oxytocin and covert type of aggression (r = 0.382, p = 0.04). Moreover, we found that a lower level of cortisol together with a higher level of oxytocin are significant predictors of a style of internalized manifestation of aggression, with the predictive model explaining 55% of the variant of the internalized manifestation of aggression (F (2.25) = 17.6, p < 0.001, β = 0.35, R2 = 55.2). We did not find significant correlations between cortisol and overt aggression, and neither between oxytocin and overt aggression. Positive correlations were also found between the overt type of self-reported aggression and overt aggression reported by the rater (r = 0.459, p = 0.01). Conclusions: The importance of a predictive model in understanding covert aggression is imperative and the results of our study show that oxytocin and cortisol warrant to be further investigated in establishing a definitive predictive model for covert aggression.
Background: Although it is generally accepted that there is an increased oxidative stress status in alcoholics, the separate relevance of oxidative stress following alcohol withdrawal is still not ...understood to this date. There are reports stating that the increased oxidative stress status in alcoholics may persist independently of the constant presence of alcohol intake, while on the other side, it was demonstrated that the antioxidant defense mechanism could significantly increase after alcohol withdrawal.
Methods: In the present work, we were interested in studying the relevance of oxidative stress status in the alcohol withdrawal processes, by determining some oxidative stress markers (two antioxidant enzymes: superoxide dismutase - SOD and glutathione peroxidase - GPX and a lipid peroxidation maker - MDA) after one week and one month of abstinence, as compared to the baseline and a control group of subjects.
Results: Our data confirmed the increased oxidative stress status in alcoholic patients and, more importantly, we de m - onstrated here a significant decrease of the oxidative stress status one week and one month following the withdrawal, as showed by a significant increase in the specific activity of SOD (p<0.003), as well as by a decrease in MDA levels (p<0.019). Still, in the case of all three markers of oxidative stress status which we determined, the levels after one week or one month of abstinence were significantly altered when compared to controls.
Conclusions: This suggests that severe and prolonged deficiency in the oxidative stress marker levels needs longer than one month of abstinence to normalize.
Uvod: lako je poznato da kod alkoholičara postoji stanje po- jačanog oksidativnog stresa, do sada nije zasebno utvrđena važnost oksidativnog statusa u apstinenciji. Neki izveštaji go- vore da stanje povišenog oksidativnog stresa kod alkoholi- čara može trajati nezavisno od stalnog unosa alkohola, dok je s druge strane pokazano da mehanizam antioksidantne odbrane može značajno ojačati posle prestanka konzumira- nja alkohola.
Metode: U ovom radu nas je zanimalo da proučimo važnost statusa oksidativnog stresa u procesima odvikavanja od alko- hola, putem određivanja nekih od markera oksidativnog stre- sa (dva antioksidantna enzima: superoksid-dismutaze - SOD i glutation-peroksidaze - GPX, kao i markera lipidne peroksi- dacije - MDA) posle nedelju dana i posle mesec dana apsti- nencije i poređenja sa nivoima na početku studije i u kontrol- noj grupi ispitanika.
Rezultati: Naši podaci potvrđuju postojanje pojačanog oksi- dativnog stresa kod alkoholičara. Štaviše, pokazali smo ovde da posle nedelju i posle mesec dana apstinencije dolazi do značajnog smanjenja oksidativnog stresa, koje se ogleda u značajnom porastu specifične aktivnosti SOD (p< 0,003) kao i sniženju nivoa MDA (p<0,019). Ipak, u slučaju tri markera statusa oksidativnog stresa koje smo odredili, nivoi posle ne- delju i posle mesec dana apstinencije bili su značajno izme- njeni u poređenju sa kontrolnom grupom.
Zaključak: Ovo ukazuje da je potrebno više od mesec dana apstinencije kako bi se normalizovala ozbiljna i produžena deficijencija u nivoima markera oksidativnog stresa.
Although there are numerous ideas on the management of alcohol dependence, ranging from various schemes of pharmacologic treatment to specific psychotherapeutic approaches, the reviews and ...meta-analyses reveal only modest effects of these approaches. Another approach regarding the problem of alcohol is based on the behavioral biology, specifying that consumption of alcohol is actually a type of behavior, a way of life. The results presented in this report provide evidence to support the idea that the systemic, ethological approach of alcohol-related and complex problems brings additional value when complementing the standard medicinal therapy, both in terms of achieving and maintaining abstinence, as well as in improving the quality of life for the patients.
Ukraine war--a national trauma Cristofor, Ana Caterina; Chirita, Vasile
Bulletin of Integrative Psychiatry,
06/2022, Volume:
28, Issue:
2
Journal Article
The novel coronavirus has a great impact over mental health, individuals with eating disorders may be particularly affected by the distancing measures, quarantine thus to a difficult access to ...professional mental health services, this exacerbating phenomenology .Eating behaviour disorders include anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder in which individuals express abnormal eating behaviours, often resulting in either insufficient or excessive food intake. Multiple implication factors such as genetic, biological, behavioural, and psycho-social have been incriminated. Multiple psychiatric comorbidities can be associated like anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, substance abuse, personality disorders, attention-deficit and an increased risk of suicide. Anaemia, hydro-electrolytic disturbances, cardiovascular diseases, gastrointestinal and endocrine dysfunctions may occur as medical complications. The challenge regarding eating disorders is to understand their mechanism of occurrence, in an attempt to prevent them, as well as to treat them so that they do not put the individual's life in danger.
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