Hopelessness is a strong predictor of suicide which is closely associated with PTSD in war veterans. Previous studies showed that if religious faith in war veterans was weakened it contributed to ...more extensive current use of mental health services. War trauma experience can weaken religious faith as well as strengthen it. It partly depends on religious coping which can be positive or negative.
In our work we present correlation between hopelessness (measured with Beck Hopelessness Scale) and style of religious coping (positive or negative, measured with R-COPE) in 111 Croatian war veterans with PTSD and 39 healthy volunteers.
Veterans with PTSD were more hopeless than healthy volunteers, and had greater usage of negative religious coping. In PTSD group, less hopeless veterans showed greater extent in use of positive religious coping strategies.
These findings suggest that experts treating male combat veterans with PTSD should inquire about religious coping of the individual. Positive religious coping should be encouraged while negative religious coping should be addressed appropriately.
Psoriasis, as same as other skin diseases, has an influence on many spheres of patient's life. It influences the mental image the patients have of themselves and it indirectly shapes their ...personality traits as well as it defines the quality of their lives. The purpose of the study was to examine the impact of psoriasis on the quality of life and gender differences in the quality of life and explore presence of neurotic symptoms among persons suffering from psoriasis in comparison to general population. During the treatment of persons suffering from psoriasis at the special hospital Naftalan in Ivanić Grad personality questionnaire and Quality of life scale were administered to 61 participants (m = 25; f = 36). Our results showed few gender differences in the satisfaction with specific life domains, but only differences in the satisfaction with sexual life could be related to the different effects psoriasis has on the quality of life of men and women. Our participants experience more anxiety and depression symptoms as well phobic fears in comparison to general population. Found genders differences in the presence and intensity of anxiety symptoms closely resemble those documented in the general population therefore aren't typical for people suffering from psoriasis.
In the sample of 1134 suicides committed in the period 1988-2011 in Bjelovar-Bilogora County, we have analyzed the number of suicides, methods, scene and time of committing, gender, age and probable ...motives, comparing results from the Homeland war period, pre-war and post-war period, and the period of the economic expansion and recession. The study results show increase in the suicide rate in wartime and stagnation in the period of the recession. Age-standardized suicide rates for all ages are higher than the Croatian average. Men commit suicides more than women, and 3.53% of the total number of suicides are committed by minors. The most frequent method of performing suicide was by hanging, most suicides were committed in the morning hours, in the spring months, in closed buildings (houses, outbuildings), the most probable motive for suicide is a disease. Seen by periods, suicide rate is the highest in the wartime, with an increase in the percentage of suicides committed by firearms and explosives, and outdoor committed suicides. During the period of the expansion and the recession, we note a shift of suicides toward people in their fifties. The ratio of male and female suicides is the highest in the periods of crisis.
Psoriasis is a disease with a profound impact on the psychological and social aspects of the patient, particularly because of its visibility. Quality of life is impaired and different mental health ...disorders like depression, anxiety, alcoholism, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are found among persons suffering from psoriasis. Studies have shown the influence of stressful life events on onset, exacerbation and relapse of psoriasis. Rare studies explored prevalence of psoriasis during war times and relations between psoriasis and war provoked PTSD. Psoriasis is a disease with multiple possible causes and additional caution is necessary among medical professional to recognize all contributing factors. This report describes a case of a person whose first episode of psoriasis appeared six months after engaging in combat activities. He is diagnosed with psoriasis vulgaris, psoriatic arthritis and permanent personality changes after the traumatic experiences caused by war participation. His occupational history is burdened with additional causational factors; work with heavy metals and metal dusts. Cumulative effects of different aetiological factors can contribute to psoriasis with intensive trauma induced stressors serving as a trigger. His medical history indicates cognitive difficulties typical for early dementia which makes this case even more interesting. Research results suggesting common aetiology of psoriasis, autoimmune diseases and neurodegenerative diseases, indicate a need, as in the case of our patient, for multidisciplinary approach to studying aetiology of psoriasis.
We present our preliminary results of work that aims to observe the relationship between the cortisol level, the level of spiritual well-being, and suicidal tendencies in Croatian war veterans ...suffering from PTSD. The survey was conducted on 17 PTSD veterans who completed the Spiritual Well-Being Scale and the Beck Hopelessness Scale. The plasma cortisol level was obtained by venepuction at 8.00, 12.00, 13.00, 16.00, and 22.00 h. Results showed that veterans with higher spiritual well-being scores had lower cortisol levels, and evening cortisol levels showed significant correlation with suicidal risk. The results of the present study could be a stimulus for further investigation into spiritually based interventions, exploring their impact both on mental status and physical health.
Severity of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS), measured by disease-specific health-related quality-of-life questionnaires, is expected to increase in patients who also suffer from posttraumatic stress ...disorder (PTSD). Altered pain perception, sleep disorders, and fatigue may be associated with this comorbidity.
Severity of CRS was compared between a group of 28 patients with CRS and a group of 28 patients with CRS and concomitant PTSD using different disease-specific and generic instruments, such as visual analog scale (VAS), Short Form-36 test (SF-36), and Sino-Nasal Outcome Test-22 (SNOT 22).
SNOT-22 test showed significantly higher CRS severity in patients with CRS and PTSD, compared to patients with CRS without PTSD.
Patients with less severe CRS, measured by objective outcome measures, due to the impact of comorbid PTSP, are classified as having severe rhinosinusitis, and are exposed to the risk of unnecessary diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. In patients with difficult-to-treat rhinosinusitis, diagnosis should be revised, and one item that should be evaluated is whether they suffer from PTSD.
Based on the data provided by the Registry of the Department of Psychiatry, General Hospital Bjelovar, an epidemiological study of the hospital treated patients for the years 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, ...2000, 2005 and 2010 was made. In determining the diagnostic groups, the authors used the International Classification of Diseases ICD-10 and the World Health Organization's (WHO) recommendations, adjusting all diagnostic entities to that classification. The study sample consists of patients hospitalized at the Department of Psychiatry, General Hospital Bjelovar in the years mentioned above. Following parameters were analyzed: total number of hospitalizations, gender, age and hospitalization outcome--by diagnostic groups. What is noted is the decrease in the total number of psychiatric hospitalizations, the reduction of the proportion of men and women in the sample, and the decrease of mortality. In the observed period, the number of hospitalized patients diagnosed as alcoholics decreased, and the number of patients hospitalized with diagnosed as alcoholics decreased, and the number of patients hospitalized with diagnosed dementia, affective disorders, and critical conditions increased, while the number of the hospitalized schizophrenic patients has been oscillating. The main differences between the results of the initial and final year of the epidemiological study have been analyzed by the chi square test. The results of the epidemiological study shall help the evaluation, rational planning and further development in the protection of mental health of the inhabitants of the Bjelovar-Bilogora County.
This paper presents the case of a patient suffering from atypical depression, with excessive daytime sleepiness, which was a suicidal equivalent. Patients who suffer from depression and sleep ...disorders can have an increased risk of suicidality, and to them should pay increased attention. Field of suicide as a means of resolving conflicts and unconscious mental escape from the reality of the obstacles, including sleep and daytime sleepiness, which may represent a form of "temporary suicide". The authors recommend that hypersomnia, daytime sleepiness in depressed patients and other sleep disorders should be treated as a potential risk factor for suicidal behavior.
When second generation antipsychotics were introduced in the mid 1990-s they offered the possibility of early psychopharmacological interventions in the treatment of schizophrenia. The idea applying ...antipsychotics in the prodromal phase of schizophrenia today is an realistic option. However ethical dilemmas about offering antipsychotics to the adolescents with at risk mental states, of whom only a few are real prodromes of schizophrenia remain for clinicians. In the literature about the ethics of the early interventions in psychiatry there are still many ethical questions which call for caution because of the low predictive value of at risk mental states, of which only 40% turn out to be a real prodrome of schizophrenia. These ethical questions can be addressed in three categories: - how to best identify who should receive early pharmacological intervention? - what this intervention should consist of? - how to evaluate treatment efficacy in the absence of illness base rates in the adolescents with a real prodrome of schizophrenia? Besides, arguing against the concept of early psychopharmacological interventions in the adolescent population are the fact of the unknown effect of antipsychotics on the developing brain as well as negative effects of stigma on those adolescents who receive them. The authors in the article analyse these ethical questions and take the side of those clinicians who think that caution and careful ethical judgment are needed before the prescribing of antipsychotics to adolescents with at risk mental states.
U ovom radu je prikazan slučaj pacijentice oboljele od atipične depresije, s prekomjernom dnevnom pospanošću, koja je predstavljala suicidalni ekvivalent. Pacijenti koji pate od depresivnosti i ...poremećaja spavanja mogu imati i povećan rizik za suicidalnost, pa na njih treba obratiti povećanu pozornost. Područje suicida kao sredstva za rješavanje nesvjesnih mentalnih konflikata i bijega od prepreka iz stvarnosti, uključuje i spavanje i dnevnu pospanost koji mogu predstavljati oblik »privremenog samoubojstva«. Autori preporučuju hipersomniju i druge poremećaje spavanja tretirati kao potencijalni rizični faktor za suicidalno ponašanje.
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