Search

The functional remission or recovery of schizophrenia patients is a challenging task which relies on pharmacotherapy but also on the timing of psychotherapy and other therapeutic interventions. The study aimed to assess the difference in strength and structure of symptoms networks between early and late phase schizophrenia. Our secondary objective was to check whether the overall, positive, negative, and general symptoms severity change over the course of treatment and disorder.This nested cross-sectional analysis combined the samples from two studies performed during 2014-2016 at University Psychiatric Hospital Vrapče, Zagreb, Croatia on the consecutive sample of men 30-60 years old diagnosed with schizophrenia, 85 of them in the early (≤5 years from diagnosis), and 143 in the late phase of the illness. The study was funded by the project: "Biomarkers in schizophrenia - integration of complementary methods in longitudinal follow up of FEP patients".Median (IQR) age of the participant in the early phase was 36 (32-45) years and in the late phase 44 (38-49) years. Patients in the early phase had significantly higher odds for being in the symptomatic remission compared to the patients in the late-phase schizophrenia (OR=2.11; 95% CI 1.09-4.09) and had 10% less pronounced negative symptoms. The global strength, density, and structure of the symptoms network were not significantly different between the two study groups.Negative symptoms severity change with the course of illness and differ from the early to the late phase of schizophrenia. However, the overall network of psychotic symptoms is relatively stable, and overall strengths or density and the partial relationship between particular symptoms do not change significantly. The observed worsening of negative symptoms is probably at least partially caused by the lack of clear guidelines and effective treatment options aimed specifically toward negative symptoms.

Although family should be the basis for the development and formation of a child's personality, violence is mostly done in the family, and remains undiscovered for a long time. The real number of abused children is much more than that displayed in the registered cases. The secrecy of the problem is an important feature of this phenomenon. Families in which abuse takes place are mostly isolated. Social isolation does not come about by chance; secrecy is usually encouraged by an abuser to control over famoly members. In most cases, social reaction to violence is late, inadequate and focused on the consequences, but not on the causes. "Abuse implies an act of execution that directly inflicts damage, while neglect implies an act of non-fulfillment of something that is necessary for the well-being of a child". The most common forms of domestic violence are physical, emotional abuse in the presence of violence against the mother, and in a lesser extent sexual abuse. In addition, there is physical, emotional, educational and medical neglect. The presence of violence against the mother and the feeling of impotence leave the same consequences as the endured violence. It is considered that children living in violent families are likely to live under cumulative stress. Traumatic responses include a wide range of conditions from acute stress reactions through post-traumatic stress disorder to complex long-lasting, repeated trauma syndrome. All children will not react to this kind of experience in the same way, with the protective and risk factors in developmental psychopathology having a significant role to play. Because of their developmental vulnerability and dependency, children are at greater risk of violence than adults. Researches point to the need for a multidisciplinary approach to treatment and prevention of child abuse, with greater interaction between health institutions, relevant centers for social work, police, court, government and non-governmental sector, and the existence of adequate family and criminal laws.

The catchphrase "we are in this together" now has a deeper meaning as this kind of behavior seems to have a profound impact on our psyche and is potentially a protective factor. Once again, it seems that the herd offers more protection than just immunity.

The last pandemic comparable to the current COVID- 19 pandemic was the Spanish flu. Using the admission record books for the years 1917 and 1918 and electronic health records for the years 2019 and 2020, we extracted the relevant data and explored how they affected the numbers of emergency psychiatric admissions. The general trend in both pandemics was that they did not cause a rise in psychiatric admissions, findings which go along with reports around Europe. The causes for these similarities are complex but provide an interesting perspective as to why there is no concurrent rise in emergency psychiatric admissions.

U današnjem društvu postoji jasan trend porasta broja osoba starije životne dobi pa time i sve veća statistička značajnost broja osoba oboljelih od Alzheimerove bolesti što generira povećanu potrebu adekvatne skrbi za oboljele. Uz formalne oblike skrbi (pružene od profesionalaca iz sustava zdravstvene i socijalne skrbi), neformalna njega značajan je resurs u pružanju skrbi osobama s demencijom. Neformalni njegovatelji su pojedinci koji se dobrovoljno brinu za člana obitelji ili prijatelja koji se suočava sa bolešću, invaliditetom ili bilo kojim drugim stanjem koje zahtijeva posebnu pažnju. S obzirom na tijek i duljinu trajanja Alzheimerove bolesti i sama skrb za oboljelog je dugotrajna i iscrpljuća, a uključuje sve razine funkcioranja njegovatelja pa ju je potrebno sagledavati u kontekstu kako ekonomskog, tako i emocionalnog, mentalnog i fizičkog stanja njegovatelja. Iako može imati i neke blagotvorne aspekte, skrb za oboljeloga je obično vrlo stresna i može u značajnoj mjesti utjecati na zdravlje i dobrobit njegovatelja te je stoga potrebno razmotriti probleme i opterećenja s kojima se susreću njegovatelji osoba oboljelih od Alzheimerove bolesti., In modern society, the number of elderly individuals is higher and so is the statistical significance of people living with Alzheimer’s disease. This trend results in a higher demand for adequate care for such patients. Along with formal care (provided by social workers and other health care professionals), informal care has become a significant resource in the nursing of individuals with dementia. Informal caregivers are individuals who voluntarily attend to the needs of a family member or a frend living with illness, handicap, or any other condition that requires special needs. Considering the course and duration of Alzheimer’s disease, the nursing of patients can also be lengthy and exhausting. Moreover, all aspects of a caregiver’s job must be taken into consideration starting the mental, emotional, and physical health to nursing expences. Although there are positive aspects, nursing an individual with dementia is extremely stressful and significantly affect the health and wellbeing of the caregiver, and therefore it is necessary to take into consideration all difficulties and problems caregivers of people living with Alzheimer’s disease may encounter.

Aim To identify genetic variants underlying biochemical traits – total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, triglycerides, uric acid, albumin, and fibrinogen, in a genomewide association study in an isolated population where rare variants of larger effect may be more easily identified. Methods The study included 944 adult inhabitants of the island of Korčula, as a part of larger DNA-based genetic epidemiological study in 2007. Biochemical measurements were performed in a single laboratory with stringent internal and external quality control procedures. Examinees were genotyped using Human Hap370CNV chip by Illumina, with a genome-wide scan containing 346 027 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP). Results A total of 31 SNPs were associated with 7 investigated traits at the level of P < 1.00 × 10−5. Nine of SNPs implicated the role of SLC2A9 in uric acid regulation (P = 4.10 × 10−6-2.58 × 10−12), as previously found in other populations. All 22 remaining associations fell into the P = 1.00 × 10−5-1.00 × 10−6 significance range.. One of them replicated the association between cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) and HDL, and 7 associations were more than 100 kilobases away from the closest known gene. Nearby SNPs, rs4767631 and rs10444502, in gene kinase suppressor of ras 2 (KSR2) on chromosome 12 were associated with LDL cholesterol levels, and rs10444502 in the same gene with total cholesterol levels. Similarly, rs2839619 in gene PBX/knotted 1 homeobox 1 (PKNOX1) on chromosome 21 was associated with total and LDL cholesterol levels. The remaining 9 findings implied possible associations between phosphatidylethanolamine N-methyltransferase (PEMT) gene and total cholesterol; USP46, RAP1GDS1, and ZCCHC16 genes and triglycerides; BCAT1 and SLC14A2 genes and albumin; and NR3C2, GRIK2, and PCSK2 genes and fibrinogen. Conclusion Although this study was underpowered for most of the reported associations to reach formal threshold of genome-wide significance under the assumption of independent multiple testing, replications of previous findings and consistency of association between the identified variants and more than one studied trait make such findings interesting for further functional follow-up studies. Changed allele frequencies in isolate population may contribute to identifying variants that would not be easily identified in much larger samples in outbred populations.

The use of renal cortical slices in vitro and the data obtained in these studies have been subjects of controversy, largely due to uncertain viability, e.g., structural and functional integrity of the proximal and other tubules. However, detailed studies of tubule integrity have not been reported. To correlate functional and structural viability of the hand-cut rat renal cortical slices, incubated in optimally conditioned media for up to 25 h, we studied the time course of p-aminohippurate (PAH) uptake, the immunocytochemical distribution of several proteins that reside in the proximal tubule basolateral [Na/K-ATPase, organic anion transporters (OAT)1 and OAT3], or brush border [megalin, sodium-proton exchanger (NHE)3] membrane, as well as the general integrity of the tubule epithelium and its cytoskeleton (actin filaments, microtubules). PAH uptake in slices was proportional to time within 1 h of incubation and gradually declined thereafter. The immunostaining experiments indicated a fast, time-dependent loss of basolateral transporters, at a rate of OAT1 > Na/K-ATPase > OAT3. In the brush border membrane, the loss of megalin was faster than that of NHE3, and a partial redistribution of NHE3 into the basolateral domain indicated the loss of cell polarity. The loss of intracellular actin and tubulin cytoskeleton in the proximal tubule was already visible after 15 min of incubation and gradually increased with time, whereas a partial redistribution of actin to the basolateral domain indicated a compromised polarity of the cells. The data also revealed very early (after 15 min) necrotic events in the proximal tubule epithelium, with sloughing of brush border and cell debris into the tubule lumen, detachment of cells from the basal membrane, and opening and widening of the tubule lumen. We conclude that the loss of cellular structure, cytoskeleton, and cell membrane transporters in the nephron epithelium is a very early event in the incubated rat renal cortical slices.