Psychiatrike = Psychiatriki最新文献

Few studies in the literature have examined the effect of meteorological factors, especially temperature, on psychiatric hospitalization and even less on their association with involuntary admission. This study aimed to investigate the potential association of meteorological factors with the involuntary psychiatric hospitalization in the region of Attica, Greece. The research was conducted at the Psychiatric Hospital of Attica "Dafni". This was a retrospective time series study of 8 consecutive years of data (2010 to 2017) and included 6887 involuntarily hospitalized patients. Data on daily meteorological parameters were provided from the National Observatory of Athens. Statistical analysis was based on Poisson or negative binomial regression models with adjusted standard errors. Analyses were initially based on univariable models for each meteorological factor separately. All meteorological factors were taken into account through factor analysis and then, through cluster analysis, an objective grouping of days with similar weather type was performed. The resulting types of days were examined for their effect on the daily number of involuntary hospitalizations. Increases in maximum temperature, in average wind speed and in minimum atmospheric pressure values were associated with an increase in the average number of involuntary hospitalizations per day. Increase of the maximum temperature above 23 °C at lag 6 days before admission did not affect significantly the frequency of involuntary hospitalizations. Low temperature and average relative humidity above 60% levels had a protective effect. The predominant day type at lag 1 to 5 days before admission showed the strongest correlation with the daily number of involuntary hospitalizations. The cold season day type, with lower temperatures and a small diurnal temperature range, northerly winds of moderate speed, high atmospheric pressure and almost no precipitation, was associated with the lowest frequency of involuntary hospitalizations, whereas the warm season day type, with low daily temperature and small daily temperature range during the warm season, high values of relative humidity and daily precipitation, moderate wind speed/gust and atmospheric pressure, was associated with the highest. As climate change increases the frequency of extreme weather events, it is necessary to develop a different organizational and administrative culture of mental health services.

The proportional contribution of mental disorders to the total disease burden in India has almost doubled since 1990. Stigma and discrimination are major barriers to seeking treatment for persons with mental illness (PMI). Stigma reduction strategies are thus crucial, and for this, there needs to be an understanding of the various factors associated with them. The current study intended to assess stigma and discrimination in PMI visiting the department of psychiatry in a teaching hospital in Southern India and their association with various clinical and sociodemographic factors in them. The index study was a descriptive cross-sectional study involving consenting adults who presented to the department of psychiatry with mental disorders from August 2013 to January 2014. Socio-demographic and clinical data were collected using a semi-structured proforma, and the Discrimination and Stigma Scale (DISC-12) was used to assess discrimination and stigma. Most of PMI suffered from bipolar disorder, followed by depression, schizophrenia, and other disorders, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, somatoform disorder, and substance use disorder. Discrimination was experienced by 56% of them and 46% had stigmatizing experiences. Both discrimination and stigma were found to be significantly associated with their age, gender, education, occupation, place of residence, and illness duration. While PMI suffering from depression experienced the highest discrimination, those with schizophrenia faced the stronger stigma. Binary logistic regression revealed depression, family history of psychiatric illness, age of less than 45 years, and rural locality of residence to be the significant determinants of discrimination and stigma. The study thus found that stigma and discrimination were associated with multiple social, demographic, and clinical factors in PMI. A rights-based approach to PMI is the need of the hour to tackle stigma and discrimination, which is already included in recent Indian acts and statutes. Implementation of these approaches is the need of the hour.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic outburst, numerous studies have reported on the holistic approach of the disease, which has negative consequences on physical and mental health as well as short- and long-term effects on cognition, independently of age. The context of the pandemic brought significant demands on public health systems, leading to restrictive measures against coronavirus expansion (quarantines, physical distancing policies, etc.). Such measures are reported to increase perceived loneliness and helplessness and may exacerbate feelings of emotional distress.1 Elderly diagnosed with neurocognitive disorders, i.e., mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia, may present multifaceted cognitive deficits accompanied by neuropsychiatric symptoms, medical comorbidities, and high mortality rates. Furthermore, elderly with MCI/dementia are more vulnerable to SARS-COV-2 infection and disease complications due to decreased compliance with protective measures and multimorbidity. Simultaneously, limited access to health care services, distancing from their loved ones, abrupt changes in their daily routines or cancellation of daycare programs may make them more susceptible to pandemic secondary effects. According to the World Health Organization about 55 million people live with dementia globally. Dementia diagnosis was reported as an independent risk factor for increased mortality rate among the elderly infected with SARS-COV-2.2 Cross-sectional studies conducted all over Europe reported increased cognitive deterioration rate in patients with MCI and dementia during lockdown compared to the pre-lockdown period, as well as among dementia patients infected with COVID-19 compared to those not infected.3 Exacerbation of pre-existing sleep/appetite dysregulation and aberrant motor behavior, worsened symptoms of apathy, depression, and agitation, a rise in delirium episodes and disease-related falls and onset of behavioral symptoms during quarantine occurred.4 Also, patients living alone expressed excessive worrying and an overall decline in well-being. However, results from a large cohort study conducted in England failed to distinguish COVID-19 effects on dementia patients' psychological state between 2018 and 2020, possibly due to the small number of dementia patients recruited and disease severity.5 Among the Greek elderly, dementia prevalence rates range between 5-10.8% and 32.4% for MCI incidence.6,7 Only a few studies have investigated the impact of COVID-19 quarantine on mental and psychological health of the Greek elderly diagnosed with cognitive disorders. A longitudinal study was conducted between 2018 and 2020 including a rather large number of elderly people with MCI or Alzheimer's disease (AD). The authors compared the objectively assessed deterioration difference pre- and during the quarantine in terms of cognition, behavior and function level. They concluded that no significant quarantine-related changes were detected in cognition betwe

COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an unprecedented crisis with extreme distress for the frontline physicians and increased risk of developing burnout. Burnout has a negative impact on patients and physicians, posing a substantial risk in patient safety, quality of care and physicians' overall wellbeing. We evaluated burnout prevalence and possible predisposing factors among anaesthesiologists in the COVID-19 referral university/tertiary hospitals in Greece. In this multicenter, cross-sectional study we have included anaesthesiologists, involved in the care of patients with COVID-19, during the fourth peak of the pandemic (11/2021), in the 7 referral hospitals in Greece. The validated Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) were used. The response rate was 98% (116/118). More than half of the respondents were females (67.83%, median age 46 years). The overall Cronbach's alpha for MBI and EPQ was 0.894 and 0.877, respectively. The majority (67.24%) of anaesthesiologists were assessed as "high risk for burnout" and 21.55% were diagnosed with burnout syndrome. Almost half participants experienced high levels of all three dimensions of burnout; high emotional exhaustion (46.09%), high depersonalization (49.57%) and high levels of low personal accomplishment (43.49%). Multivariate logistic analysis revealed that neuroticism was an independent factor predicting "high risk for burnout" as well as burnout syndrome, whereas the "Lie scale" of EPQ exhibited a protective effect against burnout. Burnout prevalence in Greek anaesthesiologists working in COVID-19 referral hospitals during the fourth peak of the pandemic was high. Neuroticism was predictive of both "high risk for burnout" and "burnout syndrome".

Involuntary psychiatric hospitalization is a contested issue in mental health care provision. Despite indications of very high rates of involuntary hospitalizations in Greece, no valid national statistical data has been collected. After reviewing current research on involuntary hospitalizations in Greece, the paper introduces the Study of Involuntary Hospitalizations in Greece (MANE), a multi-centre national study of the rates, process, determinants and outcome of involuntary hospitalizations, conducted in the regions of Attica, Thessaloniki and Alexandroupolis, from 2017 to 2020, and presents some preliminary comparative findings regarding the rates and process of involuntary hospitalizations. There is a major difference in the rates of involuntary hospitalizations between Alexandroupolis (around 25%) and Athens and Thessaloniki (over 50%), that is possibly related to the sectorized organization of mental health services in Alexandroupolis and to the benefits of not covering a metropolitan urban area. There is a significantly larger percentage of involuntary admissions that end in involuntary hospitalization in Attica and Thessaloniki compared to Alexandroupolis. Reversely, of those accessing the emergency departments voluntarily, almost everyone is admitted in Athens, while large percentages are not admitted in Thessaloniki and in Alexandroupolis. A significantly higher percentage of patients were formally referred upon discharge in Alexandroupolis compared to Athens and Thessaloniki. This may be due to increased continuity of care in Alexandroupolis and that might explain the low rates of involuntary hospitalization there. Finally, re-hospitalization rates were very high in all the study centers, demonstrating the revolving-door phenomenon, especially for voluntary hospitalizations. The MANE project came to address the gap in national recording of involuntary hospitalizations, by implementing, for the first time, a coordinated monitoring of involuntary hospitalizations in three regions of the country with different characteristics, so that a picture of involuntary hospitalizations can be drawn at national level. The project contributes to raising awareness of this issue at the level of national health policy and to formulating strategic goals to address the problem of violation of human rights and to promote mental health democracy in Greece.

Literature findings have suggested that psychological factors, including anxiety, depression and somatic symptom disorder (SSD), are predictors of poor outcomes in individuals with chronic low back pain (CLBP). The aim of this study was to examine the correlations between anxiety, depression and SSD with pain, disability and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in Greek CLBP patients. Ninety-two participants with CLBP recruited using random systematic sampling from an outpatient physiotherapy department, who completed a battery of paper-and-pencil questionnaires included items on demographic characteristics, as well the Numerical Pain Rating Scale (NPRS) for pain, the Rolland-Morris Disability Questionnaire for disability (RMDQ), the EuroQoL 5-dimension 5-level (EQ-5D-5L) for health status, the Somatic Symptom Scale-8 (SSS-8) for SSD, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) for anxiety and depression. A Mann-Whitney test and a Kruskall-Wallis test were used for the comparison of continuous variables between two groups and among more than two groups, respectively. Moreover, Spearman correlations coefficients were used to explore the association between subjects' demographics, SSS-8, HADS-Anxiety, HADS-Depression, NPS, RMDQ and EQ-5D-5L indices. Predictors of health status, pain and disability were assessed using multiple regression analyses, whereas the level of statistical significance was set at p<0.05. The response rate was 94.6% (87 participants, 55 of whom were women) and the mean age of the sample was 59.6 years (SD=15.1). A tendency of weak negative associations was noted between scores of SSD, anxiety and depression with EQ-5D-5L indices, whereas only a weak positive correlation was found between levels of SSD with pain and disability. After examining in a multiple regression analysis, only SSD emerged as prognostic factor of poor HRQoL, greater levels of pain and disability. In conclusion, the elevated scores of SSD significantly predict worse HRQoL, intense pain and severe disability in Greek CLBP patients. Further research is needed to test our findings in larger and more representative samples of the Greek general population.

In philosophy, intentionality involves directedness, aboutness, or reference of mental states. It seems to have intense connections with mental representation, consciousness, as well as evolutionary selected functions. Naturalizing intentionality, in terms of tracking or functional roles, is one of the most important goals in philosophy of mind. Such what-matters models would be useful, employing a combination of the principles of intentionality and causality. For example, the brain contains a seeking system that is responsible for its capacity of having an instinct-like urge towards something or towards wanting. Reward circuits are linked with emotional learning, reward seeking, reward learning, as well as with the homeostatic system and the hedonic system. We may suggest that such brain systems reflect components of a broad intentional system, whereas non-linear dynamics can explain the complex behavior of such chaotic or fuzzy systems. Historically, the cusp catastrophe model has been used to predict health behaviors. It can explain why relatively small changes in a parameter can result in catastrophic changes in the state of a system. If distal risk is low, then proximal risk will be linearly related to psychopathology. If distal risk is high, then proximal risk is nonlinearly related to a severe psychopathology and small changes in proximal risk predict a sudden lapse. The phase of hysteresis can explain how a network stays active long after the events in the external field that triggered its activation have waned. It seems that in psychotic patients there is a failure of intentionality, due to the inappropriateness of an intentional object or connection, or due to the absence of an intentional object altogether. In psychosis, these failures seem to occur through a non-linear and multifactor fluctuating pattern of intentionality. The ultimate goal is to provide a better understanding of relapse. The sudden collapse can be explained by an already fragile intentional system rather than by a novel stressor. The catastrophe model may help individuals remove themselves from a hysteresis cycle, and strategies for sustainable management of such cases should focus on maintaining resilience. Focusing on disruptions of intentionality can deepen and enrich our understanding of radical disturbances involved in different psychopathologies, including psychosis.

Pandemics precipitate feelings of discomfort and anxiety in healthcare professionals. This study investigates the prevalence of anxiety and depression among public primary health care professionals (PHCPs) in Greece, along with the demographic risk factors, during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, in order to address work exhaustion and protect frontline professionals' psycho-emotional balance. This cross-sectional study was conducted from June 2021 to August 2021, using an online questionnaire (demographic data, GAD-7, PHQ-9). Eligible participants (medical, nursing, allied professionals) were PHCPs employed in Greek public PHC facilities. Analysis involved descriptive statistics to present sociodemographic characteristics, participants' experience with COVID-19, anxiety and depression levels. Univariate analysis was performed to evaluate the association between sociodemographic factors and the anxiety and depression levels, and multivariable logistic regression was used to investigate the presence of predictive factors for anxiety and depression. In total, 236 PHCPs participated in the study, with a mean age of 46 (SD 9.3) years and a mean professional experience of 14.71 (SD 9.2) years. Most participants were women (71.4%) and the majority were General Practitioners (38.9%) and Nurses (35.2%). Anxiety (33.1% mild, 29.9% moderate/ severe) and depression (33.9% mild, 25.9% moderate/ severe) were prevalent among PHCPs. The female gender is the most important predictor of anxiety manifestations (OR:3.50, 95%CI:1.39-10.7; p=0.014). Participants older than 50 years have a lower risk of both anxiety (OR=0.46, 95%CI:0.20-0.99; p=0.049) and depression (OR=0.48, 95%CI:0.23-0.95; p=0.039). PHCPs working in rural facilities have a lower risk of anxiety (OR:0.34, 95%CI:0.137-0.80; p=0.016). Previous infection with SARS-CoV-2 was not associated either with anxiety (p=0.087) or with depression (p=0.056). Notably, having a friend, relative, or coworker who was hospitalized for COVID-19 or died from it, was not associated with the presence of anxiety or depressive symptoms. Additionally, living with someone in a high-risk group for severe SARS-CoV-2, living with children or being at high risk for severe COVID-19 was not associated with higher GAD-7 and PHQ-9 scores. Findings indicate concerning levels of psychological distress among PHCPs. Early recognition of emotional discomfort in PHCPs and the prompt intervention could reinforce PHCPs' resilience against the pandemic.

Low back pain is a relatively common health problem which afflicts many adults, and its prevalence increases with age. Several studies have indicated that psychosocial factors are of importance in low back pain. The aim of this study was to carry out a systematic review of the efficacy of psychoeducation in managing low back pain from evidence provided by randomised controlled trials. The inclusion criteria for studies included in this systematic review were randomised controlled trials; patients with low back pain, with or without sciatica; the inclusion of a psychoeducation (treatment) arm; and age of patients ≥ 17 years. Data extraction revealed the heterogeneous nature of the psychoeducational interventions. Accordingly, it was deemed inappropriate to carry out a formal meta-analysis. Ultimately, nine studies, corresponding to 10 publications, were included in the systematic review. When possible, group contrast mean difference effect sizes were calculated for the studies. Overall, favourable outcomes associated with personalised telephone coaching, while unfavourable outcomes were associated with both Transtheoretical Model-based counselling and motivational enhancement treatment. Other forms of one-to-one counselling were associated with intermediate outcomes. Psychoeducation via personalised telephone coaching was particularly associated with reduced low back pain, reduced daily living disability, improved function and improved recovery expectation. On the basis of this review, the following suggestions are made relating to the design and publication of future studies of the efficacy of psychoeducation in the management of low back pain. First, it would be good to use an experimental design which blinds both the patients and the assessors to group status. Second, it is recommended that all the relevant outcome data from a study are published, either in the corresponding paper or in an on-line supplement. Third, it is important to ensure that the intervention and control groups are matched at baseline. Clearly, baseline group differences can emerge following random allocation of patients into two groups. It may be useful, therefore, to carry out all baseline assessments immediately prior to the randomisation process; an independent assessor could then examine the degree of matching at baseline before the rest of the study proceeds. It is also important that sufficiently large sample sizes be recruited.

The Psychiatric Hospital of Corfu was founded in 1838 by the (British) Ionian State and was joined in Greek territory in 1864. It was the unique psychiatric hospital in Greece, until the establishment of Dromokaition Hospital of Athens, in 1887. In its long history many of the patients' admissions had a local character, mainly from Corfu, the Ionian Islands, and later from Western Greece. Until the 1950s, we can follow efforts to improve buildings and patient care, but we note also long hospitalizations of men and women and high death rates. It had been an isolated institution until it joined the National Health System in 1983. It closed its doors in 2006, after a long reform process started in 1986. In its place today there is a network of community psychiatric care and rehabilitation units. Based on the medical and social hospital's books data, this paper focuses on the time of appearance and eventually withdrawal of the main diagnoses. 15844 admissions were recorded from 1838 to 2000. We note the time of first description of a diagnosis in European and Greek literature. In the 19th century, the wide diagnosis of dementia also included cases of chronic schizophrenia of our days. The diagnoses of lipomania (from 1855 to 1888), monomania (from 1845 to 1885), and degeneration insanity (from 1902 to 1952) depended on the scientific audience of these theories. Schizophrenia, as expected, was the leading one diagnosis, from 1915. Dementia praecox (πρωτογόνος άνοια in Greek) and precocious dementia were present from 1862 to 1945. Throughout the history of this institution, a large number of cases of mania and melancholia were also observed. Since 1859, the intermittent or cyclic nature of these two symptoms has been recorded, as well as since 1916, Kraepelin's manic-depressive insanity. From 1950, with the use of antibiotics, general paralysis (syphilis of the CNS) will disappear. The presence of many other diagnoses is discussed. From the end of the 19th century, the concept of widely used psychosis has gradually replaced insanity and phrenitis. From the 1940's, we also observe the use of "syndrome" in order also to describe clinical pictures of psychosis and affective disorders. This use of syndrome is probably related to the will of the medical directors of a freer use of diagnoses, compared to those included in the known nosography criteria. The homogenization of diagnoses in Greece was essentially accomplished by introducing ICD-10 in 1990s.