Nitric oxide in the psychobiology of mental disorders

Nitric oxide is in a gaseous form and is widespread in the human body. It functions by acting as a secondary messenger in the modulatory activities of neuronal functions of the central nervous system. Nitric oxide is the first identified neurotransmitter of the nontraditional neurotransmitter family.Studies conducted on experimental animals demonstrate that nitric oxide has a neuromodulatory efficacy on the secretions of other neurotransmitters and that it has an effect on learning and memory functions, and on various neuronal mechanisms. Many studies have been conducted to investigate the location of nitric oxide in the central nervous system, its effect on anxiety and depression, its relationship with other neurotransmitters, and also about its role on neurotoxicity. There are clinical studies concerning the level of nitrate, a product of nitric oxide metabolism, and also experimental studies concerning its rewarding effect of alcohol and substance use, in patients with depression and schizophrenia. However, limited studies have been conducted to investigate its relationship with stress, which is an important factor in the etiology of psychiatric disorders. These studies demonstrate that nitric oxide is closely related with stress physiology.Nitric oxide is a neuromodulator, which is frequently being mentioned about nowadays in psychiatry. Clinical and experimental studies play an important role in the psychobiology of psychiatric disorders

Job Satisfaction, Anxiety Level and Associated Factors in a Group of Residents in a University Hospital

In present study, we aimed to research the job satisfaction among the residents at Dicle University Medical Faculty Hospital, some factors affecting this and some psychological effects of not being pleased with their jobs. With respect to this aim, socio demographic data form, Minnesota Job Satisfaction, Beck Anxiety Inventory, State Trait Anger Scale were given to 140 residents at University who accepted to join this study and were collected the following day. In study, 35 percent of the participants having joined the study weren’t pleased with their works. The number of satisfied residents was higher among the willingly choice making residents in favour of their Works(34.8%) than the participants who were unwilling to choice the department (65.2%) they are working now (x2:11.046, p<0.01). Beck anxiety results were found to be much higher in the residents who were not pleased with their workers than the workers pleased with their works. Finally, there are some factors determining the job satisfaction. There is relationship between job satisfaction and mental health. Because this can give rise to negative effects on the performance of the work, it is required that some solution ways be found in order to increase the work contention

Attitudes of Nurses towards Depression and Depressive Patients: A Comperative Study

To determine and compare mental health nurses’ and general hospital nurses’beliefs and knowledge about the etiology and treatment of depression and theirattitudes towards depressive patients.70 nurses working in a mental health hospital and 30 nurses working in a generalhospital were interviewed face to face with a questionnaire developed by PsyciatricResearch and Education Center in Turkey.The attitudes of both groups were positive towards depresssion and depressivepatients. But while mental health nurse group accepted depression as a disorder thegeneral hospital nurse group did not consider depression as a disorder but rather asan emotional state everyone can fall into from time to time in their lives. Generalhospital nurse group thought that stressfull life events caused depression more thancompared to mental heath nurse group. They bought considered depression as atreatable illness and they both thought that depression cannot be completely curedwithout resolving social problems. Non of the groups hold the opinion that people withdepression were dangerous and they put less social distance towards depressivepatients.Especially the general hospital nurse group did not consider depression as adisorder while considering schizophrenia as a mental disorder. This positive andaccepting attitude might cause the general hospital nurse group to underrecognizedepression. So this may indicate a need for a theorotical educational programmeabout depression for the general hospital nurse group

Serological and Molecular Investigation of the Presence and Association of Toxoplasma gondii in Bipolar Affective Disorder and Schizophrenic Patients

Introduction: Toxoplasma gondii is an intracellular parasite that affects about one third of the population in developed countries. It is known that in the brain and muscle tissues of infected people, this parasite maintains its stagnant phase lifelong. T. gondii relation, in terms of neurotropism is shown up to 60% in anxiety, depression, even schizophrenic psychoses. Schizophrenia and bipolar affective disorder (BAD) are neuropsychiatric disorders seen worldwide and their etiologies are not fully understood. Recently, it is suggested that although it is clinically indefinite, it may be a neurotropic agent, such as the trophozoites of the parasite, that have a special affinity to the glia cells of the brain. Materials and Methods: This study consisted of 87 bipolar affective disorder and 63 schizophrenia patients who applied to Eskisehir Osmangazi University Medical Faculty Psychiatry Clinic in a one-year period, and 50 healthy volunteers that had no psychiatric disorders or antipsychotic and antidepressant drug usage history. Blood samples were evaluated for T. gondii presence by real time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and ELISA. In addition, the relationship between parasitic-mental disorder and social variables was assessed by questionnaires consisting of 29 questions in the patient group and 21 questions in the control group, which included social variables and T. gondii transmission routes and contacts. Results: All serum samples of 150 patients and 50 controls were tested by ELISA and PCR methods, and those identified with T. gondii presence by any of the tests were evaluated as positive. Seropositivity of T. gondii was detected in 61 (30.5%) of 200 serum samples. In 53 (26.5%) of the samples, only anti-toxo IgG antibodies were detected by ELISA and in 8 (4%), positivity was defined by PCR. Anti Toxo IgM antibodies were negative in both groups. PCR positivity was determined only in the patient group. T. gondii presence was defined in 29 (33.3%) of the BAD patients, 18 (28.5%) of the schizophrenic patients and 14 (28%) of the controls. There was no significant difference between patient and control groups. In the evaluation of the study data, Pearson chi-square and Fisher exact chi-square were used and p< 0.05 value was accepted as statistically significant. Conclusion: In this study, though it was not statistically significant, there was a higher frequency of Toxoplasma particularly in the patients with BAD and schizophrenia patients than in the healthy persons. Large cohort studies are required to determine the relationship between this parasite and the neuropsychiatric disorders

Psychiatric Disorders Comorbid with Epilepsy in A Prison Sample

Purpose: Epilepsy is an extremely widespread and serious neurological disease. Although comorbidities of psychiatric disorders are prevalent in epilepsy patients, quite often this coexistence could be overlooked. Studies in this area demonstrated that depression, anxiety disorders and schizophrenia are the most common psychiatric disorders accompanying epilepsy. Mental health problems are known to be more common in prisoners compared to general population. The present study aims to demonstrate the psychiatric comorbidities in prisoners diagnosed with epilepsy. Method: In this study, demographic data and the psychiatric comorbidity of 200 patients who were diagnosed with epilepsy by a neurologist at Ankara Penal Institution Campus State Hospital between January 2013 and January 2014 were analyzed retrospectively. Results: The mean age of study population was 32.6 +/- 10.1 years. 181 of these patients were male (90.5%). 81 of 200 patients (40.5%) had a comorbid psychiatric disorder. The most common comorbid psychiatric disorders were depression (18.5%), anxiety (11%), and personality disorders (11%), respectively. Conclusion: The most common psychiatric comorbid disorders among prisoners diagnosed with epilepsy were depression and anxiety as general population with epilepsy whereas some disorders, personality disorder, substance dependence and bipolar affective disorders, were found to be more common among prisoners compared to the general population with epilepsy. It is crucial to question psychiatric symptoms and comorbidities while evaluating the patients with epilepsy, especially among prisoners. (C) 2016 British Epilepsy Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.WoSScopu