Anger and Afrophobia in South Africa: What is a health practitioner to do?

The facts seem to indicate that South Africa is one of the more violent places on earth. We have been, and continue to be, a country with significant levels of political violence, criminal violence and domestic violence. And now, we are witnessing violence against fellow Africans. While many have termed this ‘xenophobia’, a more accurate term may well be ‘Afrophobia’. For clinician-scientists, many questions arise. In this editorial, we briefly consider a few of the most pertinent.

Incidence of anxiety and depression in a predominantly HIV-infected population with severe adverse drug reactions

Little is known on the short-term or medium-term psychological and psychiatric sequelae following Stevens Johnson syndrome (SJS), toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) and drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS). Based on this we did a prospective study designed to assess anxiety and depression in patients with severe cutaneous adverse drug reactions by indicating higher Hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS)

Consultation liaison psychiatry in Africa - essential service or unaffordable luxury?

Consultation liaison psychiatry (CLP) - also known as psychosomatic medicine - is the psychiatric subspecialty that focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric disorders/difficulties in complex medically ill patients. “Complex medically ill”1 are patients with active medical, neurological, obstetrical or surgical condition(s) or symptoms, who also meet one of the following criteria: • Patients with an acute or chronic medical, neurological, or surgical illness in which psychiatric morbidity is actively affecting their medical care and/or quality of life. Examples include acute or chronic psychiatric patients with HIV infection, organ transplantation, brittle diabetes, heart disease, renal failure, a terminal illness, cancer, stroke, traumatic brain injury, COPD, high-risk pregnancy, among others. • Patients with a somatoform disorder or with psychological factors affecting a physical condition (“psychosomatic condition”) • Patients with a psychiatric disorder that is the direct consequence of a primary medical condition

First-episode psychosis: An update

Interest in the subject of first-episode psychosis has increasedconsiderably in the last two decades. At present, a numberof centres around the world focus on early identificationand intervention in people with psychotic disorders.Researchers have focused particularly on people who arepossibly experiencing the prodromal phase of the illness inthe hope that, by instituting appropriate early intervention,the outcome of schizophrenia will be improved. Patientswith first-episode psychosis present with different symptomdomains that should be taken into account when planningtreatment. Most patients initially respond to treatment;however, there is a high rate of relapse within a few years.It is therefore important that we continue to seek improvedrelapse prevention strategies. There has also been aresurgence of interest in psychosocial risk factors for thedevelopment of schizophrenia in the recent literature.We review the literature on first-episode psychosis andhighlight the significant findings

Guest Editorial: Anger and Afrophobia in South Africa: What is a health practitioner to do?

No Abstrac

Neurological Soft Signs, Spontaneous and Treatment Emergent Extrapyramidal Syndromes in Black Africans With First Episode Schizophrenia

CITATION: Ojagbemi, A., et al. 2018. Neurological soft signs, spontaneous and treatment emergent extrapyramidal syndromes in Black Africans with first episode schizophrenia. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 9:172, doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00172.The original publication is available at https://www.frontiersin.orgBackground: Very little is known about the relationship between spontaneous and treatment-induced motor syndromes in Africans with first episode schizophrenia. Objective: We investigated the association between spontaneous NSS and EPS, with treatment-induced EPS in a homogenous sample of Black Africans with first episode schizophrenia. Methods: We examined Xhosa (South Africa) and Yoruba (Nigeria) patients, using the Neurological Evaluation Scale and extrapyramidal symptoms scale before and at 3 months after exposure to low dose flupenthixol decanoate. Pearson's correlations and Linear regression models, controlling for duration of untreated psychosis (D.U.P) and premorbid adjustments, were used in examining associations. Results: Among 99 participants in the baseline sample, 91 (91.8%) and 20 (20.2%) had at least one definite NSS and EPS, respectively, before exposure to antipsychotics. Treatment-induced EPS were recorded in 34 (38.6%). Spontaneous EPS was associated with treatment-emergent Akathisia in participants with a longer D.U.P (r = 0.75, β = 0.70, p = 0.008). This association was specific for Parkinsonism (r = 0.75, β = 0.85, p = 0.008) and dyskinesia (r = 0.75, β = 1.70, p = 0.008). Conclusion: Similar to previous findings for tardive dyskinesia in studies implementing longer-term follow-up, spontaneous EPS may also predict short-term antipsychotic-induced EPS such as akathisia. These results may be important for early identification of patients at risk of treatment-induced Akathisia-linked psychomotor agitation in first episode schizophrenia.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00172/fullPublisher's versio