Buprenorphine/naloxone maintenance therapy in patients with meperidine use disorder

Meperidine hydrochloride is a synthetic opioid and a weak µ receptor agonist. Meperidine use disorder is mostly iatrogenic and is common in health care workers. In addition, it is prescribed in acute and chronic pain complaints, and has a high potential for creating addiction. Treatment of meperidine use disorder is a challenging issue and there is no standardised treatment for meperidine addiction. Buprenorphine is a μ receptor partial agonist, a long-acting synthetic opioid for the treatment of opioid dependence and has a buprenorphine/naloxone (BN) form combined with naloxone. Buprenorphine maintenance therapy is one of the treatment options performed in opiate use disorder. But there is a paucity of data about treatment of meperidine use disorder. Here, a full remission case report is presented with BN maintenance treatment for a patient with meperidine use disorder diagnosis

Family functioning of patients with an eating disorder compared with that of patients with obsessive compulsive disorder

Abstract This study compares the family functioning of patients with anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN) and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). The study participants, who were all female, consisted of 15 patients with AN, 13 with BN, and 17 with OCD. Family functioning was assessed by using the Family Assessment Device self-rating scale. The study subjects also completed the Eating Attitudes Test. Subjects in the AN and BN groups did not differ statistically either from each other or from the OCD group in all 7 Family Assessment Device subscales. Patients with an eating disorder and OCD rated their family functioning in a similar way. It is difficult to conclude that patients with AN or BN have a specific type of family functioning, which is totally different from the family functioning of patients with OCD. Thus, the study results further support the idea that family interaction in eating disorders is not specific to these disorders, especially when compared with patients with OCD.

Urinary extract profiles of illegal substances at psychiatry and dependency clinics: three years report

Background: Substance abuse is a serious problem all over the world. There are many studies report the illegal substance use profile but few studies present their toxicology laboratory analysis. This study reports a quantitative profile of (Urine Drug Screening)) for illegal substances in Sakarya-Turkey.Methods: This study presents the urine analysis of all illegal substances which were made in the laboratory of Sakarya Training Research Hospital between March 2012 and February 2015. The results obtained from socio-demographic data and urine tests of patients were analyzed by examining their hospital record files. Urine drug screening was conducted with immunoassay quantitative analysis.Results: People subjected to substance analysis (n=2948) ages vary between 12 and 76, their mean age was 28.30±9.46. 96.74% (n=2852) of them were males. Substance positivity was determined in 34.73% of all patients (n=1024/2948) and their ages varied between 14 and 70 and their mean age was 29.39±9.65. Distribution of the urine positivity of the substances contained: marijuana 79, 5% (n=814), amphetamine 30.17% (n=309), ecstasy 23.74% (n=199), benzodiazepine 9,1% (n=94), synthetic cannabinoid 4.9% (n=12/243); opioid 5.2% (n=54), cocaine 1.67% (n=14) and multiple substance 29.9% (n=308).Conclusions: According to this study, marijuana is the most frequently used substance and multiple substance use is common. Synthetic cannabinoid seems to take place rapidly among the users. Updating the kits is important to reach the correct information in drug screening tests

The relationship between oxytocin, vasopressin and atrial natriuretic peptide levels and cognitive functions in patients with schizophrenia

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between oxytocin (OXT), vasopressin (AVP) and atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) levels and cognitive functions in schzophrenia as well as to compare the findings to those in healthy controls. Method: Patients with chronic schizophrenia and (n=63) healthy controls (n=60) were evaluated with the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (VLT), the Trail Making Test A-B (TMT), the Stroop Test, the Wechsler Memory Scale-Visual Production Subscale (WMS-V) and the Facial Emotion Recognition Tests. Blood samples were analysed by using ELISA. In the data analysis, the percentage distributions of the variables were obtained, the centrality and prevalence measures (mean, standard deviation) were calculated for the continuous variables, and the dependent and independent variables were evaluated using the chi-square test, the Student's t-test, and the Pearson correlation test. High score variables were determined by principal component analysis. For comparisons between groups; MANOVA applied. Results: Serum OXT, AVP and ANP levels did not differ between the groups. In the healthy control group, subscales of the Stroop, WMS-V and TMT-B tests showed better scores and correlated with levels of OXT (p < .05). In the healthy controls, ANP levels and social cognition had a relationship with response times to happy facial expressions (p < .05). The correlations of OXT, AVP and ANP with the social and cognitive parameters were different between the control group and the schizophrenia group (p < .05). Conclusion: The different correlations in the healthy controls and schizophrenia group suggest deteriorations in the interactions and functions of hormones in patients and highlights the need for new investigations into different neurodegenerative illness samples

Post-traumatic stress disorder after terrorist attack in healthcare professionals

INTRODUCTION: On the date of 15 July 2016 a terrorist organization launched a terrorist attack using helicopters and heavy combat weapons in the city centers of Istanbul and Ankara simultaneously. Numerous civilian were hurt and many of them lost their lives during the attacks. Terrorism is a form of combat designed to cause the highest psychological influence on the masses. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one of the most common psychological disorders after such disasters. The aim of this study is to determine the associated risk factors and PTSD rates in healthcare professionals who were on call during the 15 July 2016 terrorist attacks. METHOD: Since the hospital is in a neighbouring the street to where terror attacks occurred, all healthcare professionals ≥ 18 years of age who were on duty that night in the Dr. Ridvan Ege Training and Research Hospital and were auditory or visual witnesses of the event were included in the study as the first group while healthcare professionals who work in the same hospital but were not on duty that night were included as the control group. RESULTS: The mean post-traumatic diagnostic scale stress score of the control group was 11.87. The mean post-traumatic diagnostic scale stress score of the Group 1 was 21.91. There was a significant difference between the groups in terms of posttraumatic diagnostic scale stress score (p &lt; 0.05). While the healthcare professionals on duty on July 15, 2016 (Group 1) had moderate-severe (21.91 ± 5.11) stress disorder, the healthcare professionals who were not at the hospital on July 15, 2016 (Control Group) had moderate stress disorder (11.87 ± 6.86). CONCLUSION: Our country is at risk from the fact that such attacks may be experienced again because of its unique conditions. The results of our work support the data on the high level of exposure to PTSD when exposed to a terrorist attack. For this reason, the identification of the characteristics of pre-traumatic health individuals at risk is useful in planning the presentation of preventive and curative health services. At the same time, there is a need for longer-term work and wider samples to reveal the psychological consequences of such attacks

Depressive Temperament in Relatives of Patients with Schizophrenia Is Associated with Suicidality in Patients with Schizophrenia

Conclusion: Suicidality in schizophrenia is related with relatives' affective temperaments and patients' own positive symptom scores. The relationship between suicidal thoughts and depressive temperament is high lightened in this stud

The genetic history of the Southern Arc: a bridge between West Asia and Europe

By sequencing 727 ancient individuals from the Southern Arc (Anatolia and its neighbors in Southeastern Europe and West Asia) over 10,000 years, we contextualize its Chalcolithic period and Bronze Age (about 5000 to 1000 BCE), when extensive gene flow entangled it with the Eurasian steppe. Two streams of migration transmitted Caucasus and Anatolian/Levantine ancestry northward, and the Yamnaya pastoralists, formed on the steppe, then spread southward into the Balkans and across the Caucasus into Armenia, where they left numerous patrilineal descendants. Anatolia was transformed by intra–West Asian gene flow, with negligible impact of the later Yamnaya migrations. This contrasts with all other regions where Indo-European languages were spoken, suggesting that the homeland of the Indo-Anatolian language family was in West Asia, with only secondary dispersals of non-Anatolian Indo-Europeans from the steppe

Olanzapine Abuse

Olanzapine is a thienobenzodiazepine that blocks especially the serontonin (5-hydroxytryptamine [5-HT]) 5-HT2A and the dopamine D2 receptors as well as muscarinic (M1), histamine (H1), 5-HT2C, 5-HT3 to 5-HT6, adrenergic (al), and D4 receptors. This case report presents an olanzapine abuse. A 48-year-old, primary school graduate, married woman applied to psychiatry clinic with tachycardia, insomnia, and anxiety complaints. In psychiatric evaluations, it was determined that these complaints have been continuing for 15 years at intervals and that she has been using citalopram 40 mg/day and olanzapine 50 mg/day for the last 3 years. As diabetes mellitus was diagnosed in follow-ups, interruption of olanzapine treatment was planned. The patient stated that she started taking the medicine again upon discomfort, increase in anxiety, dysphoria, insomnia, and nervousness, which started just after olanzapine was interrupted. She said that she was feeling dense stress when she did not take the medicine, and she thought that this situation would recover only by taking that medicine and hence she could not discontinue the medicine. In addition to medications with obvious abuse potential such as benzodiazepines and methylphenidate, and other stimulants, abuse of a number of commonly prescribed psychiatric medications has been reported. There are only 2 cases of olanzapine abuse in literature

Schizophrenia and mega cisterna magna: case report

Mega cisterna magna (MCM) is a developmental malformation of the posterior fossa, morphologically vermis and cerebellar hemispheres are intact. Although the relationship between this anomaly and psychiatric disorders is emphasized, its nature has not fully understood. In this article, we report a case of schizophrenia detected mega cisterna magna. A 35-year-old, married, housewife, graduated from primary school, female patient was brought to our clinic by her relatives with complaints of disorganized and inappropriate speech, strange behavior. She had auditory and visual hallucinations, delusions of reference and persecution. Neurological examination and EEG examination were normal, but mega cisterna magna was disclosed in her cranial magnetic resonance imaging scan. The relationship between psychosis and clinical significance of MCM has not defined completely yet. The role of the cerebellum in schizophrenia has been highlighted by Andreasen's hypothesis of 'cognitive dysmetria'. This hypothesis suggests that cerebellum has a role in general dyscoordination of sensorimotor and mental processes which are seen in schizophrenic patients. Schizophrenic patients are known to have problems about memory and verbal fluency, too. In the context of this case, the relationship of schizophrenia with cerebellar anomalies was reviewed