An Assessment of the Levels of Anxiety and Depression in Patients with Recurrent Aphthous Stomatitis

Backgrounds: There is a lack of valid and reliable studies in literature on both the distinctive and ambiguous relationship between the psychological profile and the occurrence of recurrent aphthous ulcers in the individual.&nbsp;Objectives: The etiology of recurrent aphthous ulceration (RAU) is not well understood. This study analyzes the psychological treatment of patients with recurrent aphthous using valid, confidential and effective psychological measures.&nbsp;Materials: In this study we included 50 patients with recurrent aphthous stomatitis who were undergoing no psychiatric treatment, as well as 50 age and gender matched healthy individuals as the control group. The study utilized the Beck Depression Inventory and STAI-S and STAI-T tests, which have been evaluated as valid sources for assessment.&nbsp;Results: A comparison of the aphthous ulcer group with the control group revealed no significant difference in STAI-S psychiatric scores (p&gt;0.05). In contrast, the scores of the STAI-T of the patients with aphthous ulcers were found to be increased when compared to the control group (p&lt;0.05).&nbsp;Conclusion: This study proposes a different overview for this area of etiologic research on this disease, based on the significant differences revealed by the STAI-T, which discovered increased anxiety levels in patients. Accordingly, there is need for more investigation into comorbid anxiety disorder and depression in patients with recurrent aphthous stomatitis, and an assessment of treatment with psychological traits, implying that further comparative studies are required to understand the issue.</p

Attitudes among judiciary and junior clerks toward the survivors of childhood sexual abuse

Childhood sexual abuse is a growing concern throughout the world, although the legal sequelae of this phenomenon are frequently neglected. We aimed to reveal and compare the attitudes of judiciary and junior clerks toward sexually abused children that might contribute to these sequelae. We divided 302 study participants into two groups of judiciary members and junior clerks. All the participants were asked to anonymously complete a questionnaire about stigmatization, including questions assessing social distance, dangerousness and skillfulness. In their responses, 51.2% of the judiciary and 64.0% of the junior clerks displayed a negative attitude toward "asking a childhood sexual abuse (CSA) survivor to supervise their child for few hours" (p = 0.029). When asked "What would you think if your child wanted to marry a CSA survivor?" 76.5% of the judiciary and 84.1% of the junior clerks were opposed to the idea (p = 0.095). Interestingly, significantly more judiciary than junior clerks believed that a "CSA survivor can control his/her rage" (p = 0.001), and significantly more of the junior clerks did not believe that "CSA survivors do not behave impulsively" (p = 0.034). Both groups of legal professionals in this study appear to distance themselves from or have negative thoughts about CSA survivors, particularly when the issue involves their own children and/or social situations. Along with other factors, these negative assumptions might also contribute to lower prosecution rates and retestifying procedures. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved