Involuntary social cue integration in patients with obsessive compulsive disorder

Objective Patients with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) have inferior social functioning compared to healthy controls, but the exact nature of these social deficits, and the underpinning mechanisms, are unknown. We sought to investigate social functioning in patients with OCD by measuring their involuntary/spontaneous processing of social cues using a specifically designed test, which might reveal deficits in these patients that explicit voluntary tasks do not detect. Methods The sample of the study consisted of an OCD group (n = 25) and a control group (n = 26). Both groups performed an adaptation of the Social Distance Judgment Task (SDJT; Jellema et al., 2009), in which participants have to judge the geometrical distance between two human cartoon figures presented on a computer screen. Head/gaze direction and body direction were manipulated to be either compatible, i.e. both directed to the left or to the right (Compatible condition) or incompatible, i.e. body directed toward the observer (frontal view) and head/gaze directed to the left or right (Incompatible condition). Results In the Compatible condition, controls nor OCD patients were influenced by the social cues in their judgments of the geometrical distances. However, in the Incompatible condition, where the attentional cue was more conspicuous, both groups were influenced by the cues, but the controls to a significantly larger extent than the OCD patients. Conclusions This study showed that patients with OCD are less likely, compared to controls, to automatically/spontaneously integrate the other’s direction of attention into their visual percept. This may have resulted in their judgments of the geometrical distances between the agents to be more accurate than those of controls. The suggested impairment in automatically integrating social cues may have important repercussions for the social functioning of OCD patients

Depressive symptomatology among university students in Denizli, Turkey: Prevalence and sociodemographic correlates

Aim: To determine overall and subgroup prevalence of depressive symptomatology among university students in Denizli, Turkey during the 1999-2000 academic year, and to investigate whether sociodemographic factors were associated with depressive symptoms in university students. Methods: A stratified probability sample of 504 Turkish university students (296 male, 208 female) was used in a cross-sectional study. Data were obtained by self-administered questionnaire, including questions on sociodemographic characteristics and problem areas. The revised Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was used to determine depressive symptoms of the participants. BDI scores 17 or higher were categorized as depressive for logistic regression analysis. Student t-test and linear regression were used for continuous data analysis. Results: Out of all participants, 26.2% had a BDI score 17 or higher. The prevalence of depressive symptoms increased to 32.1% among older students, 34.7% among students with low socioeconomic status, 31.2% among seniors, and 62.9% among students with poor school performance. The odds ratio of depressive symptoms was 1.84 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.03-3.28) in students with low socioeconomic status and 7.34 (95% CI, 3.36-16.1) in students with poor school performance in the multivariate logistic model. The participants identified several problem areas: lack of social activities and shortage of facilities on the campus (69.0%), poor quality of the educational system (54.8%), economic problems (49.3%), disappointment with the university (43.2%), and friendship problems (25.9%). Conclusions: Considering the high frequency of depressive symptoms among Turkish university students, a student counseling service offering mental health assistance is necessary. This service should especially find the way to reach out to poor students and students with poor school performance

Prevalence of dementia, related risk factors and psychiatric comorbidity in nursing home residents

Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of dementia and related factors and comorbid psychiatric disorder among elderly in nursing home. Methods: This study was done in 141 elderly people who live in Denizli nursing home. Dementia and psychiatric disorder were diagnosed according to DSM-IV diagnostic criteria. Mini Mental State Examination, Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale, Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia, Global Deterioration Scale, Multidimensional observation scale for elderly subjects were used for elderly in this study. Results: Our study includes elderly people who are men (66%) and women, the mean age of group was 74.99±9.81 years, the mean education years was 1.79±3.03 years, mean duration in nursing home was 42.68 months. Prevalence of DSM-IV dementia was 62.4% (n=88). Out of patients with dementia 59 (67%) were Alzheimer Disorder, 22 (25%) were vascular dementia and 7 (%8) were the other type of dementia. Age, number of chronic physical disorder and the number of the drugs used were higher in dementia group than in non-dementia group. Level of education was lower in elderly with dementia than elderly without dementia. Older age than 76 years, residing in rural areas, low education level, having to Diabetes Mellitus are determined to be the risk factors for depressive disorders according to logistic regression analysis. At least one psychiatric disorder was associated with 45.6% of dementia patients and depressive disorder was found to be the most diagnosed entity. Conclusion: The prevalence of dementia and comorbid depression is common among elderly people in nursing homes

Quantitative EEG analysis in obsessive compulsive disorder

Quantitative analysis of the EEG (q-EEG) in patients with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) showed a decreased beta and an increased theta power at frontotemporal regions. The patients who had higher scores in doubting test (Maudsley Obsessive Compulsive Questionnaire) and more severely ill patients shared similar q-EEG features. The relative theta powers were significantly increased and alpha powers were significantly decreased in these patients, particularly in the frontotemporal region. It was suggested that the q-EEG may be useful in investigating the OCD patients with heterogeneous characteristics

Efficacy of transcranial magnetic stimulation in treatment-resistant depression

Background/aim: The use of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) in the add-on treatment of patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD) is becoming more common. This study aims to investigate the efficacy of TMS on depression and accompanying anxiety symptoms among patients with TRD. Materials and methods: The current study was conducted with 38 patients diagnosed with TRD. The patients were randomly divided into two groups and received 20 sessions of high-frequency (10Hz) TMS and 20 sessions of sham TMS to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in a double-blind and cross-over fashion without a change in their pharmacotherapy. In the clinical evaluation, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D) and Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A) were carried out three times in total: before, crossover phase, and at the end of the treatment. Results: A statistically significant decrease was found in the HAM-D and HAM-A in the group who were actively stimulated in the cross-over phase of the study. While there was a significant decrease in the HAM-A in the group who received sham stimulation, the decrease in the HAM-D was not statistically significant. Group comparisons revealed a statistically significant decrease in HAM-D in the group who were actively stimulated compared to the group receiving sham stimulation. At the end of the study, 63% of 38 patients responded to treatment, 15% partially responded, and 42% reached remission. Conclusion: This randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled, cross-over study revealed that TMS is superior to sham-TMS, provides clinically significant improvement when implemented besides pharmacotherapy among patients with treatment-resistant depression, and is beneficial for accompanying anxiety symptoms

A follow-up study of male sexual disorders: The neurophysiological assessments, anxiety-depression levels, and response to fluoxetine treatment [10]

Abstract Not Availabl

Comorbidity of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in adult bipolar I disorder: A preliminary study

Objective: Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a disorder that typically first appears in childhood and has the main symptoms of inattention, overactivity, and impulsivity. Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and bipolar disorder are frequently comorbid and overlapping diagnoses. Although there is data describing the overlap of ADHD and bipolar disorder in childhood and youth, little is known about the comorbidity of these disorders in adulthood. In this study, our aim was to investigate comorbidity of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in bipolar disorder and to compare several sociodemographic and clinical variables of bipolar patients with and without comorbid ADHD. Method: Sixty patients diagnosed with euthymic bipolar I disorder were enrolled in the study. Patients with bipolar disorder were observed in the outpatient setting during at least two months to ensure the existence of euthymia before the study procedures were conducted. Sociodemographic data form, Hamilton Depression, Young Mania, Wender Utah and Adult ADHD Rating Scales, and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV were applied to the participants. Socio-demographic data included variables such as age, gender, educational status, episode number, and the type of present treatment. Between group comparisons were made by using Mann-Whitney U test and Chi-square test. Results: The comorbidity rate of ADHD in our study sample with bipolar I disorder was 21.7%. There were no significant differences between with and without comorbid ADHD groups in terms of their age, gender, and educational level. Comorbid ADHD patients were smoking more cigarettes than those without comorbid ADHD. In addition, the number of their total episodes and manic episodes were relatively higher in the comorbid ADHD group. Conclusions: The results suggest that ADHD is a common comorbidity in adult bipolar patients. The existence of high rates of comorbidity leads to important diagnostic and therapeutic complications. Further study is needed to clarify the impact of ADHD on clinical outcomes of adult bipolar patients and to provide guidelines for therapeutic approaches

Cognitive functions in euthymic patients with bipolar disorder

<b>Background : </b>Recent studies have focused on the nature of cognitive dysfunction in bipolar patients. The purpose of the current study was to investigate cognitive performance of individuals with bipolar disorder compared to healthy control subjects during a well-established euthymic period. <b>Methods : </b>The sample consisted of 27 bipolar euthymic patients and 21 control subjects. Verbal and visual memory performance, attention, executive functions and psychosocial functions were evaluated for each partticipant. <b>Results : </b>Bipolar patients showed significant attentional deficit and executive dysfunction and also poor performance on verbal and visual memory tasks compared to the controls. Illness duration and lifetime total episode number and previous episode with psychotic features was associated with worsened performance on attention, executive and memory tasks. Psychosocial functioning was not associated with cognitive deficit. <b>Conclusions : </b>The present study showed persistent cognitive impairment on inhibitory control and selective attention as well as poor performance on verbal and visual memory tests in a group of bipolar euthymic patients. The impaired neuropsychological performance was associated with duration of illness, total number of episodes per lifetime, and previous episodes with psychotic features. Attentional dysfunction seemed to be a trait abnormality for the sample studied