Work stress, premenstrual syndrome and dysphoric disorder: are there any associations?

Women with recurrent and severe symptoms are diagnosed as having premenstrual syndrome [PMS], and if they suffer from severe affective symptoms, a diagnosis of premenstrual dysphoric disorder [PMDD] is made. The purpose of this study was to determine the association of work stress with PMS and PMDD. Fifty-five female medical students in their internship program [ten 24-hour shifts per month] and 38 third-year female medical students without any shift duties were asked to participate in this study. A questionnaire was used to record demographic information and a self-report inventory was used to measure 13 symptoms relevant to PMS and PMDD according to DSM-IV criteria. All participants were asked to complete the inventory every night around midnight for those on shifts or before going to bed at home for 60 consecutive nights. Out of 55 volunteers in the shift-work group, 31 [56%] fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for PMS in contrast to 12 [32%] in the control group. The frequency of PMDD was 12 [22%] in the intern group and 5 [13%] in the control group. Twenty one students [55%] from the control group did not have PMS or PMDD, compared to 12 [22%] students from the shift workers. Decreased energy [70.9%] and irritability [65.45] were the most frequent symptoms during the luteal phase in the shift-work group. Work stress and an increase in responsibility may produce or exacerbate PMS. Self-help approaches to induce self-awareness, along with psychological and psychiatric interventions, may help susceptible women to overcome this cyclic condition in order to increase their productivity as well as their quality of life

Post-traumatic stress disorder among survivors of Bam earthquake 40 days after the event

To investigate the point prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD] in a group of survivors of the Bam 2003 earthquake, 145 participants [83 females and 62 males] were studied using structured interviews according to PTSD Symptom Scale [PSS] and Revised Impact of Event Scale [R-IES] items. The mean number of first and second order family members who had died in the disaster was 75.7, range 0 to 350 persons. About 81% of the participants were eligible for PTSD diagnosis according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders [DSM-IV or DSM IV-TR] criteria. No significant correlation was found between demographic variables or history of psychiatric illness and measures of psychological distress

Chronic/negative and acute/positive schizophrenia and attention deficits

Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder that impairs several intellectual functions, including attention processes. To investigate attention deficit in a group of patients with schizophrenia. Method: Thirty patients with schizophrenia hospitalized in three psychiatric wards in Shiraz and Isfahan and 30 normal healthy subjects matched for age, gender and years of education underwent the following tests: A computerized Continuous Performance Test [CPT], Stroop color-word test and Wisconsin Card Sorting [WCS] test. In the tests performed, patients with schizophrenia preformed poorer than control subjects. The acute/chronic classification did not predict differences in attention processes among subtypes of schizophrenia, while positive/negative classification predicted differences observed among the patient groups. The subtypes of schizophrenia [paranoid, undifferentiated and residual] had the same performance in CPT, while they were significantly different in error scores of [WCS] and reaction time in response to Stroop stimuli in incongruent color-word condition. The paranoid patients preformed better in contrast to other subtypes on attention related tasks. The results of the present study suggest that CPT is a valuable test for differentiation of schizophrenia disorder in general, while Stroop test and WCS may have better diagnostic value for differentiating subtypes of the disorder