Prevalence of anxiety and depression in caregivers of Alzeheimer's dementia patients.

Alzheimer's dementia (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disorder, which affects 30 million people worldwide. With aging of the population, it is becoming an increasing problem in Croatia. Alzheimer's dementia represents not only problem for the patient but affects the patients' caregivers as well. Caring for a patient with AD carries a significant physical, socioeconomic and psychological burden. Previous studies have shown an increased risk of physical and psychiatric illness. The aim of our study was to evaluate the prevalence and intensity of anxious and depressive symptoms in caregivers of AD patients treated at Vrapce University Psychiatric Hospital in Zagreb. The study included 30 caregivers of AD patients. Participants were included consecutively, during July and August 2010. The Croatian version of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was used to assess the level of anxiety and depression in study participants. The mean level of anxiety and depression as measured by HADS was 10.46 +/- 4.26 and 8.03 +/- 4.08, respectively. A pathologic level of anxiety was found in 14 (46.7%) and pathologic level of depression as measured by HADS in 8 (26.7%) caregivers. This study showed that not only appropriate treatment of AD patients is necessary, but AD patient caregivers should also be provided due care and support.

Psychofarmacology in the prevention of somatic comorbid diseases in mentally ill patients.

It is a well known fact that mentally ill patients, especially those with schizophrenia, have a higher incidence of somatic diseases than the general population and finally a significantly shorter life expectancy. In this paper a comparison is made between schizophrenia and somatic comorbidity before the era of antipsychotics and after, with consideration to the prevalent morbidity during each of these periods. In the period before antipsychotics acute infectious diseases and TBC were the prevalent comorbid diseases. High comorbidity rates were due not only to epidemics but also poor treatment success, deficient health habits and poor personal hygiene. In the period after the discovery of antipsychotics significant changes in morbidity occurred with the prevalence of chronic degenerative diseases, primarily diabetes, hypertension and dyslipidemia. Studies show that new generation antipsychotics partly generate the occurrence of metabolic disorders, which makes it necessary to consider the choice of antipsychotic depending on the assessed risk in every individual case.