Attitude towards seeking psychological help regarding psychiatric symptoms and stigma in patients with fibromyalgia.

OBJECTIVE: The current study aimed to examine the psychiatric symptoms that can be seen in fibromyalgia (FM) patients, their attitudes toward seeking psychological help, and their concerns about stigma. Besides, it was investigated whether the stigma concerns that they may experience about receiving psychiatric treatment constitute an obstacle for patients to receive psychiatric treatment. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted between February and July 2020. Various seeking help were measured with Attitude Towards Seeking Psychological Help Scale-Short Form (ATSPPH-SF), Self-Stigma in the Process of Seeking Psychological Help Scale (SSPSPHS), Intention to Seek Psychological Help Inventory (ISPHI), and Social Stigma Due to Seeking Psychological Help Scale (SSDSPHS). FM symptoms of patients were measured with The Symptom Screening Questionnaire, Revised 90 Items (SCL-90-R). Quality-of-life parameters were measured with Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ). RESULTS: Fibromyalgia patients had higher somatization (p=0.001), psychotism (p=0.045) and phobic anxiety (p=0.015) scores than controls. The ATSPPH-SF (p=0.002) and SSPSPHS (p=0.043) scale scores of the FM patients were higher than the controls. There was a significant positive correlation between FIQ and SSPSPHS (r=0.288, p=0.043) and SCL-90 overall (r=0.602, p<0.001) and all subscales scores. Patients with high active psychotic symptom levels had higher FM exposure scale scores and SCL-90 overall scores than those with low active psychotic symptom levels (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study showed that fibromyalgia patients have more somatization symptoms than healthy individuals, and as psychiatric symptoms increase in these individuals, their level of being affected by FM increases.

A new serovar in the Grippotyphosa serogroup comprising leptospiral isolates from different regions.

Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) studies performed with leptospiral isolates led us to suspect the existence of a new serovar in the Grippotyphosa serogroup. The results obtained with reference serological techniques used in leptospiral identification, including cross-agglutination absorption and monoclonal antibody techniques, confirmed the existence of a new serovar exemplified by strain Dadas I. Four other isolates from different regions of the world were submitted for identification by PFGE and produced NotI restriction patterns similar to that of strain Dadas I. Our data demonstrate the power of PFGE for identifying leptospiral isolates. The name dadas is proposed for the new serovar.