ABSTRACT
AIMS: This article aims to (1) explore the levels of perceived insecurity in a sample of patients with mood or anxiety disorders and (2) assess whether living in 'big cities' can influence the levels of patients' perceived insecurity and social contacts compared to living in a non-urbanized context. METHODS: A total of 24 Italian mental health centers (MHCs) have been invited to participate. Twenty patients consecutively accessing the MHC have been recruited. All patients have been assessed using validated assessment tools. RESULTS: The sample consisted of 426 patients, mostly female, with a mean age of 45 years. Globally, 52.2% of patients had a diagnosis of mood disorders, and 37.8% had anxiety disorders. Half of the sample declared that the main feeling toward life is uncertainty; higher levels of pessimistic views toward life have been detected in patients living in urban areas. A positive association between negative attitudes toward life and higher levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms, poor social functioning and higher levels of perceived psychological distress has been found. CONCLUSION: Our findings confirm the presence of a common sense of perceived uncertainty among our sample. Such attitude toward life can have a detrimental impact on patients' psychological and physical well-being, contributing to high levels of distress.
Subject(s)
Anxiety Disorders/epidemiology , Mental Health , Mood Disorders/epidemiology , Uncertainty , Urbanization/trends , Adult , Female , Hospitals, Psychiatric , Humans , Italy/epidemiology , Male , Middle Aged , Perception , Psychiatric Status Rating Scales , Quality of Life/psychology , Surveys and Questionnaires , Urban HealthSubject(s)
Burns/complications , Candidiasis , Sepsis/etiology , Adult , Female , Humans , Male , Sepsis/diagnosisABSTRACT
In a brief introduction, methods for collecting urine and diagnosis criteria are reviewed. Data relative to a study of about 10,000 samples of urine from patients admitted to various departments of the Milan Ca' Granda Hospital in 1975 are then reported. The frequencies of the various species of bacteria isolated in cases of bacteriuria are reported. Those occurring most frequently were Proteus (40.7%) of whose four species, Proteus mirabilis and Proteus rettgeri cover almost all cases, and Escherichia coli (26.1%). As for individual isolated microrganisms, the sensitivity to 13 chemotherapeutic agents was tested. E. coli, Klebsiella and Enterococcus demonstrated a high degree of sensitivity with respect to the majority of antibiotics considered.
Subject(s)
Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology , Bacteriuria/diagnosis , Enterobacteriaceae/drug effects , Pseudomonas/drug effects , Urinary Tract Infections/diagnosis , Bacteriuria/drug therapy , Enterobacteriaceae/isolation & purification , Humans , Microbial Sensitivity Tests , Pseudomonas/isolation & purification , Urinary Tract Infections/drug therapyABSTRACT
The sensitivity of two tests recently proposed for the classification of pathogen staphylococci were evaluated: --production of DNA-ase with the modified method of Lachica et al.; --production of lisozyme. The two above tests were studied with other six tests on 1,000 strains of staphylococci showing a very high specificity. The Authors propose that the DNA-ase production and the lisozyme production, also for their very simple execution, should become routine tests to identify the strains of pathogenic staphylococci.
