The Prevalence of Generalised Anxiety Disorder Among Prisoners of the Penitentiary Institution in North-Eastern Poland.

Introduction: Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) is one of the most common mental disorders. The psychosocial factors that may lead to generalised anxiety disorders include stress, traumatic events, conscious and unconscious internal conflicts, and low social and economic status. Imprisonment and forced isolation may favour the development of depression or anxiety disorders in inmates. Thus, this study aimed to analyse the prevalence of generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) in the population of inmates detained in one of the largest penitentiary units in north-eastern Poland. Materials and Methods: The data comes from 2017 and includes information on 635 male inmates incarcerated at the Czerwony Bór Prison. The information comes from the health records of individual inmates, kept by the prison outpatient clinician, and documented consultations with doctors of units outside the prison. The classification of generalised anxiety disorders (F41.1) was made in accordance with the 10th Revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Health Problems and the clinical diagnosis made by a psychiatrist. The Mann-Whitney test was used to compare quantitative data without normal distribution, chi-squared test or Fisher exact test for comparing qualitative data. A one-dimensional and multi-dimensional logistic regression model was used to examine the impact of the prison type on the prevalence of generalised anxiety disorder. Results: Generalised anxiety disorder was observed among 44 prisoners (6.9%), most often in the age range 30-39 years and among men younger than 30 years, respectively 40.9 and 31.8% of all diagnosed. The average age of patients was 34.6 years. The least number of prisoners with GAD was in the age group 50-59 (2.3%). Nearly 66% of patients were prisoners detained in a closed type prison; the chance of generalised anxiety disorder was three times higher than among the prisoners in a half-open and open type facility. Generalised anxiety disorder was diagnosed significantly more often with those currently serving a prison sentence than those before incarceration. Conclusions: In Polish conditions, the importance of the problem associated with GAD is evidenced by a significant increase in its prevalence in the prison environment and a three times higher chance of developing generalised anxiety disorder among prisoners in a closed type institution, which calls for highly organised psychiatric care and increased availability of psychological assistance for prisoners.

Evaluation of dental plague removal procedure in adult population from the Lomza region.

INTRODUCTION: The National Health Fund guarantees to insured persons free dental treatment as part of a catalog of scopes and benefits, such as dental treatment. Among the services included in the appendix there is a dental plaque removal procedure, which can be performed in adults once every 12 months or once every 6 months in the case of pregnant and puerperal women. This procedure involves breaking down the bacterial biofilm above and below the gingiva, rinsing it in vases with water from the periodontal area, and additionally, through the cavitation effect, it causes the implosion of air bubbles, directly destroying bacterial cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The analysis covered 2,114 patients aged 18-89 who visited the dentist from 01/01/2019 to 31/12/2019. The dental clinic was located in a medium-sized town in the Podlaskie Voivodeship. The dental plaque removal procedures were performed on patients by dentists and then coded in accordance with the ICD9 Basic Edition Dictionary ICD9 CM (5.18) "23.1601 - Removal of plaque from 1/2 of the dental arch", respectively. The visits analyzed for this study were performed in the period from 01/01/2019 to 31/12/2019. In the following epidemiological descriptive study, secondary sources of information were used, in the form of collective reports generated from electronic records, which are stored in the dental clinic that provides dental care for patients under an agreement with the National Health Fund for general dental treatment. RESULTS: The total number of women undergoing the plaque removal procedure was significantly higher than the number of men. The distribution of patients in different age groups was uneven. The highest percentage of patients undergoing the dental plaque removal procedure occurred in the age groups of 18-29 and 30-39 years - 21% and 29% of all respondents, respectively. The lowest number of patients was found in the age group of 80-89 years (1%).There is a statistical difference in the total number of dental procedures and in each age group in favor of women in each group, except the 60-79 age group. The greatest number of dental plaque removal procedures, compared to other procedures, was performed in men aged 30-39 years. Among men, along with the increase in age up to the age of 60, the number of dental plaque removal procedures decreased by an average of 10%, a drastic decrease occurred at the age of 70-79 - only 10% of procedures were dental plaque removal procedures. Among women aged 30-59 who were patients of the clinic, the percentage of women with dental plaque removal was about 30%, only in the age group over 80 the percentage of women who underwent the procedure fell to less than 10%. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the study show that the sex and age of the inhabitants of the Lomza region are significant variables related to the procedures of removing plaque in a dental office. Observation showing a decrease in the number of these procedures with increasing age of patients and their more frequent occurrence in women generally requires detailed studies identifying the main determinants of existing relationships.

The prevalence of Epilepsy and its co-occurrence with alcohol dependence among polish prisoners.

BACKGROUND: For a large part of the prisoners population, the prevalence of many diseases and the number of risk factors are greater than for the general population. In this work, we present an analysis of the prevalence of epilepsy and its co-occurrence with alcohol dependence among prisoners in a Polish penitentiary. METHODS: One and multidimensional logistic regression was used to present the relationship between epilepsy and the co-occurrence of alcohol dependence and of other variables like: the prisoners' age, their classification, the unit type, the length of the stay in the penitentiary, and professional activity. RESULTS: More than 7% of the prisoners had epilepsy. The prevalence was significantly higher in the 40-49 age group and among prisoners aged 50 and older. For prisoners suffering from alcohol dependence, the probability of epilepsy was over four times higher than for prisoners who did not suffer from that condition (OR [95%CI] = 4.09 [1.82-9.17], p = 0.001]. CONCLUSIONS: The obtained results show that the prevalence of epilepsy and alcohol dependence in the studied prisoner population was much higher than in the general population of Poles and that alcohol dependence was strongly correlated with epilepsy, independent from other variables. The research allowed to assess the size of the analyzed problem among convicts, however, bearing in mind the multifactorial etiology of epilepsy, the cause and effect relationship between exposure to alcohol and its occurrence would require further in-depth analytical studies taking into account other etiological factors of this disease.