Psychiatry trainees' attitudes towards euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.

We investigated the attitudes towards Euthanasia (EUT) and Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS) in a sample of Greek Psychiatry trainees (PT), (n=120, mean age 32.01±0.21, male 60.0%) and compared these to those of medical trainees of other specialties (OMT), i.e. internal medicine, surgery, intensive care (n=154, mean age 32.97±1.17, male 57.1%). Most of the responders were for the acceptance of EUT and PAS under some circumstances. More often PT answer "never" in the question regarding the permission to withdraw life-sustaining medical treatment to hasten death, if that requested by a terminally ill patient (p<0.001) and also more often answer "never" to the question regarding the permission to hasten the death of a patient if that is requested by family members (p<0.01). On the other hand OMT were more often for the acceptance of EUT (p<0.001) and more often expressed a positive view in the case allowing PAS in patients with incurable-terminal illness and low expected quality of life (p<0.001). According to the results of this study there is a need for special education of PT on end of life decisions. Also, it is important for educators to have understanding the views of the trainees since soon in the future, the new generation of physicians will have to make end of life decisions.

Alexithymia, depression and serum lipids in suicide attempters.

Over the last decade several studies have discussed the association between serum cholesterol, depressive disorders and suicide. A specific psychological variable related to affect is alexithymia. Alexithymia has been linked to depression and suicidal behaviour. Concerning lipid levels there are several studies that suggest changes in serum lipid composition maybe related to depression and suicidal behaviour. In this study we examined the possible relationship between alexithymia, depression and serum lipids in suicide attempters. We studied 50 non-violent suicide attempters (drug overdosers) with a mean age of 35.0 (±12.2) years. Alexithymia was measured using the Shalling-Sifneos Personality Scale Revised (SSPS-R) and depression using the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS). Serum lipids concentrations were determined by enzymatic method within 24h of hospital admission. For the statistical evaluation Spearman's rank correlation coefficients were used. The mean serum lipid levels were: total serum cholesterol (TC) 175.2 (±29.6) mg/dL, highdensity lipoprotein cholesterol (H-DLC) 47.08 (±13.1) mg/dL, low density lipoprotein cholesterol (L-DLC) 109.5 (±23.5) mg/dL and the mean serum triglycerides (TR) level was 89.4 (±39.1) mg/dL. The mean scores on the questionnaires were: SSPS-R 10.3 (±3.7), MADRS 33.5 (±5.9). There were significant correlations between: (a) SSPS-R score and MADRS score (r=0.439, p<0.001), (b) SSPS-R score and TR level (r=0.323, p<0.05). There were no significant correlations between MADRS score and any of the lipid fractions measured. To our knowledge, only few studies have examined the association between alexithymia and clinical-psychopathological parameters in suicide attempters. There are no previous studies comparing serum lipid profile with alexithymia in suicide attempters. This is the first study to compare at the same time serum lipids, alexithymia and depression in suicide attempters. The results suggest that although there was a strong relationship between alexithymia and depression in suicide attempters only alexithymia was correlated to Serum triglyceride levels.

Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis after intrauterine infection.

UNLABELLED: Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), in the majority of cases, is caused by the wild measles virus, although there are some reports relating SSPE to vaccination. This paper presents an inborn that was infected during pregnancy by the measles virus and developed SSPE within the first year of life after a short incubation period. He progressed rapidly after a mild arrest with treatment. Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis is a fatal degenerative disease and, although it had largely disappeared because of nearly universal measles vaccination, it still remains a serious infection among children affected by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The lack of newer cases of SSPE occurring among normal children nowadays should not wane alertness by obstetricians and paediatricians, to recognize the risk with measles during pregnancy and the need for prevention and recognition of SSPE at an early stage. Although some references exist which report on SSPE cases related to vaccination, new work weakens the possible links between measles vaccine and SSPE. CONCLUSION: This report would like to stress the importance and success of reducing the SSPE problem with the aid of general measles vaccination with high coverage.