[Rhabdomyolysis associated with cocaine abuse in a patient with schizophrenia]. / Rabdomyolyse na gebruik van cocaïne bij een patiënt met schizofrenie.

Rhabdomyolysis is a syndrome of rapid skeletal muscle breakdown as a result of direct or indirect skeletal muscle injury. An important cause of rhabdomyolysis is the use of hard drugs among which cocaine but also different psychotropic drugs are associated with the development of rhabdomyolysis. The clinical presentation of rhabdomyolysis is diverse and the course can be relatively harmless but also potentially life threatening. Therefore, it is important to recognize rhabdomyolysis in an early stage in order to initiate treatment in a timely manner. We describe a 40-year-old man with schizophrenia who developed rhabdomyolysis after the use of cocaine.

'Big Five' personality characteristics are associated with loneliness but not with social network size in older adults, irrespective of depression.

OBJECTIVE: Loneliness and social isolation have negative health consequences and are associated with depression. Personality characteristics are important when studying persons at risk for loneliness and social isolation. The objective of this study was to clarify the association between personality factors, loneliness and social network, taking into account diagnosis of depression, partner status and gender. DESIGN: Cross-sectional data of an ongoing prospective cohort study, the Netherlands Study of Depression in Older Persons (NESDO), were used. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: 474 participants were recruited from mental health care institutions and general practitioners in five different regions in the Netherlands. MEASUREMENTS: NEO-Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) personality factors and loneliness and social network were measured as well as possible confounders. Multinominal logistic regression analyses were performed to analyse the associations between NEO-FFI factors and loneliness and social network. Interaction terms were investigated for depression, partner status and gender. RESULTS: Higher neuroticism and lower extraversion in women and lower agreeableness in both men and women were associated with loneliness but not with social network size irrespective of the presence of depression. In the non-depressed group only, lower openness was associated with loneliness. Interaction terms with partner status were not significant. CONCLUSIONS: Personality factors are associated with loneliness especially in women. In men lower agreeableness contributes to higher loneliness. In non-depressed men and women, lower openness is associated with loneliness. Personality factors are not associated with social network size.

[Hypomania induced by intranasal corticosteroid fluticasone spray]. / Hypomanie geïnduceerd door intranasaal corticosteroïd fluticasonspray.

A 79-year old man was diagnosed with an episode of hypomania during the use of fluticasone intranasal spray. After discontinuation the patient recovered completely. Patients with oral corticosteroid treatment have an increased risk of developing severe neuropsychiatric symptoms. This case-report shows that adverse systemic effects can also occur when using local corticosteroids. While the incidence of systemic side effects after using local treatment is not well known, there are various case reports. It is advised to be cautious when using multiple corticosteroids simultaneously due to the additive effect, when treating risk groups and when treating patients with a history of psychiatric disease.

[How to act in case of a homicidal patient; a literature review and a practice guideline]. / Hoe te handelen bij een patiënt die zich homicidaal uit; literatuurstudie en handreiking.

BACKGROUND: Death threats are common in the therapist's office. Many therapists don't know how to handle these.
AIM: To provide background information and tools for the practitioner who receives a homicidal threat from a patient.
METHOD: A systematic literature review of the epidemiology, diagnostics, risk assessment and treatment of homicidal threats.
RESULTS: During consultation, a death threat is not equatable with the announcement of murder. There are far more instances where the patient does not follow through with their threat. A psychotic disorder, an antisocial personality disorder, alcohol abuse, (bipolar) depression, long-existing (severe) domestic violence, possession of a weapon or a previous conviction for a death threat are important risk increasing factors. The risk assessment evaluates the motives and the proclivity to act. emdr and aggression regulation therapy appear to be effective treatments for underlying trauma and anger. However, psycho-dynamic aspects and feelings of countertransference should also be taken into account during therapy. Three Dutch guidelines about professional secrecy are important when making an assessment about whether or not one should break the rules of confidentiality.
CONCLUSION: Any practitioner who may be faced with a homicidal patient should have ready access to the relevant guidelines. Mental health institutions are encouraged to actively support this process.

Loneliness in older adults is associated with diminished cortisol output.

OBJECTIVE: Loneliness in older adults has been associated with increased mortality and health problems. One of the assumed underlying mechanisms is dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis (HPA-axis). The purpose of this study was to investigate whether loneliness in older adults is associated with HPA-axis dysregulation and whether this association differs between depressed and non-depressed persons. METHODS: Cross-sectional data of 426 lonely and non-lonely older adults in the Netherlands Study of Depression in Older Persons (NESDO) were used. Linear regression analyses and multinominal logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the association between loneliness and morning cortisol, cortisol awakening response, diurnal slope and dexamethasone suppression ratio. In all analyses, confounders were introduced. In order to examine whether the association between loneliness and cortisol measures is different in depressed versus non-depressed persons, an interaction term for loneliness x depression diagnosis was tested. RESULTS: Cortisol output in the first hour after awakening and dexamethasone suppression ratio was lower in lonely participants. There were no significant interactions between loneliness and depression diagnosis in the association with the cortisol measures. CONCLUSION: This study is the first to investigate the association between the HPA-axis and loneliness in a large group of older adults aged 60-93years. We found lower cortisol output in the first hour after awakening and lower dexamethasone suppression ratio in lonely older depressed and non-depressed adults. Whether diminished cortisol output is the underlying mechanism that leads to health problems in lonely older adults is an interesting object for further study.

Increased risk of mortality associated with social isolation in older men: only when feeling lonely? Results from the Amsterdam Study of the Elderly (AMSTEL).

BACKGROUND: Loneliness has a significant influence on both physical and mental health. Few studies have investigated the possible associations of loneliness with mortality risk, impact on men and women and whether this impact concerns the situation of being alone (social isolation), experiencing loneliness (feeling lonely) or both. The current study investigated whether social isolation and feelings of loneliness in older men and women were associated with increased mortality risk, controlling for depression and other potentially confounding factors. METHOD: In our prospective cohort study of 4004 older persons aged 65-84 years with a 10-year follow-up of mortality data a Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was used to test whether social isolation factors and feelings of loneliness predicted an increased risk of mortality, controlling for psychiatric disorders and medical conditions, cognitive functioning, functional status and sociodemographic factors. RESULTS: At 10 years follow-up, significantly more men than women with feelings of loneliness at baseline had died. After adjustment for explanatory variables including social isolation, the mortality hazard ratio for feelings of loneliness was 1.30 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.04-1.63] in men and 1.04 (95% CI 0.90-1.24) in women. No higher risk of mortality was found for social isolation. CONCLUSIONS: Feelings of loneliness rather than social isolation factors were found to be a major risk factor for increasing mortality in older men. Developing a better understanding of the nature of this association may help us to improve quality of life and longevity, especially in older men.

Depression and excess mortality: evidence for a dose response relation in community living elderly.

CONTEXT: Depression is associated with an increased mortality risk. It is not known to what extent depression characteristics such as severity and length of exposure to depression contribute to the association with excess mortality. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the association between depression severity and duration with mortality in community-living elderly. DESIGN: Two-wave prospective cohort study with 10-year follow-up of vital status. Assessment of depression at baseline and at three year follow-up (GMS-AGECAT). Cox proportional hazards analyses of mortality with depression according to severity and length of exposure, adjusted for demographic variables, physical illnesses, cognitive decline and functional disabilities. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Randomly selected cohort of 3 746 non-demented older community-living persons in the city of Amsterdam. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Excess mortality of both the baseline cohort, and of non-demented subjects participating in both assessments (n = 1989). RESULTS: Both moderate (MHR 1.29, 95% CI 1.03-1.61) and severe depression (MHR 1.34, 95% CI 1.07-1.68) predicted 10-year mortality after multivariate adjustment. Chronic depression was associated with a 41% higher mortality risk in 6-year follow-up compared to subjects without depression. CONCLUSIONS: Severity and chronicity of depression are associated with a higher mortality risk. In combination with other findings this is suggestive of a causal relationship and may have implications for both preventive and treatment strategies of late-life depression.

[Diagnostic image (379). A confused man with tetraparesis and haemophilia]. / Diagnose in beeld (379). Een man met verwardheid, tetraparese en hemofilie.

A 77-year-old haemophilic man presented with confusion, somnolence and tetraparesis due to massive bilateral subdural haematomas.