The first male case with fluoxetine induced hair loss and review of the literature.

OBJECTIVE: Fluoxetine is the drug of choice in the treatment of depression. It is widely preferred due to fewer side effects and greater tolerability. Hair loss is a frequent adverse effect that may occur by psychotropic drug use and that can remit by its cessation. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We present the diagnosis and treatment of a 26-year-old male patient. He was diagnosed with depression without psychotic features according to the DSM-V criteria and was administered fluoxetine in a dose of 20 mg/day. RESULTS: Six weeks after the initiation of the fluoxetine treatment, the patient reported hair loss in the frontal area of the skull. These complaints regressed after cessation of drug. CONCLUSIONS: Hair loss appears to be a rare side effect of fluoxetine-based treatment. Dermatologists and psychiatrists must be informed about this adverse side effect. There might be differences in the risk of hair loss between the various SSRIs and the risk might be higher in female than in male. This male patient was the first case as far as we know in the literature. It should be kept in mind that hair loss may be observed in patients treated with fluoxetine and should be questioned in both male and female.

Factors influencing social distance from people with schizophrenia.

The aim of this study was to investigate the nature of the relationship between public causal beliefs and social distance from people with schizophrenia. Regression analysis of the results of a vignette-based opinion survey was conducted on a representative population sample in Erzincan (n = 856). The findings of this study suggest that there is a positive relationship between biological causal beliefs (i.e. 'brain and disease' and 'heredity') and social distance from people with schizophrenia. It would be premature to draw conclusions with regard to interventions aimed at reducing discrimination based on stigma. However, our study provides stimulus for reconsidering the assumptions underlying biological concepts among the public, which might not contribute to a desired reduction in social distance from people with schizophrenia.

Neuro-Behçet's disease involving the pons with initial onset of affective symptoms.

We report a case with Behçet's disease with initial onset of affective symptoms. This disease most commonly affects the brain stem in the nervous system, but a large lesion is very rare in the pons; initial onset of affective symptoms has not yet been reported in literature. This case was treated successfully with corticosteroids. Total clinical improvement was observed and the lesion was reduced in size within nine months (1.5 x 1.3 cm to 0.2 x 0.4 cm).

Left ear (right temporal hemisphere) advantage and left temporal hemispheric dysfunction in schizophrenia.

In this study, to investigate the right or left ear advantages in psychiatric patients. the durations of hearing for right and left ears were assessed in 61 psychiatric patients, 26 with schizophrenia, 17 with depressive disorder, 13 with bipolar affective disorder, and 5 with brief psychotic disorder, plus 24 controls. Diagnoses were made on the basis of information provided from clinical interviews and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID). Schizophrenia was associated with a left ear advantage, and both depressive disorder and brief psychotic disorder were associated with right ear advantage as well as controls. These results suggest that their schizophrenia may be associated with a left temporal lobe dysfunction.

First-case postpartum psychoses in Eastern Turkey: a clinical case and follow-up study.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the clinicodemographic features and long-term course of postpartum psychosis (PPP). METHOD: A total of 64 in-patients with psychotic postpartum disorder, who were admitted for the first time to a psychiatry clinic, were reexamined retrospectively and then compared with 64 control patients. Follow-up investigation was carried out either by interviewing the patients personally or with the help of general practitioners (GPs). All patients were rediagnosed according to DSM-IV. RESULTS: The majority of PPP patients were young, married, primiparae, had a low educational level and were living in rural areas. The mean onset time of PPP after delivery was 3.62 weeks. More than 75% of the patients with PPP had further psychotic episodes during the follow-up period of 11 years; 42% of the puerperal cases were diagnosed as schizophrenia at the follow-up investigation, and 59.3% of the patients had confuso-oneiroid syndrome. CONCLUSION: These findings, unlike those of the Western studies, demonstrate that PPP is not uniform in different populations.

A case of childhood shigellosis with mutism.

Bacillary dysentery, an acute infection caused by various strains of Shigella, is characterized by abdominal pain, tenesmus, and diarrhea with mucus, pus and blood. Neurologic manifestations including meningismus, delirium and convulsions may accompany the infection. We describe a thirteen-year-old girl who presented with headache, convulsion and loss of consciousness at the onset and developed diarrhea with blood and pus after hospitalization. The diagnosis of shigellosis was based on clinical data and isolation of the microorganism in the stool specimen. After improved physical functions, the patient developed mutism that continued for two days in the course of her illness, despite having no history of neurologic or psychological problems. She was diagnosed by a psychiatrist with organic mental syndrome NOS (Not Otherwise Specified) according to DSM-III-R criteria. None of the conditions that may cause mutism could be confirmed. This is the first reported case of mutism accompanying shigellosis.

Depression in an elderly population in Turkey.

The prevalence of depression was investigated in 2 groups of elderly people in Turkey living in a public old people's home and in their own home. Depression was assessed according to the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, not clinical diagnosis. The prevalence of depression was 35% (33% for men, 37% for women) for the total population, 41% (40% for men, 42% for women) for those living in an institution and 29% (24% for men, 33% for women) for those living at home. Not being able to work actively, poor religious interest, widowhood, alcohol consumption, older age and physical disability were significantly correlated with the prevalence of depression. Institutional care was also associated with depression. The prevalence of depression was not related to sex, education, occupation or economic status.