ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: We investigate the relationship between life events stress and psychiatric disorders in a random sample of urban population older than 16 in the Tenerife Island. METHOD: A two-stage cross-sectional study was conducted. In the first stage 660 persons were interviewed using the GHQ-28 as a screening questionnaire and the DSM-III-Axis IV for the psychosocial stressors valoration. In the second stage were interviewed all persons screening positive on the GHQ and similar number of the screening negative ones, using the Clinical Interview Schedule. RESULTS: The psychosocial stressors prevalence was 36,5% and the pathology psychiatric prevalence was 12, 90%: among 3.3% of the people who do not refer psychiosocial stress and 29.5% of the people who do refer. CONCLUSION: We confirmed a significant relationship between psychosocial stress and psychiatric disorders in both sexes.
Subject(s)
Life Change Events , Mental Disorders/etiology , Stress, Psychological/complications , Community Mental Health Services , Cross-Sectional Studies , Female , Humans , Male , Mental Disorders/diagnosis , Mental Disorders/epidemiology , Middle Aged , Prevalence , Psychiatric Status Rating Scales , Stress, Psychological/diagnosis , Stress, Psychological/epidemiology , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: During the last decades, numerous research works have tried to determine what risk factors are associated with the schizophrenic patient's suicidal behavior but they have yielded contradictory results. Thus we hypothesized that these results' variability could be due, among other reasons, to the heterogeneity of suicidal schizophrenic population. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Thirty-two Schizophrenics patients who had made Attempted suicide were studied. They were assessed through a battery of Clinical scales for negative, positive, hopelessness, insight and depressive symptoms. RESULTS: Two suicidal subtypes were identified according to the reasons that patients stated for attempting suicide. These two subtypes showed significant differences in two of the analyzed variables, namely hopelessness and PANSS positive subscale. DISCUSSION: Clinical implications coming from these results are discussed in the present paper.
Subject(s)
Schizophrenia/diagnosis , Suicide, Attempted/psychology , Adolescent , Adult , Depression/diagnosis , Depression/psychology , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Retrospective Studies , Suicide, Attempted/statistics & numerical data , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
UNLABELLED: The aim of this research consists of studying whether melatonin (MLT) may be considered as an alternative for the treatment of insomnia. METHODS: A 33-year period (1966-1998) of computerised search using Medline database was performed. Melatonin, pineal gland and insomnia were used as key words. RESULTS: 93 articles were elicited; 85 were excluded because they were reviews (44) or were not directly related to the research topic (41). 111 insomniac patients were treated with MLT in 8 articles. 60% of the patients reported an improvement of sleep quality. Objective sleep measures also improved; there was a decrease in the sleep latency time and the number of awakenings (62% and 50% of patients respectively) after MLT treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Melatonin may have a promising future for the treatment of insomnia. The lack of standardised criteria for diagnosing sleep disorders and the lack of structured psychiatric interviews for ruling out psychiatric pathology are clear obstacles in generalizing these results.
