Prescribing practices in Southeastern Europe - focus on benzodiazepine prescription at discharge from nine university psychiatric hospitals.

There is much concern about the widespread long-term use of benzodiazepines. Our manuscript addressed its use in the region of Southeastern Europe, which seems extensive, but insufficiently explored. At nine university psychiatric hospitals (Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia), we retrospectively analyzed discharge summary documents to find the prevalence of discharge benzodiazepine prescriptions and the prescribed benzodiazepine doses.

Prevalence and Correlates of Aggression and Hostility in Hospitalized Schizophrenic Patients.

This study is aimed at identifying the incidence as well as clinical and socio-demographic correlates of aggression in hospitalized schizophrenic patients. We prospectively recruited participants with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., text rev.

[Current issues in psychiatry].

Introduction: Psychiatry is the branch of medicine concerned with the defining and diagnosing mental disorders, finding ways of treatment, developing methods for determining causes, and conceiving measures for prevention of mental disorders. Psychiatry has greatly advanced over the last two decades. In our country, however, due to prejudice and ignorance, mental disorders are still often considered incurable and alarming by the general public as well as by physicians, and psychiatric patients are stigmatized and marginalized by the society.