Dysphonia Screening in Firefighters and Associated Factors.

Objective: To verify the likelihood of dysphonia in firefighters and its relationship with individual and occupational factors and mental health.

Method: This cross-sectional observational study with 442 firefighters collected data on sociodemographic, occupational, and lifestyle aspects and screening for common mental disorders (CMD). Individuals were divided into two groups: those slightly likely and those moderately/highly likely to have dysphonia, according to the Brazilian Dysphonia Screening Tool.

Work-related factors in the etiology of symptoms of post-traumatic stress among first responders: the Brazilian Firefighters Longitudinal Health Study (FLoHS).

Two important aspects must be accounted for when discussing the mental health of first responders and, in particular, their report of post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). The first concerns the provision of quantitative data from longitudinal study designs, the second concerns the sophistication of the work-related model used to frame such studies. This is a report on the development of a model for Brazilian firefighters who also work as first responders, from the establishment of a longitudinal panel design study, the Brazilian Firefighter Longitudinal Health Study (FLoHS).

Translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the International Trauma Questionnaire for use in Brazilian Portuguese.

Background: The most recent editions of diagnostic manuals have proposed important modifications in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) criteria. The International Trauma Questionnaire (ITQ) is the gold-standard measurement for assessing PTSD and complex PTSD in accordance with the model of the 11th International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11).

Objective: The aim of this study was to adapt the ITQ for the Brazilian context.

Cross-cultural adaptation of the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist 5 (PCL-5) and Life Events Checklist 5 (LEC-5) for the Brazilian context.

Objective:: To describe the process of cross-cultural adaptation of the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist 5 (PCL-5) and the Life Events Checklist 5 (LEC-5) for the Brazilian sociolinguistic context.

Method:: The adaptation process sought to establish conceptual, semantic, and operational equivalence between the original items of the questionnaire and their translated versions, following standardized protocols. Initially, two researchers translated the original version of the scale into Brazilian Portuguese.

Normative data of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale 11 (BIS-11) for Brazilian adults.

Objective: The Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11) is a valid and reliable instrument, and one of the most often used tools to assess impulsivity. This study assesses the performance of a large sample of adults by using a version of BIS-11 adapted to Brazilian Portuguese.

Methods: We assessed 3,053 adults from eight Brazilian states.

Affective temperaments and antidepressant response in the clinical management of mood disorders.

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of a relationship between affective temperament and antidepressant treatment response in mood disorder patients.

Methods: The lifetime history of antidepressant response of 90 bipolar disorder patients and 88 major depressive disorder patients were retrospectively evaluated and then assigned to one of four subgroups: complete response (CR), partial response (PR), no response (NR), and antidepressant associated mania response (AAMR). Using TEMPS-Rio de Janeiro - the brief Brazilian version of TEMPS-A - we compared affective temperament subscale scores across these groups.

Affective temperaments: familiality and clinical use in mood disorders.

Background: The affective temperament profiles among patients with mood disorders may be an important parameter in the clinical evaluation of these patients. It has been proposed that temperament traits have familiality and may represent vulnerability markers to identify the risk to developing specific clinical type of mood disorders. To test these theories, measures of temperament were examined in bipolar patients (BP), unipolar major depressive patients (UP), healthy relatives of these patients (HRP) and normal controls (NC).

[Temperament traits associated with bipolar affective disorder: an integrative literature review].

Studies have suggested an association between temperament characteristics and adjustment and psychiatric disorders, describing them as different manifestations of vulnerability to psychopathology. The objective of this study was to conduct an integrative review of the literature on temperament traits typical of bipolar patients in relation to the general population. A systematic search was conducted on the MEDLINE, PsycINFO and LILACS databases, using the headings bipolar disorder, temperament and/or personality, between January 2000 and December 2010.

Maintaining quality of life in multiple sclerosis: fact, fiction, or limited reality?

Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is an important marker for health-related impacts on individuals with chronic diseases. This HRQOL study compares multiple sclerosis (MS) patients to a socio-demographically-matched healthy control group. HRQOL was assessed by means of a modular instrument (DEFU/DEFIS), which allows comparisons between diseased and healthy individuals.