Emotional contagion behavior in a group of young girls in a secondary school in Maputo, Mozambique.

Background: Emotional Contagion Behavior (ECB), the synchronized expression of emotional symptoms among members of a group, has been observed globally. In Mozambique, there have been numerous reports of ECB in recent years. Since 2010 several girls from a secondary school in Maputo City, Mozambique exhibited ECB which involved repeated fainting spells, sometimes including verbal aggression and threats to colleagues and teachers.

Stigma toward individuals with mental disorders among Brazilian psychiatrists: a latent class analysis.

Objective: The stigma toward individuals with mental disorders is highly prevalent, not only in the general population but among health care providers as well. The aim of this study was to identify subgroups based on stigmatizing beliefs related to psychiatric disorders among Brazilian psychiatrists, as well as to investigate their association with clinical and personality characteristics.

Methods: Latent cluster analysis was used to find subgroups of cases in multivariate data according to a psychotic (schizophrenia) and a nonpsychotic disorder (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder).

The Impact of Mental Illness Stigma on Psychiatric Emergencies.

Psychiatric emergencies are severe behavioral changes secondary to worsening mental illness. Such situations present a risk to the patient and other people, so they need immediate therapeutic intervention. They are associated with feelings of fear, anger, prejudice, and even exclusion.

Difficulties in activities of daily living are associated with stigma in patients with Parkinson's disease who are candidates for deep brain stimulation.

Objective: Parkinson's disease (PD) is often accompanied by stigma, which could contribute to a worse prognosis. The objective of this study is to identify the variables associated with stigma in PD patients who are candidates for deep brain stimulation (DBS).

Methods: We investigated sociodemographic and clinical variables associated with stigma in a sample of 54 PD patients indicated for DBS.

Rehabilitation programs for elderly women inpatients with schizophrenia.

This study aims to describe rehabilitation and resocialization methods we believe to be appropriate for application to female patients with schizophrenia, in a psychiatric unit with a predominantly older population. We briefly describe the unit and the interventions used as an example of the proposed rehabilitation and resocialization methods applied. The article provides an overview to guide accurate intervention, particularly in inpatient women, in different types of cognitive impairment under the broad category of schizophrenia.

Drugs of abuse and sexual functioning.

The use of mind-altering substances can be found in very different cultures and traced back thousands of years; the same is true for the searching of drugs that could increase sexual functioning. In this text, we explore the relation between drugs of abuse and sexuality in three domains: drugs and sexual dysfunctions, drugs and risky sexual behavior and drugs used as sexual aids. Although some drugs can increase sexual response in the early stages of the addiction career, particularly in those with a previous sexual dysfunction, the chronic use of substances tends to deteriorate all stages of sexual response in both male and female abusers.