Publications by authors named "Arunas Germanavicius"

The aim of this study was to assess mortality risk in people with schizophrenia in Lithuania from 2001 and 2020. Cause-specific and all-cause mortality risk among patients with schizophrenia was assessed using a retrospective cohort study design. The cohort identified all patients with schizophrenia diagnosis (ICD-10 code F20) who were admitted to the Vilnius Republican Psychiatric Hospital from 1 January, 2001 to December 31, 2020.

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Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) is a challenging issue to address. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is commonly used but shows varying efficacy, necessitating a deeper understanding of depression physiology and rTMS mechanisms. Notably, an increasing amount of recent data has displayed the connection of TRD and its clinical outcome with chronic inflammatory processes.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to showcase a new statistical method to analyze how different TMS protocols affect brain connectivity in patients with depression.
  • It utilized EEG data and advanced statistical techniques to compare brain connectivity before and after TMS with various frequency settings (1 Hz, 10 Hz, and iTBS).
  • The findings highlighted that the effects of TMS on brain connectivity varied by the stimulation frequency, and a specific set of brain measures was effective in evaluating these differences, aiding in the selection of optimal TMS treatments.
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Resistance to pharmacological treatment poses a notable challenge for psychiatry. Such cases are usually treated with brain stimulation techniques, including repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Empirical evidence links treatment resistance to insufficient brain plasticity and chronic inflammation.

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Just over 25 years have passed since the major sociopolitical changes in central and eastern Europe; our aim was to map and analyse the development of mental health-care practice for people with severe mental illnesses in this region since then. A scoping review was complemented by an expert survey in 24 countries. Mental health-care practice in the region differs greatly across as well as within individual countries.

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Background: Adolescents and young adults are among the most frequent Internet users, and accumulating evidence suggests that their Internet behaviors might affect their mental health. Internet use may impact mental health because certain Web-based content could be distressing. It is also possible that excessive use, regardless of content, produces negative consequences, such as neglect of protective offline activities.

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Background: One of the usual problems psychologists and clinicians face in clinical practice is differential diagnostics of Alzheimer's disease and depression. It has been reported that the ACE and ACE-R could discriminate the cognitive dysfunctions due to depression from that due to dementia, although this is not uniform in all studies. The current study aimed to evaluate the utility of the ACE-R to differentiate late-life onset depression (with severe episode) from mild-moderate Alzheimer's Disease (AD).

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Background: Depression is the third leading contributor to the worldwide burden of disease. We assessed the nature and severity of experienced and anticipated discrimination reported by adults with major depressive disorder worldwide. Moreover, we investigated whether experienced discrimination is related to clinical history, provision of health care, and disclosure of diagnosis and whether anticipated discrimination is associated with disclosure and previous experiences of discrimination.

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Background: POMONA II was a European Commission public health-funded project. The research questions in this article focus on age-specific differences relating to environmental and lifestyle factors, and the 17 medical conditions measured by the POMONA Checklist of Health Indicators (P15).

Method: The P15 was completed in a cross-sectional design for a stratified sample of 1,253 adults with ID across 14 European member states.

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Objectives: To study health inequalities in persons with intellectual disabilities, representative and unbiased samples are needed. Little is known about sample recruitment in this vulnerable group. This study aimed to determine differences in ethical procedures and sample recruitment in a multicenter research on health of persons with intellectual disabilities.

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Article Synopsis
  • People with mental disorders often face higher rates of physical illnesses and shorter life expectancies, but there's a gap in effective interventions across Europe to address these issues.
  • The HELPS project is an interdisciplinary initiative that aims to gather knowledge on the physical health challenges faced by individuals with mental illnesses and identify effective health promotion practices across different European countries.
  • The project will create a "physical health promotion toolkit" to help staff and residents in mental health facilities choose appropriate health interventions, leveraging methods like stakeholder analysis, literature reviews, and expert consultations to ensure the toolkit is effective and adaptable.
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Background: There is current uncertainty over the future of assertive community and outreach teams in view of recent evidence suggesting that they no longer reduce hospital admissions. Despite this, assertive teams remain popular among practitioners.

Aims: To examine the views of assertive community team members and other mental health professionals in London (UK) and Vilnius (Lithuania) to determine important differences in attitudes.

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