Coping and Its Relation to PTSD in Greek Firefighters.

Firefighters are exposed continuously to intense stress situations and traumatic incidents, and are at high risk of developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Coping mechanisms and behaviors have been examined as factors contributing to PTSD. The strategies that may be used to cope with stress and/or trauma differ between individuals and also between different professions and traumatic events ().

Personality characteristics and individual factors associated with PTSD in firefighters one month after extended wildfires.

Background: Firefighters participate in activities with intense physical and psychological stress and are constantly at risk to develop various psychopathological reactions.

Aims: To investigate psychological reactions in firefighters one month after devastating wildfires in Greece, during August 2007, which lead to the devastation of large areas and the death of 43 people among whom three were firefighters.

Methods: One month after the wildfires, a joint task force of mental health clinicians was organized in order to provide psychological support and to investigate the psychological consequences of wildfires to firefighters.

Insomnia and PTSD one month after wildfires: evidence for an independent role of the "fear of imminent death".

Objective: The relationship of insomnia with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) one month after wildfires and more specifically with the experience of 'fear of imminent death' were investigated.

Methods: Ninety-two randomly chosen victims of wildfires in the Greek province of Ilia, were assessed through a specifically designed semi-structured psychiatric interview comprising of questionnaires and scales to measure psychopathology, as well as psychosocial and environmental parameters. PTSD was set according to ICD-10 research diagnostic criteria, while insomnia was assessed with the Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS).

Posttraumatic stress disorder in outpatients with depression: Still a missed diagnosis.

Comorbidity between major depressive disorder (MDD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a well-established fact but has been studied little among MDD patients and even less among outpatients. We assessed the prevalence and characteristics of comorbid MDD-PTSD patients in a sample of MDD outpatients in an effort to elucidate possible causes of MDD-PTSD comorbidity. A semistructured clinical interview was applied to 101 outpatients with MDD.

[Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic effects of psychotropic medications: Differences between sexes].

The gender based or gender sensitive pharmacology is a new research area. Differences among sexes are observed in several parameters of their pharmacokinetic which may relate to alteration of their pharmacodynamic as well. Most psychotropics are given per os, and the greater part of their absorption takes place in the small intestine.