The role of childhood cumulative trauma in the risk of lifetime PTSD: An epidemiological study.

Cumulative trauma is usually devastating and can lead to severe psychological consequences, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Exposure to various types of traumas, particularly during childhood, can be even more deleterious than the sheer number of events experienced. This epidemiological study is the first to investigate the impact of discrete childhood traumatic exposure on the risk of developing lifetime PTSD in a representative sample of the general population of the two biggest Brazilian cities.

Comorbidity in post-traumatic stress disorder: A population-based study from the two largest cities in Brazil.

Background: This study investigated the patterns of comorbidity between PTSD and depression, other anxiety disorders, alcohol-related disorders using the DSM-IV and ICD-10 criteria. The temporal sequence of the comorbid diagnoses was also investigated.

Methods: We used data from a large population-based survey carried out between 2007 and 2008 in the two largest cities in Brazil: São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

Sexual trauma is more strongly associated with tonic immobility than other types of trauma - A population based study.

Background: Tonic immobility is an involuntary motor and vocal inhibition reaction, considered the last-ditch response of the defensive cascade model. It is elicited in context of inescapable threat and perception of entrapment. Our aim was to investigate the association between different traumatic events and peritraumatic tonic immobility (PTI) in a representative sample of the general population.

A cross-sectional study to compare levels of psychiatric morbidity between young people and adults exposed to violence in a large urban center.

Background: Teenagers and young adults are more exposed to violence and traumatic events than adults, and these factors can be associated with mental disorders. This paper aims at investigating whether young people are more exposed to violence and traumatic events and to compare pattern of mental disorders with adults.

Methods: Cross-sectional study using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview, conducted between 2007 and 2008 with a randomly selected sample of 15 to 75 year-old residents of São Paulo, Brazil.

Conditional risk for posttraumatic stress disorder in an epidemiological study of a Brazilian urban population.

Introduction: Conditional risk for PTSD is the risk of developing PTSD after exposure to traumatic events. This epidemiological study of the general urban population from the two largest cities in Brazil reports exposure to traumatic events; conditional risk for PTSD; and proportion/estimated number of PTSD cases secondary to each type of traumatic event.

Method: Cross-sectional study of general population (15-75 y.

Anxiety and depressive disorders in elderly with chronic dizziness of vestibular origin.

Introduction: Dizziness is one of the most prevalent symptoms in the elderly. Anxiety and depression are common in dizzy adult patients, but there is scarce information about comorbidity between vestibular disturbances and psychiatric disorders in the aged.

Objective: To assess the prevalence of anxiety and depression disorders in elderly with chronic dizziness of vestibular origin.

Psychotropic Drug Use in São Paulo, Brazil--An Epidemiological Survey.

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of one month psychotropic drug use in São Paulo, Brazil, and to assess the gap treatment between the presence of mental disorders and psychotropic drug users.

Method: A probabilistic sample of non-institutionalized individuals from the general population of São Paulo (n = 2336; turnout: 84.5%) who were 15 years or older were interviewed by a trained research staff, applying the Composite International Diagnostic Interview 2.

Peritraumatic tonic immobility in a large representative sample of the general population: association with posttraumatic stress disorder and female gender.

Background: Tonic immobility is an involuntary response to inescapable life-threatening events. Peritraumatic tonic immobility has been reported in convenience samples of female victims of sexual assault and in mixed-gender victims of different types of trauma. This study evaluated peritraumatic tonic immobility in a representative general population sample and its association with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and gender.

Drug-related disorders and the criminal and clinical background of the prison population of São Paulo State, Brazil.

Objective: To analyze the association between drug (DAD) and alcohol (AAD) abuse and dependency and criminal and clinical background by gender of prisoners in São Paulo, Brazil.

Method: Cross-sectional study, random sample stratified by administrative district, from which prisons and prisoners were selected via random, multistage sampling. Psychiatric diagnoses were made with the CIDI 2.

Resilience to trauma in the two largest cities of Brazil: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Resilience is a dynamic process involving the interaction between intrapsychic and social factors of risk and protection. For resilience to be recognized there must be a significant threat to the individual, such as a traumatic event, and a good quality of adjustment. The aim of this study was to identify predisposing factors and possible mechanisms associated with resilience to traumatic events in the general population.

Prison is not the right place for people with mental disorders: the Brazilian case.

The large number of individuals with severe mental disorders in prisons worldwide has alarming implications, which leads to the question of the appropriateness of the prison system for people with this type of morbidity. This article discusses these implications, the problems in therapeutic approaches and the legal aspects in the Brazilian context.

Structural validity of the tonic immobility scale in a population exposed to trauma: evidence from two large Brazilian samples.

Background: Tonic Immobility is a temporary state of motor inhibition in situations involving extreme fear. The first scale developed for its assessment was the 10-item Tonic Immobility Scale (TIS). However, there are still few studies on its structural (dimensional) validity.

Prevalence of mental disorders among prisoners in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Objective: To determine the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in the prison population in the State of São Paulo, Brazil.

Methods: Through stratified random sampling, 1.192 men and 617 women prisoners were evaluated for the presence of psychiatric disorders by the Composite International Diagnostic Interview, 2.

Structural validity and reliability of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS): evidence from a large Brazilian community sample.

Objective: Positive and negative affect are the two psychobiological-dispositional dimensions reflecting proneness to positive and negative activation that influence the extent to which individuals experience life events as joyful or as distressful. The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) is a structured questionnaire that provides independent indexes of positive and negative affect. This study aimed to validate a Brazilian interview-version of the PANAS by means of factor and internal consistency analysis.

Epidemiology of psychotropic drug use in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: gaps in mental illness treatments.

Objective: Estimate the prevalence of psychotropic drugs use in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and establish its relationship with the presence of mental disorders.

Methods: A probabilistic sample of non-institutionalized individuals, from the general population of Rio de Janeiro (n = 1208;turn out:81%), 15 years or older, who were interviewed using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview 2.1 (depression, anxiety-phobia, OCD\PTSD, alcoholism sections), and asked about their psychotropic use during a 12 and one-month period before the interview.

The impact of epidemic violence on the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Background: Violence and other traumatic events, as well as psychiatric disorders are frequent in developing countries, but there are few population studies to show the actual impact of traumatic events in the psychiatric morbidity in low and middle-income countries (LMIC).

Aims: To study the relationship between traumatic events and prevalence of mental disorders in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Methods: Cross-sectional survey carried out in 2007-2008 with a probabilistic representative sample of 15- to 75-year-old residents in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview.

The structure of common mental disorders in incarcerated offenders.

Background: Dimensional models of mental disorders in community-based epidemiological samples have consistently demonstrated correlated externalizing and internalizing factors underlying common mood, anxiety, and substance use disorders. However, such analyses tend to exclude populations such as prisoners and psychiatric inpatients. As these samples have been shown to have a much higher prevalence of mental disorders and comorbidity than community samples, whether the internalizing-externalizing structure of psychopathology will replicate in such samples is unknown.

Accuracy of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI 2.1) for diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder according to DSM-IV criteria.

The objective was to study the accuracy of the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) section of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI 2.1) DSM-IV diagnosis, using the Structured Clinical Interview (SCID) as gold standard, and compare the ICD-10 and DSM IV classifications for PTSD. The CIDI was applied by trained lay interviewers and the SCID by a psychologist.

[Cross-cultural adaptation of the Brazilian version of the Impact of Events Scale-Revised (IES-R)].

The Impact of Events Scale-Revised (IES-R) is used to screen for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The aim of this study was to assess the cross-cultural adaptation of the IES-R. The scale was translated into Brazilian Portuguese and culturally adapted.

Violence and post-traumatic stress disorder in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: the protocol for an epidemiological and genetic survey.

Background: violence is a public health major concern, and it is associated with post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychiatric outcomes. Brazil is one of the most violent countries in the world, and has an extreme social inequality. Research on the association between violence and mental health may support public health policy and thus reduce the burden of disease attributable to violence.

Prevalence of mental disorder and associated factors in civilian Guatemalans with disabilities caused by the internal armed conflict.

Background: The 34-year-long, Guatemalan war left at least 1,841 persons disabled in the country. The aim of this study was to describe the prevalence of mental disorders in individuals who acquired their disability as a result of the war, and to identify probable risk factors.

Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted of a group of 99 civilians with a disability in Guatemala.

Weight gain, dyslipidemia and altered parameters for metabolic syndrome on first episode psychotic patients after six-month follow-up.

Objectives: Obesity and metabolic abnormalities are frequent in psychotic patients, including first-episode psychosis. We evaluated weight and metabolic parameters in first-episode psychotic outpatients from the First Episode Psychosis Program, Universidade Federal de São Paulo.

Method: Weight, height, waist and hip circumferences, glucose and lipid levels were measured at baseline and after a six-month period.

Validity and limitations of the Brazilian version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI 2.1).

Objective: To study the concurrent validity of the Brazilian Composite International Diagnostic Interview 2.1 using as gold standard the clinical diagnoses based on the ICD-10 criteria and the Longitudinal, Expert, All Data (LEAD) procedure.

Method: The sample was composed of 185 subjects selected at psychiatric hospitals, psychiatric outpatient units, the community, and primary care services.