Anxiety, depression, and pain in burning mouth syndrome: first chicken or egg?

Background: Burning mouth syndrome (BMS) is an idiopathic and chronic pain condition for which patients may experience high levels of pain, anxiety, and depression. So far, it has not yet been well investigated whether specific psychiatric features (anxious traits, personality disorder, or somatization) may play a role in the BMS pathogenesis or whether some BMS symptoms, or BMS itself, may cause secondary psychiatric symptoms.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between pain, depression, and anxiety in BMS and healthy patients in order to hypothesize a possible underlying pathogenetic model.

Systematic reviews to support evidence-based psychiatry: what about schizophrenia?

Objective: To assess whether systematic reviews (SRs), the gold standard for scientific research, can offer valuable support in evidence-based psychiatry in the treatment of schizophrenia.

Methods: We used three database services (Ovid, PubMed and Cochrane) to identify SRs related to schizophrenia, found 163 reviews and grouped them by topic. We then evaluated each study's conclusions and divided them into three groups based on results (ranging from certain to null conclusions).

First contact with psychiatric services: who leaves and who remains.

Objective: The objective of this study was to obtain information on patients in their first contact with community mental health departments in the south of Italy, particularly on dropout patients leaving care without a previous agreement.

Method: A 3-month cohort of 265 "first-contact" psychiatric patients assisted at four different community mental health centers (CMHCs) was examined and followed up at 6 months.

Results: The overall dropout rate after 6 months was 38.

Worldwide access to evidence-based mental health literature: how useful is PubMed in Anglo-Saxon and non-Anglo-Saxon countries?

The aim of this study was to verify the presence of cultural variety among the psychiatric journals available on PubMed, the major online tool for accessing literature. Data for analysis were taken from a survey of the world psychiatric journals indexed in Index Medicus 1999 (IM), the alphabetical list used by PubMed, and from the mean impact factor (IF) values of the journals. Approximately 80% of international psychiatric literature available on PubMed is published in Anglo-Saxon countries, especially in the USA (59.