A comparative study of perceived burden in parent caregivers of adolescents with epilepsy in a resource-restricted setting: Investigating the explanatory factors of perceived burden.

Objective: Parent caregivers often play vital roles in the care of adolescents with epilepsy (AWE) in resource-restricted settings; however, little is known about the burden borne by these parents. This study investigated the burden perceived by parents of AWE and described the explanatory factors.

Methods: An equal number (n = 121) of age- and gender-matched parent caregivers of AWE (cases) and parents of adolescents with sickle cell disease (comparison group) were interviewed with the Parent Illness Intrusiveness Rating Scale to assess disruptions in their relationships and lifestyle.

Psychological distress and sleep problems in healthcare workers in a developing context during COVID-19 pandemic: Implications for workplace wellbeing.

Background: Emotional wellbeing of healthcare workers is critical to the quality of patient care, and effective function of health services. The corona virus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic exerted unique physical and emotional demands on healthcare workers, however little is known about the emotional wellbeing of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in resource-restricted settings. This study investigated the prevalence of psychological distress, and sleep problems in healthcare workers in a COVID-19 referral hospital in Nigeria.

The impact of a psychosocial program on clinical outcomes for severe psychiatric disorders.

Background: This retrospective study evaluated the impact of a psychosocial program on individuals with severe and chronic psychiatric disorders. This study also examined potential modifiable predictors of hospitalization.

Methods: The sample was comprised of 94 individuals with severe and chronic mental illness who were followed in the Community Support Network (CSN), a psychosocial program.

Acute Blood Pressure Changes Associated With Antipsychotic Administration to Psychiatric Inpatients.

Objective: To investigate blood pressure (BP) changes within the first 3 days after initiating antipsychotic medication in psychiatric inpatients.

Methods: Through retrospective chart review using a repeated measures design, vital signs data were collected on 60 adult psychiatric inpatients who were psychiatrically hospitalized May 26, 2011, through September 4, 2012, at 9 time points within 3 days of initiation of 1 of 6 different antipsychotic medications. The random sample included patients with the following DSM-IV-TR diagnoses: schizophrenia (n = 25), schizoaffective disorder (either type; n = 19), and bipolar I disorder (n = 16).

Longitudinal assessment of clinical risk factors for depression in schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

Background: During initial assessment of individuals with schizophrenia and related disorders (schizophrenia spectrum disorders [SSDs]), clinicians tend to pay greater attention to psychotic symptoms than mood symptoms, including depression. Depression is reported to influence the course of SSDs, but not much is known about the risk factors for depression in SSDs. In the present study, we examined clinical predictors of depression in SSDs.

Transitive inference deficits in unaffected biological relatives of schizophrenia patients.

Currently available treatments have limited efficacy in remediating cognitive impairment in schizophrenia. Efforts to facilitate cognition-enhancing drug discovery recommend the use of varied experimental cognitive paradigms (including relational memory) as assessment tools in clinical drug trials. Although relational memory deficits are increasingly being recognized as a reliable cognitive marker of schizophrenia, relational memory performance among unaffected biological relatives remains unknown.

Social adaptive functioning, apathy, and nondysphoric depression among nursing home-dwelling very old adults.

Background: Apathetic and subsyndromal depressive conditions are common in the oldest old. This study examined whether nondysphoric depression (NDD), a clinical condition characterized by ideational and vegetative but no emotional symptoms of depression, belongs to the apathetic presentations of late-life depression. Rates of NDD, dysphoric depression (DD), apathy, and social functional impairment were examined in a sample of nondemented very old (mean age 87.

Modifiable risk factors for depressed mood among farmers.

Background: Risk for depression among farmers is not fully understood. DSM-IV considers sadness or depressed mood a critical symptom of depression. The aim of this study was to examine risk factors for depressed mood among farmers using a longitudinal study design.

Beyond alcoholism: Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome in patients with psychiatric disorders.

Objective: Wernicke encephalopathy and Korsakoff syndrome (the combined disorder is named Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome [WKS]) are preventable, life-threatening neuropsychiatric syndromes resulting from thiamine deficiency. WKS has historically been associated with alcoholism; more recently, it has been recognized in patients who have anorexia nervosa or have undergone bariatric surgery for obesity. However, patients with nutritional deficiencies of any origin are at risk for WKS.

An initial study of modifiable and non-modifiable factors for late-life psychosis.

Objective: To determine rates of psychotic symptoms and associated modifiable and non-modifiable factors among elderly long term nursing home residents without prior history of psychiatric illness.

Method: A cross-sectional design using the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS) to measure psychotic symptoms, the Folstein's Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE), and Mattis Dementia Rating Scale (DRS) to evaluate cognitive impairment. Frequency and rates of global psychotic symptoms and hallucinations, delusions, formal thought disorder, and bizarre behavior were calculated.