Pregabalin versus sertraline in generalized anxiety disorder. An open label study.

Objective: Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is a chronic mental illness with a prevalence of 5-7% in the general population. t GAD is characterized by extreme persistent worry, mostly about minor problems, involving pathological fear with high occurrences of vegetative disturbance. GAD leads to functional impairment and a significantly reduced patient's quality of life.

Neuropsychological and neurophysiological evaluation of cognitive deficits related to the severity of traumatic brain injury.

Objectives: Cognitive impairment is a common permanent sequela of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Its objectivization is based on neuropsychological and neurophysiological assessment. Neuropsychological evaluation requires a test battery, whereas for neurophysiological assessment the most significant is application of P300 Event-Related Potentials (ERPs).

[Expression of somatostatin in ischemia of rat brain].

Introduction: This study used the immunohistochemical method to follow the expression of cytoplasmatic protein somatostanin in the course of ischemia of rat brain. The aim of the study was to define all the areas of expression of somatostain and to show the protein distribution on the map.

Material And Methods: All the sections of telencephalon, diencephalon and midbrain were studied in resistant, and transitory ischemia, which enabled us to observe the reaction of neurons to an ischemic attack or to repeated attacks.

Side effects of antipsychotic agents--neuroleptic malignant syndrome.

Summary - Neuroleptic malignant syndrome is a rare, potentially life-threatening complication which is an unpredictable, idiosyncratic reaction to antipsychotics. In patients receiving traditional antipsychotics, neuroleptic malignant syndrome occurs with an incidence of 0.2-3.

[Current issues in psychiatry].

Introduction: Psychiatry is the branch of medicine concerned with the defining and diagnosing mental disorders, finding ways of treatment, developing methods for determining causes, and conceiving measures for prevention of mental disorders. Psychiatry has greatly advanced over the last two decades. In our country, however, due to prejudice and ignorance, mental disorders are still often considered incurable and alarming by the general public as well as by physicians, and psychiatric patients are stigmatized and marginalized by the society.

[Depression in older persons].

Introduction: Depression is a common problem in old age, especially among those with various medical illnesses. Aging brings about numerous losses that might lead to depression: loss of health, loved ones and social roles. Some of older persons develop depression.

[Comparison of the efficacy of traditional antidepressive agents and the new generation of antidepressives in the treatment of depressive disorders].

Introduction: Considerable efforts have been made throughout the last 20 years to develop drugs that can replace tricyclic antidepressants as the primary treatment for depression. These efforts are well justified since tricyclic antidepressants, although therapeutically quite efficient, cause several problems, such as side effects and toxicity at therapeutic doses, causing particular problems in the elderly and in patients with congestive heart disease, and giving severe toxicity when taken in overdose. A number of compounds that are pharmacodynamically different from the tricyclics have been developed, and Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors are such.

[Case report of a female patient with post-infection depression].

In this article the authors present a case of a secondary depression in woman, 75 years old, without previous psychiatric anamnesis or heredity. She had post-herpetic intercostal neuralgia and developed symptoms of depression. This case is an example which points to necessity of cooperation of other medical branches with psychiatry.

[Clinical characteristics of depressive disorders].

In this article authors investigated the clinical distinction between endogenous and neurotic depression. The endogenous depression was equivalent to severe depressive episode without psychotic symptoms, according to ICD-X criteria, and neurotic depression was equivalent to dysthymia. The results showed that endogenous depressive patients were much older than neurotic depressives, and that they had more severe symptoms of depression.