Perceptions and attitudes of people with severe mental disorders towards smoking in Greece.

Despite its significant decline in the general population, smoking remains endemic and highly prevalent among people with mental disorders. The impact of smoking-attributable morbidity on life expectancy is significant since, in comparison to the general population, people with severe mental disorders have a 15-20-year reduction in life expectancy. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1015 people with mental disorders through personal interviews.

The burden and the challenge of treatment-resistant depression.

Treatment resistant depression (TRD) is a serious public health problem. It is estimated that around 20- 40% of patients with a major depressive episode (whether monopolar or bipolar) do not exhibit clinical response to the current treatment with antidepressants, that is at least 50% decline in the symptoms scale. Furthermore, about half of the patients with symptom amelioration present residual symptoms which continue to negatively affect their functioning and increase the chance of relapse.

Comparative study of aggression - Dangerousness on patients with paranoid schizophrenia: Focus on demographic data, PANSS, drug use and aggressiveness.

This cross sectional study aimed to compare the differences in psychopathology of Greek homicide and homicide attempters, patients with schizophrenia, with non violent individuals, suffering from schizophrenia. The study compared three Groups of 220 men, diagnosed with schizophrenia: (a) Group Α (Schizophrenia - No violence, (b) Group Β (Schizophrenia - with violence or violent crime), (c) Group C (Schizophrenia - not guilty by reason of insanity - violent crime). Several psychometric tools were used, such as M.

Frequency Distribution of COMT Polymorphisms in Greek Patients with Schizophrenia and Controls: A Study of SNPs rs737865, rs4680, and rs165599.

Schizophrenia, a severe psychiatric condition, is characterized by disturbances of cognition, emotion, and social functioning. The disease affects almost 1% of world population. Recent studies evaluating the role of catechol-O-methyltransferase enzyme (COMT) polymorphisms in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia have resulted in ambiguous findings.