Forensic psychiatry in Turkiye.

Turkiye, with its origins in an enduring civilisation rooted in preceding Turkish states from ancient and medieval eras, possesses its own firmly established legal traditions. Legislation concerning to the mentally ill was introduced post the French Revolution in the Ottoman Empire and underwent reforms with the advent of Turkiye's modern Republic in 1923, led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. This remains an ongoing process of enhancement, despite the absence of a well-established mental health law.

Homicides by offenders with psychotic illness in Italy and Turkiye: A comparison of offender and crime-scene profiles.

Objective: The primary aim of this study was to conduct a comparative analysis of homicide cases and their perpetrators with psychotic illnesses in Italy and Turkiye, identifying the extent to which country-specific factors influence offender profiles and crime-scene characteristics.

Method: This cross-national chart review study recruited individuals with psychotic illnesses from forensic psychiatric centers in Italy and Turkiye who were referred for criminal responsibility assessments. Data were collected on the offenders' background characteristics, psychiatric history, victim profiles, and crime-scene details.

Understanding the dark side of personality in sex offenders considering the level of sexual violence.

This study examined the relationship between the actual level of physical violence in sexual offenses and dark triad, empathic and impulsive personality traits of their perpetrators. Sixty-four male perpetrators of sexual offenses without any serious mental illness were included. A 5-point Likert-type coding system based on Violence Profile for Current Offense was applied to assess the severity of physical violence of each sexual offense.

Homicide perpetrators with psychotic illness found not criminally responsible in Turkiye and Russia: An international comparison.

Objective: The primary objective was to conduct a comparative analysis of homicide cases and their perpetrators with psychotic illnesses in samples from Turkiye and Russia to elucidate contextual similarities and differences, and providing novel perspectives to enhance international research in this field.

Method: This cross-national retrospective study, conducted at forensic psychiatric centers in Istanbul, Turkiye, and Chuvashia, Russia, involved individuals with psychotic illnesses (ICD-10 F20-F29) who were deemed criminally non-responsible for index homicide offenses between December 2012 and December 2022. The sample included 92 Turkish patients and 29 Russian patients who were compared for background, clinical characteristics, and each homicidal act.

Treatment adherence in forensic patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders discharged on long-acting injectable antipsychotics: a comparative 3-year mirror-image study.

In this retrospective 3-year mirror-image study, 81 patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) were categorized according to whether they were prescribed long-acting injectable antipsychotics (LAI) or not upon discharge from the inpatient forensic psychiatric unit. Antipsychotic adherence, which was staged based on the 'proportion of days covered' method, as well as other clinical outcomes was compared between pre- and post-index mirror periods. In both Oral-only (n = 46) and Oral + LAI (n = 35) groups, the number of hospitalizations, convictions and months spent in the hospital were significantly lower in the post-index period than the pre-index period.

Blood Viscosity and Inflammation in First-Episode and Acute Exacerbations of Schizophrenia: A Case-Control Study with Healthy Controls.

Introduction: Elevated proinflammatory status and alterations in blood flow, both of which are associated with the pathophysiology of schizophrenia, may be linked with an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. However, such a relationship at different acute stages of schizophrenia has not been evaluated. We aimed to examine whether blood viscosity and systemic inflammatory status varied between first-episode schizophrenia (FES) and acute exacerbations of schizophrenia.

Statistical shape analysis of corpus callosum in delusional disorder.

Neurobiological foundations of delusional disorder (DD) have been studied less with neuroimaging techniques when compared to other psychotic disorders. The present study aimed to delineate the neural substrates of DD by investigating neuroanatomical characteristics of the corpus callosum (CC) with statistical shape analysis (SSA) conducted on magnetic resonance images (MRI). Twenty (female:male=1:1) DSM-5 DD patients and 20 age- and gender-matched healthy individuals were included.

Profiling Homicides Based on Impulsive or Proactive Natures in Male Schizophrenia Patients.

The main aim of this study was to ascertain whether a relationship existed between the and motivation of homicide, clinical characteristics, and psychopathic traits in schizophrenia. Forty-seven male homicide perpetrators with schizophrenia were included in the study. We classified types of homicide perpetrated by the patients as predominantly impulsive (n = 27) or proactive (n = 20) in nature.

Electrocardiographic Markers of Arrhythmogenic Risk in Synthetic Cannabinoids Users.

Synthetic cannabinoids (SCs) users appeared to have heightened risk for cardiac arrhythmias; however, current line of research is insufficient in terms of demonstrating both conventional and novel electrocardiographic arrhythmia risk indicators in this population. We aimed to investigate P-wave dispersion (Pwd), corrected QT interval (QTc), QTc dispersion (QTcd), T-T (Tp-e), Tp-e/QT ratio, corrected JT interval (JTc), and JTc dispersion (JTcd), which are shown among the risk factors for emergence of an arrhythmia, among SCs users, suggestive of possible adverse effects of SCs on the cardiac rhythm. Forty-one male SCs user patients who met (DSM-5) substance use disorder criteria and 41 healthy male controls included in the study.

The association between chronotype and sleep quality, and cardiometabolic markers in patients with schizophrenia.

Current data on chronotype and sleep quality and their relationship with clinical characteristics of schizophrenia are insufficient to evaluate whether these variables are associated with cardiometabolic risk. We aimed to identify the interplay between chronotype, sleep quality and metabolic indices that can potentially predict negative cardiometabolic outcomes in schizophrenia patients. One-hundred schizophrenia patients who were under a stable antipsychotic regime were enrolled in the study.

Psychopathy, temperament, and character dimensions of personality as risk determinants of criminal recidivism in schizophrenia patients.

There is considerable evidence on the role of personality traits in the risk of criminal recidivism among schizophrenia patients, besides conventional risk factors. We evaluated the effects of psychopathy and biopsychosocial personality model on general criminal recidivism in schizophrenia patients. Ninety-four male DSM-5 diagnosed schizophrenia patients were recruited and classified into three groups according to the number of offenses since diagnosis: reoffenders (n = 32), Initial offenders (n = 31), and nonoffenders (n = 31).

Psychotic Agitation in a Patient with COVID-19: Pathogenesis or Iatrogenesis?

The pathophysiological underpinnings of central nervous system (CNS) involvement in SARS-CoV-2 infection, as well as the profile of adverse neuropsychiatric effects of pharmacological agents employed in the management of COVID-19, are yet to be elucidated. Here, we report a 43-year-old female patient who suffered from COVID-19 and who developed new-onset psychotic agitated behavior which may be related to either the COVID-19 infection itself or to the drugs that were used in the treatment. On her third day of treatment with oseltamivir, hydroxychloroquine, and azithromycin, the patient, who had no previous background of neurological or psychiatric diagnosis, presented with a new-onset psychomotor agitation with auditory hallucinations and insomnia.

SARS-CoV-2-associated first episode of acute mania with psychotic features.

Despite neuropsychiatric outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 infection are now under close scrutiny, psychoneuroimmunological characteristics of COVID-19 and precise pathophysiology of neuropsychiatric manifestations of the infection are still obscure. Moreover, there still exists a shortfall in demonstrating specific clinical manifestations of the brain involvement of the virus. Here, we presented a 33-year-old female patient with COVID-19, reporting acute-onset paranoid delusions symptoms, insomnia and irritability.

COVID-19-related cognitive dysfunction may be associated with transient disruption in the DLPFC glutamatergic pathway.

Cognitive impairment has recently attracted researchers as one of the possible neuropsychiatric manifestations of COVID-19, although how the infection perpetuates impairment of cognitive functions is still obscure. We presented a 29-year-old male patient with COVID-19 who developed new-onset transient attention deficit and memory problems following a SARS-CoV-2 infection. Structural neuroimaging was normal.

Reissuing the sigma receptors for SARS-CoV-2.

• Receptor binding is a major determinant of tissue tropism for SARS-CoV-2. • Neurotropism of SARS-CoV-2 associated with a broad range of receptors in the central nervous system (CNS). • Sigma receptors may be involved in the neuronal transmission of SARS-CoV-2.

One Plus One Sometimes Equals More Than Two: Long-acting Injectable Aripiprazole Adjunction in Clozapine-Resistant Schizophrenia.

In this report, we present a patient whose positive symptoms did not improve despite being treated with clozapine monotherapy at a therapeutic dose for 4 months, and whose symptoms began to resolve after aripiprazole long-acting injection adjunction to clozapine. A 22-year-old man was diagnosed as having schizophrenia last year in his first admission, with symptoms of auditory hallucinations, persecutory delusions, and associated social withdrawal. His positive symptoms did not improve despite being treated with risperidone, olanzapine, and paliperidone.

C-Reactive Protein/Albumin and Neutrophil/Albumin Ratios as Novel Inflammatory Markers in Patients with Schizophrenia.

Objective: Peripheral biomarker studies in schizophrenia are insufficient to correspond to whether inflammatory markers are trait- or state-related. The main objective of this study was to compare novel biomarkers C-reactive protein/albumin ratio (CAR), neutrophil/albumin ratio (NAR), and complete blood count-derived inflammatory markers; neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet/lymphocyte ratio (PLR), monocyte/lymphocyte ratio (MLR), red-cell distribution width (RDW), and mean platelet volume (MPV) between patients with acutely exacerbated and remitted schizophrenia and healthy controls.

Methods: Anonymous data of a total of 618 patients with schizophrenia (179 in remission, 439 with acute exacerbation) and 445 psychiatrically and medically healthy subjects admitted to outpatient units were included.

Chronobiology Revisited in Psychiatric Disorders: From a Translational Perspective.

Objective: Several lines of evidence support a relationship between circadian rhythms disruption in the onset, course, and maintenance of mental disorders. Despite the study of circadian phenotypes promising a decent understanding of the pathophysiologic or etiologic mechanisms of psychiatric entities, several questions still need to be addressed. In this review, we aimed to synthesize the literature investigating chronobiologic theories and their associations with psychiatric entities.