VITAMIN D STATUS IN PATIENTS WITH MENTAL DISORDERS: A CROSS-SECTIONAL ANALYSIS OF SINGLE COHORT FROM ROUTINE PRACTICE.

Context: Clinical research suggests that vitamin D deficiency correlates with mental illnesses.

Objective: The aim was to prove that the patients from the psychiatric health care service in Serbia had higher vitamin D deficiency than patients from general practice.

Design: The study had a cross-sectional design.

Evolving Health Expenditure Landscape of the BRICS Nations and Projections to 2025.

Global health spending share of low/middle income countries continues its long-term growth. BRICS nations remain to be major drivers of such change since 1990s. Governmental, private and out-of-pocket health expenditures were analyzed based on WHO sources.

Parameters of Calcium Metabolism Fluctuated during Initiation or Changing of Antipsychotic Drugs.

Objective: Serum parameters of calcium homeostasis were measured based on previously published evidence linking osteoporotic fractures and/or bone/mineral loss with antipsychotics.

Methods: Prospective, four-week, time-series trial was conducted and study population consisted of patients of both genders, aged 35-85 years, admitted within the routine practice, with acute psychotic symptoms, to whom an antipsychotic drug was either introduced or substituted. Serial measurements of serum calcium, phosphorous, magnesium, 25(OH)D, parathyroid hormone, calcitonin, osteocalcin and C-telopeptide were made from patient venous blood samples.

Comparison of historical medical spending patterns among the BRICS and G7.

Objective: The past few decades have been marked by a bold increase in national health spending across the globe. Rather successful health reforms in leading emerging markets such as BRICS reveal a reshaping of their medical care-related expenditures. There is a scarcity of evidence explaining differences in long-term medical spending patterns between top ranked G7 traditional welfare economies and the BRICS nations.

Cytokine profile in severe Gram-positive and Gram-negative abdominal sepsis.

Sepsis is a principal cause of death in critical care units worldwide and consumes considerable healthcare resources. The aim of our study was to determine whether the early cytokine profile can discriminate between Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteraemia (GPB and GNB, respectively) and to assess the prognostic value regarding outcome in critically ill patients with severe abdominal sepsis. The outcome measure was hospital mortality.

10th World IHEA and ECHE Joint Congress: health economics in the age of longevity.

The 10th consecutive World Health Economics conference was organized jointly by International Health Economics Association and European Conference on Health Economics Association and took place at The Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland in July 2014. It has attracted broad participation from the global professional community devoted to health economics teaching,research and policy applications. It has provided a forum for lively discussion on hot contemporary issues such as health expenditure projections, reimbursement regulations,health technology assessment, universal insurance coverage, demand and supply of hospital services, prosperity diseases, population aging and many others.

Cross-sectional survey on complementary and alternative medicine awareness among health care professionals and students using CHBQ questionnaire in a Balkan country.

Objective: To conduct a study on attitudes, knowledge, and use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies in Serbia. Available data about CAM therapies in the region are scarce, opinions lacking from health sector. Balkan region countries had a delay in issuing national policies on CAM therapies.

The influence of alcohol intoxication on the severity of injuries suffered by drivers in road traffic accidents.

Purpose: To determine the severity of injuries in drunk and sober drivers in traffic accidents, by using the Injury Severity Score (ISS), as well as the most vulnerable body region of those involved.

Methods: This was an observational case-control study covering a 1-year period of patients treated in the emergency department of the Health Center in Kraljevo, Serbia. Seventy-five patients were identified as drunken drivers [blood alcohol concentration (BAC) >0.