Hypochondrias is a psychiatric disorder that is recognized with a strong belief and concerns about having a serious illness. Objectives of this study were determination of the frequency of these symptoms in medical sciences fields’ students in their relation with age, gender & educational major and degree.

This study was performed on 500 randomly selected students in Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. Those with a known previous medical or mental disorder or defectiveness were excluded. Assessment was done with the hypochondrias questionnaire that includes 36 items. Data was analyzed with appropriate statistical descriptive and analytic tests such as chi-square, independent t and ANOVA.

In the present study the prevalence of hypochondrias in medical students were %36.8 at the borderline level and 16% as the disorder level. Out of 70 cases with hypochondriac disorder 57 had mild and 13 had moderate symptoms. This disorder was significantly more prevalent in girls than boys (P=0.000) and it was not related to marital status (P=0.318), However, all the students with moderate disorder were single.

The present study showed the higher prevalence of hypochondrias in Iranian medical sciences fields’ students compared to those in other countries. In contrast to other studies, the disorder was more prevalent in women in this research. Hypochondriac symptoms in medical sciences fields’ students especially in ones with inaccurate medical information are frequent, in this study also there was a higher prevalence of symptoms in people with bachelor degree than those with other educational levels.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a leading cause of disability worldwide, and yet delivery of care for this illness is rife with gaps. The COVID-19 pandemic has had far reaching implications for every facet of healthcare, and MDD is no exception. This scoping review aimed to ascertain the impacts of COVID-19 on the delivery of MDD care in Europe, as well as to evaluate any novel MDD care strategies trialled in this period.

We searched the PubMed and PsycINFO databases up to January 2022 with a strategy centred around COVID-19 and MDD. Full texts of eligible studies examining working-age adults and conducted in Europe were evaluated against several criteria. All outcomes were then extracted and a narrative synthesis was constructed to summarise identified themes.

Of 1,744 records identified in our search, 11 articles were eligible for inclusion in the review. In general, these studies reported a decrease in treatment rates, access to care, and perceived access to care during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, digital interventions trialled during the pandemic were broadly well-received by users, though their efficacy in improving MDD care was ambiguous.

Despite a limited number of pertinent studies, this scoping review identified a trend of exacerbated treatment gaps in MDD care during the pandemic. Several of our pre-specified gaps, including delays to detection or treatment of depression and rates of follow-up contacts, remained unexplored in the context of COVID-19. This highlights the need for further investigation to obtain a full understanding of the relationship between COVID-19 and MDD care in Europe.

In the past few years, social media has gained a high popularity as a dynamic and interactive computer-mediated communication tools. Although it has become a part of everyday life for most of our clients, yet we did not have the opportunity to study its impact on compliance to therapy.

Assessment of impact of parallel social media group to dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) skills training group in a sample of Egyptian patients suffering from borderline personality disorder (BPD).

The aim of the current study was to estimate impact of parallel social media group on compliance to DBT skills training group and its adverse events.

Patients with BPD enrolled to an outpatient comprehensive DBT program in Alexandria were assigned either to group (A) skills training, where a parallel Facebook group was crated aiming at increasing to compliance to the original group, or group (B) skills training alone and dropout rates were calculated based on completion of 6 months full skills training. We considered patients out of the group if they missed 4 sessions in a raw.

Two patients of 15 patients who joined group (A) missed four consecutive sessions with a dropout rate of 13%, whereas group (B) showed 43% drop out rate as 10 out of 23 patients did not complete the group. The difference was statistically significant. We reported only one privacy issue dealt with it immediately.

Utilization of social media group could lead to increase patient compliance to DBT skills training group.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The question of preoperative anxiety in an ophthalmological patient and its relief in an outpatient setting is becoming increasingly relevant due to the improvement of the technique and equipment of ophthalmic surgery, when the practice of «one-day surgery» is becoming increasingly common. It could not only affecting the course of the operation, but also a factor limited the availability of this type of medical care to patients. Purpose. To analyze the relationship between the level of anxiety during preoperative preparation and the choice of the optimal approach for the relief of preoperative anxiety in an ophthalmological patient in a «one day» clinic.

89 adult patients of both sexes aged from 20 y.o. referred for outpatient surgery (refractive and cataract surgery) and were included into trials, all of them are divided into main - 45 and control - 44 groups. Clinical psychotherapeutic interviewing, a scale of situational and personal anxiety C.D. Spielberger (adapted by Y.L. Khanin), a questionnaire for analyzing satisfaction with the quality of medical services provided in outpatient settings were used. Statistical: Microsoft Excel spreadsheet editor for Windows; the STATISTICA application software package version 6.1. were taken. The condition for determining statistically significant differences is the value р≤0,05.

Two-stage study by the method of contiuous sampling. Clinical psychotherapeutic interviewing, a scale of situational and personal anxiety C.D. Spielberger (adapted by Y.L. Khanin), a questionnaire for analyzing satisfaction with the quality of medical services provided in outpatient settings were used. Statistical: Microsoft Excel spreadsheet editor for Windows; the STATISTICA application software package version 6.1. were taken. The condition for determining statistically significant differences is the value р≤0,05.

The level of anxiety in patients who received anxiolytics

The study revealed an average and high level of situational anxiety in 66% of patients referred for refractive surgery, in 81% of patients referred for cataract surgery. Into main group, against the background of the performed anxiolytic therapy in the preoperative period, the proportion of people with a high level of reactive anxiety decreased significantly (p≤0.05) (from 24% to 8%), while personal anxiety did not significantly change. Among control group patients show a lower level of satisfaction with the quality of medical services provided in an outpatient setting.

The study showed the possibility of providing better quality medical services in «one-day» eye surgery, which expands the availability of outpatient ophthalmic surgical care to patients with high level of anxiety and anxiety disorders.

None Declared

High levels of impulsive behavior represent a core symptom of different psychiatric conditions, such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), impulse control and conduct disorders, bulimia nervosa, substance use disorders, and other maladaptive behaviors. Impulsivity is a multidimensional construct, having at least three factors.

Our aim was to describe the impulsivity profile in adult ADHD and BPD patients in comparison with a healthy control group, taking into consideration the different impulsivity factors.

aADHD (n=80) and BPD Patients (n=60) were recruited, based on the DSM-5 criteria. Control subjects (n=80) were screened using Derogatis Symptom Checklist (SCL-90). Comorbidities were assessed by structured clinical interviews. Participants were further investigated with online questionnaires including the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11), Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), and neuropsychological tests, like Rogers’ decision-making test.

Based ont the BIS-11 and DERS results, significantly higher levels of impulsivity (motor, attentional, non-planning) and difficulties in emotion regulation were present both in the aADHD and BPD groups, compared to the control group. Impulsivity factors were more characteristic to aADHD, emotion dysregulation was more specific to BPD. In the Rogers test, aADHD group was significantly slower in decision-making, while in BPD decision quality and risk-taking were affected.

Impulsivity profiles of the two disorders are different, which leads to the assumption of potentially altered pathway of developing impulsive behavior. As a neuropsychiatric condition, impulsivity in aADHD is related to neurobiological dysinhibition, in BPD impulsive behavior is attached to emotionally involving situations, and emotional dysregulation rooted in childhood adverse events.

No significant relationships.

The DGPPN, as a German psychiatric professional society, demands a new, systematic viewing of the biographies, motivations, participations and defense patterns of important representatives of the discipline during the National Socialistic period.

A current evaluation of previously untapped sources makes it possible to assign an appropriate critical-historical position to Friedrich Meggendorfer’s role as NS-academic psychiatrist.

Relevant archive materials as well as primary and secondary literature have been reviewed.

Clinically and scientifically, Friedrich Meggendorfer worked under Emil Kraepelin (1856-1926), Max Nonne (1861-1959) and Ernst Rüdin (1874-1952). Meggendorfer earned a good reputation in genetic research during his activity as psychiatrist in Hamburg under Wilhelm Weygandt (1870-1939). This was the decisive reason why he was called to the Chair in Psychiatry in Erlangen in 1934. At the same time, Meggendorfer was appointed Director of the Erlangen Psychiatric and Neurological Hospital as an adnexe to the Erlangen asylum for the mentally ill. Because he had joined the NSDAP on 01.05.1933, he was suspended from office on 19.11.1945 by the military government. Meggendorfer was rated as a 'hanger-on' by the denazification court on 20.09.1946. In the post-war period, Friedrich Meggendorfer was confronted with comparatively strict restrictions. His removal from the faculty of the Friedrich-Alexander University can primarily be considered due to the post-war Director of the Erlangen asylum, Werner Leibbrand (1896-1974) and his reorganization of the psychiatric clinics.

Meggendorfer‘s role as an NS-academic psychiatrist is most likely trapped in the professional understanding of his time.

The aim of the study was to determine whether patients with OCD resistant to drugs may improve using intensive, systematic CBT lasting six weeks and whether it is possible to predict the therapeutic effect using demographic, clinical and psychological characteristics at baseline.

There were 66 patients included in the study. Fifty-seven patients completed the program. The diagnosis was confirmed by a structured interview MINI. Patient were rated before the treatment using Y-BOCS (objective and subjective form), CGI (objective and subjective form), BAI, BDI, DES (Dissociative Experiences Scale), SDQ 20 (Somatoform Dissociation Questionnaire), and SDS (Sheehan Disability Scale), and at the end of the treatment using subjective Y-BOCS, objective and subjective CGI, BAI, and BDI. Patients were treated with antidepressants and daily intensive group cognitive behavioral therapy for the period of six weeks.

During the 6-week intensive cognitive behavioral therapy program in combination with pharmacotherapy, there was a significant improvement in patients suffering from OCD formerly resistant to pharmacotherapy. There were statistically significant decreases in the scales assessing the severity of OCD symptoms, anxiety, and depressive feelings. The lower treatment effect was achieved specifically in patients who:

– showed fewer OCD themes in symptomatology;

– showed a higher level of somatoform dissociation;

– with poor insight;

– with a higher level of overall severity of the disorder in the beginning.

The remission of the disorder was achieved more probably in patients with:

– good insight;

– the lower level of initial anxiety;

– without comorbidity with the depressive disorder.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Maternal depression is relatively common during pregnancy. However, follow-ups of the adult offspring of antenatally depressed mothers are scarce. Previously we found the risk of schizophrenia to be higher in the adult offspring with antenatally depressed mothers and parents with psychosis than in subjects with only one or neither of these risk factors. The aim was to study whether the risk of schizotypal or affective traits differ among adult offspring with antenatally depressed mothers with or without a parental history of psychosis when compared with offspring without antenatally depressed mothers and without parental psychosis.

In the general population-based Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort (NFBC 1966), the mothers of the cohort members were asked at mid-gestation whether they felt depressed. Parental psychosis (Familial Risk, FR) was detected using the Finnish Care Register for Health Care. In the 31-year field study, seven psychometric questionnaires surveyed schizotypal and affective traits in the offspring. The final sample included 4928 individuals (2203 males).

There were no statistically significant differences in mean scores on the schizotypal and affective scales between offspring with and without antenatally depressed mothers, or between subjects with and without parental psychosis. The scores were not highest in the subjects with both maternal antenatal depressed mood and FR.

Surprisingly, maternal depressed mood during pregnancy was unlikely to increase the risk of schizotypy or affective traits in adult offspring, and not even with parental psychosis (FR) in this general population-based birth cohort with about 5000 subjects.

The intentional use of drugs before or during sexual intercourse (chemsex) is a phenomenon of special importance in the MSM (men who have sex with men) population due to its impact on mental, physical and sexual health. Sexual health issues related to chemsex practice have been described such as difficulties in achieving sober sex, erectile dysfunction or problems with sexual desire.

To describe the sexual health interventions (including sexual counselling and sexual therapy) for patients with chemsex practices in the NGO Apoyo Positivo in Madrid. We describe the main sexual problems.

Descriptive analysis.

The main sexual problems were dissatisfaction in sexual intercourse without substance and difficulties with sexual desire activation (70%); compulsive sexual behaviour (70%), difficulties with sexual orientation and non normative gender expression, difficulties in erection (34%), premature ejaculation (7%) and delayed ejaculation (10%).

Chemsex is a phenomenon that needs a multidisciplinary approach and mental and sexual health must be taken into account. “Sexo, Drogas y Tu” is a model of collaborative approach which is a pioneering intervention developed by an NGO in Spain.

Modern Russian health psychology does not have the necessary tools for studying health anxiety in children, and therefore it is necessary to identify methods aimed at assessing the presence/absence and severity of children’s health anxiety.

To validate the “Short Health Anxiety Inventory” to a sample of school-age children who do not have serious physical disabilities.

The sample: 193 respondents (average age-12.5; 117-girls). We used: “Short Health Anxiety Inventory” (SHAI; Salkovskis et al., 2002), Children CPQ (Factor C), “Attitude toward Health” questionnaire (Berezovskaya, 2005) (emotional scale), STAI (Spielberger, 2002), EPI (Eysenck, 1963) (neuroticism scale).

Correlation analysis suggests that “health anxiety” is a separate construct. The discriminativeness criterion shows that each individual statement, as well as the whole inventory, is aimed at measuring the same construct. The retest reliability assessment (4 weeks later) shows the results: the “Health Anxiety” scale - 0.892 (p≤0.01), the “Alertness to bodily sensations” scale - 0.889 (p≤0.01), the “Fear of negative consequences” scale - 0.815 (p≤0.01). Correlations between the scales shows the values: 0.943 (p≤0.01) - for the general scale, 0.392 (p≤0.01) - for the “Alertness to bodily sensations” scale, 0.675 (p≤0.01) - for the “Fear of negative consequences” scale. The original three-component structure of the questionnaire is confirmed. The Russian version of the inventory showed internal consistency (alfa-Cronbach’s coefficient - 0.835), retest reliability, discriminativeness, external and constructive validity.

The results indicate that the SHAI can be used to study health anxiety in children due to its psychometric characteristics, simplicity and ease of use.

Most practice guidelines recommend maintenance antidepressant treatment for recurrent major depressive disorder. However, the degree to which such guidance is actually followed in primary health care has remained obscure. We investigated the provision of maintenance antidepressant treatment within a representative primary care five-year cohort study.

In the Vantaa Primary Care Depression Study, a stratified random sample of 1119 adult patients was screened for depression using the Prime-MD. Depressive and comorbid psychiatric disorders were diagnosed using SCID-I/P and SCID-II interviews. Of the 137 patients with depressive disorders, 82% completed the prospective five-year follow-up. A graphic life chart enabling evaluation of the longitudinal course of episodes plus duration of pharmacotherapies was used. In accordance with national guidelines, an indication for maintenance treatment was defined to exist after three or more lifetime major depressive episodes (MDEs); maintenance treatment was to commence four months after onset of full remission.

Of the cohort patients, 34% (46/137) had three or more lifetime MDEs, thus indicating the requirement for maintenance pharmacotherapy. Of these, half (54%, 25/46) received maintenance treatment, for only 29% (489/1670) of the months indicated.

In this cohort of depressed primary care patients, half of patients with indications for maintenance treatment actually received it, and only for a fraction of the time indicated. Antidepressant maintenance treatment for the prevention of recurrences is unlikely to be subject to large-scale actualization as recommended, which may significantly undermine the potential public health benefits of treatment.