Being a student in higher education can be a factor in development of psychosocial distress among university students. Numerous studies have raised a lot of concerns related to the stressors consequences. Different types of stressors can lead to impairment in social and academic performance.

to study the prevalence of psychological, social, and academic stress among medical students.

• To explore types & patterns of various stressors affecting medical students.

• To determine the impact of these stressors on the students’ academic achievements.

• To discuss interventional programs that could help in reducing the levels of stress experienced by students and how to cope with it.

We emailed about 1500 medical students in college of medicine, King Saud University with simple four exploratory questions. The survey evaluated the students’ opinions that addressed their psychological, social and academic difficulties and the need for help. Stage two will be a cross sectional survey which includes various validated scales. It will estimate the prevalence of psychological, social and, academic stressors. It will help us to choose the suitable intervention programs accordingly. Stage three will be designing intervention packages and measure their effects.

A total of 164 medical students completed the survey (61.5% were female). Percentage of respondents who reported they had experienced stress since college enrollment is 95%. The main factors that causing stress among medical students are displayed in Figure 1. The majority of respondents emphasized on the immense need for well-being programs.

E-learning may be a cost-efficient alternative or addition to traditional continuous medical education (CME) face-to-face courses. Even though some data are available regarding views on e-learning of general medicine physicians, preferences of psychiatrists have not been systematically assessed as yet.

To assess early career psychiatrists' (ECPs) preferences on e-learning.

To explore: 1) What do early career psychiatrists want to learn via e-learning? 2) How should e-learning be provided?

Online focus groups were conducted via skype. Participants were purposively sampled for professional qualification (trainees/newly-qualified psychiatrists) and recruited in 14 European countries. Qualitative analysis of the data is in progress. Preliminary findings are presented.

Four focus groups with in total 20 early career psychiatrists from different countries were conducted. The number of participants to focus groups varied from four to seven.

ECPs would use e-learning to learn about topics not normally thaught during standard psychiatric training, and to have contact with experts in the field. E-learning courses on general basic knowledge (psychotherapy theories, psycho-pharmacology) need to be related to clinical practice.

ECPs suggested that e-learning courses should be interactive, user-friendly and accredited by national authorities. Cost of e-learning courses and lack of awareness of e-learning opportunities are significant barriers to access, particularly for trainees.

Access of ECPs to e-learning may be increased by offering information on courses and affordable fees. Content-wise, e-learning should provide specialist knowledge or training in generic skills closely related to practice. E-learning courses should be delivered by renowned international experts.

There is a notion that emotional expression is universal, yet it is subject to cultural variations. Research in this field has studied cultural extremes in European, American and East Asian cultures. However, very little is known about the differences in emotional expression in the Arab subcultures.

Exploring the differences between the emotional reactions among the nine Arab subcultures.

Aims (1) Examining the cultural differences in emotional reactions; (2) examining the differences between Muslim and non-Muslim individuals; (3) exploring the differences between Arabs and non-Arabs.

Several real life scenarios including 15 different stressful situations and 15 non-stressful situations were presented to 40 individuals from the nine Arab subcultures. The participants were aged between 18 to 40 years of age. The subjects were randomly classified into groups depending on whether they were Arabs or non-Arabs and according to whether they were Muslims or non-Muslims. The subjects’ emotional reactions were measured by means of Likert-like items.

The results showed that there were no significant differences among the nine Arab subcultures in their emotional reactions to the non-stressful situations. However, there were significant differences among the Arab subcultures in the stressful situations. Moreover, both religion and ethics were strong predictors of the differences in the emotional reactions that varied between subjects in their cultural group. The Arab Muslims tended to express more anger but the Arab non-Muslims expressed more sadness.

Emotional expression is impacted by ones’ cultural background and is particularly influenced by religion and ethics. Although Arab countries share the same language, they express emotions differently.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Dementia is characterized by a decrease in mental functions, while disorders of balance, coordination of movements and gait are gradually added. In recent years there has been a growing interest in the role of exercise as a therapeutic strategy for people with dementia.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of different types of exercise and its parameters on cognitive and physical function in patients with dementia after reviewing the relevant literature.

Review of the literature based on the research of original scientific articles published in the electronic databases PubMed / Medline and Google scholar using as keywords the terms dementia, cognitive function, physical function, functionality, aerobic exercise, resistance exercise.

A review in the literature highlights the beneficial effect of exercise on patients with dementia. Aerobic exercise and mixed interventions have been studied more, while resistance interventions have been less studied. All three types of exercise have shown positive effects. The methodology differences of the studies make it difficult to draw definitive conclusions about the optimal intervention in the cognitive and physical function for the optimal result, the type of exercise, the duration, the frequency and the intensity.

Exercise (physical) may help maintain or improve cognitive function and functionality in patients with dementia but additional study is needed to clarify optimal intervention and establish guidelines.

Data on the process of mental health care is scant. Most studies focus on services at their inception when activity may be atypical and then usually present data only mean values for the reported variables over the whole study period. We aimed to test whether care delivery changes over time, and to describe any changes at the individual patient and team levels.

Process data on 272 patients in three new intensive case management (ICM) teams were collected over 2 years. Interventions were prospectively recorded using clinician-derived categories. Changes over time are described at both patient and team level.

The number of contacts and the proportion of face-to-face activity were remarkably constant after the first month at the patient level. The proportion of ‘psychiatric’ interventions (main focus on medication or a specific ‘mental health’ intervention performed) increased greatly after the first 6 months. The care activity received by individual patients varied considerably. Overall, teams varied significantly in the extent to which their activity rates were sustained over time.

New ICM teams deliver highly individualised care with more marked differences in treatment patterns between patients in the same team than mean differences between teams. The early ‘engagement’ period is marked by a greater focus on social care. There is evidence of differences in sustainability of the services by site.

Little is known about patient characteristics and rehospitalization in newly diagnosed patients with schizophrenia treated with long-acting antipsychotics.

To retrospectively explore hospitalizations, drug utilization and clinical outcomes from medical records of young, newly diagnosed schizophrenia patients during the first 12 months of treatment with once-monthly paliperidone palmitate (PP).

International, multicenter, retrospective, observational study. Outcomes presented are patient characteristics, reason for PP initiation and hospitalization data.

Eighty-four patients were analyzed: mean age (years) at first psychotic episode was 23.8 (SD2.6), 23.9 (SD2.6) at first antipsychotic treatment and 24.1 (SD2.7, range 19-29) at PP initiation. Time between first antipsychotic treatment and PP initiation was 4.8 (SD: 3.4, range: 0-12) months. At PP initiation, 42.9% of patients were in hospital, primarily for the management of the first episode/relapse (97.2%). Reason for PP initiation was: LAT favored over oral treatment for relapse prevention (56%), partial/non adherence with previous oral medication (20.0%), convenience (15.5%) or limited access to health care systems (2.4%). Mean time (days) between admission and initiation of PP, and between initiation of PP and discharge from hospital was 28.8 (SD23.0) and 23.2 (SD24.5), respectively. 96.4% of patients were not hospitalized during the 12-month PP treatment period. 3/84 patients (3.6%) had a single hospitalization of 15.7 (SD: 8.1) days for management of episode/relapse.

In this young, newly diagnosed schizophrenia population, the number of hospitalizations following PP initiation was low. Main reason to initiate PP was clinicians favoring LAT over oral antipsychotic treatment for relapse prevention or due to partial/non adherence with previous oral treatment.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The clinic of psychiatry and mental health of São João hospital centre (Oporto, Portugal) has implemented a psychiatric consultation to support college students since 2007. This consultation is open to all of the universities in the metropolitan area of Oporto.

This specific consultation aims to detect and intervene early in the treatment of psychiatric illness and to promote mental health in this specific population.

Retrospective study conducted in the São João hospital centre, Oporto, Portugal. Patients attending university student's specific consultation between January 1st 2011 and March 31st 2016 were included. Data collection included sociodemographic variables, clinical diagnosis (ICD-10, WHO, 1992) and psychological scales (WAIS-III, BSI, HADS, SF-36 and NEO-PI-R). SPSS® software (v. 20.0, 2011) was used for statistical analysis.

In this study, 139 patients were included (66.2% female, medium age 23.1 years old). The majority of patients were medical, engineering or nursing students (respectively 20.9%, 18.0% and 17.9%). The most frequent diagnosis was adjustment disorders, anxiety disorders, mood disorders and personality disorders. 54.6% completed all the psychological scales.

The number of students with mental health issues is increasing. Early detection and treatment of these pathologies may allow improvements on the educational, economic and social levels, as well as in the quality of life.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Excessive problematic use of the internet has been a topic of discussion in the academic literature for many years. Problematic internet use (PIU) has been grown world-wide about 2 billion users.

The aim of this study is to explore the characters of internet use among the medical students, and discover the prevalence of internet mal use and its risk factors.

A cross-sectional study of 321 medical students at Assiut University Medical School using the Internet Addiction Scale was carried out.

The current study found that the most important correlates for Internet Addiction among Assiut Medical Students were mother's education, sex, residence, suicidal ideation.

Internet Addiction is an important behavioral disorder affecting medical students and may interfere with their normal life and studies.

Pakistan is an Islamic country where religion is considered an important protective factor against suicide. Recent research and media reports identify that suicide and self harm behaviours are increasing in different parts of Pakistan.

To inform public policy debate and suicide awareness education interventions.

To study socio-cultural, political, interpersonal and religious factors that can influence suicide and suicide awareness.

Systematic search of Medline, Embase, PsychInfo, CINAHL, Pakmedinet, TRIP, and electronic searches of Pakistani Medical Journals, using terms Suicide, Self harm, Deliberate Self Harm, Self Poisoning, Non-Accidental Deaths, Undetermined Deaths. Focus Group Discussion, Aga Khan Medical University, Pakistan Consultation with experts in the field.

1. a. Epidemiological evidence confirms an increase in suicide rates with variable figures reported from different parts of Pakistan. Higher rates of suicide rates are reported for men with an association with unemployment and mental health problems. Marital Discord and domestic violence identified as risk factors in female suicides.

2. b. Religion is continued to be identified as an important protective factor against suicide.

However, Pakistan's legal system that criminalizes suicide and self harm is criticized for exercising negative influence through preventing early identification of high risk individuals. A variable pattern of suicide reported from different parts of Pakistan identifies the need for deep cultural understanding and examination of protective and risk factors that operate with in family structures and sub-cultures in Pakistan.

An increase in suicide rates in Pakistan has raised mental health and public policy awareness.

76 neurotic inpatients undergoing a six week hospitalization in the psychotherapeutic department attended the study. The probands completed these psychodiagnostic methods at the start of the treatment – ISMI (Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness Scale), TCI-R (Temperament and Character Inventory, revised version), ADHS (Adult Dispositional Hope Scale), DES (Dissociative Experiences Scale), BAI (Beck Anxiety Scale), BDI-II (Beck Depression Scale, second edition), and CGI (Clinical Global Impression, both the subjective and objective versions). The scores of the scales and the inventory were processed by descriptive statistics, t-tests, correlations, linear regression, and backward stepwise regression.

The overall level of self-stigma in the patients with a neurosis and possible comorbid depression significantly correlated with several psychological features. Self-stigma was significantly positively connected to the harm avoidance trait, the symptoms of dissociation, anxiety, and depression, and the overall level of psychopathology measured by objCGI and sucjCGI. It also correlated significantly negatively with the persistence and self-directedness traits and hope and its subscales – pathway thinking and agency. After applying backward stepwise regression, only three of the mentioned factors predicted the level of self-stigma – self-directedness, hope, and the subjective evaluation of own mental state. Other factors were suppressed during the analysis.

Patients with more severe psychopathology show larger tendencies to stigmatize themselves. Low self-directedness and lack of hope are also typical for individuals with higher levels of self-stigma.