Individuals grieving a suicide death (suicide survivors) may be at risk for psychiatric complications and suicidal behaviors. Support groups may provide valuable resource for survivors, who often do not seek out mental health treatment. Social support and self regulation which are at the nature of the support groups can facilitate growth from crisis.

The objective of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of support groups for suicide survivors. The specific aims were to assess the relationship between group participation and stress related growth and to assess the role of self regulation and social support as mediating variables.

74 suicide survivors belonged to one of two groups: 32 survivors who participate in a support group, compared with 42 survivors who did not participate. All participants completed questionnaires covering of self regulation, social support and stress related growth.

Survivors who participated in a support group showed better recovery from stress than those who didn’t participate. The effect was stronger in survivors who lost their offspring. A hierarchical regression indicates that time past from the event as well as self regulation and social support explained more than 33% of the variance of stress related growth.

Support groups for suicide survivors are a helpful intervention tool and can serve as a powerful form of primary and secondary prevention. Social support as well as self disclosure to other survivors can facilitate growth from crisis and diminish feelings of guilt, shame and other psychiatric complications.

No significant relationships.

Negative symptoms in patients with schizophrenia are strongly associated to disease burden. Aerobic exercise might be beneficial in treating negative symptoms.

The meta-analysis aims to evaluate the effect of aerobic exercise on negative symptoms in schizophrenia.

The Cochrane Library, Medline, Embase, PsycINFO and CINAHL were searched from their inception until 16 March 2014. Randomised controlled trials (RCT's) comparing aerobic exercise with other psychosocial interventions in schizophrenia were included if negative symptoms were assessed. The methodological quality of the studies was assessed with the Clinical Trial Assessment Measure (CTAM).

Nine studies were included (N= 488). Seven out of nine studies had poor methodological quality as measured with the CTAM. The meta-analysis showed a small non-significant treatment effect in favour of exercise interventions (Hedges’ g = -0.310, CI -0.787 0.168) with a power of 75%. The analysis indicates high heterogeneity (Q(8)=37.163 (P<0.000) I2= 75%). A meta-regression analysis showed that more training sessions were associated with a higher decrease in negative symptoms (Hedges’ g = 0.460 -0.006 0.925 (P=0.053)). This was confirmed in a moderator analysis including studies with >20 sessions (Hedges’ g = 0.640, CI -1.281 0.000, Q(5)=24.214 (P < 0.000) I2=79%).

A large significant effect of exercise was found in five studies comparing exercise to TAU (Hedges’ g=-1.370, CI -2.352 -0.389, Q(4)=29.278 (P< 0.000) I2=86%).

This meta-analysis demonstrated a significant effect of aerobic exercise on negative symptoms in schizophrenia compared to TAU, but no effect compared to any other (active) control condition. The quality of the included studies was low.

Earthquake disaster of Pakistan in 2005 caused massive destruction. Death toll was more than 70000. Many survivors were diagnosed as having variable anxiety disorders including panic disorder and PTSD. Frequency of female patients was much higher than male. The major factors responsible are loss of life and property and uncertainty regarding future, harsh weather and repeated tremors.

Data was collected from various agencies including WHO, Turkish Red Crescent, Canadian team of relief and some other NGOs working with earth quake hit area. Diagnosis was made using semi-structured interviews.

Data analyses of women (1056), men (281) and children (204) indicate high prevalence of anxiety disorders including PTSD (853 women, 153 men) and depression (73 women, 31 men). Results vary from the observations made from other disasters. Sex ratio shows huge difference in prevalence between males and females.

Patients with PTSD have dysregulation of HPA axis response. This alteration is more pronounced in case of women. Studies show that estrogen plays important role in the genesis of disease. Dexamethasone suppression test also indicates greater dysregulation of glucocorticoid receptor. Studies reveal predisposition in women for PTSD and depression.

Women and children were affected most because most of them were at home and in schools. Hence, they sustained more physical injuries and psychiatric consequences.

In our study depression came out to be more prevalent in females. This can be explained as comorbidity of PTSD and because of its own dynamics.

After exposure to trauma male and female respond differently.

Sexuality is a crucial area of human life. A proper examination to assess and detect problems in this field, it seems imperative to intervene when transsexual patients. Therefore accurately known, the sexual practices of these patients, allows us to work directly on possible alterations in the functioning of sexual life during the therapeutic process.

Describe patterns of sexual behavior in patients diagnosed with transsexualism

Gender and Identity Disorder Unit (GIDU)

Selected by consecutive sampling, 200 transsexuals treated at GIDU Malaga, aged between 20 and 40 years and who agreed to participate in the study. Comprising 142 transgender male-to-woman (MtW) and 58 women-to-man (WtM).

Was conducted through a heterocompleted questionnaire that included questions about sexuality, personality traits and demographic characteristics. These were filled in the consultation and were anonymous.

11.6% of MtW transsexuals have never had sex. 26.8% of the MtW and 29% of WtM are more than 3 months without masturbating. 54.1% of the MtW avoid having sex due to the rejection of his genitals, lack of sexual desire and previous traumatic experience. Transgender respondents had secondary education, stable jobs and they were single.

It is vital that we explore the sex lives of transsexual patients. This information must be integrated in a systematic and rigorous evaluation process. According to the results presented, the hyposexuality would be the most significant feature that describes sexuality for this population.

The possibility of evaluating cortical morphological and structural features on the basis of their covariance patterns is becoming increasingly important in clinical neuroscience, because their organizational principles reveal an inter-regional structural dependence which derive from a complex mixture of developmental, genetic and environmental factors.

In this study, we describe cortical network organization in anorexia nervosa using a MRI morpho-structural covariance analysis based on cortical thickness, gyrification and fractal dimension.

Aim of the research is to evaluate any alterations in structural network properties measured with graph theory from multi-modal imaging data in AN.

Thirty-eight patients with acute AN, 38 healthy controls and 20 patients in full remission from AN underwent MRI scanning. Surface extraction was completed using FreeSurfer package. Graph analysis was performed using graph analysis toolbox.

In acute patients, the covariance analysis among cortical thickness values showed a more segregated pattern and a reduction of global integration indexes. In the recovered patients group, we noticed a similar global trend without statistically significant differences for any single parameter. According to gyrification indexes, the covariance network showed a trend towards high segregation both in acute and recovered patients. We did not observe any significant difference in the covariance networks in the analysis of fractal dimension.

The presence of increased segregation properties in cortical covariance networks in AN may be determined by a retardation of neurodevelopmental trajectories or by an energy saving adaptive response. The differences between the analyzed parameters likely depend on their different morpho-functional meanings.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Psychoses are severe mental disorders, which place a considerable burden on the caregivers.

Families experience a lot of physical, emotional and financial distress due to a patient’s abnormal behavior, and social and occupational dysfunction.

In countries like Tunisia, where rehabilitation services are almost nonexistent, the role of the family becomes more important.

Assess caregiver burden among relatives of patients with chronic psychoses.

This is a descriptive cross-sectional study regarding 40 caregivers accompanying patients with chronic psychoses (schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and non- schizophrenic psychosis).

The burden was assessed by the European version of the scale of the burden IEQ (Involvement Evaluation Questionnaire).

The average age of our population was 48 years.

Caregivers were as follows: siblings(35%), parents (27.5 %) and spouses(27.5 %).

Almost all of the caregivers (80%) lived in the same household as the patient.

Pathologies diagnosed in patients were schizophrenia (65%) and bipolar disorder (20%).

Most caregivers have an important sense of burden (IEQ> 15) with a percentage of 77.5%.

This burden was mainly due to the “tension” with a mean score of 5.6 and the 'supervision'with an average of 3.7.

A significant burden was found among caregivers without occupation (p = 0.028).

Patients Caregivers treated with atypical antipsychotic express less important burden (p = 0.032).

Caregivers of patients with chronic psychoses experience moderate to severe burden.

Caring for the psychotic patient need to change from a patient focused approach to a combined patient and caregiver approach.

Both resilient coping strategies and the structural/functional characteristics of personal social networks are considered important factors when facing adversity and the challenges inherent to the aging process.

To analyze the association between the configurations of ego-centred networks and different levels of resilient coping in a sample of elderly people.

Quantitative, cross-sectional study comparing groups, with 512 participants, mostly women (n = 325; 63.5%), married (n = 264; 51.5%), with 76 years old in average (SD ± 7.6), and with basic education (n = 261; 51%). We used a socio-demographic questionnaire, the IARSP-Elderly (personal social network assessment tool) and the Brief Resilient Coping Scale for data collection.

We found different levels of resilient coping in our sample: low (50.4%); medium (38,7%); strong (10.9%). These three levels of coping were associated with the composition of ego-centred networks, namely the proportion of friends and colleagues (P < 0.05), different perceived emotional support, reciprocity and satisfaction with the network (P < 0.05), frequency of contacts and relationships’ durability (P < 0.05).

Higher levels of coping are associated with a larger proportion of friends in the network, whereas the familistic networks are associated with low coping. Although participants in our study revealed mainly kin comprised networks, these results reflect the relevance of resilient coping in the activation of non-kin relationships in old age.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

COVID-19 pandemic has many psychological and physical effects. University students are among vulnerable population.

We aimed in this study to assess sleep effects of COVID-19 pandemic on university students in Saudi Arabia.

We conducted cross-sectional study to collect responses of 5,140 participations from Saudi universities, responders completed the demographic questions, psychological scales including insomnia severity scale (ISI) between 24th and 30th of April 2020.

About 41% of the sample suffered from moderate to severe insomnia. Mean ISI score was 12.9 (SD 6.62). Insomnia was associated with female gender, younger age, students from new universities, junior students, if a relative got COVID-19, having a chronic medical illness, and having a psychiatric disorder.

Covid-19 pandemic has clear effect on sleep among Saudi university students. Universities need to plan and implement protective and intervention strategies to deal with this important issue.

No significant relationships.

Follow-up studies of schizophrenia have reported divergent rates of outcomes. In addition to definition and measurement challenges, one reason for divergence may be due to sampling biases. Our aim was to report clinical and social outcomes of schizophrenia in the longitudinal, unselected, population-based Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort, and describe associated factors.

Subjects with DSM-III-R schizophrenia (N=109) were followed prospectively from mid-pregnancy up to age 35 years. Used outcome measures were positive and negative symptoms, global clinical impression, use of antipsychotics, psychiatric hospitalisations, social and occupational functioning. Several definitions of good and poor outcomes were explored, and predictors of outcomes were analysed.

In a subsample of 59 cases with complete information of outcomes, good clinical outcome varied from 10% to 59%, and good social outcome 15-46%, depending on definition of outcomes. Poor clinical outcome varied 41-77% and poor social 37-54%. Two subjects recovered fully using the most stringent definition of outcome. Lack of friends in childhood, father's high social class, lower school performance and earlier age of illness onset predicted poor outcomes. When the whole sample was considered, early infant development around the age of 1 year was associated with worse course of illness.

Outcomes were heterogeneous and relatively poor in this sample of relatively young schizophrenia subjects. The results were influenced by the definitions and measurements of outcomes. Persons having a sub-optimal developmental trajectory with poor social contacts, poor school performance, and early age of illness onset seem to have the worst outcome.

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is characterized by deficits in three functional domains: language and communication, social reciprocity, and the presence of restricted interests/repetitive behaviours. There are also deficits in social cognition. When having a face-to-face conversation, a listener not only hears what a speaker is saying, but also sees the articulatory gestures. Speech signals needs then a multisensory processing. Impairments in multisensory perceptual binding given that hallmark features of the disorder include difficulties in speech, communication, and social interactions.

We suggest that atypical multisensory processing in ASD may have an impact on speech perception and social processing.

Therefore we could observe differences in a delayed free recall, between an unisensorial and multisensoral stimulus.

Our pilot study measures free recall scores in 3 lists of words presentation after 30 minutes. In the first condition (CI) words are only listened to, in the second (CII) associated with the picture of a man's face and in the third (CIII) associated with the man speaking in video. Participants were 7- to 13-year-olds typically developing children (TD) (N = 19) and ASD children (N = 19).

Our findings show that words recall is higher in CIII for TD children whereas ASD children recall more CI words.

Findings shows that multimodal information brings improvement in long term recall for TD children. In ASD group a better recall is observed with unimodale information. We suggest that multisensory integration deficits in ASD can impact learning of socials information and then social cognition.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Age of onset has been related to the severity of cognitive decline in learning, memory, attention and motor speed.

44 patients at their onset diagnosed with schizophrenia and schizophrenia form disorders performed neuropsychological testing based on Luria‘s methodology during 5-years follow-up. Assessment was done twice in acute state and twice in remission on the first and second years of observation and then annually in remission. The patients were assigned to subgroups within the onset: adult onset (n=33, 1st group mean age- 25, 33±5,64) and early onset (n=11, 2nd group, mean age-15, 61±2, 92).

At the onset patients of the 1st group presented deficit of the main cognitive functions (verbal and visual memory, gnosis, spatial motor skills, verbal and non-verbal thinking, attention, neurodynamics and executive functioning) during the first 2 years which corresponded to the worsening of clinical state over time. Later on these variables remained stable with further decline of visual memory and visual gnosis by the end of the follow-up.

Neurocognitive parameters of the 2nd group such as praxis, gnosis, visual-spatial recognition, verbal thinking and non-verbal thinking, verbal and visual memory, neurodynamics and executive functioning were considerably poor at the onset in comparison to the 1st group. Moreover, no dynamics has been revealed during follow- up period except overpatching of non-verbal thinking, the parameter which has significantly improved in five years outcome (p< 0, 05).

The following results indicate different courses of cognitive deterioration in the follow-up period in patients with various age of onset.