Suicide is the deliberate act of take off life to itself. According to WHO, more than one million people commit suicide every year.

Compare data of suicide attempts between 1996 and 2014 in the University Hospital of Valladolid. Influence of the economic crisis on suicide data. Expose the risk factors. Provide prevention strategies.

We have performed a study of epidemiological surveillance collecting descriptive data of suicide attempts; using the same methodology as in 1996. The variables studied were: sex, age, day, month, residence, method, personal status, education, employment status, religious believes, family history of suicide, psychiatric history and family and personal psychiatric history.

Increase in the rate of suicide attempts 27%. Distribution by sex is similar, but in 2014, a higher proportion was observed in males. The percentage of women is significantly higher than that of men in the group of teenagers (10–19 years old) (20% women vs. 4.5% of men; P = 0.005); 83.5% have a psychiatric diagnosis (54.2% of them have a depressive disorder). Unemployment and economic problems stand out as environmental stressors in 2014. The main suicide method used in Valladolid is the hanging, and the second method used is the precipitation.

The primary, secondary and tertiary prevention strategies are very important. Suicide is the major cause of mortality in the young age group (15–24 years old). Mortality in the general population has been on a downward trend; but suicide rates per 100,000 population has remained stable over the last decade.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Despite the increasing evidence of common neurodevelopmental alterations and high simultaneous or sequential co-occurrence, the relationship between specific cognitive dysfunctions and psychiatric vulnerability has not been adequately studied, not even in people with intellectual developmental disorders (IDD), whose rate of mental health problems is up to 4 times higher than the general population.

The aim of the present paper is to investigate the correlation between specific cognitive dysfunctions or dysfunctional cognitive patterns and the presence of specific psychiatric symptoms and syndromes in people with IDD.

A sample of 52 individuals with IDD consecutively attending a clinical facility for multidisciplinary evaluation, in Florence, Italy was assessed through the SPAID (psychiatric instrument for intellectual disabled adult) system, the WAIS III - R (Wechsler adult intelligence scale III – Revised), the TMT (trial making test), and other neuropsychological tools. Psychiatric diagnoses were formulated by expert clinicians in accordance to DC-LD or DM-ID criteria. The main procedure of the data statistical elaboration was the calculation of frequency and correlation indexes.

Some relevant correlations have been found, that between executive frontal functions, autistic traits and impulse control disorder, and that between working memory and bipolar disorder were among the strongest.

In people with IDD some cognitive alterations or ‘characteristics’ significantly correlate with the presence of psychiatric disorders. The possibility to understand the nature of this relationship seems to increase with the degree of specificity of variables in both the cognitive and the psychopathological assessment.

Non-compliance is a common problem in diabetes despite of the potentially drastic consequences. The study of the factors of compliance in adolescents with diabetes is not only important due to the possible practical implementations in health care, but also may be threated as a model for understanding the age-specific aspects of compliance behaviours.

The study was aimed to evaluate various, primary family-related, factors contributing to compliance behaviour.

Participants: 71 adolescents (f=44, m=27, age: 13-17) with diabetes mellitus type 1, without insulin pump usage, and their mothers. Instruments: compliance was accessed with MMAS and “Degree of compliance” (for 15-17-olders only) scales. Paternal attitudes were assessed by (1) ADOR questionnaire, yielding scores for: Positive interest, directiveness, hostility, autonomy, inconsistency; (2) Family anxiety analysis questionnaire, with scales: guilt, anxiety, tension. Illness attitudes were assessed with the Concerns of the illness progression model questionnaire. Interview data were used to assess such variables as duration of illness, frequency of therapist consultations y etc.

Stepwise regression analysis suggested the best model for compliance being predicted (R2=.203) by family anxiety (beta=-.406, p<.001), duration of illness (beta=-.218, p<.05) and frequency of consultations (beta=.0212, p<.05). For 15-17-olders only compliance was better predicted (R2=.499) by concerns about illness (beta=.876, p<.001), distraction copings (beta=.501, p=0.001), negative thinking (beta=-.421, p<0.02) and frequency of consultations (beta=.274, p<.05).

Low family anxiety, shorter duration, and more frequent contacts with therapist, as well as productive copings, absence of frequent negative thoughts and fantasies about illness contribute to compliance. Negative emotions hamper compliance instead of fostering it.

It has been hypothesized that cognitive remediation with adjunctive psychiatric rehabilitation would be associated with greater improvements in functional outcome than standalone treatment approaches (1).

Moving from these observations our group designed an individualized rehabilitation program including a computerized cognitive training (CCT) and social skills training (SST), which showed promising results (2).

A critical evaluation of recent studies examining standalone and combined treatment approaches included the understanding of the differential impact of the two approaches among crucial areas for future research (3).

The present study compared the effects of CCT and SST on several indices of outcome in psychotic patients. Fifty-eight patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder were randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups: CCT or SST. Changes in cognitive, psychopathological and psychosocial indices after 6 and 12 months were compared between the two groups.

After both 6 and 12 months, an improvement of psychosocial indices was observed in both groups, while cognitive functions improved only after CCT; the improvement of psychopathological indices, observed in both groups, was greater in the CCT group.

Our findings suggest that CCT is associated with a greater impact than SST on different indices of outcome in psychotic patients. Future research should focus on possible synergistic effects of cognitive remediation and social skills training on functional outcome.

Pathological narcissism has been a subject of scientific debates in recent years, with a growing recognition of two phenotypic forms, grandiosity and vulnerability. Because of the lack of consensus on the nature of grandiose and vulnerable narcissism, one way to develop a cohesive literature on pathological narcissism is to investigate it using dimensional models of general personality.

The goal of the present study was to investigate similarities and differences in the relations of narcissistic grandiosity and vulnerability within the Cloninger’s Psychobiological model of temperament and character.

A sample of 801 Hungarian adults (72% female; mean age 23.85 years), mostly graduate students, was gathered using a convenience sampling method. The participants completed the Pathological Narcissism Inventory (PNI) and the Temperament and Character Inventory – 60 (TCI-60).

Narcissistic vulnerability exhibited positive correlations with temperament dimensions Harm avoidance and Novelty seeking and a negative correlation with Reward Dependence, whereas narcissistic grandiosity was positively correlated with Novelty seeking and Persistence. Both features of narcissism had negative correlations with character dimensions Cooperativeness and Self-directedness. However, hierarchical regression analyses demonstrated unique negative associations between narcissistic vulnerability and the abovementioned character dimensions, whereas their relations with grandiosity were non-significant.

There are various differences in the relations between grandiose and vulnerable narcissism and the seven dimensions of temperament and character. Given that the Cloninger’s model delineates both the core features and distinguishing features of personality disorders, our findings might facilitate more nuanced understanding of pathological narcissism and its more valid diagnostic classifications.

Lateralization is the functional dominance of one of the dual organs of the body: eyes, arms, legs and even ears, during their spontaneous or purposeful actions. The handedness is influenced by many factors like geographic region, genetic and cultural factors as well as sex. The most used assessment for functional lateralization is hand dominance. When assessing foot and eye dominance, however, we find significantly higher left foot dominance as well as very strong left eye dominance in schizophrenic patients versus controls. We consider the explanation of this results is because in Bulgaria, during the communist regime (before 1990) left hand writing was under cultural pressure. Also handedness itself is influenced by other cultural factors as mentioned already. All of the above made us conclude that foot and eye dominance may assess much better the lateralization than hand dominance.

The aim of the study was to investigate the relaibility (internal consistency) of a combined Foot and Eye Dominance Scale in women- patients with schizophrenia and healthy subjects.

A sample of 94 women- scizophrenia patients and healthy controls were assessed with a Combined afaoot and Eye Dominance Scale. It consisted of two subscales Foot Dominance Subscale and Eye Dominance Subscale. The Foot Dominance Subscale included a modified Chapman & Chapman Foot Dominance Scale and a new Complex Task Scales with four foot tests, reflecting on complex tasks. The Eye Dominance Subscale included three eye tests. Scale reliability statistics (item-scale statistics, summary statistics for the items, Cronbach’s alpha), non-parametric Mann-Whitney test and Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient were used.

Considerable differences were found in the contribution of the single items to the Combined Foot and Eye Dominance Scale. Some items show greater means than other items (from 0,14 to 0,80), which suggested greater phenogenetic component and consequently greater contribution of these items to the total scale mean. The mean correlation between the items of the Combined Foot and Eye Dominance Scale was positive (0,32), indicating good internal consistency of the scale.

The Combined Foot and Eye Dominance Scale more strongly and objectively reflect leftedness and could be a more useful tool for the assessment of lateralization irrespectively of culture and nation. The Combined Scale allows cross-cultural worldwide equivalence to the different studies in different neuroontogenetic diagnoses with presumed abnormal cerebral asymmetry.

None Declared

Fibromyalgia is characterized by skeletal muscle pain and axial stiffness, with elective multiple points of tenderness (tender points). According to scientific literature, the prevalence of depression, anxiety and a worse quality of life is higher in patients with fibromyalgia. Trauma (sexual abuse and physical aggression) has a key role in the pain perception.

To describe the clinical characteristics of patients with fibromyalgia and/or autoimmune rheumatic diseases admitted to O.O.R.R. Foggia (Department of Rheumatology), to detect correlation between fibromyalgia and psychiatric disorders.

To underline psychiatric comorbidity in patients affected by fibromyalgia and/or autoimmune rheumatic diseases.

Diagnostic tests at Baseline (T0): Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview and Structured Clinical Interview for DSM Disorder 2 to assess psychopathology, 12-Item Short Form survey for the quality of life, Diagnostic Criteria for Psychosomatic Research for disorders of somatic symptoms, Insight Scale for the awareness of the disease, Davidson Trauma scales to assess the presence of a post-traumatic stress disorder, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index about the quality of sleep. After 3 months (T1): further psychodiagnostic assessment for patients with positive mental status exam in drug treatment.

Affectivity disorders, feelings of anger, irritability, hostility, impaired stress response, increased vulnerability to traumatic events are very frequent in patients affected by fibromyalgia.

The preliminary results of this study show that patients with fibromyalgia have diagnoses of major depression, anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder and personality disorders (cluster B). Multidisciplinary interventions are needed integrating the rheumatologic therapy with the psychiatric one, based on the detected diagnosis.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Studies of the association between blood BDNF levels and delirium are very few and have yielded mixed results.

To investigate the blood BDNF levels in the occurrence and recovery of delirium.

Prospective, longitudinal study. Participants were assessed twice weekly with MoCA, DRS-R98, APACHE-II. BDNF levels of the same were estimated with ELISA method. Delirium has been define as per DRS-98R (cut-off > 16) and recovery of delirium as at least two consequently assessments without delirium prior to discharge.

No differences in the levels of BDNF between those with delirium and those who never developed it. Excluding those who never developed delirium (n = 140), we analysed the effects of BDNF and the other variables on delirium resolution and recovery. Of the 58 remained with delirium in the subsequently observations (max = 8) some of them continue to be delirious until discharge or death (n = 39) while others recovered (n = 19). BDNF levels and MoCA scores were significantly associated with both delirium cases who became non-delirious (resolution) during the assessments and with overall recovery. BDNF (Wald χ2 = 11.652, df: 1 P = .001), for resolution. For recovery Wald χ2 = 7.155; df: 1, P = .007. No significant association was found for the other variables (APACHE-II, history of dementia, age or gender)

BDNF do not have a direct effect in the occurrence of delirium but for those delirious of whom the levels are increased during the hospitalisation they are more likely to recover from delirium.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Smoking causes many life-threatening diseases and is a major risk factor for several main causes of death. Damage by smoking is also caused to those called “passive smokers”. Passive smoking has been implicated in many adverse effects on health. Very few studies deal with empathy in smokers while smoking in the presence of non-smokers.

Estimation of empathy and psychological characteristics of Greek smokers.

For research purposes we used questionnaires Toronto empathy questionnaire (TEQ), symptom check list 90-R, experience of shame scale (EES) and other as Shamer scale – OAS.

A statistically significant difference has been observed in the TEQ to gender (2.436, 0.02), with women showing the highest value (3.4 ± 0.4), as well as in the mean in behavioral shame 2. Another statistically significant difference has been observed in behavioral shame between educational level (3.419, 0.026) and the price of characterological shame among those who reported smoking in the workplace and those who did not.

The sample consisted of 27 subjects with average age 24 years and standard deviation of 4 years. Smokers accounted for 48.1%, of whom 69.2% stated that smoke in their living space. Respectively, the percentage of smokers in the workplace was equivalent. The largest percentage of smokers, (13 people, 69.2%) think that non-smokers are very annoyed when surrounded by people smoking close to them. The proportion of those who said they are very much bothered when in places where smoking is prohibited but somebody smokes, is large (47.1%).

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The concept of schizophrenia as a systemic disease includes, not only psychosis, but an increase in somatic comorbidity and cardiovascular risk [1]. Furthermore, it is known the implication of inflammation in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia [2].

To determinate potential inflammatory/metabolic biomarkers of schizophrenia's dimensions.

Sample: 36 outpatients with schizophrenia for less than 11 years, under stable maintenance treatment (mean age [32.25], males [63.9%]) and their 36 matched controls (age [32.53 ± 6.63]; males [72.2%]).

PANSS, Clinical Assessment Interview for Negative Symptoms(CAINS), Calgary Scale(CDS), CGI, Personal and Social Performance Scale(PSP). Biomarkers: C-reactive protein (CRP), homocysteine, glucose, insulin, HOMA-IR (insulin resistance), cholesterol, HDL, LDL, triglycerides.

Biomarkers differences between groups are shown in Table 1. Table 2 shows the correlations found after controlling for Body Mass Index [patients(28.61 ± 5.69);controls(24.64 ± 3.80);p = 0.001] and Smoking [patients(52.8%-yes);controls(5.6%-yes);p = 0.000].

1. CRP, a potential inflammatory biomarker in schizophrenia, is related to depression severity. Homocysteine, representing an oxidative stress, is related to positive, negative, cognitive and depressive symptoms severity, and worse functioning. 2. Patients with schizophrenia have lower HDL–related to negative and cognitive symptoms severity and worse functioning–and insulin resistance – related to worse cognition –.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Quality of life (QOL) instruments can provide unique information on various aspects of children’s everyday functioning beyond clinical symptoms and clinical measures. The study of the QOL in the siblings of individuals with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD-siblings) is a new direction in the field of ASD-research.

This study aimed to investigate the QOL in ASD-siblings in comparison with an age and sex matched group of siblings of neurotypical children.

The sample included 233 neurotypical children (8-13 years old) of whom 118 comprised the observational group (ASD-siblings) and 115 comprised the comparison group. The Kidscreen-27 and a demographics questionnaire were administered to all participants.

The two groups differed significantly in all subscales and in the overall score of the Kidscreen-27, with the children in the observation group having a significantly worse quality of life (Mean±sd 111,62±12,43, p<0,001). Additionally, the largest difference in the averages of the subscales occurs in the subscale General Mood and Emotions, where the observation group had significantly lower scores (Mean±sd 23,23±3,69, p<0,001) than the comparison group (Mean±sd 31,27±2,74).

QOL in children has been recognized as an important outcome indicator in detecting subgroups of children at risk within the general population, while ASD-siblings’ QOL is an important concept in the implementation of appropriate services for these children. This study revealed poorer QOL in ASD-siblings and highlighted the importance of assessing QOL in those siblings as well as the use of the Kidscreen-27 as a screening tool in order to detect children at risk of maladjustment.

No significant relationships.

The urgency of depression treatment in patients with cardiovascular diseases (CVD) is determined by the increasing prevalence of affective disorders. For these patients, tolerance and safety of antidepressants are of great importance.

To obtain additional data on therapeutic efficacy and tolerance of agomelatine in the treatment of mild to moderate depressive disorders in cardiologic practice in Russia.

Eight hundred and ninety-six adult patients with CVD (86.5% arterial hypertension, 29.5% stable angina, 16% myocardial infarction, 23.6% conduction disturbances, 17.6% chronic heartfailure) were treated with agomelatine 25-50 mg for 12 weeks. Depression and anxiety symptoms were evaluated via Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Clinical Global Impression (CGI-S and CGI-I), Visual Analog Scale (VAS), Spielberger Anxiety Scale (SAS), Whitely Hypochondria Index (WHI) and quality of life questionnaire (SF-36). Safety and tolerance were also monitored according to the summary of product characteristics recommendations.

HADS scores decreased throughout the study and severe anxiety rate decreased from 95.9% to 15%. After 12 weeks of treatment, remission (HADS < 7) rate was 84.6%. Subjective assessment of patient health significantly improved (P < 0.00001). WHI decreased significantly (P < 0.00001). Physical and mental health significantly improved (P < 0.00001). Heart rate and blood pressure decreased. Treatment acceptability was considered “excellent” by 82% of doctors and 75% of patients.

Agomelatine significantly improved depressive symptoms, anxiety and hypochondria in depressed patients with CVD and demonstrated good tolerance. This suggests the possibility of wide and safe use of agomelatine for treatment of depression in patients with CVD.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Recent studies have indicated that grieving after suicide loss can be particularly complex and traumatic. However, studies have recognized the opportunity for personal growth among suicide-loss survivors.

This study signifies an effort to develop a comprehensive understanding of the underlying interpersonal facilitators of posttraumatic growth (PTG) among suicide-loss survivors in a longitudinal design.

Participants included 189 suicide-loss survivors (155 females), aged 21–73, who completed questionnaires of thwarted belongingness (TB), perceived burdensomeness (PB), and self-disclosure at T1. Moreover, participants were assessed on PTG levels at T1, 18 months (T2), and 42 months (T3).

The integrated mediation model indicated that both TB and PB contributed to the PTG trajectory. PB and self-disclosure contributed to PTG at T3 beyond the PTG trajectory across time. We also found self-disclosure to mediate the association of TB and PTG at T2 and T3.

These findings suggest that interpersonal factors play critical roles in contributing to PTG over time among suicide-loss survivors. Basic psychoeducational interventions designed to foster interpersonal behaviors may facilitate achieving PTG among survivors in the aftermath of suicide loss.

Y. Levi-Belz Shareolder of: no, Grant / Research support from: no, Consultant of: no, Employee of: no, Paid Instructor of: no, Speakers bureau of: no