Depression

Introduction: Anxiety and depression are highly prevalent psychiatric disorders among patients admitted for organic causes. Objective: To determine whether patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19 pneumonia present symptoms of anxiety and/or depression that are directly proportional to their clinical course. Materials and Methods: A longitudinal, prospective, observational study was conducted in the High Specialty and Advanced Medicine Building of the UANL University Hospital. Spanish-speaking patients of both sexes, aged 18 and over, diagnosed with severe COVID-19 pneumonia, were surveyed from September 2020 to January 2021. Sociodemographic data were obtained, including age, sex, comorbidities, occupation, education, marital status, national origin and religion, length of stay, and oxygen requirements. These data were collected directly from the patient or the most recent information from the patient's medical record. Anxiety and depression symptoms were assessed on the day of admission using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Results: 57 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 pneumonia were followed during their hospital stay, until discharge, or until the patient required invasive mechanical ventilation. The mean age of the patients was 57.8 years. Upon admission, 29.8% of the patients presented symptoms suggestive of anxiety, and 7% presented clinically significant anxiety morbidity. In comparison, 8.8% of the patients presented symptoms suggestive of depression and 3.5% clinically indicative of comorbid depression. At the last evaluation in our study of patients, up to 12% presented anxiety symptoms (2% clinically morbid) and 2% significant depression morbidity. The trend toward depression and anxiety decreased over time and was highest in the first days of hospitalization. We found no association between these symptoms and having been intubated at any point during their stay. The median length of stay was 7 (4-10) days, and most were admitted with low-flow oxygen therapy (78.9%). Furthermore, we found a low to very low correlation between length of hospital stay, oxygen saturation, and oxygen volume with HADS scores for anxiety and depression. Conclusions: The prevalence of comorbid depression and anxiety was higher in the first days of hospital stay and was not related to patient clinical data, hospital stay, or receipt of invasive mechanical ventilation during their stay.

Introduction: Polycystic ovary syndrome is a multifactorial disease caused by both genetic and environmental factors acting concurrently with rising prevalence at an alarming rate. It is a health problem that affects 1 out of 10 women of childbearing age. PCOS have negative impact on quality of life resulting in depression. Objective: The present study was designed to assess health related quality of life and depression among polycystic ovary syndrome patients in Pakistan. Methodology: A descriptive cross sectional study design was used to assess health related quality of life and depression among 152 women with PCOS diagnosed by Rotterdam criteria using PCOSQ-50 and HADS. Data was collected and statistically analysed. Results: Significant difference (p ≥ 0.05) among different domain of HRQoL and level of depression among women with PCOS was observed. Unmarried patients had better emotions while body hairs, weight and infertility effect married women. Rural patients had relatively poor HRQoL. Women with PCOS in age group 26-35yrs had impaired HRQoL due to infertility, emotions and increased weight. Obese patients with PCOS had relatively more impaired HRQoL as all domains were affected in them. Women with PCOS residing in rural areas were found relatively more depressed and those belonging to low educational and income background were comparatively found more depressed. Conclusion: The results of the present study concluded that polycystic ovary syndrome had a negative impact on health related quality of life of patients across all domains with a significant likelihood of depression. While all domains were affected, the greatest impact was seen on infertility followed by body hairs and role limitation due to increased psychological and emotional problems. Low educational and income background had negative effect on mental and emotional HRQoL of polycystic ovary syndrome patients and depression. More attention should be given on improvement of health related quality of life among PCOS patients to decrease the rate of treatment failure and improve treatment response.

The self-esteem and body image are closely connected with the adaptation and acceptance of individual in the society. That’s why the skin imperfections on the visible parts of the body have a significantly great impact on psycho-emotional status of such patients. The aim of this research was to study the psycho-emotional status of patients with rosacea. Material and Methods: The presented monocentric, prospective study includes 52 out-patients, with rosacea. The psycho-emotional status was determined by the 14item Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HAD-A and HAD-D). All results were statistically analyzed. Results: The HADS-A score was 8, 64 ± 3, 06 distributed as: in 25, 05% of patients the rate of anxiety was normal (0-7); 46, 15% had mild anxiety- (8-10) and 28, 8% had moderate anxiety (11-14). The HADS-D score was 6, 2 ± 2, 68 and show the following distribution: 38, 46% without signs of depression; 44, 23% with mild degree and 17, 31% with moderate degree of depression. There were no correlation between the severity of rosacea and the ratios of anxiety and depression. Conclusion: The self-esteem and body image have serious influence on patients’ psycho-emotional status.

Despite the relatively frequent co-morbidity of depression and epilepsy and its negative consequences on the child’ quality of life, they are under-diagnosed and often go untreated. To explore the prevalence of depression among epileptic adolescents aged between 12 and 18 years and its possible determinants among them. A cross sectional study was carried out among epileptic adolescents aged between 12 and 18 years, of both sexes attended the Neurology clinics at Alhada Military Hospital, Taif city, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia throughout 2016. Those with psychiatric history or on antidepressant medications were excluded from the study. The data were collected through an interview questionnaire including demographic characteristics of patients and epilepsy-related characteristics. Patients were identified by their medical record numbers. The patients` files were reviewed to complete their information required for the study through a checklist. The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) was used for diagnosis of depression among the patients. The study included 84 patient with epilepsy. Their age ranged between 12 and 18 years with a mean of 15.5 years and SD of ±2.7 years. They were equally distributed regarding gender. Depression was reported among 89% of patients; it was mostly mild (43.9%) and moderate (30.5%). Moderately severe and severe forms were observed among 8.5% and 6.1% of patients, respectively. Most patients who had complications (80%) compared to 37.3% of those who hadn`t complications expressed moderate to severe depression, p=0.003. Also 73.3% of patients who didn`t show improvement with therapy compared to 37.7% of those showed improvement expressed moderate to severe depression, p=0.006. Other factors (demographic and epilepsy-related) were not significantly associated with depression and its severity among epileptic adolescents. Depression is a common psychological disorder among epileptic adolescents. It is more significantly reported among those with complications and not improved on medical therapy. Care should be paid to early diagnosis and proper management of depression among this population.

Objective: Decentering is a process in which a shift in perspective is undertaken towards an observer-like, non-judgmental stance towards self-related thoughts and feelings. In patients with depression, improving decentering abilities reduces the probability of relapse. However, it is important to clarify the causes for different decentering abilities. Hence, the role of affective components, aspects of attention, perspective taking and cognitive skills for decentering abilities remain to be elucidated. Method: In the present investigation decentering, depressiveness and attention attributes were measured in 60 individuals using standardized questionnaires. Cognitive skills were indicated by IQ measures, and judgments on cognitive abilities were specified on a 6-point Likert-scale. Perspective-taking abilities were measured by reaction times and error-rates using a paradigm that required referring to different perspectives during performance. Results: Data reveal negative associations between decentering, depressiveness and an inflexible self-attentive focus. Although IQ and IQ-judgments were associated as expected, no association was detected between decentering and IQ. Only one decentering factor was related to reaction times in a condition of the perspective-taking paradigm. Conclusions: We conclude that affective components and aspects of self-focused attention play a significant role for decentering abilities as opposed to more basal cognitive abilities.