In the literature, some studies consider psychiatric patients to be vulnerable to COVID-19, in contrast to other studies that find them rather protected.

To determine the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on patients undergoing psychiatric care.

This is a descriptive and cross-sectional study that took place in the psychiatry department A at Razi hospital in Tunisia. We conducted a comparison of patient follow-up between the period of March 2018-2019 and March 2020-2021. For this we used a form including socio demographic data, data concerning the COVID-19 situation, clinical data while comparing the follow-up of patients (hospitalizations, mode of relapses, consultations in the emergency room…)

100 patients were included, 60% were men, mean age 44 years (+/- 11 years) [19-65 years]. Ninety-seven percent of patients had no personal history of COVID-19 infection. Comparing the pre-pandemic year (2018-2019) and the pandemic year (2020-2021), we note an increase in the rate of emergency room visits of (17.5%) as well as a relapse rate requiring hospitalization in our department in 48%, this figure was 30% in 2019. A statistically significant increase was noted for depressive and anxiety relapses (p=0.04; r=0.7). Fear of catching the virus while attending hospital facilities (17.6%), geographical isolation (17.6%), unavailability of treatment (17%) and poor insight (41.2%) were the primary causes of poor adherence.

The patients followed in our department have presented during this COVID-19 pandemic several relapses of their psychiatric pathologies compared to the previous year.

No significant relationships.

No significant relationships.

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) was classically considered a childhood-onset neurodevelopmental condition. Over the past 40 years, it became evident that it can persist during adulthood.

The purpose of the authors is to describe the characteristics of ADHD in adults and the specific comorbidities, proposing an approach to these patients.

A brief non-systematized review is presented, using the literature available on PubMed and Google Scholar.

Only 40-50% of children and adolescents with ADHD will have symptoms that persist into adulthood (estimated adult prevalence of 2.8% across 20 countries; 25% in prisons). A more subtle presentation in adults and the difficulty to access past medical history, lead to diagnosis and treatment rates of lower than 20% (versus 50% in children). Well-characterized core symptoms in children evolve into a predominance of inattention symptoms. They became adults with marked disorganization, difficulties in completing tasks and managing time. Emotional dysregulation is a very prevalent symptom in this population. The comorbidities rate increase over time (reaching 75% of patients).

Adults (or even older subjects) with cognitive and/or behavioural complaints should be submitted to systematic screening for ADHD. Non-treated ADHD symptoms in adulthood are associated with severe impairment, therefore adjustments in the health care system to support the transition from child to adult services are needed.

No significant relationships.

In Bipolar Disorder (BD), people report a lower quality of life and lower levels of well-being than the general population. Additionally, patients with bipolar disorder have unmet needs which are closely linked to elements of positive psychology.

The current study aimed to gain insight from patients with BD and care professionals about their thoughts of online Positive Psychology Interventions (PPI) to develop an app containing PPI’s for people with BD.

The study is conducted in accordance with the CeHRes roadmap principles. Data were collected by focus groups, questionnaires, rapid prototyping and online feedback from the participants. Three focus groups meetings (FGM) were held with consumers (8) and professionals (5).

The FGM reveals a need for positive psychology interventions to cover some of the unmet needs that can be applied in an app in addition to the guidelines-advised treatment. Patients and professionals expect that PPIs in the current treatment in BD can meet some of the needs that are currently still unmet, specifically offering hope, increasing self-esteem, expressing feelings, acceptation and preventing social isolation. The process of contextual inquiry and value specification is helpful to guide this process.

The consensus on the different topics about the use of positive psychology intervention shows that both consumers and professionals underline the importance of applying PPI’s in BD. The use during subsyndrome and mild depressive episodes seem the most beneficial periods for patients with BD. A more extended study has to be conducted to confirm if these findings are more generalizable

No significant relationships.

No significant relationships.

The Internet increasingly influences the lives of people in pandemic times. Although there are many positives, there are also risks related to excessive use and addiction. Internet addiction subject has been explored worldwide.

The aim of this pilot study was to analyze the relationships between social connectedenss, connectedness to nature and the occurrence of Internet addiction.

The data were collected from a group of 200 young adults. A cross-sectional observational study using an online questionnaire was conducted via social media. The semi-structured online questionnaire covered the following areas: (1) general sociodemografic data; (2) Internet usage, measured by Generalized and Problematic Internet Use Scale (GPIUS2) (Caplan, 2002), Internet Gaming Disorder Scale–Short-Form (IGDS-SF9) (Pontes & Griffiths, 2015), the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale (BFAS) (Andreassen et al., 2012); (3) nature conectedness, measured by the Connectedness to Nature Scale (CNS) (Mayer, Frantz, 2004); (4) social connectedness, measured by the Social Connectedness Scale Revised (SCS) (Lee et al., 2001); (4) psychological impact and mental health, measured by Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale (DASS-21) and (5) psychological features, such as coping strategies (Mini-COPE, Carver et al.,1989) and personality traits (TIPI -Gosling, Rentfrow, Swann Jr., 2003)

The detailed results and key findings will be presented during the congress.

As the research of the desribed area is insufficient so far, this pilot study may provide a significant contribution to the knowledge on new aspects of internet addictions’ mechanisms. Moreover, it is predicted that our result may have scientific influence on both research in connectedness and eco-psychology.

No significant relationships.

It’s well known the challenge of differential diagnosis between Obssesive compulsive disorder and autism since their symptoms (intrusive, recurrent thoughts and repetitive behaviours) often overlap.

We report a case of a 14 years old boy diagnosed of ASD who was hospitalized for the first time due to difficult management of repetitive behaviours that made him incapable of doing basic activities without help. To interrupt them led to anxiety, aggressive responses and to insistence on sameness behaviours. Only with this information and with the literature research we made, anyone could tell the problem was probably an ASD symptom. However, during his evolution it was difficult to know whether this behaviour was due to ASD or OCD: after adjusting the medication, and when he started trusting his therapists, he told us about a theory he believed so he could explain the uncomfortable ideas that crossed his mind more than often, so he used those behaviours as an anxiety-reduction technique. This new situation was the fuel to make the present review.

To report a case.

The results are included in the “conclusions” section.

Although there is an ongoing debate concerning the nature of the symptoms in ASD versus those observed in OCD, there are commonly used criteria to differentiate them according to the articles we reviewed:

No significant relationships.

Emigration is the act of leaving one’s country of nationality or habitual residence to settle in another nation. In Tunisia, this phenomenon is increasing in particular for doctors.

Evaluating the intentionality of emigration among interns and medical residents in Tunisia while studying the factors related to it.

We conducted a cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical study of interns and medical residents who participated in our study through the social network ’Facebook’ by an anonymous self-questionnaire. The level of satisfaction with the different aspects of life were assessed by a 5-point Likert scale, from “not at all satisfied” to “very satisfied”.

The total number of participants was 56 of which 64.3% were medical residents. More than 50% of the participants expressed dissatisfaction with the distribution of tasks and organization of work (66.1%), safety at work (53.6%), comfort (57.2%), time allocated to personal life (53.6%) and salary (69.6%). The political, health and educational situation in the country was considered unsatisfactory by the majority of participants (90% to 95%). Among our participants, 44.6% regretted having chosen the profession of medicine and 53.6% had plans to immigrate to work abroad. The intentionality of immigration was significantly higher among men (p=0.02), those with siblings abroad (p=0.047) and those without dependent relatives (p=0.040).

Young physicians are strongly looking for emigration. This decision could emanate from professional, personal and political factors. Further studies seem to be necessary to explain this emigration phenomenon.

No significant relationships.

There is a huge resource gap in mental health service provision & service utilisation in LAMIC including Pakistan. SOUL Programme has been established in the City of Larkana, on charitable donations, which utilises principles of home-based outreach and produces clinical and functional outcomes.

SOUL programme focuses on collaborative working with patients & families. The objectives include recognition, treatment, family education & psychosocial support to maximize clinical, functional & occupational outcomes.

Single cohort intervention (patients recruited on continual basis over time) with innovative service structure and culturally relevant open label intervention design developed with local academic psychiatric unit in Larkano, Pakistan. Training was provided to local mental health professionals on diagnosis, delivering care & use of recognized clinical outcome measures.

We have recruited a cohort of 160 patients on continual basis over time. Our analysis show a higher BPRS and lower GAF ratings for men in comparison to female cohort at the baseline. Our Ten year follow up has demonstrated statistically significant clinical / functional improvement on BPRS, CGI & GAF measures. The mean differences recorded for the individual measures after 12 months were BPRS, CGI-I and GAF and were all statistically significant. Innovative home-based community mental health intervention shows significant improvements in clinical and functional outcomes (with good effect size).

SOUL Programme is a highly effective and cost-efficient intervention model for treatment of schizophrenia in a developing country setting. Our 10 year follow up study confirms the feasibility of this intervention model through close working with families of our patients.

No significant relationships.

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) represent a state of cognitive function between normal aging and dementia and does not always progress to dementia. Neuroinflammation has a key role in the pathogenesis of neurodegeneration. Determining the associations of neuroinflammatory markers in the blood with clinical disease severity may be useful for early diagnosis of cognitive impairment and prediction of the development of severe dementia.

The aim of our study was to compare the serum concentration of a panel of inflammatory markers in patients with MCI and dementia as well as their associations with clinical symptoms.

Patients were evaluated using Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Clock Drawing Test (CDT), Montreal Cognitive Assessment scales (MoCA), Clinical Dementia rating (CDR) and Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS). We determined the serum concentration of a panel of inflammatory markers (25 units) cytokines, chemokines, growth factors and several others on Mulliplex and prepared multivariate analysis to investigate associations between clinical features and serum concentration.

Patients with dementia had lower scores on scales than the control and MCI groups. MCI patients were equal to the control group, except for the MMSE scale. EGF, eotaxin-1, GRO-α, IP-10, IL-8, MIP-1β, sCD40L, TNF-α, MDC and MCP-1, VEGF were differ between groups. Multivariate analysis identified some neuroinflammatory parameters associated with the severity of the disease.

We identified some neuroinflammatory parameters associated with dementia and MCI. Many of them have been poor described and data is contradictory. It is necessary to investigate these parameters as potential biomarkers of neurodegeneration in further studies.

No significant relationships.

The use of internet among children and adolescent has risen in the last decade. In addition, suicide is the second cause of death among adolescents. Previous research have indicated the relation between Problematic Internet Use (PIU) and different mental health problems. Nonetheless there is a lack of studies analyzing the relation between suicide behaviour and PIU

The main objective of the present work was to analyze the relation between Problematic Internet Use and suicide behaviour and depression in adolescents

A total of 1036 adolescents (450 males) were randomly selected. Mean age was 15,21 (SD = 1,23). The Adolescent Behavioural Suicide Scale SENTIA, The Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale Short Form (RADS-SF), and The Compulsive Internet Use Scale (CIUS) were used. A Manova was performed with two groups (risk and non-risk to PIU) as independent variables and suicide and depression scores as dependent variables

The results revealed a statiscally signifficant association between PIU and both depression and suicide behaviour (λ = 0.245, F(2,81,000) = 15.549, P ≤ 0.001, η² = 0.116). In particular, adolescents at a higher risk for PIU obtained higher scores on suicide behaviours and depression.

Results found in the present study reveal that adolescents have moderate prevalence rates for PIU. Also adolescents at risk for PIU with a total of more than 3 hour sof internet use everyday were at a higher risk for suicide. Prevention strategies should be devote to intervene in internet use as it maybe a variable affecting suicide behaviour.

No significant relationships.

Little is known about the need for mechanical restraint during non-voluntary transfers from patient’s homes to the psychiatric emergency department in patients diagnosed with Paranoid Schizophrenia. Although there is no evidence of its efficacy, one of the main tools used for the reduction of mechanical restraints is verbal de-escalation training.

The aim is to describe which symptoms predispose to mechanical restrain in patients with Paranoid Schizophrenia transferred in a non-voluntary manner from home to the psychiatric emergency department, and the effect on reducing mechanical restraints after receiving verbal de-escalation training.

All patients with Paranoid Schizophrenia who, after being visited by a home psychiatry team, have required non-voluntary transfer from their homes to the psychiatric emergency department were selected (N = 442).

Young age, being male, having a poor adherence to treatment, higher scores for de following variables; Excitement, Grandiosity, Suspiciousness, Hostility, Abstract thinking, Motor tension, Uncooperativeness, Poor attention, Lack of insight and Poor impulse control as well as lower scores in motor retardation on the PANSS, are related to a higher frequency of mechanical restrain (P<0,005). Before the verbal de-escalation training, 43.9% of the transferred patients required mechanical restraint, after the training, the need for restraints was reduced to 25.5% (P<0.001).

Training in verbal de-escalation has allowed an important reduction in mechanical restraints in patients with schizophrenia who have required non-voluntary transfers from home to the psychiatric emergency department.

No significant relationships.

The WHO would increase diagnosis and treatment of viral hepatitis in the world by 2030, based on the high efficacy of direct-acting-antivirals against HCV, extended vaccination programs in HBC, and epidemiological data. Diagnostic of HCV/HBV infection has been simplified by point-of-care (POC) devices (cheap/easy-to-use/interprete/qick-results), detecting anti-HCV-antibodies or HBV-antigen in capillary blood at the patients´site. The current seroprevalence of viral hepatitis B/C in general population in Spain is 0.5%/1% and would be higher (3-17%) in people with severe-mental-disorder due to risk factors and traditionally less access to health care.

To design a screening protocol for HCV eradication and HBV-detection, and risk factors among severe-mental-disorder patients in a CommunityMentalHealthCenter. To guarantee equal access to viral hepatitis screening and therapy among this population.

Outpatients visited along one-year who accepts participate. Using POC-device for qualitative detection of anti-HCV-antibodies (Quickview-of-Lumiquick-Diagnostics®)/HBsAG (Abbott-Rapid-Diagnostics®). Socio-demographic data; mental disorder(ICD-10); HCV/HBV risk-factors; Neurotoxicity-scale (mood/cognition/sleep/gastrointestinal/sickness/motor); SF-12; Patient-satisfaction. Subjects with positive HCV/HBV POC-test will have a on-site venopuncture to assess hemograme/liver tests, and HCV-RNA (Cobas-TaqMan-RocheDiagnostics)/HBsAg-ELISA (Atellica-Siemens). In positive HCV-RNA (active infection) the psychiatric-team will inform the hepatology-team for non-invasive liver fibrosis assessment and DAA prescription. The patient will receive 8-12-weeks on-site treatment, and assessed (Neurotoxicity/SF-12).HCV cure will be confirmed by HCV-RNA in blood. Chronic-cases will be managed at Hepatology-Unit.

We will present the results of the implementation of the programme and their ability to detect viral-hepatitis-positive cases among patients with severe-mental-disorders and to treat them effectively.

Our results may support the generalisation of the programme in among CMHC’s.

No significant relationships.

Psychotic episodes characterized by sudden onset of polymorphous psychotic symptoms and fast resolution have been a subject of interest of many psychiatrists throughout the History. Controversies about the diagnostic criteria and nomenclature of cycloid psychoses persist nowadays, what has hampered its study. In last years, several reports associating this disease with autoimmune pathologies have been published, revealing a possible association between them.

To contribute to the knowledge of cycloid psychoses, reporting a case of motility psychoses and exploring its possible association with autoimmune diseases.

Case report and literature review.

A 48-years-old woman presents a history of eleven admissions at the Psychiatry nursery in the last nineteen years, due to psychotic episodes. Usually, these episodes follow a default in psychopharmacological therapeutic, and are characterized by rapid onset of psychomotor agitation, with prominent nonpurpuseful exuberant movements, incoherent speech, mood oscillations and polythematic delusion. Between these decompensations, she recover her normal functioning, being medicated with lithium and an antipsychotic. During one of her admissions, at 2015, she developed fever and a stuporous state. The magnetic resonance and lumbar puncture were normal, the electroencephalogram revealed generalized lentification. Autoimmunity investigation evidenced positive antithyroid antibodies (with normal thyroid function) and the echography validated the diagnosis of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.

This case report reveals a possible relationship between cycloid psychoses and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. We need to share more knowledge to understand if it represents a comorbidity or a pathogenic process with the same etiology, what will influence the treatment of these patients.

No significant relationships.

There is a widely known stereotype about medical majors repeated by generations of medical practitioners called ,,medical student disease”. It’s based on a belief that unexperienced students are prone to develop pathological fear of medical conditions they are studying about.

The aim of the study was to examine two populations of students - medical and non-medical ones in order to compare their level of hypochondriacal behavior and health-related anxiety. Moreover we looked for other factors which might have had an influence on hypochondria and nosophobia among them.

The proprietary questionnaire was completed by 606 students (303 medical students of the Medical University of Silesia in Katowice and 293 students of the 3 largest non-medical universities in Katowice).

The results show that medical students receive same scores on a nosophobia scale as students of non-medical universities (p=0,5). The analysis of hypochondriacal behavior showed significantly higher results in non-medical students group (p=0,02) .The higher medical students were at the stages of academic education, the higher the results of nosophobia they obtained. In the entire study group female received higher score in relation to the fear of illness (p = 0.001). People with mental disorders achieve significantly higher results of nosophobia (p <0.001 in the entire group) and of hypochondria (p <0.001 for the entire cohort).

Our study challenges the widespread belief that medical students, compared to their peers, are overly anxious about their own health. Gender and having a mental illness are predictors of hypochondria and nosophobia.

No significant relationships.

Employee of Gedeon Richter Plc.

The use of Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) during pregnancy and in the post-partum period is a critical decision for both providers and their patients. ECT utilization during this critical period needs to be better understood to assess the need and allocate resources for this valuable treatment option.

1) To evaluates baseline characteristics and analyze ECT utilization trends for pregnant and post-partum patients hospitalized in the US. 2) To provide insight into ECT use among inpatient pregnant women with different age groups with various comorbid psychiatric disorders.

The study used the 2002-2015 National (Nationwide) Inpatient Sample (NIS) data. Descriptive statistical and trend analyses were conducted to evaluate data.

A study found that a total of 924 pregnancy-related hospitalizations required ECT treatment; 92.2% of these ECTs were conducted in urban hospitals. The mean age of women was 30.3 years, and the majority (71%) were of the White race. Mood disorders (major depressive disorder- 51.9% and bipolar disorder- 37.9%) accounted for the most common comorbid psychiatric illnesses. The payer source (Medicare/Medicaid vs. Private Insurance) was almost equal (47.9 vs. 46.8). Though not statistically significant, the trend analysis showed that the proportion of ECTs during pregnancy out of the total ECT performed for the year almost doubled (0.24% to 0.47%) from 2008 to 2015.

Though not statistically significant, the use of ECT in pregnant women has increased in 2015 compared to 2002. Results will help clinicians, policymakers, and various stakeholders to optimize ECT utilization, reimbursement and ultimately improve clinical outcomes.

No significant relationships.

There is a lack of evidence in the literature about the impact of offspring addiction and their parents’ mental health. Objective is to explore psychiatric disorders in parents of patients with substance dependence and their effect on the severity of their addiction.

To evaluate psychiatric disorders in parents of patients with substance dependence and their effect on the severity of their addiction.

This is a cross sectional study contained group (A) 150 patients diagnosed with substance dependence according to DSM-IV. Patients were recruited form Psychiatry and Addiction Hospital of Cairo University. Group (B) included one or both parents of the patients group. The Addiction Severity Index (ASI) was used for the patients.

In the patients group, mean age was 24.89 (±4.52). 96% of them were males 4% were females. In the parent group, mean age was 51.59 (±5.48). 84% of them were mothers 16 % were females. Patients group was associated with moderate degree of education (46.7%), 73.3% were single and 64% were unemployed. Anxiety disorders (80%) and depressive disorders (69.3%) were the most prevalent among parents group. ASI score was statistically significant in predicting the incidence of parents psychotic and schizoid disorders (100% sensitivity, 86.3% specificity, AUC=0.887, P value <0.0001).Besides we found a significant correlation between patients ASI scores and parents psychiatric disorder.

This result emphasizes the relation between patient substance use disorder and psychiatric disorder of their parents. Patients ASI score may be a possible measure for parents mental disorder. Further research is needed to validate our findings.

No significant relationships.

The role of sensitivity to punishment on aggression is controversial, both positive and negative relationships have been observed in previous literature.

The aim of this research was to clarify the role of sensitivity to punishment in different types of aggression and provide a better understanding of the influence of emotional regulation on this relationship.

Two hundred and twenty-nine participants took part in the study (130 women; average age = 21.52 years). All of them were assessed for levels of verbal aggression, physical aggression, anger, and hostility (by Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire), levels of sensitivity to punishment (by SPSRQ–20), and emotional regulation ability (by MSCEIT).

A higher reactivity to punishment had a direct negative effect on physical and verbal aggression. However, a higher reactivity to punishment also showed a positive indirect effect on verbal and physical aggression through an increase in anger and hostility. In addition, ability in regulating emotions moderated the indirect effects of sensitivity to punishment on physical aggression.

Our results suggest that sensitivity to punishment can act both as a protective factor and as a risk factor for aggression. This relationship depended on the type of aggression studied and the emotional regulation abilities. These findings can help to inform the design of programs aimed at reducing aggressive behaviour. This work was funded by Junta de Andalucía (projects: EMERGIA20_00056 and UMA18-FEDERJA-137) to Alberto Megías Robles.

No significant relationships.

Language and conversation are deeply interrelated: language is acquired, structured, practiced in social interactions and linguistic resources (specifically syntactic, prosodic and pragmatic aspects) contribute to finely tuning turn-taking. Nevertheless, most studies focused on verbal aspects of speech in schizophrenia, with scant attention to their relation to conversation, where language is experienced at most.

The present study was aimed at investigating a possible association between language impairment and conversational characteristics in a sample of clinically stable patients diagnosed with schizophrenia (N = 35, ages 18-65).

A spontaneous speech sample was recorded. For the assessment of language skills, the Scale for the Assessment of Thought, Language and Communication (TLC) and the Clinical Language Disorder Rating Scale (CLANG) were used, while conversational variables were extracted with an innovative method of semi-automatic analysis. The possible associations were investigated through the Pearson Correlation.

Figure 1 represents graphically the correlational matrix between conversational variables and linguistic scale scores. In the heatmap, blue means negative and red positive correlations, the stronger the colour, the larger the correlation magnitude. Moreover, the significant associations are indicated with stars.

The results suggest that in schizophrenia spectrum disorders the disturbances of language, at a syntactic, prosodic and pragmatic level, have significant impact on communicative interaction.

Thus, conversation analysis might be a promising method to quantify objectively communicative impairment with the benefit of representing an ecological assessment, examining the performance of patients in the real situation of language use, which is social interaction.

No significant relationships.