Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and cancer are two pathologies that appear to be different, but whose multifactorial determinism involves shared genetic and environmental factors.

This study aimed to find an association between maternal cancer and ASD in children by comparing the frequencies of ASD between children of mothers followed for cancer and children of mothers free from cancer

We recruited, between March and August 2018, women divided into 2 groups: G1; women followed for cancer at the oncology consultation of Monastir and Sousse (N1 = 100) and G2; women free from cancer (N2 = 101). We screened their offspring aged 18 months to 11 years for ASD using the C-AQ and the M-CHAT. We confirmed the diagnosis of ASD using ADI-R in children who tested positive.

Nous avons examiné un total de 332 enfants. La fréquence des enfants atteints de TSA chez les mères G1 était de 5,4%, celle des enfants de mères G2 était de 1,2 avec une association significative entre cancer maternel et TSA (p = 0,035), qui est restée significative après analyse multivariée. (p = 0,001) D’autres facteurs que nous avons trouvés associés aux TSA dans notre population sont la présence d’une expérience stressante pendant la grossesse; exposition précoce avant l’âge de 2 ans à la télévision> 2 heures par jour; antécédents psychiatriques de la mère, du père et de la fratrie et dépression post-partum.

Le cancer maternel et les TSA semblent partager des mécanismes étiopathogènes communs

In this presentation we describe the case of a woman referred to the Sexology Department after having developed symptoms of Persistent Genital Arousal (PGAD) for the last 5 years, during treatment for Depression with Venlafaxine. PGAD is a clinical entity first described in 2001 by Leiblum and Nathan. Despite having received more attention in the last few years, its etiology remains unclear, with numerous causal factors of different natures being suggested.

We aim to describe this clinical case of PGAD and to discuss the possible etiological factors involved as well as to make a brief revision of the literature on this topic.

We conducted a detailed interview, focused on the nature of the complaints, psychological history, medications, diet and neurologic disorders and performed a thorough clinical examination. We also searched for relevant articles in medical databases such as PubMed and Google Scholar.

A 52 year-old woman previously treated for Depression with Venlafaxine complains of involuntary sensations of genital arousal, with perceived vasocongestion, tingling and pulsatlity during her journey to work in public transportations. The symptoms subsided only after getting home 8-10 hours later and reaching orgasm by masturbating. She stopped Venlafaxine in 2015, but these symptoms persisted. Some authors suggest a link between SSRIs/SNRIs and PGAD.

PGAD is a relatively recent addition to our diagnostic catalog with increasingly more cases being reported in the last few years. It is likely that the condition, however, has no discrete etiology and that a customized approach will be necessary to successfully treat most patients.

In response to collective life events, many people regulate their emotional states through social interactions to reduce cognitive tolls. During pandemics, physical distancing renders the social support strategy less viable, increasing mental health risks.

The current work aims to understand the range of emotions and strategies used in a population of Mental Health staff.

We conducted an anonymous survey on staff from OMH facilities (n=211) to assess the impact of Covid-19. The current survey captures a host of social, affective, and demographic variables. Accompanied by scales on emotions, emotion regulation, risk, and perception.

Work, family, and health-concerns were the primary contributors to mood. The most common strategy was “situation-avoidance,” then “exercising.” When comparing depression scores against whether or not specific kinds of regulation strategies were utilized, only differences in the strategy of “emotion-suppression” and “authority-seeking” were substantially related to the CES-D scores. Specifically, participants who kept feelings to themselves tended to have higher CES-D scores than those who let their feelings show, while those who sought out authority scored lower on the CES-D, on average than those that did not seek authority.

Healthcare staff are under greater stress and pressure during national emergencies, and to regulate emotions during consistent high-stress, our preliminary data suggest that suppression and distraction strategies are dominant. Suggesting that staff prefer or have little choice but to focus on work. Alternatively, perhaps they are overwhelmed to the extent that avoidance and distraction are more accessible strategies. Further analysis of our data may help us understand more.

The identification of the psychosis high-risk state in help-seeking patients with depressive symptoms offers the possibility of detection and intervention at the early stages of schizophrenia.

Estimating the 5-year follow-up rate of the manifestation of psychosis and levels of functioning in patients with the clinical high-risk state and depressive symptoms.

81 inpatients (average age 19.6 years) with depressive symptoms and attenuated psychosis (60 patients with APS and 21 patients with BLIPS). Average duration of inpatient treatment was 56.3 days, antidepressant therapy (mean dosage equivalent to fluoxetine 43.1 mg/day) and antipsychotic therapy (mean dosage equivalent to chlorpromazine 408.9 mg/day) were conducted. All patients were followed up after discharge at least during 5 years (average follow-up 7.1 years). Levels of functioning were assessed on the PSP scale.

The manifestation of psychosis was identified in 21.0% (17 patients) (on average in the third year of follow-up), complete symptomatic and functional remission was established in 11.1% (9 patients) (PSP 100-81), complete symptomatic and incomplete functional remission was established in 27.2% (22 patients) (PSP 80-61). Incomplete symptomatic and incomplete functional remission – in 24.7% (20 patients) (PSP 60-41) and 13.5% (11 patients) (PSP<40).

The combination of antidepressants and antipsychotics therapy in patients with the clinical high-risk state for psychosis reduced the risk of psychosis manifestation but did not significantly affect the level of outcome compared to other studies.

No significant relationships.

The discovery and development of drugs for treatment of brain disorders is an extremely challenging process requiring large resources, timelines, and associated costs. Positron Emission Tomography (PET) enables in vivo neuroimaging of various components of receptors, transporters, enzymatic activity and other types of proteins. PET also allows for studying the response to physiological or drug interventions in experimental medicine studies. Moreover, PET neuroimaging can assist to establish diagnoses in certain brain disorders and thereby improve patient selection and stratification for clinical trials. Over the past couple of decades, PET neuroimaging has thus become a central component of the evaluation of novel drugs for brain disorders, enabling decision-making in phase I studies, where early discharge of risk provides increased confidence to progress a candidate to a later phase testing at the right dose level or alternatively to kill a compound through failure to meet key criteria. The so called "3 pillars" of drug survival, namely; tissue exposure, target engagement, and pharmacologic activity, are particularly well suited for evaluation by PET imaging. Molecular neuroimaging has thus increasingly established itself as a unique tool that not only can demonstrate drug penetration and kinetics in the brain, but also identify pharmacodynamic effects, e.g., changes in glucose metabolism. It can also quantitate therapeutic action in vivo by determining, e.g., drug occupancy whereby the relevant dose ranges to be used in clinical efficacy trials can be determined.

No significant relationships.

Quality of life should be an important issue to everyone. In the general population and in various medical disciplines, this topic has been studied extensively. In forensic psychiatry, this topic has received little attention so far.

Within this project a questionnaire that measures the quality of life in forensic hospitals was developed.

As a basis the questionnaire measuring the quality of prison life (MQPL) by Liebling et al. (2011), which was designed only for using in prisons, was used. First, this questionnaire was translated, then adapted to the living conditions in forensic hospitals and supplemented by questions regarding therapeutic support. For the psychometric evaluation of the instrument, a one-time survey was conducted at 13 forensic hospitals in Bavaria. A total of 255 patients took part, 25 of whom were female. In summary, the reliability of the MQPL can be rated as very good.

The factor structure was checked with a confirmatory factor analysis and was confirmed. There are significant differences between the 13 Bavarian forensic hospitals in the subscales admission to a forensic hospital, equal treatment, quality of accommodation and therapeutic services.

The great importance of the quality of life in the penal system is shown by the fact that a good quality of life contributes to reduced psychological distress of inpatients.

Parkinson’s disease has long been considered as a neurodegenerative disorder of pure motor expression. Motor dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease and other parkinsonian disorders is frequently accompanied by nonmotor signs and symptoms, including cognitive impairment, apathy, anxiety, and depression. Among psychiatric disorders comorbid with Parkinson’s disease, depression is probably the most important in terms of frequency and impact.

The aim of this presentation was to illustrate the importance of considering depressive symptoms in patients with Parkinson’s disease.

A case report describing a patient with depressive symptoms in a patient with Parkinson’s disease and literature review.

We report a case of a 57-year-old woman who presented symptoms of Parkinson’s disease for two years. She was treated with Benserazide (Madopar). She was referred to our department for depressive symptomatology. The patient suffered from fatigue, insomnia, loss of sexual desire, sadness, anhedonia, and social withdrawal during the last three months. The diagnosis of depression was not immediately retained. Finally, a major depressive episode was diagnosed. Fluoxetine (20mg per day) was prescribed with clinical improvement.

The diagnosis of a depressive episode is most often complex, due to an overlap symptomatic of both disorders. The depression comorbid to Parkinson’s disease because of its frequency and impact, requires specific identification and management early.

The Perinatal period is a time of vulnerability for developing psychiatric disorders of higher prevalence in the female gender - depression and anxiety1. Numerous authors have proposed that maternal psychological factors could influence pregnancy course and the well-being of mother and newborn2.

To explore the relationship between perinatal psychological disorder and physiological parameters evaluated at birth, such as the Apgar Index (AI; 1, 5 and 10 minutes), head circumference, weight, length and age.

533 women answered, in the second trimester of pregnancy (16.98±4.83 weeks of gestation), several questions about psychosocial variables, the Perinatal Depression Screening Scale3 and the Perinatal Anxiety Screening Scale4. Of these, 208 (39.0%) women were interviewed with the Diagnostic Interview for Psychological Distress5. Newborn physiological parameters were obtained from electronic health records.

AI was significantly (p<.01) and moderately (r≈.25) correlated with maternal anxious symptomatology, and with the experience of a stressful event in the last year (only AI 1 minute). Newborns of women with clinically relevant anxious symptomatology (>cutoff point, 14.6%) had significantly lower AI (p<.05), which was also observed in newborns of women who considered having had a stressful event (only AI 1 minute). Women’s newborns with maternal anxiety disorders during pregnancy (5.3%), had significantly lower values in AI, head circumference, weight and age of birth. Regression analyses showed that anxiety in pregnancy (symptoms and/or diagnoses) is a predictor of newborn physiological parameters, explaining significant percentages(r≈22%; p<.05) of its variability.

Early detection of psychological disorders in pregnancy, namely anxiety, is determinant to prevent adverse neonatal outcomes.

No significant relationships.

Compared to specialized care, primary care is considered to be more accessible, less stigmatizing, and more comprehensive since it manages physical ailments along with mental disorders (MD). Thus, MD are mainly treated by general practitioners (GP), even though their ability to diagnose and treat these diseases is often considered unsatisfactory.

This study aimed to analyze perceptions of GP capacity to manage MD, and to assess the difficulties encountered during this management.

A cross-sectional web-based survey design was adopted between August 22 and September 23, 2020, so that 47 responses of GP were included.

The mean age of respondents was 37.3 years. Among them, only 17% attended a post-university psychiatric training. On average, 6.3% of GP visits were MD-related. Anxious disorders and depression were perceived as very frequent respectively in 82.9% and 40.4% of cases. Among GP, 17% considered bipolar disorder as a difficult pathology to diagnose, followed by schizophrenia (12.7%), while the pathologies perceived to be most difficult to treat were dementia (17%), acute agitations (14.9%) and schizophrenia (10.6%). Anxiolytics and antidepressants use was very frequent (40.4% and 27.7% respectively), and 34% needed training in antipsychotics prescription. Difficulties encountered during MD management were related to lack of psychiatric continuing education (19.4%) and lack of collaboration with mental health professionals (12.5%). Among participants, 93.6% requested a psychiatric training: theoretical 29.3%, practice exchange 24.7%.

Our study confirmed that MD related visits are common in primary care and highlighted several obstacles in their management. Further continuous education, training,and collaboration between practitioners is required.

Antipsychotics are the primary treatment for patients with schizophrenia. However, medication non- adherence rate of schizophrenia patients is high. Illness perceptions have been identified as critical indicators to influence patients’ medication adherence and treatment process. Knowledge remains unclear about the effects of illness perceptions on medication attitudes among patients with schizophrenia.

This study aimed to investigate the effects of illness perceptions on medication attitudes among patients with schizophrenia.

This cross-sectional study was conducted in a regional teaching hospital in southern Taiwan with a convenience sample of 200 patients with schizophrenia recruited. Two self-reported scales, Illness Perception Questionnaire-Revised (IPQ - R) and Drug Attitude Index - 10 (DAI - 10), were used to assess patients’ illness perceptions and medication attitudes. Positive illness perceptions mean patients believe their illness acute, noncyclical, fewer consequences and emotional representation. And have more personal control, treatment control, and illness coherence.

Patients’ illness perceptions were negative, with a little illness identity. Most of them believed that illness is more chronic and cyclical, causing negative consequences, lower self-control, and negative emotional expression. However, they thought treatment is moderately helpful for illness control, and the treatment effect is moderate. Multiple regression analysis showed that positive illness perceptions and negatively emotional representation could predict better medication attitudes.

Our findings suggest that psychiatric mental health professionals could assess the illness perceptions of schizophrenia patients to influence their medication attitudes. Moreover, developing evidence-based interventions to improve their positive illness perceptions and decrease negative illness perceptions is needed.

Academic procrastination is a specific sub-type of procrastination, assessing the tendency to delay academic tasks in connection with the preparation of courses or exams.

To determine the impact of academic procrastination on studies and academic performances and identify associated factors.

We conducted a cross-sectional descriptive study in students from three different universities: a medical school, a law school and an engineering school. Socio-demographic, clinical and academic data were collected. Procrastination was assessed using the Academic Procrastination Scale. We further administered the Short Version of the impulsive behaviour scale, the Satisfaction with Life Scale, the Perfectionism scale, and the one item Self-esteem Scale.

Our sample consisted of 1019 students. The mean age was 22 ± 2.25 years, and 62% were females. About one third of study participants used tobacco or alcohol, and 10% used drugs (cannabis or others). We found a significant positive correlation between procrastination and academic failure (r=0.22 p= 0.00) and a negative correlation with academic success (r= -0.27 p=0.00). Multivariate regression analysis showed the following risk factors for academic procrastination: alcohol consumption (ORa= 1.74 [1.14; 2.67]), study field (with reference to medicine: law ORa= 1.50 [1.02; 2.19], engineering studies ORa= 2.01 [1.34; 3.02]), and impulsivity (ORa= 2.11 [1.55; 2.86]).

Academic procrastination has a negative impact on academic achievement and performance. This impact appears to differ depending on the field of study. It also seems closely related to impulsiveness and alcohol use. Our findings might contribute to find new ways of helping students to improve academic performance.

No significant relationships.

Executives functions (EF) are cognitive processes mediating the ability to successfully regulate thoughts and behaviours in order to fulfil a goal. EF impairment has been found both in the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and in the Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). Deficits in EF may have a major impact on patients’ everyday life.

The aim of this study was to evaluate EF in a population with a dual diagnosis of Adult ADHD et AUD. We also evaluated the correlation between EF and the dimensions of quality of life.

For this observational multicentric study, we included patients with AUD starting long-term residential treatment. We used ASRS v.1.1 to screen for Adult ADHD and DIVA to confirm the diagnosis. We assess EF with BRIEF-A. WHOQoL-BREF was used to evaluate quality of life.

Our population consists of 49 patients. Adult ADHD prevalence was 24,49%. Impairment score of all EF explored (Inhibition, Shifting, Emotional Control, Self-Monitoring, Initiative, Working Memory, Planning/Organizing, Organization of materials, Task Monitoring) was higher in patients with co-occuring Adult ADHD and AUD than in patients without Adult ADHD (p<0,001). We found strong negative correlation between Psychological Health and impairment score of Inhibition (p<0,001), Emotion Control (p<0,001), Self-Monitoring (p<0,001) and planning/Organizing (p<0,001). The other dimensions of quality of life were poorly correlated to EF impairment.

The prevalence of Adult ADHD in AUD patients is high. When AUD and Adult ADHD coexist, EF impairment is stronger and quality of life is poorer. Psychological health and EF impairment are strongly associated.

Psychiatric intensive care units (or PICU’s) emerged to manage high acuity patients outside the justice system. Studies have sought to better understand characteristics of those admitted to forensic or civilian PICU’s. Few, in contrast, have explored the frequency and contributors to readmission. The following study was conducted on Apsley unit, a Forensic PICU based in Melbourne, Australia, and seeks to understand the differences which would allow early identification of patients likely to require readmission and the provision of targeted interventions.

Examine rates of and contributors to forensic PICU readmission over a 6-month period.

A retrospective audit was conducted to collect clinical, problem behaviour (and strategies to manage), forensic history and demographic information for consecutively admitted patients to an 8-bed forensic PICU between March-September 2019.

Data analysis is ongoing. Interim analysis found that 96 patients were admitted during the 6-month study period: 74 (77.1%) had a single admission; 22 (22.9%) required readmission. Almost all were admitted from prison (96.9%), most had a psychosis diagnosis (80.2%) and substance abuse history (96.9%), and many had a personality disorder (24.0%) and history of adolescent antisocial behaviour (46.5%). Patients requiring readmission were significantly more likely to have been previously under compulsory mental health treatment (95.5% vs 75.3%, p=.039) and have a Positive Behaviour Support Plan developed during admission (85.7% vs 54.8%, p=.010).

Interim analysis highlighted the multicomplexity for forensic PICU patients alongside the occurrence of problem behaviour during admission and history of compulsory treatment as indicators of increased risk for re-admission.

Protracted abstinence syndrome represent group of attenuated psyc that lead to a persistant sense of discomfort among misuse patients after detoxification and may last for some months.Poor sleep in terms of duration and quality is one of the major symptoms of protracted abstinence syndrome

To assess polysomnography parameters as potential risk for relapse over six months

60 male patients with heroin misuse according to DSM V have been recruited immediately after detoxification phase, they were not receiving other psychactive substances or medications, polysomnography was done in the second week after detoxification to allow washout of medications used during detoxification and then a monthly sleep assessment through sleep diary and daytime sleepiness using visual analogue scale. Relapse was prooved through urine test.

Sample contained 60 male patients with heroin misuse disorder, detoxified successfully with a mean age 35.47±7.32 and addiction severity index total score 3.21±0.22, polysomnography was done to all sample patients one week after detoxification, 20% relapsed by the third month, rising to 30% by the six month. NREM stages I and II, both limb movement and arousal indices showed significant differnce between relapsed and non-relapsed patients.

Sleep disturbance is common among detoxified heroin misuse patients. Polysomnographic parameters such as percentage of NREM I and I, arousal index and limb mouvement index can potentially predict future relpase over six month follow up period.

Learning from a case of a 13 year old patient with auditory hallucinations for 2 months, admitted to the hospital due to suicidal ideation. Her mother had been diagnosed with Lupus and OCD. Her mood had been low for several months, probable mild intellectual disability.

Learn how to assess auditory hallucinations and possible new onset psychotic symptoms in teenagers. Learn about different levels of care involved. Discuss differential diagnosis and future directions and treatment.

Description of the case. Differential diagnosis: Obsessive compulsive disorder, Major depressive disorder with Psychotic features, schizophrenia spectrum disorder, epilepsy or other neurologic disease, autoimmune disease, post-traumatic stress disorder… Tests and consults conducted by Neurology team Psychopharmacology description.

Differential diagnosis: Obsessive compulsive disorder, Major depressive disorder with Psychotic features, schizophrenia spectrum disorder, epilepsy, autoimmune diseases like Lupus, post-traumatic stress disorder etc. Video EEG: normal. Brain MRI: normal Blood work unremarkable with positive ANA (titer 1:80). Work up, including lumbar puncture with autoimmune encephalitis and MS panels was negative. Psychopharmacology: Fluoxetine up to 40mg, and Aripiprazol up to 20mg without a good response. Possible sexual trauma was disclosed in a second hospitalization, months later.

Recommendation of assessing new onset of psychotic symptoms in detail to get a good diagnosis. Psychotic symptoms in young teenagers may occur as part of different presentations and it is important to provide a good follow up of the patient in order to provide the most accurate treatment.

Alicia Koplowitz Foundation

The strcuture of personal disorders in hypertensive disease aptients remains relevant topic.

The study population included 57 hypertensive disease patients; mean age 49,1+9,6 years old (42 females and 15 males). The control group included 62 healthy individuals (49 females and 13 males); mean age 48,1+8,6 years old.

Emotional condition of subjects was assessed using the Depression Scale of Zung, the Spielberger trait Anger scale and Anxiety, the Toronto Alexithymia Scale and SCL – 90-R Questionnaire.

The study results showed that as compared to the healthy individuals, the hypertensive disease patients showed significantly higher scores of reactive anxiety (46,0+9,0 and 39,0+8,2; р<0,01), personal anxiety (50,3+9,2 and 41,03+7,9; р<0,01), depression (42,7+7,2 and 36,59+5,95;р<0,01), alexithymia (69,4+8,8 and 59,0+9,2; р<0,01), state anger (11,8+3,6 and 10,6+1,8; р<0,01), reactive anger (9,2+2,6 and 8,1+2,4; р<0,05), personal anger (21,4+5,3 and 18,1+4,6; р<0,01), trait anger (8,3+3,0 and 7,3+2,3; р<0,05), self-aggression (16,2+4,9 and 13,4+3,8; р<0,01), aggression towards others (15,9+3,9 and 14,7+3,4; р<0,05), somatization (1,27+0,6 and 0,5+0,4; р<0,01), hostility (1,2+0,7 and 0,5+0,4; р<0,01), obsessive-compulsive traits (1,2+0,7 и 0,6+0,4; р<0,01), psychoticism (0,7+0,6 and 0,27+0,30; р<0,01) and paranoid traits (1,22+0,6 and 0,5+0,4; р<0,01), phobic anxiety (0,6+0,5 and 0,2+0,2; р<0,01) and interpersonal sensitivity (1,2+0,7 and 0,7+0,5; р<0,01).

Close interrelations between manifestations of anxiety and depression spectrum disorders and anger may be explained by internal conflict between aggressive impulses and the need for adaptive behavior in such individuals, resulting in consistent vicious vortex.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is inducing fear, and a timely understanding of mental health status is urgently needed for society. Previous research has revealed a profound and wide range of psychosocial impacts on people at the individual, community, and international levels. On an individual level, people are likely to experience fear of falling sick or dying themselves, feelings of helplessness, and stigma. Currently, there is little understanding of mental well-being assessment under scenarios of pandemics that oblige to social isolation and quarantine.

This study aims to: a) establish the prevalence of psychiatric symptoms; b) identify risk and protective factors contributing to psychological stress; and c) identify coping strategies to promote better adjustment during and after the pandemic crisis.

We will adopt a mixed-method approach, firstly with a cross-sectional survey design (in both Portugal and Swiss context) to assess the higher education student’s psychosocial response during and after the pandemic, by using an anonymous online questionnaire. In a 2nd phase, and in order to gain more insight into the psychological stress faced by the students as a result of pandemic, a qualitative approach was chosen, focusing on the experiences of the participants.

This study has received ethical approval from both international and local institutional review boards. Data collection will start in November 2020 and will be completed at February 2021.

The findings of this study will provide important data to assist government agencies and healthcare professionals in safeguarding the psychosocial wellbeing of the community in the face of COVID-19 outbreak expansion.

Involuntary electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) can be a life-saving intervention for patients suffering from potentially lethal conditions who are unable to give informed consent. However, its use is not widespread, probably partly due to the scarce data on hard outcomes following involuntary ECT. In Denmark, involuntary ECT is only used when patients are at imminent/potential risk of dying if not receiving ECT.

We aimed to assess the effectiveness of involuntary ECT by estimating the 1-year survival following its administration.

We conducted a register-based cohort study involving i) all patients receiving involuntary ECT in Denmark between 2008 and 2019, ii) age and sex-matched patients receiving voluntary ECT, and iii) age and sex-matched individuals from the general population. 1-year survival rates were compared via mortality rate ratios.

We identified 618 patients receiving involuntary ECT, 547 patients receiving voluntary ECT, and 3,080 population-based controls. The survival rate in the year after involuntary ECT was 90%. For patients receiving involuntary ECT, the 1-year mortality rate ratios were 3.1 (95% confidence interval (CI)= 1.9-5.2) and 5.8 (95%CI = 4.0-8.2) compared to those receiving voluntarily ECT and to the population-based controls, respectively. Risk factors for early death among patients receiving involuntary ECT were male sex, being ≥70 years old and having organic mental disorder as the treatment indication.

Treatment with involuntary ECT is associated with a high survival rate, suggesting that the intervention is effective. However, patients receiving involuntary ECT constitute a high-risk population that should be monitored closely after this treatment.

No significant relationships.

Following Italy and many other European countries Russia entered a nationwide lockdown in March 2020. Since quarantine had impact on mental health (Gualano et al., 2020, Stanton et al., 2020), this study aimed to study the psychological predictors of low mental health and anger in Russian university students. Previous studies have shown that young people are most vulnerable part of population during Covid-19 pandemic (Pervichko et al., 2020).

The purpose of this research was to assess the effects of externality and hopelessness on anger and irritation during COVID-19 lockdown.

The sample comprised 120 university students (86% women, M=18.84, SD=1.58) from Moscow. Online survey has been conducted in April 2020. Measures included Russian externality-internality scale based on Rotter’s scale and three new scales specific for COVID-19 pandemic developed for this study to assess feeling of hopelessness (α = 0.72), anger (α = 0.70) and positive reformulation (α = 0.84).

Anger shows significant correlations with hopelessness (r=0.43; p<0.001), externality (r=0.29; p<0.01) and positive reformulation (r=–0.41; p<0.001). Structural equation modeling confirms theoretical model according to which the effect of externality on anger is mediated by hopelessness and positive reformulation (negatively) (indirect effects sig. at p<0.01, χ2 = 1.32; df = 1; p = 0.251; CFI = 0.995; TLI = 0.969; RMSEA = 0.052.

Conclusions. Anger and irritation regarding the necessity to stay at home during COVID-19 lockdown may be caused by external locus of control which effect on anger is mediated by hopelessness and limited capacities for positive reframing.

ECT is a potentially life-saving treatment for patients with severe or treatment resistant depression. Cognitive function disturbances following ECT are generally transient, but could be of longer duration in some cases

To assess the cognitive side effects in patients with affective disorders treated with a course of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).

Cognitive functions of patients who undergo ECT was assessed prior to start of treatment, midway of the course of treatment and after end of the course of treatment using Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). We did a retrospective analysis of MoCA scores of 15 patients who received bilateral ECT in 2017-2018. In order to assess the efficacy of ECT in the treatment of their illness, we did a retrospective analysis of Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) scores of 18 patients who received bilateral ECT in 2017-2018

Only 7% of the patients who underwent ECT in our sample did have significant cognitive decline as per their MoCA scores. 28% of patients achieved complete remission in their depressive symptomes. 22% of patients continued on maintenance treatment. 95% of patients showed significant improvement in their symptoms following treatment with ECT where there symptoms reduced to either mild or minimal depressive symptoms.

Cognitive side effect was not a significant side effect in our sample of patients. We did see an improvement in cognitive function in a significant number of the sample of patients as they progressed with treatment, which coincided with improvement in their affective symptoms.