Charles Bonnet syndrome (CBS) is characterized by the presence of visual hallucinations without other sensory-perceptual disturbances or evidence of organic mental disorder nor functional psychosis.

Review differential diagnosis of BCS, searching articles in Pubmed.

62-year-old woman, undergoing treatment with Sertraline and psychotherapy for three months because of anxious-depressive synthoms. Pathological myopia and retinal detachment in 2012, blind left eye, retaining 33% vision in the right eye. She comes to the emergency room feeling really anxious, she says that for a year now she has had the feeling that her husband is cheating on her with another woman, and she claims with certainty that she sees a woman in her bed at night, as well as flashes of light evidencing her presence. She has also begun to hear voices through the telephone wires. She and her family deny memory loss or other cognitive impairments. We performed a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance with normal results. Family claims good conygal relation until these synthoms began and no signs of cognitive impairment.

The patient lives as real these hallucinations which haven´t appeared during admission. We started treatment with an antipsychotic and a benzodiazepine, with great improvement of anxiety and development of some insight. Executive impairment was observed.

The results obtained, make us think that, although our patient has an important visual loss, it is more a psychiatric pathology. Here lies the importance of a multidisciplinary approach among ophthalmologists, neurologists and psychiatrists in order to avoid misdiagnosis and that the patient can benefit from proper treatment.

No significant relationships.

There is paucity of empirical studies which compare various mindfulness-based interventions on speed of visuomotor tracking and also analyse the differential effect of gender.

To compare the effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) versus a Mindfulness-based Emotional Regulation (MER) intervention on speed of visuomotor tracking according to gender.

This study was carried out in a Mental Health Unit in Spain (Colmenar Viejo, Madrid). Firstly, 80 adult patients with anxiety disorders were randomized according to the score on the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II (blocking factor), of whom, 64 patients decided to participate (mean age = 40.66, S.D. = 11.43; 40 females). Each intervention was weekly, during 8 weeks, guided by two Clinical Psychology residents. A 2x2x2 mixed ANOVA (pre-post change x intervention type x gender) was conducted, with Sidak-correction post-hoc tests. The dependent variable was the score on TMT-A.

Normality and homoscedasticity assumptions were met. No statistically significant differences were observed on age or gender between interventions. No statistically significant interaction effect was observed between pre-post change x intervention x gender on TMT-A [F(1, 52) = 2.867, p = .096, statistical power observed = 38.3%]. However, simple effects were statistically significant: while males improved on TMT-A after MER (p = .000; Cohen’s d = 1.092), females did so after ACT (p = .000; Cohen’s d = 1.506).

These results show that gender moderates the improvement of the two mindfulness-based interventions examined on the speed of visuomotor tracking. More research is needed to confirm these findings.

No significant relationships.

The intersection between bipolar disorders and creativity has been investigated in western literature. Although psychopathology has been proposed for famous artists in painting, writing, music and other forms of art, there is no systematic study examining bipolar disorders and music production in composers.

The aim of this review is to investigate this relationship by providing an overview of published studies.

The search included papers published in English as abstracts as well as in full length until October 2020. The literature search was conducted using the MEDLINE, EMBASE, PUBMED and GOOGLE SCHOLAR databases. For all the searches, the terms/key words that were used were “bipolar disorder”, “music”, “creativity”, and “composers”.

Search results for composers from different music genres and musical periods indicated that the proposed origin of the overall bipolar pattern is attributed to several stressful environmental factors which are taking the form of interpersonal problems regarding the expressed emotion, life events, and paucity of stress-management skills. In addition to that, bipolar psychopathological patterns seem to influence the quantity of music composing activity indirectly due to changes in everyday functional abilities.

Published reports, although based on biographical research, do provide evidence in support of a strong bipolarity-music creativity/production link for famous composers. Further well-designed studies in living music professionals engaged in music composition are needed.

No significant relationships.

The Internet Addiction Test (IAT) is a 20-item, self-reported questionnaire that measures the presence and severity of Internet addiction which is an increasing problem in adolescents. Although a Portuguese version IAT has been validated in adults, its psychometric properties have never been evaluated before, in adolescents.

To analyse the reliability and construct and concurrent validity of the IAT in a Portuguese adolescent sample.

772 adolescents (53.5% girls), mean aged 13.21±2.246, answered the Portuguese versions of the IAT and the Portuguese versions of validated scales to evaluate: Cyberbullying, Game Addiction, Agressivity and Anxiety, Depression Scales. To study the temporal stability, 377 (60.5% girls) respondents answered the questionnaires again after approximately four-six weeks. The total sample was aleatory splitted to realize the exploratory and the confirmatory factor analyses.

Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported a second order two-factor structure - “Isolation and Social Commitment” and F2-“Negligence and Functional Commitment”. The χ2/df value was 2.260 and had a significant p value; it had the lowest RMSEA score = .074 (p< .001) and it had the highest TLI (.980) and CFI (.905). IAT mean scores were no different between genders [Girls=29.25±18.775 vs. Boys: 30.85±17.929, p=.405]. The Cronbach’s alphas were > .85. Pearson correlation between the test and the re-test was r=.660. The IAT, video game addiction (r=.434), Cyberbullying (r=.383), anxiety (r=.209) and depression (r=.263) were significantly correlated (p<.001).

The Portuguese IAT has good reliability and validity, showing to be an adequate instrument for measuring Internet Addiction symptoms in Portuguese Adolescents.

Parental mental health problems have been found to have a significant impact on a range of aspects of parental caregiving during the postnatal period, with significant implications in terms of key aspects of the child’s development. Video feedback is a generic term that refers to the use of videotaped interactions of the parent and child to promote parental sensitivity, and a recent meta‐analysis of 20 studies (1757 parent‐child dyads) found that video feedback can improve parental sensitivity compared with a control or no intervention up to six months’ follow‐up. This paper will examine the ways in which video feedback might contribute to the ability of parents with mental health problems to provide the type of caregiving that will promote the development of a secure attachment in the infant.

No significant relationships.

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin condition affecting diverse racial/ethnic groups throughout the world. It has a major impact on the patient’s quality of life, influencing career, social activities, family relationships, and all other aspects of life

To evalue the quality of life in patients with psoriasis

Participants were outpatients of Hedi chaker University Hospital Center in sfax, Tunisia, recruited between January and July of 2017, diagnosed with psoriasis. A Demographic questionnaire and the Quality of life Questionnaire (SF-36) were administered in this study.

44 patients were included in this study. They had with a mean age of 45.8 ±12.1. The majority of patients were married (70.5%), unemployed (40.5%), without medical heredity (84,6%). Psoriasis was in plaque (65.9%), guttate (20.5%) and pustular(13.6.5%). Its severity assessed by BSA, was mild to moderate in 72.7% of cases and associated arthropathy was noted in 29.5% of patients. The overall average SF-36 scale scores for all patients ranged from 4 to 98 with an average of 55.97. The quality of life of patients was impaired in 45.5% of casesQuality of life was significantly more impaired in patients with associated arthropathy (p=0.004). There is no significant differences for the different dimensions of quality of life regarding the clinical form of psoriasis.

Psoriasis certainly has an impact on patients’ quality of life.So, dermatologists should give special attention to this subgroup of persons in order to prevent future psychopathology.

Depression is very common in adolescent patients and impacts on their quality of life and functioning. Indeed, depression is an important clinical aspect for treatment, outcome, and prognosis.

This pilot study investigated the factorial structure of the Calgary depression scale for schizophrenia (CDSS) in a sample of help seeking adolescent patients, stratified in three clinical diagnostic subgroups: early onset psychosis (EOP), clinical high risk (UHR) and clinical control (CC). The relationships between these factors and SIPS domains and subjective experiences were also explored.

Sixty-nine subjects were examined to assess the severity of depressive symptoms and the degree of subjectively felt cognitive-affective vulnerability (i.e. basic symptoms)

Principal component analysis revealed CDSS to include two main factors, namely: “guilty idea of reference-pathological guilt” (factor I), “depression-hopelessness” (factor II). Two factors revealed multiple correlations with SIPS domains and subjective experiences.

The results confirm the dual factorial structure of CDSS previously reported in the literature in adult samples, further increase our knowledge of the psychopathological components of depression in adolescents, and strongly suggest that CDSS can also be used in early diagnostic settings

No significant relationships.

Orexins are involved in the regulation of circadian rhythms which play an important role in mood regulation(1,2), and are hypothesised to be associated with major depressive disorder(3). However, scarce studies analyse their relationship with bipolar disorder (BD).

To evaluate the relationship of orexin-A and the clinical course of BD

95 BD patients were tested for serum orexin-A. The clinical course was analysed through number of depressive, manic/mixed episodes. HDRS and YMRS were used to assess severity of current episode. Statistics: Spearman correlations, U Mann-Whitney, linear regression analysis.

Mean age was 50.03 (SD=12.87) and 64.2% were women. 63.2% had BD-type I. Mean number of manic, depressive and mixed episodes was 2.32 (SD=3.07), 7.28 (SD=12.37), and 3.01 (SD=9.06), respectively. Mean age of onset was 26.09 (SD=10.50). Mean concentration of orexin-A was 21.78 pg/ml (SD=15.41), with no differences in sex, body mass index, age at onset or presence of insomnia(ICD-10). A correlation with age was observed; r=0.24 (p=0.019). No association was identified between orexin-A and severity of current episode. In relation to clinical course, no correlation was found with manic or mixed episodes. However, a negative correlation was identified between orexin-A levels and number of depressive episodes; r=-0.36 (p=0.001). When linear regression (orexin-A as dependent variable) was used to control for age, only this covariate (B=0.304) entered in the model (R2=0.067, F=6.045, p=0.015).

No relationship between orexin-A and number of manic/mixed episodes were detected. The association of orexin-A with number of depressive episodes dissappeared when age was controlled.

No significant relationships.

The current COVID-19 pandemic brings social isolation to our daily lives that may elevate depression. The impact of major depressive disorder (MDD) on social cognitive functioning is far from understood, but essential for prevention and treatment of this neuropsychiatric condition.

Our aim was to examine (i) whether face tuning is lower in depression; and (ii) how it is related to other cognitive abilities (such as perceptional organization). Furthermore, we intended to clarify gender impact on face tuning in MDD, as twice more females are affected.

Using a recently developed paradigm, the Face-n-Food task, we examined face tuning in 26 patients with MDD and 26 person-by-person matched controls. The advantage of non-face images is that its single elements do not promote face processing.

Strikingly, MDD individuals showed intact face tuning. As sex ratio in our patient sample was about 2:1 (as in MDD population in general), we recruited additional male patients and found that MDD male patients were as good as female patients. Yet, while face tuning in MDD patients showed a significant correlation with perceptual organization abilities, in controls, it was linked with social cognition.

The outcome suggests that the origins of aberrant social functioning in MDD lie in maladaptive cognitive schemas rather than in a lack of sensitivity towards social signals per se. To elucidate neural circuits involved in face tuning in MDD, a magnetoencephalography (MEG) study with the Face-n-Food images is currently under progress.

No significant relationships.

Cases of psychosis are being reported in people infected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The relationship between psychosis and corticosteroids treatment is well known. However, there are relatively limited data so far correlating psychosis and SARS-CoV-2.

To describe a case of manic psychosis in a 55-year-old woman treated with corticosteroids for COVID-19 infection. Discuss the etiopathogenic factors involved in psychosis in patients infected by COVID-19.

We present the case of a 55-year-old woman, without previous psychiatric history, who was admitted to psychiatry due to a psychotic episode with maniac symptoms. Three weeks earlier, the patient had been admitted to Internal Medicine for bilateral SArs-CoV2 pneumonia, under treatment with high doses of corticosteroids. The patient presents a verbose and salty speech, euphoric mood with hyperergia, subjective increase of capacities, insomnia and delusional ideation with mystical-spiritual content with delusional interpretations and auditory hallucinations. The patient comes from Ukraine and she has been living in Spain for 20 years. She works as a household assistant. The patient relates various psychosocial stressors throughout her life.

Complementary diagnostic tests were without alterations. Low-dose antipsychotic treatment is prescribed, with a rapid recovery within a week. Finally, the patient showed complete insight of the episode and was discharged from the hospital being asymptomatic.

It would be interesting to publish the reported cases of psychosis and infection by COVID-19 as well as to investigate the etiopathogenic factors that may be contributing to the development of psychosis in patients infected by the virus.

No significant relationships.

The PSP has been implemented in Catalonia in 2006 in an attempt to improve the Primary Care treatment of the most common mental disorders and addictions. It’s based on a collaborative model, made up between Primary Care and Mental Health professionals.

To identify the strengths and limitations of the PSP from the perspective of Primary Care and Mental Health professionals.

Qualitative, exploratory and interpretive study based on Grounded Theory, made between 2018 and 2019 with Primary Care and Mental Health professionals. Group interviews were conducted with triangulated analysis. The study got the approval from the Research Ethics Committee of the Sant Joan de Deu’s foundation.

11 group interviews were conducted in 6 primary care centers and 5 mental health centers in Barcelona. Intrinsic and extrinsic factors impacting the programme functioning were detected. Within the extrinsic factors, elements related to professionals, patients and public health system have been observed. All the professionals agree that the PCSP has a favorable impact on inter-professional relationships and patients, facilitating the management of cases. In contrast the heterogeneity implementation, the lack of training, and the health care burden in is considered to negatively influence an optimal development of the programme. Professionals suggest communication and inter-professional collaboration would be improved by creating more a horizontal structure that eliminates vertical lines of command and disagreements in clinical judgement, thus facilitating shared decisions.

PrimaryCare and MentalHealth professionals value the PSP positively, but conclude there are communication and organizative barriers that should be addressed in order to improve the overall programme’s efficiency.

Remitted Cushing’s disease (RCD)-patients commonly continue to present persistent psychological and cognitive deficits, and alterations in brain function and structure. Assessing cortical thickness and surface area of RCD-patients may offer further insight into the neuroanatomical substrates of Cushing’s disease.

To assess cortical thickness and surface area in RCD-patients in comparison to healthy controls (HCs).

Structural 3T MRI’s were obtained from 25 long-term RCD-patients, and 25 age-, gender-, and education-matched HCs. T1-weighted images were segmented to extract mean cortical thickness and surface area values of 68 cortical gray matter regions. Paired sample t-tests explored differences between the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC; region of interest), and the whole brain. Validated scales assessed psychiatric symptomatology, self-reported cognitive functioning, and disease severity.

After correction for multiple comparisons, ROI analyses indicated that RCD-patients showed reduced cortical thickness of the left caudal ACC and the right rostral ACC compared to HCs. Whole-brain analyses indicated thinner cortices of the left caudal ACC, left cuneus, left posterior cingulate cortex, right rostral ACC, and bilateral precuneus compared to HCs. No cortical surface area differences were identified. Cortical thickness of the left caudal ACC was inversely associated with anxiety symptoms and disease duration.

In six of 68 regions examined, RCD patients had reduced cortical thickness in comparison to HCs. Cortical thickness of the left caudal ACC was inversely associated with disease duration, suggesting that prolonged and excessive exposure to glucocorticoids may be related to cortical thinning of brain structures involved in emotional and cognitive processing.

No significant relationships.

Pregnancy is a special risk factor for suicide attempts among females (Andrew E. Czeizel et al. 2011). Situational factors such as the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) have also been reported to impact on individual’s mental health.

Examine the effect of COVID-19 and its association with mental health and attempt suicide risk in pregnant population.

A cross-sectional study that includes 113 pregnant women from Spain, through an anonymous, voluntary and multiple response type online survey which included questions about socio demographic aspects, COVID-19’s aspects and mental health.

Of the 112 pregnant patients surveyed, only 2 reported suicidal ideation. The age of the respondents was 32 and 33 years, both of whom were in the 2nd trimester of pregnancy. Both report that it was the first pregnancy and affirm a worsening of their economic situation since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. One of them did not have a partner / marriage and was living with a relative, in turn this respondent was unemployed. Both responded that they were “always” worried about the possible outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic and that their fears had increased, being difficult to control and let them pass. It is very relevant that both agree that they “never” felt that the professionals who carried out the pregnancy controls asked or inquired about their current state of mental health.

Antepartum suicidal ideation is an important and common complication of pregnancy, specially in COVID-19’s times, healthcare professionals who follow pregnancy should detect high-risk suicidal patients and be able to carry out a suicide prevention program.

The emergence of COVID-19 changed the lifestyle of individuals through the appearance of lockdown. This period seems to have potential effect on some health determinants related to behaviors such as drug addiction.

Compare the prevalence and behavior of drug consumers before and during the lockdown.

A cross-sectional study was carried out on 1001 Moroccan addict between April and July 2020, using two international questionnaires: The global drug survey “Special Edition on COVID-19” and the survey on impact of COVID-19 on patients and families.

before lockdown, tobacco use (80.2%), alcohol (70.9%), cannabis (46.3%). During lockdown: tobacco consumption remains unchanged (80.7%), alcohol and cannabis consumption reduced significantly, respectively (39.6%) and (40.8%). Results show also the weaning of hallucinogens and solvents. 76.3% decreased their use, the raisons behind these changes were: 39.8% worried about health issues, 26.6% have less opportunities to consume, 23.7% think that the current life style make it difficult to use, 23.4% think they have less ability to obtain drugs.

The lockdown seems to be an opportunity for addicts to reduce drugs consumption. However, setting up support services with targeted interventions is the best chance to decrease psychological stress and avoid the consequences of this reduction.

Delusional parasitosis (DP), also know as Ekbom syndrome and in some cases as Morgellons, was first described in the late 17th century in France. It is an obsessive phobic state in which the patient believes that the is infested by parasites. In the hallucinatory state, they frequently remove parts of the skin, identifying them as parasites. The cause of DP is unknown. Evidence supporting the dopamine theory defend that the inhibition of dopamine reuptake (for example cocaine and amphetamines) induce symptoms such as formication.

Through the description of the following clinical case, we emphasize its clinical features and complexities.

Review of DP in light of a clinical case

A 48-year-old woman was brought to the psychiatric emergency due to psychotic symptoms following cocaine use. She had a history of drug abuse. She was apparently asymptomatic until October 2019, when, in the background of vague sensation of something crawling under his skin, she developed a sudden onset belief that she had been infested by insects that crawled under his skin. Previous medical observation found no reason for a skin infection or infestation. Skin examination revealed itch marks and skin excoriations in the abdomen. Mental status examination revealed anxious and depressive affect, delusion of parasitosis, tactile hallucination and impaired insight. Routine hemogram and urinalysis was unremarkable, except for the detection of cocaine.

Delusional parasitosis often presents to nonpsychiatric medical professionals. An awareness of such ilness, with an early recognition and timely referral are management cornerstones in order to successfully diagnose and treat patients.

No significant relationships.

Recent studies showed that stress and anxiety increased during the Covid-19 pandemic (Bäuerle et al., 2020; Salari et al., 2020). It is important to identify factors which are related to this increase.

In present study we investigated how perceived value threat of Covid-19 is related to anxiety and depression symptoms in April – May 2020 during the lockdown in Russia.

Three hundred and four participants were recruited online (Mage=33.18, SD=13.33, 108 males, 194 females). Participants completed the Short Schwartz’s Value Survey (SSVS; Lindeman & Verkasalo, 2010). They were next asked to rate how likely their values could be threatened because of the Covid-19. They also completed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, 1983) and Beck Depression Inventory-II (Beck et al., 1996).

A multiple linear regression model was built to assess how own values and values threatened by Covid-19 explain state anxiety during the lockdown. Threat to openness values was positively related to state anxiety (b=1.07, SE=.49, β=.13, p=.032). Threat to conservation values was only marginally related to state anxiety (b=1.03, SE=.58, β=.13, p=.074). The effects of self-enhancement and self-transcendence values were not significant.

When Covid-19 is perceived as a threat to openness to change values – hedonism, stimulation and self-direction – people experience higher level of anxiety symptoms. Interestingly, perceived threat of Covid-19 to security, conformity and tradition was only marginally related to anxiety. Future studies might explore how encouraging people to fulfill their openness to change values in a safe mode might decrease the level of anxiety.

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) can affect mental health in different ways. There is little research about psychiatric complications in hospitalized patients with COVID-19.

The aim of the study was to describe the psychiatric clinical profile and pharmacological interactions in COVID-19 inpatients referred to a Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry (CLP) unit.

This is a cross-sectional retrospective study, carried out at a tertiary hospital in Spain, in inpatients admitted because of COVID-19 and referred to our CLP Unit from March 17,2020 to April 28,2020. Clinical data were extracted from electronic medical records. The patients were divided in three groups depending on psychiatric diagnosis: delirium, severe mental illness (SMI) and non-severe mental illness (NSMI).

Of 71 patients included (median [ICR] age 64 [54-73] years; 70.4% male), 35.2% had a delirium, 18.3% had a SMI, and 46.5% had a NSMI. Compared to patients with delirium and NSMI, patients with SMI were younger, more likely to be institutionalized and were administered less anti-COVID19 drugs. Mortality was higher among patients with delirium (21.7%) than those with SMI (0%) or NSMI (9.45%). The rate of side effects due to interactions between anti-COVID19 and psychiatric drugs was low, mainly drowsiness (4.3%) and borderline QTc prolongation (1.5%).

Patients affected by SMI were more often undertreated for COVID-19. However, the rate of interactions was very low, and avoidable with a proper evaluation and drug-dose adjustment. Half of the patients with SMI were institutionalized, suggesting that living conditions in residential facilities could make them more vulnerable to infection.

No significant relationships.

Mental health disorders are considered a priority in health policies around the world. It is estimated that more than 900 million people worldwide have a mental disorder, in which stress-related disorders account for a high number of emergency department visits. The scientific literature has pointed out the importance of considering how gender and sex differences influence the clinical outcomes of people with mental illness, playing an important role in the clinical management of these patients.

The aim of this report is to investigate the presence of gender differences in the care of psychiatric patients attending the emergency department (ED), taking into account the clinical characteristics, reasons for consultation and practices.

The study considered all episodes of patients who visited the ED during 2017 and who were assessed by the psychiatric department. Statistical analyses were performed using IBM SPSS Statistic software.

During the 12 months period, a total of 3180 episodes were evaluated by the psychiatric department in the ED. Of them, 1723 were female (54,2%) and 1457 male. Regarding clinical data, there were found statistically significant differences with respect to the pharmacological prescription in the ED, specifically in the prescription of benzodiazepines, psychiatric diagnoses after discharge and the indication of hospital admission between women and men.

This study emphasizes the importance of considering the existence of gender differences in both the clinical presentation as well as in the care of psychiatric patients attending the ED. The analysis of these variables would help to improve the health care of psychiatric patients.

No significant relationships.