It is well-known that the depression is a disorder which is with the crossroads of biological and the psychic one, of social of cultural and the spiritual one. Our reflexion today, will try to throw the light, through our characteristic lived of looking after, on the aspect certainly, most occult, but which remains nevertheless in our humble opinion, more determining in the success of the project of care between the therapeutist and his suicidal patient, in other words: the cultural and spiritual dimension of this meeting. It Would not be not convenient, even advantageous, that the therapeutist takes the risk to explore of advantage the quotient of religiosity of his patient, with the detriment or not of his own convictions, in order to better help it in his spiritual storm; in other world. Can the spiritual accompaniment" it form part of the therapeutic contract? It is on its same interrogations, that will try to focus our reflexion, today. This naturally leads us to wonder the following questions: That of the bond which can exist between faith and psychic imbalance on the one hand. As of the interest which can draw looking after it, by integrating the spiritual life of its depressed patient, in his psychotherapy intention, on the other hand.

Adolescent depressive symptoms are recognized as having number of consequences on academic and social achievement (Glied & Pine, 2002). Many studies highlighted the specific implication of emotion regulation deficits to explain depression or affective disorders (Garnefski & Kraaij, 2006). Despite these findings, little studies focused on the relations between emotional deficits (such as low emotional awareness) and subjective emotional intensity in adolescent depressive symptoms. The aim of this study was to examine the relationships between emotion awareness as defined by Lane & Schwartz (1987), subjective emotional intensity, and depressive symptoms. We hypothesized that lack of emotional awareness associated to strong emotional intensity may explain depressive symptoms among adolescents.

448 adolescents (age: 15.54 years 0.66) were administered the following self report questionnaires:

• • The Level of Emotional Awareness Scale (Lane & al. 1990).

• • The Differential Emotion Scale (Izard & al. 1991).

• • The Centre for Epidemiological Study Depression scale (Radloff, 1977).

There has been considerable research on postnatal depression (PND), in comparison to antenatal depression (AND). We aimed to study the Prevalence of AND, testing the following hypotheses:

1. a. Depressed pregnant women will have more negative life events than non depressed women.

2. b. Depressed women will have less social support than non-depressed women.

In high income countries depression is common among general trauma patients and is associated with a poor outcome. In the absence of previous reports from a developing country we evaluated the relationship of psychological distress to physical injury, musculoskeletal complaints, and social factors in Pakistan.

In a population-based sample of women of Pakistani origin in UK we tested the hypothesis that chronic difficulties involving humiliation and entrapment will be associated with depressive disorder.

487 randomly selected women were screened for depressive disorder with the Self- Rating Questionnaire (SRQ). All high scorers and 1:4 low scorers were interviewed, using the Schedule for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry (SCAN). Of these 193 women were also administered the Life Events and Difficulties Schedule (LEDS) to measure social stress.

92 women had a depressive disorder, 62 had SRQ score>7 but no depressive disorder and 39 were not depressed. 89 of the 92 depressed women were followed up to six months later, 55 women remained depressed and 34 were no longer depressed.

In univariate analysis at baseline they had significantly more marked difficulties in the domains of health, money/possession, marital/partner and other relationships. In logistic regression analysis difficulties associated with depressive disorder were marked marital/partner and other relationship difficulties. 87% of women who experienced humiliation and 84% of those experiencing entrapment had marked marital partner and other relationship difficulties.

At 6 months follow-up chronic difficulties in the domains of marital/partner and other relationship were associated with persistent depression. 90% of women experiencing humiliation and entrapment had marked marital/partner and other relationship difficulties.

Humiliating difficulties directly devaluing a woman's core role where she finds herself to be trapped with no way out is associated with depressive disorder in women of Pakistani origin in the UK.

Depression appears to be independent from, but frequently co-occurs with, substance abuse disorders, including alcohol and drug abuse. Depression and substance use disorders are highly prevalent in the general population and often co-occur within the same individual. Many people with depression turn to alcohol or drugs, eventually developing a dependence or addiction. Conversely, people who are addicted to alcohol or drugs have a high rate of depression. Alcohol and some drugs are depressants, and depressed mood can be a direct outcome of substance abuse. Use of alcohol by people suffering from depression can increase the severity of their depressive symptoms. Fortunately, it is also treatable and the key to treatment is to recognize the symptoms and to get help. Research shows that one in three depressed people also suffer from some form of substance abuse or dependence.

Late-life depression is associated with physical and psychological comorbidity, functional and cognitive impairment, and increased mortality due to suicide and other causes. However, studies in the west show that the identification of depression in older people is problematic and consequently the illness is underdiagnosed and undertreated. We investigated the prevalence of late-life depression and physicians’ attitude toward it in primary care settings of China.

The survey was performed in urban primary care settings of Hangzhou, China. 1000 patients aged ≥ 55 years and 300 primary care physicians were recruited, of which 689 patients and 247 physicians provided complete data. The Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-30) was used for investigating the prevalence of late-life depression in patients, and the Depression Attitude Questionnaire (DAQ) for investigating physicians’ attitudes and knowledge about depression.

Of the 689 patients, 23.4% (n=161) scored ≥ 11 on the GDS-30, including 3% (n=21) who scored ≥ 21. Among the physicians, 72% (n=178) endorsed that “Becoming depressed is a natural part of being old”, and 70% (n=173) of them thought “Working with depressed patients is heavy going”; in their clinical practice. Only 6.6% of physicians prescribed anti-depressants.

Primary care physicians in China are ill prepared to diagnose and treat depression in older adults, which presents at high rates in primary care clinics. How to improve their attitudes and clinical practice is crucial to the well-being of older people in China.

Adolescence is a developmental stage characterized by profound and diverse changes - individual, familial and social. The corresponding challenge of adapting can determine a chrysies period, in which may take place symptoms of psychological disorder, such as Self-destructive behaviours.

The present study is a part of a wider investigation, in the extent of the work for a doctorate in Psychology about Influent factors in stress and well-being of youngsters presenting Self-destructive behaviours: quality of family relations, attachment and parenting styles.

This preliminary study is a comparative one between a sample of youngsters, ranging from 12 to 21 years old, with a history of self-destructive behaviours, who resorted to the consult of the Suicide Studies Group of the Hospital of Santa Maria, and a normative sample comprising youngsters who have no such history, attending schools of the Lisbon region and the country's Centre region. The goal is to compare the two samples relatively to the psychological adjustment - assessed through the presence of psychopathological symptoms - (YSR; Fonseca & Monteiro, 1999), self-esteem (SES; Faria, L., 2000) and stress perception (PSS; IPSSO, 2000), assessed through self-report questionnaires.

The results reveal the presence of significant differences between the clinical group and the control group, concerning the variables at study.

The cultural and ethnic background of a patient may have a significant impact on the presentation of a psychiatric disorder. In this study symptoms assessed within a major depressive episode in 3 groups of female patients were compared:

1. 1. women of Austrian origin,

2. 2. women of Turkish origin but living in Austria and

3. 3. Turkish women living in Turkey.

Few long term studies have reported observations of changes over time with consultation-liaison (C-L) populations. This is a longitudinal observational study of a tertiary care psychiatric C-L- service over a ten-year-period (1988 - 1997) using a standardized computerized clinical database to examine 4429 consecutive referrals. Sociodemographic variables, relative consultation rates, reasons for referral, and psychiatric diagnoses, apart from a shift from adjustment disorders with depressed mood to major depressive disorders within the depressive syndrome group, did not demonstrate significant changes during the study period. Changes occurred in the pattern of C-L-psychiatric recommendations, e.g., in the prescription of antidepressants where tricyclic antidepressants were replaced by newer agents such as the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI), beginning with the introduction of fluoxetine to the US-american market in 1988. Due to a decrease in length of stay (LOS) over the ten year observation period the correlation of lagtime (the time from admission to the hospital until referral to C-L psychiatry) and LOS decreased from very strong to moderate.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is common and severe affective disorder with sleep disturbances and non-bizarre delusions which are organized in permanent and unshakeable delusional system. Neurobiological basis of MDD is still completely unknown, but significant role has serotoninergic and noradrenergic neuronal systems. Escitalopram is highly potent and highly selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor.

Purpose of this study was to estimate efficacy of the escitalopram in treatment of sleep disturbances in MDD.

Ego of the child under the age of four years (when basic independence is still not founded) experiences separation from the mother as a trauma. We will follow dynamics of this traumatisation, through revew of the cases of three adult patients during psychoanalitical psychotherapy.This study is mainly occupied with correlation between phase (and sub-phase) of ego development and object-relations during the absence of the mother and the echoes of anaclitic depression of that time upon clinical condition in adulthood.

During the last few years, most cases of major depression encountered by the author in his private practice proved to be issues of psychological trauma. Among the incriminated traumatic causes, very few were potentially life-threatening events, and some were various forms of sexual abuse; however, most were seemingly trivial experiences that had had deleterious effect on the subject's narcissism or perceived social recognition. It appeared that in all cases where previous psychotherapy or psychiatric treatment had been performed, such trauma had been ignored or overlooked. Amazingly, careful and exhaustive trauma-targeted psychotherapy brought about exceptional relief and eventually recovery from the mood disorder.

More amazingly, five cases of apparent bipolar disorder proved to be traumatic disorders. One of these presented with a very typical first manic episode; the other four had been diagnosed with this condition in a psychiatric hospital, they had a documented bipolar history and had received mood-stabilisers or atypical neuroleptics with satisfying results. Here too, careful trauma-centered psychotherapy achieved complete recovery and allowed to stop chemical treatment. Four and a half year follow-up (the longest among these five cases) showed no relapse in any of the five patients, despite the lack of any chemical treatment.

Significant case reports will be discussed.

Little is known about long-term mental health outcomes as individuals with specific language impairment (SLI) approach adulthood.

Different types of aggressiveness occur in the course of many mental disorders - including major depressive disorder. In the literature, however, there is no model nor scientific researches that would explain explain the nature, dyrection, and dynamics of involved in this effect.The purpose of this research was to describe intensity and structure of aggressiveness in persons suffering from major depressive disorder.