To explore, from the perspectives of adolescents and caregivers, and using qualitative methods, influences on adolescent diet and physical activity in rural Gambia.

Six focus group discussions (FGD) with adolescents and caregivers were conducted. Thematic analysis was employed across the data set.

Rural region of The Gambia, West Africa.

Participants were selected using purposive sampling. Four FGD, conducted with forty adolescents, comprised: girls aged 10–12 years; boys aged 10–12 years; girls aged 15–17 years, boys aged 15–17 years. Twenty caregivers also participated in two FGD (mothers and fathers).

All participants expressed an understanding of the association between salt and hypertension, sugary foods and diabetes, and dental health. Adolescents and caregivers suggested that adolescent nutrition and health were shaped by economic, social and cultural factors and the local environment. Adolescent diet was thought to be influenced by: affordability, seasonality and the receipt of remittances; gender norms, including differences in opportunities afforded to girls, and mother-led decision-making; cultural ceremonies and school holidays. Adolescent physical activity included walking or cycling to school, playing football and farming. Participants felt adolescent engagement in physical activity was influenced by gender, seasonality, cultural ceremonies and, to some extent, the availability of digital media.

These novel insights into local understanding should be considered when formulating future interventions. Interventions need to address these interrelated factors, including misconceptions regarding diet and physical activity that may be harmful to health.

The poor compliance to antipsychotic medication is a major problem in ambulatory treatment of patients with psychotic symptoms, leading to an increased risk of exacerbation and inpatient readmission.

Our objective is to clarify if the administration of prolonged release antipsychotics (PRAP) is a relevant factor in the decrease of inpatients readmissions.

Through a retrospective study, we assessed the socio-demographic and psychopathological features of a sample of patients with diagnostic of Schizophrenia and Schizoaffective disorder (DSM-IVTR), who were admitted to a psychiatric inpatient unit, in the period of two years (January 2007 to December 2008). This sample was divided in two groups (with readmissions/without readmissions), considering as having readmissions the patients that were readmitted in the nine months after the first medical discharge. We compared the use of PRAP versus oral antipsychotics (OAP) at the time of the first medical discharge, assessing if these differences had any impact in the readmissions.

Sample of 88 patients, 55,68% (n=49) male, 53,41% (n=47) unemployed, 64,77% (n=57) single. The most frequent diagnostic was Paranoid schizophrenia (73,86%, n= 65), followed by Schizoaffective disorder (17.05%, n= 15). Of the patients that had readmissions (n=15; 17,05%), 40,00% were medicated with PRAP (n=6) compared with 49,32% (n=36) of the patients with no readmissions (n=73). These differences had no statistic significance.

Taking in consideration the small sample of patients, the frequency of readmissions was low. About 50% of the patients were medicated with PRAP+OAP, with no evidence that this decision had reduced the readmissions.

Only a few European countries have carried out large, community-based, national surveys about psychiatric morbidity. Here is presented the first national French survey, aiming to estimate the prevalence of anxiety disorders and associated comorbidities according to sociodemographic characteristics.

The Mental Health in General Population (MHGP) database is derived from a representative national survey of the French adult population (n = 36,105), conducted between 1999 and 2003. Data collection was done using an anonymous face-to-face interview. The presence of anxiety disorders (generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, agoraphobia, social phobia and post-traumatic stress disorder) was assessed using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview.

The overall prevalence of anxiety disorders was estimated to be 21.6%, generalized anxiety disorder being the most prevalent one (12.8%). Women, young people, and people earning low income were identified as the more at risk. Major depressive episode, alcohol abuse and drug addiction frequently co-occur with anxiety disorders (28.3, 4.4 and 2.8% respectively).

The MHGP study showed that anxiety disorders are highly prevalent in France with a high frequency of comorbidities. Our results highlight the need for considering anxiety disorders as a public health priority in France as well as in other European countries.

A growing body of evidence suggests that the glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) is involved in the aetiopathology of mood disorders. GDNF is a neurotrophic factor from the transforming growth factor-β-family, playing a role in cell development and function in the limbic system. This is the first study to examine GDNF concentration in different brain regions of patients with depressive disorder (DD).

We used sandwich-ELISA-technique to ascertain GDNF concentration and Lowry assay for overall protein levels in post-mortem brain tissue of 7 patients with recurrent depressive disorder and 14 individuals without any neurological or psychiatric diagnoses. We included cortical regions as well as limbic area's (hippocampus, entorhinal cortex) basal ganglia (putamen, caudate nucleus), thalamus and cingulated gyrus.

We found a significant increase in GDNF concentration in the parietal cortex of patients with DD compared to the control group. In other regions the trend of an increased GDNF concentration did not reach statistical difference.

This proof of concept study supports previous findings of an alteration of the GDNF in patients with depressive disorder. However, for the first time a significant increase of GDNF in a cortical brain area was found in DD.

Characterizing the profile of schizophrenic patients with high hospitalization rates seems relevant. The aim of this study is to describe characteristics of patients with schizophrenia hospitalized at Acute Care Units, and identify clinical profiles associated to relapse.

Observational retrospective study (case-control). Hospitalized patients diagnosed for schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder for more than 2 years. Data related to the previous 3 years and current hospitalization were recorded: sociodemographics, diagnosis, CGI, reason for current/previous hospitalizations, life events, drug abuse, therapy prior and during hospitalization and compliance.

Preliminary results from 1607 patients are presented: cases are patients with no hospitalization (No-HOSP) in the previous 3 years (N=508); controls are those who had some hospitalization (HOSP) during that period (N=1099). HOSP patients were significantly younger than No-HOSP (p<0.0001). 41% of HOSP and 28.4% of No-HOSP patients showed No-Low family support (p<0.0001). 55.9% of HOSP and 50.2% of No-HOSP patients showed some drug abuse close to current hospitalization (p<0.05). The most frequent factor for current hospitalization was relapse due to non-compliance in both HOSP (66.2%) and No-HOSP (59.4%; p=0.0092). Through artificial intelligence methods, fourteen variables are identified as related to relapse (Number of previous antipsychotics, Time of evolution, CGI, Age, Gender, Educational Level, Family support, Compliance, Heroine, Cocaine or Cannabis abuse, Stressing events, Diagnosis, Number of previous hospitalizations), which have permitted to develop a predictive model for relapse (PRECOG Project).

The main factor for hospitalization was non-compliance. Age, family support, drug abuse seem to be also related to hospitalization.

Neurotrophines such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and neurotrophin 3 (NT3) have been implicated in the pathogenesis of depression and the therapeutic mechanism of antidepressants. Several clinical studies on depressive disorder (DD) have shown that levels of blood BDNF are diminished in depression and increase during antidepressant treatment. So far, only few studies have examined concentrations of neurotrophic factors in post-mortem brain tissue of individuals who suffered from DD.

The objective of the study was to show whether BDNF and NT3 levels in post-mortem brain tissue of individuals who suffered from recurrent DD and who had been treated with antidepressants differed compared to controls.

Specimens from cortical and limbic areas of post-mortem brain tissue of 7 individuals with an ante-mortem diagnosis of recurrent depressive disorder based on ICD-10 criteria (F33.0–F33.8) who received no psychotropic medication other than selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors 6 months preceding death were selected. We compared the concentrations of BDNF and NT3 with 14 matched controls without any history of psychiatric disorder or treatment with psychotropic drugs.

We detected no significant differences of either NT 3 or BDNF concentrations in any of the brain regions examined in patients who had suffered from DD and had been treated with antidepressants compared to controls.

These findings could be interpreted as a neurotrophic effect of antidepressant treatment in patients with recurrent DD, supporting the notion that depression improvement is associated with neuroplastic changes. However, more research using post-mortem brain tissue is needed.

Schema Therapy Model proposes coping as one of the mechanism through which schemas lead to the development of psychological symptoms. Thus, it was hypothesized that the association between early maladaptive schemas and symptoms of anxiety and depression will be mediated in part by the use of dysfunctional coping strategies.

A sample of 374 university students participated in this longitudinal study (5 months between T1 and T2), completing measures of stressful life events, coping, early maladaptive schemas, anxiety, and depression.

Hierarchical multiple regressions analyses revealed that coping strategies mediated the relationship between the schema domains and distress. In particular, disengagement coping strategies (i.e. avoidance, denial and wishful thinking) fully mediated the relationship between Impaired Limits domain and anxiety symptoms. Partial mediations were found for the Disconnection & Rejection, Impaired Autonomy & Performance and Other-Directedness Domains in relation with anxiety symptoms. For depressive symptoms, the mediating role of disengagement coping was significant for the Impaired Limits and Other-Directedness Domains.

These findings expand knowledge of how early maladaptive schemas lead to distress. Young (1990) proposed avoidance as the mechanism through which the schemas operate, and the present study shows disengagement strategies to be the main mediators. Additionally, significant differences in the mediation model for anxiety and depression symptoms point to specificity in the cognitive content and the way it operates. Moreover, using a prospective design suggests that cognitive appraisal precedes coping, and therefore, interventions should focus on modifying the schemas as precursors of an individual's actions.

Season of birth, an exogenous indicator of early life environment, has been related to higher risk of adverse psychiatric outcomes. According to literature, an excess of 5–8% of winter-spring births is found in individuals who later develop schizophrenia and bipolar disorder; this seasonal birth excess is also found in schizoaffective disorder (winter), major depression (March–May), and autism (March).

The objective of this study was to analyze the seasonal birth patterns of in-patients with psychiatric disorders.

Understand the relation between psychiatric disorders and season of birth during a 10 year period in a Portuguese University Hospital.

Analyze the birth date distribution of 2202 in-patients between 2007 and 2016 and compare with the psychiatric diagnosis.

Patients’ diseases analyzed by birthday season: 60% of patients with schizoaffective disorder were born in winter-spring, 48.4% of mental retarded patients were born in autumn, 37% of dementia patients in winter, 77% of patients with delusional disorder in winter-spring, 78% of patients with Cluster A personality disorder in spring-summer and 71% of patients with substance abuse conditions in autumn-winter. No seasonal birth excess was found for bipolar affective disorder, schizophrenia, alcohol abuse, major depressive disorder or Cluster B personality disorder.

Our sample data shows evidence for a potential link between season of birth and risk for schizoaffective disorder, dementia, mental retardation, Cluster A personality disorder, delusional disorder and substance abuse. The attempt to explain seasonal birth patterns in psychiatric illnesses could serve to clarify the etiological bases of such disorders.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.