Weather conditions such as low air temperatures, low barometric pressure, and low wind speed have been linked to more cases of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning. However, limited literature exists regarding the impact of air pollution. This study aims to investigate the relationship between outdoor air pollution and CO poisoning in 2 distinct cities in Turkey.

A prospective study was conducted at 2 tertiary hospitals, recording demographic data, presenting complaints, vital signs, blood gas and laboratory parameters, carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) levels, meteorological parameters, and pollutant parameters. Complications and outcomes were also documented.

The study included 83 patients (Group 1 = 44, Group 2 = 39). The air quality index (AQI) in Group 2 (61.7 ± 27.7) (moderate AQI) was statistically significantly higher (dirtier AQI) than that in Group 1 (47.3 ± 26.4) (good AQI) (P = 0.018). The AQI was identified as an independent predictor for forecasting the need for hospitalization (OR = 1.192, 95% CI: 1.036 - 1.372, P = 0.014) and predicting the risk of developing cardiac complications (OR: 1.060, 95% CI: 1.017 - 1.104, P = 0.005).

The AQI, derived from the calculation of 6 primary air pollutants, can effectively predict the likelihood of hospitalization and cardiac involvement in patients presenting to the emergency department with CO poisoning.

This study was conducted to investigate individuals’ perceptions of media messages about the COVID-19 pandemic and the effect of these messages on their fear and uncertainty.

Data for this descriptive correlational study were collected between October and November 2020. A total of 653 individuals living in Turkey provided online survey data by completing a Personal Information Form, the Pandemic Uncertainty Scale, and the COVID-19 Pandemic Fear Scale.

The mean age of the participants was 52.1 ± 12.6, and 79.9% were female. It was found that 27.9% of participants “always” followed COVID-19 news in the media, and 41.3% “often” followed COVID-19-related news. Participants’ COVID-19 fear (24.46 ± 8.07) and uncertainty (55.35 ± 8.63) scores were moderate and correlated.

Level of trust in mass media was found to affect uncertainty about the pandemic. As level of trust in mass media increased, uncertainty about the pandemic decreased. Appropriate measures must be identified and adopted for effective and safe media use in situations posing massive and significant health threats such as COVID-19.

It is of critical importance to determine the factors that contribute to nurses’ disaster preparedness. This study aimed to examine nurses’ perceptions of disaster preparedness and the factors affecting it.

This descriptive study was conducted with 464 nurses working in the East Marmara region of Türkiye. The data were collected online using the “Personal Information Form,” “The Scale of Perception of Disaster Preparedness on Nurses,” and the “Adult Motivation Scale.” Linear regression analysis was used to analyze the influencing factors.

It was found that nurses possessed a high level of perceived disaster preparedness, influenced by individual disaster preparedness, status of receiving disaster-related training, willingness to respond in the case of a disaster, disaster plan awareness, experience with caring for disaster victims, extrinsic motivation, and general motivation.

The results of the study offer evidence that can be implemented by managers and educators to better prepare nurses for disasters. Hospital administrators and policy makers should consider the factors affecting nurses’ perception of disaster preparedness to develop solutions for such disasters.

Patients with schizophrenia exhibit a higher prevalence of metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular diseases compared to the general population, resulting in increased mortality rates. The extent of this risk may vary based on the specific treatment employed.

This study aims to compare the risk assessments of metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular diseases in schizophrenia patients who transitioned from monthly long-acting paliperidone palmitate (PP1M) treatment to three-month long-acting paliperidone palmitate (PP3M) treatment during both treatment periods.

The research was conducted at the Psychiatry Clinic and Psychotic Disorders Outpatient Clinic of Selcuk University Faculty of Medicine. Eligible participants included patients under PP3M treatment for a minimum of 6 months and undergoing continuous monitoring in the psychotic disorders outpatient clinic. Sociodemographic and clinical data, scales, laboratory values, and measurements taken both before and during the use of PP3M and PP1M were retrieved from file records, encompassing assessments, analyses, and examinations conducted in accordance with the “Psychotic Disorders - Treatment Monitoring Protocol.” Ethical approval was obtained from the Selcuk University Ethics Committee.

Among the 31 patients transitioning from PP1M to PP3M treatment, 15 (48.4%) were female. The mean age of the patients was 44.4±14.4 years. No statistically significant differences were observed in the mean values of clinical evaluation and side effect assessment scales, body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio, systolic blood pressure, glucose levels, cholesterol levels, prolactin levels, and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) measurements between the pre- and post-treatment phases (p>0.05). However, a significant difference was identified in the mean Qrisk3 values, a cardiovascular risk index, in two distinct measurements (10-year risk score: PP1M 3.7±4.2 and PP3M 4.6±4.8, p=0.003).

Our study, designed to investigate the impact of the monthly and three-month long-acting formulations of the same antipsychotic drug on patients’ clinical status, side effects, and general health parameters, found that PP3M treatment did not significantly differ from PP1M treatment in terms of Qrisk3 values. Despite the lack of statistical significance between the parameters used in Qrisk3 calculation, the observed significant difference in Qrisk3 values is attributed to variations in age. In order to promote the widespread adoption of long-acting treatments in schizophrenia management, clinicians should engage in comprehensive comparative studies assessing both efficacy and side effects.

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Schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders are disorders in which the individual’s assessment of reality is impaired and which progress with exacerbations and become chronic, leading to disability, loss of function, social communication problems and frequent hospitalisations.

The aim of our study was to evaluate the clinical and sociodemographic data of patients followed up in the outpatient clinic for psychotic disorders and hospitalized at least once in any time during their treatment.

The sample of the present study consisted of patients who were followed up in the psychotic disorders outpatient clinic of Selçuk University Faculty of Medicine Hospital and who were hospitalised at least once. Patients were identified by retrospective file search and those with sufficient information about their sociodemographic-clinical characteristics were included. The study approved by the ethics committee of Selçuk University Faculty of Medicine.

Of the 130 patients, 52 (40%) were female and 78 (60%) were male; mean age was 40.8 ± 12.0 years. Almost half of the patients (n=53, 40.8%) had primary school education. 73 (59.2%) of 130 patients were receiving long-acting antipsychotic medication. 100 patients (76.9%) were using oral antipsychotics. 63 out of 100 patients were on clozapine. 22 of 63 patients used clozapine as monotherapy. The mean duration of untreated psychosis (n=90) was 15.8 ± 32.1 months. The mean number of hospitalisations was 3.4 ± 2.5. 15 patients (11.5%) were lived in a nursing home. The mean number of hospitalisations of patients receiving long-acting treatment (3.8±2.9) was significantly higher than that of patients receiving oral treatment only (2.7±1.6) (p=0.004). There was no significant difference in the mean number of hospitalisations when comparing according to the presence of clozapine in the treatment (p>0.05).

The primary goal in the treatment of patients with schizophrenia is to prevent relapses, hospital admissions and improve patients’ quality of life and functioning. Therefore, the variables related to hospitalisations, which are an indirect indicator of the frequency of psychotic episodes, should be well evaluated. Our study was mainly descriptive and evaluated the relationship between several parameters and hospitalisations. It was thought that the high number of hospitalisations in patients on long-acting treatment might be related to the fact that long-acting treatment in our country is mostly started in the late stages of the disease. Large-sample studies of predictive parameters are needed to prevent psychotic episodes and reduce the number of hospitalisations.

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There are studies showing that the systemic inflammation response in patients diagnosed with schizophrenia is different from healty controls. Neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-lymphocyte ratio (TLR), monocyte-lymphocyte ratio (MLR), monocyte-HDL ratio (MHO) and systemic immune inflammation index (SII) have recently been used as inflammation indicators.

NLR, TLR, MLR, MHO and SII have been evaluated in many studies in schizophrenia patients. The aim of our study is to evaluate the relationship between NLR, TLR, MLR, MHO, SII values and antipsychotic treatments of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia.

203 individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia who were followed up in the psychotic disorders outpatient clinic of Selçuk University Faculty of Medicine were included in the study. Neutrophil, lymphocyte, platelet and monocyte counts and HDL values were obtained retrospectively from blood tests. NLR, TLR, MLO, MHO and SII were calculated. The study approved by the ethics committee of Selçuk University Faculty of Medicine.

45.3% of the patients were female (n = 92); the mean age was 45.8±14.0. The average number of hospitalizations was 3.0±2.7 years; the mean disease duration was 17.0±9.6 years. 56.7% (n=115) use long-acting antipsychotic treatment, 21% (n=43) use monthly paliperidone long-acting (PP1M) treatment, and 14.8% (n=30) use 3-month paliperidone long-acting (PP3M) treatment. No significant difference was observed in NLR, TLR, MLR, MHO and SII values between individuals using and not using long-acting antipsychotics. However, a significant difference in NLR value was observed between PP1M and PP3M treatment (p = 0.039). Oral antipsychotic use was 71% (n=137), 19% (n=38) used clozapine monotherapy, and 25% (n=51) used non-clozapine oral monotherapy. No significant difference was detected in inflammatory markers between clozapine monotherapy and other oral monotherapies.

According to our findings, NLR levels in patients diagnosed with schizophrenia were found to be significantly higher in those using PP1M treatment compared to those using PP3M. This finding can be interpreted in favor of the fact that PP3M contributes to the reduction of inflammation due to its longer duration of action compared to PP1M. It is thought that schizophrenia progresses through inflammatory processes and antipsychotic treatments play a role in anti-inflammation. It is envisaged that future studies may be helpful in evaluating the onset, exacerbation and remission periods of the disease, including treatment doses and durations, and revealing the relationship between inflammatory markers and schizophrenia disease and the effects of antipsychotic treatments on inflammatory markers such as NLR, TLR, MLR, MHO and SII.

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Schizophrenia is a chronic mental disorder and clozapine is an atypical antipsychotic that can be used in treatment-resistant schizophrenia patients. However, treatment-resistant schizophrenia may also include patients with an inadequate response to clozapine.

In our study, we retrospectively analysed the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of patients receiving clozapine monotherapy and patients receiving clozapine in combination with different antipsychotics. In this way, we aimed to evaluate the factors that influence the response to clozapine.

Clozapine monotherapy and clozapine in combination with different antipsychotics were identified by retrospective chart review of patients followed up at the Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders Outpatient Clinic, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Selçuk University. Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics were recorded and subjected to statistical analysis. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Selçuk University.

Of the 143 patients whose data were analysed, 60 (42%) were female. The mean age of the patients was 40.2±12.0 years and the mean duration of training was 10.4±4.3 years. 62 patients (43.4%) used long-acting antipsychotics. 90 patients (62.9%) were using clozapine, 52 (36.4%) were using clozapine as monotherapy, 5 (3.5%) were using clozapine together with another oral antipsychotics drug, and 33 (23.1%) were using clozapine together with a long-acting antipsychotic. No statistically significant difference was found when comparing mean age, age at first antipsychotic initiation, age at clozapine initiation and mean clozapine dose between patients using clozapine monotherapy (n=52) and patients using different antipsychotics in combination with clozapine (n=38). When the two groups were compared, a significant difference was found in the mean number of antipsychotics used before starting clozapine and the mean number of hospitalisations, with a lower number in the monotherapy group (3.1±1.4 vs 4.1±2.0, p=0.01 and 2.8±2.2 vs 4.5±3.2, p=0.006, respectively).

It is important to assess the concept of treatment resistance appropriately in the treatment of schizophrenia patients. The results of our study suggest that starting clozapine treatment promptly in treatment-resistant patients may increase the likelihood that patients will benefit from clozapine and reduce the need for additional treatments. Although our data and criteria for evaluating response to treatment are limited, it is important to draw attention to the clinical results of proceeding in accordance with the guidelines in the treatment of schizophrenia. Evaluating the response to clozapine treatment needs studies with stronger data and larger sample sizes.

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