Employment and relationship are crucial for social integration. However, individuals with major psychiatric disorders often face challenges in these domains.

We investigated employment and relationship status changes among patients across the affective and psychotic spectrum – in comparison with healthy controls, examining whether diagnostic groups or functional levels influence these transitions.

The sample from the longitudinal multicentric PsyCourse Study comprised 1260 patients with affective and psychotic spectrum disorders and 441 controls (mean age ± s.d., 39.91 ± 12.65 years; 48.9% female). Multistate models (Markov) were used to analyse transitions in employment and relationship status, focusing on transition intensities. Analyses contained multiple multistate models adjusted for age, gender, job or partner, diagnostic group and Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) in different combinations to analyse the impact of the covariates on the hazard ratio of changing employment or relationship status.

The clinical group had a higher hazard ratio of losing partner (hazard ratio 1.46, P < 0.001) and job (hazard ratio 4.18, P < 0.001) than the control group (corrected for age/gender). Compared with controls, clinical groups had a higher hazard of losing partner (affective group, hazard ratio 2.69, P = 0.003; psychotic group, hazard ratio 3.06, P = 0.001) and job (affective group, hazard ratio 3.43, P < 0.001; psychotic group, hazard ratio 4.11, P < 0.001). Adjusting for GAF, the hazard ratio of losing partner and job decreased in both clinical groups compared with controls.

Patients face an increased hazard of job loss and relationship dissolution compared with healthy controls, and this is partially conditioned by the diagnosis and functional level. These findings underscore a high demand for destigmatisation and support for individuals in managing their functional limitations.

The harmful consumption of alcohol is known for how tortuous its management can be in mental health, encouraging introspection of it as a serious problem is perhaps the main key to starting to battle against its damaging influence on the development of a functional and full life.

To describe a clinical case showing an unpredictible complication in an alcohol detoxification process.

54-year-old man, native of Cádiz, widowed for half a decade, without children. He resides with his parents in the family home. Currently unemployed for approximately a year. He has previously worked in the IT sector. As a notable somatic history, we found long-established arterial hypertension and a total hip replacement. He has been under irregular follow-up with a mental health team for anxiety-depressive symptoms in the context of grief. He goes to the emergency service brought by his family to begin the detoxification process in the hospital setting. He acknowledges ethanol consumption since he was widowed, which began when he awakes; quantities that ranged between one or up to three bottles of distilled liquor per day, generally consumption is in the home environment. A little less than a year ago, he began to isolate himself in his room and abandon his self-care, eating increasingly insufficient food intake, refusing to receive professional care to quit the habit, mainly because he did not recognize it as disruptive.

The patient was admitted to hospital with symptoms suggestive of withdrawal, making it extremely difficult to control blood pressure levels. On the third day of admission to the acute care unit, fever peaks, blood pressure levels well below normal parameters, and compromised level of consciousness began to be evident.

Blood tests were performed that, together with the clinical picture, suggested imminent septic shock, so critical care was contacted for transfer and stabilization. A germ of probable urinary etiology sensitive to a broad spectrum of antibiotics was isolated in blood cultures, and the medication of the detoxification process was progressively optimized. Once clinical stability was achieved at all levels, an inpatient cessation resource was managed, which the patient accepted and considered suitable for his complete recovery.

A holistic approach to the alcoholic patient is important, since serious problems of an organic nature often arise. This is why a multidisciplinary intervention is necessary, as well as a holistic approach to care, involving both classic pharmacology and assiduous long-term psychotherapeutic intervention.

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Emergency psychiatric care, unplanned hospital admissions, and inpatient health care are the costliest forms of mental health care. According to Statistics Canada (2018), almost 18% (5.3 million) of Canadians reported needing mental health support. However, just above half of this figure (56.2%) have reported their needs were fully met. To further expand capacity and access to mental health care in the province, Nova Scotia Health has launched a novel mental health initiative, the Rapid Access, and Stabilization Program (RASP).

This study evaluates the effectiveness and impact of the RASP on high-cost health services utilization (e.g. ED visits, mobile crisis visits, and inpatient treatments) and related costs. It also assesses healthcare partners’ (e.g. healthcare providers, policymakers, community leaders) perceptions and patient experiences and satisfaction with the program and identifies sociodemographic characteristics, psychological conditions, recovery, well-being, and risk measures in the assisted population.

This is a hypothesis-driven program evaluation study that employs a mixed methods approach. A within-subject comparison will examine health services utilization data from patients attending RASP, one year before and one year after their psychiatry assessment at the program. A controlled between-subject comparison will use historical data from a control population will examine whether possible changes in high-cost health services utilization are associated with the intervention (RASP). The primary analysis involves extracting secondary data from provincial information systems, electronic medical records, and regular self-reported clinical assessments. Additionally, a qualitative sub-study will examine patient experience and satisfaction, and examine health care partners’ impressions.

The results for the primary, secondary, and qualitative outcome measures to be available within 6 months of study completion. We expect that RASP evaluation findings will demonstrate a minimum 10% reduction in high-cost health services utilization and corresponding 10% cost savings, and also a reduction in the wait times for patient consultations with psychiatrists to less than 30 calendar days. In addition, we anticipate that patients, healthcare providers, and healthcare partners would express high levels of satisfaction with the new service.

This study will demonstrate the results of the Mental Health and Addictions Program (MHAP) efforts to provide stepped-care, particularly community-based support, to individuals with mental illnesses. Results will provide new insights into a novel community-based approach to mental health service delivery and contribute to knowledge on how to implement mental health programs across varying contexts.

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Schizotypal personality is a condition suffered by 4% of the population. It is defined by presenting interpersonal, behavioral and perceptual features similar to the clinical features of psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia, in less intensity and dysfunctionality, but at risk of reaching psychosis.

Presentation of a clinical case about a patient with premorbid schizotypal personality traits presenting with an acute psychotic episode.

Literature review on association between schizotypal personality and psychosis.

A 57-year-old woman with a history of adaptive disorder due to work problems 13 years ago, currently without psychopharmacological treatment, goes to the emergency room brought by the emergency services due to behavioral alteration. She reports that “her husband and son wanted to sexually abuse her”, so she had to run away from home and has been running through the streets of the town without clothes and barefoot.

Her husband relates attitude alterations and extravagant behaviors of years of evolution, such as going on diets of eating only bread for 40 days or talking about exoteric and religious subjects, as believing that the devil got inside her husband through a dental implant. He reports that these behaviors have been accentuated during the last month. She has also created a tarot website, and has even had discussions with several users. She is increasingly suspicious of him, has stopped talking to him and stays in his room all day long, with unmotivated laughter and soliloquies.

It was decided to admit him to Psychiatry and risperidone 4 mg was started. At the beginning, she was suspicious and reticent in the interview. As the days went by, communication improved, she showed a relaxed gesture and distanced herself from the delirious ideation, criticizing the episode.

In recent years, there has been increasing interest in understanding the association between schizotypy and serious mental disorder. Several theories understand schizotypy as a natural continuum of personality that reveals genetic vulnerability and that can lead to psychotic disorder when added to precipitating factors. Other theories define schizotypy as a “latent schizophrenia” where symptoms are contained and expressed in less intensity.

Around 20% evolves to paranoid schizophrenia or other serious mental disorders. It is complex to distinguish between those individuals in whom schizotypy is a prodrome and those in whom it is a stable personality trait. To date, studies applying early psychotherapeutic or pharmacological interventions have had insufficient and contradictory results, and the follow-up and treatment of these individuals could be a stress factor and a stigma. Some studies are looking for reliable markers of evolution to schizophrenia in order to establish adequate protocols for detention, follow-up and treatment.

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First episode psychosis (FEP) is the first manifestation of psychotic disorders lasting at least one week, but not longer than 2 years, causing personal suffering and decreased functional outcome of patients. The early intervention in FEP is crucial. Published results on early intervention programmes indicate that during the first 5-10 years relapse prevention and functional outcomes can be improved and mental health care costs can be reduced, compared to treatment as usual.

Our objective was to examine FEP patients at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy. Our aim was to create a homogeneous sample and identify factors that can help in early differential diagnosis and therapy. Our goal was to compare the neuropsychological performance and MRI results of patients and healthy controls.

Male and female inpatients hospitalized at our department due to a first psychotic episode and consenting to participate were included, since 2019 October. Cases with drug induced psychosis and organic background in the etiology of the psychotic episode were excluded. Male and female healthy controls were matched by age and education. Including healthy controls is still in progress. The duration of the project is 36 months, 24 months for recruiting patients and healthy controls, 12 month for analyzing data. The investigation includes detailed clinical, neuropsychological examination (baseline, 6th, 12th, 18th, 24th month) and MRI (baseline and in the 24th month).

Forty patients and sixteen healthy controls were included. 60% of the patients were rehospitalized due to relapses. Neuropsychological tests (RBANS, faux pas, Baron-Cohen eyes test) indicate cognitive dysfunction compared to healthy subjects. Using resting state fMRI second level analysis we found alterations in thalamo-cortical connectivity. We found significant differences in the connectivity of the thalamus and frontal lobe, postcentral gyrus, insula and cerebellum.

Our FEP research, although limited by the COVID-19 pandemic, shows promising results that can help in better understanding of the underlying factors of psychotic disorders.

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Clozapine is an atypical antipsychotic synthesised in 1958. It was withdrawn from the market in the 1970s due to the appearance of agranulocytosis, but was reintroduced due to strong evidence of its efficacy and superiority over other antipsychotics in treatment-resistant schizophrenia.

To describe the adequate response to clozapine in treatment-refractory psychosis.

Review of the scientific literature based on a relevant clinical case.

A 16-year-old woman was admitted to a psychiatric inpatient unit for psychotic symptoms and behavioural disorders. She lives with her father and older sister; she has not been in contact with her mother, who lives in another country, for several years. She attends secondary school, with poor academic performance. Maternal diagnosis of schizophrenia. She started using cannabis two years ago, with a progressive increase up to 20 grams per week. He reports the onset of a feeling of strangeness a year ago, with progressive isolation in his room, referring to delirious ideation of harm towards classmates and people from his town, self-referentiality and delirious interpretations of religious mystical content (“God speaks to me through a dove”). He comments on the phenomenon of theft and thought-reading. Soliloquies and unmotivated laughter are observed.

Treatment was started with risperidone, progressively increasing the dose up to optimisation, without achieving a decrease in positive symptoms, but with the appearance of excessive sedation and sialorrhoea. It was combined with aripiprazole up to 20mg, maintained for a couple of weeks, without significant clinical improvement. Given the failure of two lines of therapy, it was decided to change to clozapine up to a dose of 75mg, with adequate tolerance and response, achieving a distancing of the delirious ideation. Regular haematological controls were performed, with no alterations in haemogram or troponins.

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We present the case of a 48-year-old woman, a nurse, referred from the Internal Medicine department for evaluation of depressive symptoms and accompanying somatic presentation following COVID-19. The aim is to highlight a recently emerging condition that we are increasingly encountering in our clinics, which can complicate the diagnosis of an underlying affective disorder

Diagnosed with COVID-19, confirmed by a positive PCR test, 6 months ago following an infection in the workplace. The clinical picture consisted of mild symptoms, with a ten-day course and apparent resolution at the time of hospitalization. She returned to her work activities and gradually began to report fluctuating symptoms, including headaches, mild shortness of breath, fatigue, as well as a tingling sensation in the upper extremities, especially in the hands. Additionally, she described feelings of restlessness, depressive mood, and intense fatigue. In additional tests: (CT-Scan) there are signs of mild bilateral lower lung fibrosis.

Treatment with Duloxetine was initiated for a case of depressive symptoms with accompanying physical symptoms. The differential diagnosis considered Major Depressive Disorder, Single Episode, and Adjustment Disorder with Depressed Mood.”

We are facing a clear case of depressive clinic that may have endogenous features, if we adhere to criteria such as those in the DSM-5, as it would meet the criteria for Major Depressive Disorder, Single Episode. However, we have a clearly identified trigger, so we also need to perform a differential diagnosis, primarily with Adjustment Disorder with Depressed Mood: here, the symptoms appear within 3 months following the stressful agent (in this case, SARS-CoV-2 infection). Unlike Major Depressive Episode, once the agent has ceased, the symptoms do not persist beyond 6 months (which we do not know because the physical symptoms causing disability have not disappeared).In addition to purely psychiatric diagnoses that we are accustomed to, we must consider a new diagnostic entity that is becoming more prevalent as the pandemic progresses, namely “long-covid” or persistent COVID.These are generally middle-aged women who, several months after infection, continue to manifest a multifactorial complex of symptoms. These symptoms persist over time, not only the classical ones but also many others that can appear during the ongoing course of the disease.

Beyond the purely psychiatric diagnoses we are accustomed to, we must also consider a new diagnostic entity that is becoming more prevalent as the pandemic continues to advance: Persistent COVID or ‘long-COVID.’ Generally, this condition affects middle-aged women who, several months after contracting the virus, continue to exhibit a multifactorial complex of symptoms. The most common symptoms include fatigue/asthenia (95.91%); general discomfort (95.47%); headaches (86.53%); and low mood (86.21%)

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