Dear colleagues,
It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the first issue of 2012.
In our first article Benyamina and Samalin provide a review on mania/hypomania induced by atypical antipsychotics. It emerged that in most of the newly reported cases atypical antipsychotics do not seem to cause manic/hypomanic symptoms via their antidepressant properties.
Rittmannsberger and colleagues investigated the influence of single episodes of psychiatric inpatient treatment based on metabolic parameters. They concluded that psychiatric inpatient treatment lead to a clinically relevant deterioration of metabolic parameters such as bodyweight, cholesterol and glucose levels within a short time.
Chiesa et al. addressed the question of whether single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within GRIA1, GRIA2 and GRIA4 could be associated with bipolar disorder (BD). Their results suggest that SNPs within GRIA1, GRIA2 and GRIA4 may not be linked with the development and treatment outcomes in BD. However, due to the various limitations of their study, their findings should be considered with caution.
Yapislar and colleagues examined the parameters of platelet aggregation and the nitric gas (NO), homocysteine (Hcy) levels in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and panic disorder (PD). While NO levels were significantly lower in MDD and PD patients than in healthy controls, Hcy and platelet aggregation were significantly higher in the patient group. However, further research is needed to understand the exact mechanisms underlying the alteration of these parameters.
Hung et al. sought to verify the cut-off scores of the Depression and Somatic Symptoms Scale (DSSS) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) for non-full remission (FR) and current major depressive episodes (MDE). Their findings confirmed the discriminative validity of the DSSS and HADS.
Sidi and colleagues explored the risk of hypoactive sexual desire (HSD) in depressed female patients treated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI). They concluded that patients treated with fluoxetine had significantly higher rates of HSD than those on escitalopram and that moderate to high antidepressant dosage seems to be a significant predictor of HSD in depressed women treated with SSRIs.
Sansone et al. assessed the religion/spirituality (RS) status in relation to borderline personality symptomatology in internal medicine outpatients. It emerged that patients with borderline symptomatology have lower overall levels of RS than patients with those without such symptomatology.
Selvi and colleagues examined the possible links among childhood trauma, dissociation and cognitive processes in patients with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Their results suggest that dissociation may primarily constitute a cognitive trait, which is strongly associated with cognitive processes.
De Bruin and Verheij investigated the effects of social skills training (SST) in children with pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS). They concluded that SST seems to be effective in children with PDD-NOS.
Sansone et al. present a short report on the relationships between childhood trauma and disruptive behavior in a medical setting. Their findings suggest that patients with childhood histories of witnessing/experiencing violence and/or physical abuse are at risk for exhibiting disruptive behavior.
Yours sincerely,