Clinical phenomenology of anxiety disorders in internally displaced persons

In recent years, reports from international organizations have focused on the mental health of internally displaced persons and the provision of timely medical care. Involuntary resettlement is accompanied by transformation of the entire system of socio- psychological relations, including interpersonal, family, parental, labor and leads to a significant strain on pathopsychological mechanisms, which ultimately contributes to the formation of anxiety disorders. In examined patients from main group, along with mood depression and anxiety, there were various fears and anxieties, asthenic manifestations and autonomic paroxysms, as well as against the background of anxious symptoms, they noted presence of isolated obsessive fears, closely related to anxious thinking about assessments in the eyes of others, short-term violent reactions to minor emotional events, mismatch of the strength of emotional reactions to the situation. At the same time, patients of the control group showed sensitization to external stimuls, especially during sleep and in the process of falling asleep.

Features of use of evoked potential method on children with epilepsy of pre- and puberty age-old period

This paper of the usage of the evoked potential method is studied, in patients with epilepsy. A brief description of the method is described. A pilot study of auditory long-latency and visual on the outbreak of evoked potential was carried out in 19 children with various forms of epilepsy, who are in long-term remission, and also with pharmacoresistant seizures. It was found that the visual evoked potentials are more indicative than auditory evoked potential. In most cases, a decrease in the amplitude and lengthening of evoked potentials latencies was revealed. Moreover, in the presence of focal changes, interocular or interaural differences were recorded. In that way, it is necessary to study the features of evoked potentials in children with epilepsy, study evoked potentials in the course of treatment in order to predict the course of the disease and the effectiveness of the therapy. The obtained data will serve as the basis for further research of the evoked potential method in children with epilepsy.

Hirayama disease. Clinical cases

Hirayama disease, or monomelic amyotrophy, is a rare neurological pathology manifested by unilateral or bilateral asymmetric paresis with atrophy of the distal upper extremities. The development of this disease is associated with the forward displacement of the posterior dural sac during neck flexion, which leads to compression of the spinal cord and venous stasis. The diagnosis of monomelic amyotrophy is based on the clinical picture and the results of magnetic resonance imaging of the cervical spine with flexion, showing segmental atrophy of the anterior horns of the spinal cord at C7 — Th1, detachment of the posterior dura mater and venous stasis. Most of the cases described in the literature are from India and Japan, with isolated cases diagnosed in North America and Europe. This article presents two clinical cases of progressive hand weakness in young men. The clinical picture of the disease and the results of additional examination methods are presented, which is necessary to establish a diagnosis of Hirayama’s disease.

Psycho-emotional state and cognitive functioning in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Many researchers note the “neurotization” of patients with endocrine diseases, formation of psycho-emotional disorders and cognitive impairment. Prevalence of mental disorders and maladaptive forms of response to the disease reaches 70—100 % among these patients. Mental disorders and negative psychological factors complicate the course of the disease, restorative and rehabilitation processes. And it is also one of the main causes of patient’s temporary and complete disability. The data from clinical and psychopathological research indicate the presence of emotional and cognitive disorders in examined patients. Emotional disturbances are represented by anxious, depressive, astheno- hypochondriac, hysteroform variants of psychopathological symptoms. Based on the data obtained during this study, a comprehensive program of psychotherapeutic and medical psychological support for patients with type 2 diabetes has been developed.

Personified program for correction of post-stress disorders in different categories of survivors (combatants and volunteers)

Combat stress has a significant impact on the individual. It is a major cause of combat mental trauma and stress disorders development. According to the World Health Organization, combat mental trauma is a direct cause of stress disorders in 80 % of survivors of hostilities, and in its long term are often observed: maladaptation, autoaggressive behavior, anxiety and depression, addiction. Against the background of use of the developed program, positive dynamics of mental state, decrease in levels of anxiety and depression, decrease in the level of groups of PTSD symptoms on the Impact of Event Scale were noted. Reducing level of maladaptation according to the method of K. Rogers and R. Diamond and level of social frustration. Thus, the developed personalized program for the correction of post-stress disorders contributes to the productive dynamics of psychopathological symptoms, reducing emotional tension, restoring a sense of psychological well-being, creating a new cognitive model of life.

Autism spectrum disorders and epilepsy: dual diagnosis and therapeutic strategies (literature review)

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterized by significant genetic and clinical polymorphism, comorbidity with neurological and mental disorders. In children with ASD, hotbeds of epileptiform and specific epileptic activity are often registered on the electroencephalogram (EEG), which have a causal relationship with behavioral and emotional disorders. The presence of specific epileptic activity on the EEG, impaired social reciprocity and repetitive behavior may be manifestations of a single pathological process, that results in developmental disorder. The course of ASD can be complicated by epileptic seizures, in particular with the use of neurometabolic drugs. According to the results of some controlled studies, antiepileptic drugs (AED) have shown their effectiveness in the treatment of mental disorders in ASD, including emotional instability, irritability, inhibition of movement. AED which stimulate neurotransmission of γ-aminobutyric acid, are more effective in ASD than blockers of the glutamatergic system. Thymoisoleptic properties of some AED, in particular carbamazepine, valproate acid, lamotrigine in some controlled studies have shown efficacy in the regulation of mood disorders in both children with ASD and children with epilepsy. With the use of carbamazepine, topiramate in children with ASD, there may be impaired attention and cognitive activity; deterioration of attention may be accompanied by increased hyperactivity, impulsivity, motor deceleration. The use of AEDs should be expected to increase the frequency and severity of side effects, including cognitive impairment, motor development, which may lead to impaired general functioning and premature disability, even with seizure control. Specific data on alternative treatments for ASD with seizures such as diet (ketogenic, modified Atkins) are discussed.

The influence of drinkers on the affective status of representatives of their microsocial environment

The purpose of the work is to study the adverse influence of drinkers on the affective status of representatives of their microsocial environment. In four regions of Ukraine (Kharkiv, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia regions, as well as the city of Kyiv), during 2018—2021, 1742 people were examined, who belonged to three qualitatively different comparison groups: patients with alcohol dependence (AD) (393 people); healthy relatives of alcohol-dependent patients (274 people) and representatives of the general population (1075 people). Of these surveyed, respondents were identified who had drinkers in the environment: 288 persons among healthy people and 121 persons among patients with AD. Further research focused on this particular contingent. The main research tool was the questionnaire of the international research consortium GENAHTO (Gender, Alcohol, and Harms to Others) and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS). The obtained data were processed by methods of mathematical statistics (variance and cluster analysis) on a computer using Excel 2016 computational tables (with the Data Analysis package) and also the software package SPSS-15. It was shown that the presence of drinkers in environment of the women significantly increases the proportion of people with depressive disorders among them, while among the male respondents, this effect was not found. It was revealed that the presence of drinkers in environment of the women significantly increases the severity of such manifestations of depression as: insomnia, weight loss, sexual dysfunctions; suicidal tendencies and guilt. Using cluster analysis, the following typical symptom complexes (important for choosing the optimal therapeutic tactics) were established: insomnia-somatoform, hypochondriacal and anxiety-agitational (the latter — with a sense of guilt and an increased risk of suicidal activity).

A new instrument for the cyberaddiction diagnosis

As the penetration of the Internet into people's lives has increased, there is needed to rethink the diagnostic tools used to diagnose Internet addiction. The very concept of Internet addiction also needs to be rethought, as it currently reflects not the content but the form of addiction. The aim of the work was to develop, evaluate psychometric reliability and validate a new diagnostic instrument for the cyberaddiction diagnosis. The proposed “Yuryeva — Shornikov Cyberaddiction Scale” (YSCAS) consists of 18 statements that are rated on a 5-point Likert scale. The study included 217 people (151 women) aged 19 to 69 years. At the first stage, the internal consistency of the YSCAS scale, external and content validity were assessed, at the second stage we assess stability, constructive and criterial validity. In assessing the internal consistency and homogeneity scale YSCAS Cronbach alpha was 0.84. There is proved the absence of gender influence on the indicators of the proposed scale. Spearman's correlation coefficient between YSCAS and Chen's Internet dependence scale was 0.8044 (p < 0.001), which indicates a high criterial validity. Assessing the constructive validity of the proposed scale, it was found that the YSCAS scale should be considered as a single factor scale, without sub-scales in its structure. The proposed cyberaddiction diagnosing method showed a high-quality prognostic model using ROC analysis: the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.971 (95 % CI 0.88; 1.0). The sensitivity of the scale was 100.0 % with a specificity of 90.4 %. As a result of approbation of the proposed psychodiagnostics method “Yuryeva — Shornikov Cyberaddiction Scale”, it was found that this scale is a reliable and credible approach to diagnose cyberaddiction.

Psychological peculiarities of mental patient with the comorbid somatic pathology

The paper presents the results of a comprehensive psychodiagnostic study of the psychological characteristics of psychotic patients with schizophrenia with somatic disorders. Based on the results of the study, the features of the representation of mental and somatic illness in the minds of schizophrenic patients with somatic disorders were identified. It has been proven that an important role in the pathogenesis of the formation of psychiatric comorbidity in schizophrenia is played by the categories of self-esteem, awareness, perception and attitude to mental and somatic illness. It was revealed that patients with schizophrenia with cardiovascular disease (CVD), with low assessments of all health parameters, assessed themselves as mentally sicker than physically, and patients with schizophrenia with diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM 2) and obesity, with low assessments of all health parameters, assessed themselves as physically sicker than mentally. In addition, patients with CVD and obesity were more aware of the need for treatment of mental illness, while patients with DM 2 were more aware that their environment would consider it necessary to treat a mental disorder. It was also found that patients with schizophrenia with somatic diseases have significantly higher indicators of the level of threat of mental disorder than patients without somatic burden. The results of the study of attitudes towards somatic illness revealed that patients with schizophrenia were characterized by a predominance of maladaptive forms of attitudes toward the disease: anxious, hypochondriac and melancholic (in schizophrenia with CVD), anosognosic and dysphoric (in schizophrenia with diabetes mellitus and obesity), as well as apathetic (in schizophrenia with obesity). It is advisable to use the obtained results as specific targets of psycho-education and psychotherapeutic work and to take into account when developing complex programs for the treatment of schizophrenic patients with comorbid somatic disorders.