Depressive Symptoms among Psychiatric Nurses in a Hospital: An Analytical Research.

BACKGROUND: Psychiatric nurses are vulnerable to the menace of negative emotions due to the nature of their work and the closed environment in which they work. In this study, we aimed to investigate the incidence and influencing factors of depression among psychiatric nurses. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey method was adopted to investigate 64 nurses working in the psychiatric department of a hospital from June 2022 to June 2023. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) questionnaire was administered to all included respondents, who were divided into depressed group (>4 points) and non-depressed group (≤4 points) according to the BDI scores. General sociological and disease-related characteristics of these two groups were measured, and items with significant differences were analyzed by logistic regression to derive factors that have an impact on the occurrence of depression among psychiatric nurses. RESULTS: Twelve psychiatric nurses in the surveyed hospital exhibited signs of depressive symptoms, with a rate of 18.75%. The univariate analysis unveiled differences between the depressed group and the non-depressed group in terms of daily sleep time, weekly working hours, professional title, working pressure, physical exercise, length of service, and physical condition. Further analysis through logistic regression revealed that daily sleep time, weekly working hours, and physical condition were factors affecting the occurrence of depression among psychiatric nurses. CONCLUSION: The vulnerability of psychiatric nurses to depression, which are potentially influenced by daily sleep hours, weekly working hours, and physical condition, deserves clinical attention so that countermeasures can be developed for early intervention.

Association between dietary inflammatory index and cognitive impairment among American elderly: a cross-sectional study.

Background: It has been shown that inflammation may be associated with cognitive impairment (CI). Diet modulates inflammation. However, there is currently a scarcity of epidemiological studies exploring the connection between the inflammatory potential of diet and CI. The objective was to investigate the correlation between the dietary inflammatory index (DII) and cognitive impairment in older adults in the United States. Methods: The present investigation utilized a cross-sectional dataset obtained from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2011 to 2014. Dietary intake data was used to calculate DII scores, which were then used to categorize participants into quartiles. Participants' cognitive function was assessed using the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD), Animal Fluency Test (AFT), and Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST). Individuals who scored in the lowest quartile on any of these tests were classified as exhibiting low cognitive performance. The association between DII and cognitive impairment was investigated by multivariate logistic regression, smooth curve fitting, and subgroup analysis. Results: A total of 947 older adults were enrolled in the study. Following the adjustment of confounding variables, DII scores exhibited a significant and positive correlation with low cognitive performance, as measured by AFT (OR 1.15, 95% CI 1.02-1.28, p = 0.02) and the DSST (OR 1.38, 95% CI 1.13-1.68, p = 0.004). Compared with the lowest quartile of DII, the highest weighted odds ratio of cognitive impairment based on AFT was observed in the fourth quartile group (OR 1.89, 95% CI 1.05-3.38, p = 0.03). Similarly, a comparable pattern was evident in DSST (OR 4.30, 95% CI 1.85-9.98, p = 0.003). Additionally, the smooth curve fitting results showed a nonlinear relationship between DII and cognitive decline evaluated by DSST (p for nonlinearity = 0.016). No interaction effects between cognitive impairment and age or gender were observed in relation to all cognitive test scores. Conclusion: This research reveals a positive link between diet with higher inflammatory potential and cognitive decline among elderly individuals in America. However, additional studies on dietary interventions are necessary to explore the cause-and-effect relationship.

A new schizophrenia screening instrument based on evaluating the patient's writing.

Formal Thought Disorder (FTD) is a defining feature of schizophrenia, which is often assessed through patients' speech. Meanwhile, the written language is less studied. The aim of the present study is to establish and validate a comprehensive clinical screening scale, capturing the full variety of empirical characteristics of writing in patients with schizophrenia. The 16-item Screening Instrument for Schizophrenic Features in Writing (SISFiW) is derived from detailed literature review and a "brainstorming" discussion on 30 samples written by patients with schizophrenia. One hundred and fifty-seven participants (114 patients with an ICD-10 diagnoses of schizophrenia; 43 healthy control subjects) were interviewed and symptoms assessed with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and the Scale for the Assessment of Thought, Language, and Communication (TLC). Article samples written by each participant were rated with the SISFiW. Results demonstrated significant difference of the SISFiW-total between the patient group and healthy controls [(3.61 ± 1.72) vs. (0.49 ± 0.63), t = 16.64, p<0.001]. The inter-rater reliability (weighted kappa = 0.72) and the internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha coefficient = 0.613) were acceptable, but correlations with the criterion (PANSS and TLC) were unremarkable. The ROC analysis indicated a cutoff point at 2 with the maximal sensitivity (93.0 %)/specificity (93.0 %). Discriminant analysis of the SISFiW items yielded 8 classifiers that discriminated between the diagnostic groups at a perfect overall performance (with 90.4 % of original and 88.5 % cross-validated grouped cases classified correctly). This instrument appears to be practicable and reliable, with relatively robust discriminatory power, and may serve as a complementary tool to existing FTD rating scales.