Quality of life and mental health of volunteers during COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional survey in Serbia.

OBJECTIVE: There is a paucity of information on the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on young volunteers. Therefore, the aim of this survey was to examine the QoL and mental health of young volunteers of the Novi Sad Voluntary Service during the COVID-19 pandemic. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional prospective study included 255 members of the Novi Sad Voluntary Service, Serbia. The survey instrument probed into the respondents' demographic characteristics and was followed by the anonymous WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire that measured their quality of life during the COVID-19 pandemic and DASS-21 scale. All statistical analyses were carried out using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, vers. 24.0. RESULTS: The study sample consisted of 255 young volunteers (71.4% females, 28.6% males), 62.0% of whom were aged 18-25 years, and 52.2% were students. Lower Physical Capacity scores could be predicted by female gender (p < 0.01) and COVID-19 infection among friends (p < 0.05). Male gender (p < 0.05) and being employed (p < 0.05) predicted greater QoL in the Psychological domain. The only predictor of a lower QoL in the Social Relationships domain was the internet as the main COVID-19-related information source (p < 0.05). On the other hand, being female (p < 0.05) and having COVID-19-positive household members (p = 0.01) predicted lower environment domain scores. For the lower overall DASS-21 score, having COVID-19-positive household members was the only significant predictor (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Mental health support should pursue strategies to improve all domains of QoL, especially for vulnerable sub-groups of the population, such as young females and the unemployed. Bearing in mind the importance of public engagement and community support in pandemic circumstances, as well as generally in public health, these results are relevant for interventions far beyond the current pandemic.

Pregabalin versus sertraline in generalized anxiety disorder. An open label study.

OBJECTIVE: Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is a chronic mental illness with a prevalence of 5-7% in the general population. t GAD is characterized by extreme persistent worry, mostly about minor problems, involving pathological fear with high occurrences of vegetative disturbance. GAD leads to functional impairment and a significantly reduced patient's quality of life. According to the guidelines of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP), the first-line treatments for GAD are Serotonin selective reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), Selective serotonin- and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) and pregabalin, an atypical anxiolytic. In this study, both efficacy and tolerability of pregabalin were evaluated and compared with efficacy and tolerability of sertraline, an SSRI antidepressant. PATIENTS AND METHODS: 107 patients both male and female, aged 20-60 were included in the study. All patients were hospitalized outward at the Psychiatric Clinic. Patients fulfilled criteria for GAD, according to ICD-X and DSM-IV. Each patient was randomly assigned to 4 weeks of treatment with pregabalin (n=47) or sertraline (n=60). Patients treated with sertraline were previously treated with SSRIs and SNRIs without remission, according to the latest National Clinical Guideline issued by the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence for treating GAD (NICE). The primary analysis was the change in the Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety (HAMA), a total score from baseline to endpoint. The second indicator of efficacy was the change in the HAMA psychic (emotional) and somatic (physical) scores, weekly, till endpoint. Global clinical assessment was conducted by using the Clinical Global Impression change rating (CGI). RESULTS: Both pregabalin and sertraline showed good results in treating symptoms of Generalized Anxious Disorder. The onset of action was shorter in treatment with pregabalin compared to the treatment with sertraline. In the patients treated with sertraline, the anxiolytic effect was detectable after at least 14 days while pregabalin showed initial good results during the first week of treatment. Adverse effects were reported in 28% patients treated with pregabalin and 27% of patients treated with sertraline, without significant differences. There were no drop-out patients in neither group. Beside pharmacotherapy, each patient received 8 weeks of cognitive/behavior therapy. In concomitant therapy benzodiazepine was used (klonazepam, in low doses). In all patients adverse events were short-lasting withmild intensity and there were no withdrawal events during this study. CONCLUSIONS: Efficacy and tolerability of pregabalin were high. Compared to sertraline, pregabalin showed more rapid onset of action and equal efficacy. Adverse reactions are short-lasting and the dose depends. Our investigation showed that pregabalin, an atypic anxiolytic is efficient and well tolerable in treatment of GAD.

The quality of life of patients after a lumbar microdiscectomy: a four-year monitoring study.

INTRODUCTION/AIM: Health-conditioned quality of patients' life is equally a result of their subjective perception of the disease and their objective condition. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the quality of life of surgically treated lumbar radiculopathy patients by using a generic and a lumbar disease-specific questionnaire. METHODOLOGY: 50 patients were evaluated (average age: 44.9 years; 52 male and 48 female). Two questionnaires were used for this purpose: the SF36 generic questionnaire, measuring eight quality of life domains divided into two sub-domains (overall physical and overall mental health), and the NASS LBP lumbar disease-specific questionnaire measuring four domains (pain and disability, motor and sensory neurogenic symptoms, expectations from the treatment and satisfaction with it). The results of the physical domain (SF36-PHYS) are low at the beginning of monitoring (25.7); they increase over the following 6 months (46.4) and drop insignificantly after 4 years (45.9). The mental health value (40.4) remained unchanged as compared to that of the general population. Values of the physical functioning domain reach that of the general population (80.0) after 6 months. Neurogenic symptoms domain results (NASS LBP-NS) do not correlate with other scales and domains. The conclusion is that the quality of life of patients after a lumbar microdiscectomy deteriorates significantly from a physical point of view immediately after it. It normalizes over the following 6 months, though a certain degree of physical damage still remains. Mental health alteration is not specific for lumbar radiculopathy. The neurogenic symptoms domain is the least improved dimension of their quality of life: it is very specific and to be evaluated with a special test set.

[Physical therapy of subjective symptoms of the cervical syndrome]. / Mogucnosti fizikalnog lecenja subjektivnih simptoma cervikalnog sindroma.

INTRODUCTION: Cervical syndrome is represented by a group of symptoms and signs mainly localized in the neck region, but also can be present in other regions such as head, humeroscapular, precordium, scapular and interscapular, upper limbs and sometimes lower limbs. Despite the fact that cervical syndrome is primarily a painful syndrome, clinical manifestations show variety of painless symptoms caused by functional disorders of somatic nerves, vegetative nerves, circulation or psychoneurotic disorders. CERVICAL SYNDROME THERAPY: Conservative management includes medicamentous therapy or physical procedures and application of neck collar, neck traction and ergonomic education. Surgical treatment is reserved for cases with massive neurological deficiency and cases with persistent pain which does not respond to conservative therapy. Final effects of physical, medicamentous and surgical therapy in treating cervical syndrome are identical after a long-term monitoring of patients. However, immediate results of therapy favor physical procedures rather than medicamentous therapy which is important regarding the quality of life of these patients. Application of various physical procedures in the therapy of cervical syndrome includes application of low frequency current electrotherapy followed by ultrasound and thermotherapy representing a significant part of physical therapy. Therapy with low frequency pulsating electromagnetic field and laser photobiostimulation have also been proved successful. These procedures eliminate circulatory and neurological disturbances that cause the appearance of signs in cervical syndrome. CONCLUSION: The most common painful symptoms can be successfully treated with various physical procedures. Laser photobiostimulation and application of pulsating electro-magnetic field are very effective in treatment of vascular and neurological cervical syndrome symptoms, but for the treatment of psychoneurotic symptoms classical physical procedures such as diadinamic currents and ultrasound are more effective.

[The effect of actinomycin D on electroencephalographic activity in the rabbit brain]. / Uticaj aktinomicina D na elektroencefalografsku aktivnost mozga kunica.

DNA, RNA and cellular proteins are of great importance in regard to the following processes: learning, memorizing and storage of memory. That is why protein synthesis blockers are successfully used in investigations of these brain functions. Aktinomicin D (AMD) is such a substance; it is an antibiotic which is used in treatment of some malignant diseases, but on cellular level it disturbs RNA synthesis. Experiments were carried out on Chinchilla rabbits with chronically implanted electrodes for registration of electroencephalographic activity. Intracerebroventricularly applicated Aktinomicin D disturbs the appearance of habituation after rhythmic repetition of electrocutaneous stimulation of the same characteristics which clearly points to the importance of preserved cellular protein synthesis in the processes of learning.