[COVID-19 Pandemic: Psychosocial impact among healthcare professionals in Tunisia]. / Pandémie COVID-19 : impact psychosocial sur le personnel de santé en Tunisie.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the psycho-affective impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the mental health of health professionals in Tunisia and to estimate the associated factors. METHODS: This is a multicenter, cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical study of health professionals carried out from May 2, 2020 to June 30, 2020 in Tunisia. Healthcare professionals included doctors, nurses, dentists and pharmacists. The participants answered a pre-established questionnaire using an electronic "Google Form". This questionnaire gathered demographic data and medical history. It included two psychometric scales, the GAD-7 (General Anxiety Disorder-7) and the PHQ-9 (Patient Health Questionnaire-9) to assess the prevalence and intensity of anxiety symptoms and depressive symptoms respectively. RESULTS: The study included 203 healthcare professionals. The professionals had a mean age of 30.74±6.33years, 69.5 % were women, and the majority were doctors (77.8 %). Among professionals, 9.4 % were nurses, 7.4 % were dentists, and 5.4 % were pharmacists. A third of the participants 34.3 % worked in departments with Covid-19 patienfor having moderate to severe anxiety symptoms. CONCLUSION: In order to ensure better patient care, early detection of psychiatric disorders and the implementation of specific strategies to ensure better mental health among healthcare professionals are priorities not only during the current pandemic but also in the event of a future similar pandemic.

[Bipolar disorder and quality of life: A cross-sectional study including 104 Tunisian patients]. / Trouble bipolaire type I et qualité de vie: étude transversale auprès de 104 patients Tunisiens.

INTRODUCTION: Bipolar disorder affects many psychosocial and functional aspects, leading to a real social handicap and an alteration in quality of life. AIM OF THE STUDY: To evaluate bipolar patients' quality of life and to identify the risk factors responsible for a deterioration. DESIGN: Our cross-sectional study lasted for four months and included 104 bipolar patients treated at the psychiatry consultation of the university hospital in Mahdia. The data were collected through a questionnaire composed of 52 items exploring the general characteristics of subjects, the clinical and evolutional characteristics of bipolar disorder and providing information on the treatment. Quality of life was measured using the SF-36 (Short form) generic scale. A global average score was calculated and it was considered that quality of life was altered if the score was less than 66.7, according to the threshold value of Léan. Moreover, an average score was calculated for each dimension, thus permitting us to identify those most affected. We standardized initial average scores. RESULTS: The assessment of quality of life revealed a global average of 52.2 and an alteration in 78.8% of patients. The study of the dimensional average scores revealed that all dimensions were affected. The standardization also revealed deterioration in all dimensions, the mental component being particularly more affected than the physical component with respectively estimated scores of 31.7 and 40.5. The analytic approach concerned the relationship between qualitative and quantitative variables and the occurrence of an alteration in quality of life. For this effect, a bivariate study displayed a statistically significant correlation between the eight dimensions of the SF-36 and 8 variables. In order to take into account the relationships that link each variable to the others, and to avoid the bias of the bivariate study, a logistic regression analysis was performed. Only 4 variables with discriminating weight emerged from this analysis. According to the number of dimensions affected, the following factors were classified in decreasing order: absence of leisure activities, lack of stable budgetary resources, absence of professional activity and the association of a psychotropic medication. CONCLUSION: This clinimetric approach permitted us to consider the global life of each patient suffering from bipolar disorder.

Schizophrenia-Like Psychotic Symptoms Associated to Leigh Syndrome.

Introduction: Leigh syndrome (LS) is a mitochondrial disease characterized by subacute necrotizing encephalomyelopathy with an estimated incidence of 1:40,000 births. The comorbidity of psychotic symptoms noted in mitochondrial and psychiatric diseases has spurred interest in the effects of DNA mutations and psychiatric disorders. Case presentation. We report the case of a Tunisian 28-year-old male diagnosed with maternally inherited Leigh syndrome. He presented anxiety and auditory hallucinations, and he reported a vague, unsystematized delusion evolving since 6 months. Significant remission was observed at risperidone 3 mg/day. Discussion. The normality of explorations in our case raised the issue of the link between the two diseases, supporting the hypothesis that mitochondrial dysfunction maybe the primary origin of psychotic disorders. Conclusion: The aim of our work is to study the relations between mitochondrial dysfunction and psychiatric symptoms. Further study of mitochondrial dysfunction in psychiatric disorders is expected to be useful for the development of cellular disease markers and new psychotropics.