The Development of Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris, and San Diego - Auto-questionnaire for Adolescents (A-TEMPS-A) in a Serbian Sample.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies suggest that temperament features of adolescents may be good predictors of the development of future psychopathology in this population. The aim of the study was to adapt the content and validate the psychometric properties of the Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris, and San Diego - Auto-questionnaire in a sample of Serbian adolescents. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The sample included 2113 adolescents, 56% girls and 44% boys, average age 16.73±0.47, attending 48 Serbian secondary schools. The base for the development of this scale included Serbian standardised versions as well as the TEMPS-I, Interview version. RESULTS: The final scale is comprised of 36 items, with six factors (depressive, cyclothymic, hyperthymic, irritable, and anxious-cognitive/somatic) explaining 39.9% of the total variance, the internal consistency coefficient α=0.77, and the average test-retest coefficient (rho=0.84). The correlations among the temperaments ranged from weak to moderate, with the highest positive correlations between the depressive, cyclothymic and anxious scales. The highest values were detected on hyperthymic and the lowest on depressive temperament. Significantly higher scores of depressive, cyclothymic and anxious temperaments were detected in girls, whereas boys had higher scores on the hyperthymic scale. CONCLUSIONS: The scale has shown good psychometric properties, which encourages its further use in adolescent population. The results show certain specific features of this population, such as higher scores on all temperament types than the ones in student and adult population and a tendency of socially desirable answers.

An expert review of clozapine in Eastern European countries: Use, regulations and pharmacovigilance.

OBJECTIVES: To compare the prevalence, regulations, and pharmacovigilance practices of clozapine use in Eastern European countries (except Russia). METHODS: Questionnaires and data from administrative databases (2016 and 2021), package inserts and national guidelines were collected from 21 co-authors from 21 countries. Reports of clozapine adverse drug reactions (ADRs) sent to the global pharmacovigilance database (VigiBase™) were analyzed from introduction to December 31, 2022. RESULTS: Clozapine prescription among antipsychotics in 2021 varied six-fold across countries, from 2.8 % in the Czech Republic to 15.8 % in Montenegro. The utilization of antipsychotics in both 2016 and 2021 was highest in Croatia, and lowest in Serbia in 2016, and Montenegro in 2021, which had half the defined daily dose (DDD)/1000/day compared to the Croatian data. From 2016 to 2021, the prevalence of antipsychotic use increased in almost all countries; the proportion of clozapine use mainly remained unchanged. Differences were detected in hematological monitoring requirements and clozapine approved indications. Only a few national schizophrenia guidelines mention clozapine-induced myocarditis or individual titration schemes. The VigiBase search indicated major underreporting regarding clozapine and its fatal outcomes. By comparison, the United Kingdom had less than half the population of these Eastern European countries but reported to VigiBase more clozapine ADRs by 89-fold and clozapine fatal outcomes by almost 300-fold. CONCLUSION: Clozapine is under-utilized in Eastern European countries. Introducing individualized clozapine treatment schedules may help to maximize clozapine benefits and safety. Major improvement is needed in reporting clozapine ADRs and fatal outcomes in Eastern European countries.

Effects of hormone replacement therapy on depressive and anxiety symptoms after oophorectomy.

AIM: To assess the effect of hormone replacement therapy on postoperative depression and anxiety symptoms. METHODS: In observational prospective study 80 women divided into two groups were evaluated: women who received estrogen and androgen replacement therapy after hysterectomy with bilateral oophorectomy before onset of menopause (35-45 years old) and a control group that consisted of perimenipausal women (45-55 years old). Hormone replacement therapy began one week after surgery. The severity of depression and anxiety was evaluated through the use of Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale. Subjects from the study group were interviewed right after the surgical treatment, one, two and three months later. Subjects from the control group were interviewed only once. RESULTS: The women who underwent surgery had a statistically significantly higher score in Hamilton Depression Scale (p les than 0.001) and Hamilton Anxiety Scale (p=0.002) compared to the control perimenopausal women. There was a significant reduction of depressive and anxiety symptoms during hormone replacement therapy. Statistically significant difference in depressive score was found immediately after one month of hormone replacement therapy (first week/one month later: p=0.0057). Statistically significant difference in anxiety score appeared three months after the introduction of hormone therapy (first week/one month later: p=0.309; first week/two months later: p=0.046; first week/three months later: p les than 0.001). Level of serum luteinizing hormone was in correlation with depressive and anxiety score. CONCLUSION: Estrogen-androgen replacement therapy may reduce the risk of psychiatric disorders developing in women with bilateral oophorectomy (indication for hysterectomy with oophorectomy was leiomyomata uteri).

Towards validation of the short TEMPS-A in non-clinical adult population in Serbia.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: This study represents the standardisation of the Serbian version of the TEMPS-A scale on non-clinical adult population, as well as external validation with TCI-R scale of temperaments which has already been evaluated on Serbian population. METHODS: The TEMPS-A has been administered to 570 healthy adults without histories of mental disorders, 47% male, 53% female, aged between 20 and 76 (M=35.55; SD=14.14). In line with the state census data, the sampling was partially stratified according to gender, age categories, education and regional area of the participants. RESULTS: In contrast to many other studies, six factors were extracted herein, including 41 items with loadings above .50, explaining 44.40% of the total variance. The internal consistency of the scale was α=.83, and the average test-retest coefficient (rho=.82) indicates a stable reliability. The highest positive correlations were obtained between the depressive and cyclothymic scales, depressive and anxious scales, and cyclothymic with anxious scales. The highest values were detected on hyperthymic and the lowest on depressive temperament. The highest positive correlations were reported between harm avoidance (measured by the TCI-R) and depressive, anxious, cyclothymic temperament, and between novelty seeking and hyperthymic temperament. The highest negative correlation was detected between harm avoidance and hyperthymic. Finally, females scored higher on depressive, cyclothymic and anxious, while males scored higher on hyperthymic temperament. LIMITATIONS: The participants׳ educational background was slightly higher than that of the general population of Serbia. Since the scale is aimed at its administration in clinical population as well, it is necessary that its structure and validity be also tested on specific clinical subpopulations in the future. CONCLUSIONS: The current study is significant in having confirmed that the TEMPS-A can be reliably and validly used in identifying affective temperaments in the adult nonclinical population in Serbia, which provides the basis and norms for future comparisons with clinical subpopulations.

A ten-year study of depressive symptoms in Serbian medical students.

The main objective of this study was to examine the rate of three dimensions of depressive symptoms in medical student population in Serbia, and to find out whether this rate had changed over the period often years. This cross-sectional study included 615 medical students (F = 61% and M = 39%), mean age = 23.60 (SD = 1.541), who were tested in five non-consecutive surveys between 2002 and 2012. Depressive symptoms were measured by the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). The mean BDI score for the entire sample was 6.26 +/- 6.175. There was no significant difference in total BDI score among the values obtained during the ten years of testing. The greatest portion of the examined sample (77.24%) had no signs of depressive symptoms, and there was no difference in symptom intensity between medical students and other educational profiles. Similar to previous results, females had higher scores on all depressive dimensions except for one tested year, whereas a weak correlation was found between BDI scores and student age (r = 0.104; p = 0.010). Since there are still discrepancies among studies that do (not) report that medical students have typical depressive symptoms, potential explanations for the mentioned discrepancies may be found in individual characteristics of the members of the student population. Our suggestions for future studies are that they should include the stress factor, stress coping strategies, estimated life satisfaction, and the impact of these factors on the potential mental disorders.