Benefits of Positive Psychology-Based Story Reading on Adolescent Mental Health and Well-Being.

The importance of complete mental health in school context has recently begun to attract a lot of attention. Positive psychology interventions are often associated with improvement in mental health outcomes, but few studies have examined whether story reading is an intervention that is linked with indicators of complete mental health. This study investigated the effects of story reading interventions on both positive and negative indicators of mental health over time for a group of Turkish grade 10 high school students (n = 53). These included 33 students in a story reading group and 20 in a control group for comparison. The results showed that story reading led to improvement in students' mindfulness, optimism, happiness, and positive emotions, and also caused reduction in depression, anxiety, pessimism, and other negative emotions over a 5-week period, with a small to large effect sizes. The obtained results are discussed in the context of their implications for potential psychological interventions in high school settings.

Normative data and factorial structure of the Turkish version of the Temperament and Character Inventory.

Cloninger's dimensional psychobiological model of personality accounts for both normal and abnormal variation in 2 major personality components: temperament and character. Here, we examined the psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) in a healthy Turkish population, obtaining normative data for the Turkish TCI. The study was conducted in healthy volunteers at both Karadeniz Technical University School of Medicine and Atatürk University School of Medicine (n = 683). The Turkish sample had significantly lower mean scores on Novelty Seeking and Reward Dependence and higher mean scores on Harm Avoidance than the American sample. The Turkish sample had significantly lower scores on Self-Directedness, Cooperativeness, and Self-Transcendence. Self-Directedness and Harm Avoidance, Cooperativeness and Reward Dependence, and Cooperativeness and Self-Directedness were intercorrelated. The Cronbach coeficients were between 0.60 and 0.85 on temperament dimensions, and between 0.82 and 0.83 on character dimensions. The lowest Cronbach coefficients were found in Reward Dependence (0.60) and Persistence (0.62). A principal axis factor analysis with a 4-factor solution revealed the highest loadings on Novelty Seeking and Harm Avoidance and relatively weaker loadings on Reward Dependence and Persistence. A 3-factor solution for character subscales indicated the highest loadings on Cooperativeness and Self-Transcendence. The factorial structure was consistent with Cloninger's 7-factor model of personality, and test-retest indicated a good stability of scores over time. The reliability and factorial validity of the Turkish version of the TCI are therefore supported.

[The life threatening adverse effects of psychotropic drugs: a case report]. / Psikotrop Ilaçlarin Yasami Tehdit Eden Yan Etkileri: Olgu Sunumu.

Neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS) is a rare idiosyncratic reaction to antipsychotic drugs that is potentially fatal. Characteristic features of NMS are hyperthermia, muscular rigidity, severe autonomic dysregulation and disturbed consciousness. Signs and symptoms of serotonin syndrome (SS) can be grouped into four inclusive categories that are almost identical to those of NMS. Clinically, NMS and SS share many features, suggesting different spectrums of a similar disorder. To make a distinction between the two is often difficult because of a large clinical overlap. We present a case of a 42-year-old male with a history of schizophrenia that developed signs and symptoms inconsistent with either NMS or SS after intramuscular administration of 2 typical antipsychotics along with 1 dose of a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI). The patient abruptly developed the clinical features in just 24 h. The patient presented with altered mental status and increased levels of creatinine phosphokinase. Twelve days of intensive care unit treatment was chiefly supportive and included bromocriptine. The final outcome was positive with complete disappearance of the symptoms. The treatment for both NMS and SS is similar. The therapeutic interventions primarily consist of removing the suspected agent and providing supportive care. We present this case to highlight some controversial issues concerning the life threatening adverse effects of psychotropic drugs, which illustrate the spectrum concept.

[Incidence of postpartum depression in Trabzon province and risk factors at gestation]. / Trabzon Il Merkezinde Dogum Sonrasi Depresyon Sikligi ve Gebelikteki Iliskili Demografik Risk Etmenleri.

OBJECTIVE: Risk of depression increases in some periods of the women's life and postpartum period is one of these periods. Women in the risk group should be followed-up both prenatally and postnatally. The aim of this study is to investigate the incidence and risk factors of postpartum depression in Trabzon province. METHOD: Among all pregnants in the third trimester of gestation attending to six primary health care centers belonging to Trabzon province and the Hospital of Obstetrics and Pediatrics were informed about the study and of these 316 person who accepted to attend the study were applied Sociodemographic Questionnary, General Health Inventory, Beck Anxiety Inventory, Beck Depression Inventory. Of these 192 women (75%) were reached at the first visit. At sixth-eighth weeks of postpartum, above mentioned inventories, excluding Sociodemographic Questionnary but additionally Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, were applied to 152 of these women (79%). All tests were re-applied to 132 (68.7%) women at their sixth month after delivery. RESULTS: Incidence of DSD according to Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale was found 28.1% in Trabzon province. Reported depression after previous pregnancies, scores equal or above five in General Health Inventory in pregnancy and high scores in Beck Anxiety Inventory were determined as predictors of postpartum depression in the study population. CONCLUSION: As being the first follow up study of investigating the incidence of postpartum depression by a scale prepared to used this area, these findings are important to guide the further studies in connected with matter.

Alexithymia and suicidal behavior.

A number of factors including hopelessness have been identified as amplifying suicide risk. Alexithymia has recently been investigated as a predictor of suicidal behavior. The prevalence of the personality trait alexithymia in suicide attempters as well as other predictors of suicidal behavior were investigated in this study. One hundred suicide attempters were compared to 60 healthy controls on the measures of hopelessness, alexithymia, depression and suicidal ideation. First-timers and repetitive suicide attempters, males and females, married and unmarried suicide attempters were compared to each other in the suicide attempter group. The correlations of hopelessness, depression and alexithymia with suicidal intent and suicide lethality were investigated. The suicide attempter group did not display significantly higher scores on the alexithymia measure, compared to healthy controls. Alexithymia neither seemed to be a prevalent personality trait in suicide attempters nor a sensitive predictor of suicidality. The subscales of Toronto Alexithymia Scale measuring difficulty in identification and expression of feelings also did not reveal a significant difference between the two groups. Suicide attempters were more depressive, more hopeless and displayed greater suicidal ideation than healthy controls. Severity of depression was a stronger predictor of suicidal intent than hopelessness in the suicide attempter group. The lethality of the suicide attempt did not correlate with any of the psychometric measures. These findings propose that difficulty in the identification and articulation of feelings does not comprise a risk factor for suicidal behavior.

[Alexithymia and anger in women with fibromyalgia syndrome]. / Fibromiyalji Sendromu Olan Kadinlarda Aleksitimi ve Ofke.

OBJECTIVE: Fibromyalgia syndrome is characterized by both somatic and psychic symptoms and it is suggested that psychic factors contribute to the clinical presentation of this syndrome. This study was planned to have a better understanding of fibromyalgia through elaborating the role of alexithymia and anger in the pathogenesis of this illness. METHOD: The study was carried out in the Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation outpatient clinic with 101 women with fibromyalgia syndrome, 30 women with rheumatoid arthritis and 59 healthy women with no current or past medical history. The subjects were evaluated by the Visual Analog Scale, Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 items, Spielberger State-Trait Anger Inventory, Beck Depression Scale, Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire and a sociodemographic data form. RESULTS: All these groups were similar to each other in means of age, years of education, marital and economical status. In the fibromyalgia syndrome group, the scores of anxiety and anger-in were calculated significantly higher than other groups. The depression and alexithymia scores were found higher than healthy group. DISCUSSION: These findings suggest that fibromyalgia patients suffer more anxiety and anger toward oneself, which is anger-in, than rheumatoid arthritis patients. Though the patient groups were more alexithymic than the healthy group, alexitimia scores of the two patient groups were not different. This situation suggest that anger-in, which is suppressed and unexpressed anger style is a part of the fibromyalgia syndrome together as well as high anxiety.

Venlafaxine treatment of fibromyalgia.

BACKGROUND: Although the pathophysiology of fibromyalgia is unknown, central monoaminergic transmission may play a role. Antidepressants have proved to be successful in alleviating symptoms of fibromyalgia. Medications that act on multiple neurotransmitters may be more effective in symptom management. OBJECTIVE: To assess the efficacy of venlafaxine, a potent inhibitor of both norepinephrine and serotonin reuptake, in the treatment of patients with fibromyalgia. METHODS: Fifteen patients with fibromyalgia were assessed prior to and after treatment with fixed-dose venlafaxine 75 mg/d. Before initiation of pharmacotherapy, patients were interviewed with the Structured Clinical Interview for Axis I disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition. The study lasted for 12 weeks, and patients were evaluated in weeks 6 and 12. The primary outcome measures were the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ) total score and pain score. The anxiety and depression levels of the patients were measured with the Beck Depression, the Beck Anxiety, the Hamilton Anxiety, and the Hamilton Depression scales. RESULTS: There was a significant improvement in the mean intensity of pain (F = 14.3; p = 0.0001) and in the disability caused by fibromyalgia (F = 42.7; p = 0.0001) from baseline to week 12 of treatment. The depression and anxiety scores also decreased significantly from baseline to week 12. The improvement in the FIQ scores did not correlate with the decrease of scores in both patient- and physician-rated depression and anxiety inventories. Change in pain scores also was not correlated with the change in depression and anxiety scores. CONCLUSIONS: Venlafaxine was quite promising in alleviating the pain and disability associated with fibromyalgia. This effect seems to be independent of its anxiolytic and antidepressant properties. Blockade of both norepinephrine and serotonin reuptake might be more effective than blockade of either neurotransmitter alone in the treatment of fibromyalgia.

Predictors of suicidal behavior in a sample of Turkish suicide attempters.

In a Turkish sample, 100 suicide attempters, were compared with 60 healthy controls on measures of hopelessness, depression, and suicidal ideation. Suicide attempters were more depressive, more hopeless, and displayed greater suicidal ideation than healthy controls. Depression severity rather than hopelessness correlated with suicidal intent. Suicide lethality was independent of depression severity, hopelessness, and suicidal ideation and intent, suggesting that lethality is likely due to chance.