Factors associated to depression and anxiety in medical students: a multicenter study.

BACKGROUND: To evaluate personal and institutional factors related to depression and anxiety prevalence of students from 22 Brazilian medical schools. METHODS: The authors performed a multicenter study (August 2011 to August 2012), examining personal factors (age, sex, housing, tuition scholarship) and institutional factors (year of the medical training, school legal status, location and support service) in association with scores of Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). RESULTS: Of 1,650 randomly selected students, 1,350 (81.8 %) completed the study. The depressive symptoms prevalence was 41 % (BDI > 9), state-anxiety 81.7 % and trait-anxiety in 85.6 % (STAI > 33). There was a positive relationship between levels of state (r = 0,591, p < 0.001) and trait (r = 0,718, p < 0.001) anxiety and depression scores. All three symptoms were positively associated with female sex and students from medical schools located in capital cities of both sexes. Tuition scholarship students had higher state-anxiety but not trait-anxiety or depression scores. Medical students with higher levels of depression and anxiety symptoms disagree more than their peers with the statements "I have adequate access to psychological support" and "There is a good support system for students who get stressed". CONCLUSIONS: The factors associated with the increase of medical students' depression and anxiety symptoms were female sex, school location and tuition scholarship. It is interesting that tuition scholarship students showed state-anxiety, but not depression and trait-anxiety symptoms.

Evolução histórica do tratamento cirúrgico do câncer de pâncreas / Historical evolution of the surgical treatment of pancreatic cancer

Objetivos: Revisar os principais aspectos históricos da evolução do tratamento do câncer de pâncreas.Fonte de dados: Revisão bibliográfica através do PubMed. Foram analisados artigos selecionados sobre a história do tratamento do câncer de pâncreas.Síntese dos dados: Ressecção cirúrgica completa é a única alternativa terapêutica que pode possibilitar a cura dos pacientes com câncer de pâncreas. Entretanto, a duodenopancreatectomia é um dos procedimentos cirúrgicos mais desafiadores, necessitando cirurgiões com alto nível de treinamento para sua execução com segurança. Diversos personagens estiveram envolvidos na evolução da técnica operatória na cirurgia pancreática até que o procedimento atingisse os níveis de segurança atuais.Conclusões: Apesar da segurança com a qual a duodenopancreatectomia é realizada atualmente, a sobrevida pós-operatória no câncer de pâncreas ainda é insuficiente, sugerindo que as questões técnicas operatórias representam apenas uma das etapas necessárias para progresso dos resultados. Melhora no sistema de rastreamento, diagnosticando tumores mais precoces, identificação de pacientes de alto risco e aperfeiçoamento no tratamento adjuvante são necessários para aumentar a taxa de cura dessa neoplasia.

Aims: To review the main historical aspects of the evolution of the treatment of pancreatic cancer.Source of data: Literature review through PubMed. Selected articles on the history of the treatment of pancreatic cancer were analyzed.Summary of findings: Complete surgical resection is the only therapeutic alternative that may allow cure of patients with pancreatic cancer. However, pancreaticoduodenectomy is one of the most challenging surgical procedures, requiring surgeons with a high level of training for its secure implementation. Several protagonists were involved in the evolution of the surgical technique in pancreatic surgery until the procedure reached current levels of security.Conclusions: Despite the safety with which pancreaticoduodenectomy is currently performed, postoperative survival in pancreatic cancer is still insufficient, suggesting that technical issues are just one of the steps needed to improve outcome. Better screening methods to diagnose earlier tumors, identification of high risk patients and improvement in adjuvant treatment are needed to increase the cure rate of this neoplasm.