Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder from an Embodied Cognition Perspective.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is characterized by problems of control over behavior and cognition. Although almost all of the studies on pathogenesis of OCD point out fronto-striatal dysfunction, it is still not possible to reveal mechanisms to explain the entire clinical course of OCD through these circuits. A more holistic explanation can be given through the Embodied Cognition (EC) perspective, which suggests that the alteration/dysfunction of low-level sensory-motor process may appear as a multifarious extent of dysfunction of high-level cognitive processes. Fronto-striatal circuits play fundamental role in behavioral control. These circuits also have a central role for the feed-forward motor control (FFMC). In FFMC, the internal model of movement is driven by efference copies as templates for motor behavior, without being adjusted by sensory information. If impairment of low-level sensory-motor processing is crucial to occurrence of compulsions, one possible hypothesis about this impairment is the problem which emerges from occurrence of efference copy in FFMC. On the other hand, the efference copy has also pivotal role for subject's feeling of the agency of an action. Therefore, there may be role of failure in successfully reproduction of the efference copy in the background of subjects' experience of losing control on compulsive behaviors. In this paper, we will discuss how the embodied cognition (EC) perspective which can be one of the biological bases of computationalism, which brings neuroscientific explanations on the functioning of nervous system to a more symbolic perspective, may contribute to our understanding of etiopathogenesis of OCD. In this perspective, our method will be to integrate the theoretical basis provided by EC perspective to the current models for OCD, rather than falsifying them.

Factors associated with progression of depression, anxiety, and stress-related symptoms in outpatients and inpatients with COVID-19: A longitudinal study.

It is known that there is an increase in the frequency of psychiatric disturbances in the acute and post-illness phase of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Comorbid psychiatric symptoms complicate the management of patients and negatively affect the prognosis, but there is no clear evidence of their progress. We aimed to determine psychiatric comorbidity in inpatients and outpatients with COVID-19 and recognize the factors that predict psychiatric comorbidity. For this purpose, we evaluated patients on the first admission and after 4 weeks. We investigated psychiatric symptoms in outpatients (n = 106) and inpatients (n = 128) diagnosed with COVID-19. In the first 7 days after diagnosis (first phase), sociodemographic and clinic data were collected, a symptom checklist was constructed, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Severity of Acute Stress Symptoms Scale (SASSS) were applied. After 30-35 days following the diagnosis, the SASSS and the HADS were repeated. In the first phase, the frequency of depression and anxiety were 55% and 20% in inpatients, and 39% and 18% in outpatients, respectively. In the second phase, depression scores are significantly decreased in both groups whereas anxiety scores were decreased only in inpatients. The frequencies of patients reporting sleep and attention problems, irritability, and suicide ideas decreased after 1 month. Patients with loss of smell and taste exhibit higher anxiety and depression scores in both stages. Our results revealed that the rate of psychiatric symptoms in COVID-19 patients improves within 1 month. Inpatients have a more significant decrease in both depression and anxiety frequency than do outpatients. The main factor affecting anxiety and depression was the treatment modality. Considering that all patients who were hospitalized were discharged at the end of the first month, this difference may be due to the elimination of the stress caused by hospitalization.

A cohort study of the relationship between anger and chronic spontaneous urticaria.

INTRODUCTION: Anger plays a major role in psychodermatological diseases. Researchers have reported that anger and other psychological factors play a role in the etiology of chronic urticaria. This study aimed to examine symptoms of anger, anger-related behavioral patterns, thoughts associated with anger, situations that cause anger and experiences of interpersonal anger in patients with chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU). The authors hypothesized that patients with CSU react to more situations with anger and experience more anger symptoms as compared to alopecia areata (AA) patients and healthy controls. METHODS: The cohort study population consisted of literate adult patients aged <65 years that were diagnosed with CSU at the outpatient dermatology clinics of Baskent and Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey, between September 2011 and October 2012. The first control group included individuals without any physical or mental disorders and the second one included literate adult patients diagnosed with AA. The patients and controls were matched according to age, gender, and level of education. A sociodemographic data form, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and Multi-Dimensional Anger Inventory were administered to the participants. Data were analyzed using SPSS v.17.0 for Windows. The primary outcome was to determine whether there was a relationship between anger and CSU. RESULTS: The CSU group consisted of 30 participants; AA group consisted of 30 participants; and the healthy group consisted of 39 participants. Anxiety and depression scores in the CSU group were significantly higher than those in the healthy control group. Symptoms of anger, situations that cause anger, and thoughts associated with anger were significantly more common in the CSU group compared to AA group and healthy group. CONCLUSION: More of the CSU patients were observed to respond with excessive anger to most situations, to have high levels of anxiety anger and passive aggressive interpersonal relationships.