ABSTRACT
Schizophrenia is a disease characterized by clinical polymorphism: a combination of diverse syndromes defined by differences in structure, course and outcome. The etiology and pathogenesis of this mental disorder is still not completely understood, in spite of the achievements in the fields of neuroscience, genetics, neuroimaging and others. Different treatment strategies have been developed for patients with schizophrenia, but the search for new pharmacological agents continues with the mission of achieving a more effective control over the disease manifestations (positive and negative symptoms), improvement of the patients' social functioning and quality of life. The accumulated clinical experience has revealed that drug treatment and the inclusion in various rehabilitation programs and social skills training shows promising results in these patients. In recent years a plethora of evidence has been compiled regarding the role of music therapy as a possible alternative in the combination treatment of patients with mental disorders, schizophrenia included. Thus, the purpose of this review is to present the reader with a more detailed and science-based account of the beneficial effect of music therapy on the general wellbeing of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia. To fulfill our goal, we will focus mainly on the evidence provided by modern neuroimaging research.
ABSTRACT
AIM: Depression is the most prevalent mental disorder in the population. The aim of the present study is to investigate the effect of age on depressivity. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study is community-based survey and includes 12,600 persons over 15 years of age. The design is multi-stage randomized cluster double-sampling. The short self-evaluating screening test for depression of Roglev (STD-1-R) was administered. Gathered data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, Student's t-test, ANOVA with Tukey's Honestly Significant Difference Test and chi2-test with Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons, using SPSS 10.0. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of depressivity increases steadily with age. The lowest rate of depressivity is found in the 15-45 age group, while the highest rate--in the senior age group.