Trait anxiety and coping in first year medical students.

In the present study, we highlight the types of anxiety and the coping strategies employed by the students at the Medicine, Pharmacy and Nursing Faculties, at the same time comparing them with the general population. This research involved 333 first year students, 18-20 years of age. We used the Endler Multidimensional Anxiety Scales-Trait (EMAS-T) and Social Anxiety Scale-Trait (SAS-T) and two coping measuring instruments, Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ) and Strategic Approach to Coping Scale (SACS). We obtained an overview on the hierarchy of the types of anxiogenic situations for the study participants, by gender and specialization. We analyzed and discussed the correlations between anxiety and coping and we discussed the results of the factor analysis. We noticed the students' predilection for maladaptive coping mechanisms and how anxiety relates to their professional choice.

A review of the influence the anxiety exerts on human life.

Our intention has been to review the literature addressing the anxiety phenomenon from as many points of view as possible. By searching in PubMed and Web of Science and by using multiple filters, we have included, of the over 1800 results, 93 studies with the aim of covering more aspects of life anxiety exerts its influence upon. We have discussed the connection between anxiety and physiological and psychological functioning, or its connection with the areas of family, religion, social life and behavior, as well as the cultural side, childhood, pregnancy and many others.

A case of tuberculous meningitis and the role of perivascular spaces in lymph cell migration in the brain.

Meningitis and encephalitis are inflammatory diseases in which acute and chronic inflammatory cells infiltrate leptomeninges, especially the arachnoid, and migrate through the subarachnoid space and by diapedesis, in order to extend around blood vessels and into the brain parenchyma. To what extent migrated/resident inflammatory cells participate to these interactions, or what are exactly the initial steps by which these cells reach the brain interstitium, it is not yet completely known. Recent years have brought new insights into the description of water flow circuits in the brain, suggesting that the cerebrospinal fluid enters the brain within the perivascular spaces of arteries, while interstitial fluid drains along perivascular venous sector. Moreover, it has been showed that vascular basement membranes have a complex multi-layered architecture that originates with epithelial, endothelial, smooth muscle cells and glial cells, and that the virtual space between these layers might be in fact an essential component of these perivascular spaces. Starting from a patient that presented with active pulmonary tuberculosis and with consecutive purulent-hemorrhagic meningitis and encephalitis, we have characterized here the compartments in which immune cells can be found in the brain tissue. Besides the classical histopathological description, what was of interest here, was that we identified for the first time mononucleated inflammatory cells that seemed to be present in pockets of the vascular basement membranes, small spaces devoid of red blood cells. Although this is mere a morphological observation, future high-resolution studies should clarify it this is a possible route for the immune cells entering the brain.

Stress in medical students.

Stress has been defined as the state of a body threatened by imbalance under the influence of agents or conditions endangering its homeostatic mechanisms but the concept have multiple meanings in correlation with the origin and biological support of its effects. Also, stressors are multiple, recording one of the highest levels during the academic studies. For the medical students, stress represents an important challenge, especially during the first year of medical school, caused by the absence of a learning strategy, the sleepless night before the exam and also an unhealthy food intake during the exams. The coping strategies are important, their background being represented by the social support, especially within the family, and emotional, the passions of the medicine students being the most important stress-combating factor. Gender represents also an important factor for the stress vulnerability, manifested through medical and psychiatric symptoms. In order to train good doctors, fair and above all healthy, it is important to consider not only the information we want to transmit, but also the context in which we educate.