Evaluation of Risk Factors for ADHD and Co-Morbid Psychiatric Disorders Among the Parents of Children With ADHD.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to investigate the presence of ADHD and other psychiatric disorders among parents with at least one child with ADHD relative to parents with children who do not have ADHD. METHOD: Eighty five parents of children with ADHD with 68 control parents who had healthy children without ADHD were interviewed for participation in present study. Each parent was evaluated for co-existing psychiatric disorders using the Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM IV Axis I Disorders (SCID I). RESULTS: We found that ADHD and co-morbid psychiatric symptoms were increased in the parents of children with ADHD in comparison with the healthy control group. CONCLUSION: Psychiatric co-morbidity was more common among the parents of patients with inattentive and combined presentations. Adult ADHD is associated with psychiatric co-morbidities including anxiety disorders, mood disorders, and somatoform disorders as well as substantial role impairment.

The investigation of factors related to suicide attempts in Southeastern Turkey.

BACKGROUND: Suicide is an important health problem in Turkey as it is in all regions of the world. Suicidal behavior has multiple causes, which are broadly divided into those related to proximal stressors and those due to predisposition. Suicide statistics may be associated with mental health disorders, which are among the foremost predictors of suicide attempts. More than 90% of patients who commit suicide have a diagnosable psychiatric disorder, usually a major depressive disorder. Other major risk factors for suicide attempts are history of suicide attempts in the family, stressful life events, sleep disturbances, poor income, unemployment, severity of symptoms of depression, and anxiety. Sleep is a complex phenomenon. Sleep disturbances can therefore be contributed to the emergence of suicidal behavior allowing for the possibility of predicting future suicides. METHODS: We evaluated 106 patients who were admitted after suicide attempts to the Department of Psychiatry at Dicle University Faculty of Medicine. The recruited subjects were assessed by Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I disorders, and the intensity of symptoms was evaluated using the Beck Anxiety Inventory, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. The mean values of the subjects attempting multiple and single suicides were compared using appropriate inferential statistical tests. RESULTS: Most suicide attempts are believed to be preventable. Our results revealed that a great variety of risk factors are associated with an increased risk for multiple suicide attempts. Most of these attempts appeared to be spontaneous and impulsive rather than planned. In particular, this study highlights the importance of previous suicide attempts, history of suicide in the family, history of stressful life events in the previous 6 months, poor income, unemployment, sleep disturbances, severe hopelessness with depression, and coexisting symptoms of anxiety as risk factors. CONCLUSION: The first step in prevention of suicides is doubtlessly strong and reliable communication, due to the fact that the majority of subjects who commit suicide have had contact with a health professional during the month before the suicide.

A Case of Skin Picking Disorder of a Patient with a History of Childhood Abuse.

Skin picking (excoriation) disorder is the recurrent excoriation of one's own skin, resulting in noticeable skin damage. People pick their skin for different reasons. For the majority of patients, first skin picking is associated with a history of childhood abuse and personal problems. Subjects who moderately to severely cause injurious self-harm are more likely to have a history of exposure to domestic violence and childhood abuse than those who do not self-harm. At the same time, these conditions could be related to the etiology for majority of other psychiatric disorders. We report herein, a case of a patient with skin picking disorder who had a history of childhood physical and emotional abuse with borderline personality disorder.

The comorbidity of anxiety disorders in bipolar I and bipolar II patients among Turkish population.

High rates of anxiety disorders have been reported in bipolar disorders. The study aimed to investigate prevalence of anxiety disorders in remitted bipolar subjects and their influence on the illness severity. Bipolar subjects with anxiety disorders were younger, had earlier age at onset of illness, and were overrepresented by female subjects and those with earlier onset illness compared to those without anxiety disorder. The study demonstrated that (1) anxiety disorders are highly prevalent in bipolar subjects, (2) individual anxiety disorders, particularly SP and PD seem to have an effect on illness severity, (3) bipolar subjects with comorbid anxiety tend to have a poorer course and are less responsive to treatment, and (4) anxiety tends to be associated with an earlier age at onset of bipolar disorder (BPD) and results in a more complicated and severe disease course.