The PERSIAN Cohort: Prevalence of Psychiatric Disorders Among Employees.

BACKGROUND: Considering the impact of psychiatric disorders on the productivity of individuals and society's economy, we aimed to determine the prevalence of psychiatric disorders among the employees of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 1282 employees of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences in 2019. The required data were collected by trained psychologists using Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI). In this process, psychiatric disorders were considered dependent variables, and demographic variables as independent variables. The relationship between independent and dependent variables was assessed using the chi-square test and Binary logistic regression in Stata version 17. RESULTS: The prevalence of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), major depressive disorder (MDD), and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) among employees was 14.12%, 12.48%, and 3.9%, respectively. The prevalence of GAD in women was significantly higher than men (17.06% vs. 10.02%, P<0.001). The prevalence of GAD was 42.86%, 15.97%, 13.49%, and 16.67 in widowed, single, married, and divorced employees, respectively (P=0.016). The prevalence of MDD in women was significantly higher than men (16.59% vs. 7.64%, P<0.001). The prevalence of MDD was 16.3%, 11.2%, 9.6%, and 8.56% in employees with Bachelor's, Associate, Master's degree, and High school diploma, respectively (P=0.009). CONCLUSION: Considering the relatively high prevalence of GAD and MDD among the employees of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, strengthening counseling centers in the university and encouraging employees to participate in these centers, and examining them in terms of mental health help identify people at risk of mental disorders in time and provide counseling services to these people.

Bidirectional Relations Between Anxiety, Depression, and Cancer: A Review.

Epidemiological evidence continues to accumulate on the effect of stress and depression on cancer initiation and progression. Depression has been introduced as an independent predictor of increased cancer mortality. At the same time, early intervention for depression increases the survival rate. Even some evidence has given prognostic value for depression to predict cancer recurrence and mortality. This article presents current evidence on the correlations of molecular mechanisms of cancer and depression through; I. The evidence shows the role of pre-existing depression and anxiety in the development and progression of cancer. II. The Immune system performs a crucial role in stress, depression, and cancer. III. The role of stress and depression-induced inflammation. IV. The evidence has proposed that cancer may result in depression and the effect of depression on cancer outcomes. In conclusion, the importance of preventive interventions to monitor patients' mental health during cancer treatment is very significant and should not be underestimated. In other words, the initial interventions can improve depressive symptoms and increase cancer survival. On the other hand, by identifying key biomarkers of depression, physicians can identify cancer patients at risk for depression or those who may not respond to routine treatments. Revealing the molecular mechanism of the cancer microenvironment in the development of comorbidities promises innovative therapeutic options for cancer. Identifying these mechanisms opens a new avenue in identifying cancer patients at risk for depression and can also provide considerable potential in identifying depressive patients prone to cancer.

Developing a Community-based Suicide Prevention Program in Primary Health Care.

Currently, suicide has become one of the most critical public health challenges in low-and middle-income countries facing community mental health more broadly. However, most healthcare systems haven't efficient Suicide Prevention Programs (SPP), and only 18% of countries have a suicide registry system. In Malekan County of Iran, suicidal behaviors were recognized as a serious public health issue via a health community assessment. This study was aimed to describe the developing steps of a community-based SPP in Malekan County including review of systematic reviews, expert testimony, report to the health system, improving suicide registry coverage, conducting research, follow upping of suicide attempters, training gatekeepers, and public education campaign in the hot spots. These suggested the need to reinforce evaluate the effectiveness of the national health perspective in addressing the issues of suicide and suicidal behavior.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in Patients with and without Head Trauma.

PURPOSE: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adults is one of the psychological problems that can increase the risk of accidents and trauma, especially head trauma. Recent studies have reported the frequency of adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) among trauma patients. Adult AD0HD has been reported in trauma patients. In the present study, we hypothesized that adult ADHD was more common among head trauma patients following an accident compared to a group without trauma. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this case-control study, 230 patients with head injuries and 460 non-trauma patients were selected. The adult Connors self-report screening scale (CAARS-SV) was used to screen for ADHD. Three subscales as subscale A (attention deficit index), subscale B (hyperactivity index) and subscale D (ADHD index) were evaluated between the two groups. Using linear multiple regression analysis, the effect of group, age, gender, and socioeconomic variables on ADHD scores was evaluated. RESULTS: The total frequency of adult ADHD was 9.5%, which was equal to 1.6% in the trauma group and 9.5% in the non-trauma group. The experimental group had more drivers as the job (11.7% vs 3.7%, P<0.001) compared to the control group. Of the Connors subscales, only the D subscale was significantly lower in the case group than in the control group (6.35 6 5.11 vs 51.72 4 72.4, P=0.003). The prevalence of ADHD in patients with head trauma and non-trauma head injury was 6.1% and 5.9%, respectively, which did not show a statistically significant difference (P=0.9). Linear regression analysis showed that the subscale D only had a significant relationship with group and age. However, by entering variables in logistic regression analysis, it was observed that only the age variable was significant in the presence of other variables. CONCLUSION: According to the results of the present study, the frequency of adult ADHD in trauma patients, as a screening diagnosis, was not found to be higher than non-traumatic patients.

Reliability and validity of Azeri Turkish version of geriatric depression scale.

Background: In older adults, depression symptoms may be masked by physical complaints and be even attributed to the natural aging process, which may be resulted in improper diagnosis. Native-language scales can be highly effective in the detection of depressive disorders. In this study we attempted to assess the reliability and validity of the Azeri Turkish version of the geriatric depression scale (GDS). Methods: In this psychometric study, the GDS and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM IV(SCID) questionnaires were administered to a sample of 387 older adults (60 years and older)from the member households of Tabriz health centers. The English version of GDS was translated into Azeri Turkish. Translation-back translation process was conducted. The receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve, as well as sensitivity and specificity, were used to determine the validity of the questionnaire, and the test-retest method was used to calculate reliability. Results: The mean age of participants was 69.30. The area under the ROC curve for the scores higher than five was 0.832 and for the scores equal to ten and above was 0.871. The sensitivity and specificity for the scores higher than five were 90.9% and 73.4%, respectively. The reliability of this scale was confirmed based on intraclass coefficient (ICC) = 0.79. Conclusion : The Azeri Turkish version of GDS was found with appropriate levels of validity and reliability.