Old age mental health services in Southern Balkans: Features, geospatial distribution, current needs, and future perspectives.

BACKGROUND: Healthcare services are increasingly confronted with challenges related to old age mental disorders. The survey aimed to provide an overview of existing psychogeriatric services in Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, and North Macedonia. METHODS: After identification of psychogeriatric units across the four countries, their head physicians were asked to provide data on their clinical, teaching, and research activity, as well as staff composition. Moreover, the attitudes of head physicians to current needs and future service development were explored. RESULTS: A total of 15 psychogeriatric units were identified (3 in Bulgaria, 8 in Greece, and 4 in North Macedonia). Results show wide variation regarding the location, team size and composition, service availability, numbers of patients attending, and inpatient treatment length. Most head physicians underscored the urgent need for breakthroughs in the graduate and postgraduate education in psychogeriatrics of medical and nonmedical professionals, as well as in the interconnection of their units with community primary healthcare services and long-term care facilities for seniors via telemedicine. They would welcome the development of national standards for psychogeriatric units, potentially embodying clear pointers for action. A number of head physicians advocated the development of nationwide old age mental health registries. CONCLUSIONS: Regional disparities in resources and services for seniors' mental health services were unveiled. These data may enrich the dialogue on optimizing psychogeriatric services through planning future cross-border collaborations mainly based on telemedicine services, especially in the era of the novel coronavirus pandemic, and training/education in psychogeriatrics of mental health professionals.

Non-pharmacological interventions for agitation/aggressive behaviour in patients with dementia: a randomized controlled crossover trial.

Agitation/aggressive behaviour is a common behavioural and psychological symptom in people with dementia (PwD), occurring with a frequency of between 13-50.4% according to recent studies, and the rate increases as the severity of cognitive decline increases. The burden on caregivers is considerable. This trial is a randomized controlled crossover trial conducted in Greece. The following measures were used: the Mini-Mental State Examination, Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination Revised, Geriatric Depression Scale, Functional Rating Scale for Symptoms in Dementia and Neuropsychiatric Inventory. According to the results the most effective nonpharmacological intervention for reducing agitation/aggressive behaviour in PwD was music therapy, followed by aromatherapy and massage, and finally physical exercise.

Dielectric and conductivity studies of the hydration mechanisms in plant seeds.

The hydration mechanism of various plant seeds has been investigated by a) sorption-desorption isotherms, b) ac-dielectric spectroscopy in the 10 Hz to 1 GHz frequency range and the -80 to + 40 degrees C temperature range, and c) thermally stimulated depolarization current techniques in the -170 to + 23 degrees C temperature range. Seeds of different chemical composition were studied at water contents varying between 0 and 40% w/w (dry weight basis). Our experimental results permitted us to determine i) the diffusion constant of water in the samples, found to be between 1.4 x 10(-11) and 3.7 x 10(-11) m2/s; ii) a critical water content corresponding to the completion of the primary hydration layer, which is in the range 0.11-0.17 w/w, depending on the seed nature; and iii) the activation energy of the main relaxation mechanism, found to be equal to 0.54 +/- 0.05 eV. Moreover, they make it possible to investigate the dependence of various parameters (conductivity, molecular mobility, plasticizing effect of water) on the water content of the sample, to follow the crystallization of water in the seeds as a function of temperature and confirm that it is not a reversible process, to study the dehydration process as a function of temperature and time, and to propose an alternative technique for the determination of the moisture content in seeds.