Trauma and Anxiety Disorders throughout lifespan: Fear and anxiety from normality to disorder.

Anxiety disorders are among the most common mental disorders. Anxiety disorders and neurotic fear cause significant disruption of the psychosocial functioning of the individual. In generalized anxiety disorder, neurotic fear appears in the form of fears, expectations, tension, with nothing specifically uncomprehendingly crying anticipation, worry, poor concentration, psychic and physical fatigue, irritability, restlessness, insomnia, sense of near accident etc. Traumatic events in the life of the individual are often referred to as potential relevant factors in the occurrence of psychological disorders. Exposure to long-lasting traumatic experiences in childhood leads to the prolongation and fixation of the emotional state of fear and sadness and the emphasized use of certain defense mechanisms that contribute to the structuring of specific clinical images of anxiety states.

Psychiatrists' treatment preferences for generalized anxiety disorder.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to ascertain psychiatrists' treatment preferences for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and compare them to the same psychiatrists' treatment preferences in the hypothetical scenario that treatment is to be administered to themselves as patients. METHODS: A questionnaire was completed by 221 psychiatrists from 3 Balkan countries. They were asked to indicate their treatment preferences for patients with GAD and for themselves as patients. RESULTS: A large majority of psychiatrists chose selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors/serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors as preferred treatment option for GAD patients. Fewer psychiatrists selected benzodiazepines and pregabalin and about one third chose psychotherapy. The majority of psychiatrists chose the same treatments for their patients and for themselves, with main differences being in terms of pharmacotherapy (especially benzodiazepines) being less frequently recommended and psychotherapy being more frequently recommended as preferred treatment option for psychiatrists as patients. CONCLUSIONS: Treatment preferences for GAD by psychiatrists in the 3 West Balkan countries were mostly in accordance with treatment guidelines and treatment preferences for patients and for psychiatrists as patients were mostly concordant. However, some psychiatrists were more likely to choose pharmacotherapy for patients and psychotherapy for themselves as patients. These findings have implications for education of psychiatrists and for efforts to improve treatment guidelines and mental health services.

Validation of the Schizophrenia Quality of Life Scale Revision 4 (SQLS-R4) Among Patients with Schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: The main goal of psychiatric care is not to be focused only on reducing psychopathological symptoms, but on improvement of the patient's quality of life. AIM: To examine validation and reliability SQLS-R4 among patients with schizophrenia. METHODS: The sample consisted of 61 outpatients with schizophrenia attending the Psychiatry Hospital "Skopje". nclusion criteria for subject selection were: 1) age more than 18 years, 2) clinically stable (not acutely ill or has not been recently hospitalized at least for the past 3 months). They completed SQLS-R4 and SF36 questioners. RESULTS: The internal consistency reliability was satisfactory for both the psychosocial and vitality domains (Cronbach's α = 0.928, 0.83). Most of the items were significantly correlated with own scale score (from 0.189 to 0.687). The average of the score for the psychosocial quality life was 39.9 ± 8.6 (sometimes), for the cognition and vitality was 26.5 ± 6.1 (sometimes) (SQLS-R4). There was moderate correlation between SF 36-energy with SQOLS - motivation and energy; SF 36-mental health correlation with SQOLS-psychosocial. CONCLUSION: SQLS-R4 appears to offer excellent potential as an easily administered and patient acceptable assessment and monitoring measure of quality of life (QoL). However, a principle psychometric criterion crucial to the use and validity of the instrument concerns the underlying factor structure.