Defense Mechanisms in "Pure" Anxiety and "Pure" Depressive Disorders.

Our study was intended to test whether there are any differences in the way defense mechanisms are used by patients suffering from pure anxiety and those with pure depressive disorders. The sample size was as follows: depressive disorders without psychotic symptoms 30, anxiety disorders 30, and the healthy control group 30. The assessment of defense mechanisms was made using the DSQ-40 questionnaire. Our findings show that "pure" anxiety disorders differ from "pure" depressive disorders only in the use of immature defense mechanisms. The group with depressive disorders was significantly more prone to use immature defense mechanisms than the group with anxiety disorders (p = 0.005), primarily projection (p = 0.001) and devaluation (p = 0.003). These defense mechanisms may therefore be used both to differentiate between anxiety and depressive disorders and also to determine which symptoms (anxiety or depressive disorders) are dominant at any given stage of treatment.

The importance of sociodemographic characteristics of psychotherapy patients in institutional conditions on the Balkan territory.

OBJECTIVES: The effects of psychotherapy are proven, compelling and far-reaching. The aim was to evaluate sociodemographic characteristics and clinical diagnosis of psychotherapeutic patients who were treated at the Institute of Mental Health in Belgrade. DESIGN AND METHODS: Retrospective clinical study was composed of 334 patients. Patients data related to the gender, age, education, employment, marital status and clinical diagnose were processed by descriptive statistics methods and chi-square test. RESULTS: Psychotherapy services were mostly used by female patients (64.1%), aged 30 to 39 years, majority finished secondary school (47.6%) and were employed (54.8%). Half of the patients were single (49.7%) with unipolar depressive non-psychotic disorder (60.5%). CONCLUSIONS: The research of this kind and with this volume of patients, coming from institutional conditions, has never been done among Balkan nationalities and thus represent encouragement for future studies.

Determinants of quality of life among individuals seeking mental health care after termination of state of emergency due to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

ABSTRACT: Prompted by the need to measure the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 on main areas of quality of life related to mental health (MH), the COV-19-impact on quality of life (COV19-QoL) scale has been developed recently. We measured how patients seeking face-to-face MH care perceived the coronavirus disease 2019 impact on QoL and how socio-demographic factors, stress, and personality contributed to QoL in this diagnostically diverse population.Patients aged 18 to 65 years (n = 251) who came for the first time to the outpatient units during the 6-week index-period (May 21-July 1, 2020) were included. The cross-sectional assessment involved sociodemographic variables, working diagnosis, personality traits (7-dimension model, including HEXACO and DELTA), stress (list of threatening experiences and proximity to virus), and COV19-QoL.The perceived impact of the pandemic on QoL was above the theoretical mean of a 5-point scale (COV19-Qol = 3.1 ±â€Š1.2). No association between total COV19-QoL score, sociodemographic parameters, and working diagnoses was found in the present sample. After testing whether positional (threatening experiences), or dispositional (personality) factors were predominant in the perceived impact of COV-19 on QoL, significant predictors of the outcome were personality traits Disintegration (B = 0.52; P < .01) and Emotionality (B = 0.18; P < .05).It seems that pervasiveness and uncertainty of the pandemic threat triggers-especially in those high on Disintegration trait-a chain of mental events with the decrease of QoL as a final result. Present findings could be used to establish a profile of MH help seeking population in relation to this biological disaster, and to further explore QoL and personality in different contexts.

The impact of stress related disorders on quality of life.

BACKGROUND: Some new studies have shown a significant connection between post-traumatic stress disorder and impairment of the quality of life (QoL), whereas, to our knowledge, research on the connection between other disorders of the stress related group and quality of life do not exist. The objective of our study was to assess the connection between stress related disorders and the quality of life. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: We studied the quality of life in 160 subjects who have experienced certain stressogenic life events. Within the first group (80 subjects) a certain stress related disorder was diagnosed after a stressogenic life event. In the second group (80 subjects) none of the stress related disorders was developed after a stressogenic life event. The diagnosis was made based on the ICD-10 criteria; the stress was assessed by the Impact of Events Scale (IES) and QoL by the Manchester Short Assessment Quality of Life Scale (MANSA). RESULTS: Persons in whom some stress related disorders were diagnosed had a lower quality of life compared to persons who experienced stress but did not develop a disorder (p<0.01). CONCLUSION: Given the long-term stressogenic situation in our country, which is still ongoing, we think that comprehensive measures of prevention, early diagnostics and efficient treatment of stress related disorders are necessary in order to improve the quality of life for the persons with these disorders and their families, but also for society as a whole.