Is there a relationship between occupational noise and hearing levels,sleep quality,and QoL of the factory workers?

Neurological Sciences - We assessed the hearing level, sleep quality, depression status, and life quality of the employees. The research group contains 380 (56.7%) of 669 employees working in the...     

The relationship between trauma centrality,self-efficacy,posttraumatic stress and psychiatric co-morbidity among Syrian refugees: Is gender a moderator?

This study examined the inter-relationship between trauma centrality, self-efficacy, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and psychiatric co-morbidity among a group of Syrian refugees living in Turkey, and whether gender would moderate the mediational effect of self-efficacy on the impact of trauma centrality on distress. Seven hundred and ninety-two Syrian refugees completed the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire, General Health Questionnaire-28, Centrality of Event Scale and Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale. The results showed that 52% met the cutoff for PTSD. Trauma centrality was positively correlated with PTSD, psychiatric co-morbidity and self-efficacy. Self-efficacy was negatively correlated with PTSD only. Gender did not moderate the mediational effect of self-efficacy on the path between trauma centrality and distress outcomes. To conclude, following exposure to traumatic events, more than half reported PTSD. Perception of the future and identity construction was affected. Signs of psychological distress were evident, alongside resilience, regardless of gender.     

What is the relationship between general practitioners' community referrals,and hospital referrals to an old age psychiatric service?

There is a large variation in the referral rates of general practitioners (GPs) to specialist services. There is also evidence that GPs under-refer patients with dementia and depression to old age psychiatric services. However, little is known about individual GP referral rates to these services. Patients may be referred to psychiatric services by GPs in the community (community referrals), or by physicians or surgeons, while the patients are receiving medical or surgical care in hospital (hospital referrals). One way of controlling for GP variables, such as practice size and the age profile of patients, may be to examine the relationship between hospital and community referrals for each GP. Our hypothesis was that there would be a positive correlation between these types of referral. Six hundred and seventy-four new referrals from 62 local GPs were examined over a 6-year period. The GPs made an average of 7.1 community referrals and 3.8 of their patients were hospital referrals. There was a large variation in the number of referrals (range 1-45). However, there was a significant positive relationship between the number of hospital and community referrals for each GP ( p =0.001). These findings support the hypothesis, and suggest that it may be useful to use the ratio, hospital to community referrals, to identify GPs with abnormal referral patterns.     

Is disorder x in category or spectrum y? General considerations and application to the relationship between obsessive–compulsive disorder and anxiety disorders

Is obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) best categorized as an anxiety disorder? This question has been raised previously, but advances in the psychobiology of OCD and the anxiety disorders, and preparations for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders—V and International Classification of Diseases—11, make reconsideration timely. The debate in turn raises the more general issue of how best to address any question of the form “is disorder x in category or spectrum y?” Such questions are related to a number of key debates in philosophy of science and language and have also increasingly been addressed by the cognitive–affective neuroscience of categorization. Here, we review this background debate and use OCD as a relevant exemplar. Depression and Anxiety 25:330–335, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.