Changes in suicidal behavior among nation-wide general population samples across Greece

Summary During recent years, two nationwide crossectional domestic surveys on psychosocial issues and health status were carried out in Greece. Both studies were conducted with identical methodology (personal interview) and screening instruments, with probability samples of 4083 adults aged 20–64 years (study A) and 3708 respondents of the same age range (study B). The time interval between the first and the second study was 6 years. The presence of self-reported suicidal behavior during the last month prior to the interview was examined. In study A, 2.8% of males and 6.8% of females respondents reported a recent suicide ideation compared to 6.4% of the males and 14.9% of the female suicide ideators in study B.However, only 0.27% of the males and 1.10% of the females in study A attempted suicide. These proportions were doubled in study B. The prevalence of depressive symptoms on the Center of Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale was high among the respondents reporting a previous suicide ideation and suicide attempts.Discriminant analysis revealed several social and psychiatric factors predicting suicidal behavior.Department of Anthropology and Social Policy Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences     

Family burden in chronic mental illness: a review of research studies

Early research has established that burden exists and has identified certain behaviours of mentally ill relatives that family members find most distressing Further research has confirmed the accuracy of the early work and has focused on the severity of mental illness Recent research has stressed the importance of social support in the study of caregiver burden This paper explores the research literature that covers the concept of caregiver burden in the area of mental illness and also presents developed instruments for the study of caregiver burden     

Disseminated intravascular B-cell lymphoma: clinicopathological features and outcome of three cases treated with anthracycline-based immunochemotherapy

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of combination anthracycline-based immunochemotherapy in intravascular lymphoma (IVL). This is an extremely rare, disseminated, and aggressive extranodal CD20(+) non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) with poor outcome following anthracycline-based chemotherapy. From a population of 700 newly diagnosed patients with NHL who were registered and followed up at our unit between 1990 and 2005, three cases (0.4%) have been classified as IVL. Among the patients, there were two men and one woman, with a median age of 52 years. We have assessed the clinicopathological characteristics, response to therapy, and outcome. All patients presented with systemic symptoms and disseminated disease. All patients received anthracycline-based chemotherapy in combination with the anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody rituximab (immunochemotherapy). Complete remission was achieved in all three patients, and currently all remain progression free with a follow-up of 24-45 months. In conclusion, anthracycline-based immunochemotherapy induces durable remissions in patients with IVL, an ultimately fatal disease, suggesting that the clinical course of this disease may be altered with immunochemotherapy.     

Management of medicines information for patient safety

Ensuring patient safety in the management of medicines requires the efficient collection, administration, analysis and distribution of huge amounts of data from different sources. This requires the development of generic methods and tools for tasks such as: (1) data mining and semantics-based inference; (2) integration of heterogeneous scientific information databases relating to drugs and diseases; (3) terminology and coding issues; (4) adverse drug events and signal detection; and (5) networking and security. Collaborative research and development will be required to develop coordinated health care information services. Easy access to high-quality information will provide better health care and increased cost efficiency.     

Angiofollicular lymph node hyperplasia (Castleman)

Six personally observed cases of this lesion are reported and the literature is reviewed. One hundred and thirty-four cases have been reported to date. The lesion has occurred in many sites, but is commonest in the thorax (60%), abdomen (11%), neck (14%), and axilla (4%).Ninety per cent of cases are symptomless or have only the pressure symptoms, 10% have systemic signs, namely, fever, raised ESR, anaemia, cured by removal of the tumour. These cases have a slightly different histology. All recorded cases have been benign. Microscopically the lesion is follicular but instead of germinal centres the follicles have one or more thick-walled arteries and often some surrounding histiocytes. Increased numbers of vessels occur between the follicles, whilst sinuses are absent. These vessels have thick, cellular walls like post-capillary venules. Sometimes they become hyaline.The cases with symptoms have true reaction centres as well as a few intrafollicular vessels. Between the follicles there are increased numbers of vessels and, in addition, there may be collections of plasma cells or eosinophils.     

Chronic lower leg swelling caused by isolated popliteal venous entrapment

Isolated popliteal vein entrapment is a rare pathologic condition. Mimicking any venous pathology, a high degree of suspicion is mandatory for diagnosis. We describe a case of a 50-year-old woman, suffering from excessive swelling and heaviness of her left leg for more than 15 years. The ascending venography at functional positions of the feet demonstrated the entrapment. A rich collateral venous network appeared in the popliteal area at plantar foot's flexion. Surgical division of a wide soleus aponeurosis decompressed the vein. At the 2-year follow-up, the patient remains free of recurrence.