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Introduction: Sebaceous carcinoma is a rare, usually slow-growing, malignant epithelial tumor of the skin. Mostly located on the face and neck, especially on the upper eyelid. It accounts for less than 1% of all skin malignancies. Extraocular sebaceous carcinoma is a very rare variant of this cancer. Case report: This paper presents a case of a 92-year-old man who presented with extensive, rapidly growing ulceration, located on the chest and abdomen. Based on the results of histopathological examinations and specific immunohistochemical staining, advanced sebaceous carcinoma was diagnosed in the thoracic and abdominal region. Conclusions: In patients with rapidly spreading ulcers, sebaceous carcinoma should also be considered in the differential diagnosis, although the course of this tumor is usually slow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The paper presents conclusions from a comparative analysis of the medical and court documentation of a 5-year-old patient on the autism spectrum. The goal of the research was to identify potential cognitive errors made by the evaluating court experts. Case description: During the meeting of the County Committee for the Assessment of Disability, the patient was denied a proper disability certificate taking into account his actual level of impaired functioning. The patient's family appealed against the decision and had court experts appointed to re-assess the case. The documentation created in this process served as the material for the analysis presented in this paper. Comment: The study analyses the risk of cognitive errors that may occur in the assessments issued by court experts appointed to evaluate the level of patient's disability. This is due to the fact that such evaluations are often based, among other things, on a stereotypical perception of ASD-people or personal susceptibility to certain heuristics. Self-advocacy and neuro-diversity movements have been campaigning to change the assessment-issuing system for years but have been unsuccessful. Exposing the cognitive errors that can be found in expert assessments in a full-scale study might constitute an important step towards improving the current state of affairs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To raise awareness about depressive disorders occurring in men and to define the causes that influence them. Views: Depression and suicide attempts are observed more often among women. However, men far more often commit suicide. Research shows correlation between low incidence of diagnosed depressive disorders and high incidence of suicidal deaths in men. Depression in men may have different causes and symptoms than depression in women. Numerous research studies suggest the existence of the "syndrome of male depression" where - apart from typical symptoms - there are often additional symptoms, such as anger, impulsiveness, substance abuse and antisocial behaviours. Sometimes similar behaviours can occur among depressive women. Mostly, however, women express their pain with emotions while men are concentrating on actions. Men also seek a specialist's help significantly less frequently. Men treat the abuse of psychoactive substances as a form of self-medication more often than women do. Alcohol addiction coexisting with depression increases the risk of suicide attempt in men. Conclusions: The literature review proves the complexity of the problem of depressive disorders occurring in men. There is a close correlation between depression, addictions and suicides. Improvements in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of any of these problems may positively influence others, too. These issues require further analysis and research. In this paper, it will be a representation of the male part of the Polish population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The aim of the paper was to check the level of disease-related shame shown by people suffering from multiple sclerosis (MS) as compared to healthy people who activated the stereotype in relation to themselves in view of a disease that is chronic, incurable and leading to disability. Additionally, verification of the differences identified between both groups in terms of applied strategies of coping with shame and the correlation between the frequency of employing them and the level of shame shown by the MS patients was conducted. Methods: The research study involved 60 people, including 30 patients suffering from multiple sclerosis and 30 healthy subjects. The tools applied were the Questionnaire for Measuring Disease-Related Guilt and Shame (hereinafter: "the Questionnaire") and the Compass of Shame Scale (CoSS, Version 5). Results: It was found that there was no difference between the disease-related shame levels shown by the MS patients and the healthy subjects. The healthy subjects and the MS patients did not differ in terms of employing the strategies of coping with shame, such as avoidance, self-blame and blaming others; nevertheless, the MS patients in comparison to the healthy subjects were less likely to apply withdrawal. It was found that in the MS patient group, the level of disease-related shame was positively correlated with triggering withdrawal and self-blame as the strategies of coping with the shame. Conclusions: The findings of the study are important in everyday medical and psychological practice, in prevention and psychotherapy of shame and its pathological effects that negatively affect the psychosocial functioning of patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Despite progress in the treatment of schizophrenia, treatment resistance is reported in about 30% of patients. Various forms of treatment augmentation are used, but clozapine is generally considered to be the gold standard of care. In the management of patients with clozapine resistance adjunctive electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) courses have been proposed. In recent years particular attention has been paid to augmentation of clozapine with the maintenance electroconvulsive therapy (M-ECT). Case description: The paper presents a patient with treatment-resistant schizophrenia and chronic psychotic symptoms leading to self-destructive and suicidal behaviors. After concurrent treatment with clozapine and M-ECT her clinical status and functioning have improved. Comment: Maintenance-ECT used to augment clozapine in drug-resistant schizophrenia seems to be a safe and promising management option. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease. It occurs almost all over the world. More cases of psoriasis are seen among Caucasians than in other races. It occurs rarely, or not at all, in Aboriginal Australians or Native Americans. Objective. To analyze the prevalence of psoriasis in Polish voivodships in the years 2008-2015 considering gender, age, place of residence (urban - rural) and clinical form of the disease. Material and methods. The research was based on demographic data collected from the Central Statistical Office (GUS) in the years 2008-2015 for voivodships. The data concern all patients with psoriasis who were consulted during the study period or were hospitalized in institutions providing dermatological services under the National Health Fund (NFZ) contract. The patients were divided into several groups according to gender, age and place of residence. All groups were compared quantitatively and the results were presented in figures. Results. Based on the collected data, as many as 1,147,279 patients with psoriasis benefited from dermatological services in the years 2008-2015. People aged 41-60 years mostly suffered from psoriasis, with a slight predominance of women living in cities. There was also a noticeable increase in psoriasis patients treated in hospital conditions during the study period. Conclusions. The collected data provided a preliminary estimate of prevalence of psoriasis in the years 2008-2015 at about 2.99%. However, the data presented in this paper need further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hidradenitis suppurativa (acne inversa) is a chronic, inflammatory, recurrent, debilitating disease of hair follicles manifested by painful, deepseated, inflamed lesions localized in intertriginous areas. Establishing a correct diagnosis seems straightforward enough, as it is based on clinical criteria, but a comparative analysis of published papers on hidradenitis suppurativa epidemiology easily reveals substantial discrepancies in the estimation of the obtained results for the general population. Data on the prevalence of hidradenitis suppurativa in European countries and in the United States of America differ by up to four orders of magnitude, ranging from 0.00033% to 4.1%. Based on data obtained from the Polish National Health Fund and HS reference centres, the prevalence of hidradenitis suppurativa in Poland was estimated at 0.001%, which classifies hidradenitis suppurativa as a rare disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Parvovirus B19 is an etiological factor of many disorders, including erythema infectiosum, transient aplastic crisis, pure red cell aplasia, arthritis, non-immune hydrops fetalis and less commonly occurring neurological infections. Case description: In this paper we present the case of a 36-year old man, in whom encephalitis caused by B19 based on multidisciplinary differential process was diagnosed. The patient was a truck driver. This occupation is associated with the risk of infection through contact with contaminated cargo, difficulties in maintaining personal hygiene, risky sexual contacts, and endemic diseases occurring in different latitudes, which may suggest the infection with other pathogens e.g. HIV, and therefore be highly misleading. Comment: We conclude that B19 should be always taken into consideration in the differential diagnosis of encephalitis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]