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Aiming at describing the incidence, clinical characteristics and factors associated with neonatal meningitis (NM), a case series study was conducted from 2008 to 2015, where 53 neonates, 10 with early onset NM and 43 with late onset were included. An incidence of 1.5 per thousand live births and a lethality of 3.8% were found. The associated factors were peripartum fever, urinary tract infection and chorioamnionitis (P < 0.05). Frequent symptoms were fever (84.9%), hypotonia (77.4%) and hypoactivity (73.6%). In the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), the cases of early NM presented a median of 330 leukocytes/µl and 29 mg/dl of glucose, and the cases of late NM presented 170 leukocytes/µl and 32 mg/dl of glucose. The most common bacteria were Listeria monocytogenes (16.9%) and negative coagulase staphylococcus (11.3%). In conclusion, the incidence was high compared to other studies and the associated factors were the expected.

Common Mental Disorders (CMD), particularly depressive disorders, are problems of public health importance and it would seem appropriate to approach them from a public health point of view. In this paper only psychosocial aspects are dealt with, because biological factors are less important in the pathogenesis of CMD. Although there are significant associations between socioeconomic variables and CMD, the association between poverty and CMD seems to be one of the most robust. There is good evidence that low income is associated with CMD, and this relationship may be causal. There is therefore a possibility that changes in social and economic policy that would reduce poverty might also reduce the prevalence of CMD. Future research should try to unravel the mechanisms and causal factors that underlie these common and disabling disorders.