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Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is an etiologically heterogeneous neurodevelopmental condition that eludes a single explanation or cure. Epidemiological studies reveal risk factors, relevant comorbidities, and behavioral correlates to reach a better understanding of ASD. To contribute such data from an understudied ASD population, this paper presents epidemiological data from a Turkish sample of individuals with ASD (n = 911, 748 boys (82.1%) and 163 girls (17.9%) between 1 and 18 years of age). Average age at diagnosis was 31.06 ± 11.88 months, and the male-to-female ratio was 4.6:1. Three in 4 individuals with ASD had obsessive behaviors, and 1 in 4 had allergic conditions, inappropriate sexual behaviors, self-harming behaviors, and harmful behaviors towards others. One in 3 received a dietary treatment for at least 3 months; almost half received vitamin supplements; the majority (70%) did not experience constipation; and 2 in 3 were picky eaters. This paper presents data on the age of diagnosis, gender ratios, accompanying behaviors, and dietary interventions in Turkish individuals with ASD, which are topics of current research interest about ASD. Such data from non-Western populations may supplement epidemiological knowledge gained from Western populations to help reach a more comprehensive understanding of this condition with many unknowns.

Aim: Studies of the effects of COVID‐19, especially post‐acute COVID‐19 syndrome, on psychological health in non‐severe cases are limited. We aimed to evaluate the prevalence and associated risk factors of psychological symptoms, and quality‐of‐life in three groups of outpatients, hospitalized and intensive care patients. Methods: A total 276 patients, previously confirmed with SARS‐CoV‐2 infection, attending the COVID‐19 follow‐up outpatient clinic from December 2020 to July 2021 were interviewed face‐to‐face. In this cross‐sectional, retrospective study, all participants were asked our self‐designed demographic and screening questions to assess their psychological symptoms and administered the WHQOOL‐BREF survey to evaluate quality of life. Results: In screening questions, major depressive disorder symptoms were detected at a rate of 20.3%, generalized anxiety disorder symptoms at a rate of 16.7%, panic attack symptoms at a rate of 10.9%, post‐traumatic stress disorder symptoms at a rate of 28.6% and obsessive‐compulsive disorder symptoms at a rate of 18.1%. The outpatient group with COVID‐19 infection had a higher risk of developing psychological symptoms and decreased quality of life. Conclusion: COVID‐19 infection was found to have a considerable psychological impact on those treated as outpatients despite the less severe course of their illness. Summary statement: What is already known about this topic? Post‐intensive care syndrome affects physical, cognitive and psychological health.It is associated with symptoms such as generalized weakness, memory disturbances, cognitive function impairment, depression, anxiety and post‐traumatic stress disorder.Some physical and psychological symptoms persist for over 12 weeks in some patients and have been classified as 'Post‐acute COVID‐19 Condition or Syndrome' (PCS). What this paper adds? At the post‐acute‐COVID‐19 period, a considerable number of outpatients with COVID‐19 infection were at higher risk for psychological distress symptoms than those who had been treated in the hospital or intensive care unit.Depression, anxiety, panic disorder and PTSD symptoms were found to be higher in outpatients and those with these symptoms were also shown to have a lower quality of life.Our findings highlight the significant psychological impact of COVID‐19 on patients, even after their reported recovery from the acute manifestations of this disease. The implications of this paper: Ongoing psychological symptoms in the post‐COVID period are not associated with the severity of the disease in the acute phase.It is important that healthcare professionals are equally concerned not only with physical condition of post‐COVID‐19 patients but also with their psychological state and the patient's psychology‐related quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Considering that unknown psychopathology might play a role in the management of pediatric asthma, this study examines how self-esteem and psychosocial family environment (child-raising attitudes and parental coping strategies) influence the physical and psychosocial well-being of these children. Hence, this paper aims to predict psychosocial factors influencing health-related quality-of-life (HRQL) in children with asthma without a documented history of mental illness. Methods: 32 patients with asthma and 32 controls aged 8-18 years were included in the study. All participants were largely middle-income, Caucasian school-aged children. The child-raising attitudes examined were: dependency, egalitarianism/democratic attitude, rejection of the homemaking role, marital conflict, and strictness/authoritarianism. The parental coping strategies were; social support seeking, problem-solving attitude and avoidance. Results: Psychiatric comorbidity was present in 72% of asthma patients and 22% of the controls. The most common mental illness identified was generalized anxiety disorder; 32% vs 13%, respectively. Dependency was the only parental child-raising attitude that differed significantly between groups (47 ± 8 vs 41 ± 11, respectively. p  = 0.035). There was a negative correlation between the PARI dependency subscale and the total HRQL score according to the parents ( r p = -0.39, p  = 0.027). The most influential factors connected with the total HRQL score in asthma were Rosenberg self-esteem scale score, presence of psychopathology and dependency according to the child. Conclusions: Simple ways to overcome emotional dependency and fortify self-esteem (exercises promoting self-awareness, opportunities cultivating decision-making, and a considerable freedom-of-choice to experience consequences) worth recommending to parents of children with asthma. Patients with suspected mental illness must be referred for psychiatric evaluations.

By considering the etiological similarities of depression and anxiety disorders with high lifetime coexistence rates, recent research has introduced a transdiagnostic approach applicable to a range of emotional disorders with these common features. This paper reviews empirical studies examining the effects of transdiagnostic intervention programs on depression and anxiety disorders. The literature search identified 18 randomized controlled and 12 non-randomized studies. These were examined in terms of their sample characteristics, methodological approaches, and findings. Overall, the reviewed transdiagnostic psychological intervention programs treat various anxiety disorders and depression effectively. In cases where anxiety and depressive symptoms are comorbid, the transdiagnostic approach has significant advantages over diagnosis-specific protocols. Future studies should investigate the effect of the transdiagnostic approach in different diagnostic groups compared to diagnosis-specific treatments. In Turkey specifically, it is important to investigate the effectiveness of transdiagnostic interventions and potential clinical and economic advantages compared to diagnostic specific protocols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Principles: Elevated rates of lifetime and current psychiatric disorders, elevations of psychological self-report measures assessing depression, anxiety and hypochondriasis have been reported in fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) patients as well as studies refuting these findings. Studies comparing FMS patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients provide discrepant data. The aim of this paper is to compare FMS patients with RA patients and healthy controls with respect to psychological measures in a case control design., Methods: Fifty subjects with FMS, 20 with RA and 42 healthy controls were assessed with respect to anxiety, depression, pain intensity and disability. Three logistical regression models were performed to test whether higher levels of a psychological measure (disability, depression or anxiety) are associated with one disease rather than another, or with one disease rather than with healthy controls. For each regression model, the best exploratory covariates were determined using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves., Results: In the logistic regression, anxiety scores were the most important covariate determining the likelihood of having FMS whereas depression scores increased the chances of being an RA patient. Age and disability scores did not differ between FMS and RA., Conclusions: Affective distress is not specific to FMS patients, but the manner in which affective distress is incorporated into the patient's life is worth studying. FMS.seems to be associated with anxiety rather than depression.

Background: This systematic review aimed to synthesize the prevalence and correlates of depressive disorders and symptoms of Turkish and Moroccan immigrant populations in Northwestern Europe, formulating evidence-informed recommendations for clinical practice. Methods: We conducted a systematic search in PsycINFO, MEDLINE, Science Direct, Web of Knowledge, and Cochrane databases for records up to March 2021. Peer-reviewed studies on adult populations that included instruments assessing prevalence and/or correlates of depression in Turkish and Moroccan immigrant populations met inclusion criteria and were assessed in terms of methodological quality. The review followed the relevant sections of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses reporting (PRISMA) guideline. Results: We identified 51 relevant studies of observational design. Prevalence of depression was consistently higher among people who had an immigrant background, compared to those who did not. This difference seemed to be more pronounced for Turkish immigrants (especially older adults, women, and outpatients with psychosomatic complaints). Ethnicity and ethnic discrimination were identified as salient, positive, independent correlates of depressive psychopathology. Acculturation strategy (high maintenance) was related to higher depressive psychopathology in Turkish groups, while religiousness appeared protective in Moroccan groups. Current research gaps concern psychological correlates, second- and third-generation populations, and sexual and gender minorities. Conclusion: Compared to native-born populations, Turkish immigrants consistently showed the highest prevalence of depressive disorder, while Moroccan immigrants showed similar to rather moderately elevated rates. Ethnic discrimination and acculturation were more often related to depressive symptomatology than socio-demographic correlates. Ethnicity seems to be a salient, independent correlate of depression among Turkish and Moroccan immigrant populations in Northwestern Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to examine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Turkish society in relation to obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety disorder, and depression via content mining of tweets. Tweets were obtained by searching selected keywords via Twitter application programming interface in Python. The tweets were then filtered for psychopathology-related keywords. The sample consisted of 65,031 publicly available tweets that cover the period between 2 December 2019 and 31 May 2021. Latent Dirichlet allocation, was performed to uncover the latent semantic structures in the tweets. Data transformation and analysis were performed by using open-source R (version 4.0.2). As a result of the analysis, there were statistically significant differences in the total number of tweets, mean number of comments, likes, and retweets per tweet between the pre-pandemic and pandemic periods. From the topic modeling, it was also found that semantic strings of the tweets differed in the pandemic period compared to the pre-pandemic period. Topic analysis of social media shares can provide information on the mental health conditions of individuals and the use of tweet content can contribute to the research of psychopathologies, especially during the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Depression is a common mental health problem in adolescence. In this study it was aimed to investigate attachment properties, emotion regulation skills and anger expression patterns in adolescents diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD) and to compare the results with healthy controls' findings. Effects of having comorbid anxiety disorder (AD) to these psychological properties were also evaluated. The study was planned as three-centered, single-disciplinary, a cross-sectional study with a control group in Turkey. Depression group was consisted of 97 adolescents while control group was 101 adolescents. All participants were administered Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA), Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), and State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI). Depression group had statistically lower scores in peer attachment and parent attachment, and higher scores in all subscales of DERS compared to the controls. Due to STAXI, it was observed that depression group obtained statistically significant higher scores in trait anger, repression of anger, expression of anger and statistically lower scores in control of anger, compared the controls. There was no difference in state anger between groups. In depression group, there were no significant differences for any promising psychiatric properties between adolescents with MDD and those with MDD + AD. The findings of this study supported that anger expression and emotional regulation difficulties were related with depression and that this relationship was also associated by attachment security. These findings are important for clinical practice to increase understanding of the association between attachment security, emotion regulation, anger expression and depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Exposure to conflict, violence and forced displacement can increase poor mental health among affected populations. Our aim was to examine evidence on the burden of mental disorders and access to and effectiveness of mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) services in Syria and among Syrian refugees in neighboring countries. Methods A systematic review was done following systematic review criteria. Twelve bibliographic databases and additional gray literature sources were searched for quantitative and qualitative studies. Descriptive analysis and quality assessment were conducted. Results Twenty-eight eligible studies were identified, of which two were with conflict-affected populations within Syria. Levels of post-traumatic stress disorder ranged from 16 to 84%, depression from 11 to 49%, and anxiety disorder from 49 to 55%. Common risk factors were exposures to trauma and having a personal or family history of mental disorder. Financial and socio-cultural barriers were identified as the main obstacles to accessing MHPSS care. Evaluations of MHPSS services, albeit from predominantly nonrandomised designs, reported positive treatment outcomes. Conclusions The MHPSS burden was high, but with considerable variation between studies. There are key evidence gaps on: MHPSS burden and interventions—particularly for those living within Syria; access and barriers to care; and implementation and evaluation of MHPSS interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between cognitive test anxiety and sociodemographic data, anxiety and depressive symptoms as well as the mediating role of the level of depression in the relationship between general anxiety and cognitive test anxiety among university students. Method: Data were collected from 171 volunteer Turkish university students. A sociodemographic information form, the Beck Depression Inventory, the State and Trait Anxiety Inventory, and the Cognitive Test Anxiety Scale were administered to the participants. Results: There was a statistically significant correlation between all scales used (p<0.01). Cognitive test anxiety was predicted by trait anxiety level and depressive symptom intensity (p<0.05), but it was not predicted by state anxiety level (p=0.114). In mediation analysis, depression was a mediator between trait anxiety and cognitive test anxiety (p<0.05). Conclusion: Results will contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between different psychological variables such as anxiety and depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses factors that affect the sex life of psychiatric patients. Topics covered include the study covering 200 patients with mental disorders like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression at Kocaeli University in Turkey from October 2014 to April 2015, methods applied for the study like questionnaires, Arizona Sexual Experience Scale and face-to-face interviews, and results revealing schizophrenia as the disorder with the highest risk of sexual dysfunction.

It has been suggested that neurotrophins are involved in the etiopathogenesis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This study aimed to investigate whether there are differences in serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), glial-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), nerve growth factor (NGF), and neurotrophin-3 (NTF3) levels between children with ADHD and healthy controls. A total of 110 treatment-naive children with the combined presentation of ADHD and 44 healthy controls aged 8-18 years were enrolled in this study. The severity of ADHD symptoms was determined by scores on the Conners' Parent Rating Scale-Revised Short and Conners' Teacher Rating Scale-Revised Short. The severity of depression and anxiety symptoms of the children were evaluated by the self-report inventories. Serum levels of neurotrophins were measured using commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits. The multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) revealed a significant main effect of groups in the levels of serum neurotrophins, an effect that was independent of age, sex, and the severity of the depression and anxiety. The analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) indicated that the mean serum GDNF and NTF3 levels of ADHD patients were significantly higher than that of controls. However, serum BDNF and NGF levels did not show any significant differences between groups. No correlations between the levels of serum neurotrophins and the severity of ADHD were observed. These results suggest that elevated serum GDNF and NTF3 levels may be related to ADHD in children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: To assess the relationships between trait anger (T-Anger) and anger expression styles and emotional states—suicide probability, depression, state and trait anxiety and self-esteem—in alcohol-dependent inpatients. Methods: The patients included in this study were 142 male inpatients with alcohol dependence according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) criteria. The Suicide Probability Scale, the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory, the Beck Depression Inventory, the Beck Hopelessness Scale, the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Scales, and the T-Anger and Anger Expressions Scales were used for the assessment of the emotional states of the patients. Pearson correlation, analysis of variance and linear regression were used in the statistical analysis. Results: There were significant correlations between suicide probability, depression, state and the trait anxiety, and the T-Anger and all of the anger expression subscales. The presence of high probability for suicide was related to a high level of T-Anger, Anger-out and Anger-in. Finally, a low level of hopelessness was associated with a high level of T-Anger, and a high level of the trait anxiety was associated with a low level of the Anger Control (AEX-Con). Conclusion: The findings indicated that suicide probability, hopelessness and trait anxiety predict T-Anger levels and anger expression styles. Therefore, anxiety, hopelessness and suicide probability must be considered as risk for anger and anger expressions in alcohol-dependent patients. Furthermore, alcohol treatment programmes should attach importance to anger management and AEX-Con training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Kessler Psychological Distress scale (K10) is an instrument that is widely used to screen for mental disorders, but information is lacking on its psychometric qualities in non-Western samples. This study used a population-based sample (N = 725) to assess the reliability and validity of the K10 across ethnic groups in an urban area. The results were generally supportive of the K10 as a reliable and valid instrument to screen for anxiety and depression in all three groups. Cronbach's alpha was high (0.93) and the results indicated the existence of a solid single factor structure. Item bias in relation to ethnic background was minor. In each group, there was good criterion validity with respect to one-month DSM-IV diagnosis for depressive and/or anxiety disorder. The results nevertheless highlight the importance of cross-cultural validation, as we found different cut-off values for ethnic subgroups to obtain optimal sensitivity and specificity for detecting depressive and/or anxiety disorders. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]