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We report the case of a 56-year-old woman with microfilaremic dirofilariasis due to Dirofilaria repens , which is a very rare condition in humans. Of note, just one of six large-volume blood samples of this patient was positive for microfilariae. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequencing of the parasite gene determined the geographic origin of the causative helminth. The patient was treated successfully with doxycycline. This drug was chosen because of the patient's reluctance to the use of ivermectin and to provide an anthelmintic effect by targeting the bacterial endosymbiont Wolbachia present in most filarial species.

A study of psychopathological manifestations of depressive in-patients, treated in the Salzburg psychiatric clinic in the last ten years, showed a masked shift of symptoms. The shift is away from guilt-feelings as well as away from religious content to a more general moral one. Also noted was a definite increase in feelings on insufficiency and hypochondric ideas. A comparison with tendencies in the Maghreb areas, in which a shift from the masked-somatic symptoms toward guilt-depression is reported, our results show here in Europe a renewed tendency of a shift from guilt-depression to hypochondric or anxiety-depression.