This article attempts to explore the phenomenology of religious delusions in patients suffering from schizophrenia and to determine parallels between personal religiosity and content of religious delusions. We have studied the content of delusions in patients with schizophrenia looking for religious themes using Fragebogen fur psychotische Symptome (FPS) – a semistructured questionnaire developed by the Cultural Psychiatry International research group in Vienna. A total of 295 patients suffering from schizophrenia participated in this study at Vilnius Mental Health Center in Lithuania, among whom 63.3% reported religious delusions. The most frequent content of religious delusion in women was their belief that they were saints and in men – that they imagined themselves as God. Univariate multiple logistic regression analyses revealed that four factors such asmarital status, birthplace, education, and subjective importance of religion were significantly related to the presence of religious delusions. However, multivariate analyses revealed that marital status (divorced/separated vs. marriedOR (odds ratio)=2.0; 95% CI, 1.1 to 3.5) and education (postsecondary education vs. no postsecondary education OR=2.3; 95% CI, 1.4 to 3.9), but not personal religiosity, were independent predictors of the religious delusions. We conclude that the religious content of delusions is not influenced by personal religiosity; it is rather related to marital status and education of schizophrenic patients.

Background and aimsSmoking is the main risk factor for the development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) that has been recently defined as a systemic pulmonary inflammatory disease. However, the impact of smoking itself on systemic inflammation in COPD patients has not yet been well established. The aim of our study was to investigate the association between inflammatory markers and smoking status.Materials and methodsWe compared 202 current smokers, 61 ex-smokers and 57 never-smokers, all COPD patients. Assessments included medical history, spirometry, alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT) genotyping, serum AAT, C-reactive protein (CRP), tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, and soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor (sTNFR)-1 and sTNFR-2 concentrations.ResultsAAT and CRP concentrations in smokers (1.75 ± 0.51 g/L and 14.4 [9.5-20.5] mg/L) and ex-smokers (1.69 ± 0.43 g/L and 12.3 [8.7-16.3] mg/L) were higher than in never-smokers (1.49 ± 0.38 g/L and 5.1 [2.5-8.7] mg/L; p < 0.05). sTNFR-1 level was higher in smokers than ex-smokers or never-smokers (241.2 pg/mL [145.3-349.4] vs. 213.7 pg/mL [147.1-280.3] and 205.2 pg/mL [125-275]; p < 0.05).ConclusionsOur data confirm that smoking is associated with increased levels of AAT, CRP, and sTNFR-1 in COPD patients, an array of systemic inflammation markers that continue to be active even after smoking cessation.

The term natural family planning (NFP), both in the scientific terminology and in the practical language of health policy, is often referred to as natural contraception or fertility awareness–based methods (FABM). “NFP. A guide to providing services,” issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1988, presents NFP as a method inconsistent with any other contraceptive method but later published “Family Planning, a Global Handbook for Providers,” wherein NFP is not presented as a stand-alone method group but is grouped with FAB methods, which are combined with barrier contraception active during the fertile phase of a woman’s menstrual cycle if there is a desire to postpone pregnancy. In other words, the WHO family planning recommendations present FABM as one group of contraceptive methods. The WHO is the directing and coordinating authority on international health within the United Nations’ system. For these obvious reasons, the article mostly concentrates on WHO definition of FAMB. This article presents the anthropological and methodological differences between NFP (including and modern NFP methods that employ urinary hormone metabolite detection) and FABM and, through comparative analysis, determines that NFP is synonymous with neither FABM nor any of the methods of this group but is rather a distinct group of family planning methods. Summary: The term natural family planning (NFP), both in the scientific terminology and in the practical language of health policy, is often referred to as natural contraception or fertility awareness-based methods (FABM). The World Health Organization’s (WHO) is the directing and coordinating authority on international health within the United Nations’ system. WHO family planning recommendations present FABM as one group of contraceptive methods For these obvious reasons the article mostly concentrates on the WHO definition of FAMB. The article presents the anthropological and methodological differences between NFP and FABM and, through comparative analysis, determines that NFP is synonymous with neither FABM nor any of the methods of this group but is rather a distinct group of family planning methods.

Summary. This article presents data on the phenomenology of delusions of persecution and poisoning in patients with