Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Albanian authorities declared mandatory stay-at-home measures, closing businesses, schools, and public places. This study aims to investigate the impact of these immediate changes on the mental well-being of the population. Methodology: Respondents ( N = 1678) aged 18–60 years were selected through a convenient sampling method. A questionnaire was administered online for 26 days, where respondents reported the time spent daily in the COVID-19 topic and filled in their generalities, the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7. Results: Findings suggest a significant negative correlation between age and anxiety scoring ( r (n = 1678) = −0.121, P ≤ 0.001) and between age and depression scoring ( r (n = 1678) = −0.232, P ≤ 0.001), shown also on the ANOVA test for age and anxiety ( F = 6.019, P ≤ 0.05), where younger populations had higher anxiety levels, as well as age and depression ( F = 20.326, P ≤ 0.05), where older populations had higher levels of depression. Differences on the level of education resulted in a lower score of anxiety and depression ( F = 3.524, P ≤ 0.05; F = 7.739, P ≤ 0.05, respectively) on respondents with higher education. Those who found themselves jobless from the pandemic scored higher on anxiety and depression ( F = 9.760, P ≤ 0.05; M = 6.21, ds = 4.686 and F = 16.051, P ≤ 0.05; M = 8.18, ds = 5.791, respectively) compared with those who are still working. Significant differences were found on the ANOVA test related to different amounts of time spent daily on the COVID-19 topic for anxiety and depression ( F = 25.736, P ≤ 0.001; F = 5.936, P ≤ 0.003, respectively), with people who spend <1 h scoring higher on depression (M = 7.57, ds = 5.849) and those who spent >3 h scoring higher on anxiety (M = 6.76, ds = 5.60). On the t -test, people on a romantic relationship scored lower levels of depression (t = −4.053, P ≤ 0.0001) compared to single individuals, and females scored higher levels of anxiety ( t = 12.344, P ≤ 0.001) compared to males. Conclusions: Younger participants score higher levels of anxiety and depression. Higher education individuals show lower levels of anx...

Background and aimMore recent definitions of stigma focus on the results of stigma – the prejudice, avoidance, rejection and discrimination directed at people believed to have an illness, disorder or other trait perceived to be undesirable.MethodsDuring this study, we used Attitudes to Mental Illness Questionnaire (AMIQ), which helped us to understand the differences in the acceptance by the population for 3 different types of diseases: addiction, diabetes and schizophrenia.Results(1) Alban has diabetes. (2) Besnik has schizophrenia.Conclusions(1) The patients with schizophrenia have higher levels of stigma compared diabetic patients or those alcoholics (Tables 1 and 2 and Fig. 1). (2) Statistical processing carried out concluded that have statistically significant differences between gender-stigma (P = 0.001), age-stigma (P = 0.0001) and education-stigma (P = 0.001) (Fig. 2). (3) Health care workers stigma is exactly the same as in general population (P = 0.01) (Fig. 2).Recommendations– Support recovery and social inclusion and reduce discrimination.– Do not label or judge people with a mental illness, treat them with respect and dignity as you would anyone else.– Do not discriminate when they come participation, housing and employment.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Background: Treatment of BDII may place the physician in difficulty because of the treatment resistence. Methods: 2 male patients 48 and 52 years old diagnosed with BDII (according to DSM IV) lastest episode, major depressive episode, with a poor or partial response to long-term treatment with antidepressant, mood stabilizer and sometimes antipsychotic drugs during the presence of psychotic symptoms. During last year their treatment was: Paroxetine 40mg/ 2x day and Lamotrigine 150mg/day. Because of the lack of response the treatment was changed as follows: Remove of lamotrigine; decrease of paroxetine to 20 mg; adding Aripiprazole 15 mg. BPRS, HAMD and CGI-severity were used to evaluate their symptoms and gravity. Results: After 2 weeks of treatment significant improvement was noticed. This includes depressive and psychotic symptoms, sleep, anxiety and cognitive symptoms. Increase of professional performance. After using this combination, they started psychosocial rehabilitation program. Since September 2007 their situation is stabile and there have not been noticed recurrences. Conclusions: Favorable clinical results were noticed to both patients, with no noticeable adverse side effects. Aripiprazole combined with Paroxetine has improved depressive and psychotic symptoms of these patients with bipolar depression. Our findings suggest that Aripiprazole-Paroxetine is a safe and tolerable combination; however, control trials are needed to validate our findings.

Stuttering is decribed as a disorder of fluency and characterized by part-word, whole-word and phrase repetitions; interjections; pauses; and prolonged. Studies done about communication patterns of parent and child generally focus on the negative of positive nature of the statements, such as verbal aggression, silents, and interruptions more excessively than the parents of non stutters; and at the same time, parents became a part of the therapy proccesses of stuttering.The communication patterns used between Albanian mothers and her stuttering child and her normally fluent child were investigated. A total of 20 mother-stuttering child pairs and 20 mother-nonstuttering child pairs participated in the preswent study. All mother child pairs were administered a structured game to facilitate spontaneous speech. Comments, questions, critical statement, no response and interruptions were studied as negative statements. Verbal praise and verbal acknowledgments were accepted as a possitive statement.Interaction times and total amount of words were also measured.A significant different was found between both mother and child groups only in the total words used. No significant differences were found for any other communication styles.These findings suggest that the communication behaviour of mother of stuttering children is not different from that of the mothers of nonstutters.

Background: Bipolar disorder begins during adolescence but often escapes diagnosis at this time because episodes are misinterpreted with other psychiatric disorders. Lithium, carbamazepine, valproate, and other drugs are used for the treatment of acute episodes and maintain treatment of bipolar disorders. Aims: To compare the efficacy of Valproate vs. Lithium in the long-term treatment of patients with subtypes of bipolar disorders. Method: 120 patients with more than two episodes of BD (according to DSM-IV) in a longitudinal, comparative and randomized clinical trial, for 2 years (104 weeks) divided in two equal parallel-groups with open label pre-randomized phase. Primary outcome measure was time to relapse/recurrence of any mood episodes. Survival analyses (Kaplan-Mayer and Cox Proportional Hazard) were used for statistical analysis. Results: Cumulative survival for valproate's group was S(104)=0.3570, (35.70% and lithium's group S(104)=0.3136, (31,36%). Valporate is superior to lithium for the treatment of non classic BD I (Log Rank 0.0309, p=0.0100). Valproate prolongs median survival time with 11±9 and mean survival time to 7±4 weeks more than lithium. Treatment with lithium has 20.4% higher relative risk for relapse/recurrence than treatment with valproate Vp (β = 0.186, p = 0.434). Valproate is superior for the treatment of BD with psychiatric comorbidity (Log Rank =0.0007. p=0.0026). Conclusions: We found that valproate is significantly more effective than lithium in prophylactic treatment of bipolar I disorders in non-classic subtype and in bipolar disorder with psychiatric comorbidity.