Adipose tissue is a dynamic endocrine organ that is essential to regulation of metabolism in humans. A new approach to mental disorders led to research on involvement of adipokines in the etiology of mental disorders and mood states and their impact on the health status of psychiatric patients, as well as the effects of treatment for mental health disorders on plasma levels of adipokines. There is evidence that disturbances in adipokine secretion are important in the pathogenesis, clinical presentation and outcome of mental disorders. Admittedly leptin and adiponectin are involved in pathophysiology of depression. A lot of disturbances in secretion and plasma levels of adipokines are observed in eating disorders with a significant impact on the symptoms and course of a disease. It is still a question whether observed dysregulation of adipokines secretion are primary or secondary. Moreover findings in this area are somewhat inconsistent, owing to differences in patient age, sex, socioeconomic status, smoking habits, level of physical activity, eating pathology, general health or medication. This was the rationale for our detailed investigation into the role of the endocrine functions of adipose tissue in mental disorders. It seems that we are continually at the beginning of understanding of the relation between adipose tissue and mental disorders.

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BackgroundThe goal of this study was to assess the relationship between sociocultural factors and clinical eating disorders during the intensive process of Westernisation in Poland that occurred after 1989. The study population included girls diagnosed with an eating disorder according to DSM-IV criteria (n = 47 anorexia nervosa restrictive type [ANR], n = 16 anorexia binge/purge type [ANBP], n = 34 bulimia nervosa [BN], n = 19 eating disorder not otherwise specified [EDNOS]) who received consultation for the first time between 2002 and 2004 in the Department of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University Hospital, Kraków, Poland. The study included an age-matched normal control group [NOR] of 85 schoolgirls from Kraków.MethodsRelationships between two given qualitative features were investigated using the chi-square test or Fisher’s exact test. Correspondence analysis was applied to graphically explore the relationship. The Kruskal-Wallis test with the Bonferroni was performed to compare quantitative results across groups.ResultsObjective sociodemographic variables and responses to the 62-item Questionnaire of Socio-cultural Context were measured. The mothers of ANBP and BN patients were less professionally active than mothers of ANR patients and NOR subjects. Subjective socio-cultural factors were more relevant for the BN group than the ANR group. Questionnaire responses in the ANBP group were more similar to those in the BN group than to those in the ANR group. The most unambiguous and specific characteristic of the ANR group was a sense of belonging to the middle class. Variables that differentiated the BN group from the NOR group included the importance attached to thinness treated as an expression of power and control over one’s self, as well as a multifaceted negative evaluation of one’s own family, including a negative assessment of the position of women and parental lack of concern for appearance and principles of nutrition. All patients, regardless of diagnosis, identified with other people with similar problems and considered anorexia and bulimia to be a major issue of their generation and social environment.ConclusionsThe results of this first in Poland exploratory study of socio-cultural context of eating disorders indicate the importance of both objective and subjective socio-cultural factors in eating disorders in the group studied.

Objective: The increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity among children is now an important health problem. This fact, however, does not reflect the scale of the problem. The aim of the present study was to find how much the BMI threshold was exceeded in a population from Kraków. Design: The study was based on three cross-sectional surveys conducted in 1983, 2000 and 2010. The prevalence of overweight and obesity was estimated based on the International Obesity Task Force cut-off points. In addition to these, an extent of overweight (EOW) index was calculated. Setting: Poland. Subjects: Children aged 3-18 years (n 14 534) from Kraków. Results: Between the populations examined in 1983 and 2010, the EOW index in boys rose by almost 10 %, and the prevalence of overweight and obesity by 39 %. In girls, however, the EOW index decreased by 45 %, while the prevalence of overweight and obesity remained at similar levels. Analyses in separate age groups showed that the EOW index increased only among early adolescents (150 % for boys, 94 % for girls) and late adolescents (390 % and 64 %, respectively). Conclusions: The observed increased prevalence of overweight and obesity mainly concerned boys and was accompanied by an increase in the amount by which the BMI threshold values were exceeded. Keywords BMI Extent of overweight Obesity Economic transformationIn the 1960s, Western nations, especially the USA (1,2) and Western Europe (3) , saw a dramatic increase in the frequency of overweight and obesity. In 1998, the WHO (4) declared obesity a major public health epidemic, both in developed and developing countries, and estimated that by 2025 obesity would concern more than half the adult population in the USA, UK and Australia (4) . A similar trend was found among children and adolescents (5,6) . In the period 1963-1991 in the USA the prevalence of overweight among 6-11-year-old children increased from 15 % to 22·5 %, while the frequency of obesity rose from 5 % to 11 %. In the UK in the period 1989-1998 the prevalence of overweight among children under 4 years of age increased from 14·7 % to 23·6 %, and obesity from 5·4 % to 9·2 %. Between the years 1975 and 1995 in Germany, the frequency of overweight among boys (7-14 years of age) increased from 10·0 % to 16·3 %, and among girls from 11·7 % to 20·7 % (7) . However, relatively recent reports from

Aim of the studyAdolescents are increasingly active in social media: 72% use Instagram while as many as a quarter suffer from at least one mental disorder, Internet users among them. A number of studies confirming the mutual influence of social media and mental health have been conducted but there is a shortage of data on the Internet activity of people suffering from mental disorders. This study aims at extending the existing knowledge by analyzing Instagram accounts of adolescent psychiatric in-patients.Subject or material and methodsWe analyzed the contents of Instagram accounts, links to 36 of which were hidden in graffiti drawn by patients on the walls of an inpatient adolescent psychiatric ward. After excluding inactive and nonexistent accounts, 21 addresses were analyzed with respect to the number and content of published posts and comments left under them.Results90% of the accounts belonged to girls. 52% revealed the owner’s identity. The posts were mainly depressive, which correlated with the psychopathology of the patients. The comments differed in number and in character depending on the content of the post: replies to posts related to body image were mainly supportive, while comments on posts related to self-harm mainly expressed sympathy.DiscussionMost of the analyzed Instagram posts are related to the typical psychopathology of the patients hospitalized on our ward. In addition, it is also similar to negative effects that social media may have on mental health.ConclusionsThe association found in the study show that conducting further research on social media use by psychiatric patients may be clinically important.