This study reinforces the importance and benefits of psychiatric services for SARS team members in reducing their secondary traumatization. It is hoped that the results will enhance our knowledge on the needs of frontline health care workers and support the planning of better psychiatric services in future epidemics.

Based upon the results of this study, light therapy could be used to decrease depressive symptoms in the elderly.

Background In this study, we aimed to investigate the impact of surgical procedures on the body image of head and neck cancer patients treated with radiotherapy and with or without radical surgery.MethodsA cross-sectional survey of 150 patients with head and neck cancer was conducted. Sixty patients had nasopharyngeal cancer treated with definitive radiotherapy without surgery, and 90 patients had oral cavity cancer treated with radical surgery plus adjuvant radiotherapy. All participants completed a 10-item Body Image Scale (BIS) questionnaire to assess body image dissatisfaction. Among all patients, the socio-demographic and clinical variables were age, gender, partnership, education, employment, and radical surgery. In surgically-treated patients, the clinical variables were facial skin sacrificed, mouth angle sacrificed, glossectomy, maxillectomy, and mandibulectomy. ANOVAs, t-tests, and multiple regressions were used to evaluate the relationships between these variables and BIS results.ResultsIn all patients, radical surgery was the strongest independent predictor of BIS scores. Surgically-treated patients had significantly worse BIS scores than the patients without surgery. In surgically-treated patients, facial skin sacrificed, mouth angle sacrificed, maxillectomy, and mandibulectomy were significantly associated with body image. According to multivariable analyses, inferior maxillectomy and segmental mandibulectomy were independent prognosticators of a poor BIS score in surgically-treated patients.ConclusionRadical surgery for head and neck cancer patients has a significant impact on their body image, especially for those undergoing facial bone destructive surgery.

tHcy is an independent risk factor for developing moderate to severe DWMHs in AD but shows non-significant effect on cognitive performance. The close association between high WMH score and poor initial MMSE suggests an additive impact in AD. The long-term effect of elevated tHcy on cognitive decline was not conclusive in the two-year follow-up period.

This study investigated the impact of migraine on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). We prospectively enrolled 151 consecutive psychiatric out-patients meeting DSM-IV criteria for MDD. Migraine and other headache types were diagnosed based on the International Classification of Headache Disorders, 2nd edition (2004). The Short Form-36 (SF-36) was administered as a generic instrument of HRQoL. Among 151 patients with MDD, migraine (N = 73, 48.3%) was very common. Comorbidity of migraine predicted a significantly negative impact on all physical subscales and vitality but not on the other mental subscales of the SF-36 after controlling for depression, age and gender. The presence of migraine should be considered as an important physical symptom in clinic-based MDD samples. Simultaneous management of depression and severe headaches, especially migraine, might improve HRQoL in patients with MDD.