Dr Fragkou Martha

Integrated selves

Categories allow us to create order, altering the way we are able to act and interact, but they are also by nature constraining, creating divisions that must be agreed to track reality in order to be useful. Work in early intervention psychiatry has expanded over the past 30 years, and from the initial strong focus...

Violence risk assessment instruments in forensic psychiatric populations: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Summary Background Although structured tools have been widely used to predict violence risk in specialist mental health settings, there is uncertainty about the extent and quality of evidence of their predictive performance. We aimed to systematically review the predictive performance of tools used to assess violence risk in forensic mental health, where they are routinely...

Antidepressant and antipsychotic side-effects and personalised prescribing: a systematic review and digital tool development

Summary Background Side-effects of psychiatric medication impair quality of life and functioning. Furthermore, they contribute to morbidity, mortality, stigma, and poor treatment concordance resulting in relapse of psychiatric illness. Guidelines recommend discussing side-effects with patients when making treatment decisions, but a synthesis of antidepressant and antipsychotic side-effects to guide this process is missing, and considering...

Patients with depression symptoms are more likely to experience improvements of internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy: a secondary analysis of effect modifiers in patients with non-cardiac chest pain in a randomized controlled trial

Abstract Background Non-cardiac chest pain is common and associated with increased anxiety and reduced health-related quality of life. Randomized controlled trials on psychological interventions for patients with non-cardiac chest pain have reported mixed results. Patients with non-cardiac chest pain are a heterogeneous group. Identifying sub-groups that could potentially benefit more (or less) from an intervention...

Sex-based influential factors for dental caries in patients with schizophrenia

Abstract Background Schizophrenia is a common mental disorder that seriously affects patients’ daily lives and brings heavy psychological and economic burdens to their families and society. The oral problems of patients with schizophrenia are gradually gaining attention, among which dental caries are among the most common oral diseases. Sex differences may be related not only...

Treatment Issues Related to the Use of Psychedelics, Trichotillomania, Social Anxiety Disorder, Schizophrenia, and Opioid Use Disorder

This issue of the Journal brings together clinically relevant papers, several of which are focused on new treatment development. The issue begins with an overview from Drs. Bryan Roth and Ryan Gumpper (1) that is very timely, given the high level of interest in psychedelics and the related emerging clinical trial data. In addition to discussing potential...

Διαταραχή εξάρτησης από τον τζόγο

Η διαταραχή του τζόγου περιλαμβάνει επαναλαμβανόμενη, προβληματική συμπεριφορά τζόγου. Η συμπεριφορά αυτή οδηγεί σε προβλήματα για το εκάστοτε άτομο, την οικογένεια του και την κοινωνία. Οι ενήλικες και οι έφηβοι με διαταραχή του τζόγου έχουν πρόβλημα να ελέγξουν τον εθισμό τους. Θα συνεχίσουν ακόμα και όταν αυτός προκαλεί σημαντικά προβλήματα. Για τη διάγνωση της διαταραχής του τζόγου απαιτείται η...

A New Option for Depressed Patients Who Do Not Respond to Antidepressant Medications

The article by Sachs and colleagues (1) in this issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry describes the main findings of a randomized controlled trial of the second-generation antipsychotic (SGA) cariprazine as an adjunctive treatment for patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Because not all of the participants had received two or more adequate trials of therapy...

Η ψυχίατρος μας μιλά για τη διαταραχή χρήσης αλκοόλc

Πότε το ένα ποτό ή το ένα ποτηράκι αλκοόλ μπορεί να ξεφύγει και να φτάσει στον εθισμό; Ποια είναι τα συμπτώματα εξάρτησης και ποιες οι συνέπειες στη ζωή του πότη; Για να μπορέσουμε να προσδιορίσουμε εάν κάποιος δικός μας άνθρωπος ή εμείς είμαστε εξαρτημένοι ή εθισμένοι στο αλκοόλ, είναι καλό να γνωρίζουμε ορισμένα βασικά κριτήρια....