Biomedical subjects

Filiz Karadag

Publications and source records attributed to Filiz Karadag.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Depressive symptomatology among university students in Denizli, Turkey: prevalence and sociodemographic correlates.

AIM: To determine overall and subgroup prevalence of depressive symptomatology among university students in Denizli, Turkey during the 1999-2000 academic year, and to investigate whether sociodemographic factors were associated with depressive symptoms in university students. METHODS: A stratified probability sample of 504 Turkish university students (296 male, 208 female) was used in a cross-sectional study. Data were obtained by self-administered questionnaire, including questions on sociodemographic characteristics and problem areas. The revised Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was used to determine depressive symptoms of the participants. BDI scores 17 or higher were categorized as depressive for logistic regression analysis. Student t-test and linear regression were used for continuous data analysis. RESULTS: Out of all participants, 26.2% had a BDI score 17 or higher. The prevalence of depressive symptoms increased to 32.1% among older students, 34.7% among students with low socioeconomic status, 31.2% among seniors, and 62.9% among students with poor school performance. The odds ratio of depressive symptoms was 1.84 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.03-3.28) in students with low socioeconomic status and 7.34 (95% CI, 3.36-16.1) in students with poor school performance in the multivariate logistic model. The participants identified several problem areas: lack of social activities and shortage of facilities on the campus (69.0%), poor quality of the educational system (54.8%), economic problems (49.3%), disappointment with the university (43.2%), and friendship problems (25.9%). CONCLUSIONS: Considering the high frequency of depressive symptoms among Turkish university students, a student counseling service offering mental health assistance is necessary. This service should especially find the way to reach out to poor students and students with poor school performance.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Memory function in patients with obsessive compulsive disorder and the problem of confidence in their memories: a clinical study.

AIM: To examine obsessive-compulsive patients for memory of obsessive-compulsive relevant material and confidence in their memory. METHODS: Memory function was examined by a recognition task using neutral and obsessive-compulsive relevant sentences in 32 patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder and 31 control subjects. We also investigated the participants' confidence in the accuracy of their recognition. The severity of obsessive-compulsive disorder was evaluated by using the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale. The Maudsley Obsessive Compulsive Questionnaire, the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory were also administered to the two groups. RESULTS: Whereas obsessive-compulsive disorder patients were not significantly different from control subjects on measures of recognition memory for both obsessive-compulsive relevant and neutral material, they were significantly less confident in the memory for obsessive-compulsive relevant and neutral sentences. Also, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) scores were negatively correlated with the recognition performance of obsessive-compulsive disorder relevant sentences and the levels of confidence in memory in the obsessive-compulsive disorder group. The obsessive-compulsive patients with checking compulsions were not different from non-checking obsessive-compulsive patients. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that obsessive-compulsive patients experience difficulties in confidence in their memory, possibly related to anxiety rather than primary memory deficits.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Psychiatric morbidity among cancer patients and awareness of illness.

A significant proportion of cancer patients experience psychiatric morbidity. Potential predictors of psychiatric morbidity include patient disease-related factors and factors relating to the patient's environment. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity and the relationship between the clinical or personal factors, especially psychiatric morbidity, and awareness of cancer diagnosis among a group of Turkish cancer patients. A total of 117 cancer patients were assessed using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID), the Hospital and Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS) and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). Of these patients, 30% had a psychiatric diagnosis. Adjustment disorders comprised most of the psychiatric diagnoses. Awareness of the diagnosis of cancer, history of previous psychiatric disorders, pain and stress factors were correlated with psychiatric morbidity. Of the 117 patients, 64 (54.7%) were unaware of the diagnosis of cancer. Most of the patients (67.9%) who were considered to be aware of the cancer diagnosis stated that they had guessed their illness from the treatment process or drug adverse effects. Psychiatric morbidity was significantly higher in the patients who knew that they had a cancer diagnosis (P=0.03). These findings suggest that the awareness of cancer diagnosis is related to the presence of psychiatric morbidity. In particular, the understanding of the diagnosis indirectly may be stressful to the patient because it arouses suspicion about the cancer and treatment, and consequently can lead to psychiatric disturbance. In Turkey honest disclosure of the true diagnosis is still not common for cancer patients and it seems to be essential to improve this situation.

Academic Medical Centers↗

PubMed2003

Quantitative EEG analysis in obsessive compulsive disorder.

Quantitative analysis of the EEG (q-EEG) in patients with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) showed a decreased beta and an increased theta power at frontotemporal regions. The patients who had higher scores in doubting test (Maudsley Obsessive Compulsive Questionnaire) and more severely ill patients shared similar q-EEG features. The relative theta powers were significantly increased and alpha powers were significantly decreased in these patients, particularly in the frontotemporal region. It was suggested that the q-EEG may be useful in investigating the OCD patients with heterogeneous characteristics.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Psychiatric disorders and functioning in hepatitis B virus carriers.

The authors compared asymptomatic hepatitis B virus carriers and healthy subjects in terms of their psychological state. Participants (43 asymptomatic hepatitis B virus carriers and 43 healthy comparison subjects) completed self-report questionnaires. Psychiatric disorders and psychosocial functioning were evaluated with structured clinical interviews and the Global Assessment of Functioning scale. Hepatitis B virus carriers were more likely to have psychiatric disorders than comparison subjects (30.2% vs. 11.6%). Also, carriers had significantly higher depression and anxiety scores and lower Global Assessment of Functioning scores than did comparison subjects. Worries about contamination and illnesses related to hepatitis B infection were associated with the presence of psychiatric disorder. The results suggest that asymptomatic hepatitis B virus carriers need emotional support.

Adult↗