Biomedical subjects

Ivan Pozgain

Publications and source records attributed to Ivan Pozgain.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Infanticide in Eastern Croatia.

For the layperson no crime is more difficult to comprehend than the killing of a child by his or her own parents. This is a retrospective study of neonaticide and infanticide in Eastern Croatia from 1980 to 2004. Judicial records of infanticide cases stored in Regional and County Courts were analyzed for the circumstances surrounding the offense. Twenty-four babies were discovered in various places during investigating period of time. The victims were almost equally divided between boys (12) and girls (11). The gender of one baby was unknown. The mean weight of babies was 2.7 SD = 0.66 kg. The perpetrators preferred rubbish-heaps (33.4%), burying in soil (16.7%), various premises in or around the house (16.7%) and garbage cans (12.5%) as places for hiding the dead babies. The most dominant cause of death in sixteen cases of live birth was asphyxia (37%) with equal distribution of smothering, stuffing the mouth with rags and strangulation. Other frequent causes of death were placing the child in a plastic bag and abandonment (25%), brain injury (25%) and wounding using a sharp weapon (12.5%). The cause of death for six babies remained unknown due to advanced decomposition. Two babies were stillborn. The age of accused mothers varied from 16 to 33, mean 24 SD=5.2 years. Most of them were unmarried (60%) and had limited formal education. They usually kept the pregnancy a secret (73%) and gave birth (93%) without public welfare assistance. The mother lived in the terror of shame and with the guilt that accompany conception without marriage. Fear seemed to be a pronounced motivating factor for committing infanticide. The data on court proceedings were available in fifteen cases. The mothers were officially indicted in all cases for infanticide under the Croatian Criminal Code. The perpetrator remained unidentified in nine suspicious crimes. The court convicted ten mothers of the crime of infanticide. Often juries were unwilling to punish the mother, citing the mother's lifelong guilt of having killed her child as enough punishment.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

Tattoo and personality traits in Croatian veterans.

To examine whether tattooed patients, treated for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) caused by war at the Ward for Psycho-trauma of the Clinical Hospital Osijek, differ from non-tattooed patients by certain personality traits. The study was conducted on one hundred Croatian veterans who were divided into two groups with respect to the presence/ absence of tattoo. To assess the symptoms of PTSD, the Clinical Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS-2) was used for all subjects. To assess personality traits the following psychology tests were applied: Purdue non-verbal IQ test, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-1), and Eysenck's Personality Questionnaire (EPQ/A and EPQ/IVE). With respect to the examined pre-traumatic variables and PTSD symptoms, the two groups manifested no differences. The non-tattooed group achieved higher scores on the IQ test (IQ=100) than the tattooed group (IQ=95). EPQ test showed results either above or below the norms on all scales that were applied. The tattooed group demonstrated significantly higher levels of impulsiveness, adventurism, empathy and neuroticism than the non-tattooed one (p < 0.05). In the group of 100 Croatian veterans treated for PTSD, 33 had tattoos and 67 did not. The results indicated more impulsiveness, adventurism / risk behavior, empathy and neuroticism in the tattooed group than in the non-tattooed group, while there was no significant difference in the intensity of the PTSD symptoms.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Epidemiological features of suicides in Osijek County, Croatia, from 1986 to 2000.

Suicide is a devastating tragedy associated with social, cultural and psychological factors. It takes approximately 1,060 lives in the Republic of Croatia each year. We retrospectively reviewed all cases referred to in the Registrar office and Police Department at Osijek County from 1986 to 2000. The cases of suicide totaled 1,017. All of the cases were analyzed as to age, gender, marital status, occupation, place and time of suicide and method of suicide. The suicide rate for the entire population of the County averaged 20.5/100,000 inhabitants per annum. The age of the suicides ranged from 15 to 92. The male to female ratio was 2.1:1. The highest suicide incidence was among the age groups from 55 to 64 (19.27%), followed by age group from 45 to 54 (16.12%). The lowest suicide incidence was among the age group < 19 (3.4%). The incidence in the group 85 > years was also low (2.06%). The suicide was frequent among people who live alone: single, widowed, divorced (47.29%). Eighty percent of victims were found in surroundings familiar to them. These included various premises of their residences. The retired, the laborers and the unemployed (67.36%) were predominant among suicide victims. The most common methods of suicide were hanging (43%), followed by firearms (24%). No correlation was found with the day of the week or the month of the year. The study showed a slightly increased rate of suicide, from 21 cases at the beginning of the investigation (in 1986) to 22.3/100,000 population fifteen years later (in 2000).

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

The influence of risperidone on cognitive functions in schizophrenia.

Introduction of the antipsychotics of the second generation (SGA) into the therapy of schizophrenia roused expectations that, finally, the cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia could be eliminated by psychopharmacological therapy. The purpose of the study was to verify the effect of atypical antipsychotic risperidone on cognitive functions in schizophrenic patients. The study was carried out upon 48 male schizophrenic patients aged 21-47 years who were switched from the antipsychotics of the first generation (FGA) to the antipsychotic risperidone, due to intolerance, during the treatment. Intelligence, abstract and concrete thinking and mental speed, attention, and short-term non-verbal memory prior to the switch, one month after the switch, and three months after the switch to risperidone, were evaluated. One month after the switch the number of subjects with severe impairment of intellectual abilities decreased significantly from 62% to 15% and after three months the number was even lower-8%. The impairment of concrete and abstract thinking and mental speed also showed the same tendencies of decrease. The improvement of the cognitive functioning after the switch from the antipsychotics of the first generation to the antipsychotic risperidone is explained by removal of the antipsychotics of the first generation from the therapy and the consequential disinhibition of secondary cognitive impairments and by decreased average dose of anticholinergic and decreased number of patients who need anticholinergic therapy beside risperidone. The possibility of clear pro-cognitive effect of risperidone is suggested and its verification is proposed with strict control of other factors that improve cognitive functioning of schizophrenic patients during the treatment.

Adult↗