The worldwide pandemic exacerbated the new role of the media.If previously the discussion was on whether new or traditional media had primacy in popularity and exposure, nowadays the question is whether communicating health issues through social and traditional media leads to understanding their content better and to more trust in both types of media.

We set the following objectives for this study:(1) to examine trust in the traditional and new media among university students,(2) according to the level of media trust to compose a psychological portrait,establish the most prevalent coping strategies,and emotional reactions to the pandemic.

213 university students (55.9% women,Mage=19 years) were tested from December 2020-March 2021.We examined the attitude towards information on coronavirus presented in the media and to investigate the level of severity of neurotic states,the level of psychological stress,and basic coping strategies used by respondents.

showed that although students generally prefer to use Internet news, trust in traditional media increased during the pandemic. We examined a general psychological portrait of young people derived from trust in the media. In the group of students who trust media information, we found indifference (39% of respondents) and helplessness (24.4%). In the group convinced that the media are hiding the actual state of affairs, anger prevailed (32.4%). The third group, confident that the media exaggerate everything, experienced indifference and anger (38.5% and 32.7%, respectively).

We may conclude that desire to learn more accurate and unbiased information firsthand indicates students’ attitude towards traditional media as more reliable sources of information.

No significant relationships.

Since the first outbreak, the Covid-19 pandemic has had and still has several implications worldwide, particularly in severe mentally ill patients, leading to multiple challenges in their management.

We aim to assess the impact and implications of the Covid-19 pandemic on patients with Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders (SSD) and the treatment recommendations available.

We conduct an integrative review using PubMed database. Search terms included: “psychosis” AND “COVID-19 pandemic”, “schizophrenia and COVID-19”, “severe mental illness” AND “COVID-19”. The search period was between 1st January 2020 and 31th July 2021.

Studies postulated that people with SSD are at a higher risk of COVID-19 infection with a poorer medical and social outcome which is attributed to factors such as higher rates of disadvantageous lifestyle behaviours, medical comorbidities, antipsychotic medication metabolic effects, psychosocial adversities, smaller social networks and poor engagement with general health services. The Covid-19 pandemic also demanded adjustments in treatment guidelines and monitoring, particularly in patients with SSD on Clozapine. Many studies address the importance of psychiatric care and treatment during the pandemic. They emphasize rapid implementation of measures to decrease the risk of COVID-19 transmission and maintain continuity care and research. An individualized and flexible approach is needed to promote safety of SSD patients.

Particular attention is required by clinicians to help SSD patients face the current pandemic situation. Future epidemiological studies are needed in order to better understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in this population and provide proper care.

No significant relationships.

Trichotillomania is a disorder (estimated prevalence 0.5-2.0%) with common onset in childhood, rarely seen in adulthood, characterized by the repetitive pulling out of one’s own hair leading to hair loss and functional impairment, associated with other comorbidities: major depression (39-65%), anxiety disorder (23-32%), SUDs (15-19%), OCD (13-27%).

To present a case of late-onset trichotillomania in a 60-year-old woman.

The present study is a case report of a patient visited in outpatient psychiatry for trichotillomania. We also searched previously case reports, series and systematic reviews of clinical trichotillomania using a pubmed query.

This is a 60-year-old morbidly obese woman diagnosed with dysthymia, binge eating disorder and histrionic personality disorder. She explained a worsening of anxiety associated with work problems of one year of evolution and, for six months, the beginning of the plucking of eyebrow hairs and scabs to decrease this symptom, with inability to avoid the behaviour and without eating the hairs. The mental evaluation highlighted psychic anxiety, hypothymia, low self-esteem and feelings of failure and did not suggest a delirium. We started treatment with topiramate up to 150mg/day which was not successful. After that we switched to fluoxetine up to 60mg/day associated to psychotherapy observing a slight gradual improvement.

The clinical presentation suggested the diagnosis of trichotillomania in the context of dysthymia. No particular medication demonstrates efficacy in the treatment of trichotillomania. Preliminary evidence suggests treatment effects of clomipramine, NAC and olanzapine based on individual trials with small sample sizes. Research findings also recommend psychotherapy based on habit reversal.

No significant relationships.

DNA-hydrolyzing catalytic IgGs have caspase-dependent cytotoxic effects in autoimmune diseases. Recently, DNA-hydrolyzing IgGs have been discovered in schizophrenia. However, their cytotoxic properties have not been studied.

To assess the effect of serum IgGs with DNA-hydrolyzing activity of schizophrenia patients on the cell viability of the SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma cell line.

Serum of 8 patients with paranoid schizophrenia in the acute phase and 7 mentally and somatically healthy persons were used. IgG was purified from serum by affinity chromatography on Protein-G-Sepharose columns. The DNA hydrolyzing activity of IgG was assessed by the degree of hydrolysis of the pBluescript plasmid. The cell viability of the SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma cell line after exposure to purified IgG preparations was assessed by high-throughput screening on the CellInsight CX7 platform (Thermo Scientific, USA) using the fluorescent dyes propidium iodide and Hoechst.

Of the 8 IgG preparation obtained, 4 drugs had high DNA-hydrolyzing activity. All tested IgG preparations from healthy donors were inactive. One-way ANOVA analysis of the proportion of dead cells of the SH-SY5Y line after exposure to antibodies (0.1 mg/ml) showed no significant differences in the proportion of dead cells (p=0.688 after 24 hours; p=0.831 after 48 hours). Similar results were obtained at a higher concentration of antibodies - 0.2 mg/ml.

Thus, it has been shown in vitro that IgGs isolated from the serum of schizophrenia patients with or without DNA-hydrolyzing activity does not exhibit cytotoxic properties against the SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma cell line. Support by Grant of RSF № 18-15-00053P.

No significant relationships.

Recent studies mostly focus on the links between measures of alpha-band EEG networks and intelligence. However, associations between wide frequency range EEG networks and general intelligence level remain underresearched.

In this study in a student sample we aimed to correlate the intelligence level and graph metrics of the sensors/sources-level networks constructed in different frequency EEG bands.

We recorded eyes-closed resting-state EEG in 28 healthy participants (21.4±2.1 y.o., 18 females, 1 left-handed). The Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices Plus (‘SPM Plus’, 60 figures) was used as an intelligence measure. We constructed networks for all possible combinations of sensors/sources-level and 4-8, 8-13, 13-30, or 4-30 Hz frequency bands using Weighted Phase-Lag Index (wPLI), and calculated four graph metrics (Characteristic Path Length, Clustering Coefficient, Modularity, and Small World Index) for each network. Spearman correlation (with Holm-Sidak correction) was applied to characterize the relations between the SPM Plus scores and all the network metrics.

SPM Plus scores varied from 35 to 57 (mean 45.3±4.2), and the intelligence level negatively correlated with Modularity in beta-band (r = -0.63, pcorr = 0.0253).

High modularity may reflect relatively high segregation, but not integration, of networks (Girn, Mills, Christoff, 2019). Accordingly, our findings may shed light on the neural mechanisms of the general inefficiency of global cognitive processing in the case of intellectual decline related to different mental disorders. Funding: This research has been supported by the Interdisciplinary Scientific and Educational School of Lomonosov Moscow State University ‘Brain, Cognitive Systems, Artificial Intelligence’.

No significant relationships.

No significant relationships.

Chronic hand eczema (CHE) , inflammatory dermatitis, can lead to physical and psychosocial disability altering the quality of life of these patients.

The objective of this study was to examine the quality of life in patients with chronic hand eczema

Descriptive study collating patients who consulted for CHE, at the Dermatology Department of the CHU Hédi Chaker Sfax, during 3 years (2018-2020). A socio-demographic, clinic , and the Quality of life Questionnaire (DLQI) were administered in this study.

Our study included 12 patients (8 men and 4 women). The mean age was 46.8±11.6 years. The patients were in professional activity in 86.8% of the cases. No patient was in early retirement or disability status. The average duration of the disease was 4.5 years (1- 9 years). All patients were in remission. The intensity of pruritus at the last attack was mild (25.77%), moderate (72.23%), and severe (2%). The impact of pruritus on sleep was noted in 100%. The mean total quality of life score (DLQI) was 6.8±5.5 which means a moderate impairment of quality of life

This work highlights the importance of the impact of this dermatitis on the quality of life of these patients. Therefore, multidisciplinary dermatological and psychiatric management is considered necessary

No significant relationships.

It is important to determine those clinical factors that imply a greater risk of rehospitalization in psychotic patients

To determine the rate and predictors of rehospitalization in psychotic patients after their first hospitalization

We include all Psychotic patients admitted for first time in their life in our Psychiatric Unit between 2009 and 2019 (N=359) , including all diagnosed according DSM-IV of Schizophrenia or other Psychotic disorders -Multiple clinical, sociodemographic and biological variables of the basal hospitalization were recorded With the SPSS program we compared the variables between patients who needed any hospitalization in the follow-up until 31th December 2019 and those who do not. We use the Chi square ( qualitative variables) and the Student T ( quantitative variables)

109 psychotic inpatients had at least one rehospitalizations (30,4%). The qualitative variables significantly associated with rehospitalization were : cannabis in urine at admission (P<0.03), and treatment with risperidone (P<0.014). Instead treatment with long acting paliperidone was associated with absence of rehospitalization (P<0.005) .The quantitative variables relationed significantly with multiple rehospitalization were : lower age (P<0,015) lower HDL cholesterol levels (P<0.02) and higher years of follow-up after discharge (P<0.000)

1-More of 30% of psychotic patients need rehospitalization after their first hospitalization in a mean of follow up of 5,8 years 2-Lower age, longer follow-up period and treatment with risperidone are significantly associated with rehospitalization , instead treatment with long acting paliperidone are significantly associated with absence of rehospitalization

No significant relationships.

Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe mental health disorder, affecting 20 million people worldwide. Diet is a social determinant of health and is among one of the modifiable prognostic factors for schizophrenics. Previous research in nutritional psychiatry has shown that a balanced and healthy diet in this patient population has the potential to improve cognition, decrease positive and negative symptoms of the disease, and improve the overall metabolic profile.1,3

To understand the evidence on the role that nutritional supplements play in improving quality of life in Schizophrenia by improving cognitive symptoms and decrease mortality by decreasing chances of metabolic syndrome and CVD. Demonstrate how certain supplements can improve cognitive symptoms, and decrease positive and negative symptoms in schizophrenics

PubMed was used to search for articles within the past 10 years

A total of 29 articles were initially generated, of which only 5 fit the search criteria. Each specific search produced more articles, and after carefully reading each, a total of 14 articles was determined to fit the criteria. All, but two articles included PANSS score assessment. The studies on vitamin D, cycloserine and omega 3’s produced conflicting

Supplementation of vitamin D, Konjac powder, D-cycloserine, sarcosine, and omega 3’s have the potential to improve symptomatology and enhance the quality of life of schizophrenics. D-serine and sodium benzoate have not been shown to be effective adjunctive treatments in schizophrenia. Due to a limited number of studies for each, more research is indicated to truly determine the public health significance.

No significant relationships.

Anhedonia is a symptom usually, and probably simplistically, defined as the inability to experience pleasure. It is considered one of the core symptoms of depression and a negative symptom of schizophrenia.

We intend to explore whether previous studies found common or dissimilar experiences of anhedonia in depression and schizophrenia.

We performed a review of the published literature on the subject using PubMed. We conducted a search using ‘anhedonia’, ‘schizophrenia’, and ‘depression’ as keywords.

There is different and diverging evidence on the matter. Historical reports associated schizophrenia with trait anhedonia, and depression with state anhedonia. More recently, some authors correlated appetitive anhedonia (lack of interest/desire) with schizophrenia, and consummatory anhedonia (lack of pleasure/enjoyment) with depression, but this was not corroborated by other studies. However, in line with it, there are findings of a normal physiological response to pleasurable stimuli among schizophrenics. Some authors propose that, in schizophrenia, this symptom might not represent an inability to feel pleasure but rather a deficient expression of its experience, as a part of blunted affect. Reward models highlight a deficit in reward learning in depression, but disorganization of reward processing and a focus on irrelevant clues in schizophrenia, which prevent patients from pursuing a pleasurable experience.

There are still limited studies comparing the experience of anhedonia in depression and schizophrenia. There seem to be significant differences between the two, but further studies are needed. In particular, this could be important in screening schizophrenic patients for depression.

No significant relationships.

Huntington’s disease (HD) is a rare (1-9/100 000), inherited disease characterized by an elongated CAG repeat on chromosome 4p, leading to a degeneration of neurons. Also, psychiatric symptoms are very common in the early stage and may appear before motor symptoms.

To characterize neuropsychiatric symptoms in a group of individuals with manifest or pre-motor Huntington’s disease in Medellín, Colombia.

Data obtained from clinical records of individuals with HD (motor-manifest or pre-motor with triplets count) evaluated for ENROLL-HD project in the Group of Neuroscience of Antioquia. We explored variables related to substances abuse, neuropsychiatric symptoms, the respective age of onset, sex, and triplet count when available.

Twenty-six (53%) were women, 8% had a familiar history of psychotic illness in a first-degree relative and 88% presented motor symptoms. Also, 59% had a history of depression, 53% irritability, 57% aggressiveness, 34% apathy, 29% perseverative/obsessive behavior, 14% psychosis, and 30% mild cognitive impairment. Ten individuals (20%) had motor without neuropsychiatric symptoms. Also, thirty-seven individuals (76%) presented motor and neuropsychiatric symptoms; of these, 41% had neuropsychiatric symptoms before motor symptoms. No psychiatric symptoms were associated with the use of alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs of abuse.

Neuropsychiatric symptoms are highly prevalent among individuals with HD and studies oriented to create relevant knowledge for the development of advice oriented to people with this disease are necessary.

No significant relationships.

Charles Bonnet syndrome (CBS) is defined like visual hallucinations found in individuals who are not necessarily mentally ill, who have visual impairment and no cognitive deficits. Although CBS make reference to visual hallucinations, in this case we are going to deal about Auditory Charles Bonnet Syndrome (aCBS), a very infrequent condition that consists in the presentation of musical hallucinations in patients with sensorineural hearing loss and which etiology is not clearly due to a psychiatric condition.

Review the scientific literature available on aCBS to see how much we know about this syndrome.

Review of available literature sources were obtained through electronic search in PubMed database.

Musical hallucination is a complex form of auditory hallucinations. The most common of these are idiopathic and they present in elderly patients with deafness or impaired audition, which suggests a deterioration of cerebral function. The pathophysiologic mechanism is not understood. These patients tend to have intact reality tests. The time course is variable. In those cases in which it is possible, treating the hearing loss can lead to a significant improvement of the symptom. However, when every this strategies are insufficient, pharmacological treatments can be considered.

- aCBS is an uncommon condition characterized by the presence of complex auditory hallucinations that mainly affect elderly patients with hearing loss. - In most cases there is no previous psychiatric history. - The etiology and pathophysioplogic are not well defined. - There is no etiological treatment. We can use pharmacological and no pharmacological methods of treatment.

No significant relationships.

Physical restraint is a therapeutic procedure allowing to immobilize an agitated patient.Although it is an effective method especially in the states of psychomotor instability, its practice is not devoid of risks which imposes a codified technique with particular monitoring.

The aim of this work was to evaluate the knowledge of nurses and nursing assistants in the practice and monitoring of physical restraint and to establish a suitble protocol codifing it.

Our study was a descriptive cross-sectional study based on a questionnaire grouping together a set of questions on general and professional characteristics, the decision of physical restraint, its prescription, its means, its monitoring, informing the patient and his relatives, physical restraint’s risks, the patient’s experience, the caregiver’s experience as well as the relationship between caregiver and patient. Our target population was composed of nurses and orderlies of the psychiatry department <<D>> of the Razi hospital in Manouba.

We collected 30 professinals.90% of them were women. 30% of our sample had less than five years of experience. Only 23.30% of caregivers had mental health training at the beginning of their professional career. 50% of them received training focused on physical restraint.83.30% reported using physical restraint for psychomotor agitation.56.6% ignored the psychological effects of the physical straint on patients. 73.3% of caregivers informed patients before straint.

A physical restraint protocol, codifying the technique of implementation and monitoring parameters is needed in order to improve the relation patient-cargiver and ensure an optimal care .

No significant relationships.

Leadership in healthcare organisations is crucial to continually improve and provide high quality compassionate care. Leadership development and training enables the psychiatrists in developing these essential skills. Focusing on how to enhance leadership development through leadership skills training and experiential learning should be a priority. However, little is known about the extent to which this leadership skills training is available across Europe in the early stage of the career of psychiatrists.

To investigate the access to leadership development opportunities among European psychiatric trainees and early career psychiatrists (ECPs) and their perceptions related to leadership skills training.

Cross-sectional study, using an online survey consisting of multiple-choice questions and free text responses.

Participants from 33 European countries took part in this survey, where the majority were female. More than half were general adult psychiatric trainees and more than a quarter ECPs. About half indicated having no access to leadership skills training within their training program, with only about 10% being satisfied with the training received. About half sought additional training outside their program. A vast majority requested training in leadership skills to be included in a psychiatric training program.

Our study provides an overview of important gaps in availability and access to leadership skills training amongst psychiatric trainees and ECPs across Europe. We hope that this study will help inform future actions pertaining to development and improvement of leadership skills training for trainees and ECPs across Europe.

No significant relationships.

Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) presents a significant challenge in clinical practice. Besides antidepressant medications, neurostimulation methods (ECT, rTMS) and ketamine are viable treatment options.

To objectively evaluate the real effectiveness of treatments within interventional psychiatry in the maintenance treatment.

The extensive literature review of the efficacy of ECT, rTMS, and ketamine treatment in the maintenance treatment of TRD and the author’s clinical and research experience will be included in this presentation.

Neurostimulation, particularly ECT and ketamine treatment are usually effective treatments for patients with TRD. However, both of these treatment modalities do not have sustained benefits and after discontinuing treatment the majority of patients relapse. Ketamine has rapid therapeutic effects in depression, but these effects are short-lived. Continuation treatment with ketamine in the form of intranasal ketamine is an option, but concerns over cognitive impairment, interstitial cystitis and significant addictive potential related to longer use of ketamine are significant limiting factors. rTMS is a first-line treatment option for patients with TRD according to the Canadian CANMAT guidelines. However, the majority of patients may relapse following the course of rTMS. The maintenance rTMS over an extended period of time is usually not feasible as it may significantly affect the waiting time for newly referred patients. Portable TMS machine for home use would be an alternative option for a limited number of patients.

Maintenance treatment has been always a big clinical challenge in mood disorder psychiatry. Only well-established multimodal treatment is a realistic option for getting long-term benefits in treating patients with TRD.

No significant relationships.

The last two decades have seen the timeliness of studying the connection between suicides and drunkenness

To evaluate the significance of suicidal risk factors in patients who had committed suicides while being under the effect of alcohol so as to be able to forecast suicidal risks and prevent suicides within this group

The authors have carried out an analysis of medical documentation of suicides committed in the Sverdlovsk region. The data on suicides has been taken from forensic expertise acts. The following factors have been taken into account: age, gender, social status of suicide victim, supplementary somatic pathology, and concentration of alcohol in the victim’s blood

Alcoholic addiction is a behavioral indicator of suicidal risk. The level of suicidal activity in persons with the syndrome of alcoholic addiction is much higher than within the general populace. The age of 25-49 is the peak of suicidal attempts among patients with chronic alcoholism. Genuine suicides prevail during the first stage of chronic alcoholism. The patients are inclined to demonstrate pathological suicidal reactions to social misplacement that show themselves in the form of conflicts within the family and at work. In addition to genuine suicidal attempts made by males in the state of abstinence

The results received confirm the role of the alcoholic factor in the formation of suicidal behavior and have the aim of elaborating new forms and methods to help prevent suicides committed in the state of alcoholic drunkenness

No significant relationships.

The clinical differentiation of anxiety can play an important role, particularly in response to treatment. Patients with generalized anxiety disorders (GAD) reflect anxiety, therefore questionnaires are effective. Previous attempts to create a questionnaire assessing the quality of anxiety assessed only one aspect – tolerance to uncertainty (3). The new questionnaire covers such aspects of anxiety as behavioral manifestation, hypochondria, relation to cognition, personal trait and expectation from treatment.

Clinical testing of the questionnaire.

38 GAD patients (total score of Hamilton depression rating scale 27±4.7), aged 42.5±13, 75% females and 38 healthy volunteers aged 36.5±11, 74% females. The questionnaire included 8 statements, (two of them have subparagraphs). The testing version does not include statement about expectations from treatment. It takes 10 minutes to fill it out.

The difference between groups were found in following statements:

“I am often told that a am worried about small things” (χ2 22 p=0.00001)–behavioral presentation of anxiety.

“When I am anxious, I find it difficult to concentrate” (χ23,6 p=0.059)–cognitive aspect.

“My anxiety is getting worse, when I can’t complete the task strictly according to the instruction” (χ2 13.6 p=0.0002) -obsessive aspect.

“My anxiety is getting worse, when something goes wrong” (χ2=9 p=0.002)-obsessive aspect.

“My anxiety is getting worse, when I need to make my own decision” (χ29 p=0.003)- narcissism

“My anxiety is getting worse when I have to hold back irritation or discontent” (χ24.2 p=0.04)-narcissism.

Only part of statements differs GAD patients from healthy volunteers, but they cover different fields of mental functioning.

No significant relationships.

Eating disorders are widespread illnesses with significant impact. There is growing concern about how those at risk of eating disorders overuse online resources to their detriment.

We present systematically gathered and pooled quantitative evidence from our review and meta-analysis study which aimed to provide a quantitative synthesis of all available data linking problematic usage of the internet (PIU) and eating disorder and related psychopathology. We synthesize how PUI influences eating disorder and related psychopathology, and examine what the moderating parameters influencing this relationship are.

Our systematic review and meta-analysis protocol was pre-registered electronically in PROSPERO international register and included case-control studies using correlational statistics of association between internet use (various facets) and eating disorder psychopathology. Experimental and prospective studies are systematically reviewed separately.

The meta-analysis comprised n=32,295 participants, in which PUI was correlated with significant eating disorder general psychopathology Pearson r=0.22 (s.e.=0.04, p<0.001), body dissatisfaction r=0.16 (s.e.=0.02, p<0.001), drive-for-thinness r=0.16 (s.e.=0.04, p<0.001) and dietary restraint r = 0.18 (s.e.=0.03). Effects were not moderated by gender, PUI facet or study quality. Results are in support of PUI impacting on eating disorder symptoms; males may be equally vulnerable to these potential effects. Prospective and experimental studies in the field suggest that small but significant effects exist and may have accumulative influence over time and across all age groups.

Those findings are important to expand our understanding of PUI as a multifaceted concept and its impact on multiple levels of ascertainment of eating disorder and related psychopathology. Putative specific effects of PUI on EDs are discussed.

No significant relationships.

Timely and accurate information is foundational to moderating and curing the COVID-19 for both the public and the scientific community, while repeated media exposure to crisis-related information raises stress and anxiety among general population.

The main goal of the current study was to evaluate the associations between the COVID-19-related information sources and anxiety levels.

An online web-survey recruited participants who were ≥18 years old and lived in Romanian through an online campaign in May 2021. Participants were asked whether they received COVID-19-related information frequently from the following sources: the Internet, traditional media, medical staff in health care settings or from friends, co-workers, or family members. We also assessed participants’ level of anxiety with Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and the cut-off point for anxiety index was set at 45. The associations of each information source with anxiety were examined using multiple regression analyses to control for sex, age, education and other demographic characteristics.

In total, the data of 1559 respondents (1224 female; mean age = 37.03 years and standard deviation (SD)=12.90 years) were analysed. The mean index score for SAS were 44.28 (SD=10.6). The major source of information on COVID-19 was the Internet (59.20%) and medical stuff (58.27%), almost in equal measure, followed by traditional media (48.17%) and friends, co-workers, and family members (30.72%).

Receiving COVID-19 information from the Internet and traditional media was positively correlated with anxiety level (p=0.01), while receiving COVID-19 information from medical-stuff was associated with low levels of anxiety (p=0.03).

No significant relationships.

Fetal or neonatal hypoxia (FoNH) is a known risk factor for schizophrenia. It has been hypothesized that FoNH induced expression of schizophrenia susceptibility genes (Schmidt-Kastner et al. 2012, Giannopoulou et al. 2018).

To test this hypothesis, we explore the effects of FoNH and some genetic variants on age at onset (AAO) of schizophrenia.

The study included 1670 patients (women 1021 (61.1%), mean age 34.6 (SD 13.6), mean age at disease onset 25.4 (10.5) years) with ICD-10 diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective psychosis. The effects of FoNH in interaction with sex, family history (FH) and genetic variants on AAO of schizophrenia were evaluated. Polymorphisms rs2514218 DRD2 (n=943), Val66Met BDNF (n=820) and VNTR AS3MT (n=804) were genotyped.

Among all patients studied 179 (10.8%) had experienced FoNH. Regression model showed that FoNH, sex and FH of schizophrenia contribute significantly (p=0.000) to AAO. In the FoNH group, AAO was lower compared to the group without FoNH (20.7 (6.2) vs 25.5 (10.) years). When comparing men and women, there was a difference between FoNH and non- FoNH subgroups only in women (p=0.000). No interaction between FH and FoNH was observed though positive FH had an effect on AAO. There was the interaction effect of VNTR AS3MT and FoNH on AAO. In the FoNH group, carriers of 2 repeats had younger AAO compared to the carriers homozygous for 3 repeat variant (19.6 (4.9) vs 22. (7.6) years).

We demonstrate the interaction effects of FoNH and VNTR AS3MT polymorphism on AAO of schizophrenia.

No significant relationships.