Feridun Bulbul

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) offers a treatment option for mood disorders during pregnancy. We retrospectively examined 12 pregnant patients who were treated with ECT for their mood disorders. The mean ± SD age of the patients was 28.1 ± 4.8 years. The mean ± SD number of ECTs performed was 9.8 ± 4.5. The mean ± SD Clinical Global Impression score was decreased from 6 to 2.6 ± 0.7 with ECT. No significant adverse events were observed other than early delivery in one patient and pes ekinovarus deformity in a newborn that was most probably not related to ECT causally. Electroconvulsive therapy seems to be an effective and safe treatment option in pregnant patients with mood disorders.

To investigate the effects of recurrent electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) on cardiac function as assessed by echocardiography. Twenty-three patients (11 males and 12 females) with different psychiatric disorders who were apparently free of any cardiovascular disorders and underwent ECT were enrolled in the study. Echocardiographic findings including diastolic mitral inflow and tissue Doppler features were recorded at baseline and at the end of the 7th and last ECT in all patients. The mean age of the patients was 37.95 ± 13.28 years (range 19-71). There was no significant difference in mitral E wave velocities and tissue Doppler E' velocities between the baseline and after the 1st ECT (p = 0.161 and p = 0.083, respectively). The results were similar after the last ECT session (p = 0.463 and p = 0.310, respectively). However, there was a significant increase in transmitral A wave velocity after the 1st and 7th ECT session compared to the values at baseline (p = 0.008 and p = 0.017, respectively). The mitral diastolic inflow A wave velocity increased 20 min after ECT, and this increase persisted after recurrent ECT sessions. This finding could be considered as an indicator of acutely increased sympathetic tone.

Nondipper pattern of blood pressure (BP) is associated with cardiovascular risk. In this study, we compared dipper versus nondipper patterns between normotensive patients with panic disorder (PD) and a control group. A total of 25 normotensive patients with PD and 25 controls were enrolled. Twenty-four-hour ambulatory BP monitoring was performed in all patients. At least 10% of sleep-related nocturnal decrease in systolic and diastolic BP was accepted as dipper status, while decreases <10% were defined as a nondipper. Patients with PD had significantly higher incidence of nondipper BP pattern than controls. The reduction of nighttime BP in both systolic and diastolic and mean BP was significantly lower in patients with PD than in the control group (7.6% ± 4.3% vs 13% ± 3.9%, P < .001; 11% ± 7% vs 15% ± 5%, P = .004; 9% ± 5% vs 14% ± 4%, P = .002, respectively). Panic disorder is associated with nondipper BP pattern, causing impaired circadian BP in normotensive settings.

Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer amongst women today. The aim of this study was to examine the association between complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and the quality of life (QoL), anxiety and depression and demographic characteristics of women with breast cancer. QoL was measured by the European Organization for Treatment and Research of Cancer quality of life core questionnaire (QLQ-C30, version 3.0) and anxiety and depression was measured by the hospital anxiety and depression scale. In total, 122 patients with breast cancer were enrolled in the study and 50% (n = 61) of them reported that they were using CAM. The most commonly used CAM methods were stinging nettle (57%) and prayer and spiritual healing (49%). No relationship was found between the use of CAM and the patient's age, time to diagnosis, cancer stage, chemotherapy use, smoking and residence. However, the analyses showed a positive association between CAM and role functioning (P = 0.014) and financial difficulties (P = 0.011); and a negative association between CAM and emotional functioning (P = 0.033). Based on the previous studies, 20-83.3% of breast cancer patients among different countries and cultures used CAM. Our results suggested that the use of CAM among women is quite popular, but they showed no correlation between CAM usage and anxiety and depression. In addition, CAM usage was more common in breast cancer patients with a poor emotional and financial status.