ARTICLES ARCHIVE

In the contemporary political, economic, social and cultural conditions the problem of development and use of women's potential, choosing the correct life line that helps to preserve the integrity of the inner world of the individual is urgent. To determine the level of self−actualization and personality qualities of women from crisis families and divorced women, comparative analysis of combinations of factors by R. B. Kettle's scale was done. The findings of the study showed that in women from both groups the average level by all scales of self−actualization was present. Thus among the divorced women there was a significant percentage of those with a high level on a scale of self−esteem, and among the women from crisus families −− a low level of support, values, flexibility of behavior. The women in both groups revealed a high level of psychological tension according to psychological protection of substitution, in the group of divorced women −− denial. The difference between the two groups of women in terms of self−actualization and personal qualities was determined. Thus, women from crisis families vs. divorced were more sociable, open, willing to cooperate, emotionally stable, willing to endure the difficulties in communicating with people in emotionally stressful situations. They were careful, tended to shift the responsibility for mistakes; more focused on their inner world; sensible, independent; tended to have their own opinions, energetic, tense, frustrated, angry; contact; more aggressive, independent, try to choose a situation in which their behavior could be tolerated. They had more pronounced tension according to almost all psychological defenses (regression, compensation, projection, substitution, intellectualization); they were less self−actualized. Instead, divorced women were more closed, harsh in assessing people, distrustful; more emotionally unstable, impulsive, had a lower tolerance to frustration, increased sensitivity to threats; they were more compliant, practical, realistic but also more dependent on the opinions of others and guided by socially acceptable behavior. The divorced women more frequently than those from crisis families took responsibility for their lives, were more self−actualized (scale of competence in time, support, values, flexibility of behavior, self−esteem, self−acceptance, synergies, acceptance of aggression and creativity). A number of issues that could deepen the idea of self−realization and personal qualities of women in crisis situations remained unsolved. However the findings of the study could be useful for professionals in when rendering medical and psychological assistance to women from crisis families and divorced women.

Today's world is marked by a crisis of the family. The family is going through a difficult phase due to the transformation the roles of the spouses, which in some cases leads to a lack of desire to create it or preserve and strengthen. Based on clinical−psychological and psychodiagnostic examination of 321 couples, disorders of family relationships and addictive behavior were diagnosed in women, personality traits of the spouses were identified. The study of women with chemical addiction revealed significant differences on depression scale. Their husbands formed significantly less capacity to confront the negative effects of addiction in women that affected their psycho−emotional state and self−regulation skills. The women with addiction behavior had differences in terms of shyness, irritability, imbalance, and emotional lability, neurotism. The women with physiological addiction were characterized by neurotism, shyness and emotional lability. Reduction of emotional lability and balance in women and men can be interpreted as development of maladjustment. The women from families with health disorders were most unbalanced, irritable, with a high spontaneous aggressiveness. These features combined with the same men were in the base for development of family health problems and determined the way of control of psycho−emotional stress and frustration reactions other than addictive, characteristic of women from the studied groups. The main variants for combining individual psychological characteristics of groups of women and men were distinguished. The data helped to identify targets for psychological treatment and psychopreventive support of the family health at addictive behavior in women.

The problem of chemical addiction, an be seen as a «challenge» to modern society and social psychiatry due to the epidemiological prevalence and complexity of the associated medical, social and legal problems. The use of psychoactive substances (PS), as a variant of chemical addiction is an urgent problem both in Ukraine and abroad. The survey of students of A. A. Bogomolets National Medical University (Kyiv) allowed to perform correlation analysis, which revealed relationship between the studied adaptive psychophysiological parameters of the respondents and the fact of substance abuse. Thus, sleep disorders due to substance abuse positively correlated with irritability without their use, relief under the influence of psychoactive substance; worsening of mood without the substance positively correlated with vegetovascular disorders, complaints of poor health, affect of boredom, depression. Thus, it was proven that adaptation disorders were an integral part of symptom−complex at psychoactive substance abuse. The obtained findings were used to create adaptive case management for prevention of addictive behavior in students who use psychoactive substances, which included staged system of information, psychotherapeutic and sociocorrective actions.

Alopecia is a disease with unknown etiology, not studied completely, which causes difficulty in finding effective methods of its treatment. The main condition for this is achievement of the internal tranquility of the patient, therefore the presence of emotional exhaustion and psychological problems, which had led to development of alopecia, psychocorrection is needed along with therapy. To investigate the psychoemotional sphere of the patients with alopecia and evaluate proposed by the author complex psychosocial support, 114 women with hair loss were investigated. The study used sociodemographic, clinical, psychopathological, psychodiagnostic methods. Evaluation of the mental and emotional state of the patients, determining the main parameters that influence formation of their psychosocial maladjustment, testify to its presence in all individuals at the time of the initial examination. The targets of psychocorrection were identified programs of psychosocial support were developed using the elements of body−oriented, rational emotional, cognitive−behavioral therapy, social and psychological training. The psychosocial support in the majority of patients with alopecia resulted in improvement of performance at the psycho−emotional, personal levels and in the field of social functioning. Thus, the proposed psychosocial support program for women with alopecia demonstrated its efficiency, it allows to improve mental and emotional state of the patients, to form adaptive behavior patterns, increase the level of general adaptation and quality of life.

One of the priorities of modern psychiatry is the study of anxiety and depressive disorders due to their prevalence, including among children and adolescents. In order to study the features of cognitive functioning of children with anxiety and depressive disorders, the phenomenology of cognitive insufficiency in age− and gender−related aspects, as well as the role of cognitive disorders in the child's psychological maladjustment, we investigated 160 patients aged 6−14. The diagnosis of anxiety and depressive disorders in children was made in accordance with the ICD−10 criteria. Clinical, psychopathological, somatoneurological, pathopsychological methods were used. The study demonstrated that memory and attention disorders were most pronounced in children aged 6−9 and 10−11, while the decline in school performance and decreased performance in adolescents aged 12−14. In the period of 6−14 years of age the boys demonstrated more pronounced than in girls disorders of cognitive functions. The more pronounced emotional disorders were, the more pronounced were memory, attention and performance disorders. Cognitive disorders, reduction of mental and general activity, decrease in self−esteem cause social withdrawal and a lack of social support. Such conditions can lead to serious social consequences (suicide, substance abuse, delinquent behavior). Thus, significant cognitive disorders were revealed in children with anxiety and depressive disorders which necessitates development of effective diagnostic programs and psycho−therapeutic intervention at the early stages of the disease.

Acne is one of the most common causes for visits to dermatologists and cosmetologists. The presence of acne changes the appearance of the patient and causes shifts in his/her mental health. To determine the targets of medical and psychological impact on the patients with acne, we performed investigation at scientific and medical association «Medstroy» in 2014−2016. BDI, methodology of Ch. D. Spielberger −− Yu. L. Hanin, FPI−B, method «Methods of overcoming behavior» by R. Lazarus, diagnosis of interpersonal relations by T. Leary and psychosocial adaptation of K. Rogers and P. Diamond were used. The results of studying the characteristics of mental and emotional state, personality and behavioral patterns and psychosocial functioning of patients with acne established a target of medical and psychological impact. It was determined that the specific targets for the patients with acne were the problems with self−acceptance and the construction of interpersonal interaction. It was found that women with acne experienced a higher degree of psychological maladjustment that resulted in differentiation of psychological interventions in the duration and intensity. The program of medical and psychological aid included psychoeducational, counseling and training activities, which consisted of 10−15 thematic meeting, which was due to substantial features and severity of psychological maladjustment. Medical and psychological aid to the patients with this dermatological pathology is an important part of their treatment.

At present, arterial hypertension is regarded one of the factors of cognitive dysfunction and is an urgent medical and social issue. But to date, the mechanisms and features of formation of early cognitive disorders at the initial stages of cerebrovascular insufficiency against a background of hypertension are still poorly understood, which requires a search for specific neuropsychiatric, neuropsychological markers that can serve as a basis for development of individual treatment and prevention programs for this category of patients. This became the basis for a more detailed study of the problem of cognitive disorders in patients with depressive disorders in combination with hypertension, elucidation of their effects, as well as vascular encephalopathy on the degree of cognitive deficit. otoneurological study revealed that the patients had disorders of majority of neurological characteristics of varying degrees except for consciousness that was clear. In the early stages of hypertension, these phenomena were unstable and were enhanced with an increase or a sharp decrease in the previously high blood pressure and weakened by its stabilization at a moderately elevated level. Therefore, cognitive disorders are an important manifestation of vascular insufficiency or dyscirculatory encephalopathy which determines the severity of the patient's condition. Such disorders are the main diagnostic criterion of dyscirculatory encephalopathy and are the best marker for evaluating the dynamics of the disease. It should be noted that correction of cognitive impairment is often crucial not only to improve the quality of life of the patient but also of his relatives.

Since the middle of the 20th century a serious shift in defining the leading cause of death among children and teenagers from the death caused by infectious diseases to the death provoked by behavior that endangers health has been noted. Risky behavior is officially recognized by the WHO as the world's leading cause of adolescent death, but the term «risky behavior» remains somewhat complicated and often ambiguous in modern psychology. The paper aims to analyze the changes in defining adolescent risky behavior and compare the differences between the Ukrainian and western approaches to the phenomenon. The definition of risky behavior which the author stands by is the one proposed by Hurrelmann K. and Richter M. in 2006: «the behavior that is directly or indirectly connected with health, wellbeing and healthy development of personality». The analysis of the scientific resources allowed to distinguish between the following types of adolescent risky behavior: all types of behavior that are connected with causing physical self−damage; dangerous sexual; alcohol and drug abuse; tobacco abuse; unjustified risk; antisocial behavior; unhealthy eating behavior; insufficient exercising. Clustering of different types of risky behavior in one person is the most perilous factor for having serious deficits in adolescent's physical and mental health both at the moment, and in their life to come. Though there are certain sex differences in clustering of risky behaviors, when 4 or more types of risky behavior are combined no significant differences in sexes were detected. Neurovisualization methods allowed to relate risky behavior patterns formation with reward system structures (dopamine neural pathways in ventromedial prefrontal cortex, amygdala, midbrain structures, parietal lobe, striatum); biological mechanisms of self−control and self−regulation formation (prefrontal lobe); decision−making structures (frontal cortical and subcortical monoaminergic systems). Risky behavior, as it is viewed in modern western medical psychology, is a global biopsychosocial phenomenon associated with an individual's physical and mental health, while for Ukrainian researchers risky behavior is still related to deviant or self−destructive behavior. Risky behavior should be studied as an actual object of medical psychology rather than age or education psychology solely.

At present cancer is a significant medical and social problem. High level of mental injury in cancer patients is indicated by prevalence of mental disorders, increased risk of suicide, and the need of psychopharmacotherapy. This study was conducted at Kyiv City Clinical Cancer Center in 2014−2016 to determine the severity and characteristics of general anxiety, personal and situational anxiety, depression in cancer patients at diagnostic phase of treatment. HADS scale and questionnaire for self−assessment of trait and state anxiety by C. D. Spielberger −− Y. L. Hanin were used. Anxiety and depression of subclinical and clinical level of severity were observed in cancer patients at the diagnostic phase of treatment. High levels of anxiety and depressive manifestations indicated acute mental stress reactions associated with cancer and features of diagnostic stage. The women demonstrated higher levels of anxiety and depression compared with men. High mental distress determined the importance of the organization and provision of psychological help to cancer patients at this stage.

It is commonly known that road accidents injury rate depends to a greater degree on a human factor. The purpose of the work was to investigate the driver's mental condition impact on road−traffic safety. The following investigation methods were used: conversation, questionnaire, experimental and psychological statistical research methods. The findings of the investigation demonstrated that the great majority of the respondents (77.7 %) had decreased indices of the short−term memory, 55.5 % of them had both short−term and long−term memory disorders. As well as those of attention, visual−motor reactions (simple, complex), and personality features. Consequently, a part of respondents composed the risk group, the members of which were inclined to incorrect actions endowing negative tendencies to safe transport vehicles driving. The experimental findings allowed to work out the parameters for assessment of the driver reliability, which can aid in objective evaluation of his state during the examination. This approach will allow systemic analysis of various exponents of personality characteristics and control of the dynamics of the mental state and psychological state of the drivers.

The external defects of the skin cause psychologically powerful mental shift in patients with cosmetic problems. This study was conducted at the Medical Center «CA Clinic» (Kyiv) in 2014−2016 to reveal the features of structure interpersonal−oriented psychopathological symptoms in patients with cosmetic problems. The symptoms severity was assessed using SCL−90−R technique. It was revealed that the psychological state of women with low self−esteem was characterized by high interpersonal sensitivity with symptoms of shyness, discomfort in public, a sense of inferiority and loneliness, annoyance, feeling of being punished, guilt. The patients with high self−esteem were characterized by displeasure and distrust to the environment, sensation that people treated them unsympathetically, unfriendly and were responsible for their troubles; loneliness, underestimating their achievements were present. They often had conflicts, which could be accompanied by displays of verbal and physical aggression. Our study suggests that women with cosmetic problems form a mixed group with different psychological characteristics and it should considered in providing psychological help.

Medical and social consequences of schizophrenia attract the attention of not only experts, but also the whole society. An important issue to improve the outcomes of this disease is an effective treatment, which is based on the patient's compliance to the therapeutic process. Its violation leads to deterioration of schizophrenia prognosis and recovery necessitating determining the clinical and individual psychological correlates and predictors of violated drug compliance. To determine the individual psychological predictors of compliance violations, patients with paranoid schizophrenia with different course were examined. The study used a questionnaire by Leonhard −− Shmishek. The results showed that individual psychological predictors of low−level drug compliance with continuous course of the disease were affective−rigid personality traits, with occasional −− accentuated excitable, with remitting −− accentuated cyclotomic, with a tendency to accentuation −− affective exalted. In patients with a high level of compliance, the prevailing trends are pedantic accentuation features at a continuous course, with occasional −− anxiety traits, with relapsing −− accentuated anxious personalities. The data obtained can be used in development the programs of medical and psychological influence in the practice of management of patients with paranoid schizophrenia.

Clinical psychopathological and psychodiagnostic investigation using Beck scale was conducted to establish the structure and characteristics of depression in women with neurotic anxiety and depressive disorders of various origin and to substantiate differentiation of therapeutic approaches to the treatment. The study group included female internal refugees and wives of servicemen who took part in the ATO. The findings showed that mood disorders, feeling of failure, irritability, abuse of social ties, indecision prevailed among the symptoms of cognitive−affective component of depression in the internal refugees (p ? 0.001). It may be noted that the disorders of cognitive affective sphere were caused by the symptoms that reflected «vitality» of the feelings about «shattered lives», «irreversibility of the past». These differences can be explained by different motivational mechanisms. Thus, in the presence of social support from the relatives or other relevant persons, the wives of the ATO members demonstrated greater responsibility and control of the symptoms of depression. The obtained data were the basis for a comprehensive differentiated system of specialized medical care for women with neurotic anxiety and depressive disorders of various origins.

Treatment, rehabilitation, psychocorrection, adaptation and resocializing the patients with schizophrenia is an urgent and difficult task of modern psychiatry and medical psychology. Recently, treatment and rehabilitation approaches at schizophrenia has changed greatly. The transition to the western model of psychiatric aid was accompanied by the changes of the paradigm of doctor−patient interaction from restrictive to constructive in the direction from paternalist model to partner one, which considers the interests of the patient, his inner world, thoughts and beliefs, ideas about the own health, quality of the aid, his own life as a whole. In the context of this model main attention is paid to maximum elimination of negative signs and cognitive deficiency, which contribute greatly to the patient disability as well as maximum adaptation and socialization of the patients. The analysis of contemporary ideas about complex treatment of paranoid schizophrenia, the peculiarities of interaction in the system mother−child in the families where the mother is ill with schizophrenia as well as the original clinical experience show that these issues are still unsolved and controversial. This necessitates the further investigation of the above problems with the purpose to develop and implement psychocorrection measures aimed at optimizing child−patient interaction when the mother is ill with paranoid schizophrenia, which is an urgent issue in improvement the efficacy of medical aid to the patients with mental diseases and their families.

At present, the importance of family and family relations in development and course of schizophrenia in patients are obvious. The family members care for the patient personally and provide not only practical help but also emotional support to the mentally ill relative in spite of the fact that The character of former emotional relationships changes very often. the study of 320 patients and their close relatives (mothers or wives) was performed at Kharkiv Regional Neuropsychiatric Hospital in 2012−2016 in order to investigate the clinical and psychological peculiarities of the state of the psycho−emotional sphere in the wives and mothers suffering from paranoid schizophrenia with long terms of illness. using psychopathological and psychodiagnostic methods were examined . It was established that the psycho−emotional complaints consisted of depressive affective disorders and anxiety−depression disorders, cognitive disorders and obsessive−compulsive symptoms. The disorders of the psycho−emotional sphere in wives and mothers with schizophrenia are polymorphic in nature (79.6 % of wives and 82.5 % of mothers showed more than three symptoms at a time) and are characterized by prevalence in the wives of anxiety−depressive and obsessive−compulsive symptoms, and in mothers of the signs of asthenia, apathy, depressive symptoms and cognitive disorders. The results of the study were used to develop a complex of measures of psychological correction psycho−emotional disorders in wives and mothers of the patients with paranoid schizophrenia with long term of illness.

The main difficulty in differential diagnosis of endogenous catatonia is the presence in its structure of components having low pathognomonic features and presented as part of a wide range of mental and neurological disorders, as well as some physiological and induced states. In addition, since the beginning of the neuroleptic era, a wide range of pharmacogenic catatonicomimetic states forming from the early stages of therapy and masking endogenous catatonia, sometimes replacing them (in particular, disappearance of endogenous catatonia under the influence of therapy with simultaneous formation of neuroleptic syndrome), has appeared. In order to identify and analyze the clinical semiotics, structural and dynamic features and trends in the pathomorphism of endogenous catatonia, investigation of patients with catatonic psychopathology spectrum was conducted. The study identified four groups of factors of catatonic syndrome pathomorphism: pharmacogenic, toxic, alterative, involutional, which are organized into two vectors: functional (pharmacogenic and toxic group) and morphological (alterative and involution group). Typology of catatonia pathomorphism was formed; the frequency of its occurrence in the investigated group was determined. The structural and dynamic deviations of catatonic syndrome influenced by pharmacogenic, toxic, alterative and involution factors were established. Graphic models were presented. Common hierarchical rules of interaction between different groups of pathomorphism factors for individual clusters of psychiatric semiotics in the structure of the catatonic syndrome: psychomotor, behavioral, dyskinetic, pharmacogenic, suneidetic, were formulated.

Introduction of new methods of comprehensive care to patients with a primary psychotic episode, which is a serious biological and social stress not only for the patient but also for his family, including because of their stigmatization, has become urgent at present. This underlines the advisability of including family psychotherapy with elements of psychoeducation to the complex of early treatment and rehabilitation for the above patients. With this purpose, we examined women who had a primary psychotic episode, their husbands, and investigated the features of marital, child−parent relationships in their families. The study used socio−demographic, clinical pathopsychological, psychodiagnostic, follow−up, statistical methods. Given the maladaptive characteristics of the women, the targets of psychocorrection were identified; two psychosocial support programs (aimed at the patient and the family) were built. As a result of support aimed at the family, which included psyhoeducation, individual, family and group psychocorrection, significant positive changes in maladaptive characteristics were noted at psycho−emotional, personal and psychosocial levels in almost all patients. These changes were significantly more considerable compared to the women who had the support aimed at patients, which proves the effectiveness of the implemented family−centered activities.

The article features topical issues of studying the manifestations of depression and the study of their levels in children from the families of internal refugees. The article points the most common traumatic factors that cause the occurrence of a stressful situation for the child, and the further development of post−traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); relationship of psychological characteristics of the child and adolescent personality and originality of phenomenology of PTSD. The main manifestations of the psychological state of children who were under the influence of traumatic situations and the relationship of stressful factors and the occurrence of depressive states in this cohort of children were investigated. The study determined the characteristics of mental states and personality characteristics in children−internal refugees. The scale of depression by T. I. Balashova was used to receive the levels of depression (LD) in the investigated for whom a personality profile of LD was built. The main regularities of appearance of manifestations of depression and the action of stressful factors, which requires in−depth attention from the relevant professionals in the direction of correction of deviations in the emotional−volitional sphere and personality characteristics of children of the refugees and necessitates development and implementation of special programs of psychoactive training (practice) with these children.

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has been used successfully in treatment of patients with substance abuse disorders. The presence of stressful factors that are the root cause of psychoactive substance (PAS) abuse in a significant number of patients, and domination in the minds of patients of affective saturation of «addiction memory» can lead to the disease relapses. This necessitates the search for new approaches to the treatment of addictions, one of which is a combined technique of ECT and postical suggestion. Its efficacy was investigated on 120 patients with narcological disorders. Evaluation of effectiveness was performed using the follow−up, clinical−psychopathological and psychodiagnostic methods. The methodology is focused on preventing the relapse of addictive pathology due to correction of traumatic experiences that are the root cause of use of PAS as autotreatment, and pathological addiction to PAS, due to the dominance in the memory of affective saturated memories of ataraxia effect of PAS, which is achieved by means of use in postictal period of suggestion with special sanogenic formulas. The results of these studies demonstrate a pronounced positive effect in case of using ECT with postictal suggestion as monotherapy and in combination with other methods of therapy (pharmacotherapy, psychotherapy). The proposed technique can be successfully used in treatment of patients with addiction to psychoactive substances.

Biological processes at all levels of the system organization, from the molecular to the social, are dynamically linked with the physical natural factors, primarily with the meteorological and heliogeophysical. The aim of this study was to investigate the correlation of solar activity changes within the eleven−year solar cycle with the rates of hospitalization of patients with alcohol addiction. Archival statistics of Poltava Regional Addictology Hospital were analyzed for the 23rd eleven−year solar cycle (1997−2007). The analysis used epidemiological method. The dynamics of indicators of intensive hospital admissions data for 100 thousand people in the period from 1997 to 2007 showed that they increased 1.5 times. Distribution of the share of all hospitalized cases over the years shows the growth of the disease among the population with a peak in 2004, when there was a sharp change in solar activity, characterized by increase in the mean annual values of Wolf numbers (increase W = −32). The marked a more even distribution of repeated hospitalizations during this period can be explained by a decrease in the compensatory capacity of the organism to external factors of the environment on the one hand, and decrease in the threshold of perception for different variations of external stimuli, on the other. Also analyzed indicators of mortality of patients with alcohol dependence. Overall, between 1997 and 2007, this figure ranged within 1.03−2.11 % of the total number of hospitalized patients with two peaks highs in 2001 (1.94 %) and 2004 (2.11 %). Thus, along with the socio−medical, heliogeophysical factors greatly affect the course and the frequency of hospital admissions for alcohol dependence, mortality rates, which should be considered when predicting the medical assistance and developing approaches to treatment, rehabilitation, and preventive measures.