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This study assesses the prevalence of bipolar disorder (BD) among 196 HIV-infected adult outpatients attending in a specialized unit in Fortaleza, Brazil. Patients were interviewed with the Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ), the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI), the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), and a socio-demographic questionnaire based on WHO's behavioral surveillance surveys. Positive MDQ screening was found in 13.2% (N=26) and the BD diagnosis was confirmed in 8.1% (N=16) of the sample. There is an almost four times higher prevalence of BD among the HIV-infected patients of the sample (8.1%) than in the general population from the USA (2.1%). The prevalence of BD type I in the HIV patients was 5.6% (N=11) which is almost six times higher than the US general population (1%). The odds ratios of sexual behaviors and substance abuse variables correlated with BD were calculated. The variables associated with the diagnoses of BD were sex with commercial partners, sex outside the primary relationship, alcohol use disorders, and illicit drug abuse. The most common psychiatric comorbidity in the BD group was substance abuse (61.5%). A better understanding of psychiatric comorbidities and behavioral aspects of HIV-positive patients may help in improving long-term outcome of these patients.

Ongoing studies in psychoanalysis have been broad and progressive, and have dealt with a number of different phenomena. Many thus foster the identification of intersubjective aspects that characterize therapeutic relationships today, including enactments. The concept of enactment first appeared in the literature in the mid‐1980s and was defined as a manifestation where, in the analytic situation, both analyst and patient unconsciously ‘play out’ psychic conflicts that must be worked out therapeutically. Resulting from unconscious forces activated mutually by the members of a therapeutic dyad, enactments are characterized by transferential and countertransferential dynamics. They are based on the mechanism of projective identification, which is interpersonal and intersubjective. In preparing the present systematic review, PUBMED, PsycINFO and LILACS databases were consulted, a process that generated a total of 59 articles. This paper gives an account of articles published on enactment, including authors, journals, year, type of study and diagnoses, as well as the gender and age bracket of patients mentioned in the literature investigated. We specifically describe how the authors of the respective articles understand and identify the concept of enactment and how they deal with this phenomenon in their clinical work.

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Background: Verbal memory impairment may be considered an endophenotype in schizophrenia (SZ), also affecting the siblings of SZ subjects. Furthermore, the immune-inflammatory system response has an important modulatory effect on brain processes, especially on memory circuits. Objective: Investigating the relationship between TNF-α and IL-6 and memory performance in patients with SZ, their unaffected siblings (SB) and healthy controls (HC). Methods: 35 subjects with SZ, 36 SB, and 47 HC underwent a neurocognitive assessment for verbal memory by means of the revised Hopkins Verbal Learning Test (HVLT-R) in addition to serum cytokines analyses. Results: SZ patients performed worse in HVLT-R than SB and HC, but SB and HC were not different. Regarding the biomarker levels, we found significant results of TNF-α for both groups. However, we did not find differences between groups after multiple-comparisons analysis. There were no significant correlations between episodic verbal memory, TNF-α, and IL-6. Conclusion: The results are compatible with the hypothesis that deficits in verbal memory of individuals with SZ could be secondary to inadequate functioning of cognitive processing areas, such as proactive cognitive control.

The Brazilian version of the TABS demonstrated high-quality conceptual, item, and semantic equivalence with the original instrument, as well as high acceptability, internal consistency, and verbal comprehension. The scale is now available for use.

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