COVID-19 affected our mental health as well as our physical health. In this study, the anxiety and hopelessness levels of healthcare workers and non-healthcare workers and the factors affecting them were evaluated in Turkey. Beck Hopelessness Scale and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) was applied online to participants. Totally 2156 individuals were included in the study and 52.0% (n:1121) of them are healthcare workers. The hopelessness and state anxiety levels of healthcare workers were higher than non-healthcare workers. Nurses' hopelessness levels are higher than doctors, and state anxiety levels are higher than both doctors and other healthcare workers. Anxiety and hopelessness levels were higher in women, those living with a high-risk individual at home during the pandemic, those who had difficulty in caring for their children, and those whose income decreased. Anxiety levels are an important predictor of hopelessness. The increase in anxiety levels explained 28.9% of the increase in hopelessness levels. Increased working hours is one of the important factors affecting anxiety. As a conclusion, healthcare workers were more affected psychologically in the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the society. Nurses were affected more than other healthcare workers. It is important to identify the factors affecting anxiety, hopelessness, and individuals who may be more psychologically affected during the pandemic. An important contribution can be made to the protection of public health by ensuring that psychosocial interventions for high-risk groups are planned in advance.

Objective Findings about inflammatory processes in schizophrenia are increasing day by day. Inflammatory processes in schizophrenia are associated with both its etiology and clinical symptoms. Serum high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) is also one of these inflammatory processes. Particularly, it is thought to be closely related to clinical findings of patients with schizophrenia. Methods In this study, the relationship between clinical findings of hsCRP levels of patients with drug-naïve first-episode psychosis (FEP) and patients with schizophrenia in acute exacerbation phase is investigated. Clinical findings, psychometric properties (the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms, the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms, Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale), and hsCRP levels of patients were compared. Results Forty-eight patients with FEP, 74 patients with schizophrenia in acute exacerbation phase and 54 healthy controlled volunteers are included in the study. The most substantial finding in the study is that there is a positive correlation between hsCRP levels and severity of positive symptoms of both patient groups, with FEP and with schizophrenia. The second most substantial finding is there is no significant difference between patients with FEP and schizophrenia, in terms of hsCRP. Conclusion The relationship between hsCRP and positive symptom severity in two groups of patients supports the inflammatory hypothesis in the etiopathogenesis of schizophrenia. This finding is supportive of close relation between inflammatory processes and clinical findings of patient with schizophrenia.

Objective This study aims to evaluate whether smartphone addiction (SA) is associated with social media use and alexithymia levels in university students.Methods A group of 935 students aged between 18 and 45 years (509 females and 426 males) was recruited from different universities in Istanbul. SAs, alexithymia and social media use were assessed using the Smartphone Addiction Scale Short Version (SAS-SV), Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20), and ad-hoc questions regarding social media use.Results The mean age of participants was 21.89±3.27 years and 509 of participants were female (54.4%). 455 (48.6%) participants were placed in the “SA” and 198 (21.2%) in the “alexithymia” categories. The study found a high level of positive correlation (p<0.001) between both subscale and total TAS-20 scores and SAS-SV scores. Gender (OR=1.496, 95% CI 1.117–2.002, p=0.007) and number of social media by participants (OR=1.221, 95% CI 1.134–1.315, p<0.001) and TAS (OR=1.074, 95% CI 1.059–1.090, p<0.001) were found to be an independent predictors for SA.Conclusion The study revealed a positive correlation between alexithymia and smartphone use severity, and alexithymia was a significant predictor of SA. Future studies focusing on the causal aspect of this relationship will be useful in planning strategies for treatment.

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Introduction: Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is involved in the regulation of many neuronal processes, including neurogenesis. Therefore, it is thought to be closely associated with many psychopathologies with a neurodevelopmental basis, for example, schizophrenia. Methods: The patients admitted to the Psychiatry Department of the Faculty of Medicine with a diagnosis of non-affective drug-naïve first-episode psychosis (FEP) were included in the study. The relationship between laboratory and clinical findings and psychometric data (Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale) was examined. Results: The study population consisted of 34 FEP and 34 healthy control (HC) volunteers. Mean BNDF levels of FEP and HC groups were 14.95 ± 6.13 and 17.89 ± 4.84 pg/ml, respectively. The difference between the groups was statistically significant (t = 2.197; p = .032). There was a negative correlation between mean BDNF levels and PANSS general psychopathology subscale scores (r = .358; p = .038), and total PANSS scores (r = .356; p = .039). Discussion: There is a consensus on low serum BDNF levels both in FEP and in schizophrenia. However, it is still not clear which clinical findings are associated with lower serum BDNF levels. The relationship between BDNF levels and psychopathologies in schizophrenia has to be investigated.