Vertex (Buenos Aires, Argentina)最新文献

{"title":"Involuntary Admissions: It Is Time to Build the Consensus","authors":"Ezequiel Mercurio","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Letter to the Editor</p>","PeriodicalId":75297,"journal":{"name":"Vertex (Buenos Aires, Argentina)","volume":"37 173, jul.-sept.","pages":"120-121"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149165804","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Executive Function Deficits in Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder","authors":"Bárbara Alecsiuk, María Fernanda Ríos Pistoia, Esteban Vaucheret Paz","doi":"10.53680/vertex.v37i173.1066","DOIUrl":"10.53680/vertex.v37i173.1066","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Multiple studies have described subtle characteristics similar to those of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in first-degree relatives of people with ASD. Individuals with ASD also commonly present deficits in executive functions, which may be associated with their social difficulties. We aimed to evaluate executive functions in parents of children with ASD and their correlation with empathy and systematization indices.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We included 60 individuals divided into two groups: an Experimental Group of parents of children with ASD (n=30) and a Control Group of parents of children without ASD (n=30). Participants were assessed using neuropsychological tests (Coding, Digit Span, Symbol Search, Stroop, Wisconsin, attention test, Trail Making Test) and completed the empathy-systematization scale.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The Experimental Group showed lower performance in executive functions, including working memory (working\u0000memory index, p=0.02; Coding, p=0.03; Digit Span, p=0.02) and processing speed and attention (Symbol Search, p=0.003; D2 concentration index, p=0.005). No significant differences were observed between the groups in empathy and systemizing quotients. Correlational analyses identified only a few significant associations, of weak magnitude, between these quotients and specific neuropsychological measures.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Parents of children with ASD showed poorer executive functioning, without corresponding differences in empathizing and systemizing. These findings may be relevant when developing guidance and support interventions for parents of children with ASD.</p>","PeriodicalId":75297,"journal":{"name":"Vertex (Buenos Aires, Argentina)","volume":"37 173, jul.-sept.","pages":"59-66"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149168766","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Long-Stay Inpatient Care in a Psychiatric Hospital: Three Decades of Transition Toward Community-Based Mental Health Care","authors":"Pedro Damián Gargoloff, Iván O Moreno Frade, Pedro Rafael Gargoloff, Juana S Valva","doi":"10.53680/vertex.v37i173.1061","DOIUrl":"10.53680/vertex.v37i173.1061","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>The transition from the asylum-based model to community-based mental health care has led to a sustained reduction in long-stay psychiatric hospitalizations, although important questions remain regarding the characteristics of the population that continues to be institutionalized. The aim of this study was to analyze the evolution of long-stay psychiatric hospitalizations at Dr. Alejandro Korn Hospital, La Plata, Argentina, between 1995 and 2023.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>An observational, descriptive, comparative, repeated cross-sectional series study was conducted based on\u0000four censuses performed in long-stay wards in 1995, 2009, 2021, and 2023.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The number of hospitalized patients declined from 1,048 to 86, while long-stay wards decreased from 23 to 5. The mean age increased from 52.9 to 61.3 years, and the proportion of men rose from 44.2% to 72.1%. Schizophrenia remained the predominant diagnosis (44–53%), whereas the proportion of patients with intellectual disability increased from 28% to 44%. In 2023, 67.4% of patients had been hospitalized for more than 20 years, and 38.4% had remained continuously hospitalized since 1995.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>Despite the marked reduction in the institutionalized population, a core group of patients with extremely prolonged hospitalizations remained. The study did not assess the trajectories of those who left the hospital between censuses, including community discharges, deaths, and transfers to other institutions, nor the characteristics of\u0000the receiving facilities. This limitation precludes determining to what extent the observed reduction reflected processes of deinstitutionalization or, in some cases, may have involved trajectories of transinstitutionalization. Therefore, the reduction in the number of hospitalized individuals represents a relevant dimension of mental health reform but cannot, by itself, be considered equivalent to deinstitutionalization.</p>","PeriodicalId":75297,"journal":{"name":"Vertex (Buenos Aires, Argentina)","volume":"37 173, jul.-sept.","pages":"20-29"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149172254","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Burnout syndrome in mental health workers belonging to the Public Provincial Network in the city of Córdoba, Argentine","authors":"Sofía Chiri","doi":"10.53680/vertex.v37i173.1063","DOIUrl":"10.53680/vertex.v37i173.1063","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Burnout Syndrome (BOS) is understood as a response to chronic work-related stressors, with emotional exhaustion as its core dimension. It has a high prevalence among healthcare professionals. This study aims to expand the current knowledge on the topic and to explore and compare the presence of BOS among mental health professionals within the provincial mental health network in the city of Córdoba. It is a quantitative, prospective, exploratory, and correlational study. Data were collected through a survey including sociodemographic variables and the EBLA scale, administered to mental health professionals (n=127). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) for numerical variables, frequency analysis for qualitative variables, and chi-square tests, using the Infostat software. The results confirm a high prevalence of BOS (63.8%) among the respondents, with a higher impact observed in residents in training (86.36%) and women (71.26%). Moreover, burnout was more frequent among professionals who are cohabiting or separated, work more than 36 hours per week, are between 20 and 30 years old, have more than 20 or less than 5 years of experience, and work in tertiary-level hospital settings. These findings not only highlight the vulnerability of certain groups but also underscore the need to reflect on workplace dynamics and the significant level of emotional exhaustion experienced by professionals, which contributes to the persistence of this syndrome.</p>","PeriodicalId":75297,"journal":{"name":"Vertex (Buenos Aires, Argentina)","volume":"37 173, jul.-sept.","pages":"38-47"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149171892","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Clozapine and Treatment-Resistant Schizophrenia: Prescribing Patterns at a Neuropsychiatric Hospital in the City of Buenos Aires","authors":"Julieta Ramírez, María Delfina Tavella, Adrián Cabrera, Germán Weisbrot, Guillermo J Hönig, Daniel Martínez, Nora S Crespi, Ricardo Corral","doi":"10.53680/vertex.v37i173.1062","DOIUrl":"10.53680/vertex.v37i173.1062","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>Despite being a highly effective drug for treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS), clozapine remains underutilized. This study aims to evaluate clozapine prescribing patterns in outpatients from a specialized psychiatric hospital in Argentina.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>This retrospective, observational, cross-sectional study included adult patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia receiving outpatient treatment at our institution. Data were collected by reviewing medical records from November 2024 to January 2025. Statistical analyses included descriptive statistics, paired t-tests, Pearson's correlations, and multiple regression.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The sample included 199 patients with a mean age of 36 years (SD: 6.6). A total of 75.4% were receiving concomitant medication; prior use of long-acting injectable antipsychotics (LAIs) was low (8%), while antipsychotic polypharmacy was frequent (30.6%). The mean time from schizophrenia diagnosis to clozapine initiation was greater than five years (266.47 weeks, SD: 270.4), with a mean of 3.17 adequate prior antipsychotic\u0000trials (SD: 1.53). Hospitalizations significantly decreased after clozapine initiation (mean change: 1.74, SD:\u00001.14; large effect size, d = 1.09).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Our findings indicate that clozapine continues to be underutilized in our setting and highlight the importance of earlier initiation to reduce hospitalization rates and improve clinical outcomes.</p>","PeriodicalId":75297,"journal":{"name":"Vertex (Buenos Aires, Argentina)","volume":"37 173, jul.-sept.","pages":"30-37"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149171992","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Mental Health Network in the Southern Area of Buenos Aires City","authors":"Ana Alli, Mauro L Iuvaro, Malena Kiss Rouan","doi":"10.53680/vertex.v37i173.1064","DOIUrl":"10.53680/vertex.v37i173.1064","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>In this study we aim to characterize community and care activities in the mental health network in the\u0000southern area of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (CABA) in the period 2020-2022.</p><p><strong>Methodology: </strong>This research employs a descriptive, qualitative, and cross-sectional design. The concept of ‘node’ was used, as a health service or unit of operation made up of individual elements that may represent devices and/or institutions and that, collectively, according to their relationships, constitute a network. To collect the information, we interviewed representatives of nodes from 3 neuropsychiatric hospitals, 2 general hospitals and their programmatic areas, and centralized mental health programs in the CABA.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>A multiplicity of modifications were observed with regard to the policies and work processes deployed in the modality and types of mental health approach. The following were noted: cessation of activities, changes in roles, reassignment of functions, closure of programs and the creation of new inpatient wards, which resulted in environments with a higher degree of institutionalisation. On the other hand, we surveyed the modality\u0000of the network based on the type of link and levels of articulation of the nodes under study based on Mario Rovere's theory.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The pandemic has generated a widespread phenomenon of returning to practices supported by the hospital-centric model, and we highlight how community practices were a channel that could channel the health emergency in a more satisfactory way.</p>","PeriodicalId":75297,"journal":{"name":"Vertex (Buenos Aires, Argentina)","volume":"37 173, jul.-sept.","pages":"48-58"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149169096","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Excoriation (Skin-Picking) Disorder: A Comprehensive Review","authors":"Alejo Agranatti, Sergio Ricciardelli, María Lucía Marchese, María Victoria Rojas, Daniel Fadel, Melany Oppel","doi":"10.53680/vertex.v37i173.1068","DOIUrl":"10.53680/vertex.v37i173.1068","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Excoriation disorder (ED), recently recognized as a distinct diagnosis in the DSM-5, is characterized by recurrent compulsive skin picking behaviors that lead to skin lesions and significant emotional, functional, and social impairment. This comprehensive review addresses its pathophysiology, clinical assessment, comorbidities, and treatment, highlighting the importance of a multidisciplinary approach. Advances in neurobiology and pharmacotherapy are discussed, including the use of Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors, N-acetylcysteine, and naltrexone, as well as the effectiveness of psychotherapeutic interventions such as cognitive-behavioral therapy. ED presents a relevant diagnostic and therapeutic challenge at the intersection of psychiatry and dermatology.</p>","PeriodicalId":75297,"journal":{"name":"Vertex (Buenos Aires, Argentina)","volume":"37 173, jul.-sept.","pages":"88-98"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149166753","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Response to the Letter to the Editor: \"Regarding the First Argentine Consensus on the Management of Schizophrenia: considering the dissents in relation to maintenance pharmacological treatment\"","authors":"Alejo Corrales, Eduardo Leiderman, Tomás Maresca, Federico Rebok","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":75297,"journal":{"name":"Vertex (Buenos Aires, Argentina)","volume":"37 173, jul.-sept.","pages":"115-119"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149170430","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Interview with Doctor Juan David Nasio","authors":"Martín Reca","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":75297,"journal":{"name":"Vertex (Buenos Aires, Argentina)","volume":"37 173, jul.-sept.","pages":"105-112"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149169201","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Connectome and Depression: Towards Precision Psychiatry Based on Brain Networks","authors":"María Victoria Majul Conte Grand, Micaela Dines, Adriana V Bulacia","doi":"10.53680/vertex.v37i173.1067","DOIUrl":"10.53680/vertex.v37i173.1067","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In recent decades, the study of the human connectome —the comprehensive map of the brain's neural connections— has redefined our understanding of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) as a spectrum of functional and structural alterations in specific brain networks. This review explores evidence on functional connectivity patterns in MDD, highlighting the involvement of networks such as the default mode network (DMN), frontoparietal network (FPN), salience network (SN), and reward circuits. We analyze patterns detected using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and their potential as biomarkers to predict treatment response to interventions currently included in clinical guidelines and widely used in practice, such as psychotherapy, first-line antidepressants (SSRIs), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), and sub-anesthetic doses of ketamine. For this purpose, we conducted an integrative narrative review of the scientific literature, selecting articles based on clinical relevance and methodological\u0000quality (GRADE), including meta-analyses, systematic reviews, and randomized controlled trials. These findings may contribute to a paradigm shift toward precision psychiatry, increasingly centered on the individual. Although methodological challenges persist that limit their clinical application, understanding the connectome and its relationship with MDD pathogenesis is a fundamental step toward truly personalized mental healthcare.</p>","PeriodicalId":75297,"journal":{"name":"Vertex (Buenos Aires, Argentina)","volume":"37 173, jul.-sept.","pages":"78-87"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149167683","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}