Stress represents a negative life experience, closely followed by physiological, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral changes that focus on changing the event or adapting to its effects. Any situation or occurrence that requires adaptation can be experienced as a stress, even positive situations and circumstances may be stressful, whether they come from the outside world, or the sources of stress is internal. While acute stress does not necessarily have a negative effect, if it lasts for a long time, or is frequently repeated, it becomes chronic, and can cause various serious disorders. During chronic stress, there is an exhaustion of the body's capacity for an adequate reaction, which can lead to long-lasting immunological dysfunction, which significantly impairs health and quality of life. According to the WHO (2017), stress is one of the causes of even 60% known diseases, and in a number of mental disorders a direct connection with stress has been reported: in acute stress reactions, "posttraumatic stress disorder", adjustment disorders and other reactions to severe stress. In addition, in all categories of mental disorders (ICD-10), the stressful situation or event plays a significant role in occurrence of the symptoms. A particular category of stress-related disorders are psychosomatic disorders. These are functional disorders in which there is no pathoanatomic substrate. In contrast to these, psychosomatic diseases are the type of illness in which there are structural changes of tissues and organs, the etiology of which is based on chronic stress, in addition to a number of other factors (Adamović, 1983) and which occur when there is a biological predisposition. The paper presents the mechanism of development of these diseases and some of the ways of coping with stress. According to the DSM-V, psychosomatic diseases are divided into skin diseases, gastrointestinal diseases, respiratory diseases, heart and blood vessel diseases, disorders of endocrine glands, rheumatoid diseases, gynecological diseases and others. In order to overcome stress and preserve health, psychological strategies for coping with stress play an important role. Multiple strategies are used, which include various stress control techniques: relaxation techniques, meditation methods, and assertive training, biofeedback and stress inoculation techniques. Successful mastering of coping stressful situations, constructive problem solving in life crisis, relaxation techniques and contributions to better adaptation to unexpected changes in life are of key importance for both mental and physical health.

Only a few studies seem to address suicidality as an effect of the COVID-19 pandemic in persons previously affected by psychiatric disorders. The relationship between fear and stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the level of social support and suicidality in patients diagnosed with affective and stress-induced psychiatric disorders prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic were investigated. This study was observational and involved 100 participants. The examined period was from April 2020 to April 2022. The Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S), the Oslo Social Support Scale 3 (OSSS-3) and general psychiatric interviews were used to obtain data. A statistically significant relationship between the impact of COVID-19-related distress on the occurrence of suicidality and the year of the pandemic χ²(2, N = 100) = 8.347, p = 0.015 was observed. No statistically significant correlation was found between suicidal behavior, stress intensity, fear and the score on the social support scale (p > 0.05). Fear related to the COVID-19 pandemic can only be seen as a contributor to suicidality. Overall, social support does not always act protectively. Previously stressful experiences such as wars, poverty and natural disasters seem to play a significant role in the resilience to each new public health crisis.

Uvod. Ograničeni su podaci o psihičkim posledicama socijalne izolacije koji su nametnuti globalnom javno zdravstvenom pretnjom pandemije Covid 19. Na različite načine, na stres poput aktuelne pandemije, reaguju psihički zdrave osobe i psihijatrijski pacijenti. Cilj. Ispitati uticaj pandemije Covid19 na mentalno zdravlje opšte populacije i populacije psihijatrijskih pacijenata u Vojvodini. Materijal i metode. Studija je dizajnirana kao studija preseka. Provedena je tokom maja i juna 2020. godine na kraju i neposredno posle prvog talasa epidemije Covid 19 u Srbiji na teritoriji Novog Sada. Učesnici su podeljeni u dve grupe - u kliničku grupu pacijenata sa psihičkim poremećajima i kontrolnu grupu sastavljenu iz opšte populacije. Za prikupljanje podata korišćen je upitnik samoprocene koji je pružao podatke o prisustvu anksioznosti i simptoma depresije i poremećajima u ponašanju koji ukazuju na povećani nivo stresa - poput nesanice, zloupotrebe sedativa. Rezultati. Anksioznost, osećaj straha, napadi panike, depresivna simptomatika (70%), problemi sa spavanjem (81%) i zloupotreba sedativa (82%) bili su najčešći prijavljeni psihijatrijski simptomi u grupi psihijatrijskih pacijenata. Zdravi ispitanici kontrolne grupe su imali statistički značajno ređe prisustvo simptoma i znakova povezanih sa mentalnim problemima, iako i u toj grupi procentualna zastupljenost simptoma mentalnih poremećaja nije zanemarljiva anksioznost, osećaj straha, napadi panike (40%) , depresivna simptomatika (22%) i zloupotreba sedativa (10%). Zaključak. Rezultati podržavaju negativan uticaj pandemije COVID-19 na mentalno zdravlje psihijatrijskih pacijenata. Može se očekivati da će najizraženiji efekti pandemije na mentalno zdravlje u opštoj populaciji biti vidljivi u daljem toku.

Background: The aim of this study was to compare the rates of vaccination against COVID-19 infection in psychiatric outpatients and the general population, as well as rates of infected patients. In addition, the level and type of anxiety due to the pandemic were observed in patients with psychotic, anxiety, and depressive disorders. Materials and Methods: In the present study, 171 patients with pre-existing mental disorders completed the questionnaire about the doses and types of vaccination against COVID-19. During 2021–2023, patients with different mental disorders, aged from 18 to 80, were included. All patients filled in a self-reported questionnaire including general information (age, sex, marriage, education, working status, comorbid conditions) as well as questions about mental health, receiving vaccination, and the course of COVID-19 infection if it was present. All patients gave informed consent for the interview. Results: Patients with pre-existing mental disorders were more likely to be vaccinated against COVID-19 compared with the general population. The Sinopharm vaccine was most frequently applied. In the observed patients, 46.8% were infected, but just 7% had a medium or serious form of infection and were not vaccinated. Conclusions: In our study, the percentage of vaccinated psychiatric patients was greater than that in the general population, except in psychotic patients, who were mostly limited by fear. Such results can be explained by the high percentage of somatic comorbidities in this population and perhaps insufficient information about the positive effects of vaccination.

Introduction. In addition to significant prevalence of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and related consequences, it seems that this disorder has not been studied sufficiently in Serbia. Objective. The aim of this study was to investigate the understanding of psychopathology and the adequate treatment of patients with GAD by psychiatrists in Serbia. Methods. The study comprised 84 doctors - psychiatrists and neuropsychiatrists who were engaged in treatment of patients with GAD. Anonymous survey was used as the basic instrument, which collected information about the socio-demographic and professional data, experience in treating GAD and understanding psychopathology of GAD, as well as the first and the second choice therapy for patients with GAD. Results. The majority of psychiatrists (62.2%) indicated the symptoms of distress/tension and slightly lower percent (36.6%) designated the symptoms of worry/anxiety as the key symptoms of GAD when it was diagnosed. The results showed that almost all patients (96.5%) had been treated with benzodiazepines before coming to psychiatrists. Most psychiatrists preferred the use of SSRI/SNRI antidepressants (76.2%), usually in combination with benzodiazepines (71.4%) for the treatment of patients with GAD; however, if these doctors got GAD, the preference of benzodiazepine use would be significantly lesser (45.2%) than for the treatment of their patients. Preference for the use of SSRI/SNRI antidepressants was significantly more frequent in physicians with completed residency. Conclusion. The understanding of psychopathology and treatment practice for patients with GAD in this sample of psychiatrists in Serbia is mostly consistent with the current trends for GAD treatment.