LIFE: International Journal of Health and Life-Sciences

TREATING CHRONIC SCHIZOPHRENIA AND COMPLEX TRAUMA THROUGH JUNGIAN DREAMWORK: A PRISON-BASED CASE STUDY

2025-06-25T08:05:03+00:00

This case study documents the integrative treatment of a woman with chronic schizophrenia, complex PTSD, and comorbid anxiety and depression, incarcerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her primary symptoms included persistent hallucinations, trauma-driven nightmares, and emotional dysregulation. Traumatic themes of incest, supernatural forces, and violent dream figures dominated her inner world, exacerbated by institutional isolation, grief over a deceased brother, and unresolved family betrayal. Treatment combined Jungian dreamwork, guided hypnagogic induction, symbolic reframing, and trauma-focused narrative therapy. Hallucinatory content was interpreted as disowned psychic fragments; she was taught lucid dreaming, meditative coping skills, and dream preparation rituals. Through these techniques, she gained increasing agency in her dream life and began re-integrating dissociated parts of the self. Art assignments and metaphor-based dialogues enabled her to visualize and confront the “poltergeist” figure (a symbolic condensation of unresolved trauma and fear). Parallel work focused on dismantling distorted family loyalty and confronting historical abuse. She ultimately rejected financial dependency on her abuser, reasserted personal boundaries, and re-engaged with psychiatric care after initial resistance to medication. Her hallucinations diminished, and she reframed residual trauma as material for growth rather than doom. This case illustrates the power of symbolic and integrative interventions in treating schizophrenia complicated by developmental trauma. It further highlights the therapeutic challenges and innovations necessitated by pandemic-era incarceration.

CD154 ELEVATING CELLULAR IMMUNITY BY UP-REGULATING THE PERCENTAGES OF ANTIGEN-SPECIFIC POSITIVE INTERFERON-GAMMA EXPRESSING CELLS

2025-06-12T09:11:40+00:00

CD154 plays a central role in the development and regulation of adaptive immune responses in mammals and thus may act as a potential molecular adjuvant due to its enhancement of cytokine expression in immune cells. In this study, CD154-coding sequence was linked with the E2 antigen sequence of the Classical swine fever virus (CSFV) to produce an E2-CD154 vaccine and the specific pathogen free piglets at the age of 4-week old was used as an animal model. The CpG adjuvant, a Toll-like receptor 9 agonist, was used as a positive control. The animals were randomized into three groups and primarily vaccinated with E2-CD154, E2-CpG or the commercial Bayovac® E2 vaccines, respectively. All animals were boosted 2 weeks after primary vaccination. Results showed that the percentages of CD3⁺CD4⁺, CD4⁺IL2⁺ and CD4⁺IFNγ⁺ T cells in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells on 7-d (7 days) after primary vaccination were significantly enhanced in the E2-CD154 group as compared with the other two groups. Noteworthy, CD8⁺IL-2⁺ populations were increased on 21-d and CD4⁺IL2⁺ showed the highest expression on 28-d after booster in those of the E2-CD154 group. In addition, significantly increased E2-specific IFNγ⁺ cells were found on 10-d and 14-d after the primary vaccination and 21-d and 28-d after booster in those of the E2-CD154 group. These results indicate that CD154 elevated T cells activities for producing high levels of IL-2 and IFN-γ. Thus, CD154 may act as a potential immunomodulatory adjuvant by increasing antigen-specific positive IFNγ-expressing cells.

THE IMPACT OF CYBERLOAFING ON THE EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING OF PSYCHIATRIC NURSES IN SAUDI ARABIA

2025-06-30T05:09:14+00:00

Cyberloafing, or the use of the internet in the workplace for non-work-related purposes, is an increasingly common problem in the field of professional development. Nurses face a variety of stressors, including workload and patient conflict, which can negatively affect their emotional wellbeing. While cyberloafing may provide some temporary relief, widespread use could lead to reduced productivity and increased disease transmission. This study aims to examine the impact of cyberloafing on the nurse’s emotional wellbeing in Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional study will be conducted among about 200 psychiatric nurses, randomly selected from mental health hospitals in Saudi Arabia using sample size equation based on the expected cyberloafing prevalence from the similar study. Data will be collected using self-reported questionnaire including demographic and professional characteristics, Cyberloafing Scale and Positive and Negative Affect Schedule - Short Form (PANAS-SF). Data will be analyzed using SPSS version 28.0. Ethical issues will be considered. The study is expected to demonstrate that moderate levels of cyberloafing may be relieving in the short term, whereas excessive use may be associated with greater distress and dissatisfaction with the job. The findings will inform workplace policies on preventing cyberloafing and emphasize the relationship between nurses’ emotional wellbeing.

A TESSERACT ON THE XPOLAR (BIPOLAR) SPECTRUM – AN HEURISTIC FOR THE CLASSIFICATION OF AFFECTIVE ILLNESS

2025-06-25T05:58:04+00:00

Psychiatric classification has not kept pace with advances in neuroscience; diagnostic models are stuck in the era of Kraepelin, and while diagnoses have slowly become more reliable, some are invalid. We need models where nodes (categories) complement dimensions – for example hypomania occurring on an axis of excitement and depression on an axis of fight, flight and freeze (FFFS) (melancholia may in fact be an evolutionary ‘freeze’). The Tesseract is one recent attempt at spatial nosology; it makes use of Gray’s dimensions of behavioural approach (BAS), behavioural inhibition (BIS) and the FFFS. The addition of a RAGE axis allows for the incorporation of mania and creates a four-dimensional hypercube for syndromal classification. This marries with a mapping of syndromes into ACTIVATION or INHIBITION. Mixed syndromes are allowed for – an example being psychotic depression. The collection of syndromes into disorders is depicted in the xPolar spectrum, being based on the bipolar phenotype (Fear, anxiety and anxiety syndromes, self-esteem disturbance, striving for goals, depression and addictive tendencies – FASSDA). There may have been progressive adaptations in the spectrum over evolutionary time; the addictive object for most being the ‘social high’. A path for the escalation of positive and negative symptoms in schizophrenia will be depicted as an outlier of the affective spectrum. An allostatic point where positive ‘asymmetries’ become ‘supersymmetries’ (salience) is depicted, as is another where dopamine falls, and atypical depression supervenes in the ‘hypernormal’ self – in which observation is narrowed to avoid perceptual overload. And the cycle starts again.