The depressions caused by the effects of the economic crisis have overwhelmed psychiatric hospitals in Romania. Elsewhere in the news, 20 years after the Revolution, Romanian ex-president Emil Constantinescu talks about the relationship between the great powers and their effects on East Europe. Last but not least, one out of four Romanians are obese, reveals a WHO study.

The depressions caused by the effects of the economic crisis have overwhelmed psychiatric hospitals in Romania, Cotidianul reads. The Psychiatry Hospital "Socola" from Iasi (East), one of the biggest mental institutes from the country, has seen their number of patients increase by 520%. The inability to pay the credit rates and unemployment have triggered a record increase in the number of patients, according to the unit's manager Dr. Catalin Scripcaru.

Tens of bankrupt business people have developed depressions. Doctors say that, despite the medical treatment, the social cause produceing the condition needs to disappear for the patient to get better. The number of patients trying to commit suicide is going up as well, with most of the attempts being registered in men.

The same phenomenon is recorded with "Prof. Dr. Alexandru Obregia", the biggest mental hospital in the country, from Bucharest. Here, a number of 30.000 hospitalisations can be dealt with annually. Dr. Radu Mihăilescu says that anxiety has risen among people, with unemployment underlined as the main cause. The same situation is recorded with "Dr. Constantin Gorgoş" psychiatric hospital, also from the capital. Many patients approaching this institution fear that a hospitalisation would make them unemployable. That is why they take the treatment home.

According to the Romanian Sanitary Centre for Statistics, there were 251,525 mentally disturbed patients registered with GPs last year. Most of the records are in Bucharest, Iasi, Hunedoara (West), Valcea and Prahova (South-Central). But doctors say that only the light cases are recorded with GPs. Specialised centres receive hundreds of patients daily.

20 years after the Revolution, Romanian ex-president Emil Constantinescu talks about the relationship between the great powers and their effects on East Europe in an interview for Adevarul. According to him, Alexandr Ikolev’s group of intellectuals had a big impact on Gorbachev. They approached Andropov, who passed on to Gorbachev the project that was later to materialise into perestroika and glasnost. Constantinescu claims that glasnost allowed the intellectuals in East Europe to communicate and work together, leading to democracy and free economy ideals, which took communism out of the equation.

In Romania, the event was an explosion because Ceausescu had already exploited nationalism and because the Church was collaborating with the Securitate, the communist intelligence service. Constantinescu says Ion Iliescu, another Romanian ex-president (PSD), is honest when he says he was not part of the pre-Revolution conspiracy. He said Romanian dissident Doina Cornea was arrested then and used in the anti-communist campaign.

Constantinescu mentioned Eugen Bejinariu and Gabriel Oprea as the two young officers handling Cornea. The first one says that Constantinescu has been misinformed, that his mission was to protect her and see her safe to the train station so that she could go to Cluj (Central). As for Oprea, he said he never met Doina Cornea.

Emil Constantinescu goes on to say that Romania would have followed the Belarus model in a deal with Russia, had it not been for the 1996 moment, when people voted him and his party (PNTCD) in power. According to him, Romania is now a democratic state, but there is an issue of politics and moral, which is not specific only for Romania, but also for other European states.

One out of four Romanians are obese and one out of two persons has weight problems, Gandul reads, quoting the World Health Organisation. The number of overweight teenagers is increasing, encouraged by lack of physical activity, long hours in front of the computer and fast food.

According to some studies, Romanians choose cheap meat, high in cholesterol. Over 75% of the Romanians select their food based on its price, due to low incomes and lack of proper food education. Chicken is preferred by 60% of the population and 25% consume pork, but they buy the cheap parts, which are high in cholesterol. Additionally, Romanians do not go for a large variety, but eat larger amounts of one product, also for costs reasons.

According to WHO, Romania rank 3rd in the EU when it comes to obesity. Only 10% of the obese nationals have a medical check, and only 1% of these are included in a national programme educating on the issue.