scholarly journals The Impact of an Online Psychiatric Assessment on the Mental Health and Wellbeing of Participants Presenting with Depressive Symptoms: Longitudinal Observational Study (Preprint)

10.2196/23813 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan-Mircea Mirea ◽  
Nayra A Martin-Key ◽  
Giles Barton-Owen ◽  
Tony Olmert ◽  
Jason D Cooper ◽  
...  
2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
A Morganti ◽  
A Brambilla ◽  
A Amerio ◽  
A Aguglia ◽  
A Odone ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus infectious disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak a pandemic on March 11th, severe 'lockdown' measures have been adopted by the Italian Government. For over two months of stay-at-home, houses became the only place where people slept, ate, worked, practiced sports, and socialized. As consolidated evidence exists on housing as a determinant of health, it is of great interest to explore the impact that COVID-19 response-related lockdown measures had on mental health and wellbeing. Methods We conducted a large web-based survey on 9261 subjects in Northern Italy, one of the Regions most heavily hit by the pandemic in Europe. Participants were recruited among university staff, faculty and students. The questions included socio-demographic features of the participants; international evaluation scales designed to recognize depressive-, anxiety- and sleep-related symptoms, impulsivity, quality of life; architectural parameters investigating housing physical characteristics. Results As emerges from our analysis poor housing is associated with increased risk of depressive symptoms during lockdown. In particular, living in apartments < 60 m2, with poor quality view and indoor area is associated with, respectively, 1.31 (95CI), 1.368 (95CI), and 2.253 (95CI) time the risk of moderate/severe and severe depressive symptoms. Subjects reporting worsened working performance from home were over four times more likely to also report depression (OR = 4.28, 95%CI). Conclusions Our findings suggest housing played a major role in influencing people mental health and wellbeing during COVID-19 pandemic. We argue strengthened multi-interdisciplinary approach involving urban planning, public mental health, environmental health, epidemiology, and sociology, is needed to inform the planning implementation and monitoring of housing policies centered on population health. Key messages COVID-19 lockdown mitigation measures strongly impacted on Mental Health. Living in apartments < 60 m2, with poor quality view and indoor area significatively increase the risk of moderate and severe depressive symptoms.


Author(s):  
Laetitia Idier ◽  
Aurélie Untas ◽  
Nicole Rascle ◽  
Michèle Koleck ◽  
Maider Aguirrezabal ◽  
...  

Introduction:Psychological impact of Therapeutic Patient Education (TPE) for dialysis patients is rarely evaluated since the focus of many studies is on medical variables (i.e., adherence).Objectives:The aims of this study were: 1) to estimate the impact of a TPE program on knowledge, depression and anxiety, 2) to examine change in knowledge as a mediator of the effects of a TPE program on mental health.Method:This study was conducted in three hemodialysis units and comprised two groups: an experimental group with education and a control group with routine care. The program was based of 5 educative sessions. Knowledge, depressive and anxious symptoms were assessed with self-reported outcomes measured before and 3 months after the program.Results:The sample comprised 125 patients. Knowledge about vascular access and nutrition (p < 0.01) and depressive symptoms increased in the experimental group (p < 0.01). Analysis of mediation showed that changes in knowledge about vascular access were a significant mediator of the effects of the program on depressive symptoms (F = 4.90;p = 0.01).Discussion:Knowledge acquired during an educational program could lead to an emotional change. Improving knowledge often leads to an awareness of the risks that can modify the psychological state of patients by reminding them of their vulnerability. This study shows that it is required to be attentive to the way of transmitting knowledge. It’s necessary adapting this transmission to the needs of patients and promoting the acquisition of psychosocial competence too.Conclusion:This study shows that knowledge acquired during an educational program can lead to an emotional change in the short term. A long-term follow-up of the population should be interesting to observe these emotional effects.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 403-418
Author(s):  
Kate Thompson ◽  
Pippa Brown ◽  
Stephanie Vieira

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe an intervention with a group of homeless men from the Horn of Africa, service users of the Horn of Africa Health and Wellbeing Project in London. The group was conceived by the second author who noted the presence of significant psychosocial issues for her clients, but equally their reluctance to access mainstream mental health or social care services. Design/methodology/approach Designing the group and introducing it to the men involved threw up some challenges which are explored, and the impact of the group on participants is evaluated. Findings Overall both the participants and the facilitators evaluated the group positively and it appeared to have led to lasting change for some of the group members, and this is described. The authors argue that this sort of group may be a more acceptable way to work on psychosocial issues than something more directly focused on mental health intervention. The group protocol is outlined along with suggestions for future work in this area. Originality/value This intervention represents a creative alternative to more mainstream psychological interventions for homeless or exiled men.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S880-S880
Author(s):  
Zhiyong Lin

Abstract As the processes of urbanization and globalization have intensified across the world, a burgeoning literature has documented the impact of emigration on the health of family members left behind in emigrant communities. Although the association between children’s migration and parental well-being is well documented, few have examined the health implications of children’s migration in the milieu of multiple children and further differentiated between children’s short-term and long-term migration. Therefore, I argue that it is not the geographic locality of a single child but the composition of all children’s location that matters. I further suggest that the impact of children’s migration on parental wellbeing is conditioned on the duration of children’s migration. Using a six waves longitudinal data (2001-2015) collected in rural China, this paper compares mental health (measured as depressive symptoms) trajectories of old adults (aged 60 and older) across different compositions of local and migrant children over a 14-year span. Results from growth curve models show that parents having more migrant children relative to local children experience a more rapid increase in depressive symptoms. In addition, older adults who have their most children migrate away for three or more waves of data have experienced the steepest rate of increase in depressive symptoms. These findings provide new evidence to support the life course processes of mental health disparities among older adults from the perspective of intergenerational proximity.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jolie B. Wormwood ◽  
Madeleine Devlin ◽  
Yu-Ru Lin ◽  
Lisa Feldman Barrett ◽  
Karen S. Quigley

Media exposure influences mental health symptomology in response to salient aversive events, like terrorist attacks, but little has been done to explore the impact of news coverage that varies more subtly in affective content. Here, we utilized an existing data set in which participants self-reported physical symptoms, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms, and completed a potentiated startle task assessing their physiological reactivity to aversive stimuli at three time points (waves) over a 9-month period. Using a computational linguistics approach, we then calculated an average ratio of words with positive vs. negative affective connotations for only articles from news sources to which each participant self-reported being exposed over the prior 2 weeks at each wave of data collection. As hypothesized, individuals exposed to news coverage with more negative affective tone over the prior 2 weeks reported significantly greater physical and depressive symptoms, and had significantly greater physiological reactivity to aversive stimuli.


2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. S356-S356 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Matos ◽  
J. Duarte ◽  
C. Duarte ◽  
J. Pinto-Gouveia ◽  
P. Gilbert

IntroductionCompassion and self-compassion can be protective factors against mental health difficulties, in particular depression. The cultivation of the compassionate self, associated with a range of practices such as slow and deeper breathing, compassionate voice tones and facial expressions, and compassionate focusing, is central to compassion focused therapy (Gilbert, 2010). However, no study has examined the processes of change that mediate the impact of compassionate self-cultivation practices on depressive symptoms.AimsThe aim of this study is to investigate the impact of a brief compassionate self training (CST) intervention on depressive symptoms, and explore the psychological processes that mediate the change at post intervention.MethodsUsing a longitudinal design, participants (general population and college students) were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: Compassionate self training (n = 56) and wait-list control (n = 37). Participants in the CST condition were instructed to practice CST exercises for 15 minutes everyday or in moments of stress during two weeks. Self-report measures of depression, self-criticism, shame and compassion, were completed at pre and post in both conditions.ResultsResults showed that, at post-intervention, participants in the CST condition decreased depression, self-criticism and shame, and increased self-compassion and openness to receive compassion from others. Mediation analyses revealed that changes in depression from pre to post intervention were mediated by decreases in self-criticism and shame, and increases in self-compassion and openness to the compassion from others.ConclusionsThese findings support the efficacy of compassionate self training components on lessening depressive symptoms and promoting mental health.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Jefferson ◽  
Su Golder ◽  
Veronica Dale ◽  
Holly Essex ◽  
Elizabeth McHugh ◽  
...  

Background Over recent years chronic stress and burnout have been reported by doctors working in general practice in the UK NHS and internationally. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed general practitioners working lives; adding potential pressures from avoiding infection and addressing pent-up demand for care, but also changing processes such as rapidly taking up remote consultations. To date, there has been a focus on exploring the impact of the pandemic on the wellbeing of hospital clinicians. No registered systematic reviews currently focus on exploring the impact of the pandemic on the mental health and wellbeing of general practitioners. Aims and objectives To synthesise the current international evidence base exploring the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health and wellbeing of general practitioners, and which factors are associated with their reported mental health and wellbeing during the pandemic. Methods In this paper we report a systematic review protocol, following PRISMA guidance. In our search strategy we will identify primary research studies or systematic reviews exploring the mental health and wellbeing of general practitioners during the COVID-19 pandemic in four databases (MEDLINE, Embase, PsychInfo and Medrxiv) and Google Scholar. We will hand-search reference lists and grey literature. Two reviewers will undertake all stages including study selection, data extraction and quality assessment, with arbitration by a third reviewer where necessary. We will use standardised quality assessment tools to ensure transparency and reduce bias in quality assessment. Depending on the quality of included studies, we may undertake a sensitivity analysis by excluding studies from narrative synthesis that are rated as low quality using the checklists. We will describe the findings across studies using narrative thematic data synthesis, and if sufficiently homogenous data are identified, we will pool quantitative findings through meta-analysis.


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