Screening for Perinatal OCD: A Comparison of the DOCS and the EPDS

Screening for perinatal-occurring obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is rare. We sought to evaluate the Dimensional Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (DOCS) as a screening tool for perinatal OCD and compare the screening accuracy of the DOCS with the commonly recommended Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). English-speaking, pregnant individuals aged 19+ ( N = 574) completed online questionnaires and diagnostic interviews to assess for OCD prenatally and twice postpartum. The DOCS total score demonstrated the highest level of accuracy. Neither the EPDS-Full nor the three-item Anxiety subscale of the EPDS (EPDS-3A) met the criteria of a sufficiently accurate screening tool for OCD at any of the assessment points. Findings provide support for the DOCS as a screening tool for perinatal OCD and indicate a need for disorder-specific screening for perinatal anxiety and their related disorders (AD). Generalizability of findings is limited to Canada only. Future research would benefit from comparisons with measures of perinatal OCD (e.g., the Perinatal Obsessive-Compulsive Scale).

There’s no sugar-coating psychological distress and illness perceptions in gestational diabetes mellitus: depression and anxiety are associated with negative illness perceptions

Objective: To gain an understanding of how women with gestational diabetes perceive their illness, and whether depressive/anxiety symptoms and/or psychological distress influence these illness perceptions. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 159 pregnant women aged 18–44 attending gestational diabetes clinics. Participants completed a questionnaire, which included the Edinburgh Depression Scale (EDS), Kessler 10-item Psychological Distress Scale (K-10), Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (BIPQ), and psychiatric/general health items. Multiple regression was used to explore the relationship between EDS (total and anxiety subscale) scores and BIPQ scores, as well as between K-10 (total and anxiety subscale) scores and BIPQ scores. Results: Regression analysis revealed a positive association between EDS total/anxiety subscale scores and BIPQ total score, as well as between K-10 total/anxiety subscale scores and BIPQ total score, controlling for potentially confounding variables. There was a strong positive correlation between EDS total score and K-10 total score. The most frequently expressed concern about GDM was an adverse effect on their baby’s health. A poor diet was the most frequently reported perceived ‘cause’ of GDM. Conclusion: Greater severity of depressive and anxiety symptoms, and psychological distress, is associated with more negative illness perceptions of GDM in pregnant women.

ANALYSING THE PRE-COMPETITION ANXIETY AMONG BASKETBALL PLAYERS UNDER EIGHTEEN BASED ON THEIR POSITIONS

Psychological factors are some of the factors influencing a player's achievement in basketball tournaments. A survey study was conducted to compare the pre-competition anxiety level based on the players’ positioning among 144 male basketball players who are under 18 years old in Sabah. The Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2) which was translated into the Malay language was used as the main instrument in this study along with the Kruskal-Wallis Test. The findings indicated that there is no significant difference in the pre-competition anxiety level among the players based on their positioning χ2(2) = 3.742, p = .154 (p> .05). The findings of the cognitive anxiety subscale also were found to be insignificant based on the positioning; χ2(2) = 1.938, p = .380 (p> .05). The somatic anxiety of the pre-competition findings also showed no difference based on the positions of players; χ2(2) = 1.509, p = .470 (p> .05). Moreover, the values for subscale of confidence was also found to be insignificant; χ2(2) = 1.565, p = .457 (p> .05). Therefore, the study found out that the environmental factors play a crucial role in reducing the basketball players’ pre-competition anxiety. The coaches and trainers should consider these environmental factors in improving their players’ pre-competition anxiety, thus allowing them to compete and perform at their best state of mind.

AB0672 PSYCHOLOGIC STATE OF PATIENTS WITH RHEUMATIC DISEASES AFTER THE OUTBREAK OF SARS-COV2

Background:The ongoing Coronavirus-19 disease epidemic is a public health emergency of international concern which could pose a challenge to psychological resilience. This is mainly the case of patients with rheumatic diseases (RD).Objectives:The aim of this study was to establish the prevalence of psychiatric symptoms in patients with RD and to identify factors associated with psychological stress.Methods:A cross-sectional study was conducted among patients with RD. They were invited to respond to a survey designed to assess their psychological response after the outbreak of the SARS-COV2 pandemic. Mental health status after the Covid-19 was evaluated using the Depression and Anxiety Scale (DASS-21). The total depression subscale score was divided into normal (0–9), mild depression (10–12), moderate depression (13–20), severe depression (21–27), and extremely severe depression (28–42). The total anxiety subscale score was divided into normal (0–6), mild anxiety (7–9), moderate anxiety (10–14), severe anxiety (15–19), and extremely severe anxiety (20–42).The Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) is a 22-item self-administered questionnaire that assesses the post-traumatic state (PTS). A cut-off point of 33 provided the best diagnostic accuracy for PTS. The level of significance was fixed at 0.05.Results:Sixty patients were included (42 with rheumatoid arthritis and 18 with spondylarthritis) with a mean age of 51.3 ± 13.1 years [18-75]. The majority of patients were women (63.3%), married (81.7%), with a household size of 3–5 people (67.9%). The mean disease duration was 11.9 ±5.6 [1-23] years.According to DASS depression score almost half of the patients (47%) suffered from depression, which was classified as severe in 10% of cases. The mean DASS anxiety subscale was 12.6 ± 8.2 [1-35]. The level of anxiety was mild in 23% of cases, moderate in 25% of cases, and severe in 23.3% of cases. The mean ILES-R score was 20.4 ± 10.2 [20-38]. Women experienced more PTS than men (26.3% vs 22.7%) without reaching a statistically significant correlation (p=0.9). Patients with higher education had lower IES-R, depression, and anxiety subscale scores as compared to those who were illiterate without a statistically significant correlation (p=0.5, p=0.2, p=0.4 respectively). A positive correlation was found between anxiety score and IES-R (p=0.00). Other sociodemographic variables including disease duration, parental status, marital status, and household size were not associated with IES-R and DASS subscale scores (p>0.05).Conclusion:Our study showed that many of our patients with RD experienced anxiety, depression, and PTS after the outbreak of Covid-19. Professional status as well as other sociodemographic data was not associated with psychological stress.Disclosure of Interests:None declared

Potential Alterations of Functional Connectivity Analysis in the Patients with Chronic Prostatitis/Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome

Background. Chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS) is one of the most common diseases in urology, but its pathogenesis remains unclear. As a kind of chronic pain which the patients suffered for more than 3 months, we investigated the influence on patients’ brain functional connectivity in resting state. Methods. We recruited a cohort of 18 right-handed male patients with CP/CPPS and 21 healthy male right-handed age-matched controls. Their resting-state fMRI data and structural MRI data were preprocessed and processed by RESTPlus V1.22. To assess the integrity of the default mode network (DMN), we utilized the voxel-wised analysis that we set medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and posterior cingulate gyrus (PCC) as seed points to compare the global functional connectivity (FC) strength. Results. Compared with healthy control, the FC strength between left mPFC and posterior DMN decreased in the group of CP/CPPS ( P < 0.05 , GFR correction, voxel P < 0.01 , cluster P < 0.05 ), and the FC strength between the left anterior cerebellar lobe and posterior DMN increased ( P < 0.05 , GFR correction, voxel P < 0.01 , cluster P < 0.05 ). In the patient group, there was a positive correlation between the increased FC strength and the score of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) anxiety subscale ( r = 0.5509 , P = 0.0178 ) in the left anterior cerebellar lobe, a negative correlation between the decreased FC strength and the score of the National Institutes of Health Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index ( r = − 0.6281 , P = 0.0053 ) in the area of left mPFC, and a negative correlation between the decreased FC strength and the score of HADS anxiety subscale ( r = − 0.5252 , P = 0.0252 ). Conclusion. Patients with CP/CPPS had alterations in brain function, which consisted of the default mode network’s compromised integrity. These alterations might play a crucial role in the pathogenesis and development of CP/CPPS.

Anxiety and facial self-contacts: possible impact on COVID-19 transmission in dental practice

Background The purpose was to analyse the associations between dental and trait anxiety, fear of COVID-19 and the duration and frequency of spontaneous hand-to-face contact (self-contact). Methods A cross-sectional design was carried out with 128 adult patients from four dental clinics in Madrid, during the confinement, from March 15 to May 15. The patients’ movements in the waiting room were monitored with Microsoft Kinect Software, also completed the Trait anxiety subscale of the STAI, the COVID-19 Fear and the S-DAI questionnaire. Results Associations were observed between the duration and frequency of facial, mask and eye contact with trait anxiety and dental fear was determined only by the frequency of this self-contact. Trait anxiety is associated with dental anxiety and with fear of COVID-19. Although facial self-contact is higher in women, it also rises in men as dental fear increases. Moreover, dental anxiety is a good predictor of trait anxiety and the incidence of facial self-contact. Conclusions Understanding the possible associations between biopsychosocial factors, such as trait anxiety, dental anxiety and self-contact is important. It may help to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the population as well as enabling the formulation of effective interventions to improve oral health care through the implementation of dental care programmes.

Risk Factors for Anxiety in Medical Health Workers during Coronavirus Disease 2019 in Medan, Indonesia

BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a virus outbreak that is infecting many people almost all over the world, including Indonesia. The impact of this pandemic also affects medical health workers who are in charge of treating COVID-19 patients where they are at high risk of being infected. This causes psychological disorders such as anxiety and many factors that can become a risk for anxiety. AIM: The aim of the study was to investigate risk factors for anxiety in medical health workers who treat COVID-19 patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was conducted in Haji Adam Malik Hospital and its satellites in Medan, North Sumatera, cross-sectional through online survey using hospital anxiety and depression scale, anxiety subscale, from May 2020 to July 2020, 129 participants. RESULTS: Four risk factors have a relationship to the occurrence of anxiety, such as gender, marital status, history of organic diseases, and duration of work caring for COVID-19 patients. CONCLUSIONS: By knowing the risk factors that can cause anxiety in medical health workers, it is hoped that both the hospital management and individual medical health workers can pay more attention to and anticipate so that medical health workers can feel more secure in carrying out their duties treating for COVID-19 patients.

The relationship between IT consumption and anxiety in Pakistani youth

The present study was designed to measure the relationship between the consumption of Information Technology (IT) and anxiety among Pakistani youth. The inquiry included 200 conveniently selected Pakistani youth aged 16 to 24 years from 4 cities. The anxiety subscale of Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale was administered along with a demographic information questionnaire. It was hypothesized that higher use of IT would be positively correlated with higher levels of anxiety among Pakistani youth. The results significantly supported the hypothesis, and it was established that the excessive use of IT is positively and significantly correlated with anxiety. The results are consistent with similar studies carried out in countries other than Pakistan.

Validation of the Malay Version of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale among Patients with Traumatic Brain Injury

Introduction: Depression and anxiety are common complications associated with traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients but screening tools which are validated to assess these complications in the TBI population are scarce. This study investigated the validity of the Malay version of Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) to screen for depression and anxiety among Malaysian TBI patients. Materials and Methods: This cross -sectional study recruited 101 TBI patients in which they were administered the Malay version of HADS and the Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorder 4th Edition (DSM-IV) for Axis I Disorders (SCID-I) (as comparison tool). Internal consistency (Cronbach’s α) and concurrent validity (using receiver operating characteristics) of the Malay version of HADS were evaluated. Results: The total Malay version of HADS score and its anxiety subscale exhibited good internal consistency of 0.80 and 0.78 respectively, but the internal consistency of its depressive subscale was low at 0.57. The depressive subscale of the Malay version of HADS exhibited high area under the curve (AUC) of 0.86, specificity of 82%, sensitivity of 76% and negative predictive value of 91% but its positive predictive value was 58%, at cut-off point of 8/9. While the anxiety subscale also demonstrated high AUC of 0.88, specificity of 71%, sensitivity of 93% and negative predictive value of 98% its positive predictive value was only 34%. Conclusion: The Malay version of HADS is a valid screening tool for depression and anxiety among Malaysian TBI population.

Are affective factors related to individual differences in facial expression recognition?

Evidence that affective factors (e.g. anxiety, depression, affect) are significantly related to individual differences in emotion recognition is mixed. Palermo et al . (Palermo et al . 2018 J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 44 , 503–517) reported that individuals who scored lower in anxiety performed significantly better on two measures of facial-expression recognition (emotion-matching and emotion-labelling tasks), but not a third measure (the multimodal emotion recognition test). By contrast, facial-expression recognition was not significantly correlated with measures of depression, positive or negative affect, empathy, or autistic-like traits. Because the range of affective factors considered in this study and its use of multiple expression-recognition tasks mean that it is a relatively comprehensive investigation of the role of affective factors in facial expression recognition, we carried out a direct replication. In common with Palermo et al . (Palermo et al . 2018 J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 44 , 503–517), scores on the DASS anxiety subscale negatively predicted performance on the emotion recognition tasks across multiple analyses, although these correlations were only consistently significant for performance on the emotion-labelling task. However, and by contrast with Palermo et al . (Palermo et al . 2018 J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 44 , 503–517), other affective factors (e.g. those related to empathy) often also significantly predicted emotion-recognition performance. Collectively, these results support the proposal that affective factors predict individual differences in emotion recognition, but that these correlations are not necessarily specific to measures of general anxiety, such as the DASS anxiety subscale.