scholarly journals A Selective Increase in OC Symptoms is Driving Information Seeking and Guideline Adherence During the Covid-19 Pandemic

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alisa M. Loosen ◽  
Vasilisa Skvortsova ◽  
Tobias U. Hauser
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Psychiatric Symptoms ◽  
Depression Symptoms ◽  
Obsessive Compulsive ◽  
Compulsive Disorder ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Pandemic Wave

AbstractBackgroundIncreased mental health problems as a reaction to stressful life events, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, are common. Critically, successful adaptation helps reduce such symptoms to baseline, preventing long-term psychiatric disorders. It is thus important to understand whether and which psychiatric symptoms only show transient elevations, and which persist long-term and become chronically heightened. At particular risk for the latter trajectory are disorders with symptoms directly affected by the pandemic, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder.MethodsIn this longitudinal large-scale study (N=416), we assessed how obsessive-compulsive (OC), anxiety, and depression symptoms changed throughout the course of the first pandemic wave in a sample of the general UK public. We further examined how these symptoms affected pandemic-related information seeking and adherence to governmental guidelines.FindingsAll psychiatric domains were initially elevated, but showed distinct adaptation patterns. Depression scores decreased during the first pandemic wave, however, OC symptoms further increased, even after the end of lockdown. These OC symptoms were directly linked to Covid-related information seeking which gave rise to higher adherence to government guidelines.InterpretationThe rise and persistence of OC symptoms, despite the ease of Covid-19 restrictions, shows that OCD is disproportionally and chronically affected by the pandemic. This is particularly worrying with regards to the long-term impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on public mental health and indicates that patients with OCD may require particular treatment efforts.

scholarly journals Obsessive–compulsive symptoms and information seeking during the Covid-19 pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alisa M. Loosen ◽  
Vasilisa Skvortsova ◽  
Tobias U. Hauser
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Psychiatric Symptoms ◽  
Longitudinal Change ◽  
Depression Symptoms ◽  
Obsessive Compulsive ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Pandemic Wave

AbstractIncreased mental-health symptoms as a reaction to stressful life events, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, are common. Critically, successful adaptation helps to reduce such symptoms to baseline, preventing long-term psychiatric disorders. It is thus important to understand whether and which psychiatric symptoms show transient elevations, and which persist long-term and become chronically heightened. At particular risk for the latter trajectory are symptom dimensions directly affected by the pandemic, such as obsessive–compulsive (OC) symptoms. In this longitudinal large-scale study (N = 406), we assessed how OC, anxiety and depression symptoms changed throughout the first pandemic wave in a sample of the general UK public. We further examined how these symptoms affected pandemic-related information seeking and adherence to governmental guidelines. We show that scores in all psychiatric domains were initially elevated, but showed distinct longitudinal change patterns. Depression scores decreased, and anxiety plateaued during the first pandemic wave, while OC symptoms further increased, even after the ease of Covid-19 restrictions. These OC symptoms were directly linked to Covid-related information seeking, which gave rise to higher adherence to government guidelines. This increase of OC symptoms in this non-clinical sample shows that the domain is disproportionately affected by the pandemic. We discuss the long-term impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on public mental health, which calls for continued close observation of symptom development.

scholarly journals Can the internet tell that you’re depressed? Machine learning of language use on Twitter reveals weak and non-specific predictions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Kelley ◽  
Caoimhe Ní Mhaonaigh ◽  
Louise Burke ◽  
Robert Whelan ◽  
Claire Gillan
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Predictive Performance ◽  
Depression Symptoms ◽  
Online Forums ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Obsessive Compulsive ◽  
Compulsive Disorder ◽  
Indirect Measures ◽  
Out Of Sample

Background: Depressed individuals use language differently than healthy controls and it has been proposed that social media posts could therefore be used to identify depression. But much of the evidence behind this claim relies on indirect measures of mental health that are sometimes circular, such as statements of self-diagnosis (“Got an OCD diagnosis today”) on social media or membership in disorder-specific online forums. Relatedly, few studies have tested if these language features are specific to depression versus other aspects of mental health. Methods: We analyzed the Tweets of 1,006 participants who completed questionnaires assessing symptoms of depression and 8 other mental health conditions. Daily Tweets were subjected to textual analysis and the resulting linguistic features were used to train an Elastic Net model on depression severity, using nested cross validation. We then tested performance in a held-out test set (30%), comparing predictions of depression versus 8 other aspects of mental health. Results: The depression trained model had only modest predictive performance when tested out of sample, explaining just 2.5% of variance in depression symptoms (R2 = 0.025). The performance of this model was as-good or superior when used to identify other aspects of mental health: schizotypy (R2 = 0.035), social anxiety (R2 = 0.025), eating disorders (R2 = 0.025), generalized anxiety (R2 = 0.041), above chance for obsessive-compulsive disorder (R2 = 0.011), apathy (R2 = 0.008), but not significant for alcohol abuse (R2 = -0.012).

scholarly journals History of psychosurgery at Sainte-Anne Hospital, Paris, France, through translational interactions between psychiatrists and neurosurgeons

2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. E9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Zanello ◽  
Johan Pallud ◽  
Nicolas Baup ◽  
Sophie Peeters ◽  
Baris Turak ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Psychiatric Hospital ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Psychiatric Symptoms ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
Public Institution ◽  
Obsessive Compulsive ◽  
Compulsive Disorder ◽  
History Of

Sainte-Anne Hospital is the largest psychiatric hospital in Paris. Its long and fascinating history began in the 18th century. In 1952, it was at Sainte-Anne Hospital that Jean Delay and Pierre Deniker used the first neuroleptic, chlorpromazine, to cure psychiatric patients, putting an end to the expansion of psychosurgery. The Department of Neuro-psychosurgery was created in 1941. The works of successive heads of the Neurosurgery Department at Sainte-Anne Hospital summarized the history of psychosurgery in France.Pierre Puech defined psychosurgery as the necessary cooperation between neurosurgeons and psychiatrists to treat the conditions causing psychiatric symptoms, from brain tumors to mental health disorders. He reported the results of his series of 369 cases and underlined the necessity for proper follow-up and postoperative re-education, illustrating the relative caution of French neurosurgeons concerning psychosurgery.Marcel David and his assistants tried to follow their patients closely postoperatively; this resulted in numerous publications with significant follow-up and conclusions. As early as 1955, David reported intellectual degradation 2 years after prefrontal leucotomies.Jean Talairach, a psychiatrist who eventually trained as a neurosurgeon, was the first to describe anterior capsulotomy in 1949. He operated in several hospitals outside of Paris, including the Sarthe Psychiatric Hospital and the Public Institution of Mental Health in the Lille region. He developed stereotactic surgery, notably stereo-electroencephalography, for epilepsy surgery but also to treat psychiatric patients using stereotactic lesioning with radiofrequency ablation or radioactive seeds of yttrium-90.The evolution of functional neurosurgery has been marked by the development of deep brain stimulation, in particular for obsessive-compulsive disorder, replacing the former lesional stereotactic procedures.The history of Sainte-Anne Hospital’s Neurosurgery Department sheds light on the initiation—yet fast reconsideration—of psychosurgery in France. This relatively more prudent attitude toward the practice of psychosurgery compared with other countries was probably due to the historically strong collaboration between psychiatrists and neurosurgeons in France.

scholarly journals Stress, Coping, and Psychiatric Symptoms in Pregnant Women in Outpatient Care During the 2021 Second-Wave COVID-19 Pandemic

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Penengo ◽  
Chiara Colli ◽  
Maddalena Cesco ◽  
Veronica Croccia ◽  
Matilde Degano ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pregnant Women ◽  
Coping Strategies ◽  
Depression Symptoms ◽  
High Anxiety ◽  
Obsessive Compulsive ◽  
Compulsive Disorder ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Related Stress ◽  
Second Wave ◽  
Pandemic Wave

Aims: Women face many sources of stress throughout their lives, and some periods are particularly sensitive; pregnancy is one of them. The COVID-19 pandemic is a likely source of additional stress for pregnant women. Moreover, there is evidence that pregnant women have experienced high levels of anxiety and depression symptoms during the pandemic. Our study aimed to evaluate the association of pregnancy-specific stress, pandemic-related stress, and coping strategies with anxiety, depressive and obsessive-compulsive symptomatology in Italian women during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (December 2020–June 2021). We also investigated whether there were differences in these levels of psychopathology compared to a prior study conducted during the first pandemic wave (April–August 2020) in Italian pregnant women.Methods: We assessed 325 pregnant women receiving outpatient prenatal care, using the Revised Prenatal Distress Questionnaire (NuPDQ), Pandemic-Related Pregnancy Stress Scale (PREPS), the Revised Prenatal Coping Inventory (NuPCI), General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2), and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) screening. The main analysis was conducted comparing multiple logistic regression models predicting each psychopathological outcome from specific covariates and NuPDQ, PREPS, and NuPCI scores.Results: 42.8% of the sample reported significant levels of anxiety, while 10.3% was positive on depression screening and 13.1% on OCD screening. No significant difference was found in the prevalence of high anxiety, depression, or OCD screening scores compared with the first pandemic wave. Controlling for covariates, we found that GAD-7 and PHQ-2 scores were predicted by pregnancy-specific stress; positive OCD screening was not. The model of high anxiety was improved by adding pandemic-related stress as a predictor (in particular, feeling unprepared for delivery and postpartum). Finally, coping strategies (avoidance, spiritual coping, and planning-preparation) significantly improved prediction of all three psychopathological outcomes.Conclusions: The present study suggests the importance of pregnancy-related stress, COVID-19 pandemic stress, and of coping strategies in counteracting or contributing to psychiatric symptomatology during the current pandemic.

scholarly journals O10.5. CLINICAL HIGH RISK (CHR) CRITERIA IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS NOT SUSPECTED TO DEVELOP PSYCHOSIS: NO TRANSDIAGNOSTIC SEVERITY MARKER OF MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S26-S26
Author(s):  
Frauke Schultze-Lutter ◽  
Chantal Michel ◽  
Benno G Schimmelmann ◽  
Maurizia Franscini ◽  
Nina Traber-Walker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
High Risk ◽  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Community Sample ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Clinical High Risk ◽  
Obsessive Compulsive ◽  
Compulsive Disorder ◽  
Increased Risk

Abstract Background Compared to adults, children and adolescents of the community more frequently report clinical high risk of psychosis (CHR) criteria. Yet, little is known about the prevalence of CHR criteria in clinical children and adolescents’ samples. Thus, we studied the prevalence of CHR criteria and symptoms in 8- to 17-year-old inpatients with disorders that have been associated with greater odds to develop psychosis in adulthood, i.e., attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, social and specific phobia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, eating disorders and Asperger’s disorder. Methods As part of the multicenter naturalistic Bi-national Evaluation of At-Risk Symptoms in children and adolescents (BEARS-Kid) study, 8- to 17-year-olds of the community (N=235) and 8- to 17-year-old inpatients with any one of the above main diagnoses who were not suspected to be at increased risk of psychosis (N=306) were examined for CHR symptoms and criteria with the Schizophrenia Proneness Instrument, Child & Youth version and with the Structured Interview for Psychosis-Risk Syndromes. Results At 6.4%, the prevalence rate of CHR criteria in the community sample did not significantly differ from the 8.2%-rate in the inpatient sample. CHR criteria and symptoms were generally associated with age but not with group membership. Discussion This indicates that, irrespective of their mental health status, children and adolescents present more frequently with CHR criteria compared to young adults of the community for whom a 2.4%-rate of CHR criteria had earlier been reported. Furthermore, these findings contradict assumptions that CHR criteria might be diagnostically puripotential or merely severity markers of mental illness. Yet, more research into these symptoms and their cause and meaning in children and adolescents is needed to understand their significance in this age group and to detect factors that convey their clinical relevance in adulthood.

Breaking Free of Child Anxiety and OCD

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eli R. Lebowitz
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Anxiety Disorders ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Child Anxiety ◽  
Childhood And Adolescence ◽  
Obsessive Compulsive ◽  
Compulsive Disorder ◽  
Supportive Parenting ◽  
Common Mental Health Problems

Anxiety disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are the most common mental health problems of childhood and adolescence. Parents of anxious children struggle with how to help their child and are faced with constant dilemmas, such as how to respond to their child’s anxiety. This book provides a practical step-by-step guide for parents to help children and adolescents overcome anxiety and OCD in a positive and loving manner. It builds on rich clinical experience and on rigorous scientific evidence for the efficacy of a completely parent-based program called SPACE, or Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions. Working through the steps in the book, parents replace accommodating behaviors—which can maintain the child’s symptoms—with supportive responses that convey both acceptance of the child’s genuine difficulty and confidence in the ability to cope.

scholarly journals Psychedelic science in post-COVID-19 psychiatry

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
J. R. Kelly ◽  
M. T. Crockett ◽  
L. Alexander ◽  
M. Haran ◽  
A. Baker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Optimal Dose ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
Obsessive Compulsive ◽  
Double Blind ◽  
Transdiagnostic Treatment ◽  
Compulsive Disorder ◽  
Free Treatment

The medium- to long-term consequences of COVID-19 are not yet known, though an increase in mental health problems are predicted. Multidisciplinary strategies across socio-economic and psychological levels may be needed to mitigate the mental health burden of COVID-19. Preliminary evidence from the rapidly progressing field of psychedelic science shows that psilocybin therapy offers a promising transdiagnostic treatment strategy for a range of disorders with restricted and maladaptive habitual patterns of cognition and behaviour, notably depression, addiction and obsessive compulsive disorder. The COMPASS Pathways (COMPASS) phase 2b double-blind trial of psilocybin therapy in antidepressant-free, treatment-resistant depression (TRD) is underway to determine the safety, efficacy and optimal dose of psilocybin. Results from the Imperial College London Psilodep-RCT comparing the efficacy and mechanisms of action of psilocybin therapy to the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) escitalopram will soon be published. However, the efficacy and safety of psilocybin therapy in conjunction with SSRIs in TRD is not yet known. An additional COMPASS study, with a centre in Dublin, will begin to address this question, with potential implications for the future delivery of psilocybin therapy. While at a relatively early stage of clinical development, and notwithstanding the immense challenges of COVID-19, psilocybin therapy has the potential to play an important therapeutic role for various psychiatric disorders in post-COVID-19 clinical psychiatry.

scholarly journals Neuropsychiatric and Cognitive Sequelae of COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanjay Kumar ◽  
Alfred Veldhuis ◽  
Tina Malhotra
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Psychiatric Symptoms ◽  
Respiratory Infections ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Neuropsychiatric Manifestations ◽  
Long Term Impact ◽  
Viral Respiratory Infections

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is likely to have long-term mental health effects on individuals who have recovered from COVID-19. Rightly, there is a global response for recognition and planning on how to deal with mental health problems for everyone impacted by the global pandemic. This does not just include COVID-19 patients but the general public and health care workers as well. There is also a need to understand the role of the virus itself in the pathophysiology of mental health disorders and longer-term mental health sequelae. Emerging evidence suggests that COVID-19 patients develop neurological symptoms such as headache, altered consciousness, and paraesthesia. Brain tissue oedema and partial neurodegeneration have also been observed in an autopsy. In addition, there are reports that the virus has the potential to cause nervous system damage. Together, these findings point to a possible role of the virus in the development of acute psychiatric symptoms and long-term neuropsychiatric sequelae of COVID-19. The brain pathologies associated with COVID-19 infection is likely to have a long-term impact on cognitive processes. Evidence from other viral respiratory infections, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), suggests a potential development of psychiatric disorders, long-term neuropsychiatric disorders, and cognitive problems. In this paper, we will review and evaluate the available evidence of acute and possible long-term neuropsychiatric manifestations of COVID-19. We will discuss possible pathophysiological mechanisms and the implications this will have on preparing a long-term strategy to monitor and manage such patients.

Physical and Psychological Benefits of Written Emotional Expression

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 242-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Éva Kállay
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Expressive Writing ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Psychological Benefits ◽  
Cost Effective Treatment ◽  
Meta Analyses

Abstract. The last several decades have witnessed a substantial increase in the number of individuals suffering from both diagnosable and subsyndromal mental health problems. Consequently, the development of cost-effective treatment methods, accessible to large populations suffering from different forms of mental health problems, became imperative. A very promising intervention is the method of expressive writing (EW), which may be used in both clinically diagnosable cases and subthreshold symptomatology. This method, in which people express their feelings and thoughts related to stressful situations in writing, has been found to improve participants’ long-term psychological, physiological, behavioral, and social functioning. Based on a thorough analysis and synthesis of the published literature (also including most recent meta-analyses), the present paper presents the expressive writing method, its short- and long-term, intra-and interpersonal effects, different situations and conditions in which it has been proven to be effective, the most important mechanisms implied in the process of recovery, advantages, disadvantages, and possible pitfalls of the method, as well as variants of the original technique and future research directions.

Met and unmet needs among adults with mild to moderate intellectual disability with and without mental health problems

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Schützwohl
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Intellectual Disability ◽  
Unmet Needs ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Psychiatric Symptoms ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
Service Planning ◽  
Support Needs ◽  
Behaviour Problem ◽  
Prevalence Rates

Background: People with an intellectual disability (ID) show a great number and complex constellation of support needs. With respect to the planning of services, it is important to assess needs at the population level. ID services need to know to what extent support needs of clients with mental health problems differ from support needs of clients without any mental health problem.Aims: The aim of this study was to compare the prevalence rates of needs in relevant study groups. Methods: Data was generated from the MEMENTA-Study (“Mental health care for adults with intellectual disability and a mental disorder”). The Camberwell Assessment of Need for Adults with Intellectual Disabilities (CANDID) was used to assess met und unmet support needs. Data was available for n=248 adults with mild to moderate ID.Results: Mean total number of needs and unmet needs was associated with mental health status. However, in most particular areas under study, individuals without significant psychiatric symptoms or any behaviour problem needed as much as often help as individuals with such mental health problems. A higher rate of need for care among study participants with significant psychiatric symptoms or any behaviour problem was mainly found with regard to these specific areas (“minor mental health problems”, “major mental health problems”, “inappropriate behaviour”) or with regard to closely related areas (“safety of others”).Conclusions: Differences in prevalence rates mainly occurred in such areas of need that rather fall under the responsibility of mental health services than under the responsibility of ID services. This has implications for service planning.

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