Decreasing Psychiatric Emergency Visits, but Stable Addiction Emergency Visits, During COVID-19—A Time Series Analysis 10 Months Into the Pandemic

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has been suspected to increase mental health problems, but also to possibly lead to a decreased treatment seeking, for example due to fear of attending hospital. Early findings demonstrate decreased treatment seeking for mental health, which may differ across diagnostic groups. This study aimed to examine treatment uptake at a general psychiatry emergency unit and at an addiction psychiatry emergency unit in Malmö, Sweden, separately. In addition, the study aimed to investigate treatment uptake for different diagnostic groups—during and prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: Monthly data for number of unique patients and number of contacts were extracted for the three-year period of January 2018 through December 2020. Data from each facility were analyzed separately for women, men and patients with psychotic, affective, anxiety and substance use-related disorders. Interrupted time series were used to demonstrate possible effects of COVID-19.Results: COVID-19 was associated with a marked decrease in treatment contacts, both for women and men, in the general psychiatry emergency unit—driven by a significant decrease in anxiety-related disorders (p < 0.001) and affective disorders (p < 0.01)—but not in psychotic or substance use disorders (SUDs). Also, in the addiction psychiatry emergency unit, no significant impact of COVID-19 was seen.Conclusions: COVID-19 may decrease treatment uptake for acute affective and anxiety-related disorders. Given the hypothesized increase in the population regarding these conditions, societal efforts are needed to facilitate adequate treatment for these patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Society should also remain vigilant with respect to SUDs during the pandemic.

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Perception of Substance Use Disorder Training: a Survey of General Psychiatry Residents in Nigeria

Academic Psychiatry ◽

10.1007/s40596-021-01433-y ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Eze U. Chikezie ◽

Ikenna D. Ebuenyi ◽

Erefagha Leonardo P. Allagoa ◽

Ifeoma N. Onyeka

Keyword(s):

Substance Use ◽

Substance Use Disorder ◽

English Language ◽

Psychiatry Residents ◽

Cross Sectional Survey ◽

Related Factors ◽

Addiction Psychiatry ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Middle Income ◽

General Psychiatry

Abstract Objective Substance use disorder (SUD) is a global concern. Evidence from high-income countries suggests that SUD training for psychiatry residents is less than optimal but it is unknown whether the situation is different in low-/middle-income settings. This study assessed psychiatry residents’ perception of their SUD training. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted among general psychiatry residents in Nigeria from November 2018 to May 2019. Data were collected through self-completion of an English-language questionnaire with multiple-choice and open-ended questions administered face-to-face and online. Results A total of 51 participants completed the questionnaire, mean age 33.6 years and 76.5% men. Most participants (70.6%) expressed interest in addiction psychiatry, and 47.1% perceived their SUD training as inadequate. When asked to rate satisfaction with the SUD training they have received so far, 52.9% were unsatisfied, and the absence of in-house SUD training (29.4%) was the leading cause of dissatisfaction. For those who were satisfied, the most common reasons were availability of SUD training and treatment-related factors (31.4%). The most frequent suggestions for making addiction psychiatry subspecialty attractive to psychiatry residents were provision of SUD treatment units, structured SUD training, and continuity of such training. Equipping existing SUD treatment units and creating more treatment units were the most common suggestions for improving current SUD training. Conclusion This study demonstrated a high level of interest in addiction psychiatry, but satisfaction with SUD training was mixed. Addressing causes of dissatisfaction and areas suggested for improvement would be necessary to sustain interest.

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Profiles of emotion regulation in young people accessing youth mental health and drug treatment

10.31234/osf.io/qfp6t ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Elise Sloan ◽

Kate Hall ◽

George Joseph Youssef ◽

Richard Moulding ◽

Helen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Substance Use ◽

Emotion Regulation ◽

Young People ◽

Latent Class ◽

Borderline Personality ◽

Treatment Seeking ◽

Online Questionnaire ◽

Symptoms Of Depression ◽

Youth Advocacy

Deficits regulating emotions are a core process underlying both substance use and mental health disorders. Research has focused on identifying one-to-one associations between individual emotion regulation (ER) strategies and mental health symptoms. Consequently, little is known about how patterns of ER relate to a broad range of psychopathology, in treatment seeking young people. Latent class analysis was used to examine patterns of ER strategies and their relationship with symptoms of depression, anxiety, eating disorders, substance use and borderline personality disorder, in a sample of young treatment seekers. Participants were young people (N=306, M=20.8 years) accessing youth advocacy and support or mental health services in Australia. Participants recalled an emotionally-arousing event experienced when on their own and indicated their use of 14 possible ER responses in an online questionnaire. Symptoms of mental health and substance use were measured. The LCA identified three distinct classes of ER responses: Ruminators/avoiders (n =76), active regulators (n =81), and low regulators (n =129). The ruminators/avoiders endorsed the most severe symptom picture across all disorders except alcohol use. Within this cohort, distinct patterns of ER responding had unique relationships with symptoms of psychopathology. The deleterious impact of heightened maladaptive ER strategies (rumination and avoidance) in the absence of adaptive strategies was highlighted.

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