Changes in Provision of Psychotherapy in the Early Weeks of the COVID-19 Lockdown in Austria

Reducing personal contacts is a central measure against the spreading of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). This troubles mental health, but also mental health care as treatments usually take place in personal contact and switching to remote treatments might be necessary in times of COVID-19. The present study investigated the question how the provision of psychotherapy changed in the early weeks of the COVID-19 lockdown in Austria and whether there were differences between the four therapeutic orientations eligible in Austria (psychodynamic, humanistic, systemic, behavioral). Psychotherapists (N = 1547) completed an online survey. They entered their number of patients treated on average per week (in personal contact, via telephone, via Internet) in the early weeks of the COVID-19 lockdown in Austria as well as (retrospectively) in the months before. The number of patients treated on average per week in personal contact decreased (on average 81%; p < 0.001), whereas the number of patients treated on average per week via telephone and via Internet increased (on average 979% and 1561%; both p < 0.001). Yet, the decrease of psychotherapies through personal contact was not compensated for by increases of remote psychotherapies (p < 0.001). No differences between the four therapeutic orientations emerged. Results imply an undersupply of psychotherapy in the COVID-19 lockdown and that further changes are necessary to cover the increased need for timely psychotherapy in times of COVID-19.

Measuring Disease

The first task of epidemiology is to understand in some depth the concepts of prevalence and incidence, how to quantify them, and key types of error that can affect the measurements of each. In Chapter 1, the author describes prevalence and incidence in single samples (a single population), as well as how to quantify these measures. The chapter will focus on the survival curve as the central measure of incidence of disease over time in a population and then describe how simpler measures such as the incidence proportion (that is, the risk), incidence rate, incidence odds, and measures of time can be derived from the survival curve.

Social Institutions and Consequentialism

This chapter argues that when it comes to evaluating social institutions, Adam Smith is a particular kind of consequentialist, one who favors the welfare of the working poor. This is illustrated by way of first, the so-called real price, Smith’s central measure of welfare in the Wealth of Nations, and, second, Smith’s proposed progressive tax regime. The chapter also argues that Smith’s consequentialism should be distinguished from utilitarianism. The chapter then turns to a consideration of what might explain Smith’s theoretical bias toward the working poor. It closes with a discussion of the principles that, according to Smith, govern the duties of the legislator and an analysis of Smith’s account of liberty.

Large Deviation Strategy for Inverse Problem II

In the earlier paper [1], we have proposed the large deviation strategy (LDS) and discussed its first level. By efficient use of the central measure, we will establish a quantum version of Sanov's theorem, the Bayesian escort predictive state and the widely applicable information criteria for quantum states in LDS second level. Finally, these results are re-examined in the context of quantum estimation theory, and organized as quantum model selection, i.e., a quantum version of model selection.

Criteria for strengthening buildings

Decisions on the merit of strengthening buildings to resist earthquakes should not be made on a cost benefit basis, and in particular should not use estimates of the benefit that are based on the average rate of occurrence of strong ground motion. The distribution of expected ground motion is so skewed that no central measure provides a good representation of the risk. A better procedure is to determine what is the unacceptable level of loss, and then to engineer to the strength that will prevent that loss.

The measurement of whole-word productions

Attempts to measure phonological acquisition have largely focused on segments, with less effort made to examine whole-word productions. This article proposes four measures designed to estimate a child's whole-word abilities: 1. the PHONOLOGICAL MEAN LENGTH OF UTTERANCE, a measure of whole-word complexity for both child and target words, 2. the PROPORTION OF WHOLE-WORD PROXIMITY, a measure of the proximity between the child's word and its target form, 3. the PROPORTION OF WHOLE-WORD CORRECTNESS, a measure of the number of words produced correctly relative to the sample size, and 4. the PROPORTION OF WHOLE-WORD VARIABILITY, a measure of how often a child produces words in distinct phonological shapes. The central measure is the Phonological Mean Length of Utterance, which can be used to identify a child's stage of acquisition, to assess proximity to target words, and to evaluate the complexity of words. The value of the new measures will be demonstrated through preliminary applications to a range of contexts; i.e. monolingual children acquiring English (five children, 0;11 to 1;5), Cantonese (one child, 1;7), and Spanish (5 children, 2;2 to 2;11), bilingual children acquiring Hungarian-English (one child, 2;0) and Spanish-English (3 children, 2;4 to 2;11), children with phonological impairment (eighteen children, 2;11 to 5;3), and children with cochlear implants (six children, 4;5 to 7;11).