Cyberbullying Victimization as a Predictor of Depressive Symptoms among Selected Adolescents Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

Victimization via cyberbullying has become a significant mental health concern particularly among adolescents at risk of depression and other mental health issues. As the COVID-19 outbreak forced everyone to stay at home and participate in their educational, recreational, and entertainment activities online, this study investigated the relation between cyberbullying victimization and depressive symptoms among 612 college students in Tamilnadu, India. We hypothesized that experiences of cyberbullying victimization would predict depressive symptoms among the participants. Adolescents aged 18 to 19 from colleges in Tamilnadu completed an online survey composed of the Cybervictimization Questionnaire for Adolescents (CYVIC) and the Beck’s Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). Results showed a significant positive relation between cyberbullying victimization and depression (r = 0.80, p < .001). Regression analysis revealed that cyberbullying victimization is a statistically significant predictor of depressive symptoms (r2 = 0.65). Likewise, impersonation (r = 0.70), written–verbal cyber victimization (r = 0.73), visual teasing/happy slapping (r = 0.69), and online exclusion (r = 0.67) contributed to the significant positive association between the variables. These findings can serve as a foundation for intervention programs to alleviate depressive symptoms by addressing cyberbullying experiences and conducting further research on the negative effects of cyberbullying victimization among adolescents.

Depression among an Immigrant Black Population of African Origin resident in Canada

Background Lately, there has been a surge of black African-born immigrants to Canada. It is critical to evaluate the extent to which depression has affected this vulnerable and understudied population. Methods Participants completed the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) depression scale. Descriptive and multivariate logistic regression analyses were carried out using IBM SPPS. Results About half (51.7%, n = 91) of the participants met the criteria for depression. Female participants had a significantly higher PHQ-9 score (10.49±4.226) compared to males (8.96± 4.119). Unmarried participants had 27.979 times the odds of being depressed compared to those who were married. Those who had stayed in Canada for more than 10 years had 62.5 times higher odds of being depressed compared to those who had stayed for less than one year. Conclusions More than half of the participants exhibited significant depressive symptoms, suggesting an important mental health concern and the need for intervention.

Chemokines as Potential Biomarkers for PTSD in Military Population

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a serious mental health concern worldwide among civilians and military personnel. Gaps in our understanding of its biological basis create significant obstacles for accurate diagnosis and assessment of therapeutic interventions. In light of this, investigation of biological factors associated with possible molecular cues of inflammation or neuroimmune disorders, could provide new surrogate markers for PTSD or PTSD treatment response. Analyses to date in deployed military personnel have suggested that sets of chemokines may be useful as biomarkers for PTSD acquired in military operations. Specifically, studies to date suggest that CCL2, CCL15, CCL22, CCL25, CXCL2, and CXCL12 are associated with PTSD onset, while CCL13, CCL20, and CXCL6 are correlated to PTSD risk; CX3CL1 are associated with resilience; CCL3; CXCL11, and CXCL16 are associated with stress response. CCL11, CCL13, CCL20, and CCL25 are correlated with the severity of PTSD symptoms. This chapter reviews the current understanding of potential chemokine markers for PTSD, and the potential chemokines associated with PTSD onset, risk, resilience, as well as stress responses in service members. Although the proposed biomarkers require further validation, these findings may lead to additional knowledge for the education and development of diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for PTSD, not only benefiting military personnel, but civilians as well.

Student mental health and clinical education: exploring the DCE experience

Purpose: There is a potential link between the clinical education phase of a physical therapist’s education and increased incidence of student mental health challenges. The Director of Clinical Education (DCE) has a complex role in supporting students and clinical sites during clinical education experiences (CEEs.) The purposes of this study were to explore DCE’s experiences and perceptions with supporting students with mental health challenges during CEEs. Methods: Two-hundred-twenty DCEs from accredited Doctor of Physical Therapy programs were invited to participate in an electronic survey. Survey questions included demographics, institutional and curricular characteristics, and current perceptions/experiences with student mental health challenges. DCEs (n = 106; 48.2%) responded and were included in the analyses. Analyses included descriptive statistics, simple frequencies, and binary logistic regression. Incident coding processes analyzed responses of open-ended questions. Results: Seventy-four percent of respondents indicated awareness of a student(s) experiencing a mental health concern during a full-time clinical experience in the past 3 years. Regression analyses showed that length of terminal clinical experience, out-of-state placement, cohort size, and availability of online/video counseling were related to prevalence of DCE’s experience. Forty-six percent of DCEs indicated feeling prepared to deal with these issues, while 35% were ‘unsure’. DCEs indicated experience, training, and workload support as contributors to successfully supporting students. Conclusion: Results contribute to the emerging understanding of the prevalence of student mental health challenges in physical therapist education from the DCE’s perspective. Our findings suggest that institutional and curricular characteristics are potential contributors to the prevalence of this issue. We recommend training and institutional support for the DCE in these situations.

Various Facets of Anxiety during the Pandemic in India - Critical Issues

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought on a lot of challenges. Among these challenges, the most pressing causes for concern are mental health issues. Anxiety is one such mental health concern that statistics has shown as increasing since the beginning of the pandemic. Numerous causes have contributed to these rising levels of anxiety. Health related concerns, loss of income, are just some of the many reasons that individuals have attributed their anxiety to. The Indian population has especially seen a massive number of jobs that have been lost, and the first lockdown in April 2020 saw a major domestic migrant crisis. In addition, a number of groups, such as the elderly, women, and the youth have faced anxiety provoking situations of their own. While India is currently facing a second wave exactly a year later, the facets of anxiety to take into consideration are numerous. The chapter looks at various facets of anxiety that have been encountered during the pandemic from an Indian context.

716 Loneliness and Lockdowns: The Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Insomnia Symptoms

Introduction Insomnia is a critical health issue that has serious consequences for both psychological and physical health. These consequences have become even more exacerbated during the course of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, as fears of the virus continue to grow and community lockdowns persist. Loneliness has also become a growing mental health concern as a result of the pandemic, and previous research has identified COVID-19 loneliness as a contributing factor to higher rates of insomnia. The current study aimed to investigate the relationship between insomnia, loneliness, and lockdown orders across the first 6-months of the pandemic. We hypothesized that being lonely and under lockdown would lead to greater insomnia, even after controlling for anxiety, and this would become more pronounced over the course of the pandemic. Methods 6,101 English-speaking adults from across the U.S. (18–84 years old; 53.6% female) completed an online, monthly, cross-sectional (~1000 participants per month), battery of assessments that included the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), UCLA Loneliness Scale – Version 3, Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 scale (GAD 7), demographic questions, and a COVID-19 questionnaire between April 2020 and September 2020. A 2 (lonely vs. not lonely) x 2 (lockdown vs. no lockdown) x 2 (Time 1 April-June vs. Time 2 July-September) ANCOVA was conducted to determine the effects of these variables on insomnia, while also controlling for anxiety symptoms. Results Significant main effects of lockdown status, F(1,8) = 22.72, p &lt; .001, time, F(1,8) = 4.94, p = .026, and loneliness, F(1,8) = 65.18, p &lt; .001, were observed, as a well as a significant interaction effect between lockdown status and time, F(1,8) = 8.47, p = .004, after controlling for anxiety. Conclusion Overall, lonely people under lockdown had the highest levels of insomnia at both Time 1 and Time 2. Non-lonely people consistently had lower levels of insomnia than lonely people across the 6-month period; however, being under lockdown also contributed to higher levels of insomnia regardless of loneliness, which increased with each passing month of the pandemic. Loneliness and lockdowns each appear to be independently associated with elevated insomnia during the COVID-19 pandemic. Support (if any):

Citizen Consultation on Problematic Usage of the Internet: Ethical Considerations and Empirical Insights From Six Countries

Citizens and scientists can work together to improve the collective well-being, if citizens are inspired to help the advancement of science, and researchers motivated to listen to the voices of citizens. The benefits of such collaboration are increasingly recognized by both citizens and scientists, as reflected in the growing number of related publications and initiatives. This is especially relevant for emerging areas of research, where early involvement of citizens could help to envision, prioritize, and plan prospective studies. The Problematic Usage of the Internet (PUI) is one such area, which is fast becoming a public mental health concern. However, there remains a lack of clarity regarding the practical guidelines and ethical requirements for citizen involvement at the earliest stages of PUI. In our paper, we propose a conceptual framework and a template for initial involvement of citizens in PUI. They are derived from our community case studies, conducted in six European countries (Georgia, Greece, Malta, North Macedonia, Portugal, and Spain) and consisting of consultation with diverse groups of interested citizens (students, parents, teachers, and health professionals). Informed by our consultation exercises, we also highlight four ethical aspects for citizen involvement in the research on PUI or novel disciplines in general. They follow simple guiding principles to ensure that scientists will: enable a long-term commitment and inclusive opportunities for citizens, challenge established power hierarchies, and support collaboration, co-production and co-authorship with citizens. We believe that the proposed practical guidelines and ethical considerations, provide a valuable foundation on which to advance our understanding and generate international strategies for citizen involvement in PUI.

Long-Term Mental Health Service Utilization Among Survivors of Testicular Cancer: A Population-Based Cohort Study

PURPOSE Testicular cancer survivors may experience mental illness as a consequence of their cancer diagnosis and treatment. METHODS All incident cases of testicular cancer treated with orchiectomy in Ontario, Canada (2000-2010), were identified using the Ontario Cancer Registry. Cases were matched to controls in a 1:5 ratio on age and geography. Population-level databases were used to identify mental health service use episodes; outpatient use included visits to a general practitioner for a mental health concern or any visit to a psychiatrist. Negative binomial regression modeling was used to estimate the rate of mental health service use in the pretreatment (2 years prior until 1 month before orchiectomy), peritreatment (1 month before until 1 month after orchiectomy), and post-treatment periods (1 month after orchiectomy until end of follow-up). Rate ratios (RR) comparing cases with controls in the peri- and post-treatment periods were adjusted for baseline mental health service use. RESULTS Two thousand six hundred nineteen cases of testicular cancer were matched to 13,095 controls. There was no baseline difference in the rate of mental health service use. Cases were significantly more likely than controls to have an outpatient visit for a mental health concern in the peritreatment (adjusted RR [aRR], 2.45; 95% CI, 2.06 to 2.92) and post-treatment periods (aRR, 1.30; 95% CI, 1.12 to 1.52). The difference in mental health service use persisted over a median follow-up of 12 years. In the postorchiectomy period, cases with baseline mental health service use were those most likely to use mental health services (aRR, 5.64; 95% CI, 4.64 to 6.85). CONCLUSION Testicular cancer survivors use mental health services more often than healthy controls. Survivorship care plans that address the long-term mental healthcare needs of this population are needed.