Negative Impacts of COVID-19 Outbreak on Mental Health: A Review of Literature to Propose Future Research

Epidemiological research which focused on impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health have been conducted worldwide. This article aimed to: 1) review relevant research articles to identify both risk and protective factors of negative impacts caused by the pandemic, 2) to identify still needed information, and finally 3) to propose particular types of research necessary for the future. A variety of demographic variables as well as psycho-social factors were found to be risk factors or protective factors. It has not been clarified whether these factors interdependently function when the COVID-19 outbreak negatively impacts an individual’s mental health. In addition, only presumable factors have been examined as to whether they are risk or protective factors. Compared to epidemiological studies targeting a relatively large sample, there were few clinical case studies which described the psycho-social process leading to an individual’s maladaptation. In order for these issues to be solved, the author proposed a few essentials in conducting future research.

Clinical Practice Experiences Using a Professional Diabetes Management Ecosystem During COVID

Background: Challenges of patient care in diabetes were exacerbated by COVID, undermining the ability of patients to engage in-person with health care professionals (HCPs). To combat this, there has been accelerated adoption of telemedicine to support patient and provider connectivity. Methods: We collated survey information regarding telemedicine from 21 European clinical institutions. Health care professionals joined virtual meetings focusing on the OneTouch Reveal (OTR) ecosystem and its utility for conducting telemedicine. Selected HCPs provided clinical case studies to explain how the OTR ecosystem supported patient care. Results: Remote consultations increased by nearly 50% in 21 European clinics during the pandemic (Belgium [24%], Iberia [65%], Germany [34%], Italy [54%]). In all, 52% of people with diabetes using OTR app to connect remotely with HCPs had type 1 diabetes and 48% had type 2 diabetes. Remote connection methods included telephone (60%), email (19%), video chat (10%), text only (3%), or a mix of these methods (8%). Health care professionals usually reviewed patient data during consultations (45%) rather than before consultations (25%). Fifty-five percent of HCPs indicated digital ecosystems like OTR ecosystem would become their standard of care for diabetes management. In-depth conversations with HCPs provided a deeper understanding of how a digital ecosystem integrated into clinical practice and population management. In addition, five patient case studies using OTR ecosystem were provided by a selection of our HCPs. Conclusion: Diabetes management solutions, such as OTR ecosystem, supported telemedicine during the pandemic and will continue to play a valuable role in patient care beyond the pandemic.

Assessing Patient-Specific Microwave Breast Imaging in Clinical Case Studies

Microwave breast imaging has seen increasing use in clinical investigations in the past decade with over eight systems having being trialled with patients. The majority of systems use radar-based algorithms to reconstruct the image shown to the clinician which requires an estimate of the dielectric properties of the breast to synthetically focus signals to reconstruct the image. Both simulated and experimental studies have shown that, even in simplified scenarios, misestimation of the dielectric properties can impair both the image quality and tumour detection. Many methods have been proposed to address the issue of the estimation of dielectric properties, but few have been tested with patient images. In this work, a leading approach for dielectric properties estimation based on the computation of many candidate images for microwave breast imaging is analysed with patient images for the first time. Using five clinical case studies of both healthy breasts and breasts with abnormalities, the advantages and disadvantages of computational patient-specific microwave breast image reconstruction are highlighted.

Imperial Aetiologies: Violence, Sleeping Sickness, and the Colonial Encounter

In this chapter Taylor-Pirie examines how one particular tropical disease—sleeping sickness—was conceptualised as a form of tropical violence across a range of medical and nonmedical genres. Using the repetition of an African curse ‘owa na ntolo’ as an access point, she reveals how sensational literary depictions of sleeping sickness circulated between newspaper reports and clinical case studies, augmenting debates about racial susceptibility. Depictions of African sleeping sickness, she argues, were filtered through an emotional register that produced new aetiologies of race and illness visible in Henry Seton Merriman’s hugely popular imperial romance novel With Edged Tools (1894), as well as in medical essays and tropical travel guides. The melodramatic mode and a flexible approach to representations of disease transmission produced Africa as a place productive of illness and immorality in equal measure. Ultimately, she demonstrates how Britain’s encounters with tropical disease—fictional and nonfictional—were used to map not only the epidemiological but also the sociocultural topographies of empire.

Unseen City

In Unseen City: The Psychic Lives of the Urban Poor, Ankhi Mukherjee offers a magisterial work of literary and cultural criticism which examines the relationship between global cities, poverty, and psychoanalysis. Spanning three continents, this hugely ambitious book reads fictional representations of poverty with each city's psychoanalytic and psychiatric culture, particularly as that culture is fostered by state policies toward the welfare needs of impoverished populations. It explores the causal relationship between precarity and mental health through clinical case studies, the product of extensive collaborations and knowledge-sharing with community psychotherapeutic initiatives in six global cities. These are layered with twentieth- and twenty-first-century works of world literature that explore issues of identity, illness, and death at the intersections of class, race, globalisation, and migrancy. In Unseen City, Mukherjee argues that a humanistic and imaginative engagement with the psychic lives of the dispossessed is key to an adapted psychoanalysis for the poor, and that seeking equity of the unconscious is key to poverty alleviation.

Reproduction in Animal Models of Lysosomal Storage Diseases: A Scoping Review

Background: Lysosomal storage diseases (LSDs) are caused by a mutation in a specific gene. Enzymatic dysfunction results in a progressive storage of substrates that gradually affects lysosomal, cellular and tissue physiology. Their pathophysiological consequences vary according to the nature of the stored substrate, making LSDs complex and multisystemic diseases. Some LSDs result in near normal life expectancies, and advances in treatments mean that more people reach the age to have children, so considering the effects of LSDs on fertility and the risks associated with having children is of growing importance.Objectives: As there is a lack of clinical studies describing the effect of LSDs on the physiology of reproductivity, we undertook a scoping review of studies using animal models of LSDs focusing on reproductive parameters.Methods: We searched six databases: MEDLINE, LILACS, Scopus, Web of Science, Embase and SciELO, and identified 49 articles that met our inclusion criteria.Results: The majority of the studies used male animal models, and a number reported severe morphological and physiological damage in gametes and gonads in models of sphingolipidoses. Models of other LSDs, such as mucopolysaccharidoses, presented important morphological damage.Conclusion: Many of the models found alterations in reproductive systems. Any signs of subfertility or morphological damage in animal models are important, particularly in rodents which are extremely fertile, and may have implications for individuals with LSDs. We suggest the use of more female animal models to better understand the physiopathology of the diseases, and the use of clinical case studies to further explore the risks of individuals with LSDs having children.

Integrated Trauma-Focused Psychotherapy for Traumatic Stress and Substance Use: Two Adolescent Case Studies

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance use disorder (SUD) occur frequently as comorbid diagnoses among adolescents. Historically, these conditions have been treated using a sequential model; however, emerging evidence suggests that an integrated treatment model may be most effective. This article presents two de-identified clinical case studies from an ongoing randomised controlled trial examining the efficacy of an integrated, exposure-based, cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy (CBT) for PTSD and SUD among adolescents (COPE-A), relative to a supportive counselling control condition (person-centred therapy). In both case studies, participants were randomised to receive the COPE-A integrated treatment, which incorporates prolonged exposure (PE) including imaginal and in vivo exposure as a core treatment component alongside CBT for PTSD and SUD. The clinical profile and treatment response of each participant is discussed. Promising results were found in both cases, with substantially reduced traumatic stress symptoms and decreased or stable levels of substance use by the end of treatment. Clinical implications of these early findings are discussed.

Successes and challenges of speech language therapy service provision in Western Kenya: Three case studies

Background: The need for communication-related services in sub-Saharan Africa to support individuals experiencing communication disability is a longstanding and well-documented situation. We posit the inequities highlighted by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) make this a relevant time for speech language therapists and the professional bodies that govern us to broadly consider our roles and practices in education, health and disability in local, national and global contexts.Objective: To illustrate what services developed with local knowledge can look like in Kenya in order to promote dialogue around alternative speech language therapy models, particularly in contexts where there are insufficient services, few trained speech language therapists and limited structures to support the emerging profession.Method: This article examines three clinical case studies from Western Kenya, using a conceptual framework for responsive global engagement.Results: Service needs in Western Kenya well exceed a direct one-on-one model of care that is common in the minority world. The service delivery models described here emphasise training, skills sharing and engaging the myriad of communication partners available to individuals with communication disabilities.Conclusion: We offer up these case studies of collaborative practice as contextual realities that may be present in any speech language therapy programming in under-resourced communities. We dispel the idea that success in this work has been linear, progressed on planned time frames or come to fruition with targeted goal attainment. The fact that our relationships have endured in these communities since 2007 is our primary success.

Pediatric testicular microlithiasis through four clinical case studies: review of the literature and proposal of clinical guidelines

Background Testicular microlithiasis in children was defined for the first time in 1961 based on histological criteria. There should be more than 5 calcifications per testicle in order to say that the patient has testicular microlithiasis. It has three different echographic grades depending on the number of calcifications. However, this disease is uncommon, with inaccurate prevalence and no certain information about its evolution or etiology. Main body We studied 4 clinical cases of children diagnosed with testicular microlithiasis, in light of the conducted review of the literature, and we defined the characteristics of this disease and proposed a management and monitoring framework based on the clinical observations. Conclusion There is a link between testicular microlithiasis and testicular cancer. Therefore, it is recommended to make a regular follow-up of children who present testicular microlithiasis with the presence of risk factors.