Quality of Life, Social Support, Coping Strategies, and Psychiatric Morbidity in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Background and Objectives Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have greater psychological morbidity, despite that research in this area is scarce from developing countries. This study was aimed to assess the association of quality of life, social support, coping strategies, and psychological morbidity in patients with RA. Materials and Methods In this cross-sectional study, 40 patients with RA, who were not receiving steroids or disease modifying antirheumatic drugs, were recruited through purposive sampling. Social support questionnaire, coping strategy check list, and World Health Organization quality of life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) were administered to assess social support, coping, and quality of life, respectively. Results More than half of the patients had psychiatric disorders (60%), with depression being the commonest disorder (52.5%). Internalization coping and disease severity indicators like tender joints counts, swollen joints counts, pain, and disease activity were found as significant predictors for psychiatric disorders, while externalization coping, quality of life (all domains), and physical functions were found to protect against psychiatric morbidity. Conclusions Coping, quality of life, disease severity, and physical functions predicted the psychiatric disorders in RA. Multipronged interventions to enhance quality of life with promoting adaptive coping and timely treatment may further improve their mental health and overall disease course.

Relationship between anxiety, depression and quality of life in medical student with polycystic ovary syndrome

Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common endocrine disorder affecting 5-10% of women worldwide. It has clinical, hormonal and psychological manifestation like anxiety, depression and low self-esteem. Aim was to evaluate prevalence of anxiety, depression, and quality of life in medical students with PCOS. Objectives were to study the prevalence of anxiety, depression among medical students suffering from PCOS; and to evaluate quality of life (QoL) in students with PCOS and its association with anxiety, depression and quality of life.Methods: The cross sectional study was conducted among 70 medical students at Geetanjali Medical College and Hospital, Udaipur, Rajasthan, from February 2019 – June 2020. Students were screened and selected as per the Rotterdam’s 2003 criteria after informed consent. Mental health assessment done by using Hamilton depression rating scale for depression, Hamilton anxiety rating scale for anxiety, and using 36-item short form survey for QoL.Results: Twenty five (35.7%) students suffered from anxiety while 20 (28.5%) had depressive disorders. Forty five (64%) patient both anxiety and depression. These students had significant psychological morbidity and poor QoL.Conclusions: Psychological morbidity with PCOS is undertreated and need to be addressed and treated in time so as to turn these students into a responsible happy adult.

Psychological Morbidity After Critical Illness

Patients with critical illnesses face a number of severe psychic and physical stressors. Survivors often have long-term cognitive and physical impairments, as well as family, financial, and other stressors. These potential stressors increase the risk of psychiatric disturbances substantially. This chapter describes the burden of distress-related psychiatric morbidity in patients who survive critical illnesses, as well as risk factors for this morbidity. This knowledge serves as the motivation to develop new approaches that can ameliorate, or even prevent, long-term distress in survivors. The chapter also presents information about early attempts to reduce, prevent, and manage long-term psychological morbidity.

Psychological Morbidity in Endometriosis: A Couple’s Study

Endometriosis is a chronic gynecological disease that impacts more than 176 million women worldwide, having a strong impact on psychological morbidity. This study aimed to evaluate the contribution of psychological morbidity, in women with endometriosis, taking into consideration the duration of the couple’s relationship and the duration of the disease and also examine whether women’s sexual satisfaction had an impact on their psychological morbidity (actor effect) and on their sexual partners’ psychological morbidity (partner effect) and vice versa. Participants were 105 women and their partners, who answered the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS); Couple Satisfaction Index (CSI-4) and the Global Measure of Sexual Satisfaction (GMSEX). The results revealed a direct effect between the perception of symptom severity, marital satisfaction, and women’s psychological morbidity. Sexual activity and the presence of infertility had an indirect effect on the relationship between sexual satisfaction, diagnosis duration, and psychological morbidity, respectively. Finally, women’s sexual satisfaction had a direct effect on their own and partner’s marital satisfaction that predicted less psychological morbidity, in each. Thus, multidisciplinary interventions focused on the couple’s sexual and marital relationship, as well as illness representations, are needed to promote psychological well-being in this population.

Offline Victimization, Psychological Morbidity, and Problematic Online Behavior among Chinese Secondary School Students

Despite the rise of child victimization in different societies, few researchers have examined its consequences in terms of psychological morbidity (such as depression and anxiety) and problematic online behavior (such as Internet addiction and cyberbullying) in a single study. Moreover, no study has investigated the role of psychological morbidity in mediating the impact of victimization on problematic online behavior (indexed by Internet addiction and cyberbullying) in a single model. Based on a survey of 2843 Chinese secondary students (49.3% male; Mage = 13.97) from six public secondary schools in Fujian, China, we found that experience of victimization was positively associated with depression and anxiety, as well as Internet addiction and cyberbullying. Depression mediated the links between victimization and both Internet addiction and cyberbullying, with the mediating effect on Internet addiction found to be stronger for girls. While anxiety did not mediate the association between victimization and cyberbullying, it mediated the relationship between victimization and Internet addiction in boys. These findings enrich our understanding of the negative outcomes of victimization, as well as directions for intervention.

Psychological Morbidity among University Students in Hong Kong (2014–2018): Psychometric Properties of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) and Related Correlates

Although mental health problems among Hong Kong university students are serious, there is a lack of studies examining the psychometric properties of related assessment scales and correlates. This study attempted to validate the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) in Hong Kong university students and examine the demographic (gender), time (cohort), and well-being correlates (positive youth development attributes and life satisfaction) of psychological morbidity. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to examine the factor structure of the DASS (n = 6704). Gender and cohort invariance were further established using a multigroup CFA. The three-factor model of the DASS showed a superior fit and factorial invariance across gender and five different cohorts. Regarding gender and cohort correlates of psychological morbidity, males exhibited more depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms than their female counterparts. The intensity of psychological distress also escalated after the Umbrella Movement in 2014. Furthermore, well-being measures (positive youth development and life satisfaction) were negatively associated with depression, anxiety, and stress. In short, the Chinese DASS demonstrated good psychometric properties. This study also showed that gender, cohort (occurrence of political events), and well-being were associated with psychological morbidity indexed by the DASS measures.