Brain, behavior, and immunity
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Brain Behav. Immun. · Aug 2020
Review Meta AnalysisPrevalence of depression, anxiety, and insomnia among healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to significantly affect the mental health of healthcare workers (HCWs), who stand in the frontline of this crisis. It is, therefore, an immediate priority to monitor rates of mood, sleep and other mental health issues in order to understand mediating factors and inform tailored interventions. The aim of this review is to synthesize and analyze existing evidence on the prevalence of depression, anxiety and insomnia among HCWs during the Covid-19 outbreak. ⋯ Early evidence suggests that a considerable proportion of HCWs experience mood and sleep disturbances during this outbreak, stressing the need to establish ways to mitigate mental health risks and adjust interventions under pandemic conditions.
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Brain Behav. Immun. · Aug 2020
Multicenter StudyA multinational, multicentre study on the psychological outcomes and associated physical symptoms amongst healthcare workers during COVID-19 outbreak.
Since the declaration of the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak as pandemic, there are reports on the increased prevalence of physical symptoms observed in the general population. We investigated the association between psychological outcomes and physical symptoms among healthcare workers. ⋯ Our study demonstrates a significant association between the prevalence of physical symptoms and psychological outcomes among healthcare workers during the COVID-19 outbreak. We postulate that this association may be bi-directional, and that timely psychological interventions for healthcare workers with physical symptoms should be considered once an infection has been excluded.
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Brain Behav. Immun. · Aug 2020
PARP-1-regulated TNF-α expression in the dorsal root ganglia and spinal dorsal horn contributes to the pathogenesis of neuropathic pain in rats.
Emerging evidence has implicated poly-(ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP-1), a transcriptional coregulator, in a variety of inflammatory diseases. In the current study, the role of PARP-1 in neuropathic pain and the underlying mechanisms were investigated. Neuropathic pain was determined by assessing the paw withdrawal threshold (PWT) and paw withdrawal latency (PWL) following lumbar 5 spinal nerve ligation (SNL) in male rates. ⋯ Co-IP assay revealed that SNL caused a significant increase in the level of histone H1 poly(ADP)-ribosylation. Together, these results indicate that PARP-1-regulated TNF-α expression in the DRG and spinal dorsal horn following SNL contributes to the development and maintenance of neuropathic pain. Targeting PARP-1 might be a promising therapeutic strategy for the treatment of the chronic pain.
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Brain Behav. Immun. · Aug 2020
Immediate psychological distress in quarantined patients with COVID-19 and its association with peripheral inflammation: A mixed-method study.
Since the end of 2019, Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been the cause of a worldwide pandemic. The mental status of patients with COVID-19 who have been quarantined and the interactions between their psychological distress and physiological levels of inflammation have yet to be analyzed. Using a mixed-method triangulation design (QUAN + QUAL), this study investigated and compared the mental status and inflammatory markers of 103 patients who, while hospitalized with mild symptoms, tested positive with COVID-19 and 103 matched controls that were COVID-19 negative. ⋯ Stigma and uncertainty of viral disease progression were two main concerns expressed by COVID-19 patients. Our results indicate that significant psychological distress was experienced by hospitalized COVID-19 patients and that levels of depressive features may be related to the inflammation markers in these patients. Thus, we recommend that necessary measures should be provided to address depression and other psychiatric symptoms for COVID-19 patients and attention should be paid to patient perceived stigma and coping strategies when delivering psychological interventions.