Frontiers in psychiatry
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Frontiers in psychiatry · Jan 2020
The Association Between Physical and Mental Health and Face Mask Use During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comparison of Two Countries With Different Views and Practices.
The physical and mental health of citizens living in a country that encouraged face masks (China) and discouraged face masks (Poland) during the initial stage of the COVID-19 pandemic remained unknown. We conducted a cross-country study to compare the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Poles and Chinese. This study aimed to compare the levels of psychological impact of pandemic and levels of anxiety and depression between China and Poland. ⋯ Use of face masks at the community level may safeguard better physical and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a need of health education with scientific information from Polish health authority on the proper use of face masks and reduce social stigma. This study was limited by the respondent sampling method that had compromised the representativeness of samples.
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Frontiers in psychiatry · Jan 2020
Covid-19 Outbreak In Italy: Are We Ready for the Psychosocial and the Economic Crisis? Baseline Findings From the PsyCovid Study.
The Covid-19 pandemic is burning all over the world. National healthcare systems are facing the contagion with incredible strength, but concern regarding the psychosocial and economic effects is growing quickly. The PsyCovid Study assessed the influence of psychosocial variables on individual differences from the perceived impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on the issues of health and economy in the Italian population. ⋯ Our data suggests that in the Italian population, actual differences in individual perception of the Covid-19 outbreak severity for health are dramatically modulated by psychosocial frailty (i.e., distress and loneliness). At the same time, problem-oriented coping strategies and enhanced empathic abilities increase people's awareness of the severity of the impact of the Covid-19 emergency on economics. There is an immediate need for consensus guidelines and healthcare policies to support interventions aimed to manage psychosocial distress and increase population resilience towards the imminent crisis.
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Frontiers in psychiatry · Jan 2020
Prevalence and Correlation of Anxiety, Insomnia and Somatic Symptoms in a Chinese Population During the COVID-19 Epidemic.
Anxiety has been a common mental state during the epidemic of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and is usually closely related to somatization. However, no study on somatization in anxiety and its relationship with insomnia has been conducted. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the prevalence of anxiety, somatization and insomnia and explore the relationships between different psychological states in the general population during the COVID-19 outbreak. ⋯ Somatic and psychological symptoms were common in the general population during the COVID-19 outbreak. Somatic symptoms, anxiety, and insomnia are closely related, and improving anxiety and sleep quality may help relieve somatic symptoms.
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Frontiers in psychiatry · Jan 2020
Occupational Stress and Mental Health: A Comparison Between Frontline Medical Staff and Non-frontline Medical Staff During the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Disease Outbreak.
Background: During an epidemic, both frontline and non-frontline medical staff endure stressful work circumstances that render their mental health a major public health concern. This study aims at investigating and comparing the prevalence and severity of mental health symptoms (i.e., anxiety, depression and insomnia) between frontline medical staff and non-frontline medical staff during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak. It also seeks to evaluate the association of their mental health with occupational stress. ⋯ Regression analyses found a significant association between occupational stress and mental health symptoms in both frontline and non-frontline medical staff during COVID-19 outbreak. Conclusion: The results indicated that during the COVID-19 epidemic, medical staff experienced higher levels of anxiety, depression and insomnia than citizens, and their occupational stress had positive effects on their psychological distress. These findings emphasize the importance of occupational stress management interventions to decrease the risk of developing mental health problems among the medical staff during a biological disaster.
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Frontiers in psychiatry · Jan 2020
P50, N100, and P200 Auditory Sensory Gating Deficits in Schizophrenia Patients.
Sensory gating describes neurological processes of filtering out redundant or unnecessary stimuli during information processing, and sensory gating deficits may contribute to the symptoms of schizophrenia. Among the three components of auditory event-related potentials reflecting sensory gating, P50 implies pre-attentional filtering of sensory information and N100/P200 reflects attention triggering and allocation processes. Although diminished P50 gating has been extensively documented in patients with schizophrenia, previous studies on N100 were inconclusive, and P200 has been rarely examined. This study aimed to investigate whether patients with schizophrenia have P50, N100, and P200 gating deficits compared with control subjects. ⋯ Till date, this study has the largest sample size to analyze P50, N100, and P200 collectively by adopting the passive auditory paired-click paradigm without distractors. With covariates controlled for possible confounds, such as age, education, smoking amount and retained pairs, we found that schizophrenia patients had significant sensory gating deficits in P50-N100-P200. The schizophrenia patients had demonstrated a unique pattern of sensory gating deficits, including repetition suppression deficits in P50 and stimulus registration deficits in N100/200. These results suggest that sensory gating is a pervasive cognitive abnormality in schizophrenia patients that is not limited to the pre-attentive phase of information processing. Since P200 exhibited a large effect size and did not require additional time during recruitment, future studies of P50-N100-P200 collectively are highly recommended.