Evaluating a multi-component group intervention for improving psychological well-being of trainee civil servants in Pakistan: A randomised controlled study

Introduction: Mental health by its very definition is related to productivity and economic output as well. It has been termed a priority under the UN 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Covid-19 has further brought it into limelight with almost one billion people estimated to have a mental-health or substance-use disorder (Greenwood & Krol, 2020;WHO, 2020). Work-related stress has been associated with psychological problems (Quick et al., 1997). In Pakistan, the civil service carries a disproportionally high burden of responsibility and national development depends on their performance and productivity which in turn cannot be divorced from their state of mental health. However, to the best of my knowledge, no study has so far been conducted on addressing workplace related psychological issues among the civil servants in Pakistan. The present study was conducted to fill this gap. It adapted WHO's low intensity, group psychological intervention, Problem Management Plus (PM+) to design 5 workshops to improve psychological well-being of newly inducted civil servant trainees and evaluate its effectiveness. Methods: The study was conducted at Civil Service Academy (CSA), Lahore, Pakistan in two phases. In the first phase, a scoping review of the literature and consultations with stakeholders were conducted to inform adaptation of the PM+ to ensure effective implementation with trainee civil servants in Pakistan. In the second phase, a two-arm single blinded Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the adapted curriculum to reduce symptoms of psychological distress in trainee civil servants in Pakistan. 240 newly inducted civil servants, undergoing a 6 months' induction training were randomized on a 1:1 allocation ratio into intervention and usual training curriculum arm. The intervention arm received the adapted group psychosocial intervention, consisted of 5 training workshops, integrated into their orientation sessions of trainee civil servants along with the usual training. The control arm received the usual training only. The primary outcomes were changes in the scores of psychological distress as measured by Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and coping skills strategies as measured by Brief Cope Questionnaire at 3-months post intervention. Secondary outcomes included symptoms of anxiety, well-being, and psychological capital. Intention-to-treat analyses were done using mixed models adjusted for covariates. Ethical approval of the study was obtained from the Human Development Research Foundation, Pakistan and the University of Liverpool. The trial was registered prospectively on clinicaltrials.gov (NCT03762421). Results: Phase 1 showed that PM+ was transferable into Civil Service Academy (CSA) settings following a careful adaptation process. The adaptation retained the concepts and strategies of the intervention while making significant changes in its structure and delivery.In the RCT conducted in Phase 2, of the 240 participants enrolled, 213 completed the post assessment at 7 weeks and 3 months' post intervention. The mixed-model analysis showed that intervention arm participants reported significantly higher scores on Brief-COPE, compared to control arm participants (m[SD], 23.42[8.86] vs. 21.92[8.55];mean difference, 95%CI, 2.11 [0.19 to 4.04];p<0.05) at 3-months post-intervention. Similarly, lower scores on PHQ-9 at one-week post intervention were reported by intervention arm participants compared to control arm participants (m[SD], 2.61[2.98] vs. 3.64[4.72];mean difference, 95%CI, -1.01[-1.80 to -0.22];p<0.05). Statistically significant difference on secondary outcomes at one-week and 3-months post-intervention was also observed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

COVID-19-Induced Seizures: A Meta-Analysis of Case Series and Retrospective Cohorts.

The adverse events and complications of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continue to challenge the medical profession despite the worldwide vaccination against the severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of COVID-19. Other than typical respiratory manifestations, COVID-19 also presents a wide range of neurological manifestations. This article underlines the pooled incidence of COVID-19-induced seizures in patients with epilepsy and without epilepsy. Following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) protocols, we conducted a bibliographical search, and an initial search revealed 1,375 articles. In total, 21 articles were included in the final analysis by following the inclusion criteria. A total of 11,526 patients from 21 published articles that met the predetermined search criteria were included. The median age of the patients was 61.9 years, of whom 51.5% were males. A total of 255 patients presented with seizures as the first manifestation of COVID-19 with a prevalence of 2.2% (95% confidence interval = 0.05-0.24, p < 0.01) (I 2 = 97%), of which 71 patients had previously been diagnosed with epilepsy. Among patients with epilepsy, 49 patients had seizures as an initial presentation of SARA-CoV-2 with an incidence of 72% (0.54-0.85, p = 0.1) (I 2 = 34). Although the incidence of COVID-19-induced seizures is not high compared to other neurological manifestations, seizure incidence in epileptic patients with COVID-19 is remarkably high. New-onset seizures in any patient should be considered a presentation of COVID-19 in the absence of other causative factors.

A Case of Acute Encephalitis in COVID-19 Patient: A Rare Complication.

Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) is a respiratory disease, has a variable presentation, and neurological involvement in COVID-19 is not widely reported. We report a rare case of acute encephalitis in a COVID-19 patient presented with fever, dry cough, and dyspnea. She had a fever, tachypnea, and tachycardia. On auscultation, she had scattered wheezing in both lung fiends. Chest X-ray revealed small infiltrates in the lower lobe of both lungs. A nasopharyngeal swab for the COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction was positive. Later on, she developed sudden onset confusion accompanied by restlessness and visual hallucinations. Neurological examination revealed an altered level of consciousness, slight trembling of the limbs, psychomotor restlessness, and poor speech with no signs of meningeal irritation. Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain revealed diffuse hyperintense signals. A possible diagnosis of acute encephalitis was made due to concurrent COVID-19 infection and lack of other findings suggesting a diagnosis other than COVID-19. She was treated with azithromycin, tocilizumab, and methylprednisolone. Her condition started improving gradually.

Serial population-based serosurveys for COVID-19 in two neighbourhoods of Karachi, Pakistan.

OBJECTIVE: To determine population-based estimates of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in a densely populated urban community of Karachi, Pakistan. METHODS: Three cross-sectional surveys were conducted in April, June and August 2020 in low- and high-transmission neighbourhoods. Participants were selected at random to provide blood for Elecsys immunoassay for detection of anti-severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 antibodies. A Bayesian regression model was used to estimate seroprevalence after adjusting for the demographic characteristics of each district. RESULTS: In total, 3005 participants from 623 households were enrolled in this study. In Phase 2, adjusted seroprevalence was estimated as 8.7% [95% confidence interval (CI) 5.1-13.1] and 15.1% (95% CI 9.4-21.7) in low- and high-transmission areas, respectively, compared with 0.2% (95% CI 0-0.7) and 0.4% (95% CI 0-1.3) in Phase 1. In Phase 3, it was 12.8% (95% CI 8.3-17.7) and 21.5% (95% CI 15.6-28) in low- and high-transmission areas, respectively. The conditional risk of infection was 0.31 (95% CI 0.16-0.47) and 0.41 (95% CI 0.28-0.52) in low- and high-transmission neighbourhoods, respectively, in Phase 2. Similar trends were observed in Phase 3. Only 5.4% of participants who tested positive for COVID-19 were symptomatic. The infection fatality rate was 1.66%, 0.37% and 0.26% in Phases 1, 2 and 3, respectively. CONCLUSION: Continuing rounds of seroprevalence studies will help to improve understanding of secular trends and the extent of infection during the course of the pandemic.

The Association of Acute Kidney Injury With Disease Severity and Mortality in COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Background and objective The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has become a global healthcare emergency. The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of COVID-19, has a wide range of clinical manifestations ranging from subclinical infection to multi-organ failure. In addition to the respiratory system, COVID-19 also adversely affects the kidneys. In this study, we aimed to measure the prevalence of acute kidney injury (AKI) in COVID-19 and its association with the disease severity and mortality in COVID-19 patients. Materials and methods We conducted our study by following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. A comprehensive literature search using four databases (PubMed, EMBASE, Google Scholar, and clinicaltrial.gov) was performed. Our initial search returned 2,771 articles. After excluding review articles, duplicates, and non-relevant studies, we included 20 articles that reported an association between COVID-19 and AKI. We subsequently performed a random effect analysis to find the pooled prevalence, pooled odds ratio (OR) estimates, and 95% confidence intervals for severe COVID-19 and mortality outcomes in AKI using Cochrane RevMan (version 5.4) and R programming language (version 4.16-2). Results A total of 14,415 patients from various countries were included. Among the 20 cohorts, the median age was 55.8 ±8.39 years (range: 43-72 years), and 43.78% of the subjects were female. Out of a total of 14,415 patients, 3,820 developed AKI with a pooled prevalence of 11% (95% CI: 0.07-0.15; p<0.01; I2=98%). AKI was found to have a significant association with severe COVID-19 disease, with a pooled OR of 8.45 (95% CI: 5.56-12.56; p<0.00001; I2=0%). AKI was associated with significantly higher mortality in patients with COVID-19 with an OR of 13.52 (95% CI: 5.43-33.67; p<0.00001; I2=88%). Conclusion AKI manifests as a common COVID-19 complication, and COVID-19 patients with AKI generally have poor outcomes in terms of disease severity and mortality.

COVID-19 and Its Psychological Impacts on Healthcare Staff - A Multi-Centric Comparative Cross-Sectional Study.

Background Since the first case of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) in Pakistan was reported in February 2020, the medical and paramedical staff has been working on the frontlines to deal with this disease. They have been facing significant strain and stress due to the pandemic, affecting their social, mental, and personal life. The purpose of this study is to investigate the psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, etiology, personal coping mechanisms, and the strategies that are being adopted to reduce stress by the healthcare workers (HCWs) working in COVID-19 dedicated wards (group 2) and compare it with staff working in other departments but not in COVID-19 wards amid this pandemic (group 1) in various hospitals of Lahore, Pakistan. Methods The comparative cross-sectional study was designed which included doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals from various hospitals of Lahore, Pakistan. A questionnaire was designed which consisted of five sections, and 51 questions. A Chi-square test was used to compare the responses between these two groups. Results The study questionnaire was submitted by 200 participants, 100 responses for each group (see the Appendix). In group 1, HCWs not working in COVID-19 dedicated floors were afraid of getting infected, transmitting the infection to their families and concerned about using personal protective equipment (PPE) improperly. They reported a lack of concentration and tense muscles. The coping mechanisms of this group were exercise, strict precautions at work, and social distancing measures. While HCWs serving in COVID-19 dedicated wards were concerned and afraid of putting their families at risk by working in the high-risk environment; the major stresses in this group were: lack of knowledge about proper strategies for treatment, they faced insecurity due to physical and verbal violence by caretakers of COVID-19 patients, and lack of concentration. The coping mechanism was the support of their families and taking strict precautions, with self-isolation if required, to avoid any disease transmission to their families. The proposed strategies to be implemented included teaching skills for self-rescue as well as the implementation of policies at the administrative level to reduce working hours and frequent shift rotation. Conclusion The COVID-19 outbreak posed a great deal of mental stress among HCWs working on the COVID-19 floor as well as those serving in other departments of the hospital. The HCWs from group 1 were most afraid of getting infected and putting family members at risk, experienced tense muscles and lack of concentration, coped their stress by exercise and being more vigilant, and suggested the strategies of teaching skills for self-rescue and better community awareness. While the staff from the second group were most afraid of being the source of infection and violence from the caretakers of patients, experienced tense muscles, used family support, and strict isolation measures as coping mechanisms and suggested the strategies of self-rescue and increase in wages of directly exposed healthcare workers to deal with such pandemics in future in a better way.

Kawasaki Disease-Like Features in 10 Pediatric COVID-19 Cases: A Retrospective Study.

Children with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2), usually present with symptoms of mild upper respiratory tract infection without developing any significant complications. However, this observation has been rendered incautious by hundreds of clinical cases from around the world that have depicted a less benign multisystem inflammatory illness mimicking Kawasaki disease in COVID-positive pediatric patients. Our study aimed at retrospectively reviewing the different features of Kawasaki disease-like illness in children suffering from COVID-19, including the complications, laboratory investigations, treatment strategies used during their hospital stay, and outcomes. We searched the electronic database of the two pediatric units of Mayo Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan, for children who had been admitted to the ward between April 2020 and July 2020 and were diagnosed with COVID-19. A total of 10 such pediatric cases were found, whose clinical details were then reviewed and the obtained data were presented in the form of tables and percentages. The median age was between 4 months to 11 years (mean: 6 years). Of the 10 patients, 8 (80%) were boys. Criteria for Kawasaki disease were met in all of them (100%), with a complete presentation in five (50%). Fever (100%), conjunctival and oral cavity changes (90%), and rash (80%) were the most common features. Seven (70%) patients required admission to a critical care unit, but no mortality occurred. This article can assist in understanding and dealing with Kawasaki disease-like manifestation of pediatric COVID-19 infection, especially in critical care settings, and its possible complications. It will help in a timely and appropriate decision-making regarding treatment and management of such cases.

Atypical Case of COVID-19 Associated Kawasaki Disease in an Eight-Year-Old Pakistani Boy.

People of all age groups have been affected worldwide during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. While the global efforts of researchers, clinicians, and scientists are underway, cases involving multiple systems with a wide range of presentations are on the horizon. As health organizations have started warnings about unusual manifestations of a Kawasaki disease (KD)-like inflammatory syndrome associated with COVID-19, some pediatric cardiologists noted that even classic cases are likely going undercounted. Here we report a case of a previously healthy eight-year-old Pakistani boy who presented with a four-day history of low-grade fever. The patient was admitted and diagnosed with COVID-19-associated atypical KD in the setting of fever for more than five days, maculopapular eruptions, and mild conjunctivitis. He screened positive for COVID-19 with an immunoglobulin G titer of 2.1 plus ruling out other childhood illnesses. He was managed with intravenous immunoglobulins and aspirin with gradual resolution of symptoms. His initial echocardiogram was unremarkable. He was discharged home on day six with a follow-up at two weeks.

COVID-19 Induced Acute Pancreatitis: A Case Report and Literature Review.

A 49-year-old female with no history of past medical illness presented to the emergency department with complaints of fever, dry cough, and shortness of breath. Initial evaluation revealed a temperature of 101°F, and on auscultation, the patient had scattered wheezing and rales in left lung fields. CT of the chest revealed pneumonic patches in the upper and lower segment of the left lung. Her COVID-19 testing came positive. On the second day of hospital admission, the patient experienced nausea, vomiting, and severe epigastric pain radiating to back. Laboratory analysis revealed a marked elevation of lipase and amylase. CT of the abdomen showed an edematous pancreas with diffuse enlargement. She was diagnosed with acute pancreatitis due to COVID-19 after carefully ruling out other causes. She was managed symptomatically, and improvement in her clinical condition was observed and was discharged with outpatient follow-up. Although acute pancreatitis is rare in patients with COVID-19, it should be considered as a differential diagnosis in patients with severe epigastric pain and respiratory symptoms.

Potential Treatment Options for COVID-19: A Comprehensive Review of Global Pharmacological Development Efforts.

Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), first reported in China during December of 2019, is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Infection later spread very rapidly around the globe with over 8,708,008 cases reported, including more than 461,715 deaths reported across at least 216 countries by June 20, 2020. It was declared as a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020. With the rapidly increasing number of positive cases and deaths, there is a dire need for effective treatment. An urgent unmet need led to the planning and opening of multiple drug development trials for treatment and vaccine development. In this article, we have compiled comprehensive data on many candidate drugs such as remdesivir, favipiravir, ribavirin, umifenovir, arbidol, lopinavir, ritonavir, baricitinib, hydroxychloroquine, nitazoxanide, azithromycin, baloxavir, oseltamivir, losartan, and tocilizumab. We have tabulated available data on various clinical trials testing various aspects of COVID-19 therapeutics.

The Potential Vaccine Component for COVID-19: A Comprehensive Review of Global Vaccine Development Efforts.

The whole world is concerned about the pandemic of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), due to fatality of this condition. This has become a public health emergency of international concern. No specific vaccine and medicine have proven effective in large-sized trials at this time. With the rapidly increasing number of positive cases and deaths, there is a dire need for effective treatments and an effective vaccine for prevention. An urgent unmet need led to the planning and opening of multiple drug development trials for treatment and vaccine development. In this article, we have summarized data on cell receptor interactions and data on prospects of new vaccines targeting the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA), and viral minigenes. We have tabulated the available data on various clinical trials testing various aspects of COVID-19 vaccines.