Perceived discrimination based on the symptoms of covid-19, mental health, and emotional responses-the international online COVISTRESS survey.

BACKGROUND: Despite the potential detrimental consequences for individuals' health and discrimination from covid-19 symptoms, the outcomes have received little attention. This study examines the relationships between having personally experienced discrimination based on the symptoms of covid-19 (during the first wave of the pandemic), mental health, and emotional responses (anger and sadness). It was predicted that covid-19 discrimination would be positively related to poor mental health and that this relationship would be mediated by the emotions of anger and sadness. METHODS: The study was conducted using an online questionnaire from January to June 2020 (the Covistress network; including 44 countries). Participants were extracted from the COVISTRESS database (Ntotal = 280) with about a half declaring having been discriminated due to covid-19 symptoms (N = 135). Discriminated participants were compared to non-discriminated participants using ANOVA. A mediation analysis was conducted to examine the indirect effect of emotional responses and the relationships between perceived discrimination and self-reported mental health. RESULTS: The results indicated that individuals who experienced discrimination based on the symptoms of covid-19 had poorer mental health and experienced more anger and sadness. The relationship between covid-19 personal discrimination and mental health disappeared when the emotions of anger and sadness were statistically controlled for. The indirect effects for both anger and sadness were statistically significant. DISCUSSION: This study suggests that the covid-19 pandemic may have generated discriminatory behaviors toward those suspected of having symptoms and that this is related to poorer mental health via anger and sadness.

Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the psychotropic drug consumption.

Importance: Although the COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on mental health, there is no comprehensive longitudinal study of the entire population of a country without selection bias. Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the prescription of psychotropic drugs during the COVID-19 pandemic, using data from the French national health data system (SNDS). Design settings and participants: Prescriptions for psychotropic drugs (antidepressants, anxiolytics, hypnotics, and antipsychotics) from 1 January 2015 to 30 September 2021 were collected from administrative data provided by the SNDS. This database includes more than 99% of the French population, i.e., 67 million people. The data were analyzed using an interrupted time series analysis (ITSA) model. Main outcomes and measures: Consumption of psychotropic drugs was aggregated in months and expressed in number of boxes per thousand inhabitants. Results: During the study period, more than 1.3 billion boxes of psychotropic medications were dispensed. Comparison of psychotropic drug dispensing before and after the pandemic showed a relative increase of 0.76 (95 CI 0.57 to 0.95, p<0.001) boxes per month per thousand inhabitants, all classes of psychotropic drugs combined. Three classes saw their consumption increase in an almost similar proportion, respectively, by 0.23 (0.15 to 0.32, p<0.001) boxes for antidepressants, 0.27 (0.20 to 0.34, p<0.001) boxes for anxiolytics and 0.23 (0.17 to 0.30, p<0.001) boxes for hypnotics. The change in antipsychotic consumption was very small, with an increase of 0.04 boxes (0.02 to 0.06, p = 0.001) per month per thousand population. Conclusion and relevance: The COVID-19 pandemic had led to an increase in the consumption of psychotropic drugs, confirming the significant impact of the pandemic on the mental health of the general population.

Work-related stress of companies' directors during the first lockdown due to the COVID-19.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic and the first lockdown were particularly stressful with a major economic impact, but the impact on stress of company directors was not known. Therefore, this study aimed to assess that impact and the characteristics of companies the most at risk. Method: A online questionnaire was sent to 13,114 company. It assessed stress at work, number of employees, sector of activity, business activity rate and geographical location. It studied the mean stress levels, the percentage of stress > 8/10 and carried out an analysis of the characteristics of the most at-risk companies. Results: A total of 807 company directors responded. Their stress levels increased by 25.9% during lockdown and 28.7% of them had a stress > 8/10. Sectors which had the biggest increase in stress levels during lockdown were retail trade, wholesale trade, and nursing homes. Sectors the most at risk of stress >8/10 during lockdown tended to be nursing homes, pharmacies, and IT activities. Biggest companies had the highest increase in stress levels. Conclusion: The first lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic had a major impact on the stress of company directors. Directors of large companies were the most exposed to stress as well as medical and IT activities.

Prevalence of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in Healthcare Workers following the First SARS-CoV Epidemic of 2003: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

The world is still in the grip of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, with putative psychological consequences for healthcare workers (HCWs). Exploring the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) during the first SARS-CoV-1 epidemic in 2003 may inform us of the long-term effects of the actual pandemic, as well as putative influencing factors such as contact with the virus, time effects, or the importance of some sociodemographic data. This information may help us develop efficient preventive strategies. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis on the prevalence of PTSD in HCWs following the SARS-CoV-1 in 2003. PubMed, Embase, Google Scholar, Psychinfo, and Web of Science were searched until September 2022. Random-effects meta-analyses were stratified by the time of follow-up. We included 14 studies: 4842 HCWs (32.0 years old, 84% women). The overall prevalence of PTSD was 14% (95CI 10 to 17%). The prevalence of PTSD was 16% (8 to 24%) during the epidemic, 19% (16 to 22%) within 6 months after the epidemic, and 8% (4 to 13%) more than one year after the end of the epidemic. The longest follow-up was three years after the epidemic, with 10% of HCWs with PTSD. Nevertheless, the prevalence of PTSD was significantly lower more than one year after the end of the epidemic than the first six months after the epidemic (Coefficient -10.4, 95CI -17.6 to -3.2, p = 0.007). In conclusion, the prevalence of PTSD in HCWs was high during the first epidemic of SARS-CoV in 2003 and remained high in the long term. The lessons from the SARS-CoV-1 epidemic may help prevent a wave of PTSD following the latest COVID-19 pandemic.

Impact of Air Transport on SpO2/FiO2 among Critical COVID-19 Patients during the First Pandemic Wave in France.

During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, some French regions were more affected than others. To relieve those areas most affected, the French government organized transfers of critical patients, notably by plane or helicopter. Our objective was to investigate the impact of such transfers on the pulse oximetric saturation (SpO2)-to-inspired fraction of oxygen (FiO2) ratio among transferred critical patients with COVID-19. We conducted a retrospective study on medical and paramedical records. The primary endpoint was the change in SpO2/FiO2 during transfers. Thirty-eight patients were transferred between 28 March and 5 April 2020, with a mean age of 62.4 years and a mean body mass index of 29.8 kg/m2. The population was 69.7% male, and the leading medical history was hypertension (42.1%), diabetes (34.2%), and dyslipidemia (18.4%). Of 28 patients with full data, we found a decrease of 28.9 points in SpO2/FiO2 (95% confidence interval, 5.8 to 52.1, p = 0.01) between the starting and the arrival intensive care units (SpO2/FiO2, 187.3 ± 61.3 and 158.4 ± 62.8 mmHg, respectively). Air medical transfers organized to relieve intensive care unit teams under surging conditions during the first COVID wave were associated with significant decreases in arterial oxygenation.

Transnational and Transdisciplinary Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic

On 7 January 2020, China identified a virus called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) [...]

Bats, Pathogens, and Species Richness.

Bats carry many viruses, but this is not sufficient to threaten humans. Viruses must mutate to generate the ability to transfer to humans. A key factor is the diversity of species. With 1400 species of bats (20% of all species of mammals), the diversity of bats species is highly favorable to the emergence of new viruses. Moreover, several species of bats live within the same location, and share advanced social behavior, favoring the transmission of viruses. Because they fly, bats are also hosts for a wide range of viruses from many environments. They also eat everything (including what humans eat), they share humans' environment and become closer to domestic species, which can serve as relays between bats and humans. Bats also have a long-life expectancy (up to 40 years for some bats), which is particularly effective for transmission to humans. However, a recent publication came out challenging what we think about bats. Proportionally, bats may not carry a higher number of zoonotic pathogens, normalized by species richness, compared to other mammalian and avian species. Viral zoonotic risk is homogenous among taxonomic orders of mammalian and avian reservoir hosts, without evidence that bats carry more viruses that infect humans.

Coronavirus and Quarantine: Catalysts of Domestic Violence.

The pandemic of COVID-19 has resulted in quarantines imposed all around the world; these and other restrictions could produce an increase in domestic violence.