Generic drugs use during the COVID-19 pandemic among Lebanese patients using psychotropics: An opportunity for generic drug promotion

Introduction: The Coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has imposed several challenges leading to the shortage of medications due to the disruption of their supply chains. Among others, patients using psychotropics encountered difficulties finding their medication despite the efforts of investing in local production. Encouraging patients to use generic drugs can be an effective strategy to ensure sustainable access to medication. Objective(s): This study aimed to describe the consumption of psychotropic medications during the COVID-19 pandemic and the willingness together with the reasons for using generic drugs. It also assessed the association between generic drugs and the general characteristics of the patients. Design(s): A cross-sectional study was performed over a period of 4 months (July-October 2021) targeting 128 patients using psychotropic drugs. Result(s): The sample included more women than men with a mean age of 38 years. Antidepressants were the psychotropic medications mostly consumed followed by anti-anxiety medications. Almost 13% of the patients started using psychotropics either through self-prescription or a friend's advice and 73.4% used generic drugs. Fear of dependence, unavailability of the brand drug, and pharmacist's recommendation were the main reported reasons for using generic drugs. Conclusion(s): During the COVID-19 pandemic, the consumption of psychotropics increased due to new prescriptions and self-medication. No differences were noted between using generics and the characteristics of the patients in contrast to previous studies which support the implementation of generic prescription and substitution policies.Copyright © The Author(s) 2023.

Burnout syndrome (BOS) among resident doctors in an Egyptian tertiary care university hospital: Prevalence and determinants during the COVID-19 pandemic.

OBJECTIVES: The current study aimed to detect the BOS prevalence and determinants among residents working during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in an Egyptian tertiary university referral hospital. METHODS: A cross-sectional study evaluating the working period from June to November 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic second wave, through a five sections questionnaire evaluating: 1 - sociodemographic characteristics, 2 - job characteristics, 3 - negative thoughts related to their job, 4 - resident's health problems, and 5 - evaluating BOS through Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) scale (including emotional exhaustion [EE], depersonalization [DP], and personal accomplishment [PA] as subscales). RESULTS: We included 230 residents with a median age of 27 years. The median MBI sub-scales (IQ Range) values were 30.0 (20, 39), 21.0 (15, 30), and 29.5 (22, 36) for EE, DP, and PA, respectively. About 51.0% and 83.0% of the residents were high in EE and DP, while 8.7% were low in PA. The median EE and DP were higher in younger age (⩽27 years; p = .002 and .024), males (p = .001 and <.001), working >90 hours weekly (p = .016 and <.001), exposure to harassment (p < .001), and having COVID-19 infection (p = .002 and .001). Residents working in surgical departments reported higher DP scores than those in non-surgical departments (p = .03). There was a mild positive correlation between working hours per week and the total scores in EE and DP, r = .24 (p < .001) and r = .23 (p = .001) respectively, while it was found to have a negative correlation with the PA (r = -.133 and p = .044). CONCLUSIONS: The BOS is evident and considerably high among the residents working during the COVID-19 pandemic. Younger age, males, working in surgical departments, and those who got COVID-19 infection were most vulnerable.

Health-related Quality of life of medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study in Lebanon

Objectives: This study aims to assess (i) the health-related Quality of Life (QoL) of medical students in Lebanon, (ii) its association with their general characteristics, and (iii) to investigate the combined effects of the predictors affecting the quality of life of students. Methods: An observational cross-sectional study was performed over three months, targeting 401 medical students from six universities. The 36-item Short Form survey was used to quantify the different QoL scores. Results: The physical component (PC) domains had higher scores than the mental component (MC) ones (70.2 vs. 55.9). Students aged 30 years or less had higher scores in all the PC domains than older students (70.9 vs. 59.3;p<0.010) but comparable scores in the MC domains (55.6 vs. 59.8;p>0.050). Single students had a significantly higher role-emotional score (63.5 vs. 49.0;p<0.050), and those studying in public universities had greater general health scores (57.7 vs. 53.7;p<0.050). Younger age significantly increased most of the health-related PC scores, and having chronic diseases decreased all the QoL scores except the mental health score. Conclusion: The QoL of medical students was negatively affected during the pandemic, particularly their mental health. Informed educational and health decisions are required to minimize this impact on their academic performance.

The impact of HRM practices on faculty members' performance in the higher education institutions in the era of the Covid-19

The UAE is considered a dynamic business environment, the importance of the HRM practices implemented in the HEIs are increasing gradually. The high level of competition among the different HIEs increased the need to investigate the HRM practices that suit the higher education sector in order to recruit and retain the highly qualified faculty members who are considered as the competitive advantage of any university. The UAE is considered one of the best countries dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, the country implemented a set of procedures that speed up the recovery from the pandemic, the higher education sector was also on the top of the country priorities, where the overall situation was divided into three stages, low risk, moderate and high risk. The ministry of education in the country provided the academic institutions with all the needed support in order to maintain a high level of educational quality and to ensure the smoothness educational process (Al Hashmi, Al Zuabi, Hachim, Mannaerts, & Bekdache, 2021). The past and recent literature confirmed the importance of maintaining high quality faculty members, since their high performance will be reflected on the students' performance which will impact the market on the long run. The research utilizes the quantitative approach which is considered as the most suitable methodology for the social science researches, the researcher will distribute 50 questionnaires to faculty members working in different universities. The data collected will be analyzed using SPSS and Smart PLS.