Prevalence and Correlates of Alexithymia and Its Relationship With Life Events in Chinese Adolescents With Depression During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Objectives: The incidence of psychological and behavioral problems and depression among adolescents is increasing year by year, which has become an important public health problem. Alexithymia, as an important susceptible factor of adolescent depression, may continue to develop and strengthen under the stimulation of COVID-19-related stressors. However, no studies have focused on alexithymia in adolescent depression during the pandemic in China. This study aims to investigate the incidence and related factors of alexithymia in adolescent depression during the pandemic. Methods: Three hundred adolescent patients were enrolled from October 2020 to May 2021. The general demographic information of all participants was collected, and the clinical characteristics were assessed by the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), the Adolescent Self-Rating Life Events Check (ASLEC) List, the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), and the Positive and Negative Suicide Ideation (PANSI) Inventory. Results: The incidence of alexithymia was significantly higher among adolescents with depression (76.45%) during the pandemic. There were significant differences in school bullying, disease severity, ASLEC score, CTQ score and PANSI score between adolescents with and without alexithymia. In addition, learning stress, health and adaptation problems during the pandemic may be influential factors in alexithymia of adolescent depression (P < 0.05). Conclusions: According to the results, we found a high incidence of alexithymia in adolescent depression during the pandemic. More support and attention from families, schools and society is needed to develop preventive and targeted psychological interventions as early as possible.

Prevalence of Sleep Disturbances and Sleep Quality in Chinese Healthcare Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Objectives: Healthcare workers (HWs) experienced high levels of work stress during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to a high risk of sleep disturbances. This meta-analysis aimed to explore the prevalence of sleep disturbances and sleep quality in Chinese HWs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: English (PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library) and Chinese databases (WanFang, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, and SinoMed) were systematically and independently searched for relevant studies published from December 1, 2019, to May 20, 2020. The pooled prevalence of sleep disturbances and sleep quality were calculated using a random-effects model. Results: A total of 17 studies involving 12,682 Chinese HWs were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled prevalence of sleep disturbances in Chinese HWs was 45.1% (95% CI: 37.2-53.1%). We found that the prevalence of sleep disturbances varied among frontline, infected, and non-frontline HWs (Q = 96.96, p < 0.001); females and males (Q = 9.10, p = 0.003); studies using different assessment instruments (Q = 96.05, p < 0.001); and studies with different sample sizes (Q = 5.77, p = 0.016) and cut-off values (Q = 62.28, p < 0.001). The pooled mean total score of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was 9.83 (95% CI: 8.61-11.04). HWs in Wuhan had a higher total PSQI score than those in other regions (Q = 9.21, p = 0.002). Conclusion: Sleep disturbances were common in Chinese HWs during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in frontline and infected HWs. Our results indicate the heavy mental health burden on HWs during the COVID-19 pandemic in China and can provide other countries with valuable information to assist HWs during the crisis.