Social Media Use and Its Association with Mental Health and Internet Addiction among Portuguese Higher Education Students during COVID-19 Confinement.

The use of social media was one of the most common way to keep in touch with friends and family during confinement. For higher education students, the fact that their universities were closed was a major change in their lives. The aim of this study is to relate the prevalence and type of social media with Internet addiction and mental health of university students in a district of Portugal during COVID-19 confinement. Mental health was studied by applying the reduced version of the Mental Health Inventory (MHI-5) and to measure the Internet use and dependence, the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) was used. The study (cross-sectional, descriptive, and correlational) used an online questionnaire, conducted on Google® Forms and the link was sent to 4450 students, in the months of April to June 2020, during the confinement. A total of 329 valid questionnaires were obtained. We can conclude that regarding mental health, students in the 18-24 age group, single or divorced and who are not in a relationship, and with worse academic results, show worse levels of mental health. It is noteworthy that the students with the same characteristics also have the highest levels of addiction to internet.

The Impact of COVID-19 Confinement on Substance Use and Mental Health in Portuguese Higher Education Students.

The mental health of higher education students is a constant concern, and the pandemic situation caused by COVID-19 has intensified this concern. The social measures imposed to control and minimize the disease have led, among other things, to the reconfiguration of higher education students' academic life habits, which has naturally altered their emotional balance, mental health, and substance abuse. This cross-sectional, descriptive, and correlational study assesses the influence of higher education students' personal characteristics on their (self-reported) use of addictive substances (alcohol, tobacco, drugs, and pharmaceutical drugs) before and during their first compulsory confinement in Portugal, as well as its relationship with mental health. An online questionnaire was applied between 15 April and 20 May 2020, to students from various study cycles of higher education institutions in one region of Portugal (northern area of Alentejo), which included the Mental Health Inventory in its reduced version (MHI-5) and questions (constructed by the authors) on personal characterization and on the use of addictive substances before and during confinement. The convenience sample included 329 mostly female health care students between the ages of 18 and 24. In our results, we found a statistically significant decrease in tobacco, alcohol, and drug use; however, there was an increase in tobacco use among older students and an increase in anxiolytic use among students with higher academic achievement and among students who exhibited more active social behavior in the period prior to confinement. Students who took anxiolytics during confinement had higher MHI-5 scores and students who used the most addictive substances during confinement had lower MHI-5 scores than the other students.

Literacy and Mental Health of Portuguese Higher Education Students and Their Use of Health Promotion Strategies during Confinement in the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The pandemic of COVID-19 caused significant changes in economies and societies with a major impact on the entire education process. However, these changes did not invalidate a constant effort of adaptation. This cross-sectional, descriptive, and correlational study used an online questionnaire administered to students from various study cycles at higher education institutions in Portugal, with the aim of exploring the influence of literacy and mental health on the use of mental health promotion strategies during COVID-19 confinement. A total of 329 students from higher education institutions participated in this study, mostly from the age group 18-24 years (n = 272; 82.7%) and female (n = 265, 80.5%). The most mentioned health promotion strategies during this period included studying (n = 170; 51.7%); physical activities (n = 151, 45.9%); social networking (n = 124, 37.7%); cooking activities (n = 120, 36.5%); and listening to music (n = 118, 35.9%). Academic success is self-reported, and it is weakly correlated with the MHI5 (r = 0.103, p = 0.063). Students in the pre-graduate programs studied more during the times of the pandemic and used this activity as a mental-health-promoting strategy with a statistically significant difference (p = 0.033). Although it was difficult to improve health literacy related to COVID-19 in such a short period of time, there was a very strong motivation to access, understand, evaluate, communicate, synthesize, and apply information and knowledge to maintain mental health through self-care using health promotion strategies.

The Cholinergic Drug Pyridostigmine Alleviates Inflammation During LPS-Induced Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome.

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a critical illness complication that is associated with high mortality. ARDS is documented in severe cases of COVID-19. No effective pharmacological treatments for ARDS are currently available. Dysfunctional immune responses and pulmonary and systemic inflammation are characteristic features of ARDS pathogenesis. Recent advances in our understanding of the regulation of inflammation point to an important role of the vagus-nerve-mediated inflammatory reflex and neural cholinergic signaling. We examined whether pharmacological cholinergic activation using a clinically approved (for myasthenia gravis) cholinergic drug, the acetylcholinesterase inhibitor pyridostigmine alters pulmonary and systemic inflammation in mice with lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced ARDS. Male C57Bl/6 mice received one intratracheal instillation of LPS or were sham manipulated (control). Both groups were treated with either vehicle or pyridostigmine (1.5 mg/kg twice daily, 3 mg/day) administered by oral gavage starting at 1 h post-LPS and euthanized 24 h after LPS administration. Other groups were either sham manipulated or received LPS for 3 days and were treated with vehicle or pyridostigmine and euthanized at 72 h. Pyridostigmine treatment reduced the increased total number of cells and neutrophils in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) in mice with ARDS at 24 and 72 h. Pyridostigmine also reduced the number of macrophages and lymphocytes at 72 h. In addition, pyridostigmine suppressed the levels of TNF, IL-1ß, IL-6, and IFN-γ in BALF and plasma at 24 and 72 h. However, this cholinergic agent did not significantly altered BALF and plasma levels of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10. Neither LPS nor pyridostigmine affected BALF IFN-γ and IL-10 levels at 24 h post-LPS. In conclusion, treatments with the cholinergic agent pyridostigmine ameliorate pulmonary and systemic inflammatory responses in mice with endotoxin-induced ARDS. Considering that pyridostigmine is a clinically approved drug, these findings are of substantial interest for implementing pyridostigmine in therapeutic strategies for ARDS.