Reproductive birth control after the coronavirus pandemic

Changes in measures and instruments of birth control are one of the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic in all countries with increased significance of reproductive components, i.e. concerning physiological capabilities of conception, gestation and childbirth. Pandemic-associated measures had diverse impacts on restrictive (aimed at reducing fertility) and expansionary (aimed at increasing fertility) methods of reproductive regulation: it did not take methods of pregnancy prevention and artificial termination of pregnancy long to adapt to the new conditions without changing the established trends, while assisted reproductive technologies, following administrative bans of the first days of mass lockdowns, demonstrated new development directions upon removal of bans.Against the background of the progress in the medical component, increasingly bringing in- vitro fertilization closer to natural conception, the scale of state funding and the number of free of charge programs for patients have increased, however, due to anti-epidemic control, cross-border reproductive care or fertility tourism, relevant for surrogacy and reproductive donation, has become more complicated. In Russia, this has intensified public discussions and contributed to further elaboration of reproductive legislation.

The Health Hexagon Model: Postulating a holistic lifestyle approach to mental health for times and places of uncertainty

Professional-driven mental health services are often predicated on westernized beliefs of mental health and distress. This presumptuous view results in treatment solutions that are not suitable to (many) non-western contexts because they are neither culturally valid nor practically sufficient. Instead of promoting imported ideas of mental health, we encourage communities, including Hong Kong, from and for where the authors primarily theorize the current thesis, to turn to and strengthen the resources they employed before the medicalization of distress and suffering. Basic foundational elements in one's everyday life, which we present here as the Health Hexagon Model, should be promoted, especially healthy sleep, healthy diet, regular physical activity, closeness with nature, supportive kinships and friendships, and a sense of purpose, meaning, or sacredness. These elements are not novel;the importance of these basic elements has been recognized, distilled, and transmitted generation after generation. We advocate for communities to identify the missing or hampered fundamental elements in their lives and focus on finding methods that would help them adopt a lifestyle conducive to individual and collective health. This call-to-action is particularly timely as the global community fights for its survival against the coronavirus and ponders ways to cope with the seismic changes in lifestyle it has brought.Copyright © 2022 The Authors

Diabetes and pregnancy-2022 update.

With a share of 80%, gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is the most common form of hyperglycemia in pregnancy. Breastfeeding reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes;the longer the duration of breastfeeding, the greater the effect. Women who have had a premature birth or a stillbirth are at increased risk of dying prematurely themselves. The potential of pre-eclampsia prevention with low-dose acetylsalicylic acid in women with diabetes mellitus is far from being adequately used. Pregnant women reduce their risk of a severe course of the disease by being vaccinated against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The still high rate of perinatal mortality in pregnancies with type 1 and type 2 diabetes may primarily be reduced by improving basic factors in periconceptional care. Two-stage screening for GDM reduces GDM prevalence and medicalization compared to one-stage screening without harm to mothers and their newborns. The approval of metformin for pregnant women since February 2022 does not mean that metformin is recommended as the primary pharmacotherapy for pregnant women.Copyright © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Medizin Verlag GmbH, ein Teil von Springer Nature.

Media and medicalization of the body and health in women practicing physical exercise in academy / Mídia e medicalização do corpo e da saúde em mulheres praticantes de exercícios físicos em academia / Medios y medicalización del cuerpo y la salud en mujeres que practican ejercicio físico en la academia

Neste estudo tivemos como objetivo compreender como as mídias sociais influenciam a medicalização do corpo de mulheres praticantes de exercícios físicos em uma academia de Itajaí/SC. As participantes da pesquisa foram organizadas em dois grupos, sendo um de 18 a 30 anos e outro de 31 a 45 anos. Utilizamos uma abordagem qualitativa e, para coleta de dados, entrevistas coletivas com perguntas abertas, adotando a análise temática como técnica de análise dos dados. Observamos que as mídias digitais, principalmente as redes sociais, influenciam a medicalização do corpo feminino através de mecanismos próprios, variando suas ações e produções de acordo com as categorias geracionais aqui elencadas.

In this study we aimed to understand how social media influence the medicalization of the body of women who practice physical exercises in a gym in Itajaí/SC. The participants were organized into two groups, one from 18 to 30 years old and the other from 31 to 45 years old. We used a qualitative approach and for data collection collective interviews with open questions, using thematic analysis as a data analysis technique. We observed that digital media, especially social networks, influence the medicalization of the female body through their own mechanisms, varying their actions and productions according to the generational categories listed here.

En este estúdio nuestro objetivo fue comprender cómo las redes sociales influyen en la medicalización del cuerpo de mujeres que practican ejercicios físicos en un gimnasio en Itajaí/SC. Los participantes de la investigación fueron organizados en dos grupos, uno de 18 a 30 años y otro de 31 a 45 años. Utilizamos un enfoque cualitativo y para la recolección de datos entrevistas colectivas con preguntas abiertas, utilizando el análisis temático como técnica de análisis de datos. Observamos que los medios digitales, especialmente las redes sociales, inciden en la medicalización del cuerpo femenino a través de sus propios mecanismos, variando sus acciones y producciones según las categorías generacionales aquí enumeradas.

Anxious, Depressed, and Suicidal: Crisis Narratives in University Student Mental Health and the Need for a Balanced Approach to Student Wellness.

There is growing global awareness of the poor mental health of university students, as well as the need to improve students' access to services and expand the range of available evidence-based interventions. However, a crisis narrative is emerging, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, that runs the risk of positioning all students as potential patients in need of formal psychiatric interventions. Our aim in this commentary is to critically present the evidence that supports increased attention to student mental health, while also raising a concern that the crisis narrative may itself have unintended harmful consequences. We highlight some of the potential dangers of overtly medicalizing and thus pathologizing students' experiences of everyday distress, inadequacies of formal diagnostic categories, limitations of focusing narrowly on psychotherapeutic and psychiatric interventions, and the short-sightedness of downplaying key social determinants of students' distress. We argue for an integrative and balanced public health approach that draws on the rigor of psychiatric epidemiology and the advances that have been made to identify evidence-based interventions for students, while simultaneously being mindful of the shortcomings and potential dangers of working narrowly within the paradigm of diagnostic labels and psychotherapeutic interventions.

Medicalization, Public Health and Caring for Older People in the Long Twentieth Century

During the Covid crisis the health and well-being of older people has drawn some attention. The contribution sheds a light on the past and examines, how the expansion of health care schemes in Germany, Italy, and Great Britain influenced the care of the elderly, and vice versa. Geriatrics and Gerontology owe much to the clinical physicians of the nineteenth century and their interest in older patients, who made up a large part of hospital admissions. When health care schemes expanded during the twentieth century, however, the elderly were increasingly excluded from medical-based health care provisions, especially hospital care. In return, social care schemes were promoted and the field of elderly care expanded. This essay discusses the ambiguities of such health care pluralism and the limits of the medicalization process.

Individual and country-level variables associated with the medicalization of birth: Multilevel analyses of IMAgiNE EURO data from 15 countries in the WHO European region.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate potential associations between individual and country-level factors and medicalization of birth in 15 European countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: Online anonymous survey of women who gave birth in 2020-2021. Multivariable multilevel logistic regression models estimating associations between indicators of medicalization (cesarean, instrumental vaginal birth [IVB], episiotomy, fundal pressure) and proxy variables related to care culture and contextual factors at the individual and country level. RESULTS: Among 27 173 women, 24.4% (n = 6650) had a cesarean and 8.8% (n = 2380) an IVB. Among women with IVB, 41.9% (n = 998) reported receiving fundal pressure. Among women with spontaneous vaginal births, 22.3% (n = 4048) had an episiotomy. Less respectful care, as perceived by the women, was associated with higher levels of medicalization. For example, women who reported having a cesarean, IVB, or episiotomy reported not feeling treated with dignity more frequently than women who did not have those interventions (odds ratio [OR] 1.37; OR 1.61; OR 1.51, respectively; all: P < 0.001). Country-level variables contributed to explaining some of the variance between countries. CONCLUSION: We recommend a greater emphasis in health policies on promotion of respectful and patient-centered care approaches to birth to enhance women's experiences of care, and the development of a European-level indicator to monitor medicalization of reproductive care.

Biopower in the Pandemic Age

In this article, I take up the concept of biopower (Foucault) and its reformulation as digital control (Deleuze) to reflect on the current social mutation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I believe it is necessary to question the terms of the debate around the restriction of freedoms, given that it assumes that we remain within the horizon of a sovereign political power, ignoring its mutation into disciplinary and then biopolitical power. I argue that control reaches its apogee with health and medical power, for in global medical management it has found the technological model for exercising the new domination. In this context, I suggest taking up the philosophical question of our conception of health following Nietzsche and Canguilhem. © 2022 Society for Endocrinology Published by Bioscientifica Ltd.

The Corona Crisis: Attempt at a Philosophical Orientation

Since spring 2020 at the latest many things are not as they used to be before – things are literally “de-ranged”. The news are mostly dominated by one topic: a virus which is officially called SARS-CoV-2.1 The here presented contribution views the Corona crisis from an ethical-philosophical perspective. At first, different challenges and dynamics of this crisis will be discussed. Insofar as political decision-making for coping with the crisis happens frequently by referring to “the” sciences, light is shed on the tasks of the sciences in our modern knowledge society. The contribution is going to argue in favour of a variety of perspectives, which we need in order to handle the crisis appropriately. In this context, light is shed on explicit and implicit basic social attitudes such as the attitude towards death as well as on the increasing medicalisation of life. Finally, the question about prospects which might be promising for the future is going to be raised. © 2022 University of Rijeka, Faculty of Medicine. All rights reserved.

Rethinking the Infodemic: Global Health Security and Information Disorder

The discourse on the infodemic constructs the combination of the pandemic and disinformation as a new source of insecurity on a global scale. How can we make sense - analytically and politically - of this newly politicized nexus of public health, information management, and global security? This article proposes approaching the phenomenon of the infodemic as an intersecting securitization of information disorder and health governance. Specifically, it argues that there are two distinct frames of security mobilized in the context of infodemic governance: information as a disease and information as a weapon. Drawing on literatures on global health and the emerging research on disinformation, the paper situates the two framings of the infodemic in broader discourses on the medicalization of security, and securitization of information disorder, respectively. The article critically reflects on each framing and offers some preliminary thoughts on how to approach the entanglements of health, security, and information disorder in contemporary global politics.

A New Time of Reckoning, a Time for New Reckoning: Views on Health and Society, Tensions between Medicine and the Social Sciences, and the Process of Medicalization

This article seeks to capture variations and tensions in the relationships between the health–illness–medicine complex and society. It presents several theoretical reconstructions, established theses and arguments are reassessed and criticized, known perspectives are realigned according to a new theorizing narrative, and some new notions are proposed. In the first part, we argue that relations between the medical complex and society are neither formal– nor historically necessary. In the second part, we take the concept of medicalization and the development of medicalization critique as an important example of the difficult coalescence between health and society, but also as an alternative to guide the treatment of these relationships. Returning to the medicalization studies, we suggest a new synthesis, reconceptualizing it as a set of modalities, including medical imperialism. In the third part, we endorse replacing a profession-based approach to medicalization with a knowledge-based approach. However, we argue that such an approach should include varieties of sociological knowledge. In this context, we propose an enlarged knowledge-based orientation for standardizing the relationships between the health–illness–medicine complex and society.

From Mental Health Crisis to Existential Human Suffering: The Role of Self-Transcendence in Contemporary Mindfulness

Our paper addresses the so-called college mental health crisis and the adoption of the strategy of mindfulness-based interventions. We offer a critique of their underlying medical–therapeutic paradigm by engaging the notion of self-transcendence in Viktor Frankl’s Existential Analysis and Buddhism in dialogue. We argue that the current mindfulness movement has decontextualized and appropriated mindfulness from its Buddhist foundations in favor of a model that offers objectively verifiable biophysical and mental benefits. Self-transcendence, whether from the perspective of Buddhism or Frankl’s work, offers what we feel is an existentially viable path forward for college students, in lieu of the current paradigm promoted by those advocating use of these mindfulness-based interventions. We conclude by considering Existential and Buddhist notions of self-transcendence in dialogue, suggesting they offer an educational practice worthy of implementation.

The Risk (COVID–19) Society — Between Instrumental and Axiological Rationality

The COVID–19 pandemic has elicited comprehensive changes in our social lives, moreover societal factors have been affected as well. We are witnesses to a „global experiment of discontinuation“which has divided our society into two eras — the time preceding the pandemic and the time needed to re–establish a meaningful existence in a new form. In determining social elements pertaining to the age of the COVID pandemic, we should commence with phenomena which are the foundation of rationality and which we consider to be as follows: risk society, medicalization of society, axiological rationality and instrumental rationality. In order to examine these phenomena, an empirical study was conducted involving 185 participants. Attitudes towards the COVID–19 pandemic and vaccination, the correlation between attitudes and religiosity, the consequences of the pandemic and protective factors were studied. Results show polarized attitudes in regard to the COVID pandemic and vaccination. A significant correlation between attitudes and religiosity was not found. The correlation between religiosity and vaccination status was tested and found to be significant, suggesting that higher levels of religiosity are associated with axiological rationality. Most participants reported that the COVID–19 pandemic has had a strong impact on many aspects of their life, including social isolation, increased stress level and decreased quality of life. Data also revealed that participants with a higher level of religiosity reported increased spirituality and religiosity, more frequent prayer and more frequent visits to places of worship during the pandemic. Findings suggest that such consequences serve as protective factors for religious participants. © 2022 Institute of Philosophy and Theology of Society of Jesus. All rights reserved.

IDENTITY CHANGES IN CRISIS SITUATIONS. ANXIETY, FRUSTRATION AND ANGUISH DUE TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

In this article, a review of the socio-anthropological literature on the impact of pandemics on the mental health of the population is made. Also, the way this pandemic affects the construction of identity of the population affected by pandemic is taken into discussion. The historical-anthropological perspective refers to the plague epidemic that affected Europe during the Middle Ages, to its psychological impact from the perspective of the individual's relationship with otherness - as a possible source of danger. The article presents a series of similarities and differences from the perspective of anguish, anxiety and frustration caused to the population by the plague pandemic and the Covid-19 pandemic, highlighting the results of studies published during 2020 in journals indexed in Web of Science, dedicated to the impact of the pandemic. of Coronavirus on the mental health of the population. The research focused on several dimensions of the social construction process of the Covid-19 pandemic, among which we mention: information on the pandemic, restrictions imposed by the authorities as elements of social (re)construction of the limit of the human condition, medicalization of the social life and the perception of the contemporary society as a risk society. In this article we will refer exclusively to the results aimed at changes in the identity construction of people affected by the pandemic.Alternate :Dans cet article j'ai passé en revue de la littérature socio-anthropologique sur l'impact des pandémies sur la santé mentale de la population. Aussi, la manière dont cette pandémie affecte la construction identitaire de la population touchée par la pandémie est prise en compte. La perspective historico-anthropologique fait référence à l'épidémie de peste qui a touché l'Europe au Moyen Âge, à son impact psychologique du point de vue de la relation de l'individu avec l'altérité - comme une source possible de danger. L'article présente une série de similitudes et de différences du point de vue de l'angoisse, de l'anxiété et de la frustration causées à la population par la pandémie de peste et la pandémie de Covid-19, mettant en évidence les résultats d'études publiées en 2020 dans des revues indexées dans Web of La science, dédiée à l'impact de la pandémie. du coronavirus sur la santé mentale de la population. La recherche a porté sur plusieurs dimensions du processus de construction sociale de la pandémie de Covid-19, parmi lesquelles nous citons : les informations sur la pandémie, les restrictions imposées par les autorités comme éléments de (re)construction sociale de la limite de la condition humaine, médicalisation de la vie sociale et perception de la société contemporaine comme société du risque. Dans cet article, nous nous référerons exclusivement aux résultats visant les changements dans la construction identitaire des personnes touchées par la pandémie.Alternate :În acest articol se realizează o trecere în revistă a literaturii socio-antropologice privind impactul pandemiilor asupra sănătăţii mintale a populaţiei. De asemenea, este luat în discuţie modul în care această pandemie afectează construcţia identităţii populaţiei afectate de pandemie. Perspectiva istorico-antropologică se referă la epidemia de ciumă care a afectat Europa în Evul Mediu, la impactul ei psihologic din perspectiva relaţiei individului cu alteritatea – ca posibilă sursă de pericol. Articolul prezintă o serie de asemănări și diferenţe din perspectiva angoasei, anxietăţii și frustrării cauzate populaţiei de pandemia de ciumă și pandemia de Covid-19, evidenţiind rezultatele studiilor publicate în cursul anului 2020 în reviste indexate în Web of Science, dedicate la impactul pandemiei. de Coronavirus asupra sănătăţii mintale a populaţiei. Cercetarea s-a axat pe mai multe dimensiuni ale procesului de construcţie socială a pandemiei de Covid-19, printre care amintim: informarea asupra pandemiei, restricţii impuse de autori ăţi ca elemente de (re)construcţie socială a limitei condiţiei umane, medicalizare. a vieţii sociale şi a percepţiei societăţii contemporane ca societate de risc. În acest articol ne vom referi exclusiv la rezultatele care vizează schimbări în construcţia identitară a persoanelor afectate de pandemie.

ANXIETY AND FRUSTRATION DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The lockdown and quarantine period set by authorities around the world in order to prevent the spread of the SARS-COV-2 virus has had a significant impact on the mental health of people around the world. The present research, carried out by qualitative methods, aimed at identifying the sources, but also the ways of expressing anxiety, frustration and anguish due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the measures to prevent the spread of the virus. The research was carried out on subjects of Romanian nationality, especially from the North Eastern Region of Romania. The main results of the research are: an extension of the medicalization of social life, the awareness of one's own finitude and the experience of helplessness, as sources of anxiety and frustration, and an accentuated social response to the risk society, manifested as a revolt against the authorities and the need to humanize every day life.

Evidence That the Diagnosis of ADHD Does Not Reflect a Chronic Bio-Medical Disease

Is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) the “diabetes of psychiatry”? According to the dominant bio-medical model, ADHD is a chronic neuro-genetic condition with numerous negative outcomes. Without clear biological markers, however, this model receives support from the notions that the diagnosis (a) is stable overtime and across populations and (b) requires a constant treatment with chemical substances (e.g., Ritalin). Through three consecutive studies, this research investigates the validity of these two notions in Israel. Studies 1 (N = 502) and 2 (N = 853) addressed young adults while Study 3 (N = 195) focused on mothers to children with ADHD during the COVID lockdown. The findings indicated that the ADHD diagnosis is unreliable. Its prevalence exceeded 20%, a substantially higher figure than the consensual 5% estimate, and was not consistent between different communities (i.e., the less conservative the person is, the more likely that she/he will be diagnosed). The diagnosis also did not reflect a chronic and harmful condition that requires constant pharmacological management. Indeed, rates of prescribed medications were extremely high, thus implying the dominancy of the bio-medical model. However, in practice, medications were used very selectively, mainly during school/college times (i.e., not when schools were closed), to improve school-related performances. These findings, alongside a critical review of the current status of the physiological literature on ADHD (offered in the general discussion), undermine the bio-medical perception of ADHD. The clinical label of ADHD does not seem to reflect an objective chronic brain disease, but a modern social phenomenon in which children's normative traits are being medicalized, mainly in response to external school-related demands. © Copyright 2021 Springer Publishing Company, LLC.

Making good care essential: The impact of increased obstetric interventions and decreased services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

PROBLEM & BACKGROUND: Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, policies have been implemented to limit interpersonal contact in clinical and community settings. The impacts of pandemic-related policies on experiences of pregnancy and birth are crucial to investigate and learn from. AIM: To examine the impact of pandemic policy changes on experiences of pregnancy and birth, thereby identifying barriers to good care; to inform understandings of medicalization, care, pregnancy, and subjectivity during times of crisis; and to critically examine the assumptions about pregnancy and birth that are sustained and produced through policy. METHODS: Qualitative descriptive study drawing on 67 in-depth interviews with people who were pregnant and/or gave birth in Canada during the pandemic. The study took a social constructionist standpoint and employed thematic analysis to derive meaning from study data. FINDINGS: The pandemic has resulted in an overall scaling back of perinatal care alongside the heavy use of interventions (e.g., induction of labour, cesarian section) in response to pandemic stresses and uncertainties. Intervention use here is an outcome of negotiation and collaboration between pregnant people and their care providers as they navigate pregnancy and birth in stressful, uncertain conditions. DISCUSSION: Continuity of care throughout pregnancy and postpartum, labour support persons, and non-clinical services and interventions for pain management are all essential components of safe maternal healthcare. However, pandemic perinatal care demonstrates that they are not viewed as such. CONCLUSION: The pandemic has provided an opportunity to restructure Canadian reproductive health care to better support and encourage out-of-hospital births - including midwife-assisted births - for low-risk pregnancies.

In Service of the Society? Medical Associations as Agents of Social Change-Implications for Health Policy and Education in Israel.

This study aims to explore what medical associations in Israel do to promote public health, what values underpin their activities, and how their actions can be interpreted. For this purpose, an analysis of both individual and organizational levels was applied in an effort to yield a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between society and the medical profession. In-depth interviews with senior physicians were conducted, combined with a review of policy and public initiatives of medical associations between 2008 and 2018. The findings of this study reveal that medical associations engage in a range of social and policy initiatives designed to promote public health, but, at the same time, they tend to construct socially related health issues as medical problems in a manner that fits their sectorial agendas. This may reflect organized medicine's efforts to extend its dominance over society through the application of the biomedical model to social issues. It is necessary to integrate biosocial training with medical education to ensure that future physicians are equipped with the skills needed to implement social medicine.