Effect of COVID-19 on Working Women's Physical and Mental Health: A Descriptive Study of Pre and Post Pandemic Era

Background and Aim: In 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) recognized the coronavirus outbreak as a pandemic and a public health emergency of global significance. Recent studies have revealed that these restrictions and women's anxiety of the virus itself may have had an adverse effect on their mental health. Children and family members are spending more time at home;thus, society needs to be conscious of how this is affecting working women's emotional and physical health especially in the absence of any assisting maid. Thus, the purpose of this study was to evaluate how the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown affected working women's physical and mental health. Material(s) and Method(s): To examine the effects of COVID-19 on the physical and emotional health of working women, a cross-sectional survey was conducted. Data is collected using an online survey platform. To investigate the impact of lockdown on the women's mental and physical health, a semi-structured questionnaire comprising a number of open-and closed-ended questions was prepared. Additionally, any mental health disorders and emotional difficulties that developed during lockdown or became worse were enlisted. Another goal was to gauge how much family members understood and were sympathetic to the physical and mental strain the working women were under. Result(s): The study involved 200 women from different states of India. The hours spent in the kitchen and other associated activities increased from 1.5 hours to 5.5 hours when the time between before and during the lockdown was compared. The amount of time spent engaging in physical activity, such as yoga and morning and evening walks, significantly decreased during the lockdown are coming to normal after the lockdown. 68 per cent of those surveyed said that women's behaviour had changed. About 58 per cent of the women suffered physical changes such fatigue, headaches, lower back discomfort, and other issues with women's weight gain. Conclusion(s): Additional research is required to better understand the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on women's mental health, particularly in regard to the identification of additional variables that may be connected to the pandemic's potentially multiplicative effects on women.Copyright © 2023, Institute of Medico-legal Publication. All rights reserved.

ECT: NEW FINDINGS FROM A LARGE AUSTRALIAN-LED CLINICAL CONSORTIUM

Background: The Clinical Alliance and Research in ECT and related treatments (CARE) Network was established in 2015 to support good clinical practice and facilitate data collection for benchmarking and research. More than 50 hospitals in Australia and other countries have joined the CARE Network. This symposium presents research based on real-world data from the CARE Network. Objectives: To present results of studies that examined: (1) outcomes of different forms of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), ECT outcomes in schizophrenia and other disorders, and ECT effects on suicidal ideation (Dr Tor);(2) impact of COVID-19 on ECT practice (Dr Kwan);(3) melancholia as a predictor of response (Dr Waite);and (4) the Brief ECT Cognitive Screen (BECS) for early detection of emerging cognitive effects (Dr Martin). Methods: Research ethics approval was obtained to extract data from CARE centres, for research analysis and publication, to address issues in the studies presented. Findings: (1) ECT is effective in treating schizophrenia and may improve cognition. ECT reduces suicidality. Dose approach (titration vs age-based), electrode placement and pulse width impact treatment outcomes. (2) Prioritisation of ECT for the most ill patients occurred during COVID-19. (3) A new measure of melancholia may not usefully predict response to ECT. (4) The BECS, assessed after 1 week of ECT, has predictive utility for the development of cognitive impairment over the treatment course. Conclusion: These studies provide new findings from real-world data, which should inform clinical practice. They also underline the potential of the CARE Network, a large-scale collaboration established and led by clinicians.

Clinical studies on parent–infant psychotherapy pre- and post-COVID-19 pandemic ‘Making the best of a bad job’ (1)

In his last writing in 1979, Bion, aged 81, described how ‘when two personalities meet, an emotional storm is created’ and the way that psychotherapy can only ever aim to ‘make the best of a bad job’ by turning that storm between the two people in the room to good account. This paper, whose title refers to Bion’s famous statement, complements a publication by Micotti and Pozzi, on a literature review regarding this topic. The paper describes clinical vignettes from psychoanalytic psychotherapy with parents, infants and children underfive seen in person, then online, in a Specialist National Health Service. Some technical issues in the move from in-person to online work as well as its impact on families and therapists are highlighted here. © 2022 Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust.

Melancholic communities: trauma, neoliberalism and the rise of Chat magazine

Weekly real-life magazines (RLMs) for women form a genre that has experienced sustained popularity for more than three decades and are constructed from claims to represent their readerships' lives. Strikingly, during the COVID-19 pandemic where other magazines have witnessed a decline in sales and many closures, real-life titles have experienced continuous success. This article reads RLMs through a psychosocial lens as a symptom of an emerging social melancholia that began to form from the late 1970s in the United Kingdom. Through an analysis of Chat magazine, the article illustrates how the genre was constructed and argues that it resonates with a form of melancholia that has led to the creation of communities bonded through shared collective experiences that have found the semblance of resolution within this genre's creation.

Pandemic, lockdown and rheumatologic practice

Objective: During this exceptional and particular period of confinement, we have observed and analyzed the rheumatologists' (Rh) feelings, reactions, and attitudes that may have emerged. Methods: During the first lockdown in France, during spring 2020, 13 questions, 9 appendices, ranking of the most frequently cited reactions were asked to 38 private practice Rh from the Ile-de-France region, average age 63 yo, 58% male (M). Results: Fear of being contaminated and of transmitting M 91/F 69%, concern about an unknown pandemic M 86/F 69%, anger M 71/F 84% were the main feelings expressed. Anger at the indifference to the exposure of doctors in the city 84%, the unpreparedness of the authorities M 95/F 62%, the mortality in EHPAD (nursing homes) 81%, the media cacophony 79%, the hidden reality 71%. On a personal level, according to 61%, the Rh is not anxious about the world after, has no psychological repercussions (sleep, melancholy, family relations, frustration) 58% and his degree of commitment was guilt-free 55%. Professionally: perplexity in the face of the contradictions of experts and scientific journals 79%, wide acceptance of constraints in the practice (10 h/d maskwearing, 92%, spaced reception of patients 95%, education of barrier gestures and social distancing 97%), adaptation of the medical practice (teleconsultation, telephone consultation) 78%, fear of abandoning treatment or diagnostic delay M 82/F 62%, financial arrangements necessary M 86/F 53%. For M: worries about the pandemic, anger and uncertainty about what will happen next predominate in this order. For F, anger (untruths and lack of means) is the main feeling. Anger, fear and uncertainty are the most frequently cited feelings for both male and female. Conclusion: The Rh at the end of the period of confinement during spring of 2020, is worried M>F and anger especially in front of the sanitary unpreparedness M>F. On a personal level the private life has been little affected F>M and he has been able to adapt professionally. Nevertheless, the deconfinement has not been a banal return to normal 63% M=F.