Symptoms and online intimate partner violence during the Covid-19 Quarantine / Síntomas psicopatológicos y violencia online de pareja durante la cuarentena por el covid-19

Abstract Introduction: The Covid-19 pandemic has affected the physical and mental health of the population in general, in addition, during the quarantine, online intimate partner violence behaviours may arise, which increases the probability of psychopathological symptoms, with alterations in emotional and affective states. Objective: The purpose this study was examine the relationship between psychopathological symptoms and online intimate partner violence behaviours during the Covid-19 pandemic. Method: The design was correlational cross-sectional comparative, the sample nonprobability with the participation of 588 people of between 18 and 46 years of age. Symptom ChecklistSCL-36, Cyber dating abuse questionnaire and Sociodemographic questionnaire Results: Out of the total, 60 % reported having perpetrated a controlling behaviour and 54,3 % claimed to have been a victim of online abuse in your relationship, during the quarantine. It was found that there is a positive and significant relationship between cyber abuse, for both victimization and perpetration, and the psychopathological Symptomsby the Symptom Check List-36. A positive and significant relationship was also found between some symptoms assessed by the Symptom Check List-36 and sleep quality, cigarette consumption, and the intake of alcoholic and energising beverages during the quarantine. These results show that mental health may be affected by the confinement during the pandemic. Moreover, during the quarantine, intimate partner violence behaviours may arise, altering the emotional and affective state of individuals, with the appearance of symptoms of psychological disorders. Conclusions: Therefore, future investigations should be geared towards intervention programmes to reduce the psychological impact on the people affected.

Resumen Introducción: La pandemia por Covid-19 afecta la salud física y mental de la población en general, además, durante el tiempo de cuarentena se puede presentar violencia online de pareja, lo que aumenta la probabilidad que se presenten síntomas psicopatológicos, con alteraciones en los estados emocionales y afectivos. Objetivo: Por lo tanto, este estudio examinó la relación entre los síntomas psicopatológicos y comportamientos de violencia online de pareja durante Pandemia de covid-19. Método: El diseño fue correlacional comparativo transversal y la muestra no probabilística con la participación de 588 personas (18 y 46 años); los instrumentos que se emplearon en esta investigación fueron el cuestionario SCL-36, Escala de abuso online en relaciones y un cuestionario sociodemográfico. Resultados: El 60 % informó haber utilizado conductas de control y el 54,3 % refirieron haber sido víctima de abuso online en su relación en el tiempo de cuarentena. Se encontró que existe una relación positiva y significativa entre las conductas de violencia online tanto para la victimización y perpetración, con los síntomas psicopatológicos que evalúa SCL-36. También se encontró una relación significativa y positiva con algunos síntomas que evalúa el SCL-36 y la calidad del sueño, consumo de cigarrillo, ingesta de bebidas embriagantes y energizantes en el tiempo de cuarentena. Conclusiones: Estos resultados muestran que pueden aparecer síntomas psicopatológicos por el confinamiento durante la pandemia; además, que durante la cuarentena se pueden presentar conductas de violencia online en la pareja alterando el estado emocional y afectivo con la aparición de síntomas de trastornos psicológicos, por lo tanto, las futuras investigaciones deben dirigirse a programas de intervención para disminuir el impacto psicológico en las personas afectadas.

Eating Disorders and Internalizing/Externalizing Symptoms in Adolescents before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed at assessing the prevalence of eating disorders and symptoms of dieting, food preoccupation, and oral control and internalizing/externalizing problems in a group of adolescents before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: A sample of N = 813 adolescents (age range = 14-15 years) was recruited in the general population and administered the SCOFF, EAT-26 and YSR questionnaires at two assessment points: before the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak and during it. RESULTS: In males and females, the YSR scores at T1 were significantly lower than T2, especially for the subscales of Withdrawn, Somatic complaints, Anxious/depressed, Social problems. As for the EAT-26 scores, adolescents scored significantly lower at T1 for all four subscales of dieting, food preoccupation and oral control. The prevalence of eating disorders among males and females increased respectively from 13.2% to 18.4% and from 17.5 to 25.3 from T1 to T2. CONCLUSION: This study confirms previous research showing an increase in eating disorders prevalence and higher psychopathological symptoms both in males and females adolescents during the pandemic.

The Trap of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Italian Adolescents Fare Well at First, Maybe Thanks to Protective Trait Expression.

Abundant research indicates that the COVID-19 pandemic has been negatively affecting mental health in adolescence. Few works, however, benefit from data from the same sample before and after the onset of the pandemic. The present longitudinal study involved a non-clinical group of 136 Italian adolescents (Mage = 16.3 years ± 1.08, 67% girls) to investigate their psychological response to the first lockdown and explore the role of a protective trait (i.e., Positivity) in moderating the effect of Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) on internalizing symptoms before and during the COVID-19 outbreak. Participants completed self-report questionnaires assessing psychopathological symptoms, psychological well-being, IU, and Positivity on three separate occasions: October 2019 (T1), January 2020 (T2), and April 2020 (T3). The results showed that internalizing and externalizing symptoms as well as psychological well-being did not vary significantly over time. Positivity was found to significantly moderate the relationship between IU and internalizing symptoms at T3 (i.e., during the COVID-19 lockdown) only. Overall, our findings suggest that the teenagers' good adjustment to the initial phase of the pandemic might have been associated with the enhanced weight of the Positivity trait, which may have encouraged a positive attitude towards self, life, and the future.

Prevalence of Psychopathological Symptoms and Their Determinants in Four Healthcare Workers' Categories during the Second Year of COVID-19 Pandemic.

Highly stressful situations, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, induce constant changes in the mental state of people who experience them. In the present study, we analyzed the prevalence of some psychological symptoms and their determinants in four different categories of healthcare workers during the second year of the pandemic. A total of 265 physicians, 176 nurses, 184 other healthcare professionals, and 48 administrative employees, working in different Italian healthcare contexts, answered a questionnaire including variables about their mental status and experience with the pandemic. The mean scores for anxiety and depressive symptoms measured more than one year after the onset of the pandemic did not reach the pathological threshold. In contrast, post-traumatic and burnout symptoms tended toward the critical threshold, especially in physicians. The main determinant of psychological distress was perceived stress, followed by job satisfaction, the impact of COVID-19 on daily work, and a lack of recreational activities. These results increase the knowledge of which determinants of mental distress would be important to act on when particularly stressful conditions exist in the workplace that persist over time. If well-implemented, specific interventions focused on these determinants could lead to an improvement in employee well-being and in the quality of care provided.

The Effect of a Telehealth Intervention on Mother-Child's Feeding Interactions During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Purpose: This study evaluated the outcomes of a telehealth intervention aimed at enhancing exchanges in mother-child dyads who showed an impoverishment of the quality of their feeding interactions and a worsening of their psychopathological symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: N=334 mothers and their three-year-old children were recruited to assess their feeding interactions through an observational tool administered via a web platform, and maternal and offspring psychopathological symptoms were measured through the SCL/90-R and the CBCL 1.5-5. This study constitutes the third wave (T3) of a longitudinal research. Results: Our results showed that the intervention significantly improved the quality of mother-child feeding interactions. Moreover, mothers' psychopathological symptoms reduced after the intervention, especially in the interpersonal sensitivity, hostility, depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive-compulsive subscales; offspring emotional/behavioral functioning and dysregulation symptoms also decreased, particularly in the subscales of withdrawn anxious/depressed attention problems and aggressive behavior. Conclusion: This study adds knowledge to the literature on COVID-19 pandemic effects on psychological health of parents and young children, proposing a method of intervention that had been effectively adopted previously but whose effectiveness had not been investigated during the pandemic.

[Some psychiatric and neurological aspects of the asymptomatic and mild course of COVID-19]. / Nekotorye psikhiatricheskie i nevrologicheskie aspekty bessimptomnogo i legkogo techeniya COVID-19.

OBJECTIVE: To study neurological and mental disorders associated with the inapparent and mild course of COVID-19. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study included 50 patients (mean age 35.2±11.4 years) admitted to a psychiatric hospital due to depressive spectrum disorders. Patients were divided into two groups: patients (n=16) who had IgG antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 (main group) and patients (n=34) without a history of COVID-19 (comparison group). RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Patients of the main group showed a difference in the structure of asthenic disorders compared with the comparison group. Also, there was a significant predominance of the severity of asthenic symptoms and anxiety in the structure of psychopathological disorders in depressive spectrum disorders. The viral intoxication contributes to the formation of a kind of asthenic «soil¼ (with characteristic manifestations). In the future, in the case of the development of any stress-associated disorder, more pronounced psychopathological disorders are noted compared with patients of the comparison group. The authors describe a variant of the course of COVID-19, in which the development of ischemic stroke was the first clinical manifestation of the disease. These disorders are based on the pronounced neurotropic effect of SARS-CoV-2 and its effect on the neurovascular unit.

[Dynamics of psychopathological symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic in Russia]. / Dinamika psikhopatologicheskoi simptomatiki vo vremya pandemii COVID-19 v Rossii.

OBJECTIVE: The results of the analysis of psychopathological symptom dynamics during the COVID-19 pandemic in Russia are presented. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study uses the data of the Internet survey, which included a block of sociodemographic questions and the SCL-90-R symptomatic questionnaire. Nine hundred and eight responses received from 22.03.20 to 22.06.20 were analysed. The change in the responses over time was assessed: 3 periods of time were allocated, associated with the change in countermeasures to the pandemic in Russia. In addition, the change in the values of the SCL-90 parameters was assessed depending on the existence of respondent's acquaintances infected with the coronavirus. RESULTS: It was shown that SCL-90 symptoms (Somatization, Depression, Obsession, all integral parameters, including the Global Severity Index) increased from 22.03.20 to 22.06.20. With infected people appearing in the respondent's environment psychopathological symptoms increase. The growth of hostility, sensitivity and anxiety is associated with a personal experience of a danger of the pandemic, which intensifies when infected persons appear in the immediate environment. CONCLUSION: The increase in psychopathological symptoms after the mitigation or cancellation of the quarantine restrictions suggests the persistence of long-term consequences.

Prevalence of psychiatric diagnosis and related psychopathological symptoms among patients with COVID-19 during the second wave of the pandemic.

BACKGROUND: The possibility of psychopathological symptoms and related risk factors among normal persons and patients infected during the outbreak of COVID-19 has been widely investigated. The mental health outcomes of the second wave of the pandemic remain unclear, especially those of patients with an infection. Thus, this study aims to explore the prevalence of and related risk factors associated with psychopathological symptoms among patients infected with COVID-19 during the second wave. METHOD: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in five isolated wards of a designated hospital in Beijing, China, from July 1 to July 15, 2020. The Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) was conducted to assess psychiatric disorders, and a series of scales were used to measure self-reported psychopathological symptoms and psychosomatic factors. Multivariate regression analysis was used to analyze the risk factors associated with psychopathological symptoms. RESULTS: Among 119 participants with infections, the prevalence of generalized anxiety symptoms (51.3%), depressive symptoms (41.2%), and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS)/posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms (33.6%) was observed. Loneliness, hope, coping strategies, and history of mental disorders were the shared risk or protective factors across several psychopathological symptoms. The perceived impact of COVID-19 is the specific risk factor associated with state anxiety symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of symptoms of depression, anxiety, and PTSS/PTSD is high among patients with infections during the second wave of the pandemic in Beijing. Clinical doctors must realize that these patients will probably experience depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, and PTSS/PTSD, as well as some neuropsychiatric syndromes. Specific mental health care is urgently required to help patients manage the virus during the second wave of the pandemic.

Effect of COVID-19 confinement on the mental status of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) are more vulnerable to higher levels of stress and psychopathological symptoms than the general healthy population. Therefore, the COVID-19 outbreak could alter their psychological state. The objective was to analyze the psychological impact of the pandemic and confinement on stress levels and psychopathological symptoms in patients with SLE. PATIENTS AND METHOD: In this cross-sectional study, stress levels were compared with the Perceived Stress Scale, the Stress Vulnerability Inventory and psychopathological symptoms of the SCL-90-R Symptom Inventory in patients with SLE during the period of confinement (group 1; n = 276) in comparison to patients with SLE evaluated in a period before the pandemic (group 2; n = 152). RESULTS: The comparison between both groups showed there were statistically significant differences in vulnerability to stress (p < 0.0001), depression (p ≤ 0.05), anxiety (p ≤ 0.05), phobic anxiety (p < 0.0001), interpersonal sensitivity (p ≤ 0.043), and psychoticism (p ≤ 0.023). In these variables, the group of patients with lupus in confinement obtained higher scores. CONCLUSIONS: The confinement and threat of the COVID-19 outbreak had important repercussions on the psychological state of patients with SLE with high levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. These findings show their vulnerability to a public health alert and indicate the need to carry out a psychological approach to these patients while the state of health emergency lasts as well as to possible outbreaks of the virus.

ANTECEDENTES Y OBJETIVO: Las pacientes con lupus eritematoso sistémico (LES) son más vulnerables a presentar mayores niveles de estrés y síntomas psicopatológicos que la población general sana, por lo que el brote de la COVID-19 podría alterar su estado psicológico. El objetivo fue analizar el impacto psicológico de la pandemia y del confinamiento sobre los niveles de estrés y sintomatología psicopatológica en pacientes con LES. PACIENTES Y MÉTODO: En este estudio transversal se compararon niveles de estrés mediante la Escala de Estrés Percibido y el Inventario de Vulnerabilidad al Estrés, y síntomas psicopatológicos mediante el Inventario de síntomas SCL-90-R, en pacientes con LES durante el período de confinamiento (grupo 1; n = 276) con respecto a pacientes con LES evaluadas en un período anterior a la pandemia (grupo 2; n = 152). RESULTADOS: La comparación entre ambos grupos mostró que existían diferencias estadísticamente significativas en vulnerabilidad al estrés (p < 0,0001), depresión (p ≤ 0,05), ansiedad (p ≤ 0,05), ansiedad fóbica (p < 0,0001), sensibilidad interpersonal (p ≤ 0,043), y psicoticismo (p ≤ 0,023). En estas variables el grupo de pacientes con lupus en confinamiento obtuvo puntuaciones superiores. CONCLUSIONES: El confinamiento y la amenaza del brote por COVID-19 ha tenido importantes repercusiones en el estado psicológico de las pacientes con LES, mostrando altos niveles de estrés, ansiedad y depresión. Estos hallazgos muestran su vulnerabilidad ante una alerta de salud pública, y señala la necesidad de realizar un abordaje psicológico de estas pacientes mientras dure el estado de emergencia sanitaria, así como ante posibles rebrotes del virus.

[Effect of COVID-19 confinement on the mental status of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus]. / Efecto del confinamiento por COVID-19 en el estado mental de pacientes con lupus eritematoso sistémico.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) are more vulnerable to higher levels of stress and psychopathological symptoms than the general healthy population. Therefore, the COVID-19 outbreak could alter their psychological state. The objective was to analyze the psychological impact of the pandemic and confinement on stress levels and psychopathological symptoms in patients with SLE. PATIENTS AND METHOD: In this cross-sectional study, stress levels were compared with the Perceived Stress Scale, the Stress Vulnerability Inventory and psychopathological symptoms of the SCL-90-R Symptom Inventory in patients with SLE during the period of confinement (group 1; n=276) in comparison to patients with SLE evaluated in a period before the pandemic (group 2; n=152). RESULTS: The comparison between both groups showed there were statistically significant differences in vulnerability to stress (P<.0001), depression (P≤.05), anxiety (P≤.05), phobic anxiety (P<.0001), interpersonal sensitivity (P≤.043), and psychoticism (P≤.023). In these variables, the group of patients with lupus in confinement obtained higher scores. CONCLUSIONS: The confinement and threat of the COVID-19 outbreak had important repercussions on the psychological state of patients with SLE with high levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. These findings show their vulnerability to a public health alert and indicate the need to carry out a psychological approach to these patients while the state of health emergency lasts as well as to possible outbreaks of the virus.

Mental Health of Medical and Non-Medical Professionals during the Peak of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Nationwide Study.

BACKGROUND: The study aimed to compare psychopathological expressions during the COVID-19 (novel coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic, as declared on March 11th 2020 by the World Health Organization, with respect to which institutional variables might distinguish the impact of COVID-19 in medical and non-medical professionals. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was performed nationwide between 16th March and the 26th April 2020 in Poland. A total of 2039 respondents representing all healthcare providers (59.8%) as well as other professionals filled in the sociodemographic section, the General Health Questionnaire-28 and the author's questionnaire with questions related to exposure to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, the availability of protective measures, quarantine, change of working hours and place of employment during the pandemic, as well as feelings associated with the state of the pandemic. RESULTS: Medical professionals more often presented with relevant psychopathological symptoms (GHQ-28 (General Health Questionnaire-28) total score >24) than the non-medical group (60.8% vs. 48.0%, respectively) such as anxiety, insomnia and somatic symptoms even after adjustment for potential confounding factors. Male sex, older age and appropriate protective equipment were associated with significantly lower GHQ-28 total scores in medical professionals, whereas among non-medical professionals, male sex was associated with significantly lower GHQ-28 total scores. CONCLUSIONS: Somatic and anxiety symptoms as well as insomnia are more prevalent among medical staff than workers in other professions. Targeting the determinants of these differences should be included in interventions aimed at restoring psychological well-being in this specific population. Apparently, there are present gender differences in psychological responses that are independent of profession.