Telehealth for Pediatric Disorders of Gut-Brain Interaction During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

A retrospective chart review was completed to examine psychological treatment duration and response among pediatric patients with a disorder of gut-brain interaction including functional abdominal pain and irritable bowel syndrome. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) was delivered via telehealth with a licensed psychologist or supervised psychology trainee embedded in a pediatric gastroenterology clinic. Participants were 22 youth (mean age = 14.36 years) who received CBT via telehealth between February and September of 2021, after completing an initial evaluation between February and July of 2021. Patients completed reliable and valid self-report measures of functional disability and pain during treatment. A unique CBT model was employed with an initial focus on psychoeducation and function regardless of level of severity of functional impairment. Consistent with study hypotheses, nonparametric statistical analyses demonstrated statistically significant reductions in functional disability and pain following implementation of the CBT model via telehealth. Contrary to predictions, there was no relation found between severity of functional impairment and duration of treatment.

Exploring emotion regulation and altruism when experiencing compassion fatigue from humanitarian crises, including COVID-19

Despite knowledge of devastating statistics, it has been observed that when hundreds, or even millions are suffering in large-scale crises, including genocides, refugee crises, and more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic, humans seem unable to process and comprehend the magnitude of that suffering on an emotional level. While the expectation is that compassion should increase proportionally with the number of people suffering in catastrophes, prior research has shown a negative relationship such that as need increases, donations decrease. Some factors that may impact this include the identifiable victim effect, use of emotion regulation strategies, specific cognitive processing styles, and compassion fatigue. This research sought to explore the impact of these factors on decision-making, judgment, and altruism, especially in the face of an ongoing, chronic, and collective trauma (COVID-19). A sample of 993 participants, primarily Caucasian, English-speaking individuals with a median age of 39-years-old, and with varying education levels, were presented with questions about demographics, COVID-19, use of emotion regulation strategies, and cognitive processing styles. Participants were randomized thrice into conditions for compassion fatigue, emotion regulation strategies, and COVID-19. They were, lastly, asked questions about compassion fatigue and desired donation amount towards a charity. The findings of this study showed that our participants experienced significantly higher levels of compassion fatigue and elected to donate higher amounts- contrary to previous research - which may be a result of this population being amidst an ongoing global catastrophe and trauma. In addition, we found that individuals who had contracted COVID-19 were more likely to donate to others due to the identifiable victim effect. We also found individual differences in how emotion regulation use moderated the connection between compassion fatigue and donation amount. Overall, our findings show the impact of COVID-19 and compassion fatigue on altruism;they also highlight the utility of emotion regulation strategies, whether reappraising thoughts or suppressing emotions, especially during a persisting trauma such as COVID-19. Exploring the impact of compassion fatigue on decision-making, judgment, and altruism is imperative, especially given how these factors affect humans on both a micro and macro scale in terms of global policy, immigration, economic reform, and healthcare. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)