Frontiers in psychiatry
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Frontiers in psychiatry · Jan 2020
Prevalence and Correlation of Anxiety, Insomnia and Somatic Symptoms in a Chinese Population During the COVID-19 Epidemic.
Anxiety has been a common mental state during the epidemic of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and is usually closely related to somatization. However, no study on somatization in anxiety and its relationship with insomnia has been conducted. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the prevalence of anxiety, somatization and insomnia and explore the relationships between different psychological states in the general population during the COVID-19 outbreak. ⋯ Somatic and psychological symptoms were common in the general population during the COVID-19 outbreak. Somatic symptoms, anxiety, and insomnia are closely related, and improving anxiety and sleep quality may help relieve somatic symptoms.
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Frontiers in psychiatry · Jan 2020
Perceived Risk and Protection From Infection and Depressive Symptoms Among Healthcare Workers in Mainland China and Hong Kong During COVID-19.
Psychological health among healthcare workers (HCWs) has become a major concern since the COVID-19 outbreak. HCWs perceived risks of contracting COVID-19, in relation to depression were investigated. It was hypothesized that perceived high risk of contracting COVID-19 (close contact with cases, inadequate provision of personal protective equipment, insufficient infection control training, and presence of symptoms) would be significant predictors of depression. ⋯ The strongest significant risk factors for depression, after adjustment, were HCWs who reported the greatest extent of feeling susceptible to contracting COVID-19 and those who reported the greatest difficulty obtaining face masks. HCWs whose family/peers greatly encouraged face mask use had lower prevalence of depression. Access to adequate supplies of personal protective equipment is essential for the psychological health of HCWs working in stressful environments, through potentially easing their perceptions of vulnerability to COVID-19.
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Frontiers in psychiatry · Jan 2020
ReviewComplicated Grief: What to Expect After the Coronavirus Pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the worst public health crises in a century, with an expected amount of deaths of several million worldwide and an even bigger number of bereaved people left behind. Although the consequences of this crisis are still unknown, a significant number of bereaved people will arguably develop Complicated Grief (CG) in the aftermath of this emergency. ⋯ The aim of this paper is to review the most prominent literature on CG after natural disasters, as well as after diseases requiring ICU treatment. This body of evidence may be useful for helping bereaved people during the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and for drawing clinical attention to people at risk for CG.
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Frontiers in psychiatry · Jan 2020
Sleep Disturbance and Psychological Profiles of Medical Staff and Non-Medical Staff During the Early Outbreak of COVID-19 in Hubei Province, China.
The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has considerably burdened the healthcare system in the Hubei Province, the most severely affected region in China. The aim of our study was to assess the psychological effects of COVID-19 epidemic on the healthcare workers in Hubei. ⋯ Frontline medical staff are more vulnerable to sleep disturbances. Psychosocial interventions are needed to help allied healthcare personnel to better respond to COVID-19 and future outbreaks.
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Frontiers in psychiatry · Jan 2020
Sex Differences Linking Pain-Related Fear and Interoceptive Hypervigilance: Attentional Biases to Conditioned Threat and Safety Signals in a Visceral Pain Model.
Although the broad role of fear and hypervigilance in conditions of the gut-brain axis like irritable bowel syndrome is supported by converging evidence, the underlying mechanisms remain incompletely understood. Even in healthy individuals, it remains unclear how pain-related fear may contribute to pain-related attentional biases for acute visceral pain. Building on our classical fear conditioning work in a clinically relevant model of visceral pain, we herein elucidated pain-related attentional biases shaped by associative learning in healthy women and men, aiming to elucidate possible sex differences and the role of psychological traits. ⋯ Regression analyses revealed an interaction of sex, with negative affect predicting stronger avoidance of the CS+ and stronger difficulties to disengage attention from the CS- in men. These results provide first evidence that pain-related fear conditioning may induce attentional biases differentially in healthy women and men. Hence, sex differences may play a role in attentional mechanisms underlying hypervigilance, and may be modulated by psychological vulnerability factors relevant to chronic visceral pain.