Articles: coronavirus.
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Observational Study
What Is the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Patients with Pre-Existing Mood or Anxiety Disorder? An Observational Prospective Study.
Background and Objectives: This observational prospective study aims to examine the psychological and psychopathological impact of the pandemic stress on patients with pre-existing mood, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders. Materials and Methods: The study includes 386 consecutive patients recruited from 10 March to 30 June 2020 among those being treated at the Institute of Psychopathology in Rome (Italy) with an age ≥18 years and meeting DSM-5 criteria for major depressive disorder (MDD) (35.2%), bipolar I (BD-I) (21.5%) or II (BD-II) (28.8%) disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) (7.5%), panic disorder (PD) (7.0%) or social anxiety (SA). A total of 34.2% had lifetime comorbid Axis I disorders and 15.3% had alcohol/drug abuse disorders. ⋯ Patients with OCD had a higher rate of worsening due to pandemic stress compared to patients with MDD (p = 0.033), although, overall, the χ2 test was not significant among primary diagnoses (χ2 = 8.368; p = 0.057). Conclusions: The psychological and psychopathological consequences of COVID-19 stress in our outpatients were very modest. The continuity of care offered during the lockdown could explain the results.
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Heart failure reviews · Mar 2021
ReviewCOVID-19 and myocarditis: a systematic review and overview of current challenges.
Myocardial inflammation in COVID-19 has been documented. Its pathogenesis is not fully elucidated, but the two main theories foresee a direct role of ACE2 receptor and a hyperimmune response, which may also lead to isolated presentation of COVID-19-mediated myocarditis. The frequency and prognostic impact of COVID-19-mediated myocarditis is unknown. ⋯ However, current evidence demonstrates myocardial inflammation with or without direct cardiomyocyte damage, suggesting different pathophysiology mechanisms responsible of COVID-mediated myocarditis. Established clinical approaches should be pursued until future evidence support different actions. Large multicentre registries are advisable to elucidate further.
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Int J Environ Res Public Health · Mar 2021
Disasters without Borders: The Coronavirus Pandemic, Global Climate Change and the Ascendancy of Gradual Onset Disasters.
Throughout much of its history, the sociological study of human communities in disaster has been based on events that occur rapidly, are limited in geographic scope, and their management understood as phased stages of response, recovery, mitigation and preparedness. More recent literature has questioned these concepts, arguing that gradual-onset phenomena like droughts, famines and epidemics merit consideration as disasters and that their exclusion has negative consequences for the communities impacted, public policy in terms of urgency and visibility and for the discipline itself as the analytical tools of sociological research are not brought to bear on these events. We agree that gradual-onset disasters merit greater attention from social scientists and in this paper have addressed the two most significant ongoing disasters that are gradual in onset, global in scope and have caused profound impacts on lives, livelihoods, communities and the governments that must cope with their effects. ⋯ We begin with an examination of the foundational work in the sociological study of a disaster that established a conceptual framework based solely on rapidly occurring disasters. Our focus is on several components of the existing framework for defining and studying disasters, which we term "borders." These borders are temporal, spatial, phasing and positioning, which, in our view, must be reexamined, and to some degree expanded or redefined to accommodate the full range of disasters to which our globalized world is vulnerable. To do so will expand or redefine these borders to incorporate and promote an understanding of significant risks associated with disaster agents that are gradual and potentially catastrophic, global in scope and require international cooperation to manage.