Mental health status of students during coronavirus pandemic outbreak: A cross-sectional study

Global, regional and national burdens of depression in adolescents and young adults aged 10-24 years, from 1990 to 2019: findings from the 2019 Global Burden of Disease study

BACKGROUND

Depression is a significant mental health concern affecting the overall well-being of adolescents and young adults. Recently, the prevalence of depression has increased among young people. Nonetheless, there is little research delving into the longitudinal epidemiology of adolescent depression over time.

AIMS

To investigate the longitudinal epidemiology of depression among adolescents and young adults aged 10-24 years.

METHOD

Our research focused on young people (aged 10-24 years) with depression, using data from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2019. We explored the age-standardised prevalence, incidence and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) of depression in different groups, including various regions, ages, genders and sociodemographic indices, from 1990 to 2019.

RESULTS

The prevalence, incidence and DALYs of depression in young people increased globally between 1990 and 2019. Regionally, higher-income regions like High-Income North America and Australasia recorded rising age-standardised prevalence and incidence rates, whereas low- or middle-income regions mostly saw reductions. Nationally, countries such as Greenland, the USA and Palestine reported the highest age-standardised prevalence and incidence rates in 2019, whereas Qatar witnessed the largest growth over time. The burden disproportionately affected females across age groups and world regions. The most prominent age effect on incidence and prevalence rates was in those aged 20-24 years. The depression burden showed an unfavourable trend in younger cohorts born after 1980, with females reporting a higher cohort risk than males.

CONCLUSIONS

Between 1990 and 2019, the general pattern of depression among adolescents varied according to age, gender, time period and generational cohort, across regions and nations.

Mental Health Status and Coping among Portuguese Higher Education Students in the Early Phase of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Globally, the COVID-19 outbreak had an adverse effect on higher education students' mental health and psychological well-being. This study aims to assess the prevalence of stress, anxiety, depression and associated factors in a sample of students in the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and determine the predictive effect of mental health status on coping. The sample was collected between March and July 2020 and included 392 higher education students in Portugal. An online cross-sectional study was conducted using a survey that included an information form, the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale, and the Brief Resilient Coping Scale. The prevalence of mild-to-extremely severe depression, anxiety and stress was 24.2%, 32.7% and 33.4%, respectively. About 60% of the sample had poor coping abilities. Masters students, participants older than 30 years and female participants had significantly greater resilient coping compared to undergraduate students and younger and male participants (p < 0.05). Resilient coping correlated negatively with depression, anxiety and stress. The regression analysis showed that age together with overall levels of depression, anxiety and stress explained 16.9% of the variance in coping. The results should inform the implementation of interventions to mitigate the impact of psychological distress and promote mental health.

Psychosis due to anxiety related to COVID-19: A case report

Introduction and importance

Limited information is available regarding various effects of lifestyle changes caused by coronavirus pandemic on human life. On the other hand, if the fear of getting infected by coronavirus is accompanied by other psychological crises, it can possibly lead to psychosis in people with or without a previous history of mental illness.

Case presentation

The patient is a 36-year-old man with no previous history of mental illness who divorced his wife 6 months before the onset of COVID-19 pandemic. The patient developed auditory hallucinations and paranoid thoughts after the outbreak. After diagnosis of psychosis, treatment with injectable haloperidol was started. He was then treated with risperidone for maintenance therapy. On the other hand, for depressive symptoms, the patient was treated with bupropion. One week after starting the treatment, the patient's paranoid thoughts and auditory hallucinations improved.

Clinical discussion

Getting infected with coronavirus or being severely afraid of it may cause symptoms of psychosis in those with a history of previous mental disease. There is also evidence that extreme fear of infection with coronavirus can lead to psychosis if accompanied by other psychological crises.

Conclusion

It is necessary to pay more attention to the diagnosis and treatment of anxiety caused by COVID-19. Failure to immediately treat the anxiety caused by the fear of infection in this pandemic or other epidemics can lead to more serious problems such as psychosis and create further risks for the individual, family and community.

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Getting infected with coronavirus or being severely afraid of it may cause symptoms of psychosis.

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Failure to immediately treat the anxiety caused by the fear of infection, can lead to more serious problems such as psychosis.

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Many studies have shown that infection with this virus has direct psychological effects on patients as well as on those around them.