American Journal of Psychiatric Research and Reviews

The recent literature (last five years) on inactivity and sedentary behavior in aging (ageing) adults is predominantly focused on negative effects of inactivity/sedentary behavior along with some studies on predictors/risk variables and interventions. Aging has been typically defined as starting as early as 60 or 65. And, inactivity has been defined as reduced time being active and/or increased time being sedentary. The prevalence rates for inactivity in aging adults have been highly variable in this literature, ranging from a low of 21% to a high of 79%. Negative effects have included cognitive impairment, reduced muscle strength, frailty, depression and mortality. The Negative biological effects have included increased cytokines and triglycerides as well as increased hippocampal volume and white matter hyperintensities. Predictors/risk factors have been social isolation, loneliness, inadequate nutrition and multiple demographic variables. Interventions have been effective including stepping, Pilates and mobile health exercises. More well-designed longitudinal studies are needed as well as more robust randomized controlled trials.

This review summarizes research on late life suicidality found in the recent literature (last five years). The prevalence has widely ranged from 5-56% for suicidality in late life. The research has focused primarily on predictors/risk factors for suicidality. Social factors have included bereavement, isolation and loneliness. Psychological problems have included anxiety, depression, cognitive impairment, sleep disturbances and prior suicide attempts. Physical conditions have included functional disability, inflammation, chronic illness and drug misuse. Interventions have focused primarily on exercise and increasing physical activity. The interpersonal theory of suicide (thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness), inflammation and immune dysfunction have been considered potential underlying mechanisms for late life suicidality. This research is limited to self-report, cross-sectional studies that typically involve several variables, although the relative significance of the different variables is frequently not reported.

The prevalence of sleep problems in youth during COVID-19 has ranged widely across different countries from 19% to 66%. Some researchers reported different prevalence for the different types of sleep problems including difficulties initiating sleep or maintaining sleep. Others reported as many as 49% failing to meet WHO global guidelines for sleep. Surprisingly, only a few effects studies were found suggesting that stress, anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation had occurred following sleep disturbances. In contrast, most of the research in this literature has focused on risk factors/predictors of sleep problems. Several risk factors have been noted for sleep problems in youth during COVID-19 including excessive screen time, snacking and lack of physical activity. Negative mood states were also predictors or correlates including worrying about COVID, being bored, lonely, anxious and depressed. Limitations of the literature include that many studies are cross-sectional so that causality cannot be determined, the studies are highly variable on age of the youth and assessment measures and parents have typically been the reporters of their youth’s sleep problems. Nonetheless, the literature has highlighted sleep problems in youth that can inform potential intervention protocols.

Cabin fever has been reported to have a deleterious impact on mental health in the COVID-19 literature. In this COVID-19 lockdown Survey Monkey study, as many as 75% of 260 respondents reported feeling cabin fever. Demographic correlations suggested that cabin fever occurred more frequently in non-Hispanic white participants. The significant correlations for the scales suggested that those experiencing feelings of cabin fever engaged in fewer health activities like self-care, feeling spiritual, and liking being at home; they spent more time on the internet including receiving and sending messages about the virus; they scored higher on the Stress Scale including worrying about the virus and their finances; they reported feeling more isolated, lonely, bored, and touch deprived; and they presented with higher scores on anxiety, depression, fatigue, sleep disturbances, and PTSD scales. A regression analysis suggested that 44% of the variance in the cabin fever scores was explained by the stress and fatigue scale scores. The generalizability of these results is limited by the homogeneity of the sample (predominantly non-Hispanic white females). Nevertheless, they highlight the negative effects of feelings of cabin fever during a COVID-19 lockdown.

This narrative review is organized around the primary symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) including physical and cognitive symptoms and the effectiveness of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) in reducing these symptoms in youth with an OCD diagnosis. These are followed by sections on the comorbidities of OCD including anxiety and depression, the effective delivery of CBT via both internet and in-person, the greater effectiveness of CBT versus pharmacotherapy, the use of alternative therapies and the negative effects of COVID-19 on both OCD and CBT. The review concludes with limitations of the literature and suggested future directions

This narrative review on obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) in youth briefly summarizes research on physical and cognitive symptoms of OCD based on facial, olfactory, sleep, orthorexia, social cognition, attentional bias and brain studies. Secondly, it focuses on risk factors for OCD including genetic factors, comorbidities, family prevalence, vitamin deficiencies, infection and Covid-19 effects. Treatments are focused on attention bias modification, cognitive behavior therapy, exercise and medications. This literature, while very extensive, is limited to some seemingly uninteresting laboratory paradigms and youth and parent questionnaire data as well as a few effective therapy and medication protocols.

Background: Our anatomical-physiological nervous system, our beliefs, knowledge and affectivity are continuously interrelated, although they are often not well discriminated. Method: This is not a revision, but rather, a qualitative, narrative research, with inclusive and interpretative variables. Results: In practice, thoughts and feelings interwoven with actions conform the individual existential reality. The Jakob-Papez circuit of the limbic system is crucial to the processing of emotions, memories and learning. In particular, learning and memory need the integrity of the basolateral amygdala in the temporal lobe. It is indeed well known that the activity of the hippocampus and the amygdala is im-portant when it comes to memory. This paper will also comment on how stress affects learning and especially, the so-called emotional memory, and that both aggressiveness and violence, as well as the empathetic condition can all be considered parts of the same di-mension. Conclusions: One’s will, beliefs and desires, integrated within the ideological domain explain, together with neurobiology, most of one’s behaviors, including aggres-siveness in general, and violence in particular. We will also emphasize that stress expo-sure, which has such complex effects in the mnemonic encoding, can produce profound changes in physiology and social behavior.

Background and objectives: The public costs of self-reported mental stress and distress are enormous. And both the advance of neurobiology and the modern more biological approach of psychiatry as a whole are considerable. This work intends to provide an essential, updated and objective panoramic view on the neurobiology of all kinds of stress in relation to people’s mental health and pathologies. Method: Bibliographic indexes such as Pubmed, Psycinfo Journal and Índices CSIC, were consulted, among others. The matter being tackled is extremely profuse, varied and complex, therefore the found literature has been as numerous as heterogeneous. It is also so dispersed that we have conducted a narrative non-systematic review that is intended to be impartial and balanced. Results: This article will concisely discuss the available, prominent and reliable scientific information regarding the main cerebral structures involved in the experience of stress, such as the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, amygdala and hypothalamus. It will also comment on stress physiology, neuroendocrinology and associated psychopathology, as well as specifically certain genetic variations and linked molecular and immune activities. Conclusion: We have synthesised the relevant and current scientific knowledge of the correlations among stress, mental health and neurobiology as well as of their reciprocal interactions. There is increasing knowledge of these correlations and interactions, but it remains limited. Accordingly, further research is required.

Objective: The objective of the study was to review the literature on how multiprofessional integration can positively impact the quality of life of patients with mental disorders, increasing treatment compliance and ensuring the necessary care for the patient. Methods: A search was made in the Pubmede Scielo databases, using the descriptors found in the DECS, using as descriptors ¨ Community Mental Health¨, ¨Services Patient Care Team¨, health mental¨, ¨ community health services mental¨, a total of 242 were selected, of which 49. Results: Considering that the field of mental health, aggregates a set of complex and particular issues of each being, a multidisciplinary treatment is essential to integrate all therapeutic possibilities. In this bias, it is perceived that the fight for hegemony over the ways of caring, how to deal optimally with the experience of illness is guided by an intentionality of reorganization of knowledge about the health/disease dichotomy, which is reflected in the models proposed for the implementation of actions and services aiming at the promotion, prevention, care and rehabilitation of human health. Conclusion: In view of the study carried out, the need for expanding researches and the daily approach of the teams working in the multi, inter and transdisciplinary perspectives are fundamental tools for the treatment effectiveness, as well as the political action and necessary investments in the mental health area in order to guarantee better assistance to patients suffering from mental disorders.

Objective: To characterize the profile of compulsory notifications of exogenous intoxication in Foz do Iguaçu, Paraná, in the five-year period 2015 to 2019. Methods: Documentary, quantitative-analytical study of the sociodemographic and epidemiological profiles, of notifications of exogenous intoxication. The variables were collected in Individual Notification Forms of the Notifiable Diseases Information System (SINAN) with a sample of 2799 evaluated records. The data were tabulated in spreadsheets, Microsoft Excel, and were analyzed using Sigma Plot, version 11.0. The results were expressed in absolute frequency and relative percentages. The analysis of associations between variables was performed using chi-square. Results: Regarding the socio-demographic and economic profile, it was found that the average age of victims of poisoning is higher for the male population, 33 years old (± 15.48), with a preponderance of intoxications among white, female individuals (n = 1174; 41.94%) and male (n = 736; 26.30%), with complete secondary education for women (n = 318; 11.36%) and incomplete primary education for men (n = 227; 8.11%), residing in urban areas, female (n = 1594; 56.95%) and male (n = 1069; 38.19%), whose occupation is in formal work, female (n = 270; 9.65%) and male (n = 178; 6.36%) respectively. Regarding epidemiology, drugs, especially anxiolytics, with digestive tract and evolution to cure were the characteristics most present in the notifications. Conclusion: Suicide attempts and abuse were the circumstances for their reports and the most recurrent ones, with drugs, especially anxiolytics and antidepressants, in the digestive tract being the most used. In the cases evaluated, the outcome of the cure without sequel predominated.