Although the mental health problems of college students have been the subject of increasing research, there are no studies about its prevalence in Ecuadorian college students. The aim of this study ...was to determine the mental health problems and their associated factors in Ecuadorian freshmen university students. A sample of 1092 students (53.7% women; mean age = 18.3 years) were recruited from the Technical Particular University of Loja (Ecuador). Socio-demographic, academic, and clinical characteristics were gathered, as well as information on the participants' mental health through a number of mental health screens. Prevalence of positive screens was 6.2% for prevalence of major depressive episodes, 0.02% for generalized anxiety disorders, 2.2% for panic disorders, 32.0% for eating disorders, 13.1% for suicidal risk. Mental health problems were significantly associated with sex, area of study, self-esteem, social support, personality and histories of mental health problems. The findings offer a starting point for identifying useful factors to target prevention and intervention strategies aimed at university students.
The main objective of the current study was to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of a cognitive-behavioral prevention intervention administered through a smartphone app in non-professional ...caregivers with symptoms of depression. The secondary objective was to make a preliminary evaluation of its effectiveness either alone or supplemented with telephone conference calls.
Eighty-seven participants (M
age
= 51.8 years) were randomly assigned to an app-based cognitive-behavioral intervention (CBIA; n = 29), CBIA supplemented with telephone conference calls (CBIA + CC; n = 28), or an attention control group (ACG; n = 30). The participants for both interventions received five cognitive-behavioral modules through the app, and those in CBIA + CC an additional 30-minute phone call in each module.
3.4% of caregivers dropped out. In all groups, the number of modules completed was high. Participants completed a high percentage of the homework and were highly satisfied with both CBIA and CBIA + CC. At post-intervention, there was a lower incidence of depression and depressive symptoms for CBIA + CC compared with CBIA, and for CBIA and CBIA + CC compared with ACG.
The results supported the feasibility and acceptability of the cognitive-behavioral intervention, and demonstrated that telephone contact improves its effectiveness.
Objective
The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a problem‐solving intervention for the prevention of suicidal risk in Brazilian adolescents with elevated suicidal potential and ...depressive symptoms.
Methods
A randomized controlled trial was conducted involving 100 participants (mean age 17.2 years, 60% women, 46% mixed race), allocated to the problem‐solving intervention (n = 50) or the usual care control group (n = 50). Blinded interviewers conducted assessments at pretreatment, posttreatment, 1, 3, and 6 months of follow‐up. The main outcome was suicidal orientation; secondary outcomes were suicidal risk, suicidal plans and attempts, depressive symptoms, and problem‐solving skills.
Results
At posttreatment and up to 6‐month follow‐up, there was lower suicidal orientation and suicidal risk in the problem‐solving group compared to the control group. There were lower suicidal plans and attempts (0.0% participants vs 2.2% with a suicide plan and 2.2% with both suicide plan and attempt); risk difference was 0.04 (95% CI: 0.01–0.09) and the number needed to treat was 25 (95% CI: 11–70). Significant effects of the intervention on depressive symptoms were found at posttreatment and maintained for 6 months. The change in global and functional problem‐solving skills mediated the reduction in suicide orientation.
Conclusions
Thus, suicidal risk can be successfully prevented in adolescents.
Objectives: Despite the importance of resilience in populations under stress, and the fact that the 10-item version Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC 10) is the shortest instrument for ...reliable and valid evaluation of resilience, there are no data on their psychometric properties in non-professional caregivers. The aim of this study was to analyze the psychometric properties and factorial structure of the spanish version of the CD-RISC 10 in non-professional caregivers.
Method: Independently trained assessors evaluated resilience, self-esteem, social support, emotional distress and depression in a sample of 294 caregivers (89.8% women, mean age 55.3 years).
Results: The internal consistency of CD-RISC 10 was α = .86. A single factor was found that accounted for 44.7% of the total variance. Confirmatory factor analysis corroborated this unifactorial model. The CD-RISC 10 was significantly correlated with the self-esteem (r = .416, p < .001) and social support (r = .228, p < .001) scales, and the emotional distress scale (r = -.311, p < .001), though this was an inverse relationship. A score ≤ 23 was a suitable cut-off point for discriminating caregivers with depression (sensitivity = 70.0%, specificity = 68.2%).
Conclusion: The CD-RISC 10 is a reliable and valid instrument to evaluate resilience in the caregiver population.
Although burnout is a widespread phenomenon among healthcare professionals, there are no studies about its prevalence in Ecuador. This study assesses the prevalence of burnout syndrome among ...Ecuadorian healthcare professionals and examine the relationship with their personal and organizational characteristics.
A total of 2404 healthcare professionals (average age 40.0years; 68.4% women) from the capitals of all 24 provinces in Ecuador participated in this study. Trained psychologists assessed the presence of burnout by applying the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Sociodemographic variables, emotional distress, social support and coping styles as well as organizational variables were also collected.
Of all healthcare professionals surveyed, 2.6% presented burnout syndrome. By dimensions, 17.2% of the participants presented a high level of emotional exhaustion, 13.5% of depersonalization, and 18.2% had reduced personal accomplishment. Being non-mestizo, being classified as a probable case of mental disorder and using more passive coping were associated with a greater probability of presenting burnout; having >10years of experience was associated with a lower probability of burnout.
A significant number of active health professionals suffer from burnout. It is necessary to develop effective psychotherapeutic interventions for those who have the syndrome and to evaluate potential prevention strategies in those who have not yet developed it.
Depression, anxiety and stress are increasingly concerning phenomena in our society, with serious consequences on physical and mental health. The repercussions may be particularly devastating in ...particular population subgroups, such as female university students. The purpose of this study was to determine the levels of depression, anxiety, and stress and the prevalence of depression and associated factors, in Spanish university women. A cross-sectional study was conducted with a random sample of 871 students from the Santiago de Compostela University (mean age 20.7 years, SD = 2.8). Information was collected on sociodemographic and academic characteristics; symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress; diagnosis of major depression; optimism, resilience, social support, life engagement, and five personality domains, using validated instruments. Of the participants, 18.1%, 22.8% and 13.5% presented with severe/very severe levels of depression, anxiety and stress, respectively. A total of 12.9% had major depression. Higher life engagement was associated with lower risk of depression (OR = 0.92, 95% CI 0.87–0.98), while higher levels of neuroticism (OR = 1.20, 95% CI, 1.12–1.28) and openness to experience (OR = 1.08, 95% CI, 1.02–1.14) were associated with greater risk. These findings reveal an alarming percentage of female university students who experience major depression and severe/very severe stress.
Motion planning and control for articulated logistic vehicles such as tugger trains is a challenging problem in service robotics. The case of tugger trains presents particular difficulties due to the ...kinematic complexity of these multiarticulated vehicles. Sampling-based motion planners offer a motion planning solution that can take into account the kinematics and dynamics of the vehicle. However, their planning times scale poorly for high dimensional systems, such as these articulated vehicles moving in a big map. To improve the efficiency of the sampling-based motion planners, some approaches combine these methods with discrete search techniques. The goal is to direct the sampling phase with heuristics provided by a faster, precociously ran, discrete search planner. However, sometimes these heuristics can mislead the search towards unfeasible solutions, because the discrete search planners do not take into account the kinematic and dynamic restrictions of the vehicle. In this paper we present a solution adapted for articulated logistic vehicles that uses a kinodynamic discrete planning to bias the sampling-based algorithm. The whole system has been applied in two different towing tractors (a tricycle and a quadricycle) with two different trailers (simple trailer and synchronized shaft trailer).
Abstract Although cognitive-behavioural programmes for preventing depression have produced promising findings, their administration requires extensive training. Relaxation techniques are more ...straightforward psychological strategies, but they have not been investigated in the prevention of depression. This trial aimed to compare the results of relaxation training (RT) with that of a cognitive-behavioural programme (CBT) for prevention of depression in university students with elevated depressive symptoms. The 133 participants (mean age 23.3 years, 82% women) were randomly assigned to CBT or RT. Both programmes were administered to groups of 5 or 6 participants in eight weekly 90-min sessions. Participants were evaluated by independent raters before, immediately after, and 3 and 6 months after taking part in the programmes. By itself, intervention type had no significant effect on either depression or anxiety scores. The scores were lower at the follow-up time points with respect to pre-intervention scores. Effect size was greatest between pre- and immediately post-intervention scores for CBT, d = 1.32, 95% CI 1.00, 1.64, and between pre- and 6-month post-intervention scores for RT, d = 0.75, 95% CI 0.47, 1.03. Anxiety symptoms were significantly improved by both interventions at 3-month follow-up, and by CBT at 6-month follow-up also. In the medium term (3–6 months), relaxation training produced similar reductions in depressive and anxiety symptoms as a more complex cognitive-behavioural programme.
Introduction Although previous research has demonstrated that resilience can be protective against various mental health conditions such as depression, existing studies examining the relationship ...between resilience and depression have limitations. To our knowledge, the moderators of the relationship have not been examined. The aim of this study was to determine whether resilience acts as a protective factor against depression in informal caregivers and to examine potential moderators of the relationship between these variables. Methods In this cross-sectional study, 554 randomly selected informal caregivers participated (86.8% women, average age = 55.3 years). Major depressive episode, depressive symptomatology, resilience, positive environmental reward, negative automatic thoughts, self-efficacy, and personality were assessed. Results A total of 16.1% of informal caregivers met criteria for a depressive episode and 57.4% were at risk of developing depression. The average resilience score was 26.3 ( SD = 7.6); 62.6% of participants were in the lower quartile of the resilience scale. The gender of the informal caregiver and self-efficacy acted as moderating variables in the relationship between resilience and depression. The impact of resilience on depressive symptoms was more pronounced in female informal caregivers, and increased as self-efficacy increased. Discussion Based on these findings, programs aimed at preventing depression in informal caregivers should focus on promoting resilience, especially in women, and introduce strategies to enhance self-efficacy to increase their impact.
Studies of psychological interventions for the prevention of depression have found significant effects in the short-term, but the long-term efficacy has yet to be determined. This study evaluated the ...8-year effect of a randomized controlled trial for indicated prevention of depression in female caregivers.
A total of 173 non-professional female caregivers with subclinical depressive symptoms not meeting criteria for a major depressive episode (MDE) were randomized to either a brief problem-solving intervention (n = 89) or usual-care control group (n = 84). Blinded evaluators conducted an assessment at the 8-year follow-up. The primary outcome was Depression Status, defined by diagnoses of MDE since the 1-year follow-up using the Structured Clinical Interview for the Disorders of the DSM-5. The secondary outcome was current Depressive Symptom Severity. Regression analyses were conducted to evaluate the effect of the intervention on the outcomes.
There were no significant differences in the Depression Status between the problem-solving (30.3%) and control groups (26.2%) (adjusted OR 1.25, 95% CI -0.58 to 2.69). Depressive Symptom Severity, however, was significantly lower in the problem-solving group compared to the control group at this follow-up, amounting to a small effect size of Cohen's d = 0.39 (adjusted B = -3.32, p = 0.018).
This is the first study to assess such a long-term follow-up of intervention of indicated prevention of depression. Results seem to indicate that the protective effect of the intervention became smaller over time during follow-up. Future research should replicate these results.
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