The last 2 decades have seen an increase in the number of reports of excessive internet use. Therefore, this study aimed to examine internet use among university students to gain more insight into ...the novel phenomenon of addictive internet use (AIU). Data were collected by the means of an online questionnaire sent to 4391 students. Approximately 10% of the 4391 students could be included in the statistical analysis. Of those 483 students, almost all (99.2%) used the internet, and a quarter (24.8%) showed AIU. The students used the internet mostly for information searches, random browsing, social networking, and online shopping; however, AIU was seen most often in the areas of social networking, random browsing, information searches, gaming, and pornography. One in four of the respondents showed addictive behavior in at least one area of internet use. Students with AIU in the area of random browsing were significantly less far advanced in their studies than those without AIU, and well-being was significantly poorer across AIU groups than in those who did not show AIU. The study confirms the importance of AIU, as reflected in the high prevalence of AIU among the students and the significantly lower level of well-being in those with AIU. Undifferentiated consideration of AIU does not do justice to its various facets, and future research should consider all areas of internet use, with the aim to increase understanding of the underlying mechanisms of AIU and develop more differentiated treatment approaches.
Stigma towards people with mental illness (PWMI) can result in low self-esteem and isolation and threaten employment. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the magnitude of public stigma against PWMI ...and factors associated with it among Jimma town residents.
A community-based, cross-sectional, descriptive study was conducted in adult residents of Jimma town. Data were collected among 820 randomly selected residents with the interviewer-administered Community Attitudes toward the Mentally Ill (CAMI) scale. Linear regression analyses were performed to identify predictors of stigma against PWMI.
A total of 444 (54%) of the 820 respondents were females, and the mean (SD) age was 35 (8.5) years. The minimum and maximum possible values on each CAMI subscale were 10 and 50, respectively. The respondents had high scores for a stigmatizing attitude towards PWMI across all the subscales, as indicated by the mean (SD) scores: authoritarianism, 27.17 (4.96); social restrictiveness, 32.41 (4.20); benevolence, 35.34 (4.42); and community-based mental health ideology, 33.95 (5.82). Compared to housewives, private organization employees showed more autocratic and socially restrictive views (std. β = 1.12, P<0.01). Single people had a lower social restrictiveness stigma score than married people (std. β = -0.20, P<0.001), and participants' academic levels correlated inversely with the stigma score (std. β = -0.12, P<0.001). A higher benevolence stigma score was observed among participants with no relationship with PWMI than among those with PWMI in their neighborhood (std. β = 0.08, P< 0.046).
The study revealed that a negative attitude towards PWMI is widespread. Therefore, there is a need to develop strategies to fight the stigma attached to PWMI at the community level.
Recently, khat chewing has become a common practice among high school, college, and university students. Regular khat chewing is thought to be a predisposing factor for different physical and mental ...health problems. It can lead to absenteeism from work and classes. In Ethiopia, to our knowledge no published study has investigated khat withdrawal symptoms. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the prevalence, withdrawal symptoms, and associated factors of khat chewing among regular undergraduate students on the main campus of Jimma University in Ethiopia.
The institution-based, cross-sectional study was conducted in January 2016. Data were collected from 651 main campus regular undergraduate students with a structured, self-administered questionnaire, entered into Epidata 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 20 for Windows. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions were used to explore associations and identify variables independently associated with khat chewing.
The study found that the lifetime and current prevalence of khat chewing among students were 26.3% (95% CI: 24.3, 28.3) and 23.9% (95% CI: 21.94, 25.86), respectively. About 25.7% of students started chewing after joining university, and 60.5% of these students started during their first year. The main reason given for starting khat chewing was for study purposes (54.6%), followed by socialization purposes (42.3%). Among current khat chewers, 72.9% reported that they had chewed khat for 1 year or more and 68.2% reported that they had experienced various withdrawal symptoms. The most frequently reported withdrawal symptoms were feeling depressed, craving, and feeling fatigued. Being male, attending a place of worship daily/2-3 times per week, cannabis use, smoking cigarettes, and having family members currently chewing khat were independently associated with khat chewing.
This study found that large numbers of university students were currently chewing khat. In this study withdrawal symptoms and factors that significantly affect khat chewing were identified. Besides it gave new ideas regarding khat withdrawal symptoms in Ethiopia. It serves as a critical role of providing information to form rational foundation for public health policy, prevention and planning to bring change in contributing factors for Khat chewing. The finding will be serving as base line information for further study.
Abstract
We aimed to determine the role of the European Psychiatric Association (EPA) and the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) in the management of post-COVID conditions. This is a joint statement ...from the EAN and the EPA on post-COVID. It is published in the official journals of the two associations, the
European Journal of Neurology and European Psychiatry
.
The COVID-19 pandemic is an inherently stressful situation, which may lead to adverse psychosocial outcomes in various populations. Yet, individuals may not be affected equally by stressors posed by ...the pandemic and those with pre-existing mental disorders could be particularly vulnerable. To test this hypothesis, we assessed the psychological response to the pandemic in a case–control design. We used an age-, sex- and employment status-matched case–control sample (
n
= 216) of psychiatric inpatients, recruited from the LMU Psychiatry Biobank Munich study and non-clinical individuals from the general population. Participants completed validated self-report measures on stress, anxiety, depression, paranoia, rumination, loneliness, well-being, resilience, and a newly developed index of stressors associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to assess the effects of group, COVID-19-specific stressors, and their interaction on the different psychosocial outcomes. While psychiatric inpatients reported larger mental health difficulties overall, the impact of COVID-19-specific stressors was lower in patients and not associated with worse psychological functioning compared to non-clinical individuals. In contrast, depressive symptoms, rumination, loneliness, and well-being were more strongly associated with COVID-19-specific stressors in non-clinical individuals and similar to the severity of inpatients for those who experienced the greatest COVID-19-specific stressor impact Contrary to expectations, the psychological response to the pandemic may not be worse in psychiatric inpatients compared to non-clinical individuals. Yet, individuals from the general population, who were hit hardest by the pandemic, should be monitored and may be in need of mental health prevention and treatment efforts.
The adverse events (AEs) after a Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) Pfizer-Biotech mRNA vaccination present a medical and epidemiological issue of increasing interest. Headache is the most frequent ...neurological adverse effect and generally the third most common adverse event after a Covid-19 vaccination, but only a few studies focus on the link between headache and other AEs after vaccination. This study aims to investigate the correlation between headaches and Covid-19 vaccination, as well as the possible links between headaches and other AEs after Covid-19 vaccination, thereby helping the management of AEs and avoiding further occurrences.
This study is based on a published questionnaire survey of 1,402 healthcare workers. Our study focused on the 5 questions including 12 AEs and headaches extracted from the questionnaire post the first and second Covid-19 vaccination. The severity of the 12 AEs and headaches could be classified by the participants on a five-step scale: "Not at all", "Little", "Average", "Quite", and "Very" (abbreviated as "N", "L", "A", "Q", "V"). We used the Bowker test to study the comparison of headache severity, indicated on a 5-point Likert scale between the first and second vaccinations. We applied an ordinal logistic regression to the 5 categories with headache severity serving as the dependent variable and the ratings of the other 12 AEs serving as the independent variable to further explore to what extent the severity of the 12 AEs is associated with the severity of headaches. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis was conducted to evaluate the predictive value of the ratings of the 12 AEs to headache severity.
We found that participants rated their headaches as more severe after the second vaccination, and participants who reported experiencing fatigue, flu-like symptoms, pain at the injection site, known tension-type headache, fever, dizziness/balance problems and known migraine are associated with headache symptoms.
There are clusters of headache-associated AEs post Covid-19 vaccination. The association of various AEs with headaches may be due to similar causative mechanisms.
This naturalistic study among patients with alcohol dependence examined whether routine blood biomarkers could help to identify patients with high risk for relapse after withdrawal treatment. In a ...longitudinal study with 6-month follow-up among 133 patients with alcohol dependence who received inpatient alcohol withdrawal treatment, we investigated the usefulness of routine blood biomarkers and clinical and sociodemographic factors for potential outcome prediction and risk stratification. Baseline routine blood biomarkers (gamma-glutamyl transferase GGT, alanine aminotransferase ALT/GPT, aspartate aminotransferase AST/GOT, mean cell volume of erythrocytes MCV), and clinical and sociodemographic characteristics were recorded at admission. Standardized 6 months’ follow-up assessed outcome variables continuous abstinence, days of continuous abstinence, daily alcohol consumption and current abstinence. The combined threshold criterion of an AST:ALT ratio > 1.00 and MCV > 90.0 fl helped to identify high-risk patients. They had lower abstinence rates (
P
= 0.001), higher rates of daily alcohol consumption (
P
< 0.001) and shorter periods of continuous abstinence (
P
= 0.027) compared with low-risk patients who did not meet the threshold criterion. Regression analysis confirmed our hypothesis that the combination criterion is an individual baseline variable that significantly predicted parts of the respective outcome variances. Routinely assessed indirect alcohol biomarkers help to identify patients with high risk for relapse after alcohol withdrawal treatment. Clinical decision algorithms to identify patients with high risk for relapse after alcohol withdrawal treatment could include classical blood biomarkers in addition to clinical and sociodemographic items.
Khat abuse and psychopathy are both strongly related to criminal activity. Higher rates of substance use in people with psychopathy are hypothesized to be related to psychopathic personality traits, ...which include high sensation seeking, low conscientiousness and neuroticism, impulsivity, and irresponsibility. Little is known, however, about the association between psychopathy and khat abuse among prisoners in Ethiopia. Therefore, we evaluated the presence of these two factors in prisoners in the correctional institution in Jimma, Southwest Ethiopia.
We used a cross-sectional study design to collect data from 336 prisoners from June 5 to July 5, 2017. Study participants were selected by a systematic random sampling technique. Khat abuse was assessed with the Drug Abuse Screening Tool and psychopathy with the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version. We also assessed nicotine dependence with the Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence; alcohol use disorder, with the alcohol use disorder identification test; adverse traumatic life events, with the Life Events Checklist; and social support, with the Oslo 3-Item Social Support Scale. Data were entered into EpiData version 3.1 and analyzed in bivariate and multivariable logistic regression models. Variables with a P value < 0.05 in the final fitted model were declared to be significantly associated with the outcome variable.
The overall prevalence of lifetime khat use was 59.9%, and the prevalence of khat abuse in prisoners with psychopathy was 78.0%. Prisoners with psychopathy had a three times higher odds ratio of abusing khat than those without psychopathy (AOR = 3.00 1.17-7.67). Among the confounders, a family history of substance use (AOR = 2.50 1.45-4.31), poor support (AOR = 2.28 1.11-4.67), alcohol use disorder (AOR = 7.78 4.16-14.53), and suicidal ideation and suicide attempts (AOR = 2.26 1.45-4.31) were also positively associated with khat abuse.
The prevalence of khat abuse was higher in prisoners with possible or probable psychopathy.
Introduction Tuberculosis (TB) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in low and middle-income countries. Substance use negatively affects TB treatment outcomes. Our recent study has found ...that khat use predicted poorer adherence to anti-TB medications. However, there is scarce longitudinal study on predictors of khat use among outpatients with TB, and this study aimed at addressing this research gap. Methods From October 2017 to October 2018, 268 outpatients with tuberculosis on DOTs were enrolled in a longitudinal study from 26 health institutions in Southwest Ethiopia. Structured questionnaires translated into local languages (Afaan Oromoo and Amharic) were used to assess khat use. Patients were followed for six months, and data were collected on three occasions during the follow-up. A generalized linear mixed model was used to identify the relation between khat use and predictors. Model fitness was checked using the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC). Odds ratio (OR) and 95% CI were used to describe the strength of association between the outcome variable and predictors. Results The overall prevalence of khat use at baseline and first follow up was 39.2% while it was 37.3% at second follow up. Of this, 77.1% and 96.2% of them believed that khat use reduces the side effects of anti-TB medications and symptoms of tuberculosis respectively. In the final model, being male (aOR = 7.0, p-value = 0.001), being government employee (aOR = 0.03, p-value≤0.001) and presence of alcohol use disorders (AUD) (aOR = 2.0, p-value≤0.001) predicted khat use among outpatients with tuberculosis. Conclusion A considerable proportion of patients with TB used khat throughout DOTs and wrongly perceived that it had health benefits. The finding implies that all patients diagnosed with TB should be screened for khat use, and a particular emphasis should be given to males and individuals with a history of alcohol use. Moreover, further studies are needed to assess patients’ beliefs regarding the benefits of khat use so that interventions can be developed.
PDF
