Background
We aimed to explore the impact of the preventive measures and partial lockdown to the psychiatric emergency department (PED) visits during COVID-19 pandemic in a mental health epicenter in Istanbul.
Methods
A total of 5839 patients admitted to PED during the lockdown period (LP) between March 30 and May 31, 2020, were enrolled in this retrospective cohort study. Data of these patients were compared to those of patients in the same period in 2019 between April 1 and June 2, 2019 (non-LP). We also investigated the monthly number of PED visits and hospitalizations between March 1 and December 31, 2020, and compared it to the same period in 2019.
Results
The volume of PED visits and hospitalizations in LP decreased by 12% and 41.6%, respectively. The rates of patients presenting anxiety and depressive disorders and bipolar disorders were found to significantly increase in LP than non-LP (
p
< 0.001;
p
< 0.001;
p
< 0.01, respectively). Depressive disorders, prior history of mental illness, and aggressive behavior were found to predict frequent PED visits while decrease in age and male gender found to predict hospitalizations. Regarding suicide attempt, younger patients and those with new-onset mental disorders were found to be at high risk in LP. Patients diagnosed with COVID-19 in PED visits were mostly with psychotic and bipolar disorders.
Conclusion
Policy-makers should focus on studies on mental health services to reorganize and enhance such services, which are crucial to prevent and manage adverse mental health consequences of the pandemic and congestion in PEDs.
Orthorexia nervosa (ON) refers to an intense desire to consume healthy or biologically pure food that is free of artificial products. ON is not regarded as a separate eating disorder, but its clinical presentation shares common features with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and eating disorders. The current study examined 130 patients who were diagnosed with OCD (n = 49), panic disorder (n = 44), and generalized anxiety disorder (n = 37). Padua Inventory Washington State University Revision (PI-WSUR), The Eating Attitudes Test-40 (EAT-40), and the ORTO-11 test were given to the participants. There were no significant differences between patient groups in the mean scores of eating attitudes and orthorexia symptom severity. No significant association between ORTO-11 scores and body mass index was noted. Moderate correlations (r > 0.30) were obtained between orthorexia symptom severity and obsessive-compulsive symptom severity, EAT-40 total score, and checking and dressing/ grooming compulsions. These findings suggest that ON, a pathological inclination towards an obsession with healthy eating, is not specifically associated with any of the investigated illness groups. However, it has moderate correlations with the ritualistic signs of OCD. Underlying worry may predispose people to develop a compulsion to create the pure diet.
A need for collaboration between primary care, psychiatry, and dermatology disciplines in handling patients with psychocutaneous conditions is widely accepted. Investigating the knowledge, attitudes, and awareness of dermatologists about psychocutaneous disorders might contribute to the development of new educational strategies and elicit qualified biopsychosocial approaches.
The sense of smell is currently arousing a great deal of interest in the neuroscience area. This distinct sense has some unusual features: that it is the only sensory system 1. Introduction "Smell is the orphaned sense; it has been forgotten by medicine" (Birnbaum, 2011
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