While necessary from a public health standpoint, Covid-19 confinement strategies are often contrary to evidence-based therapies used to treat mental disorders. University students may be particularly vulnerable to mental health problems, but recent studies have indicated only a negligible impact of confinement strategies. French respondents to a World Mental Health survey of university students completed questions concerning Covid-19 confinement. The sample experienced increased anxiety as well as moderate to severe stress during confinement. Respondents who did not relocate to live with parents were disproportionately affected. Knowledge of confinement effects may be used to reduce its negative impact in vulnerable populations.

The identification of biological and pathophysiological processes implicated in different forms of dementia is itself dependent on reliable descriptions of cognitive performance and capacities. However, traditional instruments are often unable to detect subtle declines in cognitive functions due to natural variation at the time of testing. Mobile technologies permit the repeated assessment of cognitive functions and may thereby provide more reliable descriptions of early cognitive difficulties that are inaccessible to clinic or hospital-based instruments. This assessment strategy is also able to characterize in real-time the dynamic associations between cognitive performance and specific daily life behaviors or activities. In a cohort of elderly rural residents, 60 individuals were administered neuropsychological and neuroimaging exams as well as a one-week period of electronic ambulatory monitoring of behavior, semantic memory performance, and daily life experiences. Whereas imaging markers were unrelated to traditional neuropsychological test scores, they were significantly associated with mobile assessments of semantic memory performance. Moreover, certain daily life activities such as reading or completing crossword puzzles were associated with increases in semantic memory performance over the subsequent hours of the same day. The revolution in mobile technologies provides unprecedented opportunities to overcome the barriers of time and context that characterize traditional hospital and clinical-based assessments. The combination of both novel and traditional methods should provide the best opportunity for identifying the earliest risk factors and biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia.

The association between smoking and current or past depression is not necessarily limited to smoking that meets criteria for nicotine dependence, and is more potent in women. Smoking cessation interventions for this population should consider the role that depression may play in failure to quit and smoking relapse, particularly in women.