As the SARS-COV-2 becomes a global pandemic, many researchers have a concern about the long COVID-19 complications. Chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) is a persistent, debilitating, and unexplained fatigue disorder. We investigated psychological morbidities such as CFS and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among survivors of COVID-19 over 6 months. All COVID-19 survivors from the university-affiliated hospital of Tehran, Iran, were assessed 6 months after infection onset by a previously validated questionnaire based on the Fukuda guidelines for CFS/EM and DSM-5 Checklist for PTSD (The Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for DSM-5 or PCL-5) to determine the presence of stress disorder and chronic fatigue problems. A total of 120 patients were enrolled. The prevalence rate of fatigue symptoms was 17.5%. Twelve (10%) screened positive for chronic idiopathic fatigue (CIF), 6 (5%) for CFS-like with insufficient fatigue syndrome (CFSWIFS), and 3 (2.5%) for CFS. The mean total scores in PCL-5 were 9.27 ± 10.76 (range:0-44), and the prevalence rate of PTSD was 5.8%. There was no significant association after adjusting between CFS and PTSD, gender, comorbidities, and chloroquine phosphate administration. The obtained data revealed the prevalence of CFS among patients with COVID-19, which is almost similar to CFS prevalence in the general population. Moreover, PTSD in patients with COVID-19 is not associated with the increased risk of CFS. Our study suggested that medical institutions should pay attention to the psychological consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak.

/pdf/prevalence-and-correlates-of-chronic-fatigue-syndrome-and-21kimcaiju.pdf

Prevalence and correlates of chronic fatigue syndrome and post-traumatic stress disorder after the outbreak of the COVID-19.

INTRODUCTION: Patients with COVID-19 often suffer from psychological problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and self-stigmatization that may negatively impact their quality of life and sleep. This study examined mental health as a potential mediating factor linking self-stigmatization and PTSD to quality of life and sleep. METHODS: Using a cross-sectional design, 844 people who had recovered from COVID-19 were called and interviewed. Data were collected using structured scales. Structural equation modeling was applied to assess fitness of a mediation model including self-stigma and PTSD as independent factors and quality of life and insomnia as dependent variables. RESULTS: Mental health, COVID-19-related self-stigma, and mental quality of life were associated. Insomnia, PTSD, and COVID-19-related self-stigma displayed significant direct associations (r = .334 to 0.454; p < .01). A mediation model indicated satisfactory goodness of fit (CFI = 0.968, TLI = 0.950, SRMR = 0.071, RMSEA = 0.068). Mental health as a mediator had negative relationships with COVID-19-related self-stigma, PTSD, and insomnia and positive associations with quality of life. CONCLUSION: Mental health may mediate effects of COVID-19-related self-stigma and PTSD on quality of life and insomnia. Designing programs to improve mental health among patients with COVID-19 may include efforts to reduce negative effects of PTSD and COVID-19-related self-stigma on quality of life and insomnia.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/brb3.2138

A mediating role for mental health in associations between COVID-19-related self-stigma, PTSD, quality of life, and insomnia among patients recovered from COVID-19.

Suicide is one of the most critical public health concerns in the world and the second cause of death among young people in many countries. However, to date, no study can diagnose suicide ideation/behavior among university students in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region using a machine learning approach. Therefore, stability feature selection and stacked ensembled decision trees were employed in this classification problem. A total of 573 university students responded to a battery of questionnaires. Three-fold cross-validation with a variety of performance indices was sued. The proposed diagnostic system had excellent balanced diagnosis accuracy (AUC = 0.90 [CI 95%: 0.86-0.93]) with a high correlation between predicted and observed class labels, fair discriminant power, and excellent class labeling agreement rate. Results showed that 23 items out of all items could accurately diagnose suicide ideation/behavior. These items were psychological problems and how to experience trauma, from the demographic variables, nine items from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist (PCL-5), two items from Post Traumatic Growth (PTG), two items from the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ), six items from the Positive Mental Health (PMH) questionnaire, and one item related to social support. Such features could be used as a screening tool to identify young adults who are at risk of suicide ideation/behavior.

Accurate Diagnosis of Suicide Ideation/Behavior Using Robust Ensemble Machine Learning: A University Student Population in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region

Background and objective: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one of the anxiety disorders which occurs in response to facing events and accidents accompanied by fear, frustration, and terror. Nurses who worked in the emergency departments witness unpleasant accidents and are exposed to stress and violence more than others. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of PTSD among Iranian nurses working in the emergency department.Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, all nurses working in the emergency department of educational hospitals affiliated with Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences were included through census method (n = 131). Each of the participants in this study responded to the questionnaires individually. The first part of the questionnaire captured demographics, while the second part was the Civilian Mississippi Scale for PTSD, which was used to investigate the extent of PTSD in this study. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 22.Results: In this study, 131 respondents were included. In the classification of age, nurses with 20-30-year- old had the maximum frequency (41.2 %,). Most nurses in the study (93.1%, n = 122) had a bachelor’s degree in nursing and 84 were married. The prevalence of PTSD in emergency nurses was 82.96%, which was higher in nurses with shorter working background and nurses with lower levels of education. Further, the average score of PTSD was higher in married nurses.Conclusion: The results of this study revealed the high prevalence of PTSD among nurses who worked in emergency department. Therefore, it seems that designing and providing supportive and educational services to emergency nurses can be effective for preventing and managing this disorder, which probably can improve their performance.

https://biomedicine.edp-open.org/articles/bmdcn/pdf/2019/03/bmdcn2019090319.pdf

The prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder among emergency nurses: a cross sectional study in northern Iran.

Cancer has been considered a potentially traumatic experience and is a distinct pathway by which one might develop symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This study compared the efficacy of COmpetitive MEmory Training (COMET), an intervention aimed at altering dysfunctional self-representations, and MEmory Specificity Training (MEST), an intervention targeting autobiographical memory deficits, on PTSD and depression symptoms. As a secondary aim, we also investigated the effect of COMET and MEST on trauma-related attentional biases. Sixty newly diagnosed cancer patients with PTSD were randomly assigned to either the COMET (n = 30) or MEST groups (n = 30). Each participant completed the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist-5, Beck Depression Inventory-II and a dot-probe task. The groups then underwent either COMET or MEST. All the assessments were re-conducted after the treatment (post-treatment) and at three months post-treatment (follow-up). The COMET group had significantly fewer PTSD and depression symptoms compared to the MEST group at post-training and follow-up. Both groups indicated a significant reduction in attentional biases following training. This study suggests that COMET is a promising brief intervention for the treatment of PTSD in cancer patients.

Comparing the Efficacy of Competitive Memory Training (COMET) and MEmory Specificity Training (MEST) on Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among Newly Diagnosed Cancer Patients

Article Type Descriptive Study Authors Sadeghi M.1 MSc, Taghva A.* PhD, Goudarzi N.2 PhD, Rah Nejat A.M.2 PhD

A.M. Rah Nejat

Papers

Validity and Reliability of Persian Version of “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Scale” in War Veterans