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Background: Our knowledge of the broader impacts of antidepressant withdrawal, beyond physical side effects, is limited. Further research is needed to investigate the lived experiences of withdrawal, to aid clinicians on how to guide patients through the process. Aim: To explore antidepressant users' experiences and views on the withdrawal process and how it affected their quality of life across multiple life domains. Design and Setting: We conducted in‐depth qualitative interviews with 20 individuals from the community who had attempted to withdraw from Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor antidepressants in the past year. Method: Semi‐structured interviews were conducted online. A topic guide was used to ensure consistency across interviews. The interviews were audio‐recorded and transcribed verbatim and analysed using inductive reflexive thematic analysis. Results: Five themes were generated. The first highlighted the challenges of managing the release from emotional blunting and cognitive suppression following antidepressant discontinuation. The second related to the negative impact of withdrawal on close relationships and social interactions. The third showed that concurrent with negative physical symptoms, there was a positive impact on health (exercise was reported by some as a coping mechanism). The fourth theme focused on support from GPs and families, emphasising the importance of mental health literacy in others. The final theme underscored the importance of gradual and flexible tapering in enabling a manageable withdrawal experience, and the consideration of timing. Conclusion: The lived experience of withdrawal significantly impacts individuals' well‐being. Participants emphasised that withdrawal is not just about physical side effects but also affects their emotional, cognitive, and social functioning. Patient and Public Involvement (PPI): Eight people attended individual online meetings to share their experiences of antidepressant withdrawal to help inform the study design and recruitment strategy. Insights from these meetings informed the development of the topic guide. Questions about GP involvement, family relationships, and mood and thinking changes were included based on this PPI work. This ensured the inclusion of topics important to antidepressant users and facilitated the researcher's questioning during the interviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Perinatal emotional well‐being is more than the presence or absence of depressive and anxiety disorders; it encompasses a wide range of factors that contribute to emotional well‐being. This study compares perinatal well‐being between women living in metropolitan and rural regions. Design: Prospective, longitudinal cohort. Participants/setting: Eight hundred and six women from Victoria and Western Australia recruited before 20 weeks of pregnancy and followed up to 12 months postpartum. Main outcome measures: Rurality was assessed using the Modified Monash Model (MM Model) with 578 in metropolitan cities MM1, 185 in regional and large rural towns MM2‐MM3 and 43 in rural to remote MM4‐MM7. The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM‐IV (SCID‐IV) was administered at recruitment to assess depression, and symptoms of depression and anxiety were measured using the Edinburgh Post‐natal Depression Scale and the State and Trait Anxiety Scale, respectively. Other measures included stressful events, diet, exercise, partner support, parenting and sleep. Results: The prevalence of depressive disorders did not differ across rurality. There was also no difference in breastfeeding cessation, exercise, sleep or partner support. Women living in rural communities and who also had depression reported significantly higher parenting stress than metropolitan women and lower access to parenting activities. Conclusions: Our study suggests while many of the challenges of the perinatal period were shared between women in all areas, there were important differences in parenting stress and access to activities. Furthermore, these findings suggest that guidelines and interventions designed for perinatal mental health should consider rurality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was conducted to determine the effects of urinary symptoms and incontinence on quality of life in postmenopausal women. The sample of the cross‐sectional study consisted of 327 women aged 50–65 who visited primary healthcare centers between 16 April and 30 July 2018. The data were collected using a personal information form, the Urinary Symptom Profile Questionnaire (USP) and the Incontinence Quality of Life Scale (I‐QOL). The mean age of the women participating in the study was 57.89 ± 5.05. It was found that 50.5% of the women had a history of incontinence. While the total mean USP score of all women participating in the study was 4.94 ± 4.81, it was 7.98 ± 4.85 for the women with a history of incontinence. The mean total I‐QOL score was 87.09 ± 16.04 in all women and 76.95 ± 16.93 in the women with a history of incontinence. The women with a history of incontinence were found to have a strong negative correlation between their total USP and total I‐QOL scores. In this study, it was found that the quality of life of women with urinary incontinence, especially their psychosocial health, was found to be significantly affected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Institutional discrimination matters. The purpose of this longitudinal community‐based participatory research study was to examine institutional procedural discrimination, institutional racism, and other institutional discrimination, and their relationships with participants' health during a maternal and child health program in a municipal initiative. Twenty participants from nine multilingual, multicultural community‐based organizations were included. Overall reported incidences of institutional procedural discrimination decreased from April 2019 (18.6%) to November 2019 (11.8%) although changes were not statistically significant and participants reporting incidences remained high (n = 15 in April and n = 14 in November). Participants reported experiencing significantly less "[when] different cultural ways of doing things were shared, the project did not support my way" from April 2019 (23.5%, n = 4) to November 2019 (0%, n = 0), Wilcoxon signed‐rank test Z = −2.00, p < 0.05. Some participants reported experiencing institutional racism (29.4%, n = 5) and other institutional discrimination (5.9%, n = 1). Participants experiencing institutional racism, compared to those who did not, reported a higher impact of the Initiative's program on their quality of life (t = 3.62, p < 0.01). Participatory survey designs enable nurse researchers to identify hidden pathways of institutional procedural discrimination, describe the impacts experienced, and examine types of institutional discrimination in health systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Many neuropsychiatric symptoms in persons of MCI cause negative impacts on their HRQOL. There is limited HRQOL research investigating the effect of Tai Chi on older people with MCI. Objective: To determine the effectiveness of a Tai Chi program in enhancing health‐related quality of life (HRQOL) among community‐dwelling older people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in Hong Kong. Methods: This was a quasi‐experimental study using a nonequivalent control group (CG) design. Four social centres for older people participated in the study, of which two centres were randomised for Tai Chi intervention and the other two were treated as control. Participants in the intervention group (IG) were arranged for a 1‐hour Tai Chi class twice weekly for 16 weeks, whereas participants in the CG were advised to join various recreational activities in the social centres as usual. For outcome evaluation, the Chinese version of the Short Form‐12 Health Survey‐Standard 1 (SF‐12) was employed to assess participants' perceived HRQOL. Results: One hundred and sixty participants were recruited (IG = 80, CG = 80). Data were collected at baseline (T0) and 16‐week post‐intervention (T1).The IG reported significant improvement in the physical health component (PCS) (p =.036), the mental health component (MCS) (p =.014), as well as several subscales of SF‐12, namely, the role‐physical (RP) (p =.044), the bodily pain (BP) (p <.001) and the vitality (VT) (p =.004) subscales, in comparison with the CG. Conclusion: The current study results extended our knowledge about Tai Chi of which the mind‐body exercise could enhance the physical and psychosocial well‐being in older people with MCI. Implications for practice: The findings have the potential to inform health and social care professionals to promote Tai Chi in community settings, as it may represent a non‐intensive and age‐fitting strategy to promote HRQOL in older people with MCI. Trial registration: NCT03404765 (Retrospectively registered January 19, 2018). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]