Search

The COVID-19 pandemic responses forced the authority to shut the educational institutions since March 17, 2020, in Bangladesh. Physical distancing, social isolation, and quarantine have become regular norms in our daily life due to the pandemic crisis. This extended shutdown separated the students from their academic life, increasing anxiety concerning their future education, personal and professional aspirations, and expectations. Such disruptions might increase vulnerability towards suicidal ideation among university-level students. Therefore, here we aim to assess the prevalence and related risk factors of suicides among university students in Bangladesh during the COVID-19 lockdowns. We conducted a comprehensive Google search to gather information from secondary sources. In total, 22 university students committed suicide from March 17, 2020, to June 10, 2021, in Bangladesh. The frequently reported causes of these suicides were depression, frustration, financial crisis, troubled love affairs, and family disputes, indicating an elevated prevalence of psychological distress due to the COVID-19 pandemic among students at all levels in Bangladesh. Based on the present findings, we suggest that the effective implementation of online education, financial support to families, mental healthcare support to this vulnerable group, and mutual understanding among the family members might reduce this death toll. The present findings might help researchers to understand students’ mental health and design programs accordingly to prevent future incidents.

The article depicts a unique dataset of responses from 791 adults to a self-made questionnaire of five sections sent via Google survey tool (Google form) from February 4, 2021, to March 18, 2021 [1] . We collected responses for establishing a paradigm of the relationship between the social networking sites (SNS) use and four dimensions of psychological distress including depression, anxiety, loneliness, and sleep disturbances. Facebook is the most popular social media in Bangladesh, we observed 669 Facebook users and 122 non-Facebook-users aged between 15 to 40 years in this data set. We analyzed the collected data using the Microsoft Excel (version 2016) and presented as frequencies and percentages based on responses to the whole survey. The survey contained items focusing on (i) sociodemographic information, (ii) usage patterns of SNS, (iii) assessment of mental health problems. We collected responses from all across the country regardless of sociodemographic background. Therefore, government authorities and healthcare providers can use this data for dealing with the mental health issues concerning the use of SNS.

The social networking sites (SNS) are popular among people of all levels. Here we aimed to evaluate the relationship between the use of SNS and the mental health of the young generation in Bangladesh. We conducted this cross-sectional study among 791 subjects aged between 15 and 40 years. Self-reported questionnaires were used to collect demographics and SNS usage patterns of the respondents. We have measured the levels of loneliness, depression, generalized anxiety, and sleep disturbance using the recommended mental health assessment scales. The estimations of loneliness, depression, generalized anxiety, and sleep disturbance among the respondents were 64%, 38%, 63%, and 75%, respectively. Young adults, female sex, unmarried individuals, students, and urban residents reported higher psychological issues regarding the SNS use. Reported mental health issues were associated with time spent in SNS, the number of friends and groups connected with, personal beliefs, and feeling about SNS. A notable association between the use of SNS and the mental health issues of users has been ascertained. The present study findings might have significant implications in the field of clinical psychology and psychotherapy. Therefore, we recommend more comprehensive clinical interventions to find the tangible impact of SNS on the mental health of users.

Leaves of Gynura procumbens (L.) (Family: Asteraceae) is one of the eminent leafy vegetable that is utilized for this purpose conventionally. It has been consumed against diabetes for long while. Diabetes was induced in rats by intraperitoneal injection of alloxan at a dose of 150mg/Kg bodyweight and ethanolic extract of leaves of Gynura procumbens was foraged to the rats at a dose of 750 mg/kg. We determined blood glucose level, and safety profile by determining SGOT, SGPT and creatinine on diabetic and non-diabetic rats before and after administration of the extract. After determining blood glucose level, it was detected that the hypoglycemic efficiency was analogous to that of metformin (p> 0.05) which was imparted at a dose of 500 mg/kg. Safety profile were probed by inspecting SGOT, SGPT and creatinine level. It was discerned that both metformin and leaf extract of Gynura procumbens recuperated the pathological state induced by diabetes. In addition to that, in healthy individual rats both metformin and leaf extract of Gynura procumbens did not substantially alter conventional physiological state. It can, hence, be conjectured that extract of leaves of Gynura procumbens could be exploited as a good alternative therapy to treat diabetes.