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Objective: This cross-sectional, case-control study aimed to explore the psychodynamic characteristics that influenced adolescents' mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Personality structure impairments, psychodynamic conflicts, defense styles, and mental health issues were examined using the OPD-Structure- and Conflict-Questionnaires, the Defense Style Questionnaire, and the Patient Health Questionnaire in adolescents before (n = 288) and after (n = 451) the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. Results: Adolescents with mental health issues exhibited greater impairments in personality structure, more immature defense styles, and higher levels of psychodynamic conflicts both before and after the pandemic onset. Comparisons between pre-pandemic and pandemic samples indicated a lower level of the conflict of taking care of oneself versus being cared for in passive mode among adolescents during the pandemic. In-depth analysis of adolescents with mental health issues from the pandemic group revealed significant associations between personality structure impairments and a maladaptive defense style with somatoform, depressive, anxiety, eating, and alcohol use disorders. Conclusion: The findings provide clinically relevant insights into the psychodynamic factors that contributed to the psychological vulnerability of adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic. These insights can guide the development of targeted psychodynamic interventions to support adolescents' mental health in similar future crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Omicron variants BA.1, BA.2, and BA.5 caused several waves of SARS-CoV-2 in Germany in 2022. In this comparative study, public health data on SARS-CoV-2 infections from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany, between January and October 2022 were examined retrospectively using Pearson's chi-squared tests and Fisher's exact tests for testing for statistical significance. Compared to BA.5 infections, BA.1 and BA.2 infections affected younger individuals aged up to 19 years significantly more often, whereas BA.5 infections occurred significantly more frequently in patients between 40 and 59 years of age when compared to BA.1 and BA.2. Infections with all three variants predominantly caused flu-like symptoms; nevertheless, there were significant differences between the reported symptoms of BA.1, BA.2, and BA.5 infections. Especially, the symptoms of 'fever', 'severe feeling of sickness', 'loss of taste', and 'loss of smell' were significantly more often present in patients with BA.5 infections compared to BA.1 and BA.2 cases. Additionally, BA.2 and BA.5 cases reported significantly more often the symptoms of 'runny nose' and 'cough' than BA.1-infected cases. Our findings indicate remarkable differences in the clinical presentations among the sub-lineages, especially in BA.5 infections. Furthermore, the study demonstrates a powerful tool to link epidemiological data with genetic data in order to investigate their potential impact on public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obesity-induced dysregulation of hypothalamic neurons is not completely eliminated by restoring body weight, therefore the most urgent task of modern precision medicine is to predict the trajectory of development of metabolic disorders associated with obesity in children. The aim of the study was to determine the level of association of single-nucleotide variants of genes that determine eating behavior – Neuronal growth regulator 1, Fat mass and obesity associated gene, Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor, ghrelin, leptin receptor, cholecystokinin, in the development of metabolically unhealthy obesity. 252 obese children aged 6-18 years were examined. The main group (n=152) consisted of children with metabolically unhealthy obesity (MUO) according to Identification and prevention of Dietary- and Lifestyle-induced Health Effects in Children and Infants 2014 criteria. The control group (n=100) consisted of children with metabolically healthy obesity (MHO). All children underwent a general clinical, immunobiochemical examination at the Synevo laboratory (Ukraine). Whole-genome sequencing (CeGat, Germany) was performed in 31 children of the primary and 21 children of the control group. Static analysis: variance analysis ANOVA, method of estimating data dispersion, ROC-analysis, method of testing statistical hypotheses. The level of single nucleotide variants association of anorexigenic hormone genes with MUO that exceeded the threshold accepted by 75% of the available data was, respectively, in ascending order: leptin receptor (LEPR) rs1137101 (40.38%), Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP1R) rs1126476 (40.38%), GLP1R rs2235868 (42.31%), GLP1R rs1042044 (42.31%), LEPR rs3790435 (48.08%), cholecystokinin (CCK) rs754635 (50%), LEPR rs2186248 (55.76%), GLP1R rs6918287 (55.76%). Genotypes of the GLP1R gene, such as CC rs10305421 determine insulin resistance (F=5.6); GA/AA rs3765468 – meta-inflammation (F=5.8); AA rs6918287 – basal hyperglycemia (F=6.3) and triglyceridemia (F=51.3), p<0.05. Single-nucleotide variants of the gene GLP1R rs6918287, LEPR rs2186248, CCK rs754635 of the anorexic hormones that control eating behavior are highly associated with the presence of metabolically unhealthy obesity in children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]