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The need for consultation-liaison psychiatry on COVID-19 wards has substantially increased since the start of the pandemic. In this cross-sectional study, we aimed to summarize the characteristics of patients admitted to the post-COVID-19 ward of the American University of Beirut Medical Center who received a psychiatric consultation. We collected relevant sociodemographic and medical data, information about past psychiatric history, psychiatry consultation details, hospital course, and disposition outcome. We also conducted chi-square and binary logistic regression analyses to assess the association between the different variables and disposition outcome. A total of 52 patients (mean age 57.33 years; equal gender distribution) were seen by the psychiatry consult-liaison team. Most had medical comorbidities and 21.2% required intubation. The most prevalent psychiatric diagnoses were delirium (30.8%), major depressive episode (15.4%), and other anxiety disorder (15.4%). Pharmacological management was implemented in 90.4% of cases and mainly included second-generation antipsychotics (36.5%). Non-pharmacological interventions consisted of those related to delirium and therapy for anxiety. Only intubation was significantly associated with disposition outcome (p = 0.004). This study highlights the various psychiatric themes emerging during the acute and post-acute periods of hospitalization for COVID-19. Hospitalized individuals recovering from the infection should be diligently screened and referred to the psychiatry consultation-liaison team to ensure the implementation of appropriate interventions., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Objectives: The global crisis of COVID-19 and its consequential strict public health measures placed around the world have impacted mental health. New scales and tools have been developed to measure these mental health effects. This narrative review assesses the psychometric properties of these scales and tools and methodological aspects of their development., Methods: PubMed, PubMed Central, and Google Scholar were searched for articles published from 15 May 2020 to 15 August 2020. This search used three groups of terms ("tool" OR "scale" AND "mental" OR "psychological"; AND "COVID-19" OR "coronavirus"). The identified scales were further evaluated for their psychometric properties and methodological aspects of their development., Results: Though the studies developing these scales ( n = 12) have demonstrated their robust psychometric properties, some methodological concerns are noteworthy. Most of the scales were validated using internet-based surveys, and detailed descriptions of the mode of administration, sampling process, response rates, and augmentation strategies were missing., Conclusions: The heterogeneous and inadequate reporting of methods adopted to evaluate the psychometric properties of the identified scales can limit their utility in clinical and research settings. We suggest developing guidelines and checklists to improve the design and testing, and result in reporting of online-administered scales to assess the mental health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Healthcare workers have faced an unprecedented workload in overstretched health facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic, and we describe various initiatives to support them. Psychological, financial and peer support, accommodation and meal services, proper personal protective equipment, applause and gratitude in the community, spiritual and religious life, child care and volunteering were identified. The potential effects of the COVID-19 pandemic – permanent stress, burnout and other mental health problems among healthcare professionals – can be expected to grow. Continued monitoring is essential to bolster resilience among healthcare workers and prevent the possible consequences for their mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alcohol and Tobacco Use During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Our findings concur with the suggestions made by other authors that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, tobacco and alcohol use patterns have been influenced by societal and cultural processes, as well as by local alcohol control policies ([40], [41]). (2020) 32: 85-9. 10.20882/adicciones.154632347962 4 Kim, JU, Majid, A, Judge, R, Crook, P, Nathwani, R, Selvapatt, N, Effect of COVID-19 lockdown on alcohol consumption in patients with pre-existing alcohol use disorder. COVID-19, pandemic, public health, alcohol, tobacco, alcohol policy, tobacco control. [Extracted from the article]

Research on how stigma had hindered the control of the above-mentioned infectious disease outbreaks might also shed some light on the potential impact of stigma in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusions Preventing the dissemination of stigma-related attitudes and behaviors may help decrease the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, as stigma may lead to underreporting of symptoms and decrease the use of health facilities. [Extracted from the article]

Background: The rapid spread of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has forced most countries to take drastic public health measures, including the closure of most mental health outpatient services and some inpatient units. This has suddenly created the need to adapt and expand telepsychiatry care across the world. However, not all health care services might be ready to cope with this public health demand. The present study was set to create a practical and clinically useful protocol for telemental health care to be applied in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A panel of psychiatrists from 15 different countries [covering all World Health Organization (WHO) regions] was convened. The panel used a combination of reactive Delphi technique and consensus development conference strategies to develop a protocol for the provision of telemental health care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: The proposed protocol describes a semi-structured initial assessment and a series of potential interventions matching mild, moderate, or high-intensity needs of target populations. Conclusions: Telemedicine has become a pivotal tool in the task of ensuring the continuous provision of mental health care for the population, and the outlined protocol can assist with this task. The strength of this protocol lies in its practicality, clinical usefulness, and wide transferability, resulting from the diversity of the consensus group that developed it. Developed by psychiatrists from around the globe, the proposed protocol may prove helpful for many clinical and cultural contexts, assisting mental health care providers worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Mental health (MH) problems are difficult to address during a pandemic and may have devastating consequences without any preventative nor palliative strategy. • An appropriate conceptual framework can provide the opportunity to address the MH problems during COVID-19 and potential future pandemics. • Sixteen early career psychiatrists across the world developed a preliminary conceptual framework (CF) which may help to guide the design, implementation and evaluation of MH interventions during the ongoing pandemic. • This CF comprises a model of an "emotional epidemic curve" and a Mental Health Preparedness and Action Framework. The emergence of mental health (MH) problems during a pandemic is extremely common, though difficult to address due to the complexities of pandemics and the scarcity of evidence about the epidemiology of pandemic-related MH problems and the potential interventions to tackle them. Little attention has been devoted so far to this topic from policymakers, stakeholders and researchers, resulting in a lack of replicable, scalable and applicable frameworks to help plan, develop and deliver MH care during pandemics. As a response, we have attempted to develop a conceptual framework (CF) that could guide the development, implementation, and evaluation of MH interventions during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This CF was developed by early career psychiatrists from 16 countries that cover all the WHO regions. Their opinions were elicited via a semi-structured questionnaire. They were asked to provide their views about the current MH situation in their countries and to elaborate on existing 'myths' and misinformation. They were also asked to name the resources available and to propose solutions and approaches to provide accessible and affordable care. The CF was prepared based on the extant literature and the views discussed in this group; it illustrates the epidemiology of MH problems, preparedness plans, stage-specific plans or innovative solutions, opportunities to integrate those plans and possible outcomes at policy level. This CF can serve as a technical guide for future research regarding pandemics. It can be used to monitor trends and to optimize efforts, and to develop evidence based MH interventions. Still, further research focusing on the individual components of this framework is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]