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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has brought significant mental health challenges, particularly for vulnerable populations, including non-binary gender individuals. The COMET international study aimed to investigate specific risk factors for clinical depression or distress during the pandemic, also in these special populations., Methods: Chi-square tests were used for initial screening to select only those variables which would show an initial significance. Risk Ratios (RR) were calculated, and a Multiple Backward Stepwise Linear Regression Analysis (MBSLRA) was followed with those variables given significant results at screening and with the presence of distress or depression or the lack of both of them., Results: The most important risk factors for depression were female (RR = 1.59-5.49) and non-binary gender (RR = 1.56-7.41), unemployment (RR = 1.41-6.57), not working during lockdowns (RR = 1.43-5.79), bad general health (RR = 2.74-9.98), chronic somatic disorder (RR = 1.22-5.57), history of mental disorders (depression RR = 2.31-9.47; suicide attempt RR = 2.33-9.75; psychosis RR = 2.14-10.08; Bipolar disorder RR = 2.75-12.86), smoking status (RR = 1.15-5.31) and substance use (RR = 1.77-8.01). The risk factors for distress or depression that survived MBSLRA were younger age, being widowed, living alone, bad general health, being a carer, chronic somatic disorder, not working during lockdowns, being single, self-reported history of depression, bipolar disorder, self-harm, suicide attempts and of other mental disorders, smoking, alcohol, and substance use., Conclusions: Targeted preventive interventions are crucial to safeguard the mental health of vulnerable groups, emphasizing the importance of diverse samples in future research., Limitations: Online data collection may have resulted in the underrepresentation of certain population groups., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None pertaining to the current paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Background: The prevalence of medical illnesses is high among patients with psychiatric disorders. The current study aimed to investigate multi-comorbidity in patients with psychiatric disorders in comparison to the general population. Secondary aims were to investigate factors associated with metabolic syndrome and treatment appropriateness of mental disorders., Methods: The sample included 54,826 subjects (64.73% females; 34.15% males; 1.11% nonbinary gender) from 40 countries (COMET-G study). The analysis was based on the registration of previous history that could serve as a fair approximation for the lifetime prevalence of various medical conditions., Results: About 24.5% reported a history of somatic and 26.14% of mental disorders. Mental disorders were by far the most prevalent group of medical conditions. Comorbidity of any somatic with any mental disorder was reported by 8.21%. One-third to almost two-thirds of somatic patients were also suffering from a mental disorder depending on the severity and multicomorbidity. Bipolar and psychotic patients and to a lesser extent depressives, manifested an earlier (15-20 years) manifestation of somatic multicomorbidity, severe disability, and probably earlier death. The overwhelming majority of patients with mental disorders were not receiving treatment or were being treated in a way that was not recommended. Antipsychotics and antidepressants were not related to the development of metabolic syndrome., Conclusions: The finding that one-third to almost two-thirds of somatic patients also suffered from a mental disorder strongly suggests that psychiatry is the field with the most trans-specialty and interdisciplinary value and application points to the importance of teaching psychiatry and mental health in medical schools and also to the need for more technocratically oriented training of psychiatric residents.

Introduction: The current study aimed to investigate the rates of anxiety, clinical depression, and suicidality and their changes in health professionals during the COVID-19 outbreak., Materials and Methods: The data came from the larger COMET-G study. The study sample includes 12,792 health professionals from 40 countries (62.40% women aged 39.76 ± 11.70; 36.81% men aged 35.91 ± 11.00 and 0.78% non-binary gender aged 35.15 ± 13.03). Distress and clinical depression were identified with the use of a previously developed cut-off and algorithm, respectively., Statistical Analysis: Descriptive statistics were calculated. Chi-square tests, multiple forward stepwise linear regression analyses, and Factorial Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) tested relations among variables., Results: Clinical depression was detected in 13.16% with male doctors and 'non-binary genders' having the lowest rates (7.89 and 5.88% respectively) and 'non-binary gender' nurses and administrative staff had the highest (37.50%); distress was present in 15.19%. A significant percentage reported a deterioration in mental state, family dynamics, and everyday lifestyle. Persons with a history of mental disorders had higher rates of current depression (24.64% vs. 9.62%; p < 0.0001). Suicidal tendencies were at least doubled in terms of RASS scores. Approximately one-third of participants were accepting (at least to a moderate degree) a non-bizarre conspiracy. The highest Relative Risk (RR) to develop clinical depression was associated with a history of Bipolar disorder (RR = 4.23)., Conclusions: The current study reported findings in health care professionals similar in magnitude and quality to those reported earlier in the general population although rates of clinical depression, suicidal tendencies, and adherence to conspiracy theories were much lower. However, the general model of factors interplay seems to be the same and this could be of practical utility since many of these factors are modifiable., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany.)

Approximately 100 million people globally smoke cigarettes, making it a significant and quickly spreading global tobacco epidemic. Substance use disorders are frequently evaluated by non-randomized studies. Tobacco use and its impacts on the cardiovascular system were the subjects of a comprehensive search across five electronic databases: Cochrane, MEDLINE, Scopus, Embase, and PubMed. The findings demonstrated that waterpipe smokers in comparison to non-smokers have immediate elevations in heart rate and blood pressure, lower levels of high-density lipoprotein, higher levels of low-density lipoprotein, higher levels of triglycerides, higher levels of fasting blood glucose, and a higher heart rate. Users of waterpipes and cigarettes had similar average heart rates, blood pressure, and lipid levels, with the exception that waterpipe smokers had greater total cholesterol. Smoking a waterpipe has significant negative effects on the cardiovascular system comparable to cigarette smoking, and non-randomized studies proved to yield substantial evidence related to its cardiovascular effects. Such study designs can be used to evaluate substance use and its cardiovascular impact., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright © 2023, Mahfooz et al.)

Introduction: During the COVID-19 pandemic various degrees of lockdown were applied by countries around the world. It is considered that such measures have an adverse effect on mental health but the relationship of measure intensity with the mental health effect has not been thoroughly studied. Here we report data from the larger COMET-G study pertaining to this question., Material and Methods: During the COVID-19 pandemic, data were gathered with an online questionnaire from 55,589 participants from 40 countries (64.85% females aged 35.80 ± 13.61; 34.05% males aged 34.90±13.29 and 1.10% other aged 31.64±13.15). Anxiety was measured with the STAI, depression with the CES-D and suicidality with the RASS. Distress and probable depression were identified with the use of a previously developed cut-off and algorithm respectively., Statistical Analysis: It included the calculation of Relative Risk (RR), Factorial ANOVA and Multiple backwards stepwise linear regression analysis RESULTS: Approximately two-thirds were currently living under significant restrictions due to lockdown. For both males and females the risk to develop clinical depression correlated significantly with each and every level of increasing lockdown degree (RR 1.72 and 1.90 respectively). The combined lockdown and psychiatric history increased RR to 6.88 The overall relationship of lockdown with severity of depression, though significant was small., Conclusions: The current study is the first which reports an almost linear relationship between lockdown degree and effect in mental health. Our findings, support previous suggestions concerning the need for a proactive targeted intervention to protect mental health more specifically in vulnerable groups., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Introduction: There are few published empirical data on the effects of COVID-19 on mental health, and until now, there is no large international study., Material and Methods: During the COVID-19 pandemic, an online questionnaire gathered data from 55,589 participants from 40 countries (64.85% females aged 35.80 ± 13.61; 34.05% males aged 34.90±13.29 and 1.10% other aged 31.64±13.15). Distress and probable depression were identified with the use of a previously developed cut-off and algorithm respectively., Statistical Analysis: Descriptive statistics were calculated. Chi-square tests, multiple forward stepwise linear regression analyses and Factorial Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) tested relations among variables., Results: Probable depression was detected in 17.80% and distress in 16.71%. A significant percentage reported a deterioration in mental state, family dynamics and everyday lifestyle. Persons with a history of mental disorders had higher rates of current depression (31.82% vs. 13.07%). At least half of participants were accepting (at least to a moderate degree) a non-bizarre conspiracy. The highest Relative Risk (RR) to develop depression was associated with history of Bipolar disorder and self-harm/attempts (RR = 5.88). Suicidality was not increased in persons without a history of any mental disorder. Based on these results a model was developed., Conclusions: The final model revealed multiple vulnerabilities and an interplay leading from simple anxiety to probable depression and suicidality through distress. This could be of practical utility since many of these factors are modifiable. Future research and interventions should specifically focus on them., Competing Interests: Conflict of Interest None pertaining to the current paper., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. and ECNP. All rights reserved.)

Chronic diseases, as their name suggests, are progressive and can have overlapping features. Similar to this, Alzheimer's disease (AD) and diabetes mellitus (DM) fall into the category of chronic degenerative diseases. The global burden of these two ailments is manifold; hence, it seems important to view the pathophysiologic mechanisms of DM in the worsening of AD. Genetic as well as environmental factors are seen to play a role in the disease pathogenesis. Several genes, metabolic pathways, electrolytes, and dietary habits are seen to hasten brain atrophy. Lying behind this is the accumulation of amyloid precursor and tau - the misfolded proteins - within the brain substance. This mechanism is usually innate to AD itself, but the impact of insulin resistance, disturbing the homeostatic milieu, is seen as a powerful contributing factor aggravating the neuronal loss impairing an individual's memory. Since this neuronal loss is permanent, it may lead to complications as seen with AD. To reach a consensus, we conducted an electronic literature review search using different databases. This aided us in understanding the common aspects between AD and DM on genetic, molecular, cellular levels, as well as the impact of minerals and diet on the disease manifestation. We also found that despite exceptional work, additional efforts are needed to explore the relationship between the two entities. This will help physicians, researchers, and pharmaceuticals to frame remedies targeting the cause and avoid the progression of AD., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright © 2020, Nisar et al.)

Tactual vocoders (artificial hearing systems) transduce the acoustic energy of speech into patterns of stimulation that are presented to the skin. In an electrocutaneous tactual vocoder, energy within an acoustic-frequency band is generally represented at a particular skin locus by the rate or frequency of brief electrical pulse bursts. At present little is known about tactual sensitivity for changes in the frequency of brief, bipolar electrical pulses used in several current electrocutaneous vocoder designs. Accordingly, discrimination of frequency change of electrocutaneous bipolar signals was evaluated for standard frequencies of 48, 100, 148, 200, and 248 Hz at signal durations of 50, 100, and 250 ms. Bipolar pulses (height = 10 mA, width = 13 microseconds) were presented on a single electrode placed slightly above and 8 cm to either the left or right of the navel. In a same-different task, three practiced subjects judged pairs of stimuli separated by an interstimulus interval (ISI) of 300 ms. For standard frequencies of 48 and 100 Hz, psychometric functions were similar for all subjects and all signal durations. For these frequencies, delta f/f was constant at approximately 0.3. By contrast, for standard stimuli greater than 100 Hz, the Weber fraction was found to increase dramatically as a function of both standard frequency and signal duration. In a second, similar experiment the Weber fraction for a 248-Hz standard increased as ISI was decreased below 300 ms. By contrast, ISI had little effect on sensitivity for standard stimuli of 48 and 100 Hz. Overall, these results suggest guidelines for possible intensity coding schemes for future electrocutaneous vocoder designs.