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Background: The present study aimed to evaluate psychological impact of COVID-19 outbreak on postgraduate trainees in Pakistan by quantifying the symptoms of depression, anxiety and acute stress disorder and by analysing potential risk factors associated with these symptoms.Methods: Following Institutional Review Board approval, a cross-sectional study was conducted among 10,178 postgraduate trainees following COVID-19 outbreak through e-log system of College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan. The nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire, seven-item Generalised Anxiety Disorder scale and Stanford Acute Stress Reaction Questionnaire were used to collect data. Statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS.26. Descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U test, the χ2 test and logistic regression analysis were performed. The significance level was set at α=0.05.Results: The prevalence of depressive symptoms, generalised anxiety disorder and acute stress disorder were 26.4%, 22.6% and 4.4%, respectively. Female postgraduate trainees, senior trainees and front-line workers reported experiencing more anxiety, depression and acute stress symptoms (p value<0.001). Logistic regression showed that being a front-line and senior staff member and female was associated with higher risk of experiencing symptoms of depression, anxiety and acute stress.Conclusions: Our study findings raise concerns about the psychological well-being of postgraduate trainees during the acute COVID-19 outbreak in Pakistan. It is necessary to employ strategies to minimise the psychological distress and provide adequate psychosocial support for postgraduate trainees during crisis situation such as COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: To investigate relationship of social media exposure with prevalence of depression and anxiety among general public in Lahore, Pakistan during the COVID-19 outbreak. METHODS: A web-based cross-sectional study was conducted via Google forms in June-July 2020 among Pakistani citizens aged ≥18 years. Purposive convenient sampling was done. The questionnaire constituted sociodemographic data, information regarding social media exposure, and scales to assess depression and anxiety. Social media exposure was measured by a questionnaire based on previous literature while depression and anxiety were measured by WHO-Five Well-Being Index (WHO-5) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) scale respectively. Differences in depression and anxiety between groups and their associations with their social media use were examined through Chi-square test. RESULTS: Out of 516 participants who completed the questionnaire, 447 (86.6%) had frequent exposure to social media. Facebook (n=345; 66.9%) and WhatsApp (n=224; 43.4%) were the most used platforms to obtain COVID-19 related news. The prevalence of depression, anxiety, and combined depression and anxiety in the sample was 46.3% (n=239), 45.5% (n=235), and 29.7% (n=153) respectively. Statistically significant association was observed between depression and social media exposure (p<0.001) and the combination of depression and anxiety and social media exposure (p<0.05), but not with anxiety. About 56.0% (n=289) participants believed that publishing more COVID-19 related news leads to fear and panic. CONCLUSION: People with frequent social media exposure during COVID-19 experienced detrimental effects on mental health. The awareness about limiting social media exposure during the pandemic and psychological support is required to safeguard their well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An editorial is presented on placing a quality-check on the teaching standards of medical schools and universities across the country. Topics include healthcare system struggling with the issues pertaining to the quality of medical education and disparities in the induction system for postgraduate training and residency; and distributing the workload among the institutions leading to a thorough evaluation of the fresh medical graduates through different perspectives.