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Introduction. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the population generating widespread fear due to people’s perception that both their health and safety are at risk. Widespread fear, a synonym for social anxiety, is associated with affective intrusive cognitions. Likewise, it is related to symptoms of post-traumatic stress, physiological intrusive and eluding coping responses, and could be associated with long-term vulnerability to develop PTSD. Objective. To assess the association between coping strategies, widespread fear to COVID-19, and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in Mexican population exposed to the SARS-CoV2 pandemic. Method. A cross sectional, empirical, descriptive study through survey research was performed; 370 participants were sampled by nationality quotas, and they completed digital self-informed instruments on an on-line psychosocial intervention. Sample size was estimated using a power analysis. Results. Findings showed reliable indicators between physiological coping and PTSD symptoms. There was a 42% variance related to PTSD delayed intrusive cognitive responses, a 40% variance was related to PTSD negative alterations in cognitions and mood, a 31% variance was explained by hyperarousal responses, and a 29% of the variance represented PTSD avoidance symptoms. Widespread fear of COVID-19 was explained by affective behavioral coping strategies linked also to PTSD symptoms. Discussion and conclusion. Research found consistency between findings and theories on emotion-centered strategies, which in turn were are related to affective coping around widespread fear to COVID-19 and avoidance intrusive symptoms, physiological coping with avoidance, considering future community post-traumatic stress traits and anxiety disorders in Mexican communities exposed to the pandemic, linking strategies with community trauma.

El suicidio en jóvenes es una problemática que ha ido en aumento tanto a nivel mundial como en nuestro país durante los últimos años. Dentro de la población universitaria se ha presentado un incremento considerable de muertes por suicidio a partir de lo cual es necesario desarrollar medidas preventivas para evitar esta conducta, así como guías que permitan implementar acciones específicas a partir de las cuales intervenir de manera eficaz y oportuna ante esta problemática en los jóvenes. Este trabajo tiene como objetivo describir las guías de prevención, intervención y posvención ante la conducta suicida basados en tratamientos breves que se diseñaron e implementaron en un programa de atención a universitarios con depresión y riesgo de suicidio en una institución pública de educación superior en la Ciudad de México.

Objective: The aim of the present study was to validate the Inventory of Complicated Grief (ICG) in the adult population, since there is no valid instrument that evaluates this construct in the Mexican population.Method: This study was based on an Ex Post Facto, instrumental design with a convenience sample. The ICG was applied to 4014 participants (3540, females, 470 males and 4 individuals classified as other) who had experienced a loss of a loved one during the COVID-19 pandemic. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted. The internal reliability of each factor was examined by means of the Cronbach’s alpha index (α). Correlation analyses between the ICG, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, the Satisfaction with life scale and the Beck's Hopelessness Scale were performed to assess convergent and divergent validity of the ICG.Results: The ICG showed a high internal reliability with a Cronbach alpha of 0.92. The confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that a four-factor model of the ICG (normal grief symptoms, emotional-anxious detachment, intense negative emotions, loss-impairing anxiety) fits the data well. According to bivariate analyses the ICG was correlated with measures of life satisfaction (r = -.208, n = 1984, p = .001), hopelessness (r = .522, n = 1984, p = .001), and depressive symptoms (r = .641, n = 1984, p = .001).Conclusions: The ICG with a Mexican sample is valid, with good psychometric properties and an appropriate measure of complicated grief for Mexican adults.

Background: COVID-19 has taken many lives worldwide and due to this, millions of persons are in grief. When the grief process lasts longer than 6 months, the person is in risk of developing Complicated Grief Disorder (CGD). The CGD is related to serious health consequences. To reduce the probability of developing CGD a preventive intervention could be applied. In developing countries like Mexico, the psychological services are scarce, self-applied interventions could provide support to solve this problem and reduce the health impact even after the pandemic has already finished.Aims: To design and implement a self-applied intervention composed of 12 modules focused on the decrease of the risk of developing CGD, and increasing the life quality, and as a secondary objective to reduce the symptomatology of anxiety, depression, and increase of sleep quality. The Intervention Duelo COVID (Grief COVID) follows the principles of User Experience (UX) and is designed according to the needs and desires of a sample of the objective participants, to increase the adherence to the self-applied intervention, considered one of the main weaknesses of online interventions.Methods: A Randomized Controlled Trial will be conducted from the 22nd of December of 2020 to the first of June 2021. The participants will be assigned to an intervention with elements of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Mindfulness and Positive Psychology. The control group will be a wait-list condition, that will receive the intervention 1.5–2 months after the pre-measurement were taken. The Power Size Calculation conducted through G*Power indicated the need for a total of 42 participants, which will be divided by 21 participants in each group. The platform will be delivered through responsive design assuring with this that the intervention will adapt to the screen size of cellphones, tablets, and computers.Ethics and Dissemination: The study counts with the approval of the Research Ethics Committee of the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juárez, México, and it is registered in Clinical Trials (NCT04638842). The article is sent and registered in clinical trials before the recruitment started. The results will be reported in future conferences, scientific publications, and media.

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic has become a public health emergency of international concern; it has not only threatened people's physical health but has also affected their mental health and psychological well-being. It is necessary to develop and offer strategies to reduce the psychological impact of the outbreak and promote adaptive coping. OBJECTIVE This study protocol aims to describe a self-administered web-based intervention (Mental Health COVID-19) based on the principles of positive psychology supported by elements of cognitive behavioral therapy and behavioral activation therapy to reduce the symptoms of anxiety and depression and increase positive emotions and sleep quality during and after the COVID-19 outbreak through a telepsychology system. METHODS A randomized controlled clinical superiority trial with two independent groups will be performed, with intrasubject measures at four evaluation periods: pretest, posttest, 3-month follow-up, and 6-month follow-up. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of two groups: self-administered intervention with assistance via chat or self-administered intervention without assistance via chat. The total required sample size will be 166 participants (83 per group). RESULTS The clinical trial is ongoing. This protocol was approved by the Research Ethics Board of the Free School of Psychology-University of Behavioral Sciences (Escuela libre de Psicología-Universidad de Ciencias del Comportamiento). The aim is to publish the preliminary results in December 2020. A conservative approach will be adopted, and the size effect will be estimated using the Cohen d index with a significance level (α) of .05 (95% reliability) and a conventional 80% power statistic. CONCLUSIONS The central mechanism of action will be to investigate the effectiveness of an intervention based on positive psychology through a web platform that can be delivered through computers and tablets, with content that has been rigorously contextualized to the Mexican culture to provide functional strategies to help the target users cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. CLINICALTRIAL ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04468893; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04468893 INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT DERR1-10.2196/23117

Introduction: Depression is a frequent mood disorder among medical students that can lead to multiple negative consequences at individual and social level (such as academic achievement and interpersonal conflicts) as well as patient care performance. Therefore, the need of depression decreasing treatments in medical students is important. This study is designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Behavioral Activation Treatment for Depression in a sample of Mexican medical students. Methods: This study will be performed under a quasi-experimental design to verify the effectiveness of the Behavioral Activation Treatment for Depression to reduce depressive symptoms in medical students from two public universities in northwestern Mexico. The participants will be assessed with the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and the Plutchik Suicide Risk Scale. In addition to the psychometric assessment, there will be an electroencephalogram evaluation using the EMOTIV (v 1.1) device. Results: A pre-post intervention of 10 Behavioral Activation Treatment for Depression sessions will be implemented. The results of the effectiveness of the Behavioral Activation Treatment for Depression will be analyzed in five measures at pre-post intervention and two follow-ups of 3 and 6 months. Conclusions: This study looks for evidence regarding the efficacy and feasibility of the Behavioral Activation Treatment for Depression in a sample of medical students from two public universities in Mexico with high levels of depression along with stress and anxiety.

This paper examined the ability of two different approaches (the multi-type maltreatment approach, and the polyvictimization approach) to reflect the psychopathological aftermath of victimization. It also analyzed gender-related differences in psychopathological symptoms at varying levels of exposure to violence. The study was conducted in 923 Spanish community adolescents (aged from 14 to 18 years; 62.4% girls; 87.4% born in Spain), recruited for screening purposes from eight secondary schools in Barcelona and its metropolitan area (Spain). The study was based on cross-sectional data. The Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire and the Youth Self Report (DSM scales) were used to analyze victimization and psychopathological impairment respectively. The results showed that the two approaches present a similar ability to reflect psychopathological outcomes. The use of mean T scores to analyze psychopathological impairments conceals the high percentages of adolescents who are at risk in several psychopathological scales. Gender-related differences, analyzed under the multi-type approach, showed that girls presented slightly higher levels of symptomatology in reaction to their first experiences of victimization, whereas boys presented strong emotional reactions after the accumulation of a high number of victimized areas. Adolescents victimized in up to three areas showed evidence of resiliency to interpersonal victimization events and displayed non-clinical psychopathological profiles. Obsessive-compulsive symptoms had to be considered in high victimized groups, conjointly with affective, somatic and post-traumatic stress as psychopathological symptoms related to victimization.

This chapter examines the importance of assessing and identifying stressors and other risk factors in Hispanic adolescents. Specific assessment measures relevant to the assessment of suicide risk in the Hispanic adolescent are reviewed. Furthermore, the clinical implications of assessing suicide behavior and their importance in relation to the mental health of adolescents are discussed.

In the face of the repercussions caused by COVID-19, the requirement to adapt the clinic practice is crucial for mental health care. Developing an accessible model, with a prompt response and closeness with the client results in an essential objective on this new reality. For this reason, a group of psychologists from different parts of the world developed a digital platform with the objective to give psychological assistance to the population because of the pandemic. As a part of the available services, a chat was enabled in which emotional support was provided the same as guidance on the modules that are part of the platform and the reference to special support service if necessary. This essay addresses the main psychological effects of the population identified through the service (stress, anxiety, and suicide risk) and shares the experience of a group of therapists who attended during the critical months of the pandemic in Mexico., Ante la pandemia por la COVID-19, surgió una necesidad imperante de adecuar la práctica clínica a distancia para la atención a la salud mental. Conformar un modelo accesible, de pronta respuesta y que mantuviera la cercanía con el consultante resultó un objetivo fundamental durante la emergencia sanitaria. Por esta razón, un grupo de profesionales de la salud mental de diversas partes del mundo desarrollaron una plataforma digital con el fin de atender las necesidades psicológicas de la población a raíz de la pandemia. Como parte de los servicios disponibles de dicha plataforma, se habilitó un chat de asistencia en el cual se brindó contención emocional, orientación sobre los módulos que la conforman y referencia a servicios de atención especializada en caso de ser necesario. En el presente trabajo se informan las principales afectaciones psicológicas identificadas (estrés, ansiedad y riesgo de suicidio) en la muestra atendida a través de este servicio, además se documenta la experiencia de un grupo de psicólogos que atendieron el chat durante los meses críticos de la pandemia en México.