Longitudinal profile of post-traumatic symptoms in HealthCare Workers during COVID-19 pandemic: A latent transition model.

Introduction: Pandemics have the potential to be considered traumatic event, increasing the risk of developing post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in HealthCare Workers (HCW). However, few longitudinal studies have evaluated the impact of prolonged exposure to the risk imposed by COVID-19. Our aim was to identify subgroups of HCW with profiles of PTSS, how this profile changed during the pandemic and which variables were related to these changes.

Decision-making styles during stressful scenarios: The role of anxiety in COVID-19 pandemic.

Introduction: Decision-making is not purely rational but highlighted by the influence of intuitive and emotional processes. Recently, researchers have focused more attention on understanding which environmental and personal features influence decision-making processes, and how.

Objective And Methods: On this study, we investigate whether Trait Anxiety moderates the impact of Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS) symptoms reported during COVID-19 pandemic on decision-making styles.

Non-Invasive Neuromodulation Methods to Alleviate Symptoms of Huntington's Disease: A Systematic Review of the Literature.

Huntington's disease (HD) is a progressive and debilitating neurodegenerative disease. There is growing evidence for non-invasive neuromodulation tools as therapeutic strategies in neurodegenerative diseases. This systematic review aims to investigate the effectiveness of noninvasive neuromodulation in HD-associated motor, cognitive, and behavioral symptoms.

Processing speed - A potential candidate cognitive endophenotype for bipolar disorder.

Background: Bipolar disorder (BD) is a chronic multifactorial disorder that presents with cognitive impairment as one of its main features, in patients as well as in their first-degree relatives. However, the profile of cognitive dysfunction in BD patients and their relatives is not yet well defined. Various neurocognitive deficits have been proposed as endophenotypes for BD.

Impacts of mental health in the sleep pattern of healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil.

Background: After >2 years of the Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic, it is well established how sleep symptoms are rising, especially among healthcare workers (HCW). The aim of this study is to evaluate what features are associated with sleep disturbances in the HCW population.

Methods: Cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis of social and clinical variables associated with sleep problems and insomnia incidence in HCW in a large, national-level cohort.

The mental health of Brazilian healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic: a longitudinal study.

Objective: To compare the distress level among Brazilian healthcare professionals during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and estimate risks by sex, age, and occupation.

Methods: In a longitudinal cohort design, a nationally distributed online survey was used to collect data from 10,490 active healthcare professionals who worked during the pandemic. Participants were mostly female, aged 18 to 82 years; 13 different health professions and all states of Brazil were represented.

Longitudinal invariance and validity of the Impact of Event Scale-Revised under COVID-19 pandemic in a Brazilian sample.

Although the Impact Event Scale-Revised is widely used, its factor structure is still controversial. In addition, its longitudinal measurement invariance (LMI) remains uninvestigated. In this sense, we carried out three studies to investigate its psychometric properties.

The Limits between Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder: What Do Magnetic Resonance Findings Tell Us?

Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, two of the most severe psychiatric illnesses, have historically been regarded as dichotomous entities but share many features of the premorbid course, clinical profile, genetic factors and treatment approaches. Studies focusing on neuroimaging findings have received considerable attention, as they plead for an improved understanding of the brain regions involved in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. In this review, we summarize the main magnetic resonance imaging findings in both disorders, aiming at exploring the neuroanatomical and functional similarities and differences between the two.

Increased risk of health professionals to feel traumatized during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Health professionals may be a vulnerable group to posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) during the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. To investigate how health professionals who experienced a traumatic event are expressing PTSS and factors related to risk for higher PTSS symptomatology can inform how health professionals are facing their role in this crisis. This was an Internet cross-sectional survey.

The Greater Houston Area Bipolar Registry-Clinical and Neurobiological Trajectories of Children and Adolescents With Bipolar Disorders and High-Risk Unaffected Offspring.

The aims of this article are to discuss the rationale, design, and procedures of the Greater Houston Area Bipolar Registry (HBR), which aims at contributing to the effort involved in the investigation of neurobiological mechanisms underlying bipolar disorder (BD) as well as to identify clinical and neurobiological markers able to predict BD clinical course. The article will also briefly discuss examples of other initiatives that have made fundamental contributions to the field. This will be a longitudinal study with participants aged 6-17 at the time of enrollment.

Journal Metrics in Psychiatry: What do the rankings tell us?

Background: Metrics of journal's impact factor may suggest the journal's influence in a particular field, but they have been used inadvertently as a measure of the journal and individual publications' scientific quality.

Methods: We assessed how scientific journals in the field of psychiatry and mental health are ranked (top 20) according to the scores of distinct metrics (Eigenfactor score, Google Scholar Metrics, Journal Citation Reports, Scimago Journal & Country Rank, and Source Normalized Impact per Paper), described their main characteristics and perfomed a spearman's correlation analyses to investigate to which extent these metrics are associated. We also discussed the limitations of dealing with these metrics and the rankings they provide as a proxy of the journal's quality.

Psychometric properties of the Brief Symptom Inventory support the hypothesis of a general psychopathological factor.

Introduction: The existence of a general factor related to psychiatric symptoms is supported by studies using a variety of methods in both clinical and non-clinical samples.

Objectives: This study aims to evaluate the replicability of the internal structure of the Brief Symptom Inventory in a large Brazilian sample.

Methods: Participants were 6,427 Brazilian subjects (81% female).

Neuroanatomic and Functional Neuroimaging Findings.

The search for brain morphology findings that could explain behavioral disorders has gone through a long path in the history of psychiatry. With the advance of brain imaging technology, studies have been able to identify brain morphology and neural circuits associated with the pathophysiology of mental illnesses, such as bipolar disorders (BD). Promising results have also shown the potential of neuroimaging findings in the identification of outcome predictors and response to treatment among patients with BD.

Defense mechanisms and quality of life of medical students according to graduation phase.

Objectives: To compare health-related quality of life (QoL) of medical students in initial and final phases of the program, and to evaluate the association between ego defense mechanisms and specific health-related QoL domains within each group.

Methods: This was an observational, cross-sectional study. Quality of life was assessed according to the World Health Organization Quality of Life instrument - Abbreviated Version (WHOQOL-Bref); anxiety and depression symptoms were evaluated using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS); defense mechanisms were assessed using the Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ-40).