Mental Health After COVID-19 Death-Related Loss in Individuals With Eating Disorders: A Multi-Country Nested Matched Case-Control Study.

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic caused millions of deaths worldwide and significantly impacted people with eating disorders, exacerbating symptoms and limiting access to care. This study examined the association between COVID-19 death-related loss-defined as the death of a family member, friend, or acquaintance due to COVID-19-and mental health among people with preexisting eating disorders in the United States (US), the Netherlands, and Sweden.

Method: Participants with a history of eating disorders completed a baseline survey early in the pandemic (US: N = 511; Netherlands: N = 510; Sweden: N = 982) and monthly (US, the Netherlands) or biannual (Sweden) follow-ups from April 2020 to May 2021.

Co-existing mental and somatic conditions in Swedish children with the avoidant restrictive food intake disorder phenotype.

Background: Avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) is a feeding and eating disorder, characterized by limited variety and/or quantity of food intake impacting physical health and psychosocial functioning. Children with ARFID often present with a range of psychiatric and somatic symptoms, and therefore consult various pediatric subspecialties; large-scale studies mapping comorbidities are however lacking. To characterize health care needs of people with ARFID, we systematically investigated ARFID-related mental and somatic conditions in 616 children with ARFID and >30,000 children without ARFID.

Proposal for increasing diagnostic clarity in research and clinical practice by renaming and reframing atypical anorexia nervosa as "Restrictive Eating Disorder" (RED).

Atypical anorexia nervosa (AAN) in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5), is characterized by meeting all criteria for anorexia nervosa (AN) except for weight being within or above the "normal" range despite significant weight loss. The current definition is plagued by several problems, resulting in widely heterogeneous operationalizations in research and clinical practice. As such, the poorly defined diagnosis of AAN negatively impacts affected individuals and frustrates research attempts to better understand the syndrome.

Self-reported expertise and confidence in diagnosing and treating avoidant restrictive food intake disorder among Swedish clinicians.

Objective: To assess self-reported knowledge and confidence regarding avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) diagnosis and treatment in Swedish clinicians from various disciplines.

Method: The study included 489 clinicians who attended educational lectures about ARFID. Participants responded to 20 ARFID-related questions and statements using the online audience engagement platform Mentimeter.

First-Gen Lens: Assessing Mental Health of First-Generation Students across Their First Year at College Using Mobile Sensing.

The transition from high school to college is a taxing time for young adults. New students arriving on campus navigate a myriad of challenges centered around adapting to new living situations, financial needs, academic pressures and social demands. First-year students need to gain new skills and strategies to cope with these new demands in order to make good decisions, ease their transition to independent living and ultimately succeed.

Course and predictors of eating disorder symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and pandemic-related eating disorder concerns among adults with eating disorders during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic and public health mitigation measures have negatively impacted individuals with eating disorders (ED). We evaluated changes in and predictors of ED symptoms, pandemic-related ED concerns, and anxiety symptoms across the first 12 months of the COVID-19 pandemic among individuals with self-reported EDs in the United States (US), Sweden (SE), and the Netherlands (NL).

Method: Participants in the US (N = 510), SE (N = 982), and NL (N = 510) completed an online survey assessing ED symptoms (binge eating, restriction, compensatory behaviors, and anxiety about being unable to exercise), general anxiety symptoms, and pandemic-related ED concerns about accessing food, lack of structure and social support, being in a triggering environment, and food and treatment costs.

Nurses' Experiences of Caring for Patients With Suspected or Confirmed COVID-19 in the Initial Stage of the Pandemic.

Introduction: Nursing staff have faced various challenges during the global pandemic of COVID-19 such as nursing shortages. The great number of COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization placed heavy demands on healthcare staff to maintain patient safety and to work according to constantly changing guidelines to prevent the spread of infection.

Objective: The objective was to describe nurses' experiences of caring for patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 in the initial phase of the pandemic.

Validity of eating disorder diagnoses in the Swedish national patient register.

The Swedish National Patient Register (NPR) includes population-level longitudinal data, and determining the validity of NPR diagnoses is critical to undergirding the research and policy recommendations they inform. Sweden also has the integrated "Riksät" and "Stepwise" National Quality Registers (QR), with data from specialized eating disorder (ED) treatment based on structured, valid assessment methods. To validate NPR ED diagnoses, we compared ICD-10-based anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), and unspecified ED in NPR to DSM-IV-based AN, BN, and ED not otherwise specified category (EDNOS) in QR.

On the Transition of Social Interaction from In-Person to Online: Predicting Changes in Social Media Usage of College Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic based on Pre-COVID-19 On-Campus Colocation.

Pandemics significantly impact human daily life. People throughout the world adhere to safety protocols (e.g.

Mental Health and Behavior of College Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Longitudinal Mobile Smartphone and Ecological Momentary Assessment Study, Part II.

Background: Since late 2019, the lives of people across the globe have been disrupted by COVID-19. Millions of people have become infected with the disease, while billions of people have been continually asked or required by local and national governments to change their behavioral patterns. Previous research on the COVID-19 pandemic suggests that it is associated with large-scale behavioral and mental health changes; however, few studies have been able to track these changes with frequent, near real-time sampling or compare these changes to previous years of data for the same individuals.

Causal Factors of Anxiety and Depression in College Students: Longitudinal Ecological Momentary Assessment and Causal Analysis Using Peter and Clark Momentary Conditional Independence.

Background: Across college campuses, the prevalence of clinically relevant depression or anxiety is affecting more than 27% of the college population at some point between entry to college and graduation. Stress and self-esteem have both been hypothesized to contribute to depression and anxiety levels. Although contemporaneous relationships between these variables have been well-defined, the causal relationship between these mental health factors is not well understood, as frequent sampling can be invasive, and many of the current causal techniques are not well suited to investigate correlated variables.

Mental Health and Behavior of College Students During the Early Phases of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Longitudinal Smartphone and Ecological Momentary Assessment Study.

Background: The vast majority of people worldwide have been impacted by coronavirus disease (COVID-19). In addition to the millions of individuals who have been infected with the disease, billions of individuals have been asked or required by local and national governments to change their behavioral patterns. Previous research on epidemics or traumatic events suggests that this can lead to profound behavioral and mental health changes; however, researchers are rarely able to track these changes with frequent, near-real-time sampling or compare their findings to previous years of data for the same individuals.

Predicting Brain Functional Connectivity Using Mobile Sensing.

Brain circuit functioning and connectivity between specific regions allow us to learn, remember, recognize and think as humans. In this paper, we ask the question if mobile sensing from phones can predict brain functional connectivity. We study the brain resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) between the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and the amygdala, which has been shown by neuroscientists to be associated with mental illness such as anxiety and depression.

Fusing Mobile Phone Sensing and Brain Imaging to Assess Depression in College Students.

As smartphone usage has become increasingly prevalent in our society, so have rates of depression, particularly among young adults. Individual differences in smartphone usage patterns have been shown to reflect individual differences in underlying affective processes such as depression (Wang et al., 2018).