Effect of COVID-19 pandemic on mental health hospital admissions: comparative population-based study.

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) global pandemic caused mental health services to be downscaled to abide by the public health restrictions issued.

Aims: The aim of this study was to investigate whether the pandemic and resultant restrictions had an impact on Malta's admissions to hospital for mental health issues by assessing the number and nature of psychiatric admissions to our only national mental health hospital.

Method: Data collection was carried out retrospectively for the 13-week period between 7 March 2020 and 4 June 2020, compared with the equivalent in 2019.

The cytokine-hormone axis - the link between premenstrual syndrome and postpartum depression.

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and related disorders, and postpartum depression (PPD) can affect women to the extent that their quality of life and that of their near ones can be severely impaired. This review focuses on the different theories regarding the etiologies of PMS and PPD, and attempts to draw a link between the two. Theories focus mainly on hormonal and cytokine factors throughout different phases in the female reproductive cycle.