Moral injury and mental health among health-care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: meta-analysis.

: During the COVID-19 pandemic, health-care workers (HCWs) may have been confronted with situations that may culminate in moral injury (MI). MI is the psychological distress that may result from perpetrating or witnessing actions that violate one's moral codes. Literature suggests that MI can be associated with mental health problems.

Changes in attachment dimensions during the treatment of acute post-traumatic stress disorder in sexually assaulted Brazilian women.

Introduction: Attachment patterns are established during early childhood; however, extreme experiences throughout life may change this structure, either toward attachment security or insecurity. We analyzed changes in attachment dimensions in women with acute post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following sexual assault, that were randomized to a 14-week treatment with either the medication sertraline or Interpersonal Psychotherapy.

Methods: Seventy-four adult women who presented significant reduction in PTSD symptoms across the trial responded to the Revised Adult Attachment Scale at baseline, on week 8 of treatment, and at the end of the trial, on week 14.

Identifying the insomnia-related psychological issues associated with hyperarousal: A network perspective.

Hyperarousal, recognized as a fundamental characteristic of insomnia for decades, has yielded limited evidence concerning its direct psychological associations. This study aimed to explore the psychological factors linked to hyperarousal within the framework of interrelated variables. Two independent samples, comprising n = 917 and n = 652 young adults, were included in the study.

Are some children genetically predisposed to poor sleep? A polygenic risk study in the general population.

Background: Twin studies show moderate heritability of sleep traits: 40% for insomnia symptoms and 46% for sleep duration. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified genetic variants involved in insomnia and sleep duration in adults, but it is unknown whether these variants affect sleep during early development. We assessed whether polygenic risk scores for insomnia (PRS-I) and sleep duration (PRS-SD) affect sleep throughout early childhood to adolescence.

A Longitudinal Study of Stress During Pregnancy, Children's Sleep and Polygenic Risk for Poor Sleep in the General Pediatric Population.

Early life stress is robustly associated with poor sleep across life. Preliminary studies suggest that these associations may begin already in utero. Here, we study the longitudinal associations of prenatal psychosocial stress with sleep across childhood, and assess whether prenatal stress interacts with genetic liability for poor sleep.

Network analysis of sleep bruxism in the EPISONO adult general population.

Sleep bruxism (SB) has been associated with biological and psychosocial factors. The assessment of SB includes self-report, clinical evaluation, and polysomnography. This study aimed to investigate the associations of self-reported SB with other sleep disorders and demographic, psychological, and lifestyle factors in the adult general population, and to investigate whether self-reported SB and polysomnographically (PSG) confirmed SB provide similar outcomes in terms of their associated factors.

The relationship between tonic immobility and the development, severity, and course of posttraumatic stress disorder: Systematic and meta-analytic literature review.

Background: Tonic immobility (TI) is a reflexive, involuntary response that causes motor inhibition, vocal suppression, and analgesia. TI is elicited by extreme fear and perception of entrapment in a life-threatening situation. Research suggests that TI is a frequent peritraumatic response and may be related to subsequent posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Hyperarousal Symptom Severity in Women with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Might Be Associated with LINE-1 Hypomethylation in Childhood Sexual Abuse Victims.

Introduction: Sexual assault and a history of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) are related to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) development. Long interspersed nuclear elements (LINE-1) are transposable elements, and their methylation is used to infer DNA global methylation. DNA methylation can be affected by trauma exposition which in turn would be associated with PTSD.

Associations between signs of sleep bruxism and insomnia: A polysomnographic study.

Sleep bruxism (SB) is a repetitive jaw-muscle activity characterised by clenching or grinding of the teeth and/or by bracing or thrusting of the mandible. Sleep bruxism has been linked with insomnia symptoms. Moreover, it has been suggested that there is a positive association between distress and the occurrence of sleep bruxism.

The Relationship between Lifetime Exposure to Potentially Traumatic Events, Peritraumatic Dissociation, and PTSD in a Sample of Sexually Assaulted Women in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Sexually assaulted women represent a particularly high-risk group for developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Potentially traumatic events (PTEs) and peritraumatic dissociation (PD) are known risk factors for PTSD. However, little is known about how previous trauma affects PD and how this relationship affects PTSD.

Interpersonal psychotherapy versus sertraline for women with posttraumatic stress disorder following recent sexual assault: a randomized clinical trial.

Sexual assault often triggers posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a potentially chronic severe mental disorder. Most guidelines recommend selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and trauma-focused psychotherapies as treatment options. Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT), adapted for PTSD (IPT-PTSD), focuses on interpersonal consequences of trauma rather than confronting the trauma itself.

Increased immuno-inflammatory mediators in women with post-traumatic stress disorder after sexual assault: 1-Year follow-up.

Background: Sexual violence is a traumatic event that can trigger post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and generate biological responses to stress characterized by inhibiting the hypothalamic-pituitary axis (HPA), altering immune activity, and changing the structure and function of the brain. PTSD is associated with increased levels of inflammatory markers. This study aimed to measure differences in inflammatory markers and HPA hormone levels between women with PTSD due to sexual violence and controls at baseline and after 1-year follow-up.

Peri-Traumatic Dissociation and Tonic Immobility as Severity Predictors of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder After Rape.

Some individuals show abnormal reactions to extreme fear and life-threatening situations, including tonic immobility (TI) and peri-traumatic dissociation (PTD). We aimed to investigate the association of TI and PTD with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in women who experienced sexual violence and the risk factors for PTD occurrence. We compared PTSD severity in 86 young adult women with PTSD after a sexual violence exposure grouped according to the presence of PTD and TI.

Shorter Telomeres Related to Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Re-experiencing Symptoms in Sexually Assaulted Civilian Women.

Telomeres are short tandem repeats of "TTAGGG" that protect the chromosome ends from deterioration or fusion of chromosomes. Their repeat length shortens with cell division acting as a biomarker of cellular aging. Traumatic stress events during adulthood or childhood have been associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and short leukocyte telomere length (LTL).

A network analysis of self-reported sleep bruxism in the Netherlands sleep registry: its associations with insomnia and several demographic, psychological, and life-style factors.

Objectives: To investigate the association between self-reported sleep bruxism and insomnia and their potential risk factors (eg, depression and anxiety), and to construct a network model with all these factors.

Methods: We recruited 2251 participants from the Netherlands Sleep Registry. All participants completed questionnaires on self-reported sleep bruxism, insomnia, depression, anxiety, smoking frequency, and alcohol and caffeine consumption.

Sex-differential PTSD symptom trajectories across one year following suspected serious injury.

Background: Recent years have shown an increased application of prospective trajectory-oriented approaches to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Although women are generally considered at increased PTSD risk, sex and gender differences in PTSD symptom trajectories have not yet been extensively studied.

Objective: To perform an in-depth investigation of differences in PTSD symptom trajectories across one-year post-trauma between men and women, by interpreting the general trends of trajectories observed in sex-disaggregated samples, and comparing within-trajectory symptom course and prevalence rates.

The impact of neighborhood context on telomere length: A systematic review.

A growing body of research demonstrates the association between neighborhood context and health. The underlying biological mechanisms of this association are not fully understood. We conducted a systematic review of studies that investigated the association between neighborhood context and telomere length (TL), a DNA-protein complex that shortens after cell division.

EEG spectral analysis in insomnia disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Insomnia disorder (ID) has become the second-most common mental disorder. Despite burgeoning evidence for increased high-frequency electroencephalography (EEG) activity and cortical hyperarousal in ID, the detailed spectral features of this disorder during wakefulness and different sleep stages remain unclear. Therefore, we adopted a meta-analytic approach to systematically assess existing evidence on EEG spectral features in ID.

Forecasting individual risk for long-term Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in emergency medical settings using biomedical data: A machine learning multicenter cohort study.

The necessary requirement of a traumatic event preceding the development of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, theoretically allows for administering preventive and early interventions in the early aftermath of such events. Machine learning models including biomedical data to forecast PTSD outcome after trauma are highly promising for detection of individuals most in need of such interventions. In the current study, machine learning was applied on biomedical data collected within 48 h post-trauma to forecast individual risk for long-term PTSD, using a multinominal approach including the full spectrum of common PTSD symptom courses within one prognostic model for the first time.

Dynamics of sleep: Exploring critical transitions and early warning signals.

Background And Objectives: In standard practice, sleep is classified into distinct stages by human observers according to specific rules as for instance specified in the AASM manual. We here show proof of principle for a conceptualization of sleep stages as attractor states in a nonlinear dynamical system in order to develop new empirical criteria for sleep stages.

Methods: EEG (single channel) of two healthy sleeping participants was used to demonstrate this conceptualization.

Network outcome analysis identifies difficulty initiating sleep as a primary target for prevention of depression: a 6-year prospective study.

Study Objectives: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is the leading cause of disability worldwide. Its high recurrence rate calls for prevention of first-onset MDD. Although meta-analysis suggested insomnia as the strongest modifiable risk factor, previous studies insufficiently addressed that insomnia might also occur as a residual symptom of unassessed prior depression, or as a comorbid complaint secondary to other depression risks.