Excessive and persistent fear of clusters of holes, also known as trypophobia, has been suggested to reflect cortical hyperexcitability and may be associated with mental health risks. No study, however, has yet examined these associations in representative epidemiological samples.

To examine the prevalence of trypophobia in a population-representative youth sample, its association with mental health and functioning, and its interaction with external stress.

A total of 2065 young people were consecutively recruited from a household-based epidemiological youth mental health study in Hong Kong. Trypophobia, symptoms of anxiety, depression and stress, and exposure to personal stressors were assessed. Logistic regression was used to assess the relationships between trypophobia and mental health. Potential additive and interaction effects of trypophobia and high stress exposure on mental health were also tested.

The prevalence of trypophobia was 17.6%. Trypophobia was significantly associated with severe symptoms of anxiety (odds ratio (OR) = 1.83, 95% CI = 1.32–2.53), depression (OR = 1.78, 95% CI = 1.24–2.56) and stress (OR = 1.68, 95% CI = 1.11–2.53), even when accounting for sociodemographic factors, personal and family psychiatric history, resilience and stress exposure. Dose–response relationships were observed, and trypophobia significantly potentiated the effects of stress exposure on symptom outcomes, particularly for depressive symptoms. Those with trypophobia also showed significantly poorer functioning across domains and poorer health-related quality of life.

Screening for trypophobia in young people may facilitate early risk detection and intervention, particularly among those with recent stress exposure. Nevertheless, the generally small effect sizes suggest that other factors have more prominent roles in determining recent mental health outcomes in population-based samples; these should be explored in future work.

Patients with borderline personality disorder are often a challenge to the mental health system. Psychiatrists see people with BPD as manipulative, difficult to manage, annoying, unlikely to arouse sympathy, clinicians hold negative attitude towards personality disorder.

As the next generation of doctors, medical students’ perception of patients with personality disorder (PD) is critical.

Yet a systematic review of the literature shows this has not been studied.

The study aims to identify :

1) the understanding and perception of medical students about PD

2) factors that may relate to this knowledge and perception.

A focus group discussion (FGD) was conducted with eight medical students in their sixth year at Amoud University, Somaliland.

A case vignette of a patient with typical Borderline PD symptoms was presented to stimulate discussion. Barts Explanatory Model Inventory (BEMI) was used to explore the issue.

The FGD was conducted via MS teams, recorded, transcribed, translated and thematically analysed

The Medical students showed reasonably accurate knowledge regarding Borderline PD, recognising features of unstable mood, impulsiveness, and emptiness. Of note half the participants believed religious intervention would be helpful “I believe in Islam. So,basically so to some degree it could be managed in certain religious centers”. Importantly, medical students, when asked to divest of their professional identity, and to describe their personal views associated PD with madness.

The views of PD as ‘madness’ and that religious intervention has a role have important implications for training and service development.

The importance of a culturally sensitive training to Medical students regarding PD to match local cultural and religious views, and consideration of development of health services which are sensitive to religious practice is highlighted.

We recommend including social and cultural implications in the training of medical students to better prepare them for the complexity of managing PD.

None Declared

Recruiting underrepresented people and communities in research is essential for generalizable findings. Ensuring representative participants can be particularly challenging for practice-level dissemination and implementation trials. Novel use of real-world data about practices and the communities they serve could promote more equitable and inclusive recruitment.

We used a comprehensive primary care clinician and practice database, the Virginia All-Payers Claims Database, and the HealthLandscape Virginia mapping tool with community-level socio-ecological information to prospectively inform practice recruitment for a study to help primary care better screen and counsel for unhealthy alcohol use. Throughout recruitment, we measured how similar study practices were to primary care on average, mapped where practices’ patients lived, and iteratively adapted our recruitment strategies.

In response to practice and community data, we adapted our recruitment strategy three times; first leveraging relationships with residency graduates, then a health system and professional organization approach, followed by a community-targeted approach, and a concluding approach using all three approaches. We enrolled 76 practices whose patients live in 97.3% (1844 of 1907) of Virginia’s census tracts. Our overall patient sample had similar demographics to the state for race (21.7% vs 20.0% Black), ethnicity (9.5% vs 10.2% Hispanic), insurance status (6.4% vs 8.0% uninsured), and education (26.0% vs 32.5% high school graduate or less). Each practice recruitment approach uniquely included different communities and patients.

Data about primary care practices and the communities they serve can prospectively inform research recruitment of practices to yield more representative and inclusive patient cohorts for participation.

Childhood adversities (CAs) predict heightened risks of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depressive episode (MDE) among people exposed to adult traumatic events. Identifying which CAs put individuals at greatest risk for these adverse posttraumatic neuropsychiatric sequelae (APNS) is important for targeting prevention interventions.

Data came from n = 999 patients ages 18–75 presenting to 29 U.S. emergency departments after a motor vehicle collision (MVC) and followed for 3 months, the amount of time traditionally used to define chronic PTSD, in the Advancing Understanding of Recovery After Trauma (AURORA) study. Six CA types were self-reported at baseline: physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, physical neglect, emotional neglect and bullying. Both dichotomous measures of ever experiencing each CA type and numeric measures of exposure frequency were included in the analysis. Risk ratios (RRs) of these CA measures as well as complex interactions among these measures were examined as predictors of APNS 3 months post-MVC. APNS was defined as meeting self-reported criteria for either PTSD based on the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 and/or MDE based on the PROMIS Depression Short-Form 8b. We controlled for pre-MVC lifetime histories of PTSD and MDE. We also examined mediating effects through peritraumatic symptoms assessed in the emergency department and PTSD and MDE assessed in 2-week and 8-week follow-up surveys. Analyses were carried out with robust Poisson regression models.

Most participants (90.9%) reported at least rarely having experienced some CA. Ever experiencing each CA other than emotional neglect was univariably associated with 3-month APNS (RRs = 1.31–1.60). Each CA frequency was also univariably associated with 3-month APNS (RRs = 1.65–2.45). In multivariable models, joint associations of CAs with 3-month APNS were additive, with frequency of emotional abuse (RR = 2.03; 95% CI = 1.43–2.87) and bullying (RR = 1.44; 95% CI = 0.99–2.10) being the strongest predictors. Control variable analyses found that these associations were largely explained by pre-MVC histories of PTSD and MDE.

Although individuals who experience frequent emotional abuse and bullying in childhood have a heightened risk of experiencing APNS after an adult MVC, these associations are largely mediated by prior histories of PTSD and MDE.

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) can accompany emotional symptoms as well as physical reactions. The assessment and real-time measurement of SAD is difficult in real-world.

This study aims to predict the severity of specific anxiety states and virtual reality (VR) sickness in SAD patients by a machine learning model based on only quantitative measuring of autonomic physiologic signals during VR therapy sessions.

In total, 32 individuals with SAD symptoms were enrolled in VR participatory sessions. We assessed patients’ specific anxiety symptoms through Internalized Shame Scale (ISS) and Post-Event Rumination Scale (PERS), and VR sickness through Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ). Specific anxiety symptoms and VR sickness were divided into severe and non-severe states based on the total score of each scale by K-means clustering. Logistic regression, Random Forest, Naïve Bayes classifier, and Support Vector Machine were used based on the physiological signal data to predict the severity group in subdomains of ISS, PERS, and SSQ.

Prediction performance (F1 score) for the severity of the ISS mistake anxiety subdomain was higher than other scales with 0.8421. For VR sickness, prediction performance for the severity of the physical subdomain was higher than the non-physical subdomain with 0.7692.

The study findings present that mistake anxiety and physical sickness could be predicted more accurately by only autonomic physiological signals, suggesting these features are probably associated with autonomic responses. Based on the present study results, we could provide the evidence for predicting the severity of specific anxiety or VR adverse effects only based on in-situ physiological signals.

No significant relationships.

The impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on mental health is still being unravelled. It is important to identify which individuals are at greatest risk of worsening symptoms. This study aimed to examine changes in depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms using prospective and retrospective symptom change assessments, and to find and examine the effect of key risk factors.

Online questionnaires were administered to 34 465 individuals (aged 16 years or above) in April/May 2020 in the UK, recruited from existing cohorts or via social media. Around one-third (n = 12 718) of included participants had prior diagnoses of depression or anxiety and had completed pre-pandemic mental health assessments (between September 2018 and February 2020), allowing prospective investigation of symptom change.

Prospective symptom analyses showed small decreases in depression (PHQ-9: −0.43 points) and anxiety [generalised anxiety disorder scale – 7 items (GAD)-7: −0.33 points] and increases in PTSD (PCL-6: 0.22 points). Conversely, retrospective symptom analyses demonstrated significant large increases (PHQ-9: 2.40; GAD-7 = 1.97), with 55% reported worsening mental health since the beginning of the pandemic on a global change rating. Across both prospective and retrospective measures of symptom change, worsening depression, anxiety and PTSD symptoms were associated with prior mental health diagnoses, female gender, young age and unemployed/student status.

We highlight the effect of prior mental health diagnoses on worsening mental health during the pandemic and confirm previously reported sociodemographic risk factors. Discrepancies between prospective and retrospective measures of changes in mental health may be related to recall bias-related underestimation of prior symptom severity.

Young people are most vulnerable to suicidal behaviours but least likely to seek help. A more elaborate study of the intrinsic and extrinsic correlates of suicidal ideation and behaviours particularly amid ongoing population-level stressors and the identification of less stigmatising markers in representative youth populations is essential.

Participants (n = 2540, aged 15–25) were consecutively recruited from an ongoing large-scale household-based epidemiological youth mental health study in Hong Kong between September 2019 and 2021. Lifetime and 12-month prevalence of suicidal ideation, plan, and attempt were assessed, alongside suicide-related rumination, hopelessness and neuroticism, personal and population-level stressors, family functioning, cognitive ability, lifetime non-suicidal self-harm, 12-month major depressive disorder (MDD), and alcohol use.

The 12-month prevalence of suicidal ideation, ideation-only (no plan or attempt), plan, and attempt was 20.0, 15.4, 4.6, and 1.3%, respectively. Importantly, multivariable logistic regression findings revealed that suicide-related rumination was the only factor associated with all four suicidal outcomes (all p < 0.01). Among those with suicidal ideation (two-stage approach), intrinsic factors, including suicide-related rumination, poorer cognitive ability, and 12-month MDE, were specifically associated with suicide plan, while extrinsic factors, including coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) stressors, poorer family functioning, and personal life stressors, as well as non-suicidal self-harm, were specifically associated with suicide attempt.

Suicide-related rumination, population-level COVID-19 stressors, and poorer family functioning may be important less-stigmatising markers for youth suicidal risks. The respective roles played by not only intrinsic but also extrinsic factors in suicide plan and attempt using a two-stage approach should be considered in future preventative intervention work.

The location of the vertical segment of the facial nerve varies greatly among patients undergoing otological surgery. Its position relative to the incus determines facial recess width, which has implications for ease of cochlear implantation.

To investigate the variation in facial nerve depth, relative to the incus, on pre-operative computed tomography in patients undergoing cochlear implantation.

A retrospective cohort study was conducted of paediatric patients undergoing cochlear implantation at a tertiary referral centre. Distance between the incus short process and facial nerve, in the transverse (medial-lateral) dimension, was measured at six imaging slices, ranging from 1.25 to 7.25 mm below the tip of the incus short process.

Facial nerve depth relative to the incus short process demonstrated significant variability. Among all subjects and at all measurements taken inferior to the incus, the mean dimension between the facial nerve and the incus short process was 1.71 mm.

This paper presents a rapid, repeatable technique to assess the depth of the facial nerve vertical segment on pre-operative computed tomography, as measured relative to the tip of the incus short process. This allows the surgeon to anticipate facial recess width and round window access during cochlear implantation.

Brief measurements of the subjective experience of stress with good predictive capability are important in a range of community mental health and research settings. The potential for large-scale implementation of such a measure for screening may facilitate early risk detection and intervention opportunities. Few such measures however have been developed and validated in epidemiological and longitudinal community samples. We designed a new single-item measure of the subjective level of stress (SLS-1) and tested its validity and ability to predict long-term mental health outcomes of up to 12 months through two separate studies.

We first examined the content and face validity of the SLS-1 with a panel consisting of mental health experts and laypersons. Two studies were conducted to examine its validity and predictive utility. In study 1, we tested the convergent and divergent validity as well as incremental validity of the SLS-1 in a large epidemiological sample of young people in Hong Kong (n = 1445). In study 2, in a consecutively recruited longitudinal community sample of young people (n = 258), we first performed the same procedures as in study 1 to ensure replicability of the findings. We then examined in this longitudinal sample the utility of the SLS-1 in predicting long-term depressive, anxiety and stress outcomes assessed at 3 months and 6 months (n = 182) and at 12 months (n = 84).

The SLS-1 demonstrated good content and face validity. Findings from the two studies showed that SLS-1 was moderately to strongly correlated with a range of mental health outcomes, including depressive, anxiety, stress and distress symptoms. We also demonstrated its ability to explain the variance explained in symptoms beyond other known personal and psychological factors. Using the longitudinal sample in study 2, we further showed the significant predictive capability of the SLS-1 for long-term symptom outcomes for up to 12 months even when accounting for demographic characteristics.

The findings altogether support the validity and predictive utility of the SLS-1 as a brief measure of stress with strong indications of both concurrent and long-term mental health outcomes. Given the value of brief measures of mental health risks at a population level, the SLS-1 may have potential for use as an early screening tool to inform early preventative intervention work.

To investigate the association between parity and the risk of incident dementia in women.

We pooled baseline and follow-up data for community-dwelling women aged 60 or older from six population-based, prospective cohort studies from four European and two Asian countries. We investigated the association between parity and incident dementia using Cox proportional hazards regression models adjusted for age, educational level, hypertension, diabetes mellitus and cohort, with additional analysis by dementia subtype (Alzheimer dementia (AD) and non-Alzheimer dementia (NAD)).

Of 9756 women dementia-free at baseline, 7010 completed one or more follow-up assessments. The mean follow-up duration was 5.4 ± 3.1 years and dementia developed in 550 participants. The number of parities was associated with the risk of incident dementia (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.07, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.02–1.13). Grand multiparity (five or more parities) increased the risk of dementia by 30% compared to 1–4 parities (HR = 1.30, 95% CI = 1.02–1.67). The risk of NAD increased by 12% for every parity (HR = 1.12, 95% CI = 1.02–1.23) and by 60% for grand multiparity (HR = 1.60, 95% CI = 1.00–2.55), but the risk of AD was not significantly associated with parity.

Grand multiparity is a significant risk factor for dementia in women. This may have particularly important implications for women in low and middle-income countries where the fertility rate and prevalence of grand multiparity are high.

Ex utero intrapartum treatment (‘EXIT’ procedure) is a well described method for maintaining maternal–fetal circulation in the setting of airway obstruction from compressive neck masses. When ex utero intrapartum treatment to airway is not feasible, ex utero intrapartum treatment to extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (‘ECMO’) has been described in fetal cardiopulmonary abnormalities.

This paper presents the case of a massively compressive midline neck teratoma managed with ex utero intrapartum treatment to extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, allowing for neonatal survival, with controlled airway management and subsequent resection.

A 34-year-old-female presented with a fetal magnetic resonance imaging scan demonstrating a 15 cm compressive midline neck teratoma. Concern for failure of ex utero intrapartum treatment to airway was high. The addition of the ex utero intrapartum treatment to extracorporeal membrane oxygenation procedure provided time for the planned subsequent resection of the mass and tracheostomy.

Ex utero intrapartum treatment procedures allow for securement of the difficult neonatal airway, while maintaining a supply of oxygenated blood to the newborn. Ex utero intrapartum treatment circulation lasts on average less than 30 minutes. The arrival of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation has enabled the survival of neonates with disease processes previously incompatible with life.

Previous research has suggested an association between depression and subsequent acute stroke incidence, but few studies have examined any effect modification by sociodemographic factors. In addition, no studies have investigated this association among primary care recipients with hypertension.

We examined the anonymized records of all public general outpatient visits by patients aged 45+ during January 2007–December 2010 in Hong Kong to extract primary care patients with hypertension for analysis. We took the last consultation date as the baseline and followed them up for 4 years (until 2011–2014) to observe any subsequent acute hospitalization due to stroke. Mixed-effects Cox models (random intercept across 74 included clinics) were implemented to examine the association between depression (ICPC diagnosis or anti-depressant prescription) at baseline and the hazard of acute stroke (ICD-9: 430–437.9). Effect modification by age, sex, and recipient status of social security assistance was examined in extended models with respective interaction terms specified.

In total, 396 858 eligible patients were included, with 9099 (2.3%) having depression, and 10 851 (2.7%) eventually hospitalized for stroke. From the adjusted analysis, baseline depression was associated with a 17% increased hazard of acute stroke hospitalization [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.03–1.32]. This association was suggested to be even stronger among men than among women (hazard ratio = 1.29, 95% CI 1.00–1.67).

Depression is more strongly associated with acute stroke incidence among male than female primary care patients with hypertension. More integrated services are warranted to address their needs.

Suicide is a serious phenomenon associated with psychiatric disorders.

In the present study, we investigated factors that can predict follow-up at the psychiatric clinic after medical care at the emergency room (ER).

Medical records of the 145 patients treated at the ER following suicide attempt from Jan 1, 2009 to July 31, 2009 were reviewed. Age, sex, past psychiatric history, impulsiveness and medical severity of suicide attempt, risk-rescue rating scores, reasons for suicide attempt and methods of suicide were examined. Psychiatric diagnoses were made by psychiatrists at the initial interview with patients at ER.

The mean age of the patients was 42.9 ± 15.7 years, and 68.3 % were women and 31.7% were men. Among the suicide methods, psychotropics were the most common (69%), and ingestion of pesticides was the second (19.3%). Interpersonal problems were the most common precipitating event (57.9%), and depression was the most common (89%). About a half had previous psychiatric disorders and about one third had previous suicide attempt. Fifteen patients (10.3%) attempted planned suicide and 124 patients (85.5%) attempted impulsively. Mean risk and rescue rating scores was 8.6 ±1.6 and 12.3 ± 2.2. About one third had a follow-up psychiatric visit. The most important predictor of psychiatric follow-up was risk rating scores.

This study suggests that women with interpersonal problems and depression should be carefully monitored to reduce suicide attempt. Patients commit less risky suicide attempts tend to more loss to psychiatric follow-up, thus, need more attention to prevent suicide re-attempts.

Serotonin transporter (SERT) and dopamine transporter (DAT) levels differ in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) who are in a depressed state in comparison with healthy controls. In addition, a family history of depression is a potent risk factor for developing depression, and inherited vulnerability to serotonergic and dopaminergic dysfunction is suspected in this. The aim of this study was to examine the availabilities of midbrain SERT and striatal DAT in healthy subjects with and without a first-degree family history of MDD.

Eight healthy subjects with first-degree relatives with MDD and 16 sex- and age-matched healthy controls were recruited. The availabilities of SERT and DAT were approximated using SPECT, employing [123I] 2-((2-((dimethylamino)methyl)phenyl)thio)-5-iodophenylamine (ADAM) and [99mTc] TRODAT-1 as the ligands, respectively. There are missing data for one participant with a first-degree family history of MDD from the ADAM study, due to a lack of the radio-ligand at the time of experiment.

SERT availability in the midbrain was significantly lower in subjects with a first-degree family history of MDD than in healthy subjects. However, DAT availability was no different between two groups.

The results with regard to the midbrain SERT level suggest the heritability of MDD.

It is known that Sexual Dysfunction (SD) is higher in patient with depression than in the general population. Though antidepressant seems to worsen the situation, there are also indications that the gender may play a role on it.

Evaluate the gender effect of sexual function among unmedicated MDD, MDD receiving antidepressant, and healthy controls.

The sample was formed by male and female Taiwanese outpatients in three age and sex matched groups, with sixty nine participants per group: unmedicated MDD, MDD receiving antidepressant, and healthy controls. the diagnoses of depressions were performed according DSM-IV and Taiwanese Depression Questionnaire. SD was evaluated with the Chinese version of the Changes in Sexual Functioning Questionnaire. Finally, the data was analyzed using SPSS software v17. Mixed designed ANOVA was used.

There are significant differences between males and females CSFQ results (sex main effect F = 82.44, p < 0.001) and between groups (group main effect F = 3.48, p = 0.034). Additionally, the 2-way interaction between sex and group was also significant (F = 3.40, p = 0.036). Simple main effect analysis shows differences among male participants, between healthy and medicated males (F = 11.41, p = 0.002), but not in female (F = 1.58, p = 0.21). However the statistics weren’t different between females groups, the medicated expresses better results (similar to healthy group) than the unmedicated one.

SD is different between genders in each of the groups. Antidepressant seems to increase SD in man, while improves sexual satisfaction/function among depressive woman. We speculate that psychological improvement after treatment may have different impact between genders on sexual satisfaction.