Current Depressive State Research Articles

Status quo and factors of depression and anxiety in patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer after plasma electrocision

BACKGROUND Bladder cancer is a type of cancer with a high incidence in men. Plasma electrosurgery (PES) is often used in the treatment of bladder cancer. Postoperative complications often cause depression and anxiety in patients after surgery. AIM To investigate the current state of depression and anxiety after PES in patients with non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer and analyze the factors affecting them. METHODS A retrospective study was conducted to compare the baseline data of patients by collecting their medical history and grouping them according to their mental status into negative and normal groups. Logistic regression analysis was used to explore the risk factors affecting the occurrence of anxiety and depression after surgery in patients with bladder cancer. RESULTS Comparative analyses of baseline differences showed that the patients in the negative and normal groups differed in terms of their first surgery, economic status, educational level, and marital status. A logistic regression analysis showed that it affected the occurrence of anxiety in patients with bladder cancer, and the results showed that whether the risk factors were whether or not it was the first surgery, monthly income between 3000 and 3000-6000, secondary or junior high school education level, single, divorced, and widowed statuses. CONCLUSION The risk factors affecting the onset of anxiety and depression in bladder cancer patients after PES are the number of surgeries, economic status, level of education, and marital status. This study provides a reference for the clinical treatment and prognosis of bladder cancer patients in the future.

The evidence-based COPE program: Reducing the time between diagnosing and treating depression and anxiety in youth.

The soaring prevalence of depression and anxiety in children, teenagers, and young adults is now a public health epidemic, yet access to timely evidence-based mental health treatment is often lacking due to a severe shortage of mental health providers. This article provides an overview of the current state of depression and anxiety in children and adolescents as well as first-line evidence-based treatment. The Creating Opportunities for Personal Empowerment (COPE) program, a cognitive-behavioral skills-building intervention, is highlighted as an evidence-based intervention for timely treatment that can be delivered by NPs, physicians, and physician associates/assistants in primary care settings, school-based health centers, and chronic care clinics with reimbursement as well as in schools and universities as a preventive mental health intervention.

Cyberbullying and Depression among Chinese Youth

Cyberbullying is the use of electronic communication to harass, insult, or cause harm to a person via the Internet. Cyberbullying has become more prevalent in todays society, and young people who experience it frequently feel isolated and helpless, potentially contributing to the rising rate of depression. However, little research has been conducted on the depression caused by cyberbullying among Chinese high school students. Therefore, this study focuses on the current state of depression among Chinese high school students and its correlation with age, gender, and city level. The questionnaire used was a modified Chinese version of the CES-D scale and was distributed via social media to 184 current Chinese high school students from various regions. After conducting a pilot study, the language of the Chinese version of the CES-D scale has been adjusted to become more understandable for students. Participants filled out an online questionnaire, and SPSS was used to analyse the data. Male students have a slightly lower average total depression score (M = 62.74) than female students (M = 65.71). There was no correlation between gender and student depression. Furthermore, there is no significant correlation between school location and depression levels (p = 0.084, p > 0.05). In addition, the overall Pearson correlation score indicates that depression and age are correlated with a weak association of 0.178 and a significance of 0.016 (p = 0.016, p < 0.05).

Depression is associated with reduced outcome sensitivity in a dual valence, magnitude learning task.

Learning from rewarded and punished choices is perturbed in depressed patients, suggesting that abnormal reinforcement learning may be a cognitive mechanism of the illness. However, previous studies have disagreed about whether this behavior is produced by alterations in the rate of learning or sensitivity to experienced outcomes. This previous work has generally assessed learning in response to binary outcomes of one valence, rather than to both rewarding and punishing continuous outcomes. A novel drifting reward and punishment magnitude reinforcement-learning task was administered to patients with current (n = 40) and remitted depression (n = 39), and healthy volunteers (n = 40) to capture potential differences in learning behavior. Standard questionnaires were administered to measure self-reported depressive symptom severity, trait and state anxiety and level of anhedonic symptoms. Our findings demonstrate that patients with current depression adjust their learning behaviors to a lesser degree in response to trial-by-trial variations in reward and loss magnitudes than the other groups. Computational modeling revealed that this behavioral signature of current depressive state is better accounted for by reduced reward and punishment sensitivity (all p < 0.031), rather than a change in learning rate (p = 0.708). However, between-group differences were not related to self-reported symptom severity or comorbid anxiety disorders in the current depression group. These findings suggest that current depression is associated with reduced outcome sensitivity rather than altered learning rate. Previous findings reported in this domain mainly from binary learning tasks seem to generalize to learning from continuous outcomes.

Measuring depression severity based on facial expression and body movement using deep convolutional neural network.

Real-time evaluations of the severity of depressive symptoms are of great significance for the diagnosis and treatment of patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). In clinical practice, the evaluation approaches are mainly based on psychological scales and doctor-patient interviews, which are time-consuming and labor-intensive. Also, the accuracy of results mainly depends on the subjective judgment of the clinician. With the development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, more and more machine learning methods are used to diagnose depression by appearance characteristics. Most of the previous research focused on the study of single-modal data; however, in recent years, many studies have shown that multi-modal data has better prediction performance than single-modal data. This study aimed to develop a measurement of depression severity from expression and action features and to assess its validity among the patients with MDD. We proposed a multi-modal deep convolutional neural network (CNN) to evaluate the severity of depressive symptoms in real-time, which was based on the detection of patients' facial expression and body movement from videos captured by ordinary cameras. We established behavioral depression degree (BDD) metrics, which combines expression entropy and action entropy to measure the depression severity of MDD patients. We found that the information extracted from different modes, when integrated in appropriate proportions, can significantly improve the accuracy of the evaluation, which has not been reported in previous studies. This method presented an over 74% Pearson similarity between BDD and self-rating depression scale (SDS), self-rating anxiety scale (SAS), and Hamilton depression scale (HAMD). In addition, we tracked and evaluated the changes of BDD in patients at different stages of a course of treatment and the results obtained were in agreement with the evaluation from the scales. The BDD can effectively measure the current state of patients' depression and its changing trend according to the patient's expression and action features. Our model may provide an automatic auxiliary tool for the diagnosis and treatment of MDD.

Building cost database for South Africa – key data trends and implications

The accuracy of any projections depends on the comprehensiveness of the report and the ability to gather appropriate data for the study. Inaccurate portrayals of any study will misguide the investor and result in project failure and loss of resources. Due to the current depressed state of the South African Economy, the construction industry’s value fell sharply and there was significant job loss. To help economic recovery, the South African government announced a ten-year infrastructure investment plan in housing among other sectors. The considerable deficit in infrastructure and housing in South Africa means that changes in building costs are important because of the implications of changes to affordability. This paper examines the trends in building costs in South Africa over five years and reconciles these indicators with other key socio-economic factors. The study analysed the indicators of Building Cost in the Medium-Term Forecasting Associates (MFA), Department Trade and Industry (DTi), and StatsSA database using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings suggest a positive correlation between population growth, unemployment, poverty, and the growth in building costs. While it can be inferred that inflation and corruption have a negative impact on growth in building cost. The study recommends that investors should plan ahead and make projections on population, unemployment, and poverty to avoid project failure and loss of resources due to increased building costs.

Transient Global Amnesia Recurrence: Prevalence and Risk Factor Meta-analysis.

Transient global amnesia (TGA) is an acute amnestic disorder with unclear pathophysiology. Although considered a benign phenomenon, the possibility of a recurrence is a major concern for the patient. Our objective is to identify the prevalence and risk factors of relapse to help clinicians counsel patients about it. According to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis guidance, we screened 1,658 studies from MEDLINE, Lilacs, and Embase databases, published from 1985 to April 2021, in English or Spanish. We included 36 observational case-control and cohort studies that included patients with TGA according to the Caplan or Hodges and Warlow diagnostic criteria. We performed a meta-analysis with a random effect model for proportions and calculation of odds ratio (OR) for identified risk factors. Methodological quality was assessed according to the Newcastle-Ottawa scale. We identified 4,514 TGA cases and 544 recurrence events (12.73%). A follow-up had no effect on its variance. We identified a statistically significant association between recurrence and sexual activity as a trigger, a personal history or current state of migraine and depression (OR 1,481 95% CI [1.0341-2.1222] p = 0.04; OR = 2.0795 95% CI [1.3892-3.1128] p = 0.003; and OR = 4.4871 95% CI [1.890-10.651] p = 0.0288, respectively). The analysis showed that approximately 1 of 8 participants may experience recurrence, with an increased risk in the case of a history or current state of migraine, depression, or sexual intercourse before the event. A personal history of migraine and depression was associated with 2 and 4 times risk, respectively.

Stop talking about it already! Co-ruminating and social media focused on COVID-19 was associated with heightened state anxiety, depressive symptoms, and perceived changes in health anxiety during Spring 2020

BackgroundSocial distancing presents a significant obstacle for relationships and threatens mental health. Identifying maladaptive, voluntary coping strategies may inform how to maintain interpersonal relationships and mental health during quarantine. Co-ruminating with peers on negative events, moods and fears has adjustment trade-offs of increasing depression and anxiety risk while also enhancing friendship quality. Similarly, social media use is associated with social benefits and risk to mental health. We extend prior research by examining whether co-ruminating on COVID-19, social media use, and social media use focused on COVID-19 during social isolation was associated with heightened depression and anxiety symptoms but also lower loneliness and higher social support during initial lockdown measures in the USA.MethodsAdults were recruited through social media (n = 345) to complete self-report surveys on co-rumination, social media use, social distancing, social support from March–May 2020. During this cross-sectional assessment, in addition to completing surveys on current depressive symptoms and state and health anxiety, participants also provided retrospective report of their perceived health anxiety levels six months prior.ResultsCo-ruminating on COVID-19 with peers and greater time on social media focused on COVID-19 predicted perceived increases in health anxiety and were also associated with higher depressive symptoms and state anxiety, even after controlling for significant demographic predictors. Further, in the context of social distancing, both interaction strategies failed to confer social benefits.ConclusionsResults have direct implications for maintaining psychosocial health during social distancing restrictions. Adults may modify how they engage with peers by limiting COVID-19 content on social media and COVID-19 discussion.

Gabor Feature Representation and Deep Convolution Neural Network for Marine Vessel Classification

The Vessel Surveillance System (VSS), a crucial tool for fisheries monitoring, controlling, and surveillance, has been required to use for the reservation of the current depressed state of the world's fisheries by fisheries management agencies. An important issue in the vessel surveillance system is the classification of vessels. However, several factors, such as lighting, congestion, and sea state, will affect the vessel's appearance, making it more difficult to classify vessels. There are two main methods for conventional classifications of vessels: the traditional-based- characteristics method and the convolutional neural networks-used method. In this paper, we combine Gabor feature representation (GFR) and deep convolution neural network (DCNN) to classify vessels. Gabor filters in different directions and ratios are used to extract vessel characteristics to create a new image of vessels, which is DCNN's input. The visible and infrared spectrums (VAIS) dataset, the world's first publicly available dataset for paired infrared and visible vessel images, was used to validate the proposed method (GFR-DCNN). The numerical results showed that GFR-DCNN is more accurate than other methods.

Reduced heart rate variability is associated with vulnerability to depression

• Resting heart rate variability was investigated in dysphoria and past depression. • Time- and frequency-domain parameters were assessed. • Dysphoria and past depression are characterized by reduced HF and SDNN parameters. • Using HRV to early identify people at risk for depression may be promising. Background: Heart rate variability (HRV) mirrors cardiac autonomic modulation, an index of well-being. Reduced HRV has been reported in depression, but few studies investigated HRV in individuals at-risk of or remitted from a full-blown depressive episode. The present study aimed at examining whether reduced HRV could be a potential indicator of vulnerability to depression. Methods: Self-reported psychological measures and three-minute resting-state ECG were collected in two at-risk populations [group with dysphoria ( n = 27), group with past depression ( n = 16)] and in a control group ( n = 25). Time- and frequency-domain HRV parameters were computed. Analysis of covariance was conducted to detect between-groups differences for each measure. Results: Standard Deviation of Normal to Normal intervals (SDNN) and High Frequency (HF) power of HRV were found to be reduced both in individuals with dysphoria and in those with past depression as compared with controls. Whereas psychological measures did not significantly differ among individuals with past depression and controls, HRV was capable of discriminating between the two groups. Limitations: Past depression was assessed retrospectively with self-reported information. The inclusion of a group with depression would provide an overview about HRV during the illness course. Conclusions: The findings suggest that reduced HRV is likely to be implicated in the risk of developing full-blown depression, rather than being a mere correlate of current depressive state. The results suggest that HRV may improve clinicians’ ability to early identify people at risk for depression who can benefit from targeted prevention by psychiatric and psychological interventions.

Brain Reward System Dysfunction in Adolescence: Current, Cumulative, and Developmental Periods of Depression.

Reward system dysfunction is a well-known correlate and predictor of depression in adults and adolescents, with depressed individuals showing blunted (hyporeactive) striatal response to monetary rewards. Furthermore, studies of remitted depression suggest network-wide hyporeactivity of striatal (caudate, putamen, nucleus accumbens) and cortical (insula, anterior cingulate cortex [ACC]) regions even in the absence of current symptoms. Thus, it remains unclear which patterns of hyporeactivity represent a trait-like indicator of depression and which represent a current depressed state. The authors examined the relationships between regions of a cortico-striatal circuit supporting reward processing and both current depression and cumulative depression history. Using a functional MRI monetary reward task, the authors measured brain response to monetary gains and losses in a longitudinal sample of adolescents (N=131) who had been annually assessed for psychiatric symptoms since ages 3-5 years. Current depression severity was associated with hyporeactivity exclusively in the nucleus accumbens in response to the anticipation of a reward, while cumulative depression severity was associated with blunted response to anticipation across a cortico-striatal circuit (striatum, ACC, insula). Follow-up analyses investigating the effects of depression on reward processing at different developmental stages revealed a similar pattern: recent depression severity during adolescence was associated with more focal hyporeactivity in the nucleus accumbens, while depression severity during early childhood (i.e., preschool) was associated with more global hyporeactivity across the cortico-striatal circuit. The study findings indicate important distinctions between disruptions in reward system neural circuitry associated with a history of depression (particularly early-onset depression) and current depression. These results have implications for understanding the etiology and treatment of reward processing deficits in depression.

Toward a framework for best practices and research guidelines for perinatal depression research.

This review article highlights the current state of perinatal depression (PND) research including established standards of care and innovative research in progress. PND can have a significant adverse impact on mother, child, and family; however, to date, wide-scale identification, prevention, and treatment have been limited. PND is heterogenous in presentation with likely multifactorial etiologies for each woman. Challenges in PND research are discussed including a need for universal tools, standardized measures, benchmarks, and best practices. Current examples are reviewed that highlight approaches to novel treatment paradigms and interventions. This includes reviewing epidemiologic studies in PND research, examining the biological underpinnings of PND, and discussing examples from this field and other fields currently developing translational research that spans from bench to bedside. Current and future challenges and opportunities in developing best practices for the treatment of PND are outlined. We also discuss the use of the NIMH Research Domain Criteria approach for PND research and provide recommendations for future directions in PND research collaboration. In conclusion, greater precision in perinatal psychiatry can be possible in the future with the development of guidelines and best practices that build on current work and apply innovative and collaborative approaches of scientists, providers, patients, community members, and government officials.

Suicide Screening and Behavioral Health Assessment in the Emergency Department

ABSTRACT Suicide is a leading cause of death among our young patients. Healthcare providers in acute care settings like the emergency department have an opportunity to identify and intervene with those at risk in order to prevent death from suicide, future psychiatric emergencies, and the considerable morbidity that patients with unmet behavioral health needs experience. This article describes the current state of depression and suicide among young people and the strategies for implementing and improving screening in the emergency department. Finally, the article will articulate how to prepare for the challenges that emergency care providers face, as we work to reduce barriers for all patients to access behavioral health resources and receive needed care.

Ruminative response style is associated with a negative bias in the perception of emotional facial expressions in healthy women without a history of clinical depression

Background and objectivesRumination has been shown to be an important cognitive vulnerability factor affecting development and maintenance of depression. Ruminative thinking can be divided into a self-focused component referring to persistent reflection about causes and consequences of depressed mood and a symptom-focused component characterized by repetitive thinking about depressive symptoms. Previous research on clinical depression has shown that rumination is associated with the perception of negative emotions in others’ facial expressions. The present study was conducted to investigate the relation between habitual rumination and negative bias in face perception in healthy individuals. Methods100 healthy young women without a history of clinical depression completed the Response Styles Questionnaire along with measures of depressive symptoms, dysfunctional attitudes, and anxiety. A computer-based version of the perception of facial expressions questionnaire using line drawings (schematic faces) was administered to assess perceived emotions in faces with ambiguous and unambiguous emotional expressions. ResultsAccording to hierarchical regression analyses, symptom-based (but not self-focused) rumination predicted perceived negative emotions in ambiguous as well as in unambiguous negative faces after controlling for current depressive symptoms, state and trait anxiety, intelligence, and dysfunctional attitudes. LimitationsGeneralization of the present findings is limited by the fact that only women were included as study participants. ConclusionsHabitual ruminating about depressive symptoms in healthy, never clinically depressed individuals goes along with a negative bias in the perception of others’ facial expressions. Negatively biasing social perception might be one mechanism by which symptom-focused rumination might increase vulnerability for depression.

The relationship between social cognition and executive function in Major Depressive Disorder in high-functioning adolescents and young adults

To understand how cognitive dysfunction contributes to social cognitive deficits in depression, we investigated the relationship between executive function and social cognitive performance in adolescents and young adults during current and remitted depression, compared to healthy controls. Social cognition and executive function were measured in 179 students (61 healthy controls and 118 patients with depression; Mage = 20.60 years; SDage = 3.82 years). Hierarchical regression models were employed within each group (healthy controls, remitted depression, current depression) to examine the nature of associations between cognitive measures. Social cognitive and executive function did not significantly differ overall between depressed patients and healthy controls. There was no association between executive function and social cognitive function in healthy controls or in remitted patients. However, in patients with a current state of depression, lower cognitive flexibility was associated with lower performance in facial-affect recognition, theory-of-mind tasks and overall affect recognition. In this group, better planning abilities were associated with decreased performance in facial affect recognition and overall social cognitive performance. While we infer that less cognitive flexibility might lead to a more rigid interpretation of ambiguous social stimuli, we interpret the counterintuitive negative correlation of planning ability and social cognition as a compensatory mechanism.

Biased recognition of facial affect in patients with major depressive disorder reflects clinical state.

Cognitive theories of depression posit that perception is negatively biased in depressive disorder. Previous studies have provided empirical evidence for this notion, but left open the question whether the negative perceptual bias reflects a stable trait or the current depressive state. Here we investigated the stability of negatively biased perception over time. Emotion perception was examined in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and healthy control participants in two experiments. In the first experiment subjective biases in the recognition of facial emotional expressions were assessed. Participants were presented with faces that were morphed between sad and neutral and happy expressions and had to decide whether the face was sad or happy. The second experiment assessed automatic emotion processing by measuring the potency of emotional faces to gain access to awareness using interocular suppression. A follow-up investigation using the same tests was performed three months later. In the emotion recognition task, patients with major depression showed a shift in the criterion for the differentiation between sad and happy faces: In comparison to healthy controls, patients with MDD required a greater intensity of the happy expression to recognize a face as happy. After three months, this negative perceptual bias was reduced in comparison to the control group. The reduction in negative perceptual bias correlated with the reduction of depressive symptoms. In contrast to previous work, we found no evidence for preferential access to awareness of sad vs. happy faces. Taken together, our results indicate that MDD-related perceptual biases in emotion recognition reflect the current clinical state rather than a stable depressive trait.

Incongruent reduction of serotonin transporter associated with suicide attempts in patients with major depressive disorder: a positron emission tomography study with 4-[18F]-ADAM.

Background:Much evidence supports the role of the serotonin transporter (SERT) in the pathophysiology and pharmacotherapy of major depressive disorder (MDD) and suicidal behaviors.Methods:In this study, we recruited 17 antidepressant-naïve patients with MDD and 17 age- and gender-matched healthy controls. SERT availability was measured in vivo with N,N-dimethyl-2-(2-amino-4-[18F]fluorophenylthio)benzylamine (4-[18F]-ADAM) positron emission tomography (PET) imaging. The 21-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation were used to assess the severity of depression and the intent of suicide ideation prior to PET imaging. All subjects with MDD were in a current state of depression with HDRS scores ≧18. Subjects who attempted suicide within two weeks of the study onset were recruited in the depressed suicidal group (n = 8). Subjects with MDD who denied any prior suicide attempt were recruited into the depressed non-suicidal group (n = 9).Results:A significant reduction of SERT availability in the midbrain, thalamus, and striatum was noted in the MDD group relative to the control group (Bonferroni-adjusted p-value < 0.05). Moreover, this effect was more pronounced in the depressed suicidal group compared to the control group (Bonferroni-adjusted p-value < 0.01). Relative to both the depressed non-suicidal and control groups, the depressed suicidal group showed an increased prefrontal cortex (PFC)/midbrain SERT binding ratio (Bonferroni-adjusted p-value < 0.01).Conclusions:This study suggests an incongruent reduction of PFC SERT binding relative to the midbrain might discriminate between depressed suicide attempters and non-attempters in patients with MDD and may be involved in the pathophysiology of suicide behaviors.

Neuroticism, social network, stressful life events: Association with mood disorders, depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation in a community sample of women

According to the stress-diathesis hypothesis, depression and suicidal behavior may be precipitated by psychosocial stressors in vulnerable individuals. However, risk factors for mental health are often gender-specific. In the present study, we evaluated common risk factors for female depression in association with depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation in a community sample of women. The sample was composed by 415 women evaluated for mood disorders (MDs), depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation by structured interviews and the Beck depression inventory II (BDI II). All women also filled in the Eysenck personality questionnaire to evaluate neuroticism and were interviewed for social contact frequency and stressful life events (SLEs). In the whole sample, 19% of the women satisfied criteria for MD and suicidal ideation was reported by 12% of the women. Though stressful life events, especially personal and interpersonal problems, and poor social network were associated with all the outcome variables (mood disorder, depressive symptomatology and suicidal ideation), neuroticism survived to all multivariate analyses. Social network, together with neuroticism, also showed strong association with depressive severity, independently from current depressive state. Though we were unable to compare women and men, data obtained from the present study suggest that in women neurotic traits are strongly related to depression and suicidal ideation, and potentially mediate reporting of stressful life events and impaired social network. Independently from a current diagnosis of depression, impaired social network increases depressive symptoms in the women.

The mediating role of self-criticism and dependency in the association between perceptions of maternal caring and depressive symptoms

This study examined a theoretically based mediation model including participants' perceptions of early relationships with their mother, self-criticism, dependency, and current depressive symptoms. We expect that (a) early relationships characterized by low levels of care and high levels of overprotection will be positively associated with both current depressive state and self-criticism and dependency; (b) high levels of self-criticism and dependency will be positively associated with depressive symptoms; and (c) self-criticism and dependency will play a mediating role in the association between participants' perceptions of early relationships characterized by low levels of care and high levels of overprotection and their current depressive symptoms. A nonclinical community sample of 200 Portuguese adults participated in the study. Perceptions of early relationships were measured using the mother scales of the Parental Bonding Instrument (Parker et al. [1979: Br J Med Psychol 52:1-10]), levels of self-criticism and dependency were measured using the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (Blatt et al. [1976: J Abn Psy 6:383-389]), and depressive symptoms were measured using the Center for the Epidemiological Studies of Depression Scale (Radloff [1977: Appl Psychol Meas 1:385-401]. Structural equation modeling showed that the link between participants' perceptions of early caretaking relationships with their mothers and their current depressive symptoms is mediated by high levels of self-criticism--a personality trait associated with vulnerability to depression--but not Dependency. However, an ancillary analysis indicated that the link between participants' perceptions of early maternal overprotective relationships and their current depressive symptoms is mediated by high levels of Neediness. Findings underscore the role of perceived early relationships in psychological vulnerability to depression among highly self-critical and among highly needy individuals and highlight the negative role played by perceived mothers' early dysfunctional practices, characterized by low levels of caring and high levels of overprotection, for the self-critical vulnerability to depression and by perceived mothers' high levels of overprotection, for the neediness vulnerability to depression. These potential causal mechanisms warrant longitudinal evaluation. Theoretical and clinical implications of the findings are discussed.

Application of a vessel monitoring system to advance sustainable fisheries management—Benefits received in Taiwan

Vessel monitoring systems (VMS) are considered important instruments for fisheries monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) to reverse the current depressed state of the world’s fisheries, and have been mandated worldwide by fishery management agencies. The essential function of the system is to provide near-real time vessel position; the potential applications could, however, be more than that. This study explores the additional benefits, with practical examples, that Taiwan has received from implementing the system: in improving the quantity and quality of logbooks recovered, obtaining access to fishery-independent fishing effort estimates and prompt catch/effort reporting, enabling the possibility of regional management and understanding of both fleet dynamics and vessel behavior, and increasing efficiency of vessel safety protection. For other distant-water fishing nations, Taiwan’s experiences serve to demonstrate how the application of VMS technology can advance sustainable fisheries management.