Human Mental Health Research Articles

The Magnitude of Psychological Problem and Associated Factor in Response to COVID-19 Pandemic Among Communities Living in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, March 2020: A Cross-Sectional Study Design.

PurposeCOVID-19 pandemic is a World Health Organization day-to-day work and has a significant crisis on the physical and mental health of humans. However, little is known about the mental health crisis of the pandemic in Sub-Saharan countries. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the magnitude of psychological problems and associated factors among communities living in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.MethodsA community-based cross-sectional study design was conducted from March 10 to 30, 2020. Data were collected from 420 respondents selected using a consecutive sampling technique. An online self-administered and Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21) survey during the initial phase of the pandemic was conducted to assess the presence of psychological problems for the last two weeks in response to the infection.ResultsThe magnitude of the psychological problem from moderate to severe levels was 66.4%. The predictor variables of the outcome were female gender, above the secondary level of education, monthly income below 3000 ETB, and more than three family size at 95% CI, P<0.05.ConclusionAt the time of the initial COVID-19 pandemic in Ethiopia, nearly two-thirds of the respondents reported moderate to severe levels of psychological problems. Therefore, working on those identified factors would be vital to promote the mental resilience of a community towards the pandemic.

Yoga Asanas And Increased The Mental Attitude Adolescents

&lt;p&gt;The study aims to describe &lt;em&gt;yoga asanas&lt;/em&gt; and increased the mental attitude of South African adolescents. In this modern era of society life, many studies have been conducted on health such as fitness, aerobics, etc. If further examined, sport is only healthy the body parts or physical exterior, and the exercise has a little effect on human mental and spiritual health. Therefore, one of the ways that can be taken to increase the physical and mental health of humans is by carrying out the teachings of &lt;em&gt;Yoga&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Yoga&lt;/em&gt; offers a simple and practical solution to balance between physical and mental human, because mental and spiritual in &lt;em&gt;Yoga&lt;/em&gt; can help humans interact more effectively, there are various kinds of obstacles that humans face in their daily lives. In this case, yoga is expected to help a person in awakening inner strength, cleanliness and excitement, and teaches physical and mental self-control exercises to achieve the final goal called &lt;em&gt;Samadhi&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

Morphofunctional indices and motor qualities in younout g students with different levels of body mass deficit

Introduction. The body weight of the person characterizes features of the exchange, power, hormonal, etc. the processes happening in a human body. Deviations from normal parameters of body weight affects somatic, physical, mental human health. The analysis of morfofunctsional characteristics and motive features of youth students with insufficient body weight is relevant in connection with insufficient study of the matter. Material and methods. 1514 students of the Irkutsk University at the age of 17-21 years are examined. Anthropometrical and physiometric examination was preformed, the maintenance of muscle and fatty bulk in a body was determined, motive qualities of young men with the normal body weight and deficiency of weight with gradation “below an average” and “low” are considered. Results. The deficiency of body weight is revealed at 209 examined young men (13.8%), out of them 134 students (64.1%) have gradation of deficiency of body weight “below an average” and value of an index in the range of a sigma deviation from M = -1 σ to M = -2 σ and 75 young (35.9%) men - gradation “low” where value of an index less than A M = -2 σ. Reliable differences between morfofunctional indices and results in motive tests of the students having deficiency of body weight and normal weight students are established. Indices of anthropometrical and physiometric characteristics, motive tests, the maintenance of muscle and fatty bulk in a body of all young men having deficiency of body weight are lower in comparison with indices of the young men having normal body weight (p &lt;0.05). The dependence between decrease in the level of development of motive qualities and reduction of body weight of students is noted. Conclusions. The received results allow correcting educational process on valeological and physical training of students of higher education institution with the use of integrative pedagogical methods and methods of training.

Morphofunctional indices and motor qualities in younout g students with different levels of body mass deficit

Introduction. The body weight of the person characterizes features of the exchange, power, hormonal, etc. the processes happening in a human body. Deviations from normal parameters of body weight affects somatic, physical, mental human health. The analysis of morfofunctsional characteristics and motive features of youth students with insufficient body weight is relevant in connection with insufficient study of the matter. Material and methods. 1514 students of the Irkutsk University at the age of 17-21 years are examined. Anthropometrical and physiometric examination was preformed, the maintenance of muscle and fatty bulk in a body was determined, motive qualities of young men with the normal body weight and deficiency of weight with gradation “below an average” and “low” are considered. Results. The deficiency of body weight is revealed at 209 examined young men (13.8%), out of them 134 students (64.1%) have gradation of deficiency of body weight “below an average” and value of an index in the range of a sigma deviation from M = -1 σ to M = -2 σ and 75 young (35.9%) men - gradation “low” where value of an index less than A M = -2 σ. Reliable differences between morfofunctional indices and results in motive tests of the students having deficiency of body weight and normal weight students are established. Indices of anthropometrical and physiometric characteristics, motive tests, the maintenance of muscle and fatty bulk in a body of all young men having deficiency of body weight are lower in comparison with indices of the young men having normal body weight (p &lt;0.05). The dependence between decrease in the level of development of motive qualities and reduction of body weight of students is noted. Conclusions. The received results allow correcting educational process on valeological and physical training of students of higher education institution with the use of integrative pedagogical methods and methods of training.

The gut microbiota and mental health in adults.

A growing body of evidence point toward the bidirectional gut microbiota-brain axis playing a role in mental health. Most of this research is conducted on animals why we in this review summarize and comment upon recent studies evaluating the gut microbiome in mental health in humans. Further support for the relevance of the bidirectional gut microbiota-brain communication in mood disorders has been presented, such as the effect of probiotics on brain connectivity and mental health outcomes and pregnancy related stress on gut microbiota in the newborn child. However, the heterogeneity between studies precludes conclusions regarding differences in microbiota composition in mental disease and health and many of the studies are limited by a cross-sectional design, small sample sizes and multiple comparisons. Thus, well-designed longitudinal studies with larger sample size, accounting for confounders are needed.

Evaluation of tube-shaped bus shelters as a noise mitigation solution for passengers

Environmental noise pollution, a worldwide problem, interferes in the physical and mental health of humans. Therefore, noise mitigation measures should be part of urban planning around the world. In Curitiba, Brazil, many bus shelters have a tube-shaped design. The purpose of this work was to ascertain if these tube-shaped bus shelters can mitigate environmental noise that reaches their users. To this end, equivalent sound pressure levels were measured simultaneously inside and outside 40 shelters and the Insertion Loss (IL) was calculated. The difference between the external and internal sound pressure measurements was determined statistically by means of a parametric analysis of variance (one-way ANOVA) and the nonparametric two-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test (K-S test). These measurements indicated that tube-shaped shelters reduced environmental noise levels, with IL varying from 2.1 to 8.9 dB(A), and an average IL of 4.9 dB(A). The one-way ANOVA and K-S significance tests, with p-values of 0.0113 and 0.0022, respectively, and with 95% certainty, indicated that IL was generated by the null hypothesis corresponding to the insertion of the tube-shaped bus shelter. Hence, it can be concluded that tube-shaped bus shelters not only enable fast passenger traffic but can also mitigate environmental noise levels.

Exploring Psychophysiological Restoration and Individual Preference in the Different Environments Based on Virtual Reality.

Accumulated evidence claims that urban green spaces (UGS) have a positive impact on the physical and mental health of humans. However, little information is available to clearly reveal what the most important driving factors are for human psychophysiological restoration. In order to unveil this uncertainty, this study employed virtual reality (VR) technology to investigate the physiological (electroencephalogram, EEG), and psychological (attention, positive mood, negative mood) responses and individual preferences for different urban environments. Participants (120) were recruited and randomly assigned to experience six different types of environments varying in land use and vegetation structures, which were: Grey space, blue space, open green space, partly open green space, partly closed green space, and closed green space. The results showed that the experience of the six environmental types through VR devices had positive restorative effects on the individuals’ attentional fatigue and negative mood; however, all the participants obtained the highest levels of physiological stress restoration when asked to close their eyes for relaxation. The physiological measurements of the EEG showed no significant differences among the selected types of environments. Meanwhile, the results of the psychological measures suggested that only negative mood showed significant differences of change among the six types of environments, and while the partly open green space had the most positive effect on negative mood, the closed green space had the worst. The blue space and partly closed green space received higher recreational preference ratings than the other four environments, while the closed green space received the lowest recreational preference rating. Moreover, the findings showed that there was a strong positive correlation between people’s preferences and the improvement of their positive mood. This indicated that as the popularity of a natural environment increased, so did the benefits of human health and well-being. In addition, this study shows that VR technology may be utilized as a possible surrogate measure to real scenes in evaluating human physiological and psychological restoration in the future. The present findings can provide the theoretical basis and practical guidance for future optimal planning of urban restorative environments.

Bibliometric analysis on cardiovascular disease treated by traditional Chinese medicines based on big data

In recent years, with the ageing of the population, environmental degradation and dietary abnormalities, the incidence of global cardiovascular disease has increased sharply, its serious impact on physical and mental health of humans is an important factor. Chinese medicine has a long history and significant efficacy in the treatment of cardiovascular disease. Based on the bibliometric method in the context of big data, this paper searched and screened the relevant literatures of TCM in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases included by SCI from 2004 to 2016 and analysed them from the aspects of annual change, regional distribution, institutional distribution, journal source, research field, highly cited literatures, high-frequency keywords and so on. The analysis results show that the total amount of literature in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases by traditional Chinese medicine is on the rise, mainly focusing on the application of traditional Chinese medicine and Chinese herbal compound, acupuncture and moxibustion, and taiji and other traditional Chinese medicine regimen. The research results of this paper provide a direction reference for TCM researchers to better understand the current research status of TCM in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases under the background of big data and for further research.

Does Prenatal Stress Shape Postnatal Resilience? - An Epigenome-Wide Study on Violence and Mental Health in Humans.

Stress during pregnancy widely associates with epigenetic changes and psychiatric problems during childhood. Animal studies, however, show that under specific postnatal conditions prenatal stress may have other, less detrimental consequences for the offspring. Here, we studied mental health and epigenome-wide DNA methylation in saliva following intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy in São Gonçalo, a Brazilian city with high levels of violence. Not surprisingly, mothers exposed to pregnancy IPV expressed elevated depression, PTSD and anxiety symptoms. Children had similar psychiatric problems when they experienced maternal IPV after being born. More surprisingly, when maternal IPV occurred both during (prenatal) and after pregnancy these problems were absent. Following prenatal IPV, genomic sites in genes encoding the glucocorticoid receptor (NR3C1) and its repressor FKBP51 (FKBP5) were among the most differentially methylated and indicated an enhanced ability to terminate hormonal stress responses in prenatally stressed children. These children also showed more DNA methylation in heterochromatin-like regions, which previously has been associated with stress/disease resilience. A similar relationship was seen in prenatally stressed middle-eastern refugees of the same age as the São Gonçalo children but exposed to postnatal war-related violence. While our study is limited in location and sample size, it provides novel insights on how prenatal stress may epigenetically shape resilience in humans, possibly through interactions with the postnatal environment. This translates animal findings and emphasizes the importance to account for population differences when studying how early life gene–environment interactions affects mental health.

ARNICA HYDROGEL: AN OIL REPLACEMENT FOR HAIR LOSS TREATMENT

Hair loss problems can affect physical and mental health of human and have particular significance during pregnancy, lactation and aging process. At present a number of oils and shampoos are available in the market to promote hair growth. Applying the medicated hair oils and shampooing the hairs daily reduces the patient compliance. Thus no therapy is giving satisfactory results to the hair loss. Aim of this work is to prepare non sticky, non greasy, quickly absorbable Arnica Hydrogel to stimulate hair. Arnica montana is widely used herbal and homeopathic medicine for hair growth stimulation and available as arnica oil and arnica shampoo. It rejuvenate scalp, stimulates the hair follicles by improving the blood flow and prevent premature hair fall. Arnica montana also have anti-inflammatory and anti dandruff properties which assist its hair growth property. Hydrogel have been emerged out as one of the most beneficial topical drug delivery system. It is three-dimensional cross-linked polymer network. Hydrophilic structure of which make them capable of holding the drug and water in its three dimentional network. These biomaterials can hold large quantity of water and swell. When swelled, they become soft & spongy and exhibit excellent biocompatibility. Arnica Hydrogel was prepared by incorporating ethanolic extract of Arnica montana in hydrogel at a particular step in order to prepare non greasy formulation. Hydrogel was optimized for the concentration of Carbopol 934. Different Hydrogel formulations were evaluated for their physical appearance, viscosity, pH, spreadability and stability.

Depression in Children and Teenagers

Depression is a psychiatric disease with dominant symptom, disorder of emotion and can affect people of all ages, including children and adolescents. The main feature of depression is the persistent and enduring sadness, the irritability and the absence of interest or satisfaction of any activity. Children and adolescents with depression are usually sad, and generally experiencing similarly the disease with older people. The untreated depression may result in a school failure, alcohol and substance abuse, and suicide. A decisive role for the management of depression in children and adolescents plays both family and school with the help and support of teachers.T he mental health of humans, particularly children, threatened by the disease of our century which is none other than depression, for this reason it is necessary for its cure the family cooperation with the school.

Prenatal Glucocorticoid Treatment and Later Mental Health in Children and Adolescents

BackgroundAnimal studies demonstrate a clear link between prenatal exposure to glucocorticoids (GC) and altered offspring brain development. We aim to examine whether prenatal GC exposure programs long-term mental health in humans. MethodsUsing propensity-score-matching, children prenatally exposed to synthetic glucocorticoids (sGC), n=37, and controls, n=185, were balanced on important confounders related to sGC treatment - gestational age and pre-pregnancy BMI. We also used mixed-effects modeling to analyse the entire cohort – matching each sGC case, n=37, to all possible controls, n=6079, on gestational age and sex. We obtained data from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1986 at four waves – pregnancy, birth, 8 and 16 years. Data on pregnancy and birth outcomes came from medical records. Mental health was assessed at 8 years by teachers with the Rutter B2 scale, and at 16 years by parents with the Strengths and Weaknesses of ADHD symptoms and Normal behavior (SWAN) scale and adolescents by the Youth Self-Report (YSR) scale. ResultsPrenatal sGC treatment was consistently associated with adverse mental health in childhood and adolescence, as shown by both the propensity-score method and mixed-effects model. Using the propensity-score-matched subsample, linear multiple regression showed prenatal sGC was significantly linked with general psychiatric disturbance (B=8.34 [95% CI: .23-16.45]) and inattention (B= .97 [95% CI: .16-1.80]) at 8 years after control for relevant confounders. Similar findings were obtained at 16 years, but did not reach statistical significance. Mediation by birthweight/placental weight was not detected. ConclusionsThis study is the first to prospectively investigate the long-term associations between prenatal exposure to sGC treatment and mental health in children and adolescents. We report an association between prenatal exposure to sGC and child mental health, supportive of the idea that sGC has a programming effect on the fetal brain.

The Bhagavad Gita : A Mirror of Positive Psychology

The psychology is a branch of social sciences dealing with mental health of human being particular when they are in some crises aiming to re-establish the power and potentialities of individual. The positive psychology, an emerging branch of psychology has been taken initiative to help the individual become more happier. The basic instrument of this is to revitalize the individual self-energy and self-confidence. The Bhagavad Gita is a testament of guidelines for positive psychology. Lord Sri Krishna has been explained how to regenerate the will power of people through his everyday work and work culture. The present paper has been discussed the importance of Gita in dealing with branch of positive psychology. It would be surely a helpful guideline to save the human being from conflict and crises of present day globalized world.

Hair cortisol, stress exposure, and mental health in humans: A systematic review

The deleterious effects of chronic stress on health and its contribution to the development of mental illness attract broad attention worldwide. An important development in the last few years has been the employment of hair cortisol analysis with its unique possibility to assess the long-term systematic levels of cortisol retrospectively. This review makes a first attempt to systematically synthesize the body of published research on hair cortisol, chronic stress, and mental health. The results of hair cortisol studies are contrasted and integrated with literature on acutely circulating cortisol as measured in bodily fluids, thereby combining cortisol baseline concentration and cortisol reactivity in an attempt to understand the cortisol dynamics in the development and/or maintenance of mental illnesses. The studies on hair cortisol and chronic stress show increased hair cortisol levels in a wide range of contexts/situations (e.g. endurance athletes, shift work, unemployment, chronic pain, stress in neonates, major life events). With respect to mental illnesses, the results differed between diagnoses. In major depression, the hair cortisol concentrations appear to be increased, whereas for bipolar disorder, cortisol concentrations were only increased in patients with a late age-of-onset. In patients with anxiety (generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder), hair cortisol levels were reported to be decreased. The same holds true for patients with posttraumatic stress disorder, in whom - after an initial increase in cortisol release - the cortisol output decreases below baseline. The effect sizes are calculated when descriptive statistics are provided, to enable preliminary comparisons across the different laboratories. For exposure to chronic stressors, the effect sizes on hair cortisol levels were medium to large, whereas for psychopathology, the effect sizes were small to medium. This is a first implication that the dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis in the development and/or maintenance of psychopathology may be more subtle than it is in healthy but chronically stressed populations. Future research possibilities regarding the application of hair cortisol research in mental health and the need for multidisciplinary approaches are discussed.

Differential effects of acute and regular physical exercise on cognition and affect

The effects of regular exercise versus a single bout of exercise on cognition, anxiety, and mood were systematically examined in healthy, sedentary young adults who were genotyped to determine brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) allelic status (i.e., Val–Val or Val66Met polymorphism). Participants were evaluated on novel object recognition (NOR) memory and a battery of mental health surveys before and after engaging in either (a) a 4-week exercise program, with exercise on the final test day, (b) a 4-week exercise program, without exercise on the final test day, (c) a single bout of exercise on the final test day, or (d) remaining sedentary between test days. Exercise enhanced object recognition memory and produced a beneficial decrease in perceived stress, but only in participants who exercised for 4 weeks including the final day of testing. In contrast, a single bout of exercise did not affect recognition memory and resulted in increased perceived stress levels. An additional novel finding was that the improvements on the NOR task were observed exclusively in participants who were homozygous for the BDNF Val allele, indicating that altered activity-dependent release of BDNF in Met allele carriers may attenuate the cognitive benefits of exercise. Importantly, exercise-induced changes in cognition were not correlated with changes in mood/anxiety, suggesting that separate neural systems mediate these effects. These data in humans mirror recent data from our group in rodents. Taken together, these current findings provide new insights into the behavioral and neural mechanisms that mediate the effects of physical exercise on memory and mental health in humans.

Healthcare Robot Technology Development

The interest in a healthy and happy life for seniors has increased of late as the quality of life in old age has become a hot issue. Moreover, the interest in health has led industrial companies to concentrate on healthcare technology. Healthcare robot technology is one of the biggest issues in the robotics field, and many companies and institutes have sought to develop a healthcare robot technology. The healthcare robot must have certain abilities that would allow it to help a person mentally and/or physically. There is no common interface module, however, for healthcare robot platforms, and few robots that have healthcare abilities exist. Therefore, developing a common interface technology and applying the technology to robot platforms can pave the way for the development of a technology that could improve the physical and mental health of humans. This paper introduces the authors’ research on a common interface module and a healthcare service robot platform. First, a common interface module is one that can be used in common in the healthcare robot area. The research on a common interface module contains the following technologies: biosignal processing modules; voice signal processing modules, which could recognize voice commands; control modules for robot actuators; and a human-friendly design for a healthcare system. Lastly, the research on a healthcare service robot platform contains three types of robot platforms: ChairBot for relaxation, RideBot for exercising, and LifecareBot for human emotions. Each robot platform has common interface modules for healthcare services and can provide specialized intelligent services based on their own objectives. In conclusion, the intellectual healthcare robot is expected to promote a new field and to pave the way for a new product.

Das Spiel der Willkürbewegungen und die Lebensfreude. Gedanken zur Bedeutung der Bewegungen für die Gesundheit des Menschen*

As a lead-in to the topic of the importance of active movement - in general as well as specifically therapeutic - for physical and mental human health, the interrelations between the phenomena and/or ideas of joie de vivre, the play of forms and possibilities as well as voluntary movements are explained. The contrast between gracefullness - closely connected with behaviour - and static beauty and Schiller's differentiation between the two qualities of human movement - “exaggerated efficacy” and “sympathetic” are referred to.