Prevalence and associated factors of depressive and anxiety symptoms among Chinese secondary school students.

BACKGROUND: Depressive and anxiety symptoms affect about one-fourth of Chinese secondary school students. However, the prevalence and correlates of mental distress among secondary school students from Western China remain largely unexplored. This study aimed to examine the prevalence and associations of depressive and anxiety symptoms with demographic, family, school, life, and behavior factors in a large, representative sample of secondary school students in Zigong, a city in Western China. METHODS: Secondary school students were recruited using cluster sampling. The 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire, the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire, Multidimensional Peer-Victimization Scale, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and Nine-Item Internet Gaming Disorder Scale-Short Form were used. Descriptive statistic was used to describe the sociodemographic characteristics of participants. The clustering effect was adjusted by the "survey" package of R to calculate weighted prevalence. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression were used to explore associated factors of depression and anxiety, respectively. RESULTS: A total of 63,205 participants were involved, in which the weighted prevalence of depression in all subjects was 23.0% (95% CI: 19.6- 27.0%), and the weighted prevalence of anxiety was 13.9% (95% CI: 11.2- 17.0%). Logistic regression results showed girls, being single-child, non-nuclear family, peer bullying, sleep disturbance, and internet gaming disorder symptoms were positively associated with depressive and anxiety symptoms. CONCLUSION: Depressive and anxiety symptoms were prevalent among secondary school students in Western China. Our results can guide policy strategies for the assessment, prevention, and intervention of psychological status among Chinese secondary school students.

The experience of long-stay patients in a forensic psychiatric hospital in China: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Long stay in forensic psychiatric hospitals is common in patients who are defined as "not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder". However, little is known about how these patients experience and perceive the long stay within these settings. The aim of this study is to explore the perception and needs of long-stay patients in forensic psychiatric hospitals in China. METHODS: In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 participants who had lived in the forensic psychiatry hospital for more than 8 years. We used thematic analysis strategies to analyse the qualitative data. RESULTS: Participants' perceptions clustered seven themes: hopelessness, loneliness, worthlessness, low mood, sleep disturbances, lack of freedom, and lack of mental health intervention. CONCLUSIONS: The views and opinions expressed by long-stay patients showed that psychological distress is prevailing in forensic psychiatric hospitals. Adequate and effective care and mental health interventions are recommended to be tailored for their special needs.

Electroencephalographic Microstates in Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder.

Schizophrenia (SCH) and bipolar disorder (BD) are characterized by many types of symptoms, damaged cognitive function, and abnormal brain connections. The microstates are considered to be the cornerstones of the mental states shown in EEG data. In our study, we investigated the use of microstates as biomarkers to distinguish patients with bipolar disorder from those with schizophrenia by analyzing EEG data measured in an eyes-closed resting state. The purpose of this article is to provide an electron directional physiological explanation for the observed brain dysfunction of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder patients. Methods: We used microstate resting EEG data to explore group differences in the duration, coverage, occurrence, and transition probability of 4 microstate maps among 20 SCH patients, 26 BD patients, and 35 healthy controls (HCs). Results: Microstate analysis revealed 4 microstates (A-D) in global clustering across SCH patients, BD patients, and HCs. The samples were chosen to be matched. We found the greater presence of microstate B in BD patients, and the less presence of microstate class A and B, the greater presence of microstate class C, and less presence of D in SCH patients. Besides, a greater frequent switching between microstates A and B and between microstates B and A in BD patients than in SCH patients and HCs and less frequent switching between microstates C and D and between microstates D and C in BD patients compared with SCH patients. Conclusion: We found abnormal features of microstate A, B in BD patients and abnormal features of microstate A, B, C, and D in SCH patients. These features may indicate the potential abnormalities of SCH patients and BD patients in distributing neural resources and influencing opportune transitions between different states of activity.

Self-Harm History, Anxiety-Depression, Severity of Disease, and Insight Are Significantly Associated With Suicide Risk in Forensic Psychiatric Inpatients of China.

Background: Forensic psychiatric patients have higher suicide risk than the general population. This study aimed to evaluate the extent of suicide risk and to explore the associated factors in forensic psychiatric inpatients in China. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study from 1st November, 2018 to 30th January, 2019 in the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital of Hunan Province, China. Patient's information on socio-demographic, clinical, and criminological characteristics was collected. The suicidality subscale of the MINI-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I.), the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), and the Severity of Illness of Clinical Global Impressions Scale (CGI-SI) were used to measure present suicide risks, psychiatric symptoms, and the severity of the patient's disease, respectively. Binary logistic regression models were used to examine factors associated with suicide risk. Results: Twenty-one percent (84/408) of the forensic psychiatric inpatients reported suicide risk. Logistic regression analysis suggested that self-harm history (OR:3.47, 95% confidence interval CI: 1.45-8.33), symptoms of anxiety-depression (OR:1.15, 95% CI:1.04-1.27), and more severe mental disorder (OR:1.42, 95% CI:1.08-1.87) were associated with elevated suicide risk, while insight disorder (OR:0.81, 95% CI:0.65-0.99) was related to decreasing suicide risk. Conclusion: The study supplied useful clinical information to recognize high suicide risk in forensic psychiatric inpatients and may aid the development of valuable strategies for preventing and reducing suicide events.

High Psychiatric Morbidity and Comorbidity Among Female Prisoners in Hunan, China.

BACKGROUND: High prevalence of mental disorders has been found among female prisoners in Western countries, however, little is known about the epidemiology of mental disorders in such populations in China. This study aims to investigate psychiatric morbidity and comorbidity among sentenced prisoners in a female prison in China. METHODS: A cluster sample of 2,703 female adult prisoners from Hunan Provincial Female Prison were interviewed with the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview, a semi-structured Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th edition (DSM-IV) mental disorder diagnostic tool. The rates of psychotic disorders, affective disorders, anxiety disorders, and substance use disorders were reported. RESULTS: Nearly 2/3 (66.2%, N=1,790) of the sample fulfilled the criteria for at least one lifetime DSM-IV disorder 36.5% had major depression, 22.2% had post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and 16.5% had drug use disorder. Drug use disorders were the major comorbid disorders. 60.8% of people with alcohol use disorder and 37.0% of those with psychotic disorders also had a drug use disorder. More than one-quarter (26.1%) of the population met criteria for a current diagnosis of any mental disorder, of which major depression was the most common (14.7%), followed by PTSD (6.4%) and psychotic disorder (1.8%). CONCLUSION: The high levels of psychiatric morbidity and comorbidity in a representative sample of female prisoners in China indicate unmet needs that require identification and therapeutic intervention in prisons.