Deficits in maintenance and interference control of working memory in major depression: evidence from the visuospatial change detection task.

INTRODUCTION: Recent theories in cognitive psychology suggest that working memory (WM) processing involves a set of specific functions, in particular the WM functions of maintenance and interference control. Previous findings on WM impairments in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) had been inconsistent, partly because earlier studies did not take into account these two different functions of WM. METHOD: Forty-two participants with MDD and 39 controls completed the visuospatial change detection task. We estimated the WM function of maintenance, based on performance in trials using the targets only, and the WM function of interference control, based on performance in trials with distractor rectangles. RESULTS: Our results showed that participants with MDD had poorer WM function of maintenance and interference control than controls. However, the results of filtering efficiency did not show significant group difference, thus patients with MDD showed comparable impairments in WM function of maintanance as well as in WM function of interference control. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggested that patients with MDD appear to show generalised impairments on visuospatial WM function of maintenance and interference control. Future studies should use refined paradigms to assess the different functions of WM and their distinctive contributions to symptomatology of depression.

The Interaction Effects of Suicidal Ideation and Childhood Abuse on Brain Structure and Function in Major Depressive Disorder Patients.

Suicidal ideation (SI) is a direct risk factor for suicide in patients with depression. Regarding the emergence of SI, previous studies have discovered many risk factors, including childhood abuse as the major public problem. Previous imaging studies have demonstrated that SI or childhood abuse has effects on brain structure and function, respectively, but the interaction effects between them have not been fully studied. To explore the interaction effect between SI and childhood abuse, 215 patients with major depressive disorder completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire to evaluate childhood abuse and Beck's Scale for Suicidal Ideation to evaluate SI. Then, they completed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) within one week after completing questionnaires. Respectively, we preprocessed the structural and functional images and analyzed gray matter volumes (GMV) and mean fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (mfALFF) values. Results showed that the changes of GMV in the cuneus, precuneus, paracentric lobule, inferior frontal gyrus, and caudate nucleus and local activity in cuneal and middle temporal gyrus are in relation with SI and childhood abuse. And in left caudate, SI and childhood abuse interact with each other on the influence of GMV. That is, the influence of SI in GMV was related to childhood abuse, and the influence of childhood abuse in GMV was also related to SI. Therefore, the combination of SI and childhood abuse based on imaging should help us better understand the suicide ideation developing mechanism and propose more effective targeted prevention strategies for suicide prevention.

Impact on mental health and perceptions of psychological care among medical and nursing staff in Wuhan during the 2019 novel coronavirus disease outbreak: A cross-sectional study.

The severe 2019 outbreak of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which was first reported in Wuhan, would be expected to impact the mental health of local medical and nursing staff and thus lead them to seek help. However, those outcomes have yet to be established using epidemiological data. To explore the mental health status of medical and nursing staff and the efficacy, or lack thereof, of critically connecting psychological needs to receiving psychological care, we conducted a quantitative study. This is the first paper on the mental health of medical and nursing staff in Wuhan. Notably, among 994 medical and nursing staff working in Wuhan, 36.9% had subthreshold mental health disturbances (mean PHQ-9: 2.4), 34.4% had mild disturbances (mean PHQ-9: 5.4), 22.4% had moderate disturbances (mean PHQ-9: 9.0), and 6.2% had severe disturbance (mean PHQ-9: 15.1) in the immediate wake of the viral epidemic. The noted burden fell particularly heavily on young women. Of all participants, 36.3% had accessed psychological materials (such as books on mental health), 50.4% had accessed psychological resources available through media (such as online push messages on mental health self-help coping methods), and 17.5% had participated in counseling or psychotherapy. Trends in levels of psychological distress and factors such as exposure to infected people and psychological assistance were identified. Although staff accessed limited mental healthcare services, distressed staff nonetheless saw these services as important resources to alleviate acute mental health disturbances and improve their physical health perceptions. These findings emphasize the importance of being prepared to support frontline workers through mental health interventions at times of widespread crisis.

Abnormalities in P300 components in depression: an ERP-sLORETA study.

BACKGROUND: Alterations in P300 components occur in depressed patients, but the brain regions contributing to these changes remain unclear. AIMS: Thus, the aim of the present study was to examine the underlying neural activation of P300 components in patients with depression to explore brain regions related to depression. METHODS: P300 components were evoked by an oddball auditory paradigm and recorded from 30 patients with current depression, as well as 30 age-, gender-, and education level-matched healthy controls. The standardized Low-Resolution Brain Electromagnetic Tomography (sLORETA) method was used to explore the source activation of P300 components. RESULTS: Compared with healthy controls, depressed patients tended to exhibit lower P200 and P300 amplitudes and prolonged P300 latency. In depressed patients, P200 source activations were reduced in the right insula, right precentral gyrus, left anterior cingulate, medial frontal gyrus, superior frontal gyrus, and middle frontal gyrus. Decreased source activations of P300 were identified in the right insula, postcentral gyrus, superior temporal gyrus, inferior parietal lobule, transverse temporal gyrus, cingulate gyrus, precentral gyrus, middle frontal gyrus, superior frontal gyrus, medial frontal gyrus, and paracentral gyrus. CONCLUSIONS: Extensive dysfunction over the right hemisphere and bilateral prefrontal dysfunction may be involved in the pathophysiology of depression.

Dysregulated cerebral blood flow, rather than gray matter Volume, exhibits stronger correlations with blood inflammatory and lipid markers in depression.

Arterial spin labeling (ASL) can be used to detect differences in perfusion for multiple brain regions thought to be important in major depressive disorder (MDD). However, the potential of cerebral blood flow (CBF) to predict MDD and its correlations between the blood lipid levels and immune markers, which are closely related to MDD and brain function change, remain unclear. The 451 individuals - 298 with MDD and 133 healthy controls who underwent MRI at a single time point with arterial spin labelling and a high resolution T1-weighted structural scan. A proportion of MDD also provided blood samples for analysis of lipid and immune markers. We performed CBF case-control comparisons, random forest model construction, and exploratory correlation analyses. Moreover, we investigated the relationship between gray matter volume (GMV), blood lipids, and the immune system within the same sample to assess the differences in CBF and GMV. We found that the left inferior parietal but supramarginal and angular gyrus were significantly different between the MDD patients and HCs (voxel-wise P < 0.001, cluster-wise FWE correction). And bilateral inferior temporal (ITG), right middle temporal gyrus and left precentral gyrus CBF predict MDD (the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of the random forest model is 0.717) and that CBF is a more sensitive predictor of MDD than GMV. The left ITG showed a positive correlation trend with immunoglobulin G (r = 0.260) and CD4 counts (r = 0.283). The right ITG showed a correlation trend with Total Cholesterol (r = -0.249) and tumour necrosis factor-alpha (r = -0.295). Immunity and lipids were closely related to CBF change, with the immunity relationship potentially playing a greater role. The interactions between CBF, plasma lipids and immune index could therefore represent an MDD pathophysiological mechanism. The current findings provide evidence for targeted regulation of CBF or immune properties in MDD.

Anhedonia and dysregulation of an angular gyrus-centred and dynamic functional network in adolescent-onset depression.

BACKGROUND: Anhedonia is an important aspect of adolescent-onset major depressive disorder (MDD) and is associated with increased risk of suicidal behaviors and poor treatment outcomes. However, the neural circuitry underlying this deficit has not been well defined. This study aims to identify the relationships between anhedonia and changes in static and dynamic functional connectivity (FC) in adolescent-onset MDD patients compared with healthy control subjects (HCs) and adult-onset MDD patients. METHODS: A total of 157 participants completed the Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale (SHAPS) to assess hedonic capacity. Resting-state functional imaging scans were analysed using graph theoretical analysis, network-based statistics (NBS) and sliding window correlation analysis to explore the potential patterns of neural network brain disruptions in adolescent-onset MDD. Pearson correlations and support vector machines regression (SVR) were used to explore correlations and predict network measures with SHAPS scores. RESULTS: Compared with those with adult-onset MDD, adolescent-onset MDD patients showed decreased FC in 7 nodes and 6 connections, with the right angular gyrus (AG), left AG and left paracentral lobule having the largest number of connected edges (P = 0.0396, NBS-corrected). Their average FC and SHAPS scores were positively correlated (r = 0.309, P = 0.035). Regarding dynamic FC, compared with HCs, adolescent-onset MDD patients showed a tendency towards a decreased frequency in moderate-intensity brain FC states (P = 0.014), which was significantly and positively correlated with SHAPS scores (r = 0.425, P = 0.003). SVR also revealed AG-centred FC and dynamic FC could predict SHAPS scores (MSE = 27.233, P = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide distinct evidence on the physiological mechanisms of adolescent-onset MDD and anhedonia.

Resting-State Functional Magnetic Resonance Image to Analyze Electrical Biological Characteristics of Major Depressive Disorder Patients with Suicide Ideation.

The study was aimed to explore the brain imaging characteristics of major depressive disorder (MDD) patients with suicide ideation (SI) through resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) and to investigate the potential neurobiological role in the occurrence of SI. 50 MDD patients were selected as the experimental group and 50 healthy people as the control group. The brain images of the patients were obtained by MRI. Extraction of EEG biological features was from rs-fMRI images. Since MRI images were disturbed by noise, the initial clustering center of FCM was determined by particle swarm optimization algorithm so that the noise of the collected images was cleared by adaptive median filtering. Then, the image images were processed by the optimized model. The correlation between brain mALFF and clinical characteristics was analyzed. It was found that the segmentation model based on the FCM algorithm could effectively eliminate the noise points in the image; that the zALFF values of the right superior temporal gyrus (R-STG), left middle occipital gyrus (L-MOG), and left middle temporal gyrus (L-MTG) in the observation group were significantly higher than those in the control group (P < 0.05); and that the average zALFF values of left thalamus (L-THA) and left middle frontal gyrus (L-MFG) decreased. The mean zALFF values of L-MFG and L-SFG demonstrated good identification value for SI in MDD patients. In summary, MRI images based on FCM had a good convergence rate, and electrical biological characteristics of brain regions were abnormal in MDD patients with SI, which can be applied to the diagnosis and treatment of patients with depression in clinical practice.

Mental Health Differences in Healthcare Workers Exposed to Different Risks During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic.

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused a significant impact on the physical and mental health of healthcare workers. This study assessed the psychological status of healthcare workers who were exposed to different risk-levels in China and explored the factors that affected their mental health. Methods: Demographic, occupational characteristics, and mental health measurements were collected from 810 workers in 41 hospitals in China, through online questionnaires from February 11 to March 3, 2020. The degree of symptoms for fatigue, anxiety, and insomnia were assessed using the Chinese versions of the Fatigue Severity Scale, 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale, and Insomnia Severity Index, respectively. Binary logistic regression analysis was performed to identify factors associated with mental health symptoms. Results: All 810 participants completed the relevant questionnaires without missing data. The prevalence of fatigue, anxiety, and insomnia symptoms was 74.3, 73.7, and 61.7%, respectively. Nurses, women, and workers exposed to high-risk areas were more likely to report mental health problems (P < 0.05). After controlling for confounders, exposure to high-risk areas was independently associated with increased symptoms of fatigue, anxiety, and insomnia (fatigue among high-risk areas: OR, 3.87; 95% CI, 2.26-6.61; P < 0.001; anxiety among high-risk areas: OR, 2.66; 95% CI, 1.58-4.51; P < 0.001; insomnia among high-risk areas: OR, 2.83; 95% CI, 1.68-4.79, P < 0.001). Conclusion: The study demonstrated significant differences in psychological symptoms among healthcare workers exposed to different levels of risk, and those in high-risk areas were more vulnerable to experiencing mental health symptoms. These findings emphasize the importance of giving due attention to healthcare workers, especially women, nurses, and those working in high-risk settings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dysfunctional Attitudes Mediate the Relationship Between Childhood Emotional Neglect and Anhedonia in Young Adult Major Depression Patients.

BACKGROUND: Childhood traumas are well-established risk factors for major depressive disorder (MDD). However, the relationship between childhood traumas types and MDD symptoms is unclear. The present study tested the hypothesis that childhood traumas affect specific types of anhedonia in depression and the mediating role of dysfunctional attitude. METHODS: Within this cross-sectional study, 310 young adult patients with MDD completed the PHQ-9, CTQ-SF, DAS, and SHAPS. The statistical analyses used the Mann-Whitney U test, Spearman's rank correlation, and multiple regression analysis. Mediation analyses were tested by the structural equation model (SEM). RESULTS: Spearman's rank correlation analysis showed positive correlations between the SHAPS, CTQ-SF, and DAS total score (p < 0.05). The EA, EN, PN, and SHAPS scores were positively correlated (p < 0.05). Among the four factors of anhedonia, social interaction and interest/pastimes were positively correlated with EA, EN, and PN (p < 0.05), the sensory experience was positively correlated with EN (p < 0.01), and diet did not correlate with childhood traumas. Stepwise regression analysis showed that dysfunctional attitude and emotional neglect were the main influencing factors of sensory experience (p < 0.001) and social interaction (p < 0.001). Dysfunctional attitude and physical neglect were the main factors influencing interest/pastimes (p < 0.001). SEM analysis found that dysfunctional mediated between childhood traumas and anhedonia. CONCLUSIONS: The degree of anhedonia was related to dysfunctional attitudes and childhood traumas. The childhood emotional neglect experience was the most important and was related to sensory and social anhedonia. Dysfunctional attitudes played a mediating role between childhood neglect and anhedonia. Early psychotherapy targeting young adult MDD patients with childhood emotional neglect may help decrease symptoms of anhedonia.

Superior temporal gyrus and cerebellar loops predict nonsuicidal self-injury in major depressive disorder patients by multimodal neuroimaging.

In major depressive disorder (MDD) patients, nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a common comorbidity, and it is important to clarify the underlying neurobiology. Here, we investigated the association of NSSI with brain function and structure in MDD patients. A total of 260 MDD patients and 132 healthy controls (HCs) underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and three-dimensional T1-weighted structural scans. NSSI behaviour was assessed through interviews. Voxel-based morphometry analysis (VBM), regional homogeneity analysis (ReHo), functional connectome topology properties and network-based statistics were used to detect the differences in neuroimaging characteristics. Finally, the random forest method was used to evaluate whether these factors could predict NSSI in MDD. Compared with HCs, MDD patients with a history of NSSI showed significant right putamen grey matter volume (GMV), right superior orbital frontal cortex ReHo, left pallidum degree centrality, and putamen-centre function network differences. Compared to MDD subjects without NSSI, those with past NSSI showed significant right superior temporal gyrus (STG) GMV, right lingual gyrus ReHo, sigma and global efficiency, and cerebellum-centre function network differences. The right STG GMV and cerebellum-centre function network were more important than other factors in predicting NSSI behaviour in MDD. MDD patients with a history of NSSI have dysregulated spontaneous brain activity and structure in regions related to emotions, pain regulation, and the somatosensory system. Importantly, right STG GMV and cerebellar loops may play important roles in NSSI in MDD patients.

Using network analysis to identify central symptoms of college students' mental health.

BACKGROUND: Mental health problems are becoming increasingly common among college students, including depression, anxiety and sleep disturbances, which can affect their daily life and learning and even lead to suicide. The purpose of this study was to explore the gender differences in mental health symptoms among Chinese college students. METHODS: The study population included 29,099 college students. All participants were assessed with the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7), the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), and the Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised (SBQ-R). We assessed and compared network and centrality in females and males separately, as well as students with suicidal ideation. RESULTS: Satisfaction with current sleep pattern (I4), worry about different things (A3) and irritable (A6) appeared to be the most central symptoms in the female network. In the male network, satisfaction with current sleep pattern (I4), tired or little energy (D4) and feeling down, hopeless (D2) were the most central symptoms. In both suicidal ideation networks, the top five central symptoms included four anxiety symptoms and one sleep symptom. LIMITATIONS: This study used cross-sectional data and could not examine the dynamic relationship between symptoms. CONCLUSION: There were gender differences in college students' mental health network. In addition to poor quality sleep, the central symptoms of the female network were anxiety symptoms, while those of the male were mainly depression symptoms. There were no gender difference in the suicidal ideation network and the central symptoms were anxiety symptoms and difficulty falling asleep.

Discrepancies between self-rated depression and observed depression severity: The effects of personality and dysfunctional attitudes.

BACKGROUND: Patient self-reports and clinician ratings of depression severity can differ substantially. The aim of the current study was to explore factors associated with discrepancies between depressed patients' Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) self-reports and clinicians' Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAMD-17) ratings. METHODS: We first computed discrepancy scores defined as the standardized weighted HAMD-17 total score minus the standardized PHQ-9 total score. To assess correlates of inconsistent scores, results of patients with similar standardized scores were removed (i.e., within ½ standard deviation, n = 270). Positive values indicate underreporting (HAMD-17 > PHQ-9), i.e., the underreporting group (n = 200); and negative discrepancy scores indicate overreporting (PHQ-9 > HAMD-17), i.e., the overreporting group (n = 221). We examined the relationship of demographic, dysfunctional attitudes and personality variables to the discrepancies between self and observer rated depression. RESULTS: There were significant differences in extraversion, psychoticism, neuroticism, dysfunctional attitudes and occupation between the underreporting group and the overreporting group (all p < .05). When controlling for potential confounding variables, being a working professional and having high neuroticism and dysfunctional attitudes were significantly associated with overestimating symptoms of depression (e.g., professional: OR, 2.89; 95% CI, 1.67-5.00; p < .001; high neuroticism: OR, 7.08; 95% CI, 1.47-34.08; p < .001;dysfunctional attitudes: OR, 1.01; 95% CI, 1.00-1.02; p = .030). People with average, or high extraversion tended to underestimate scores (average extraversion: OR, 0.59; 95% CI, 0.37-0.95; high extraversion: OR, 0.48; 95% CI, 0.24-0.98). CONCLUSIONS: This study is the first to use PHQ-9 and HAMD-17 to explore the discrepancies between self and observer rated depression. Discrepancies occurred between the PHQ-9 score and HAMD-17 score, which were related to neuroticism, extraversion, dysfunctional attitudes and being a working professional. Future research should clarify the relationship between these factors and therapeutic effects of treatments, including adverse outcomes.

Psychological Distress and Its Association With Quality of Life in Organ Transplant Recipients During COVID-19 Pandemic.

Objectives: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may have an impact on the psychological distress of organ transplant recipients. We aimed to assess the status of psychological distress and its association with quality of life (QoL) in organ transplant recipients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was carried out with 305 organ transplant recipients during March 30 and April 2, 2020, in Wuhan. Psychological distress comprised depression, anxiety, insomnia, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which were assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, the seven-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder questionnaire, the Insomnia Severity Index, and Impact of event scale-revised. QoL was assessed using the Chinese version of the short Form 36-item health survey. Results: The prevalence of depression, anxiety, insomnia, and PTSD in organ transplant recipients was 13.4, 6.9, 11.8, and 30.5%, respectively. Organ transplant recipients with depression had significantly lower scores in all eight dimensions of QoL compared with participants without depression (all p < 0.05). Lower scores on the QoL dimensions of role physical, bodily pain, general health, vitality, role emotional, and mental health were found in organ transplant recipients with anxiety, insomnia, or PTSD compared with their counterparts without the respective disorder (all p < 0.05). Limitation: The cross-sectional study design limited us to make causal conclusion and the influence of potential confounders cannot be ruled out. Conclusions: Psychological distress was prevalent in organ transplant recipients during the COVID-19 pandemic, and those with depression, anxiety, insomnia, and PTSD had poorer QoL. Therefore, timely psychological counseling, COVID-19 related health education, and essential community medical services should be provided to organ transplant recipients to relieve their psychological distress, and to improve their QoL.

Prevalence and Risk Factors Associated with Insomnia Symptoms Among the Chinese General Public After the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Epidemic Was Initially Controlled.

INTRODUCTION: The prevalence rate and related factors of insomnia remained unknown after the COVID-19 epidemic had been under control. Therefore, we conducted this survey to investigate the prevalence rate and related factors of insomnia symptoms in the Chinese general public after the COVID-19 had been initially control. METHODS: An online survey was conducted among Chinese citizens through the JD Health APP. The questionnaire was used for collecting demographic data and self-designed questions related to the COVID-19 outbreak. Insomnia Severity Index, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, Somatic Symptom Scale-8 and Impact of Events Scale-Revised were used for measuring psychological symptoms. To examine the associations of sociodemographic and psychological factors with insomnia symptoms, a binary logistic regression was used. RESULTS: In total, there were 14,894 eligible participants, and 4601 (30.9%) participants were found to have insomnia symptoms. The regression model revealed that a higher risk of insomnia symptoms was associated with being over the age of 40 years, having history of psychiatric disorders, smoking, having infected friends or colleagues, having depressive or somatic symptoms, experiencing psychological distress and feeling estranged from family members. Meanwhile a lower risk of insomnia symptoms was associated with being female, having closer family relationships, not feeling alienated from others and being satisfied with the available information. CONCLUSION: In our study, 30.9% of the participants in the general public reported insomnia symptoms after the COVID-19 epidemic had been initially controlled. When providing precise interventions for insomnia, extra attention should be paid to the individuals who are male, elderly and smokers, and those with psychiatric disorder history, with infected friends or colleagues, with psychological symptoms and with poor social support.

Nonsuicidal self-injury in undergraduate students with major depressive disorder: The role of psychosocial factors.

BACKGROUND: Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is related to childhood abuse, family relationships, interpersonal relationships, personality, but the interaction between them is still unclear, and how they interact in major depressive disorder (MDD). METHODS: Collected data from 444 undergraduate degree students with MDD participated. Used the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, Interpersonal Relationship Comprehensive Diagnostic Scale, and Family Assessment Device to assess the patients' psychosocial factors. NSSI behavior was assessed through interviews. Use the Chi-square test, Wilcoxon rank-sum test, Kruskal-Wallis H-test, Distance Correlation, Structural Equation Mode for data analysis. RESULTS: Overall, 34.2% of patients with MDD had a history of NSSI. MDD patients with a history of NSSI had significant differences in psychoticism, neuroticism, emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional neglect, troubles in conversation, ability to make friends and family roles. Among these factors, psychoticism was most related to NSSI, and child abuse, interpersonal relationships and family roles played a variety of roles in mediating the relationship with NSSI. CONCLUSIONS: Psychosocial factors affect the occurrence of NSSI through chain intermediary effects.

The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 vs. the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression in Assessing Major Depressive Disorder.

Background: The Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAMD-17) has been used for several decades to assess the severity of depression. Multiple studies have documented defects in this scale and deemed it unsuitable for clinical evaluation. The HAMD-6, which is the abbreviated version of HAMD-17, has been shown to be effective in assessing the core symptoms of depression with greater sensitivity than HAMD-17. And the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) is suggested as an effective alternative to the HAMD-17 because of its simplicity and ease-of-use. Methods: Research was completed involving 1,741 participants having major depressive disorder. Cronbach's alpha, intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and weighted Kappa analysis was used to determine the reliability of the scales. Pearson correlation analysis and factor analysis were used to analyze validity. Item response theory (IRT) was used to analyze psychological characteristics of items in both the HAMD-17 and PHQ-9. Results: Reliability analysis showed that the Cronbach's alpha of the HAMD-17, HAMD-6 and PHQ-9 were 0.829, 0.764, and 0.893 respectively, and the ICC of the three scales ranged from 0.606 to 0.744. The Kappa score of the consistency of depression severity assessment was 0.248. Validity analysis showed that the PHQ-9 was a single factor structure, and the total score of the scale was strongly correlated with the HAMD-17 (r = 0.724, P < 0.001). The IRT analysis showed that the discrimination parameters of the PHQ-9 were higher than that of the HAMD-17 in all dimensions. The HAMD-6 had the lowest measurement accuracy in distinguishing the severity of depression, while the PHQ-9 had the highest measurement accuracy. Conclusion: Results showed that the PHQ-9 was satisfactory in terms of reliability, validity and distinguishing the severity of depression. It is a simple, rapid, effective and reliable tool which can be used as an alternative to the HAMD-17 to assess the severity of depression.

Acute psychological effects of Coronavirus Disease 2019 outbreak among healthcare workers in China: a cross-sectional study.

To study the acute psychological effects of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak among healthcare workers (HCWs) in China, a cross-sectional survey was conducted among HCWs during the early period of COVID-19 outbreak. The acute psychological effects including symptoms of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), the Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) questionnaire, and the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R). The prevalence of depression, anxiety, and PTSD was estimated at 15.0%, 27.1%, and 9.8%, respectively. Having an intermediate technical title, working at the frontline, receiving insufficient training for protection, and lacking confidence in protection measures were significantly associated with increased risk for depression and anxiety. Being a nurse, having an intermediate technical title, working at the frontline, and lacking confidence in protection measures were risk factors for PTSD. Meanwhile, not worrying about infection was a protective factor for developing depression, anxiety, and PTSD. Psychological interventions should be implemented among HCWs during the COVID-19 outbreak to reduce acute psychological effects and prevent long-term psychological comorbidities. Meanwhile, HCWs should be well trained and well protected before their frontline exposure.

The P300 component decreases in a bimodal oddball task in individuals with depression: An event-related potentials study.

OBJECTIVE: In this study, we investigated auditory-visual stimulation-induced P300 and examined whether P300 was differentially modulated between individuals with clinical depression and healthy controls. We hypothesized that the P300 component would significantly differ between individuals with depression and healthy individuals Specifically, we predicted that the P300 component induced by the bimodal oddball task would be significantly different from that induced by the unimodal task. METHODS: Forty-five individuals with depression and forty-five healthy controls participated in this study. All participants were instructed to complete three oddball tasks-auditory (A), visual (V), and bimodal (AV)-while their electroencephalographic signals were recorded. RESULTS: Individuals with depression had a lower P300 amplitude and a longer latency than controls in the bimodal task. P300 amplitudes in the bimodal task were significantly higher than in the auditory or visual tasks in both groups. In the depression group, the P300 amplitude was negatively correlated with Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D) scores in the bimodal task. CONCLUSIONS: Our results, which agree with those reported previously, suggest that there is a heightened P300 amplitude sensitivity in the bimodal task in individuals with depression. Our data also suggest that P300 amplitudes in the bimodal task may reflect the severity of depression. SIGNIFICANCE: The reduced task-related ERP response in individuals with depression suggests significant impairments in these individuals in stimulus integration and response functions.