Emotion Dysregulation and Conspiracy Beliefs about COVID-19: The Moderating Role of Critical Social Media Use.

As COVID-19 has spread worldwide, conspiracy theories have proliferated rapidly on social media platforms, adversely affecting public health. For this reason, media literacy interventions have been highly recommended, although the impact of critical social media use on the development of COVID-19 conspiracy theories has not yet been empirically studied. Moreover, emotional dysregulation may play another crucial role in the development of such theories, as they are often associated with stress, anxiety, lack of control, and other negative emotions. Therefore, the aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that emotion dysregulation would be positively associated with conspiracy beliefs about COVID-19 and that critical use of social media would attenuate this association. Data from 930 Italian participants (339 men and 591 women) were collected online during the third wave of the COVID-19 outbreak. A moderated model was tested using the PROCESS Macro for SPSS. Results showed that: (1) emotion dysregulation and critical social media use accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in conspiracy beliefs about COVID-19; and (2) critical social media use moderated the effect of emotion dysregulation on conspiracy beliefs about COVID-19. Implications for preventing the spread of conspiracy theories are discussed.

XEN 63 gel stent device in glaucoma surgery: A 5-years follow-up prospective study.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of the XEN63 Gel Stent in patients with open-angle glaucoma (OAG). METHODS: Prospective, nonrandomized, open-label, not-controlled, and single center study conducted on OAG patients who underwent glaucoma surgery with the XEN63 gel stent. The main outcome measure was intraocular pressure (IOP). Secondary end-points were number of topical ocular hypotensive drugs, percentage of patients achieving an IOP reduction ⩾20%, and treatment-related adverse events. RESULTS: Eleven eyes from 11 patients were treated with XEN 63. Mean (95% confidence interval, CI) age was 78.8 (73.7-85.9). Two eyes (18.2%) underwent XEN alone, while nine eyes (81.8%) underwent combined XEN + cataract extraction (phacoemulsification). The median (95% CI) IOP reduction was 17.7% (-13.3% to 34.9%). At the end of the study 9 (81.8%) eyes had an IOP ⩽ 18 mm Hg, six of them without treatment. Six (54.6%) eyes obtained an IOP reduction ⩾20%. Compared to baseline, there was a significant reduction in the number of ocular hypotensive drugs (p = 0.0039). There were no treatment-related serious adverse events. Early postoperative complications included diplopia (1), blood in endothelium (2), ocular hypertension (1), corneal edema (1), folds in Descemet's membrane (1), and contact between the implant and the iris (1). All the adverse events were successfully solved without sequalae. One eye required bleb needling. CONCLUSION: The XEN63 implant significantly reduced both IOP and the amount of ocular hypotensive medications while maintaining a good safety profile.