Real-Time Prediction of Medical Demand and Mental Health Status in Ukraine under Russian Invasion Using Tweet Analysis.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine (February 24, 2022) has begun and there are concerns about the impact on health care supply and mental health. This study analyzed tweets in the Ukrainian language to capture the medical needs and mental health conditions in wartime Ukraine by focusing on ostensibly relevant words. The number of tweets containing the keywords and their overall proportion was compared before and after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The survey period was divided into four phases-the pre-2022 Russian invasion, acute phase (4 weeks), subacute phase (12 weeks), and the chronic phase (8 weeks) up to August 10, 2022. The analysis targeted tweets sent in Ukrainian. The tweets were screened using a set of six classes with 75 key groups and 303 Ukrainian (204 original Japanese) keywords. Overall, 98,526,440 tweets were analyzed, with a pre-invasion and post-onset average of 1,096,976 and 3,328,243 tweets/week (a 3.0-fold increase), respectively. Of these, 3,197,443 tweets contained the keywords, with a pre-invasion and invasion average of 26,241 and 114,640 tweets/week (a 4.4-fold increase), respectively. The post-onset phase witnessed a considerable increase in all classes-medical services, treatment, medical resources, medical situations, and special situations-but not in the symptom class. Keywords related to psychological distress and anxiety immediately increased during the acute phase; those related to depression and post-traumatic stress reactions continued increasing as the invasion persisted, which may have reflected the mental state of those impacted. Analyzing tweets is useful for predicting people's real-time physical and mental health needs during wartime.

Impact of type of reconstructed residence on social participation and mental health of population displaced by disasters.

After disasters, people are often forced to reconstruct or move to new residences. This study aimed to reveal the association between the types of reconstructed residences and psychosocial or psychiatric conditions among the population. A total of 1071 adult residents in a coastal town, whose houses were destroyed by the tsunami caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake, enrolled in the study five years after the disaster. The type of reconstructed post-disaster residences (reconstructed on the same site/disaster-recovery public condominium/mass-translocation to higher ground/privately moving to remote areas) and the current psychosocial indicators were investigated. The results revealed that individuals living in public condominiums showed significantly worse scores on the Lubben Social Network Scale-6 (p < 0.0001) and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (p < 0.0001), and slightly worse scores on the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (p = 0.035) and the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (p = 0.028). Lower psychosocial indicator scores in the public condominium group were more remarkable in younger adults aged < 65 years. Insomnia evaluated using the Athens Insomnia Scale was not different among the four residential types. In summary, residents moving into disaster-recovery public condominiums are likely to have less social interaction, be more depressed, and may need additional interventions.

Diabetes Care Providers' Manual for Disaster Diabetes Care.

To ensure that experiences and lessons learned from the unprecedented 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake are used to improve future disaster planning, the Japan Diabetes Society (JDS) launched the "Research and Survey Committee for Establishing Disaster Diabetes Care Systems Based on Relevant Findings from the Great East Japan Earthquake" under the supervision of the Chairman of the JDS. The Committee conducted a questionnaire survey among patients with diabetes, physicians, disaster medical assistance teams (DMATs), nurses, pharmacists, and nutritionists in disaster areas about the events they saw happening, the situations they found difficult to handle, and the needs that they felt required to be met during the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. A total of 3,481 completed questionnaires were received. Based on these and other experiences and lessons reported following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and the 2004 Niigata-Chuetsu Earthquakes, the current "Manual for Disaster Diabetes Care" has been developed by the members of the Committee and other invited authors from relevant specialties. To our knowledge, the current Manual is the world's first to focus on emergency diabetes care, with this digest English version translated from the Japanese original. It is sincerely hoped that patients with diabetes and healthcare providers around the world will find this manual helpful in promoting disaster preparedness and implementing disaster relief.

Cumulative incidence of suicidal ideation and associated factors among adults living in temporary housing during the three years after the Great East Japan Earthquake.

BACKGROUND: The effect of disasters on suicidality is not known. We aimed to retrospectively determine the cumulative incidence of suicidal ideation during the 3 years after the Great East Japan Earthquake among residents in temporary housing without prior suicidal ideation, as compared to the general population. Moreover, we aimed to identify the risk factors for the onset of suicidal ideation. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey involving face-to-face interviews was conducted 3 years after the earthquake with adult community residents in disaster-affected areas and a control area using the World Health Organization Composite International Diagnostic Interview version 3.0. We compared the cumulative incidence of suicidal ideation between the two areas using the Cox proportional hazard model and examined risk factors for the onset of suicidal ideation using a multiple logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Among 1019 respondents in the disaster-affected areas, the cumulative incidence of suicidal ideation over 1, 2, and 3 years after the earthquake was 1.4%, 2.4%, and 2.8%, respectively, which was significantly higher than that in the control area. Not being married, being injured in the disaster, and poor subjective physical health were associated with the onset of suicidal ideation. LIMITATIONS: We estimated the time of onset of suicidal ideation based on the respondents' current age and self-reported onset age, which limits the accuracy of the onset timing. CONCLUSIONS: We revealed a higher incidence of suicidal ideation in temporary housing residents and identified several risk factors, which suggests the importance of developing countermeasures to prevent suicide after a disaster.

Disturbed social recognition and impaired risk judgement in older residents with mild cognitive impairment after the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011: the Tome Project.

AIM: After the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011, we investigated the safety of residents in the affected communities. Most of the people requiring help were elderly and had previously been assessed as Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) 0.5 (i.e. as having mild cognitive impairment (MCI)). We examined how well they understood the television news and whether they could make appropriate decisions. METHODS: This community-based study of dementia and difficulties following a disaster started in Tome, northern Japan. The subjects were 188 randomly selected older residents who underwent CDR, blood tests, magnetic resonance imaging, and cognitive tests, including an original visual risk cognition task. They were shown NHK news broadcasts from the day of the earthquake to determine whether they could understand the content. RESULTS: Neither the CDR 0 (healthy) nor the CDR 0.5 (MCI) subjects fully understood the television news. Some subjects did not recognize the danger of aftershocks and engaged in risky behaviour. CDR 0.5 subjects who exhibited such behaviour scored lower on the visual risk cognition task. CONCLUSIONS: It is noteworthy that television news is difficult to understand, even for healthy older adults. We found that MCI subjects had particular difficulties due to the disaster and suggest that risk cognition could be evaluated using visually presented materials.

The Association Between Medical Treatment of Physical Diseases and Psychological Distress After the Great East Japan Earthquake: The Shichigahama Health Promotion Project.

OBJECTIVE: Physical disease patients are known to experience high levels of psychological distress. This study examined the association between the medical treatment of physical diseases and psychological distress in the coastal area affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake. METHODS: Using cross-sectional data, we studied 3032 individuals aged ≥40 years who lived in Shichigahama, Miyagi, Japan. We examined the associations between 8 medical treatments for physical diseases and psychological distress, defined as Kessler Psychological Distress scale score ≥13 of 24 points. To investigate the associations, we performed multiple logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: There were statistically significant associations between psychological distress and medical treatments for myocardial infarction/angina pectoris (odds ratio [OR]=1.8, 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.0-3.0) and liver disease (OR=3.1, 95% CI=1.0-7.7). The other 4 medical treatments for physical diseases had ORs of 1.3 or higher and were positively associated with psychological distress: cancer, hyperlipidemia, kidney disease, and diabetes mellitus. The degree of damage to homes did not affect the association between most of the medical treatments for physical diseases and psychological distress. CONCLUSIONS: In the disaster area, most of the medical treatments for physical diseases had positive associations with psychological distress, irrespective of the degree of damage to homes.

[Perspectives on researches in disaster psychiatry].

After experiencing the catastrophic Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami disaster in 2011, Tohoku University founded the International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS) in April, 2012. IRIDeS, comprising 7 divisions and 36 laboratories with broad areas of specialization, from the humanities to natural sciences, aims to become a global center for the study of disasters and disaster mitigation, learning from and building upon past lessons in disaster management from Japan and around the world. In IRIDeS, the Department of Disaster Psychiatry is in charge of dealing with issues related to disaster psychiatry, including the psychosocial impact of disasters. Now, at more than 2 and a half years after the catastrophic disaster, the psychological impact actually seems to be getting stronger and wider, whereas the memory of the disaster seems to be waning in other areas of the country. In such a situation, where a number of problems need to be resolved, what can/should we do as psychiatrists? On the other hand, other natural disasters, such as storms and floods, have kept hitting Japan, and catastrophes seem to strike somewhere in the world every year. In addition, we need to prepare for the possibility of a Nankai Trough Quake and an earthquake directly hitting the Tokyo area, which may occur sometime in the future. Considering the situation, we need to establish an education system for disaster psychiatry, and proceed with research to collect useful information to prepare for coming disasters. The aim of our department is to integrate multi-faceted basic and clinical research approaches to investigate the following topics: 1) to identify social, psychological, and biological factors involved in the pathophysiology of and recovery from disaster-related mental health problems; 2) to develop systems for disaster prevention, disaster response, and recovery, considering disaster-related psychiatric and psychological issues; 3) to develop useful tools for the prevention, screening, diagnosis, and treatment of disaster-related disorders; 4) to archive information regarding disaster psychiatry; and 5) to corporate with other countries regarding disaster-related psychiatric issues. As knowledge regarding the above issues will be accumulated, and awareness of disaster-related psychiatric issues will be shared among mental health professionals and society, disaster psychiatry will be advanced.