Evaluation of self-administered antigen testing in a college setting.

BACKGROUND: The objective of our investigation was to better understand barriers to implementation of self-administered antigen screening testing for SARS-CoV-2 at institutions of higher education (IHE). METHODS: Using the Quidel QuickVue At-Home COVID-19 Test, 1347 IHE students and staff were asked to test twice weekly for seven weeks. We assessed seroconversion using baseline and endline serum specimens. Online surveys assessed acceptability. RESULTS: Participants reported 9971 self-administered antigen test results. Among participants who were not antibody positive at baseline, the median number of tests reported was eight. Among 324 participants seronegative at baseline, with endline antibody results and ≥ 1 self-administered antigen test results, there were five COVID-19 infections; only one was detected by self-administered antigen test (sensitivity = 20%). Acceptability of self-administered antigen tests was high. CONCLUSIONS: Twice-weekly serial self-administered antigen testing in a low prevalence period had low utility in this investigation. Issues of testing fatigue will be important to address in future testing strategies.

Isolation, Loneliness and Aloneness in the Age of Covid-19: Reflections on Clinical Experiences.

The Covid-19 pandemic brought a heightened fear of death and illness, and increased experiences of isolation, loneliness and aloneness. In this article we describe clinical experiences of psychotherapists in Argentina, the UK and Germany in order to explore how the impacts of the pandemic are variously felt and mediated by inner resources. We explore the capacity to relate internally to good experiences of infancy and a secure internal world, and the risks of loneliness, and interpersonal and intrapsychic withdrawal, that lead to vulnerability in patients and therapists. We contrast instances where psychotherapy in response to increased fears of death, infection and isolation is facilitative of change and growth, with situations where perverse, destructive or defensive relating predominate. We ask if we are witnessing and, through our therapeutic activities, contributing to the emergence of new ways of understanding the internal conflicts of this Covid-19 age, and tentatively identify some key emerging themes; the capacity for facilitative interactions and change; identifications with the powerful virus; an increase in paranoid anxieties and the potential for a more considerate, 'care-full' way of relating.

Sharing space-Not sharing space: Narcissism and object relations in the pandemic

This chapter aims to explore how the pandemic has changed both social and internal relatedness, through sudden, dramatic, traumatic and far-reaching effects on living, from which have emerged a strange set of ambiguities and contradictions. I characterise the dilemmas arising from the pandemic as a conflict between narcissistic and object relations ways of relating to the real, virulent threat from the pandemic, that upset and dislocated habitual ways of being, and generated changes to sharing space with others. Narcissistic relatedness aims to deny the importance of these experiences, to restore previous ways of living and to avoid mourning. This way of relating can be intensely destructive and oblivious of the harm being caused. Object relatedness, in contrast, enables engagement with painful and frightening realities through retaining inner links with good experiences, through which realistic hopes for the future can be sustained, including creating better ways of living with each other and the environment. I suggest that a new 'Covid object' in the internal object reconfigures how we view relationships. This involves the internalisation of the new kind of ambivalence;the Covid object includes protectiveness towards self and other, leading to a better, more 'care-full' way of living, alongside a paranoid relationship, based on the mutual capacity to infect and be infected. Taking a protective view of ourselves, and mourning for past expectations in the world we have lost, rather than adopting narcissistic solutions, can create a way of living with the virus, leading to realistic rather than illusory hope, and underpinning for these further struggles. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Suicidal and Self-Harming Behavior of Young People

The unprecedented use of lockdown and quarantine to combat the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) severely disrupted young people's social worlds. Both short- and long-term negative consequences were widely predicted for adolescent mental health, which was, however, reported to be deteriorating before the COVID-19 pandemic. By taking a microperspective, exploring in depth the experiences of therapeutic work with young people with suicidal thoughts or behavior, including two composite case examples, this article provides a nuanced understanding of the pandemic's effects. The discussion links the accounts of these cases, firstly, with evidence to date about the patterns that are emerging regarding the effects of the pandemic and, secondly, with theories of the relationship between suicidal thoughts and behavior and the impasse/breakdown in the adolescent developmental processes. In conclusion, it is suggested that the capacity to negotiate loss and change are crucial for sustaining development despite the COVID-19 pandemic and often in the face of overwhelming anxieties. [Psychiatr Ann. 2022;52(8):318–322.]

Point-of-Care Antigen Test for SARS-CoV-2 in Asymptomatic College Students.

We used the BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card to screen 1,540 asymptomatic college students for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 in a low-prevalence setting. Compared with reverse transcription PCR, BinaxNOW showed 20% overall sensitivity; among participants with culturable virus, sensitivity was 60%. BinaxNOW provides point-of-care screening but misses many infections.