Domestic violence and substance abuse during COVID19: A systematic review.

INTRODUCTION: As COVID-19 develops around the world, numerous publications have described the psychiatric consequences of this pandemic. Although clinicians and healthcare systems are mainly focused on managing critically ill patients in an attempt to limit the number of casualties, psychiatric disease burden is increasing significantly. In this scenario, increased domestic violence and substance abuse have been recently reported. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to perform a systematic review of the literature regarding the consequences of severe acute respiratory syndrome-CoV-2 infection in terms of domestic violence and substance abuse, and compare incidences found. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a literature search using the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses guidelines. The keywords included "domestic violence," "substance abuse" AND "COVID-19," including multiple variants from December 2019 through June 2020. An extensive bibliographic search was carried out in different medical databases: Pubmed, EMBASE, LILACS, medRxiv, and bioRxiv. Titles and abstracts were reviewed according to the eligibility criteria. The risk of bias in the retrieved articles was assessed by the Joanna Briggs Institute's critical assessment instrument. RESULTS: A total of 1505 papers were initially retrieved after consulting the selected databases. After browsing through titles and abstracts, 94 articles were initially included considering the predefined eligibility criteria. After a more detailed analysis, only six scientific articles remained in our selection. Of these, three were evaluating domestic violence against children, while the other three were about substance abuse. CONCLUSION: There is not enough evidence to support the concept that COVID-19 has led to an increase in the rates of domestic violence and substance abuse. The initial decrease in violence reports might not translate into a real reduction in incidence but in accessibility. Apparently, there has been a slight increase in alcohol and tobacco abuse, especially by regular users, which also requires confirmatory studies. The inconsistency between expert opinon articles and the actual published data could be a result of the limited time since the beginnging of the crisis, the fact that psychitaric patients have been chronically exposed to stressful situatons, and a possible stimulated increase in demand for psychatric consultations.

Avaliação do limiar sensorial para gosto doce no autismo infantil / Sensory threshold evaluation for sweet taste in childhood autism

Objetivo: avaliar a sensibilidade gustativa ao doce de crianças com Transtorno do Espectro Autista. Método: trata-se de estudo quantitativo, descritivo e transversal, com crianças diagnosticadas e sem diagnóstico com Transtorno e familiares. Avaliou-se o grau de autismo por meio da Childhood Autism Rating Scale para selecionar crianças com nível de autismo compatível com a realização dos testes. Executou-se o teste de índice limiar de boca toda para o gosto doce com diferentes concentrações de sacarose em todos os grupos. Realizou-se o teste de preferência sensorial no grupo de crianças com TEA. Executaram-se as análises no Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Resultados: observou-se que as crianças sem Transtorno apresentam limiar gustativo médio para o gosto doce de 0,96 g/L de sacarose, limiar inferior ao de crianças com TEA (5,42 g/L de sacarose); as mães e irmãos das crianças com Transtorno apresentaram limiar gustativo médio de 1,23 g/L e 1,35g/L de sacarose, respectivamente. Averiguou-se, no teste de preferência sensorial, que crianças com Transtorno preferem amostras com gostos mais doces. Conclusão: percebeu-se que crianças com Transtorno possuem alteração na sensibilidade gustativa para o doce, necessitando de maiores quantidades de sacarose para identificar este gosto.(AU)

Objective: to evaluate the sweet taste sensitivity of children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder. Method: this is a quantitative, descriptive and cross-sectional study with children diagnosed and undiagnosed with the disorder and their families. The degree of autism was assessed using the Childhood Autism Rating Scale to select children with level of autism compatible with the tests. The whole mouth threshold index test for sweet taste with different sucrose concentrations was performed in all groups. The sensory preference test was performed in the group of children with ASD. Analyzes were performed on the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Results: it was observed that children without Disorder presented an average sweet taste threshold of 0.96 g / L sucrose, lower threshold than children with ASD (5.42 g / L sucrose); mothers and siblings of children with the disorder had a mean taste threshold of 1.23 g / l and 1.35 g / l of sucrose, respectively. In the sensory preference test, children with disorder prefer samples with sweeter tastes. Conclusion: it was noticed that children with Disorder have alterations in taste sensitivity for sweets, requiring higher amounts of sucrose to identify this taste.(AU)

Objetivo: evaluar la sensibilidad al sabor dulce de los niños con Trastorno del Espectro Autista. Método: se trata de un estudio cuantitativo, descriptivo y transversal con niños diagnosticados y no diagnosticados con el Trastorno y sus familias. El grado de autismo se evaluó utilizando la Escala de Calificación de Autismo Infantil para seleccionar niños con un nivel de autismo compatible con las pruebas. La prueba de índice de umbral de boca completa para el sabor dulce con diferentes concentraciones de sacarosa se realizó en todos los grupos. La prueba de preferencia sensorial se realizó en el grupo de niños con TEA. Se realizaron análisis en el Paquete Estadístico para las Ciencias Sociales. Resultados: se observó que los niños sin Trastorno presentaron un umbral promedio de sabor dulce de 0.96 g/l de sacarosa, umbral más bajo que los niños con TEA (5.42 g/l de sacarosa); las madres y los hermanos de niños con el Trastorno tenían un umbral de sabor medio de 1,23 g/l y 1,35 g/l de sacarosa, respectivamente. En la prueba de preferencia sensorial, los niños con Trastorno prefieren muestras con sabores más dulces. Conclusión: se notó que los niños con Trastorno tienen alteraciones en la sensibilidad al sabor de los dulces, lo que requiere mayores cantidades de sacarosa para identificar este sabor.(AU)

Improving the comprehension of sarcopenic state determinants: An multivariate approach involving hormonal, nutritional, lifestyle and genetic variables.

It is known that sarcopenia is a multifaceted phenomenon, which involves genetic, nutritional, hormonal and living habits aspects. Then, an integrated analysis, as a multivariate approach, could improve the comprehension about the determinants of sarcopenic state in old adults. The present study aimed to investigate the interaction among serum vitamin D, daily caloric and protein intake, lifestyle habits, ACE I/D gene polymorphism and sarcopenic state in community-dwelling old adults. One hundred one community-dwelling old adults were clinically stratified as sarcopenic or non-sarcopenic. Serum vitamin D, daily caloric and protein intake, lifestyle habits (smoking, physical activity level and sedentary behavior) and ACE I/D gene polymorphism were recorded. A multivariate logistic regression technique was applied to investigate the interaction among the selected independent variables and the sarcopenic state. The independent variables age, smoking, serum Vitamin D and ACE I/D polymorphism achieved the statistical criteria to be inserted in the multivariate analysis. After a stepwise procedure from the multivariate logistic regression, the variables age, serum Vitamin D and ACE I/D polymorphism remained, together, in the final model. Sarcopenic state was significantly associated to older age, II-genotype and low serum Vitamin D in old adults from 60 years old.

Natriuretic peptide system: a link between fat mass and cardiac hypertrophy and hypertension in fat-fed female rats.

The present study was designed to develop an animal model of hypertension and cardiac hypertrophy associated with obesity in female rats. Furthermore, we studied the involvement of the natriuretic peptide system in the mechanisms of these conditions. Obesity was induced in Wistar rats by a high fat diet and ovariectomy. The rats were divided into four groups: ovariectomized or sham-operated with high-fat diet and ovariectomized or sham-operated with control diet. After 24 weeks of diet, rats were killed, and their tissues were removed. Cardiac atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), clearance receptor (NPr-C) gene expression was determined by PCR. ANP concentrations were measured in plasma. Ovariectomized fat-fed rats (OF) showed increased body weight, visceral fat depot and blood pressure and decreased sodium excretion compared to other groups. Also, these rats showed higher heart-to-body weight and cell diameters of ventricular cardiomyocytes and lower cardiac ANP mRNA and plasma ANP than the control group. The adipocyte and renal NPr-C mRNA of OF rats were higher than the control group. These data showed that combined ovariectomy and high fat diet elicited obesity, hypertension and cardiac hypertrophy. These results suggest that the impairment of the natriuretic peptide system may be one of the mechanisms involved not only in development of hypertension but also in cardiac hypertrophy associated with obesity in ovariectomized rats.