Anxiety in Mexican adults throughout the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross sectional study.

INTRODUCTION: Perceived fear during a pandemic along with measures used to contain it can develop or intensify anxiety symptoms. In Mexico, information on the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the general population is scarce. OBJECTIVE: We examined the prevalence and factors associated with anxiety during the COVID-19 outbreak in a Mexican sample. METHOD: We conducted a cross sectional study from June 15, 2020, to January 31, 2021, in a state in north-eastern Mexico, using an online survey. Beck Anxiety Inventory was used to determine the prevalence and severity of anxiety. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of anxiety was 43.5 %. Categories with the highest anxiety prevalence within their groups were women (46.2 %), age group of 18-30 years (47.3 %), higher level of education (43 %), students (48.8 %) and people who weren't currently with a couple (47.3 %). Additionally, we found that people who reported clinically significant anxiety were more likely to be women, ages 18-30 years, not currently partnered and currently living with a psychiatric disorder. Moreover, patients with clinically significant anxiety were more likely to be diagnosed with a mood, anxiety, trauma and stress, or an eating disorder. We also observed that being a woman and having at least one psychiatric disorder were independent factors related to a positive anxiety screening. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: COVID-19 outbreak results in considerable increase in anxiety symptoms among the Mexican population. It is important to acknowledge the psychological impact of contingency situations to provide information that can allow establishing preventive and therapeutic strategies.

Microsatellite instability and protein expression of MLH1 and MSH2 genes in young Mexican patients less than 50 years of age diagnosed with colorectal cancer.

Diagnosis of colorectal cancer in patients under 45 years old should alert us to possible hereditary forms of this neoplasia. Most cases of hereditary colorectal cancer correspond to Lynch syndrome which is caused by mutations in DNA mismatch repair genes, particularly MLH1 and MSH2. The dysfunction is associated with microsatellite instability which occurs in 95% cases of this syndrome and in 15% of sporadic colorectal cancer. In sporadic colon tumors, downregulation of MLH1 is observed in cases with the BRAF V600E variant, which induces hypermetylation of the MLH1 promoter. Mutation screening for hereditary cancer has impacted the diagnosis, genetic counseling, and early tumor detection in families affected by hereditary colorectal cancer syndromes but mutation screening technologies are seldom available in public health care centers in developing countries. This study aimed to describe immunohistochemistry and microsatellite instability abnormalities in tumor samples archived in a public hospital in Mexico. Paraffin-embedded samples of patients with colorectal cancer, diagnosed at under 50 years old, were studied to analyze correlations among clinical variables, MLH1 and MSH2 protein expression (immunohistochemistry), microsatellite instability (fluorescent PCR-based assay), and BRAF V600E variant (real time PCR). Forty-seven tumor specimens from patients with TNM stage II and above were analyzed. Tumors were mainly located in the proximal colon segment and displayed histologic intestinal variety and infiltration to serosa. Twenty samples showed decreased expression of mismatch repair proteins and 10 of these presented microsatellite instability (7 high and 3 low instability patterns, respectively). There were no instances of BRAF V600E mutation found. Altered MLH1 or MSH2 expression was found in 42.5% of the samples and microsatellite instability was observed in 21.3% of the tumors. These results suggested that about a fifth of the patients were candidates for family assessment and genetic counseling.