Effects of social isolation on sleep during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The current COVID-19 pandemic is a public health emergency that has seriously affected mental health in the general population. Both, studies on previous epidemics and those conducted during the current pandemic have reported a wide range of psychosocial consequences and multiple psychological symptoms as a result of said outbreaks, and among these problems, sleep/wake cycle alterations stand out. Publications addressing this phenomenon have consistently reported that nearly a third of people who experience social isolation develop insomnia, which, in turn, is an important predictor for mental disorders that affect people's functionality, including anxiety disorders, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. This reflection paper aims to describe the effects that social isolation may have on sleep in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Examination of physician factors influencing psychiatric assessment of acutely suicidal patients.

Suicide risk assessment is a subjective process and remains a clinical challenge in psychiatry. We aimed to examine physicians' characteristics that influence management of acutely suicidal patients. In a cross-sectional design, we performed an anonymous internet survey of psychiatry residents and attendings from four academic centers. Gender, years of experience, practice setting, prior patient suicide, and personal exposure to suicide were characterized. Participants were presented with three clinical vignettes and asked to rate suicide risk and clinical disposition. The relationship between responses to the vignettes and physician characteristics were examined with generalized linear models. Fifty-four residents and 49 attendings completed the survey. Four (7%) residents and 24 (49%) attendings had patients die by suicide, whereas 32 (59%) and 36 (74%), respectively, knew somebody outside their practice who died by suicide. Among residents, lower rating of acute suicide risk was associated with prior exposure to non-patient suicide. Less hospitalization chosen by attendings was associated with greater perceived difficulty of suicide risk assessment. In the combined resident and attending sample, less proneness to hospitalize was associated with number of previous patients die by suicide and with outpatient practice. Our results suggest that previous exposure to suicide is associated with more risk-averse management.

EFFECTS OF SOCIAL ISOLATION ON SLEEP DURING THE COVID- 19 PANDEMIC / EFECTOS DEL AISLAMIENTO SOCIAL EN EL SUEÑO DURANTE LA PANDEMIA COVID-19

The coronavirus pandemic, 2019 (COVID-19) is a public health emergency with significant impacts on the mental health of the general population. Both studies in previous epidemics and those that have been developed to date show a wide range of psychosocial consequences and multiple psychological symptoms, among which changes in the sleep pattern stand out, consistently in the publications it has been recorded that close of a third of the people who experience social isolation present insomnia, this is an important predictor for the development of mental disturbances with great compromises in functionality such as anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorders. The purpose of this reflection article is to describe the effects on sleep that can result from social isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

La pandemia por coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) es una emergencia de salud pública con impactos significativos en la salud mental de la población general. Tanto estudios en epidemias anteriores como los que se han desarrollo a la fecha evidencian una amplia gama de consecuencias psicosociales y múltiples síntomas psicológicos, dentro de los cuales resaltan las alteraciones en el patrón de sueño, de forma consistente en las publicaciones se ha registrado que cerca de una tercera parte de las personas que vivencian el aislamiento social presentan insomnio, siendo éste un predictor importante para el desarrollo de perturbaciones mentales con gran compromiso en la funcionalidad como trastornos de ansiedad, depresión y estrés postraumático. Este artículo de reflexión tiene por objetivo, describir los efectos en el sueño que pueden resultar del aislamiento social debido a la pandemia del COVID-19.