Devastating pregnancy outcomes in the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: This study analyzed pregnancy outcomes in postpartum women who were infected with COVID-19 during their pregnancy in resource-limited settings during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study included all pregnant women with COVID-19 at a tertiary referral hospital in Surabaya, Indonesia, from June to August 2021. Patients were classified according to clinical presentation into asymptomatic-mild, moderate, and severe-critical. Data regarding their basic maternal characteristics, clinical symptoms, delivery, and neonatal outcomes were collected and analyzed across these severity levels through ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis, or Mann-Whitney U test by incorporating SPSS Statistics software version 29.0. RESULTS: During the second wave of COVID-19 in Indonesia, a total of 184 COVID-19 cases were reported, with high mortality rate (22%). Only 26.6% of these cases were asymptomatic-mild, and the remaining 73.4% had more severe conditions. The severe-critical group had significantly lower gestational age, slower onset of diseases/symptoms, and higher maternal death proportions than the other two groups (P < 0.001). Clinical symptoms, vital signs, and inflammatory markers (NLR, CRP, and procalcitonin) were also significantly worse in the severe-critical group than in the other groups (P < 0.05). Consequently, severe cases showed a higher cesarean section rate (P = 0.034), lower birth weight, lower Apgar score, higher incidence of perinatal deaths (P < 0.001), and higher incidence of neonatal support (P = 0.003). CONCLUSIONS: The study's findings specified the devastating consequences of second wave of COVID-19 in a resource-limited setting. Focus on improving the health system and health facilities' capacity is warranted to anticipate all possibilities of other pandemics in the future.

Towards a multidimensional model of inflamed depression.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) continues to impose a significant burden on individuals and society. Existing data support the important role that inflammatory responses play in its pathophysiology, with new findings continuing to be reported. In this narrative review paper, we focus on three dimensions of inflamed depression: risk factors, clinical symptoms, and neurofunctional changes. We aim to answer the following questions: What characteristics most robustly discriminate between inflamed and non-inflamed depression? How can we leverage on these discriminative characteristics to classify inflamed depressed patients? One important point that has emerged is the heterogeneous nature of the relationship between inflammation and depression. Not all inflamed patients are depressed, and not all depressed patients are inflamed. Some risk factors heighten vulnerability to inflamed depression, including childhood adversity, old age, and being female. The inflamed depression subtype has been associated with distinct clinical phenotypes, most robustly with physical symptoms such as sleep problems, changes in appetite, and fatigue. Neurofunctional changes are found in the dopaminergic reward processing pathways. A better characterization of the inflamed depression subtype by leveraging multidimensional data will help craft a more precise treatment for these patients.

Impact of Work from Home Policy during the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental Health and Reproductive Health of Women in Indonesia.

Objectives: This study aimed to assess the impact of work from home (WFH) during the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health and reproductive health of women in Indonesia. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study evaluating the impact of WFH policy on said health aspects in Indonesia. Methods: We conducted an observational study with a cross-sectional approach using an online survey among premenopausal married women in Indonesia. The survey included the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) for psychological distress, average sexual intercourse frequency (SIF) per week, contraception use, change of menstrual pattern, and desire for having children. To analyze the effect of WFH, the participants were divided into groups based on their WFH compliance: (1) Both couples (her and her spouse) work from home, (2) Only the wife works from home, (3) Only the husband works from home, and (4) Neither works from home. Results: 348 women were included in this study. Psychological distress occurred in 48.0% (n = 167) participants. No significant difference was found between the WFH groups (χ2[3, N = 348] = 2.077, p = .56)). The average weekly SIF was found to be significantly fewer during WFH (T = 5014, z = -5.598, p < .001). However, only 22.7% (n = 79) participants reported the use of contraception and 52.9% (n = 196) participants still wanted to have children. Change of menstrual pattern occurred in 31.6% (n = 110) participants and were significantly correlated to psychological distress (rs= .126, p = .018). Conclusions: WFH does not aggravate the effect of the pandemic on women's mental and reproductive health in Indonesia. A significant number of them still desire to have children and contraceptive prevalence is low.

Validity and reliability testing of the Indonesian version of the eHealth Literacy Scale during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nowadays, it is common for people to look for health care information on the internet. The eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS) is commonly used to measure eHealth literacy. As of the publication of this study, the Indonesian version for eHEALS has not been published even though eHealth literacy is necessary, especially in the current COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to evaluate the validity and reliability of the Indonesian version of eHEALS (I-eHEALS). A total of 100 respondents in East Java were involved in this cross-sectional study. Pearson-product moment correlation method and construct validity were used to validate the results. The reliability was determined based on the Cronbach's alpha internal consistency measurement and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). The Pearson correlation analysis results are significantly higher (r > 0.254, p < 0.01) compared to the critical value table. Single factors accounting for 57.66% variance in the scales exhibit a unidimensional latent structure. The internal consistency between items is excellent as shown by the Cronbach's alpha coefficient (0.91). The ICC analysis shows an acceptable result (0.552, p < 0.01). The I-eHEALS is valid and reliable to be used for evaluating the eHealth literacy of the Indonesian population.

Musical rhythm effects on visual attention are non-rhythmical: evidence against metrical entrainment.

The idea that external rhythms synchronize attention cross-modally has attracted much interest and scientific inquiry. Yet, whether associated attentional modulations are indeed rhythmical in that they spring from and map onto an underlying meter has not been clearly established. Here we tested this idea while addressing the shortcomings of previous work associated with confounding (i) metricality and regularity, (ii) rhythmic and temporal expectations or (iii) global and local temporal effects. We designed sound sequences that varied orthogonally (high/low) in metricality and regularity and presented them as task-irrelevant auditory background in four separate blocks. The participants' task was to detect rare visual targets occurring at a silent metrically aligned or misaligned temporal position. We found that target timing was irrelevant for reaction times and visual event-related potentials. High background regularity and to a lesser extent metricality facilitated target processing across metrically aligned and misaligned positions. Additionally, high regularity modulated auditory background frequencies in the EEG recorded over occipital cortex. We conclude that external rhythms, rather than synchronizing attention cross-modally, confer general, nontemporal benefits. Their predictability conserves processing resources that then benefit stimulus representations in other modalities.

The human "feel" of touch contributes to its perceived pleasantness.

This study explored whether a human-like feel of touch biases perceived pleasantness and whether such a bias depends on top-down cognitive and/or bottom-up sensory processes. In 2 experiments, 11 materials were stroked across the forearm at different velocities (bottom-up) and participants rated tactile pleasantness and humanness. Additionally, in Experiment 1, participants identified the materials (top-down), whereas in Experiment 2, they rated each material with respect to its somatosensory properties (bottom-up). Stroking felt most pleasant at velocities optimal for the stimulation of CT-afferents, a mechanosensory nerve hypothesized to underpin affective touch. A corresponding effect on perceived humanness was significant in Experiment 1 and marginal in Experiment 2. Whereas material identification was unrelated to both pleasantness and humanness, we observed a robust relation with the somatosensory properties. Materials perceived as smooth, slippery, and soft were also pleasant. A corresponding effect on perceived humanness was significant for the first somatosensory property only. Humanness positively predicted pleasantness and neither top-down nor bottom-up factors altered this relationship. Thus, perceiving gentle touch as human appears to promote pleasure possibly because this serves to reinforce interpersonal contact as a means for creating and maintaining social bonds. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Vocal threat enhances visual perception as a function of attention and sex.

This pre-registered event-related potential study explored how vocal emotions shape visual perception as a function of attention and listener sex. Visual task displays occurred in silence or with a neutral or an angry voice. Voices were task-irrelevant in a single-task block, but had to be categorized by speaker sex in a dual-task block. In the single task, angry voices increased the occipital N2 component relative to neutral voices in women, but not men. In the dual task, angry voices relative to neutral voices increased occipital N1 and N2 components, as well as accuracy, in women and marginally decreased accuracy in men. Thus, in women, vocal anger produced a strong, multifaceted visual enhancement comprising attention-dependent and attention-independent processes, whereas in men, it produced a small, behavior-focused visual processing impairment that was strictly attention-dependent. In sum, these data indicate that attention and listener sex critically modulate whether and how vocal emotions shape visual perception.

Upward migration and peroral extrusion of a peritoneal shunt catheter: Case report and review of the literature.

BACKGROUND: Various complications after ventriculoperitoneal (VP) shunt surgery have been reported, but peroral extrusion of peritoneal catheter is an extremely rare complication, and only 20 cases have been reported since 1987. The pathophysiology still remains unclear and the management is challenging. CASE DESCRIPTION: A 5-year-old boy presented with a catheter coming out of his mouth. The boy had a posterior fossa tumor surgery and had VP shunt insertion 1 year earlier. Clinical signs and imaging studies showed that the distal end of the catheter had perforated the gaster and migrated upward and extruded through the mouth. Emergency removal of the shunt and proper treatment were done and he made uneventful recovery. CONCLUSION: Peroral extrusion of VP shunt is extremely rare. Clinicians should be aware of this complication. With early diagnosis and proper management, the prognosis for good recovery is excellent, with only two deaths being reported in the literature. Complication of shunt extrusion is difficult to avoid, but knowing the risk factors, pathophysiology and proper management will decrease the morbidity and mortality of such cases.