SCREEN TIME BEYOND GAMING AND SOCIAL MEDIA: EXCESSIVE AND PROBLEMATIC USE OF OVER THE TOP (OTT) PLATFORMS AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

There is a gap in existing literature regarding Over the Top (OTT) platform use contributing to the excessive and problematic screen time. We aimed to assess OTT platform use among college students and its associations with increased screen time, mental well-being, COVID-19 related anxiety and personality traits. A total of 1039 students from a college in India were invited to participate in this web-based survey. A majority of participants used OTT platforms regularly. Subscription to paid OTT platforms, poor mental well-being were associated with problematic OTT use; whereas personality trait of conscientiousness seemed to offer protection against problematic OTT use

SCREEN TIME BEYOND GAMING AND SOCIAL MEDIA: EXCESSIVE AND PROBLEMATIC USE OF OVER THE TOP (OTT) PLATFORMS AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

There is a gap in existing literature regarding Over the Top (OTT) platform use contributing to the excessive and problematic screen time. We aimed to assess OTT platform use among college students and its associations with increased screen time, mental well-being, COVID-19 related anxiety and personality traits. A total of 1039 students from a college in India were invited to participate in this web-based survey. A majority of participants used OTT platforms regularly. Subscription to paid OTT platforms, poor mental well-being were associated with problematic OTT use; whereas personality trait of conscientiousness seemed to offer protection against problematic OTT use

Multinational Comparative Cross-Sectional Survey of Views of medical students about Acceptable Terminology and Subgroups in Schizophrenia

AIM: The aim of this study was to inform thinking around the terminology for \u27schizophrenia\u27 in different countries. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to investigate: (1) whether medical students view alternative terminology (psychosis subgroups), derived from vulnerability-stress models of schizophrenia, as acceptable and less stigmatising than the term schizophrenia; (2) if there are differences in attitudes to the different terminology across countries with different cultures and (3) whether clinical training has an impact in reducing stigma. DESIGN: This is a cross-sectional survey that examined the attitudes of medical students towards schizophrenia and the alternative subgroups. SETTING: The study was conducted across eight sites: (1) University of Southampton, UK; (2) All India Institute of Medical Science, India; (3) Rowan University, USA; (4) Peshawar Medical College, Pakistan; (5) Capital Medical University, China; (6) College of Medicine and Medical sciences, Bahrain; (7) Queens University, Kingston, Canada and (8) University of Cape Town, South Africa. METHOD: This study extended an initial pilot conducted by the Royal College of Psychiatrists on the term schizophrenia and psychosis subgroups to assess whether the subgroup terminology might have an effect on the attitudes of a convenience sample of medical students from eight different countries and potentially play a role in reducing stigmatisation. RESULTS: 1873 medical students completed a questionnaire recording their attitudes to schizophrenia and the psychosis subgroups. A reduction in negative perceptions were found for the psychosis subgroups, especially for the stress sensitivity psychosis and anxiety psychosis subgroups. Negative perceptions were found for drug-related psychosis. Participants who had undergone clinical training had overall positive attitudes. Differences across different countries were found. CONCLUSION: The attitudes towards psychosis subgroups used in this study have shown mixed results and variation across countries. Further research is warranted to investigate acceptability of terminology. Methods of reducing stigma are discussed in line with the findings. ETHICS: The study received ethical approval from ERGO (Ethics and Research Governance Online; ID: 15972) and subsequently from the ethics committee at each site

Effects of cumulative COVID-19 cases on mental health: Evidence from multi-country survey.

Depression and anxiety were both ranked among the top 25 leading causes of global burden of diseases in 2019 prior to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The pandemic affected, and in many cases threatened, the health and lives of millions of people across the globe and within the first year, global prevalence of anxiety and depression increased by 25% with the greatest influx in places highly affected by COVID-19. To explore the psychological impact of the pandemic and resultant restrictions in different countries using an opportunistic sample and online questionnaire in different phases of the pandemic. A repeated, cross-sectional online international survey of adults, 16 years and above, was carried out in 10 countries (United Kingdom, India, Canada, Bangladesh, Ukraine, Hong Kong, Pakistan, Egypt, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia). The online questionnaire was based on published approaches to understand the psychological impact of COVID-19 and the resultant restrictions. Five standardised measures were included to explore levels of depression [patient health questionnaire (PHQ-9)], anxiety [generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) assessment], impact of trauma [the impact of events scale-revised (IES-R)], loneliness (a brief loneliness scale), and social support (The Multi-dimensional Scale of Perceived Social support). There were two rounds of the online survey in 10 countries with 42866 participants in Round 1 and 92260 in Round 2. The largest number of participants recruited from the United Kingdom (112985 overall). The majority of participants reported receiving no support from mental health services throughout the pandemic. This study found that the daily cumulative COVID-19 cases had a statistically significant effect on PHQ-9, GAD-7, and IES-R scores. These scores significantly increased in the second round of surveys with the ordinary least squares regression results with regression discontinuity design specification (to control lockdown effects) confirming these results. The study findings imply that participants' mental health worsened with high cumulative COVID-19 cases. Whist we are still living through the impact of COVID-19, this paper focuses on its impact on mental health, discusses the possible consequences and future implications. This study revealed that daily cumulative COVID-19 cases have a significant impact on depression, anxiety, and trauma. Increasing cumulative cases influenced and impacted education, employment, socialization and finances, to name but a few. Building a database of global evidence will allow for future planning of pandemics, particularly the impact on mental health of populations considering the cultural differences. [Abstract copyright: ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.

On Fractional Differential Operator Involving H-function

[[abstract]]In the present paper we establish an important result involving a fractional differential operator given by Misra [5] for the product of H-function, general polynomial set and two general classes of polynomials. On account of the general nature of the functions and the polynomials occurring in our main results a large number of simple results follow as its special cases. For the sake of illustration, we present here two special cases involving product of general class of polynomials and the generalized Riemann Zeta function

Prevention for child and adolescent psychiatry in low-resource settings

Preventive measures for mental health issues among children have received meager attention. Although the prevalence rates of mental disorders are significant, systematic focused efforts toward management specifically in this special population in low-resources settings have been markedly inconsequential. Certainly, unlike other medical conditions, policies, and services related to mental health of children and adolescent are not adequate and efficient to deal with the burden of mental disorders in children and adolescents. This article reviews the available resources and highlights the possible strengths that can be utilized in prevention strategies

Oxidation of aqueous sulphur dioxide in suspensions of magnesium oxide: Removal of SO₂ from flue gases

713-716The kinetics of oxidation of aqueous SO2 in acetate buffered suspensions of MgO obeys rate law (i) Robs = k[MgO][S(IV)]2[H+]-l ... (i) and the main oxidation product is sulphate. The suggested mechanism involves the formation of surficial complexes between hydroxylated magnesium and S(IV). There exists a close parallelism between Robs and pH of zero point charge, pHzpc, for CdO, MgO and SiO2. The results suggest that in wet-scrubbers, which utilize the slurries of MgO for removal of SO2 from the flue gases, the sulphite formed as a result of SO2 absorption will be oxidized by atmospheric oxygen to sulphate, the extent of which will increase with increase in pH, temperature, slurry density and absorbed SO2

Surface-mediated autoxidation of aqueous SO2 in ceramic powder suspensions

683-687In acetate buffered ceramic suspensions, if the ceramic concentration is not too high, the kinetics of autoxidation conforms to the rate lawRobs = Run + k5[H+]-1[Ceramic][S(IV)]2where Run is the rate of uncatalyzed reaction and k5 is the rate constant for the surface catalyzed path. The rate of autoxidation is unaffected by oxygen partial pressure. Interestingly, the rate versus [ceramic] profile passes through a maximum indicating that the autoxidation mechanism involves the adsorption of both sulphur(IV) and dioxygen on particle surface

Relationship between illness disability in patients with first-episode schizophrenia with caregivers' perception of their needs

Introduction: The humanistic burden of schizophrenia is levied mostly upon the families in India which act as the primary source of caregiving. Studies have found that symptomatic patients with schizophrenia suffer from significant disability compared to those patients with minimal symptoms. Studies have reported positive correlation between patient's disability and higher number of needs perceived by caregivers of schizophrenia. There has been no evaluation of this aspect in first-episode schizophrenia (FES). Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the disability in patients with FES and find the relationship with the caregivers' perception of their needs. Methodology: This cross-sectional study included symptomatic patients with FES (Group 1; n = 30) along with their caregivers and patients with FES having minimal or no symptoms (Group 2; n = 30) along with their caregivers. The assessment was done using the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 for patients and Camberwell Assessment of Need-Short Appraisal Schedule for caregivers. The correlation was done among the level of disability in patients, patients' needs as perceived by their caregivers, sociodemographic, and clinical variables. Multiple regression analysis was done with needs as the dependent variable and other variables as independent predictors. Results: Among the patients with FES, Group 1 had higher disability scores than the Group 2 (t = 23.22, P < 0.01). Total needs of the patients as perceived by their caregivers were similar in both the groups. The unmet needs were more for Group 1 as compared to Group 2 (t = 16.45, P < 0.01). The former had more met needs compared to the latter (t = −13.23, P < 0.01). Disability in patients was positively correlated to illness duration (r = 0.65), unmet needs (r = 0.96), and total needs (r = 0.71). Sociodemographic parameters are not related to illness-related disability or caregivers' perception of the needs. Patients' disability, alogia, and asociality were the significant positive predictors of the unmet needs as perceived by caregivers in Group 1. Conclusion: Symptomatic patients with FES have more disability and more unmet patients' needs as perceived by their caregivers as compared to FES with minimal or no symptoms

Clinical and academic profile of children with specific learning disorder-mixed type: An Indian study

Background: Specific learning disorder (SLD) in the past decade has gained recognition as a disabling condition among children by parents and teachers in India. However, there are still gaps in knowledge about its clinical presentation and understanding. Therefore, the present study was planned to evaluate the clinical and academic profile of children with SLD. Methods: The sample comprised 30 children with their age range between 7 and 12 years with a diagnosis of SLD-mixed type. All children were assessed through specifically designed structured pro forma for clinical details (i.e., nature of birth, developmental milestones, and comorbidities) and academic history (i.e., history of failure, promoted in next class, repetition in the class, school change, etc.) and SLD-comprehensive battery. Results: The mean age of the participants was 9.6 years (standard deviation [SD] = 1.5). 76.7% of participants were male and their mean years of education was 4.7 (SD = 1.5). Thirty percent of children had a history of delayed developmental milestones in terms of speech (16.7%), walking (6.7%) and in speech and walking (6.7%), 23% of children had comorbid conditions of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder/attention-deficit disorder. Thirty percent of children repeated classes in their academic career. Conclusions: A significant number of children had delayed milestones and other problems. Moreover, it is important to understand the clinical and academic profile in the cultural context so that early identification and intervention can be planned