Killaspy, H

Mucci, A

English

UCL Discovery

TYPE EditorialPUBLISHED 06 June 2023DOI 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1226513OPEN ACCESSEDITED AND REVIEWED BYAntonio Vita,University of Brescia, Italy*CORRESPONDENCEHelen Killaspyh.killaspy@ucl.ac.ukRECEIVED 21 May 2023ACCEPTED 24 May 2023PUBLISHED 06 June 2023CITATIONKillaspy H and Mucci A (2023) Editorial: Womenin psychiatry 2022: social psychiatry andpsychiatric rehabilitation.Front. Psychiatry 14:1226513.doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1226513COPYRIGHT© 2023 Killaspy and Mucci. This is anopen-access article distributed under the termsof the Creative Commons Attribution License(CC BY). The use, distribution or reproductionin other forums is permitted, provided theoriginal author(s) and the copyright owner(s)are credited and that the original publication inthis journal is cited, in accordance withaccepted academic practice. No use,distribution or reproduction is permitted whichdoes not comply with these terms.Editorial: Women in psychiatry2022: social psychiatry andpsychiatric rehabilitationHelen Killaspy1* and Armida Mucci21Division of Psychiatry, University College London, London, United Kingdom, 2Specialisation School inPsychiatry, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Caserta, ItalyKEYWORDSwomen, psychiatry, social, rehabilitation, mental healthEditorial on the Research TopicWomen in psychiatry 2022: social psychiatry and psychiatric rehabilitationFrontiers in Psychiatry’s “Women in Psychiatry 2022” initiative aims to promote thework of women scientists across all fields of psychiatry. This Research Topic on SocialPsychiatry and Psychiatric Rehabilitation aimed to improve knowledge about the factorsinfluencing mental health outcomes for women, particularly those with more complexmental health problems. We encouraged submissions reporting on studies investigatingthe relationship between social and psychological factors affecting women’s mental health,studies evaluating services or interventions that focus on those with more complex mentalhealth problems, as well as studies investigating the representation of female academicsworking in this field. Given this fairly broad scope, the papers we included provide aninteresting and, perhaps somewhat eclectic, range of subjects.Two of our included studies investigated whether gender influenced outcomes for peopleusing longer term psychiatric facilities. Rusakovskaya et al. compared social and every dayfunctioning of male and female residents of mental health institutions based in three regionsof Russia. Other than gender, participants were similar in sociodemographic characteristics,all had a primary diagnosis of schizophrenia and, on average, they had been living in thefacility for over 7 years. The results showed that female residents performed better than theirmale counterparts on all domains of social and everyday functioning, corroborating previousstudies that have identified a poorer prognosis, particularly in regard to functioning, for mendiagnosed with schizophrenia. A number of possible explanations for this have been putforward including the earlier age and more insidious onset of the illness amongst males.In Milan, Italy, Cafaro et al. investigated outcomes for people with severe mental illnesswho participated in an intensive, residential psychiatric rehabilitation program. Males andfemales had similar diagnostic profiles and scored similarly on ratings of symptoms andfunctioning at entry to the program. The study found that women were more likely thanmen to be discharged to independent accommodation, despite having a longer duration ofuntreated illness. However, they were less likely to have a substance use disorder, which may,in part, explain their better outcomes.Women have a reputation for being adaptable, as evidenced by Özümerzifon et al. whoreported on the feasibility and potential benefits of a virtual dance/movement programconducted during the COVID-19 pandemic for survivors of intimate partner violence. Theintervention was originally planned as an in-person program but had to move to an on-lineformat due to the social distancing restrictions of the pandemic. Nevertheless, 45 womenFrontiers in Psychiatry 01 frontiersin.orgKillaspy and Mucci 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1226513were recruited and randomized and offered either 12 sessions ofthe program or usual care. The intervention was well received andthose who participated in the dance/movement sessions reportedimprovements in wellbeing and symptoms such as anxiety andpost-traumatic stress, as well as benefits from having regularcontact with peers.Moving the focus to women academics, Trimmel et al.investigated the gender of first authors of papers published inthree high-impact psychiatry journals over 15 years (from 2004 to2019). During this period, the percentage of female first authorsof papers focusing on the most common three target populations(people with mood disorders, schizophrenia or general mentalhealth problems) increased but male first authors remained in themajority. However, in 2019, over 50% of all original research articleshad a female first author and in the two most commonly publishedpsychiatric research fields (biological research and psychosocialepidemiology), the percentage of female first authors was over 50%.These findings suggest that gender equality amongst academics inthe mental health field is improving but there is still some wayto go. This Research Topic also includes a perspective review byRexhaj et al. of the literature on caregivers. In keeping with previousresearch, they identified that around two-thirds of informal caregivers are female. Perhaps it is not surprising therefore, that theyalso found that women academics were more likely than their malecounterparts to research in this area.This overlap between the personal and professional identities offemale academics was the focus of the final paper in our Topic—a fascinating study by and Roszik-Volovik et al. who report onhow, in the midst of the influx of refugees into Hungary causedby the war in Ukraine, the all female Research Group of ChildhoodMental Health, based at Eötvös Loránd University and SemmelweisUniversity in Budapest, transformed itself into a support resourcefor refugee families. They provided playgroups and activities forthe children, many of whom were traumatized by their experiencesin Ukraine, that facilitated opportunities for discussions with theirparents and specialist advice where needed, and enabled socialrelationships to form between the refugee families. The experiencesof the research group were later evaluated through focus groups,providing insights into the stress of the situation and the process ofmerging of personal and professional boundaries during this awfuland extraordinary moment in history.We hope you will enjoy reading this collection of papers and,for those of you who are women academics in this or a related field,we hope they provide some inspiration for your own research.Author contributionsAll authors contributed to this editorial and agreed the finalversion for publication.Conflict of interestThe authors declare that the research was conductedin the absence of any commercial or financial relationshipsthat could be construed as a potential conflictof interest.Publisher’s noteAll claims expressed in this article are solely those of theauthors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliatedorganizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and thereviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, orclaim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed orendorsed by the publisher.Frontiers in Psychiatry 02 frontiersin.org

Editorial: Women in psychiatry 2022: social psychiatry and psychiatric rehabilitation

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Editorial: Women in psychiatry 2022: social psychiatry and psychiatric rehabilitation

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