Medicine 29-3, Bengbu Medical College's innovative training Program for postgraduate students (Byycx22086 Ling-ling Xia, Byycx22020 Jun-da Li), and Anhui Provincial graduate Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship practice Project (2022cxcysj176 Ling-ling Xia) Conflict of interest:None declared Background:The COVID-19 pandemic has caused varying degrees of psychological stress among medical students. This research explored the post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) of medical students in China and their relationship with positive coping and social support. Material/Methods:In the form of cross-sectional online survey, 2280 medical students locked down at home were selected by random cluster method to investigate social support, coping style, and PTSS using the Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS), Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire (SCSQ), and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Checklist-Civilian Version (PCL-C), respectively. Results:This research found that the PTSS detection rate in medical students was 10.42% during the COVID-19 pandemic. The PTSS scores of females were significantly higher than that of the males. However, the PTSS detection rate in females (9.71%) was not significantly different from that in males (11.24%). Compared with those of the non-PTSS group, the total score and its all-factor score of social support, the total score of coping style and the positive coping score of the PTSS group were much lower, while the negative coping score of the PTSS group was much higher (P<0.01). Positive coping was positively correlated with social support, while positive coping and social support were negatively correlated with PTSS. The total effect of positive coping on PTSS was -0.310 (P<0.001), the direct effect was -0.128 (P<0.01), and the indirect effect was -0.182 (P<0.001). Social support played a mediating role between positive coping and PTSS, with the mediating effect accounting for 58.81% of the total effect. Conclusions:Social support plays a mediating role between positive coping and post-traumatic stress symptoms. Objective support and positive coping are the 2 main protective factors of PTSS.

Background and aimsMethamphetamine (MA) is a psychostimulant associated with a high relapse rate among patients with MA use disorder (MUD). Long-term use of MA is associated with mental disorders, executive dysfunction, aggressive behaviors, and impulsivity among patients with MUD. However, identifying which factors may be more closely associated with relapse has not been investigated. Thus, we aimed to investigate the psychological factors and the history of MA use that may influence MA relapse.MethodsThis cross-sectional study included 168 male MUD patients (MUD group) and 65 healthy male residents (control group). Each patient was evaluated with self-report measures of executive dysfunction, psychopathological symptoms, impulsiveness, aggressiveness, and history of MA use. Data were analyzed with t-tests, analyses of variance, and correlation and regression analyses.ResultsThe MUD group reported greater executive dysfunction, psychopathological symptoms, impulsivity, and aggression than the control group. Lower age of first MA use was associated both with having relapsed one or more times and with having relapsed two or more times; greater executive dysfunction was associated only with having relapsed two or more times.ConclusionPatients with MUD reported worse executive function and mental health. Current results also suggest that lower age of first MA use may influence relapse rate in general, while executive dysfunction may influence repeated relapse in particular. The present results add to the literature concerning factors that may increase the risk of relapse in individuals with MUD.

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