IntroductionPublic health emergencies such as pandemics affect the health, safety, and well-being of both individuals and societies. Thus, this study aims to better understand the fear due to coronavirus disease (COVID) and associated levels of anxiety, depression, stress, and coping in the general public of India during the initial stage of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Materials and methodsThis was a cross-sectional study to assess the psychological impact of COVID-19 and coping levels among the general population during the coronavirus pandemic's initial phase. An online survey was conducted using a snowball sampling technique.
ResultsA total of 489 people responded to the survey. The prevalence rates of depression, anxiety and stress were 27.2%, 21.5%, and 15.3% respectively. Female gender, age below 35 years, history of medical or psychiatric illness, and those who had personal contact with persons with COVID-19 were significantly associated with presence of depression, anxiety, and stress whereas spending more than 1 hour on COVID-19-related information was associated with significant stress.
ConclusionThis study concludes that the prevalence rates of psychological problems were high during the COVID-19 pandemic. These are directly related to the fear associated with COVID-19 but had an inverse relationship with the resilient coping levels.
BackgroundApart from the alcohol effects on various domains of health, the effect on sexual health is the most concerning aspect to the individual. Chronic alcohol intake leads to sexual dysfunction leading to interpersonal difficulties which further worsens alcohol dependence creating a vicious cycle.
MethodologyThis is a cross-sectional study done at an inpatient psychiatry ward of a tertiary care hospital after taking institutional ethical clearance and due informed consent from the participants. The study sample comprised of 50 alcohol dependent subjects and 50 healthy controls taken by purposive sampling based on the inclusion criteria. Subjects were rated on the Arizona sexual experiences (ASEX) scale for various aspects of sexuality and on the New sexual satisfaction scale (NSS) for the degree of sexual satisfaction. WHO-Quality of Life (WHOQOL)-BREF was used to assess the quality of life in both groups. Data was collected and analyzed using MS Excel and SPSS version 23 (IBM Corp., Armonk, USA),
ResultsThe prevalence of sexual dysfunction in the study was about 40% with an inability to reach and satisfaction with orgasm (38% and 28% respectively) the most common followed by erectile dysfunction (26%). The patients with alcohol dependence had a significantly higher degree of sexual dysfunction, poor sexual satisfaction, and low quality of life compared to controls. With correlation analysis, the total scores on ASEX were positively correlated with the duration of alcohol use and dependence.
ConclusionsThis study concludes that sexual dysfunction is common and seen in nearly half of the patients with alcohol dependence affecting desire, erection, and satisfaction with orgasm. Alcohol dependence further impairs the sexual satisfaction and quality of life of the individual. This information can be utilized in motivational interviewing of patients with alcohol dependence by addressing both the problems simultaneously to improve sexual functioning and quality of life.
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