Zung's Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) were completed by 489 healthy volunteers (314 men, 175 women) aged 15-84 years. The total scores were analysed in function of sex, age, occupational class, professional group, marital status, religion, foreigner status and nationality. Analysis by orthogonal polynomial regression showed no statistically significant differences between different age groups. In contrast to this, the study revealed highly significant SAS and SDS score differences between both sexes (Mann-Whitney U-test). In addition, there were statistically significant associations between the SAS scores and occupational class, professional group, religion, foreigner status and nationality; compared with significant associations between the SDS scores and marital status, foreigner status and nationality (Kruskal-Wallis test/Mann-Whitney U-test). The requirements for data analysis in clinical trials, for a differential diagnosis between transient variations of normal health and disorders, and for a differential diagnosis between anxiety and depression are discussed.

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The COVID-19 pandemic generated large amounts of stress across the globe. While acute stress negatively impacts health, defining exact consequences and behavioral interventions can be difficult. We hypothesized that a generalized increase in stress and anxiety caused by continuation of the global pandemic would negatively impact sleep quality and that ever users of e-cigarettes and conventional tobacco would have more profound alterations over time. Participants were recruited via social media to complete an online survey in April 2020 (n = 554). Inhalant use was assessed through the UCSD Inhalant Questionnaire and sleep quality was gauged through the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). A set of participants (n = 217) retook the survey in June 2020. Inhalant users—historical or current e-cigarette vapers, conventional tobacco smokers, and dual users—had higher PSQI scores than never smoker/never vapers, demonstrating worse sleep quality in inhalant users. Non-smoking/non-vaping subjects who retook the survey in June 2020 had improvement in their PSQI scores by paired t test, indicating better sleep quality as the pandemic continued, while inhalant users of all types had persistently high PSQI scores (poor sleep quality). These data suggest that ever users of tobacco products may be susceptible to overall diminished sleep quality in the setting of stressful life circumstances. These data also suggest that pandemic-initiated lifestyle changes may have led to improvements in sleep quality. Finally, these findings raise concerns for correlations between either past or active e-cigarette use on sleep, and thus overall health.

No abstract