| 1. |
- Corvetto, Julia Feriato, et al.
(författare)
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Impact of heat on mental health emergency visits : a time series study from all public emergency centres, in Curitiba, Brazil
- 2023
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Ingår i: BMJ Open. - : BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. - 2044-6055. ; 13:12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objectives: Quantify the risk of mental health (MH)-related emergency department visits (EDVs) due to heat, in the city of Curitiba, Brazil.Design: Daily time series analysis, using quasi-Poisson combined with distributed lag non-linear model on EDV for MH disorders, from 2017 to 2021.Setting: All nine emergency centres from the public health system, in Curitiba.Participants: 101 452 EDVs for MH disorders and suicide attempts over 5 years, from patients residing inside the territory of Curitiba.Main outcome measure: Relative risk of EDV (RR EDV) due to extreme mean temperature (24.5°C, 99th percentile) relative to the median (18.02°C), controlling for long-term trends, air pollution and humidity, and measuring effects delayed up to 10 days.Results: Extreme heat was associated with higher single-lag EDV risk of RR EDV 1.03(95% CI 1.01 to 1.05 - single-lag 2), and cumulatively of RR EDV 1.15 (95% CI 1.05 to 1.26 - lag-cumulative 0-6). Strong risk was observed for patients with suicide attempts (RR EDV 1.85, 95% CI 1.08 to 3.16) and neurotic disorders (RR EDV 1.18, 95% CI 1.06 to 1.31). As to demographic subgroups, females (RR EDV 1.20, 95% CI 1.08 to 1.34) and patients aged 18-64 (RR EDV 1.18, 95% CI 1.07 to 1.30) were significantly endangered. Extreme heat resulted in lower risks of EDV for patients with organic disorders (RR EDV 0.60, 95% CI 0.40 to 0.89), personality disorders (RR EDV 0.48, 95% CI 0.26 to 0.91) and MH in general in the elderly ≥65 (RR EDV 0.77, 95% CI 0.60 to 0.98). We found no significant RR EDV among males and patients aged 0-17.Conclusion: The risk of MH-related EDV due to heat is elevated for the entire study population, but very differentiated by subgroups. This opens avenue for adaptation policies in healthcare: such as monitoring populations at risk and establishing an early warning systems to prevent exacerbation of MH episodes and to reduce suicide attempts. Further studies are welcome, why the reported risk differences occur and what, if any, role healthcare seeking barriers might play.
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| 2. |
- Corvetto, Julia F., et al.
(författare)
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Private vs. public emergency visits for mental health due to heat : an indirect socioeconomic assessment of heat vulnerability and healthcare access, in Curitiba, Brazil
- 2024
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Ingår i: Science of the Total Environment. - : Elsevier. - 0048-9697 .- 1879-1026. ; 934
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Few studies have explored the influence of socioeconomic status (SES) on the heat vulnerability of mental health (MH) patients. As individual socioeconomic data was unavailable, we aimed to fill this gap by using the healthcare system type as a proxy for SES. Brazilian national statistics indicate that public patients have lower SES than private. Therefore, we compared the risk of emergency department visits (EDVs) for MH between patients from both healthcare types. EDVs for MH disorders from all nine public (101,452 visits) and one large private facility (154,954) in Curitiba were assessed (2017–2021). Daily mean temperature was gathered and weighed from 3 stations. Distributed-lag non-linear model with quasi-Poisson (maximum 10-lags) was used to assess the risk. We stratified by private and public, age, and gender under moderate and extreme heat. Additionally, we calculated the attributable fraction (AF), which translates individual risks into population-representative burdens – especially useful for public policies. Random-effects meta-regression pooled the risk estimates between healthcare systems. Public patients showed significant risks immediately as temperatures started to increase. Their cumulative relative risk (RR) of MH-EDV was 7.5 % higher than the private patients (Q-Test 26.2 %) under moderate heat, suggesting their particular heat vulnerability. Differently, private patients showed significant risks only under extreme heat, when their RR became 4.3 % higher than public (Q-Test 6.2 %). These findings suggest that private patients have a relatively greater adaptation capacity to heat. However, when faced with extreme heat, their current adaptation means were potentially insufficient, so they needed and could access healthcare freely, unlike their public counterparts. MH patients would benefit from measures to reduce heat vulnerability and access barriers, increasing equity between the healthcare systems in Brazil. AF of EDVs due to extreme heat was 0.33 % (95%CI 0.16;0.50) for the total sample (859 EDVs). This corroborates that such broad population-level policies are urgently needed as climate change progresses.
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| 3. |
- Howner, Katarina, et al.
(författare)
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Brain processing of fearful facial expression in mentally disordered offenders
- 2011
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Ingår i: Journal of Behavioral and Brain Science. - Irvine, CA : Scientific Research Publishing. - 2160-5866 .- 2160-5874. ; 1:3, s. 115-123
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Emotional facial expressions are important cues for interaction between people. The aim of the present study was to investigate brain function when processing fearful facial expressions in offenders with two psychiatric disorders which include impaired emotional facial perception; autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and psychopathy (PSY). Fourteen offenders undergoing forensic psychiatric assessment (7 with ASD, and 7 psychopathic offenders) and 12 healthy controls (HC) viewed fearful and neutral faces while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Brain activity (fearful versus neutral faces) was compared both between HC and offenders and between the two offender groups (PSY and ASD). Functional co-activation was also investigated. The offenders had increased activity bilaterally in amygdala and medial cingulate cortex as well as the left hippocampus during processing fearful facial expressions compared to HC. The two subgroups of offenders differed in five regions compared with each other. Results from functional co-activation analysis suggested a strong correlation between the amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in the left hemisphere only in the PSY group. These findings suggest enhanced neural processing of fearful faces in the amygdala as well as in other facial processing brain areas in offenders compared to HC. Moreover, the co-activation between amygdala and ACC in the PSY but not the ASD group suggested qualitative differences in amygdala activity in the two groups. Since the sample size is small the study should be regarded as a pilot study.
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