The COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil is extremely severe, and Brazil has the third-highest number of cases in the world. The goal of the study is to identify the prevalence rates and several predictors of depression and anxiety in Brazil during the initial outbreak of COVID-19. We surveyed 482 adults in 23 Brazilian states online on 9–22 May 2020, and found that 70.3% of the adults (n = 339) had depressive symptoms and 67.2% (n = 320) had anxiety symptoms. The results of multi-class logistic regression models revealed that females, younger adults, and those with fewer children had a higher likelihood of depression and anxiety symptoms; adults who worked as employees were more likely to have anxiety symptoms than those who were self-employed or unemployed; adults who spent more time browsing COVID-19 information online were more likely to have depression and anxiety symptoms. Our results provide preliminary evidence and early warning for psychiatrists and healthcare organizations to better identify and focus on the more vulnerable sub-populations in Brazil during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

JUSTIFICATIVA E OBJETIVOS: A quantificação da dor enfrenta dificuldades especiais. Elas surgem devido à óbvia associação das sensações de dor com um conjunto de fatores emocionais, motivacionais e culturais. Apesar disso, a mensuração da dor é essencial para a avaliação e o tratamento dos seus efeitos. O objetivo deste estudo foi mostrar que os métodos psicofísicos podem ser adequadamente empregados para a mensuração, tanto da dor clínica quando da dor experimental. CONTEÚDO: Em adição, a metodologia pode ser útil para analisar os mecanismos da dor, a analgesia, os vieses metodológicos inerentes aos registros verbais da dor e dissociar os componentes sensoriais e cognitivos da sensação/percepção de dor. CONCLUSÃO: A metodologia psicofísica pode ser uma medida fidedigna e válida do quinto sinal vital, que é a dor, em todas as suas dimensões.BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Pain quantification faces special difficulties. They appear due to the obvious association of pain to a set of emotional, motivational and cultural factors. However, pain measurement is essential to evaluate and treat its effects. This study aimed at showing that psychophysical methods might be adequately used to measure both clinical and experimental pain. CONTENTS: In addition, the methodology may be useful to analyze pain mechanisms, analgesia, methodological biases inherent to pain verbal records, and to dissociate sensory and cognitive components from pain sensation/perception. CONCLUSION: The psychophysical methodology may be a trustworthy and valid measurement of the fifth vital sign, which is pain, in all its dimensions

The neurochemical mechanisms underlying neuropathic pain (NP) are related to peripheral and central sensitization caused by the release of inflammatory mediators in the peripheral damaged tissue and ectopic discharges from the injured nerve, leading to a hyperexcitable state of spinal dorsal horn neurons. The aim of this work was to clarify the role played by cyclooxygenase (COX) in the lesioned peripheral nerve in the development and maintenance of NP by evaluating at which moment the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug indomethacin, a non-selective COX inhibitor, attenuated mechanical allodynia after placing one loose ligature around the nervus ischiadicus, an adaptation of Bennett and Xie's model in rodents. NP was induced in male Wistar rats by subjecting them to chronic constriction injury (CCI) of the nervus ischiadicus, placing one loose ligature around the peripheral nerve, and a sham surgery (without CCI) was used as control. Indomethacin (2 mg/kg) or vehicle was intraperitoneally and acutely administered in each group of rats and at different time windows (1, 2, 4, 7, 14, 21, and 28 days) after the CCI or sham surgical procedures, followed by von Frey's test for 30 min. The data showed that indomethacin decreased the mechanical allodynia threshold of rats on the first, second, and fourth days after CCI (P<0.05). These findings suggested that inflammatory mechanisms are involved in the induction of NP and that COX-1 and COX-2 are involved in the induction but not in the maintenance of NP.

O mundo está a viver uma situação de pandemia por causa do vírus SARS-CoV-2. Comparamos níveis de estresse peritraumático durante a pandemia Covid-19 (EPC) entre Brasil e Portugal, países latinos com longa história conjunta. Os resultados apontaram níveis elevados de EPC para os brasileiros com 19% (nível grave), e 64% de EPC de leve a grave, contra 5.3% e 38% dos portugueses. Os brasileiros demonstraram maior gravidade em 20 (de 24) itens de EPC. O índice global (IEPC) foi mais elevado nos brasileiros. Essas diferenças são explicadas como consequência das diferentes decisões políticas de saúde seguidas nos dois países.

Knowing about teacher perceptions contributes to the understanding of teachers’ attitudes toward the behavior of their students. We evaluated the perceptions of 501 teachers about the genetic and environmental influences on behaviors considered relevant to the educational environment using an original questionnaire from the United Kingdom, adapted to the Portuguese language of Brazil. We found that the teachers attributed genetic and environmental influences evenly regarding personality and learning difficulties; greater genetic influence on intelligence and mental illness; and greater environmental influence on behavioral problems. Most teachers stated that having a student with genetically influenced learning difficulties would affect their method of instructing them.

Background: The impact of psychiatric comorbidities in children and adolescents with headache disorders can be more comprehensively understood through a biopsychosocial perspective, which examines the dynamic interplay of factors beyond headache attacks. Resilience and executive function emerge within this framework, playing a central role in development psychopathology and other critical domains. Methods: This narrative review aimed to examine the impact of psychiatric comorbidity on migraine and/or high-frequency headaches (HFH) in children and adolescents through a biopsychosocial perspective centered on the role of resilience and executive function (EF), exploring their potential clinical implications. PubMed was searched for English language articles of human participants, from birth to 18 years, published up to 10 April 2025. Results: Clinical and population-based studies suggest that children and adolescents with migraine and/or HFH are at an increased risk of low resilience and EF impairments. Preliminary interaction and multivariate analyses suggest that high vulnerability (the counterpart to resilience) exerts a moderating role in the psychiatric comorbidity of migraine, as well as a mediating effect in the association of HFH with psychiatric symptoms and disorders. Candidate predictors of psychiatric comorbidity in youths with migraine and/or HFH include EF impairment, high vulnerability, female sex, low socioeconomic status, prenatal exposure to tobacco, poor academic performance and headache attacks accompanied by nausea and vomiting. Conclusions: The multidimensional impact of psychiatric comorbidities on children and adolescents with headache disorders is clearly demonstrated by consistent evidence of their adverse effects on headache severity and chronification, as well as negative outcomes in quality of life, cognitive performance, academic achievement and overall patient well-being, leading to long-term continuity across childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Most of this impact is probably due to the interactions between reduced resilience, increased vulnerability and EF impairment. This narrative review underscore the relevance of routinely assessing psychiatric symptoms, resilience, executive function skills and school functioning in children and adolescents with headache disorders. Future studies should examine whether early interventions focused on resilience, vulnerability and EF can prevent psychiatric comorbidities and improve headache outcomes in children and adolescents with migraine and/or HFH.