Background: Literature supports a strong relationship between childhood maltreatment and mental illness but most studies reviewed are cross-sectional and/or use recall to assess maltreatment and are thus prone to temporality and recall bias. Research on the potential prospective impact of maltreatment reduction on the incidence of psychiatric disorders is scarce.Method: Electronic databases and grey literature from 1990 to 2014 were searched for English-language cohort studies with criteria for depression and/or anxiety and non-recall measurement of childhood maltreatment. Systematic review with meta-analysis synthesized the results. Study quality, heterogeneity, and publication bias were examined. Initial screening of titles and abstracts resulted in 199 papers being reviewed. Eight high-quality articles met eligibility criteria. Population attributable fractions (PAFs) estimated potential preventive impact.Results: The pooled odds ratio (OR) between any type of maltreatment and depression was 2.03 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.37–3.01] and 2.70 (95% CI 2.10–3.47) for anxiety. For specific types of maltreatment and depression or anxiety disorders, the ORs were: physical abuse (OR 2.00, 95% CI 1.25–3.19), sexual abuse (OR 2.66, 95% CI 1.88–3.75), and neglect (OR 1.74, 95% CI 1.35–2.23). PAFs suggest that over one-half of global depression and anxiety cases are potentially attributable to self-reported childhood maltreatment. A 10–25% reduction in maltreatment could potentially prevent 31.4–80.3 million depression and anxiety cases worldwide.Conclusion: This review provides robust evidence of childhood maltreatment increasing the risk for depression and anxiety, and reinforces the need for effective programs and policies to reduce its occurrence.

Objectives: Pandemics and their public health control measures have generally substantially increased the level of loneliness and social isolation in the general population. Because of the circumstances of aging, older adults are more likely to experience social isolation and loneliness during pandemics. However, no systematic review has been conducted or published on the prevalence of loneliness and/or social isolation among the older population. This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to provide up-to-date pooled estimates of the prevalence of social isolation and loneliness among older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic and other pandemics in the last two decades. Design: EMBASE, PsychoINFO, Medline, and Web of Science were searched for relevant studies from January 1, 2000 to November 31, 2021 published in a variety of languages. Only studies conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic were selected in the review. Results: A total of 30 studies including 28,050 participants met the inclusion criteria. Overall, the pooled period prevalence of loneliness among older adults was 28.6% (95% CI: 22.9–35.0%) and 31.2% for social isolation (95% CI: 20.2–44.9%). Prevalence estimates were significantly higher for those studies conducted post 3-month from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to those conducted within the first 3 months of the pandemic. Conclusions: This review identifies the need for good quality longitudinal studies to examine the long-term impact of pandemics on loneliness and social isolation among older populations. Health policymaking and healthcare systems should proactively address the rising demand for appropriate psychological services among older adults.

There has been a limited number of systematic reviews conducted to summarize the overview of the relationship between DNA methylation and depression, and to critically appraise the roles of major study characteristics in the accuracy of study findings. This systematic review aims to critically appraise the impact of study characteristics on the association between DNA methylation and depression, and summarize the overview of this association. Electronic databases and gray literatures until December 2017 were searched for English-language studies with standard diagnostic criteria of depression. A total of 67 studies were included in this review along with a summary of their study characteristics. We grouped the findings into etiological and treatment studies. Majority of these selected studies were recently published and from developed countries. Whole blood samples were the most studied common tissues. Bisulfite conversion, along with pyrosequencing, was widely used to test the DNA methylation level across all the studies. High heterogeneity existed among the studies in terms of experimental and statistical methodologies and study designs. As recommended by the Cochrane guideline, a systematic review without meta-analysis should be undertaken. This review has, in general, found that DNA methylation modifications were associated with depression. Subgroup analyses showed that most studies found BDNF and SLC6A4 hypermethylations to be associated with MDD or depression in general. In contrast, studies on NR3C1, OXTR, and other genes, which were tested by only few studies, reported mixed findings. More longitudinal studies using standardized experimental and laboratory methodologies are needed in future studies to enable more systematical comparisons and quantitative synthesis.

Background.: Little is understood about of the role of coping strategies in psychological well-being (PWB) and distress for the general population and different physical and psychiatric disease groups. A thorough examination of these relationships may provide evidence for the implementation of public mental health promotion and psychiatric disease prevention strategies aimed at improving the use of positive coping approaches or addressing the causes and maintainers of distress. The present study using a structural equation modelling (SEM) approach and nationally representative data on the Canadian population investigates the relationships among PWB, distress and coping strategies and identifies major factors related to PWB for both the general population and diverse-specific disease groups.Methods.: Data examined were from the Canadian Community Health Survey of Mental Health and Well-being (CCHS 1.2), a large national survey (n = 36 984). We applied exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis and SEM to build structural relationships among PWB, distress and coping strategies in the general population.Results.: Both SEM measurement and structure models provided a good fit. Distress was positively related to negative coping and negatively related to positive coping. Positive coping indicated a higher level of PWB, whereas negative coping was associated with a lower level of PWB. PWB was negatively related to distress. These same relationships were also found in the population subgroups. For the population with diseases (both physical and psychiatric diseases, except agoraphobia), distress was the more important factor determining subjective PWB than the person's coping strategies, whereas, negative coping had a major impact on distress in the general population. Strengths and limitations were also discussed.Conclusions.: Our findings have practical implications for public psychiatric disease intervention and mental health promotion. As previously noted positive/adaptive coping increased the level of PWB, whereas negative/maladaptive coping was positively related to distress and negatively related to PWB. Distress decreased the level of PWB. Our findings identified major correlates of PWB in both the general population and population subgroups. Our results provide evidence for the differential use of intervention tactics among different target audiences. In order to improve the mental health of the general population public mental health promotion should focus on strategies that reduce negative coping at a population level, whereas clinicians treating individual clients should make the reduction of distress their primary target to maintain or improve patients’ PWB.