We examined the associations of lockdown stringency and duration with Google searches for four mental health concepts (i.e., “Anxiety,” “Depression,” “Suicide,” “Mental Health”) in nine countries (i.e., Hungary, India, Iran, Italy, Paraguay, Serbia, South Africa, Spain, Turkey) during the COVID-19 pandemic. We retrieved national-level data for each country from Google Trends and the Global Panel Database of Pandemic Policies. In our primary analysis, we used data from all countries to estimate a set of multilevel regression models examining associations of overall lockdown stringency and lockdown duration with relative search volumes for each mental health term. We repeated the models after replacing overall lockdown stringency with each of the lockdown stringency components. A negative association was found between overall lockdown stringency and “Depression.” Lockdown duration and the most stringent stay-at-home requirements were negatively associated with “Anxiety.” Policies that recommended or required the cancelation of public events evidenced negative associations with “Depression,” whereas associations between policies that required some or all levels of schooling to close and “Depression” were positive. Policies that recommended or required workplaces to close and those that enforced quarantines on non-citizens arriving from high-risk regions or closed borders entirely were negatively associated with “Suicide.” Lockdown duration and some lockdown policies during the COVID-19 pandemic were generally associated with significantly lower, rather than higher, Google searches for selected mental health terms. These findings could be used alongside other evidence to develop future lockdown strategies that are sensitive to mental health issues during public health crises.

Background: Facebook represents a new dimension for global information sharing. Suicidal behaviours and attempts are increasingly reported on Facebook. This scoping review explores the various aspects of suicidal behaviours associated with Facebook, discussing the challenges and preventive measures. Methods: PubMed, Google Scholar, and Scopus were searched for related articles published in English up to October 2021, using different combinations of “Facebook” and “suicide”. A group of experts comprising consultant psychiatrists screened the records and read the full-text articles to extract relevant data. Twenty-eight articles were chosen as relevant and included in the review under four selected themes. Results: Facebook impacts on suicidal behaviours in different aspects. Announcing suicides through sharing notes or personal information may lead to the prediction of suicide but be harmful to the online audience. Live-streaming videos of suicide is another aspect that questions Facebook’s ability to monitor shared contents that can negatively affect the audience. A positive impact is helping bereaved families to share feelings and seek support online, commemorating the lost person by sharing their photos. Moreover, it can provide real-world details of everyday user behaviours, which help predict suicide risk, primarily through novel machine-learning techniques, and provide early warning and valuable help to prevent it. It can also provide a timeline of the user’s activities and state of mind before suicide. Conclusions: Social media can detect suicidal tendencies, support those seeking help, comfort family and friends with their grief, and provide insights via timelining the users’ activities leading to their suicide. One of the limitations was the lack of quantitative studies evaluating preventative efforts on Facebook. The creators’ commitment and the users’ social responsibility will be required to create a mentally healthy Facebook environment.

With the uncertainties of COVID-19, people infected with coronavirus present with diverse psychiatric presentations. Some institutions have had to manage their patients with existing protocols, others have had to create them. In this article we aimed to report the challenges and good practices in the management of psychiatric conditions and delirium coexisting with COVID-19 across continents. Early Career Psychiatrists (ECPs) from across five continents were approached to share their experiences on the management of psychiatric conditions in patients with COVID-19 during the current pandemic. We collected information about the experiences from sixteen countries. Commonalities were similar psychiatric presentations and poor preparedness across countries. Differences were varying adjustments made in the management of psychiatric conditions coexisting with COVID-19 and different innovations. Good practices which can be adopted by other countries are novel approaches such as telepsychiatry, proactive consultation-liaison units and enhanced community services targeted at circumventing challenges faced when providing mental health services. These findings highlight the need for global preparedness in the mental health sector during outbreaks of infectious diseases, and the need for concerted efforts targeted at global and locally sensitive adaptation of existing protocols and the development of new guidelines for the management of psychiatric conditions for the present pandemic and subsequent occurrences.

Background: Suicidal attempt is a significant risk factor for future attempts, with the highest risk during the first-year post-suicide. Telepsychiatry has shown promise by providing easy access to evidence-based interventions during mental health crises. Aims: investigation the effectiveness of telehealth interventions in suicide prevention Methods: Four electronic databases (PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Ovid) were systematically searched for studies on patients undergoing telepsychiatry intervention (TPI) up to June 2022. Following PRISMA guidelines, a systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to investigate the effectiveness of telehealth interventions in suicide prevention. Continuous data were pooled as standardised mean difference (SMD), and dichotomous data were pooled as risk ratio using the random effects model with the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results: Sixteen studies were included in the review. Most studies were case-control and randomised controlled trials conducted in Europe and North America. The findings of the studies generally showed that TPIs are effective in reducing suicide rates (odds ratio = 0.68; 95% CI [−0.47, 0.98], p = .04) and suicidal reattempts. The interventions were also found to be well-accepted, with high retention rates. Conclusion: Our results suggest that TPIs are well-accepted and effective in reducing suicide rates and reattempts. It is recommended to maintain telephone follow-ups for at least 12 months. Further research is needed to understand the potential of telepsychiatry in suicide prevention fully.