One of the major risk factors for global death and disability is alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drug use. While there is increasing knowledge with respect to individual factors promoting the initiation and maintenance of substance use disorders (SUDs), disease trajectories involved in losing and regaining control over drug intake (ReCoDe) are still not well described. Our newly formed German Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) on ReCoDe has an interdisciplinary approach funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) with a 12‐year perspective. The main goals of our research consortium are (i) to identify triggers and modifying factors that longitudinally modulate the trajectories of losing and regaining control over drug consumption in real life, (ii) to study underlying behavioral, cognitive, and neurobiological mechanisms, and (iii) to implicate mechanism‐based interventions. These goals will be achieved by: (i) using mobile health (m‐health) tools to longitudinally monitor the effects of triggers (drug cues, stressors, and priming doses) and modify factors (eg, age, gender, physical activity, and cognitive control) on drug consumption patterns in real‐life conditions and in animal models of addiction; (ii) the identification and computational modeling of key mechanisms mediating the effects of such triggers and modifying factors on goal‐directed, habitual, and compulsive aspects of behavior from human studies and animal models; and (iii) developing and testing interventions that specifically target the underlying mechanisms for regaining control over drug intake.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic poses a challenge to global mental health. Loneliness and isolation may put people at higher risk for increased psychological distress. However, there is a lack of research investigating the development of COVID-19-related distress over time. Materials and Methods: We undertook an online survey among general population (N = 1903) in Germany throughout 6 months from the peak transmission period in April to the off-peak period by September 2020. Results: We found that the average prevalence of psychological distress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic significantly rose from 24% to 66% between the peak and off-peak transmission period, respectively. Unemployment rate and loneliness increased negative mental health outcomes, although the number of active COVID-19 cases decreased from April to September. Psychological distress scores increased mostly in female, young, and lonely people. Conclusions: Our results underline the importance of considering innovative alternatives to facilitate employment opportunities, distant contacts, and self-help over the course of the pandemic. Our study highlights the urgent need to pay attention to mental health services specifically targeting female, young, unemployed, and lonely people.

Individuals with substance use disorders (SUDs) have to cope with drug-related cues and contexts which can affect instrumental drug seeking, as shown with Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT) tasks among humans and animals. Our review addresses two potential mechanisms that may contribute to habitual or even compulsive drug seeking and taking. One mechanism is represented by Pavlovian and PIT effects on drug intake. The other is a shift from goal-directed to habitual drug intake, which can be accessed via model-based versus model-free decision-making in respective learning tasks. We discuss the impact of these learning mechanisms on drug consumption. First, we describe how Pavlovian and instrumental learning mechanisms interact in drug addiction. Secondly, we address the effects of acute and chronic stress exposure on behavioral and neural PIT effects in alcohol use disorder (AUD). Thirdly, we discuss how these learning mechanisms and their respective neurobiological correlates can contribute to losing versus regaining control over drug intake. Utilizing mobile technology (mobile applications on smartphones including games that measure learning mechanisms, activity bracelets), computational models, and real-world data may help to better identify patients with a high relapse risk and to offer targeted behavioral and pharmacotherapeutic interventions for vulnerable patients.

Background: The COVID-19 crisis poses global mental health and global economy challenges. However, there is a lack of longitudinal research investigating whether financial instability and social disruption may increase the risk of developing mental health problems over time that may potentially outlast the pandemic. Methods: We conducted an online survey for members of the general population (n = 2703) in Germany during the twelve months spanning from April 2020 to March 2021. We investigated the development of COVID-19 related psychological distress, the number of unemployed people, federal government debt, income distribution, and loneliness over the time period. Results: Over a period of twelve months, 53.6% of respondents in Germany reported experiencing psychological distress, varying from mild levels, 34.2%, to severe levels, 19.4%, of distress. High federal government debt, high incident COVID-19 cases, low incomes, and the prevalence of loneliness were found to be associated with increased long-term mental health problems. Psychological distress scores were most strongly increased in female and young respondents as well as those who reported fewer years of education, low income, and higher loneliness. Conclusions: Our study highlights factors that have a long-term impact on mental health amid the COVID-19 pandemic. We suggest that specific mental-health services could be offered to support high-risk groups experiencing financial fragility and loneliness. For purposes of safeguarding their mental health there is a need to monitor and track such risk factors in real time.

The widespread usage of antibiotics in agriculture leads to releases into the environment, but there is insufficient knowledge of the side-effects on non-target organisms. Therefore, we investigated the effects of the sulfonamide-antibiotic sulfamethoxazole (SMX) on Caenorhabditis elegans at phenotypic, biochemical and molecular biological levels. Multiple endpoints, including life history traits, thermal stress resistance and lipid peroxidation, as well as gene expression profiles, were determined after exposure of the nematodes to SMX. In contrast to expectations, SMX prolonged the lifespan and increased both the body size and pharynx pumping rate. On the other hand, SMX delayed reproductive timing and caused lipid peroxidation. The total number of offspring and thermal stress resistance were unaffected. The up-regulation of hsp-16.1 indicated stress in general and the increased lipid peroxidation oxidative stress in particular. This oxidative stress indicated that mitohormesis was the likely cause of the longevity and that enhanced pumping frequency was probably the reason for the increased growth. The sole adverse effect was delayed initial reproduction. This delay, however, can be crucial for r-strategists, such as the bacterivorous model animal used, in sustaining their populations in the environment in the presence of predators. Bacterivorous animals, in turn, are essential to maintaining nutrient recycling via the microbial loop.

The coronavirus pandemic has had a disruptive impact on everyday life across large parts of the world [1]. Qiu et al. reported that, in China, more than one-third of respondents (34.4% of 52 730 respondents) experienced psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic [2]. To assess the psychological distress, they developed a COVID-19 Peritraumatic Distress Index (CPDI) questionnaire. However, the CPDI has never been applied in the European context. This highlights the importance of how the CPDI questionnaire might perform in a clinical setting to assess mental state of the general population in Germany. Here we take a similar approach to survey how people living in Germany are coping psychologically with the disruption engendered by the COVID-19 outbreak. We aim to provide advice to the public on how to prevent distress and build coping skills. We conducted an online survey on Siuvo platform identical to that used in previous studies in China [2]. The survey included a socio-demographic assessment and the CPDI questionnaire. The conduct of the study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (ref: EA1/132/15). 1007 German respondents (aged 18 years or older) participated (750 females; age range: 18–81, Mean=42.0, SD=13.2). The average CPDI score from this Germany-based sample (Mean=21.9, SD=12.6) was 1.8% lower than that previously reported for the China-based sample (Mean=23.7, SD=15.4). Thus, in Germany, 24.1% of respondents reported psychological distress (ranging from 20.6% mild to 3.6% severe stress), ratings substantially lower than in China where 34.4% of the population reported distress (29.3% mild and 5.1% severe). This difference may reflect a comparatively higher testing rate in Germany, which may confer a sense of security and where individuals are tested early on and included those with no or mild symptoms. Moreover, Germany has a lower overall death rate for COVID-19 (5.0%) as compared to China (5.6%) as of May 17, 2020 (https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries), and previous studies suggest that self-reported fear is positively associated with death rate by country [3]. Indeed, the majority of respondents (39.3%) reported being “worried in general” during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 has generated fear of death and social rejection [4]. It is of interest that less than 3% of respondents endorsed a coronavirus-related conspiracy theory (e. g. epidemic was “deliberately manufactured to serve the interest of powerful forces”). A role of socio-demographic factors on respondents’ psychological distress was evident in both Germany and China. Female and younger people reported relatively higher levels of psychological distress. Thus, reported stress levels were higher in females vs. males both in Germany (Mean (SD)=22.7 (13.1) vs. 19.3 (11.0), p=0.002) and China (Mean (SD)=24.9 (15.0) vs. 21.4 (16.0), p <0.001). In Germany, higher levels of psychological distress were associated with younger age (Pearson r=− 0.12, p<0.001, two-tailed). Researchers reported that females and students in China experienced a greater psychological impact of the outbreak, and also reported higher levels of stress, anxiety, and depression [5]. Among young people, anxieties about future career and socioeconomic status appear to contribute to psychosocial stress associated with general anxieties about infection and social isolation [5]. However, our German-based sample did not involve participants under 18 years. Interestingly, the China-based sample reported that those under 18 years had the lowest CPDI score (Mean (SD)=14.8 (13.4) [2], arising from a fact that a relative low morbidity rate and China’s strict home quarantine enforcement among this age group. In Germany, less educated respondents had a greater propensity to report psychological distress (Pearson r=− 0.05, p=0.09, two-tailed). A study in China reported that those with no formal education have a higher risk of depression during the COVID-19 pandemic [6]. One implication is that local authorities might best provide information in plain language, or in graphical format, in order to inform the general public in relation to the outbreak. Regarding information sources in relation to the pandemic, 47.4% of our respondents reported obtaining “information only from reliable sources” is the best way to use social media to improve wellbeing. This finding supports the importance of reliable information provision, such as that provided by the World Health Organization, the Germany Federal Ministry of Health and the Robert Koch Institute. We acknowledge limitations to our findings, not least their descriptive nature. Our results are limited by absence of biographical and social data which might reveal vulnerability factors. It is unclear what happened before the outbreak, and our data will need independent replication. Our motivation was to highlight the impact of this unprecedented event on the mental health of the population. In this regard it lays a foundation for a follow-up study and provides a guideline that can support planning and preparation in the event of a recurrence of the outbreak or widespread transmission of COVID-19. As use a design and instrument deployed previously in China and, within its limitations, our data provide cross-cultural insight into the impact of the outbreak. We note that individuals in the sample are engaging in physical (e. g. walking or jogging being regarded as the most popular exercise among 54.8% of respondents) and cognitive activities (e. g. reading being most listed by 70.0% of respondents). State and local decision makers might avail of these data when targeting interventions for vulnerable populations (e. g. establish a national and local mental-health hotline and psychological counselling services) [7]. We also highlight the potential importance of...