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Biological Approaches
Published in Tricia L. Chandler, Fredrick Dombrowski, Tara G. Matthews, Co-occurring Mental Illness and Substance Use Disorders, 2022
Tricia L. Chandler, Mary C. Hoke, Tara G. Matthews, Elizabeth Reyes-Fournier
Pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical interventions can be used in conjunction with other therapies or as stand-alone treatments. After WWII, the pharmaceutical companies turned their efforts toward developing psychotropic medication for the treatment of mental health disorders, which have become mainstream over the past 70-plus years. Yet prior to WWII and after, there was another biological approach being researched for efficacy in treating brain chemistry deficiencies resulting in mental health disorders called orthomolecular psychiatry. Nutrition has been ignored for decades in the correlation between brain chemistry deficiencies and the onset of mental health disorders. In this chapter, we will review medically-assisted treatment (MAT) and explore orthomolecular psychiatry and the role of nutrition in the treatment of co-occurring disorders. Specialized training, certifications, and/or referrals to other health-care providers are needed for these interventions, but their efficacy makes them critical to integrative treatment. The history and use of pharmacotherapy, orthomolecular psychiatry, and nutrition are described, followed by case examples and recommended reading.
Platform-Driven Pandemic Management
Published in Ram Shringar Raw, Vishal Jain, Sanjoy Das, Meenakshi Sharma, Pandemic Detection and Analysis Through Smart Computing Technologies, 2022
Jayachandran Kizhakoot Ramachandran, Puneet Sachdeva
Non-pharmaceutical intervention such as Quarantine enforcement is crucial to keep infected subjects and people who meet them, under surveillance. To make it effective various agencies must come together for information sharing and implementation on the ground. There are several ways by which enforcement is done. In a more technology-oriented fashion, it starts with information exchange between various agencies. The information not only contain the information about individuals but also their real time location and area around which movement is restricted. Usually, such implementations need wearables for constant tracking, however, various other technologies such as smartphones, Bluetooth low energy (BLE), computer vision also help triangulate the subjects. It is like setting up a geofence, i.e., an alarm event is generated when the subject steps out of the allowed radius, and the agencies are duly notified.
Global health futures?
Published in Kevin McCracken, David R. Phillips, Global Health, 2017
Kevin McCracken, David R. Phillips
Should we be pessimistic? To date, HIV/AIDS, SARS, several influenza outbreaks and even Ebola have been largely contained and the world has not again seen the mortality of the early twentieth century Spanish flu. In the case of influenza, most likely, until a reasonably universal influenza vaccine or reliable drug treatments can be developed, and (importantly) made available and affordable to all, strong adherence will be needed to basic public health approaches to outbreaks and pandemic controls. For influenza, for example, these must be supported by surveillance, data sharing and cooperation, to include humans, domestic animals and wild birds. The United Nations warnings that H5N1 (avian flu) might kill millions in 2006 and the WHO's declaration of an A/H1N1 (swine flu) pandemic in 2009 were fortunately somewhat premature, but international caution, monitoring and preparedness need to remain high (CDC, 2011b). Moreover, as Ross et al. (2015) note, these outbreaks seem to be becoming ever more frequent. For this and similar situations, effective intervention strategies must be put in place to reduce transmission and disease, with the implementation of effective non-pharmaceutical interventions.
The lessons of COVID-19, SARS, and MERS: Implications for preventive strategies
Published in International Journal of Healthcare Management, 2022
Yuliya Semenova, Varvara Trenina, Lyudmila Pivina, Natalya Glushkova, Yersin Zhunussov, Erlan Ospanov, Geir Bjørklund
If strategies targeted on the prevention of cross-species and zoonotic transmissions fail, novel CoVs start spreading among human population very quickly and it might become impossible to control them after they reach a certain threshold. The sample of such an unfavorable scenario could be made of densely populated large urban areas [52]. Therefore, rapid response measures from local authorities are required along with adequate strategic planning to oppose the new epidemic shortly after its emergence. Besides, it is crucial to implement planning at national and international levels, covering the utilization of health technologies, rapid provision of reliable information about emerging outbreak, and timely coordination of control measures [53]. Non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) are among the most available health technologies that are broadly used to mitigate community transmission of novel pathogens. NPIs are particularly useful in a situation of CoVs, which belong to the group of respiratory viruses [54].
Grandparents’ Mental Health and Lived Experiences while Raising Their Grandchildren at the Forefront of COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia
Published in Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 2022
Nazik M.A. Zakari, Hanadi Y. Hamadi, Chloe E. Bailey, Ebtesam A.M. Jibreel
Additional studies have explained that grandparents can also experience grief and disappointment because of unintended social isolation that may occur as a result of caring for their grandchildren, such as becoming isolated from their friends and neighbors as they took on parenting responsibilities (Nair et al., 2011; Strom & Strom, 2011). During the COVID-19 outbreak, non-pharmaceutical interventions, also known as community mitigation activities, such as social distancing, public closures, and restricted business hours where policy precautions Saudi Arabia took to lower mortality and mitigate the adverse economic consequences of the pandemic (Ferguson et al., 2020). These policy precautions primarily targeted limiting social interaction as much as reasonably possible and may have exacerbated or magnified grandparents’ feeling of isolation (McLaughlin et al., 2017).
Ethical reflections on Covid-19 vaccines
Published in Acta Clinica Belgica, 2022
Kasper Raus, Eric Mortier, Kristof Eeckloo
Vaccines for Covid-19 have been developed, tested and approved in record speed and are now being used for a vaccination campaign on a global and unprecedented scale. There seems to be little doubt that vaccines will prove to be essential in combating the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic. For one, herd immunity achieved through infection is unlikely as is exhibited, for example, by the resurgence of Covid-19 in Manaus, Brazil in January 2021 despite a study of blood donors indicating that 76% of the population had been infected with SARS CoV-2 by October 2020 [1]. Second, as regards non-pharmaceutical interventions, strict measures have been implemented globally, but have failed to prevent new waves of the pandemic. A recent review of such non-pharmaceutical interventions in 130 countries and territories indicated that the effectiveness of some interventions is relatively proven empirically, but that this is less so for a series of other interventions [2]. Third, as far as pharmaceutical treatment is concerned, there have been both anecdotal reports of therapeutic success [3] as well as more large-scale studies [4]. However, although such treatments or interventions are important in mitigating the effect of moderate or severe clinical manifestations of Covid-19, they will not suffice to halt the Covid-19 pandemic. It is now clear that patients that survive Covid-19 can have long-term aversive health effects [5], making prevention a clinically and ethically superior option to treating and/or reducing mortality.