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Anxiety and Depression in Family Members of Critically III Covid-19 Inpatients: Brief Psychological Interventions via Telephone, an Exploratory Study [Response to Letter]
Authors Caballero-Suárez NP, Barrientos-Casarrubias V, Gutiérrez-Velilla E, González Avilés LM, Pérez-López LD, Alvarado-De la Barrera C, Ávila-Ríos S, Mora-Gallegos J
Received 18 November 2023
Accepted for publication 25 November 2023
Published 30 November 2023 Volume 2023:16 Pages 3703—3704
Nancy Patricia Caballero-Suárez,1 Vania Barrientos-Casarrubias,1 Ester Gutiérrez-Velilla,1 Lilian Margarita González Avilés,2 Luis Daniel Pérez-López,1,2 Claudia Alvarado-De la Barrera,1 Santiago Ávila-ríos,1 Janella Mora-Gallegos3
1Centro de Investigación en Enfermedades Infecciosas (CIENI), Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Respiratorias “Ismael Cosío Villegas” (INER), Mexico City, Mexico; 2Programa de Maestría en Psicología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Mexico City, Mexico; 3Programa de Atención a Pacientes y Familiares (PAPyF), Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Respiratorias “Ismael Cosío Villegas” (INER), Mexico City, Mexico
Correspondence: Nancy Patricia Caballero-Suárez, Departamento de Investigación en Enfermedades Infecciosas (CIENI), Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Respiratorias (INER), Calzada de Tlalpan 4502, Sección XVI, Tlalpan, Mexico City, 14080, Mexico, Tel +52 155 56667985 ext. 169, Email [email protected]
View the original paper by Dr Caballero-Suárez and colleagues
This is in response to the Letter to the Editor
Dear editor
We greatly appreciate the letter sent by Ahmad Syaekhu regarding Anxiety and Depression in Family Members of Critically III Covid-19 Inpatients: Brief Psychological Interventions by Telephone, an Exploratory Study.1 Indeed, the study was conducted in family members of COVID patients who were admitted to the intensive care unit, as this population was at higher risk and likelihood of mortality,2 so the stressful effects could be more severe. As mentioned in the Letter to the Editor, the results can be applied only to this population, so studies in different populations in which the patients are not necessarily in intensive care units will be useful.
On the other hand, we fully agree that the next steps should include studies in which there is a control group that does not receive any intervention and it can be determined to what degree these types of brief interventions are beneficial in reducing emotional and stress symptoms. Likewise, studies that evaluate outcome variables over time and verify whether the effects of these interventions are maintained would be very valuable. In addition, the study of other variables involved, such as biomedical parameters, will help to demonstrate the importance and impact that addressing emotional symptoms can have on the quality of life and well-being of these at-risk populations. Undoubtedly, the results of the study are a starting point for further research to shed more light on this important issue.
As also mentioned in the letter, other types of interventions and/or modalities can complement the psychological interventions mentioned in our study. Psychological intervention with MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction) is a promising possibility that has already provided some evidence of its usefulness in this population.3 Similarly, designing online or app-based interventions may be effective in reaching a larger number of people who require it.4 To conclude, we thank again the valuable comments based on the results of our work.
Disclosure
The authors report no conflicts of interest in this communication.
References
1. Caballero-suárez NP, Barrientos-casarrubias V, Gutiérrez-velilla E, et al. Anxiety and depression in family members of critically ill Covid-19 inpatients: brief psychological interventions via telephone, an exploratory study. J Multidiscip Healthc. 2023;16(October):3319–3331.
2. Olivas-Martínez A, Cárdenas-Fragoso JL, Jiménez JV, et al. In-hospital mortality from severe COVID-19 in a tertiary care center in Mexico City; causes of death, risk factors and the impact of hospital saturation. PLoS One. 2021;16(2):e0245772. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0245772
3. Li G, Yuan H, Zhang W. The effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction for family caregivers: systematic review. Arch Psychiatr Nurs. 2016;30(2):292–299. doi:10.1016/j.apnu.2015.08.014
4. Marcolino MS, Oliveira JAQ, D’Agostino M, Ribeiro AL, Alkmim MBM, Novillo-Ortiz D. The impact of mHealth interventions: systematic review of systematic reviews. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. 2018;6(1):e23. doi:10.2196/mhealth.8873
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