Maria João Heitor dos Santos

Hospital Beatriz Ângelo · Psychiatry and Mental Health

The COVID-19 pandemic increased psychosocial risk factors among healthcare professionals (HCPs). Objective: To characterize Portuguese HCPs mental health (MH), estimate anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and burnout symptoms, and identify risk/protective factors. A cross-sectional online survey and a longitudinal assessment...

Background Unemployment can involve financial strain and major psychosocial challenges. Integration of the existing evidence is needed to better characterize the association between unemployment and mental health, independently of macroeconomic contexts. Aims Main objectives of this study: (a) review, integrate, and summarize evidence about the as...

Women are exposed to increased burden of mental disorders during the perinatal period: 13-19% experience postpartum depression. Perinatal psychological suffering affects early mother-child relationship, impacting child's emotional and cognitive development. Return-to-work brings additional vulnerability given the required balance between parenting...

A pandemia da COVID-19 provocou alterações profundas na forma de viver, individual e comunitária. Essas alterações, aliadas ao medo e incer- teza crescentes de infetar ou ser infetado e ao medo de perder emprego ou rendimento decorrentes da imprevisibilidade na evolução da doença, têm sido apontadas como potenciais fatores de risco para a saúde men...

Objective The objective of this paper was to evaluate the structural validity and convergent validity of the first Portuguese version of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). Settings The data sets come from two studies conducted in Portugal, respectively, from the Resilience Effect in Coping with Trauma (RECT) project and from the Healt...

Background Epidemiologic evidence highlights the harmful consequences of unemployment on health and well-being. This emphasizes the need to design low-cost interventions to prevent the adverse mental health effects of unemployment. The main aim of this study was to create expert-consensus regarding development and implementation of a brief, sustain...

Objective The main objective of this work was to translate the English version of ASSET (A Shortened Stress Evaluation Tool) into the Portuguese version and to validate its psychometric properties. Additionally, this work tested the convergent validity of the instrument. Methods The translation and retroversion were conducted by experts and submit...

Background Economic crises and unemployment have profound impact on mental health and well-being. Main goal of the Healthy Employment (HE) project is to enhance intersectoral actions promoting mental health among unemployed, namely through the implementation and effectiveness-evaluation of short-term and sustainable group interventions. Methods Th...

Introduction Economic crises have consequences on labor market, with impacts on mental health (MH) and psychological well-being (PWB). We describe the effectiveness of an intervention among unemployed, performed within EEA Grants Healthy Employment project. Objectives Evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention for MH literacy, PWB and resilienc...

BACKGROUND: Economic crises have deleterious impact on mental health. Unemployment and precarious work conditions pose an increased risk to psychological wellbeing. Effective community-based interventions need to be developed within the context of mental health equity-oriented programs. OBJECTIVES: To identify effective short-term community-based i...

Introduction: Portugal is facing the effects of a recent economical crisis endorsing a long-term financial austerity policy. The deleterious impact of economical crises on mental health has been well established in different countries. Psychological support programs have been developed and tested for protecting mental health among unemployed, thoug...

This European Psychiatric Association (EPA) guidance paper is a result of the Working Group on Mental Health Consequences of Economic Crises of the EPA Council of National Psychiatric Associations. Its purpose is to identify the impact on mental health in Europe of the economic downturn and the measures that may be taken to respond to it. We perfor...

Introdução: A crise económica, que registou um pico em 2008, conduziu a um aumento exponencial das taxas de desemprego em vários países, incluindo Portugal. A associação entre crises económicas e um pior estado de saúde tem sido bem documentada, com um foco particular no suicídio e em sintomas de depressão. Objetivos: Integrar e sintetizar o conhec...

HEALTH AND HEALTH SYSTEMS IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF NON HEALTH POLICIES: CURRENT STATE Methodologies such as health and health systems impact assessment (HIA and HSIA), of nonhealth policies, enable the impact assessment of a certain public policy and their implications on the wealth and the quality of life of the populations. Illustrative examples are...

Modern societies at present are heavily burdened by depressive disorders but a further increment of negative impact is predictable in years to come. Though there are effective treatments available these disorders are infrequently recognised and managed. To review depressive disorders burden focusing the epidemiological information gap in Portugal....

Introdução: A depressão é uma das patologias que mais sobrecarrega a nossa sociedade sendo previsível um incremento desse peso no futuro. Apesar da disponibilidade de tratamentos eficazes, nem sempre a depressão é bem identificada e tratada. Objectivos: Rever o peso das perturbações depressivas e descrever a lacuna de informação epidemiológica em P...

Modern societies at present are heavily burdened by depressive disorders but a further increment of negative impact is predictable in years to come. Though there are effective treatments available these disorders are infrequently recognised and managed. To review depressive disorders burden focusing the epidemiological information gap in Portugal....

In this review article concepts including chronicity are defined and framework models to psychosocial rehabilitation (PSR) in schizophrenia are described. Target populations and their needs are presented. Emphasis is placed within the individualised therapeutic rehabilitation process with the phases of diagnosis, planning and intervention. The care...

Extended and refined the scope of the Mental Adjustment to Cancer (MAC) scale (M. Watson et al; see record 1989-03649-001), a self-report measure designed to give a rapid assessment of coping style. 573 cancer patients (aged 18–75 yrs) in either early or advanced stages of the disease completed a questionnaire containing the MAC scale and an addit...

Adjuvant Psychological Therapy (APT), a cognitive behavioural treatment, has been developed to alleviate cancer-related anxiety and depression. It is being evaluated in a controlled study of patients with early cancer, but has not been used previously in patients with terminal cancer. This case report describes the use of APT in a severely anxious...