(ISSN 2573-4407)
OBM Neurobiology is an international peer-reviewed Open Access journal published quarterly online by LIDSEN Publishing Inc. By design, the scope of OBM Neurobiology is broad, so as to reflect the multidisciplinary nature of the field of Neurobiology that interfaces biology with the fundamental and clinical neurosciences. As such, OBM Neurobiology embraces rigorous multidisciplinary investigations into the form and function of neurons and glia that make up the nervous system, either individually or in ensemble, in health or disease. OBM Neurobiology welcomes original contributions that employ a combination of molecular, cellular, systems and behavioral approaches to report novel neuroanatomical, neuropharmacological, neurophysiological and neurobehavioral findings related to the following aspects of the nervous system: Signal Transduction and Neurotransmission; Neural Circuits and Systems Neurobiology; Nervous System Development and Aging; Neurobiology of Nervous System Diseases (e.g., Developmental Brain Disorders; Neurodegenerative Disorders).
OBM Neurobiology publishes a variety of article types (Original Research, Review, Communication, Opinion, Comment, Conference Report, Technical Note, Book Review, etc.). Although the OBM Neurobiology Editorial Board encourages authors to be succinct, there is no restriction on the length of the papers. Authors should present their results in as much detail as possible, as reviewers are encouraged to emphasize scientific rigor and reproducibility.
Publication Speed (median values for papers published in 2023): Submission to First Decision: 7.5 weeks; Submission to Acceptance: 15.9 weeks; Acceptance to Publication: 7 days (1-2 days of FREE language polishing included)
Special Issue
Telepsychiatry in Adolescents and Adults during COVID-19
Submission Deadline: September 30, 2022 (Open) Submit Now
Guest Editor
Vincenzo Prisco, PhD
Department of Psychiatry ASL Salerno, University Federico II, Naples, Italy
Research interests: telepsychiatry; adolescents; young adults; teleconsultation.
About This Topic
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been spreading across Italy for about two years. The outbreak of COVID-19 is severely affecting mental health worldwide, although individual response may vary. On March 9th, 2020, the Italian Government implemented several emergency containment measures, including self-isolation and social distancing. These measures have a strong impact on the population's daily life and may negatively affect psychological well-being. In fact quaratine for coronavirus has serious psychological side effects, such as depression and anxiety that are more likely to occur and worsen. Furhermore quarantine reduces the availability of psychiatric and psychological interventions. The evidence for telepsychiatry is growing in particular for adolescent population. Telepsychiatry uses telecommunication to transmit medical informations to a psychiatrist. Live interactive consultation (video-call) appears to be the best way in which patient and physician can interact in real time, and the Italian youth population manifested interest in using this technology. Providing psychiatric treatment and support may reduce the burden of comorbid mental health conditions, helping patients to cope with acute or chronic diseases. Services could include counseling and psychiatric help for patients, supervision of learned skills, psychological training aimed to maintain results achieved and psychoeducation, etc.
Psychiatrists should reduce their outpatient visits to urgent cases only, such as psychomotor agitation, suicidal attempts or serious psychiatric diseases. In these cases a proper personal protective equipment and an emphasis on social distancing could be very useful. A new type of psychiatric intevention that is feasible and accessible is urgently needed.
A growing body of literature suggests that the use of telepsychiatry to provide mental health services has the potential to remove geographic barriers between patients and providers and improves quality care. It has increased the volume of patients that physicians can reach and diagnose, as well as allowing them to treat patients.
Medical staff should guarantee teleconsultations and therapeutic continuity for patients affected by chronic mental disorders. However, the use of telepsychiay may have some limits. In fact only a few studies evaluated the cost-effectiveness of telepsychiatry interventions. Similarly to the implementation of new technologies in other fields, the application of current literature lacks of comprehensive overviews on effectiveness, costs and accuracy of telesychiatry, in particular in adolescent population. Another limit is the lack of studies conducted in less technologically developed areas, as there may be additional setup costs and training required before telepsychiatry systems can be developed. The majority of studies originate from developed nations, especially Europe, and further studies are needed to examine the efficacy of telepsychiatry in developing and underdeveloped nations in Asia and Africa, which are lacking in psychiatric services. Moreover, some studies showed that the main barriers to the implementation of mental health video consultations from the patients' perspective were the lack of face-to-face contact.
Physical contact would be impossible and the psichiatrist would miss several aspects of the body language, even with facial expressions and gestures being visible. Despite further studies are needed, considering the risk-benefit ratio telepsychiatry could be a useful tool, effective to substitute face-to-face consultations during this pandemic period. To best establish telepsychiatry in the inpatient setting, certain practice guidelines should be considered to ensure the highest quality patient care. Definite protocols are needed to ensure high-quality video sessions and clinical photographs and information must be transmitted using secure software and networks, protecting patient privacy and establishing relationships with primary care teams, to ensure trust in consulting advice and ensuring an appropriate patient follow-up.
Keywords
telepsychiatry, adolescents, young adults, teleconsultation, Covid- 19
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted through the LIDSEN Submission System. Detailed information on manuscript preparation and submission is available in the Instructions for Authors. All submitted articles will be thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process and will be processed following the Editorial Process and Quality Control policy. Upon acceptance, the article will be immediately published in a regular issue of the journal and will be listed together on the special issue website, with a label that the article belongs to the Special Issue. LIDSEN distributes articles under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) License in an open-access model. The authors own the copyright to the article, and the article can be free to access, distribute, and reuse provided that the original work is correctly cited.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). Research articles and review articles are highly invited. Authors are encouraged to send the tentative title and abstract of the planned paper to the Editorial Office (neurobiology@lidsen.com) for record. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the Editorial Office.
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Zhong-Ting (Justin) is a PhD student from Nanyang Technological University (Singapore). He holds BSc in Applied Chemistry and MSc in Environmental Engineering. He was a R&D researcher of NanoMaterials Technology Pte Ltd in Singapore (2006-2012). His current research interests are functional nanomaterials synthesis & design, and their application into environmental/chemical engineering. He has published near 60 SCI papers in Applied Catalysis B, Chemical Engineering Journal and so on with H-Index 23. He also serviced as reviewers over 40 Journals such as Appl. Catal. B, Water Research, Chem. Eng. J, ACS Applied Materials & Interface, etc. He was honored such as “The Bsic Research Achievment 1st Award of CIESC”, “The ZJUT Fund Breeding Distinguished Young Scholars” etc.
Rolf Teschke studied Medicine in Munich and Marburg, where he finished his MD thesis before starting a residency at the Department of Pathology, University of Marburg. Subsequently and with a fellowship of the Deutsche Forschungsgmeinschaft, he worked at the Bronx VA Hospital/Mount Sinai Hospital in New York during 1972–1975 together with Professor Charles S. Lieber and successfully isolated MEOS and expanded its characterization. Back in Germany, he was at the Heinrich-Heine University in Düsseldorf with a focus on alcoholic liver disease, biochemical drug studies, and clinical intoxications by halogenated aliphatic hydrocarbons, where he became a Professor of Medicine. In 1987, he was offered a chief position and appointed as Director of the Medical Department II, City Hospital Hanau, Teaching Hospital of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt/Main. His clinical and research interests are on liver injury by drugs and herbs including causality assessment by RUCAM in close association with Dr. Gaby Danan in Paris. A perfect cooperation exists also with Professor Tran Dang Xuan of the University of Hiroshima, Japan. Finally, he is the author of more than 275 publications including books and book chapters, and he is editor in chief of scientific journals and member of editorial boards.