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The association between screen time and subsequent depressive symptoms has been found to be small to very small, according to this new systematic review.

In any case, the association between screen time and depression depends on device type and use. Longitudinal studies are therefore needed that examine the content of the screen and the motivations for its use..

We don't know as much as it seems

An increase in time spent on screen-based technologies has been suggested to underlie recent increases in mental health problems among young people. However, This hypothesis has been based mainly on the findings of cross-sectional studies.

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The aim of the current review was to provide a comprehensive overview of longitudinal studies examining the relationship between screen time and internalizing mental health symptoms. PsycINFO, PubMed/Medline and EMBASE were systematically searched for studies published up to August 2020. 35 studies, with sample sizes ranging from 126 to 12,866 participants, met the inclusion criteria. The association between screen time and subsequent depressive symptoms was found to be small to very small in size.

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Taken together, these results suggest that the impact of increased screen time on the prevalence of mental health problems among young people is likely negligible or small. To give an opinion otherwise, to give an opinion assuming that we know more than we do, would be too similar to what an astrologer does when preparing your horoscope or throwing cards at you.

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The news

Systematic review on screen time and depression in young people: there is no significant relationship

was originally published in

Xataka Science

by
Sergio Parra

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We have been wondering for a few days about the risks of suffering a blood clot when receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine. However, to take this risk into account and in perspective, we must broaden the focus and remember two things: that we are anumeric by nature (we are not good at calculating risks using mathematics) and that media scaremongering stimulates our amygdala, which hinders our reasoning.

Death is not the only problem

To get a general idea of the risk we face, let's use the following example. If we take a figure of 10 million imaginary people, we could expect to see 40 of these thromboses, and about 10 thromboses would have fatal consequences. Ten deaths out of every 10 million vaccinated people is a one in a million chance. If we delay vaccinations for our 10 million people by a week, around 16,000 could get coronavirus, based on current virus levels.

If they were all older adults, say 60 years old, maybe 1,000 would end up in the hospital and 300 of them would be expected to die, much more than the 10 deaths from clots after vaccination we mentioned above. But for younger people, the risks of hospitalization or death are considerably lower.

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Given the same number of infected 40-year-olds, 16 could be expected to die. And the number of expected deaths would be even lower for people in their 20s and 30s. Therefore, for younger age groups, the choice about whether to receive the AZ vaccine is not so clear, especially when there are so many uncertainties in all these figures.

But death is not the only problem. About a quarter of people who end up in intensive care with Covid have some type of clot resulting from the virus.

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And for a long time, Covid is more likely to affect people in their 30s than those in their 70s. On average, just over 2,000 in our group would still be dealing with Covid symptoms three months later, and more than half of They would be limited in their daily activities due to these symptoms.

And if a person does not get vaccinated, What is the average risk of suffering a thrombosis? Approximately 40 men and 100 women in our imaginary group of 10 million could suffer a thrombosis, that is, approximately 12 per month.

The European medicines regulator has said that by mid-March they could have expected to see between 1 and 2 cases of blood clots in people under 50 who received the vaccine, but they had seen 12, about nine times more than expected.

That which, we must take risks when we take medication. Either with a vaccine, or with heparin (which produces more blood clots): More than 300 drugs can cause thrombosis, many of them more likely than AstraZeneca.

It is the first time that we have vaccinated so many millions of people (we must expect more adverse cases) and that we follow, minute by minute, all the details through the media and social networks. Until recently, people got vaccinated for yellow fever before going on safari in Africa and did not ask about the side effects (which there are also) or the brand of the vaccine. Let's keep this in mind the next time our amygdala tries to prevent us from reasoning coldly and statistically..

Let's use mathematics to conceptualize rare events as they deserve, How should we do to relativize the fact that we have premonitory dreams?:

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The news

Regarding risks, anumerisms and thrombi

was originally published in

Xataka Science

by
Sergio Parra

.

Some 33 million people have been vaccinated in Europe, and 222 cases of blood clots have been reported (not all necessarily fatal). For every million people infected with COVID-19, there are 8,000 deaths, so if those 33 million people were infected we could count 26,400 deaths.
That is By administering the vaccine we have potentially avoided 26,400 deaths in exchange for 222 cases of blood clots.

However, both some media and social networks are skeptical and even fearful of vaccines like AstraZeneca. In part, this rejection movement is also linked to the lifelong anti-vaccine movement. Which also gives us a clue to something important: They are few, but they make noise.

Influence on social networks

The modern anti-vaccination movement is led by a relatively small number of dedicated and generally well-funded influencers who have amassed large followings on social media platforms, where fear spreads more easily than facts and nuances.

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Specifically, two-thirds of anti-vaccine content shared or published on Facebook and Twitter between February 1 and March 16, 2021 can be attributed to only twelve people. At least in the United States.

One of the first names on the listFor example, it is Joseph Mercola. Their combined social media reach is 3.6 million followers, so when they share a falsehood about 'forced vaccination' being part of a plan to 'reset the global economic system', that idea spreads like wildfire. gunpowder.

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Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is perhaps the most visible leader of the anti-vaccination movement. There is also the influencer couple Sayer Ji and Kelly Brogan. Recently, Ji shared a false claim that Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine had killed more people than the disease itself.

The public cannot make informed decisions about their health when they are constantly inundated with misinformation and false content. Social networks, in part, live off the activity that these elements distribute. A good topic to discuss is whether or not we should nip in the bud a social problem that is so clearly identified.

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The news

Anti-vaccines are few but very influential on social networks like Twitter or Facebook

was originally published in

Xataka Science

by
Sergio Parra

.

Excavated in France in 1900 and forgotten for more than a century, new analysis reveals that an ornate stone slab from the Bronze Age (2150-1600 BC) is actually the oldest known map of europe.

Some researchers refer to this type of discovery as a “Sleeping Beauty” since, although the stone was found decades ago, its true story has only come to light today.

Sleeping Beauty

The broken slab was reused in the Saint-Bélec burial towards the end of the Bronze Age (1900-1640 BC). At the time, the slab formed one of the walls of a stone cist, a small coffin-shaped stone box used to contain the bodies of the dead. Its engraved face was turned toward the interior of the tomb, but its ends were hidden.

The slab was moved to a private museum in 1900 before the collection was acquired by the Museum of National Antiquities in 1924.

Now, researchers from the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap), Bournemouth University, CNRS and the University of Western Brittany examined the carved slab, discovering that the slab has many of the elements expected on a prehistoric map, including repeated motifs joined by lines to give the layout of a map.

Des chercheurs de l'Inrap @bournemouthuni @CNRS et @UBO_UnivBrest viennent de mettre in évidence la plus ancienne carte en Europe, datant de l'âge du Bronze ancien. The search for the port on the gravel road of Saint-Bélec (Leuhan, Finistère) and paraît in the bulletin of @SPF_Infos. pic.twitter.com/ZTbSDDUF2C

— Inrap (@Inrap) April 6, 2021

An examination of the etched surface shows that the topography of the slab had an intentional 3D shape to represent the valley of the Odet River, and several lines appear to represent the river network. The territory represented on the slab seems to relate to an area of about 30 by 21 kilometers, along the course of the Odet River.

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The news

This is the oldest map of Europe, it is engraved in stone and is 3,500 years old

was originally published in

Xataka Science

by
Sergio Parra

.

Following the suspicions that thrombosis has been raised after the administration of the AstraZeneca vaccine, it is worth remembering that several hundred drugs have been linked to the drug-induced thrombocytopenia (TCPIF). TCPIF patients have a decrease in platelet count 5 to 10 days after drug administration with an increased risk of bleeding.

Diagnosis, furthermore, is often challenging, because most hospitalized patients take multiple medications and have comorbidities that can also cause thrombocytopenia.

Heparin

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has announced that it is possible to associate rare cases of blood clots and low levels of blood platelets with the AstraZeneca vaccine, so it should appear as a "very rare" side effect, with a probability of <1/10,000.

The first cases of thrombosis after vaccination with AstraZeneca were detected between 3 and 14 days after dosing. The patients presented a "very intense headache that worsened when lying down and did not improve with analgesics", there were even cases that also presented "vomiting or irregular bleeding." This last condition is what is known clinically as thrombocytopenia.

More than 300 drugs have been implicated in TCPIF. A systematic review of individual patient data found that the most frequently reported drugs with a definite or probable causal relationship with thrombocytopenia were quinine, quinidine, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, vancomycin, penicillin, rifampin, carbamazepine, ceftriaxone, ibuprofen, mirtazapine, oxaliplatin. as well as the glycoprotein IIb/IIIa (GPIIb/IIa) inhibitors abciximab, Tirofiban, and eptifibatide.

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The review included 273 patients (61.5% men), mean age 60 ± 15 years. The average stay was 18 ± 17 days. The incidence of thrombocytopenia was 2.26%. The most involved services were Hematology (56), Intensive Medicine (48) and Oncology (40). Thrombocytopenia was moderate in 69% of the cases, in 26 in % mild and in 5% severe.

There were 8 cases of drug-induced thrombocytopenia (incidence 0.063%), resolved in a mean of 7.6 days. Related medications were enoxaparin (2), linezolid (2), tacrolimus (2), thymoglobulin (1), and heparin (1). The doctor was recommended to suspend the drug (2), reduce the dose (3) or monitor it (3), with an acceptance of 100%.

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However, The most common drug involved in DITP is usually heparin. Life-threatening thromboembolic complications are common in patients with heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (TIH). Thrombocytopenia may occur in 10 to 30% of heparin-treated patients in the absence of obvious immune system involvement.

The incidence of TCPIF is not known exactly, since case notification is voluntary and no studies designed for this purpose have been carried out. Based on various epidemiological studies in the United States and Europe, the minimum estimated incidence is around 10 cases per million inhabitants/year.

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On the other hand, the incidence of TCPIF varies depending on the medications, with values from 5% to 40% in patients receiving heparin, while for other drugs it is lower than 1%. The drugs that have been most frequently related to the appearance of TCPIF are Cinchona alkaloids (quinine/quinidine), sulfonamides, NSAIDs, diuretics, anticonvulsants and tuberculostatics.

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The news

More than 300 drugs can cause thrombosis, many of them more likely than AstraZeneca

was originally published in

Xataka Science

by
Sergio Parra

.