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For children with prelingual deafness, bilateral Cochlear Implant (CI) use is beneficial in terms of sound localization and speech recognition in quiet and in noise when compared to unilateral CI use. However, little is known about the benefits of bilateral CI use in children with prelingual deafness whose mother tongue is Mandarin, a tonal language. Furthermore, sufficient data on surgical approaches are currently lacking. Objectives: This study aims to collect more evidence on these topics. Material and Methods: 30 children (aged 12-18 months) with prelingual severe to profound bilateral sensorineural hearing loss were implanted with a CI at the Peking Union Medical College Hospital in Beijing. 10 children were implanted unilaterally, 20 were implanted bilaterally. All children were from Mandarin-speaking families. The surgical approach was documented. The following outcomes are investigated over a period of three years and compared between the unilateral and the bilateral group: • Auditory development - LittleEars Auditory Questionnaire (LEAQ) - Speech, Spatial and Quality of hearing questionnaire (SSQ, parent version) - Categories of Auditory Perception (CAP) • Speech perception - Mandarin Early Speech Perception test (MESP) • Speaking performance -Speech Intelligibility Rating (SIR) -Mandarin Paediatric Speech Intelligibility test (MPSI) •Spatial hearing -Reaching For Sound (RFS) Results and Conclusion: At 1-year post-CI activation, average SSQ, CAP, SIR, and LEAQ scores improved. The bilateral group had better scores in the spatial domain of the SSQ questionnaire than did the unilateral group. Due to the very young age, only a small number of children could be tested for speech recognition and spatial hearing skills. The data collected so far contribute to the assessment of benefits of bilateral CI use in toddlers and to the study of their auditory skills development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Depression is the most common mental illness worldwide. It has become an important public health problem. This study aimed to determine the global burden of depression and how it has changed between 1990 and 2017., Methods: We used information on depression obtained by the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study from 1990 to 2017. The age-standardized incidence rate (ASR) and estimated annual percentage change (EAPC) were used to assess the global burden of depression., Results: The number of incident cases of depression worldwide increased from 172 million in 1990 to 25,8 million in 2017, representing an increase of 49.86%. The ASR of depression varied widely between the 195 analyzed countries and regions in 2017, being highest in Lesotho (6.59 per 1000) and lowest in Myanmar (1.28 per 1000). The ASR increased the most between 1990 and 2017 in Belgium (EAPC = 0.88, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.78 to 0.97), and decreased the most in Cuba (EAPC = -1.26, 95% CI = -1.36 to -1.14). The ASR increased in regions with a high sociodemographic index, such as high-income North America (EAPC = 0.41, 95% CI = 0.31 to 0.51), and decreased significantly in South Asia (EAPC = -0.63, 95% CI = -0.85 to -0.41). The proportions of the population with major depressive disorder and dysthymia were essentially stable both globally and in various countries, with a much larger proportion having major depressive disorder., Conclusion: Depression remains a major public health issue, and governments should support the research necessary to develop better prevention and treatment interventions., (Copyright © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)