Mental Health Research
10 Jun Food Allergies More Common in Children With ASD
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_42235" align="alignleft" width="130"]
Dr. Wei Bao[/caption]
Wei Bao, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Epidemiology
College of Public Health
University of Iowa
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Previous studies indicated a possible link between immunologic dysfunction and autism. The current study, based on nationally representative large-scale surveys, showed that food allergy, respiratory allergy, and skin allergy, all relevant to immunological dysfunction, were associated with autism spectrum disorder among US children.
08 Jun Hypertension Disorders in Pregnancy Associated With Increase in ASD and ADHD in Offspring
Posted at 00:59h
in Author Interviews, Autism, Blood Pressure - Hypertension, JAMA, OBGYNE, Pediatrics
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Ali Khashan, PhD
Senior Lecturer in Epidemiology
School of Public Health & INFANT Centre
University College Cork
Cork, Ireland
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: There is some evidence to suggest an increased likelihood of neurodevelopmental disorders in relation to hypertensive disorders in pregnancy, however consensus is lacking. Considering hypertensive disorders in pregnancy are among the most common prenatal complication, we decided to synthesise the published literature on this topic by conducting a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis.
Our main findings suggest that hypertensive disorders in pregnancy are associated with about 30% increase in the likelihood of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and ADHD in the offspring, compared to offspring not exposed to hypertensive disorders in pregnancy.
06 Jun Using Developmental Psychotherapy to Address Antisocial Adolescents
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_42213" align="alignleft" width="200"]
Dr. Maggiolini[/caption]
Alfio Maggiolini, MD
Minotauro, Milan
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Antisocial behaviour is common during adolescence and it incurs significant costs both for society and for the young people themselves. Persistent antisocial behaviour places a heavy burden on the community, the justice system and the public health system. Responses to juvenile crime have always seen a tension between a focus on the understanding and the rehabilitation of the youth and the need to enforce discipline and public safety through punishment and threat.
The treatment of young offenders was traditionally deemed particularly difficult, and often ineffective. In recent years, therapeutic nihilism has given way to cautious optimism. While punitive-based approaches, at all levels, are hardly ever effective in the long term, the most popular and effective programs tend to focus on behaviour control. Common core elements of such programs include positive reinforcement, problem solving skills training and role playing, as behavioral problems are often assumed somewhat inherently wrong, or a “lack of something”, the programs aims at improving or changing.
The study presents a developmental approach that understands behavioral problems as the result of intentions, values and goals that need to be taken in full consideration and that are usually legitimate, even though carried out in ways that prove dysfunctional for both the young person and society. In other words, we consider antisocial behaviors as maladaptive responses to legitimate developmental tasks, a deviant way of meeting positive goals and taking control of one’s life. In the program we describe, a developmental understanding is combined with a psychoanalytically informed perspective on treatment and delivered in multi-modal terms. It has been carried out in Italy for the past 20 years, with positive outcomes, both in private practice and within the juvenile justice services.
04 Jun Eating Disorders Occur Across All Age, Ethnic and Gender Groups
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_42096" align="alignleft" width="157"]
Dr. Tomoko Udo[/caption]
Tomoko Udo, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Health Policy, Management, and Behavior
School of Public Health
University at Albany, State University of New York
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: The National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions III (NESARC III) was the largest epidemiological study on psychiatric disorders in US non-institutionalized adults that was conducted by the National Institution on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and the first one sinceDSM-5 came out. The last population-based study with US adults that examined eating disorders was the National Comorbidity Survey-Replication Study conducted by Hudson and his colleagues and published in 2007.
We felt that it was important to obtain new prevalence estimates in a larger and representative sample especially because the DSM-5 included several changes to the criteria for eating disorders from the earlier DSM-IV. Thus, we thought it was important to provide updated and new prevalence estimates for eating disorders as well as how they are distributed across sex, ethnicity/race, and age. Many researchers and clinicians expected higher estimates than earlier studies as a result of “loosening” of diagnostic criteria for eating disorders.
31 May Minerals in Baby Teeth Predictive of Autism Spectrum Disorder
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Christine Austin PhD
Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
New York, NY 10029
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Previous studies have shown that some metals (nutrients and toxicants) are absorbed and metabolized differently in children with autism spectrum disorder compared to neuro-typical children. However, it is not known when this dysregulation occurs and it is incredibly difficult to study prenatal metal metabolism. Teeth, which begin forming prenatally, grow by adding a new layer every day, much like the yearly growth rings in trees. Each layer formed captures many of the chemicals circulating in the body at the time.
We have developed a method to measure metals in these layers to build a timeline of metal exposure during the prenatal and early childhood period. We found that the cycles of copper and zinc metabolism were disrupted in children with ASD and used this feature to develop a method to predict the emergence of autism spectrum disorder with 90% accuracy.
30 May Long Term Antidepressants Associated With Sustained Weight Gain
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Rafael Gafoor Research Associate Kings College London MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Obesity and weight gain are global public health problems, with approximately 60% of UK adults currently overweight or obese. Depression is common in people who are severely obese and the rate of antidepressant prescribing is increasing, which could have potential impact on public health. However, little research has been reported on the impact of widespread antidepressant treatment on weight gain. So a UK based research team, led by Rafael Gafoor at King’s College London, set out to investigate the association between the use of antidepressants and weight gain. The researchers analysed body weight and body mass measurement data from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) for over 300,000 adults with an average age of 51, whose body mass index (BMI) had been recorded three or more times during GP consultations from 2004-2014. Participants were grouped according to their BMI (from normal weight to severely obese) and whether or not they had been prescribed an antidepressant in a given year. Participants were then monitored for a total of 10 years.23 May No Link Found Between Autism and Maternal Fish Ingested During Pregnancy
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr Caroline M Taylor
Wellcome Trust Research Fellow
Centre for Child and Adolescent Health
Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol
Oakfield House, Oakfield Grove, Bristol
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Mercury is a toxic metal that is widespread in the environment. In pregnancy, mercury in the mother’ bloodstream is transferred through the placenta to the fetus, where is can affect development of the nervous system. Mercury from vaccines has been the focus of attention particularly in regard to a link with autism in children. However, the amount of mercury used in the vaccines is small in comparison with mercury from the diet and atmospheric pollution, and in the EU at least, childhood vaccines no longer contain this preservative. The fear that mercury is linked to autism has persisted, despite increasing evidence that this is not the case.
The aim of our study was to look at mercury from the diet rather than vaccines – specifically from fish – in pregnant women. We measured the women’s mercury levels in their blood and asked them about how much fish they ate. We then followed up their children for 9 years and recorded how many of them had autism diagnosed within that time. We also measured how many of them had autist traits by measuring their social and communication difficulties. The data were part of the Children of the 90s study (Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children – ALSPAC), which is based in Bristol, UK.
22 May First Potential Treatment For Brain Damage From Cosmic Radiation
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Susanna Rosi, PhD
Director of Neurocognitive Research
Brain and Spinal Injury Center
Professor in the departments of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science and of Neurological Surgery
UCSF
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: NASA and private space companies like SpaceX plan to send humans to the red planet within the next 15 years — but among the major challenges facing future crewed space missions is how to protect astronauts from the dangerous cosmic radiation of deep space.
In this study we identified the first potential treatment for the brain damage caused by exposure to cosmic rays — a treatment can be given after exposure and that prevents memory impairment in mice exposed to simulated space radiation.
22 May Reduced Heart Rate Variability May Be Biomarker of Depression Risk
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_41942" align="alignleft" width="150"]
Dr. Vaccarino[/caption]
Viola Vaccarino, MD, PhD
Department of Epidemiology and Division of Cardiology
Professor, Department of Medicine
Emory University School of Medicine
Atlanta, Georgia
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Previous studies have shown that people with depression tend to have lower heart rate variability (HRV), an index of autonomic nervous system dysregulation derived by monitoring the electrocardiogram over time, usually for 24 hours. Other literature, however, has pointed out that autonomic dysregulation (as indexed by reduced HRV) may also cause depression. Thus, the direction of the association between reduced HRV and depression still remains unclear. In addition, these two characteristics could share common pathophysiology, making shared familial background and genetic factors potential determinants of this association.
21 May ADHD More Common in Grandchildren of Women Who Used DES During Pregnancy
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Marianthi-Anna Kioumourtzoglou ScD
Assistant Professor
Environmental Health Sciences
Mailman School of Public Health
Columbia University
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: The prevalence of neurodevelopmental disorders, like attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been increasing. One of the hypothesized risk factors for increased risk for neurodevelopmental disorders is a class of chemicals known as endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). These chemicals are known to interfere with the endocrine system, i.e. the system that uses hormones to control and coordinate metabolism, reproduction and development. Several high production volume chemicals, ubiquitously present in commercial products, are known or suspected endocrine disruptors. Because of their widespread use in consumer products, the population-wide exposure to known and suspected EDCs is very high.
Recently, there has been increased attention in the potential effects of EDCs on neurodevelopment that span multiple generations. Animal studies have provided evidence that exposure to EDCs, such as phthalates and bisphenol A (BPA), alter the behavior and social interactions in mice in three to five generations after exposure. However, evidence of such multi-generational impacts of EDC exposure on neurodevelopment in humans is unavailable, likely because of the lack of detailed information on exposures and outcomes across generations.
For this study we leveraged information from a nationwide cohort, the Nurses’ Health Study II (NHSII), to investigate the potential link between exposure to diethylstilbestrol (DES) and third generation ADHD, i.e. ADHD among the grandchildren of the women who used DES while pregnant. DES is a very potent endocrine disruptor that was prescribed between 1938 and 1971 to pregnant women thought to prevent pregnancy complications. In the United States, between 5 and 10 million women are estimated to have used DES, although the exact number is not known. DES was banned in 1971, when was linked to vaginal adenocarcinomas (a rare cancer of the reproductive system) in the daughters of the women who had used it during pregnancy. Since then, DES has been also linked to multiple other reproductive outcomes in DES daughters, as well as with some reproductive outcomes in the grandchildren of the women who used it, such as hypospadias and delated menstrual regularization. However, to our knowledge, no study to date has evaluated the association between DES, or any other EDC, and multigenerational neurodevelopment.
21 May Higher Connectivity of Brain Networks Linked to Increased Risk of Psychopathology
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_41880" align="alignleft" width="125"]
Maxwell Elliott[/caption]
Maxwell Elliott
Clinical psychology PhD student
Working with Ahmad Hariri and the Moffitt & Caspi lab
Duke University
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: The traditional clinical science model identifies individuals who meet specific criteria for mental illness diagnoses (e.g. Depression, Anxiety) and compares them to “healthy” controls to find brain correlates of mental illness. However, this approach often overlooks the high rates of comorbidity and shared symptamatology across mental illnesses. Emerging research has identified a general factor of psychopathology that accounts for shared risk among internalizing, externalizing, and thought disorders across diverse samples.
This general factor of psychopathology has been called the p-factor. In our study we investigate the brain correlates of the p-factor using a data-driven analysis of resting state functional connectivity. We find that higher p-factor scores and associated risk for common mental illness maps onto hyper-connectivity between visual association cortex and both frontoparietal and default mode networks.
18 May Are Well-Off People Protected from Dementia?
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Dorina Cadar Research Associate in Dementia Psychobiology Group Department of Behavioural Science and Health University College London London MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Dementia is one of the most feared medical conditions, which represents a significant global challenge to health and social care. Education may serve different roles in the development of dementia: it is a proxy for early life experiences and (parental) socioeconomic status, it is related to future employment prospects, income and wealth, determines occupational exposures and characteristics of adult life (e.g., job complexity, work stress, environmental exposures) and it provides lifelong skills for optimal mental abilities and mastery. However, given that education is typically completed many decades before dementia onset, other individual and area-based components of socioeconomic status, such as wealth, income and area deprivation may provide a more accurate indication of current socioeconomic resources. Also, at older ages, accumulated wealth represents a more robust measure of socioeconomic resources than income or occupation alone.17 May Functional Brain ‘Fingerprint’ Identified in Schizophrenia
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_41730" align="alignleft" width="162"]
Dr. Kaufmann[/caption]
Tobias Kaufmann PhD
Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research (NORMENT), KG Jebsen Centre for Psychosis Research, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital & Institute of Clinical Medicine
University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Over the past years, a lot of work has pointed toward impaired brain networks in schizophrenia. With this work we assessed brain network stability across different loads of a cognitive task using functional magnetic resonance imaging of the brain.
Based on our earlier work on adolescents with pre-clinical signs of mental illness who showed decreased stability of networks across different tasks and conditions, we hypothesized that brain networks in adults with schizophrenia show similar properties of decreased stability. Our results confirmed this hypothesis. Stability was reduced in several large-scale brain networks across the sampled age range from early adulthood to the sixties. Further, network stability was associated with polygenic risk for schizophrenia as well as cognitive task performance.
17 May Does Exercise Slow Dementia?
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_41782" align="alignleft" width="200"]
Prof. Lamb[/caption]
Prof. Sarah E Lamb, MSc, MA, MCSP, Grad Dip Statistics, DPhil
Centre for Rehabilitation Research and Centre for Statistics in Medicine
Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics Rheumatology & Musculoskeletal Sciences
Botnar Research Centre, University of Oxford, Oxford
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Scientists and clinicians have considered the possibility that higher intensity aerobic and muscle strength training might have a beneficial effect in preventing dementia or slowing the progression of cognitive impairment in those who have dementia.
The hypothesis has come mostly from animal research.
The main findings of our research which used a large sample and high quality methods was that higher intensity exercise, whilst possible, did not slow cognitive impairment. Neither did it have an impact on the functional and behavioural outcomes for people with dementia. It was a substantial commitment for people to participate in the programmes, although many enjoyed the experience and their physical fitness improved.
16 May Disturbed Circadian Rhythm Associated With Poor Mental Health
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_41693" align="alignleft" width="128"]
Dr. Lyall[/caption]
Laura Lyall MA; MSc; PhD
Research Associate
Institute of Health and Wellbeing
University of Glasgow
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Previous studies have suggested a link between disturbed circadian rhythms and depression and bipolar disorder. These studies have however usually used small samples, subjective measures of circadian disruption, or have not accounted for potential confounding factors like sociodemographic and lifestyle characteristics. The UK Biobank cohort has accelerometry (activity monitor) data as well as mental health, lifestyle, BMI and sociodemographic data for over 91,000 individuals, and means we can address this question using objective measures of circadian rhythmicity on a large scale.
We derived a measure of relative amplitude from the UK Biobank’s accelerometry data, which was recorded for 7 days between 2013-2014 from around 100,000 participants. Relative amplitude reflects the distinction, in terms of activity levels, between an individual’s most active 10 hours and least active 5 hours, in an average day. If an individual is inactive during the day, or has disturbed sleep at night, the will show low relative amplitude, consistent with disturbed circadian rest-activity patterns.
16 May Brain Structure, Height and Cognitive Ability Linked
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_41743" align="alignleft" width="133"]
Dr. Vuoksimaa[/caption]
Dr. Eero Vuoksimaa PhD
Institute for Molecular Medicine
University of Helsinski
Finland
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: There are many previous reports indicating a positive association between height and cognitive ability but the underlying mechanisms behind this correlation are not well known. We used a mediation model to test if this association is explained by brain size as measured with cortical grey matter size.
We found that total cortical surface mediated the relationship between height and cognitive ability.
15 May Amyloid PET Scan Can Predict Progression to Alzheimer’s in Patients With Mild Cognitive Impairment
Posted at 10:43h
in Alzheimer's - Dementia, Author Interviews, Personalized Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
[caption id="attachment_41668" align="alignleft" width="148"]
Dr. Wolk[/caption]
David A. Wolk, MD
Associate Professor
Department of Neurology
Co-Director, Penn Memory Center
Associate Director, Alzheimer’s Disease Core Center
University of Pennsylvania
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is a state when individuals have mild memory problems, but not enough to impact day-to-day function. Many patients with MCI are on the trajectory to developing Alzheimer’s Disease dementia, but about half will not and remain stable. As such, patients with MCI are often uncertain about the likelihood they should expect to decline in the future which obviously may be associated with considerable anxiety and this may delay opportunities for them to plan for the future or begin therapeutic interventions.
This study examined the degree to which amyloid PET, which detects the amyloid pathology of Alzheimer’s Disease, a measure of shrinkage of the hippocampus with MRI, and cognitive measures predicted development of dementia over 3 years. We found that each of these measures enhances prediction of whether an individual will or will not develop dementia in the future. If all of these measures are positive, one has a very high risk of progression whereas if amyloid PET and the MRI measurement are normal, there is very little risk of progression.
14 May Thyroid Inflammation Linked to Depression and Anxiety
Posted at 14:16h
in Author Interviews, Depression, Endocrinology, JAMA, Mental Health Research, Thyroid Disease
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Teja Grömer PD Dr. med. Habil
Facharzt für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie
Lehrbefugter der Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg im Fach Psychiatrie
Bamberg
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
1) I had seen hundreds of clinical cases with combined depression and anxiety and noted end of 2015 that most (far more than 50%) from the subjective clinical impression were associated with autoimmune thyroiditis (AIT)
2) Autoimmune thyroiditis on the mental side leads to specific symptoms, exhaustion, tachycardia, restlessness.
3) I thus decided to do a systematic review and meta-analysis.
13 May Resistance Exercise Training May Alleviate Some Depressive Symptoms
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Mr. Brett R. Gordon, M.Sc.
Postgraduate researcher
Physical Education and Sport Sciences Department
University of Limerick, Ireland.
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Depression is prevalent, burdensome, and often comorbid mood disorder that is associated with other poor health outcomes. Exercise training interventions have demonstrated comparable efficacy for depressive symptoms to frontline treatments, such as antidepressant medications and behavioral therapies.
However, the evidence to date has primarily focused on findings from studies of aerobic exercise training like jogging, running, and cycling. Our work is the first quantitative summary of the effects of resistance exercise training (RET), or weight lifting and strength training, on depressive symptoms, and the influence of variables like participant characteristics, features of the RET, and the methods that were used in studies on the antidepressant effects of RET.
The main finding was that resistance exercise training significantly reduced depressive symptoms among adults regardless of their health status, the total prescribed volume of RET (e.g., how much the participants were supposed to exercise), or whether or not strength was significantly improved by the RET intervention.
11 May NICU Babies’ Parents at Risk For Depression
Posted at 18:55h
in Author Interviews, Critical Care - Intensive Care - ICUs, Depression, Pediatrics
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
[caption id="attachment_41645" align="alignleft" width="133"]
Dr. Fratantoni[/caption]
Karen Fratantoni, M.D., M.P.H.
Pediatrician and lead study author
Children’s National Health System
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: We looked at the prevalence of depressive symptoms at NICU discharge and at six months after discharge among 125 parents randomized to the control group of a larger PCORI-funded trial of peer-to-peer support after NICU discharge. Determining factors associated with parental depressive symptoms at NICU discharge may help to identify at-risk parents who could benefit from mental health support.
10 May Yoga Breathing Really Does Help You Focus – Namaste!
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Michael Christopher Melnychuk PhD candidate
Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience
Trinity, Dublin
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Practitioners of yoga have claimed for some 2,500 years, that respiration influences the mind. In our study we looked for a neurophysiological link that could help explain these claims by measuring breathing, reaction time, and brain activity in a small area in the brainstem called the locus coeruleus. We chose to focus on the locus coeruleus because this area and the chemical it produces play intimate roles in both attention and respiration.
The locus coeruleus produces noradrenaline and releases it to the entire brain. This neurotransmitter functions as an all-purpose action system. When we are stressed we produce too much noradrenaline and we can’t focus. When we feel sluggish, we produce too little and again, we can't focus. There is a sweet spot of noradrenaline in which our emotions, thinking and memory are much clearer.
08 May Psychosis: Early Integrated Bests Usual Care
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_41566" align="alignleft" width="186"]
Dr. Correll[/caption]
Christoph U. Correll, MD
Professor of Psychiatry and Molecular Medicine
The Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell
Hempstead, NY
Investigator, Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience
Feinstein Institute for Medical Research
Medical Director, Recognition and Prevention (RAP) Program
The Zucker Hillside Hospital, Department of Psychiatry
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders are still all to often chronic and recurring mental health conditions that not uncommonly take a course during which individuals have varying degrees of significantly impaired personal, social and educational/vocational functioning.
Prior individual studies examining early specialty intervention services, which integrate multiple different and complementary treatment components, had shown that this treatment approach can yield superior outcomes for people with early-phase schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders compared to usual care given to all people with psychotic disorders. However, we were lacking a broad overview of the type and results of treatment programs that had been conducted across different countries, continents and mental health service delivery systems. Moreover, we did not yet have a synthesis across all important outcomes that had been examined across these individual studies. This first comprehensive meta-analysis on this topic provides previously missing information on the different early intervention programs and their components as well as on all relevant outcomes for people who did or did not receiving early integrated care, also recently called ‘coordinated specialty care.’
08 May Vets with Head Injury More Likely To Develop Dementia
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Deborah E. Barnes, PhD, MPH
Professor, UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences
Departments of Psychiatry and Epidemiology & Biostatistics
University of California, San Francisco: http://profiles.ucsf.edu/deborah.barnes
Research Health Sciences Specialist
San Francisco VA Medical Center
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
- Previous studies have found a link between moderate to severe head injuries and increased dementia risk.
- The association between mild head injuries and dementia – especially mild head injury that doesn’t result in loss of consciousness – is less well established
- We examined the association between mild head injuries with and without loss of consciousness and dementia diagnoses in nearly 360,000 Veterans receiving care in the VA health care system.
- We found that Veterans with a head injury diagnoses were two to four times more likely to be diagnosed with dementia than those without head injury diagnoses.
- The risk of dementia diagnosis was doubled in Veterans who experienced head injury without loss of consciousness compared to those with no head injury.
04 May Over 2.5 Million US Kids Diagnosed With Anxiety and Depression
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Rebecca H. Bitsko, PhD National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities Centers for Disease Control and Prevention MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities(https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/index.html) (NCBDDD) is committed to helping children who have mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders. Anxiety and depression are both internalizing mental disorders that often start during childhood, and that frequently occur together. In this study, we show that more than 1 in 20, or 2.6 million, US children aged 6-17 had a current diagnosis of anxiety or depression, by parent report, in 2011-12. We also found an increase of diagnosed anxiety in these children from 1 in 28 in 2007 to 1 in 24 in 2011-12. Further, in 2011-12, approximately 1 in 5 children with current anxiety or depression did not receive mental health treatment in the past year. Children with current anxiety or depression were more likely than those without to have:- Another mental, behavioral, or developmental disorder such as ADHD, learning disability, or speech or language problems
- School problems
- Parents who report high levels of stress and frustration with parenting
- Unmet medical and mental health service needs
03 May Some Depression and Overactive Bladder Drugs Linked to Dementia
Medicalresearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_41413" align="alignleft" width="132"] Prof. Myint[/caption] Professor Phyo Kyaw Myint Chair in Old Age Medicine University of Aberdeen Medicalresearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: We have previously studied the potential harmful effects of a group of medications called anticholinergics. They can have side effects on central as well peripheral...
02 May Alzheimer Study: New Drug Did Not Reduce Cognitive Decline
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Michael F. Egan MD Merck & Co. North Wales, PA 19454 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: A leading theory of Alzheimer's Disease is that it is caused by the buildup of amyloid plaques in the brain. Amyloid is composed of a sticky peptide called Abeta. Abeta production can be blocked by Inhibiting an enzyme called BACE. In animal models, BACE inhibtion prevent amyloid accumulation. We aimed to see if a potent BACE inhibitor would slow clinical decline in Alzheimer's Disease. EPOCH was a Phase 2/3 randomized, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, double-blind study evaluating efficacy and safety of two oral doses of verubecestat an investigational BACE inhibitor, administered once-daily versus placebo in patients with mild-to-moderate AD currently using standard of care treatment. The primary efficacy outcomes of the study are the change from baseline in cognition (assessed using the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale Cognitive Subscale, or ADAS-Cog), as well as the change from baseline in function (assessed using the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study – Activities of Daily Living, or ADCS-ADL) after 78 weeks of treatment. Following the recommendation of the external Data Monitoring Committee (eDMC), which assessed overall benefit/risk during the trial, the study was stopped early, as there was “virtually no chance of finding a positive clinical effect.” Verubecestat did not reduce cognitive or functional decline in patients with mild-to moderate Alzheimer’s disease and was associated with treatment-related adverse events.02 May Town vs Gown – Why Are City Kids More Stressed?
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Stefan O. Reber
Laboratory for Molecular Psychosomatics
Clinic for Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy
University Clinic Ulm
Ulm, Germany
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Our hypothesis was that people who grew up in cities with more than 100.000 inhabitants and without pets will show a more pronounced immune activation towards psychosocial stressors compared with people raised in rural areas in the presence of farm animals. This hypothesis is based on the fact that stress-associated psychiatric disorders, which are linked to or even promoted by an over(re)active immune system and chronic low grade inflammation, are more prevalent in urban compared with rural areas. One possible explanation for a hyper(re)active immune system in people raised in urban relative to rural environments might be a reduced contact to immunoregulatory microorganisms (the so called “old friends”), which is significantly increased in rural people with regular contact with farm animals compared with urban people in the absence of pets.
Our results show that a standardized laboratory psychosocial stressor causes a greater inflammatory response in young healthy participants with an urban upbringing in the absence of pets, relative to young healthy participants with a rural upbringing in the presence of farm animals.
02 May Diet Soda and Excess Sugar During Pregnancy May Depress Child’s Cognition
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Juliana F. W. Cohen, ScM, ScD
Department of Health Sciences
Merrimack College
North Andover MA 01845.
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Sugar consumption among Americans is above recommended limits and this excess intake may have important health implications.
This study examined the associations of pregnancy and offspring sugar consumption, as well as sugar-sweetened beverages, other beverages (diet soda, juice), and fruit consumption with child cognition.
This study found that when pregnant women or their children consumed greater quantities of sugar, as well as when women consumed diet soda during pregnancy, this was associated with poorer childhood cognition. However, children’s fruit consumption was associated with higher cognitive scores.
19 Apr Sleep Deprivation Leads to Build Up of Junk Amyloid in Brain
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_41271" align="alignleft" width="150"]
Dr. Nora Volkow[/caption]
Nora D. Volkow MD
Senior Investigator
Laboratory of Neuroimaging, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Findings from animal studies had shown that sleep deprivation increased the content of beta-amyloid in brain, which is a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease. We wanted to test whether this also happened in the human brain after one night of sleep deprivation. We found that indeed one night of sleep deprivation led to an accumulation of beta amyloid in the human brain, which suggest that one of the reasons why we sleep is to help clean our brain of degradation products that if not removed are toxic to brain cells.