Mental Health Research
04 Mar No Decrease In Incidence of Dementia Over Past Decades
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_32653" align="alignleft" width="173"]
Dr. Emma van Bussel[/caption]
Emma van Bussel MD, MSc
Academic Medical Center | University of Amsterdam
Amsterdam | The Netherlands
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Dementia forms a high social and economic burden on society. Since there is a growing number of older people, the occurrence of dementia is expected to increase over the years to come. For future planning of care, it is important to have reliable predictions on new dementia cases for the population at large. Studies in Western countries suggested that the incidence per 1000 person years is declining.
We studied the incidence trend of dementia in the Netherlands in primary care registry data, in a population of over 800,000 older people (60 years and over) for the years 1992 to 2014. Our results indicate a small increase of 2.1% (95% CI 0.5% to 3.8%) per year in dementia incidence over the past decades. The trend did not change in the years after 2003, when a national program was developed to support dementia care and research, compared to the years prior to 2003.
04 Mar Anorexia Nervosa: So Brain Changes Persist After Weight Restoration
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_32649" align="alignleft" width="143"]
Dr. Guido Frank[/caption]
Guido K.W. Frank, M.D., FAED
Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience
Associate Director, Eating Disorder Program
Director, Developmental Brain Research Program
Pediatric Mental Health Institute | Children’s Hospital | University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus Colorado
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that primarily affects young females and is associated with high mortality. The diagnostic criteria include restriction of energy intake that leads to significantly low body weight and an intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat. The etiology of anorexia nervosa is complex, and only recently have we begun to better understand its underlying neurobiology. Brain scans of anorexia nervosa patients have implicated brain reward circuits in the disease, brain regions that govern food intake. On the other hand, how much we eat also affects over time reward system response and eating too much or too little has important implications on brain reward function.
Previous studies from our lab as well as basic science research suggest that underweight is associated with heightened reward system response. In this study wanted to test whether we would find heightened brain activity in adolescents with anorexia nervosa and whether this would normalize once the patient regained weight.
04 Mar Is Trust in Mental Health Clinicians Affected Among Patients Who Access Clinical Notes Online?
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_32640" align="alignleft" width="79"]
Dr. Dobscha[/caption]
Steven K. Dobscha, M.D.
Professor, Department of Psychiatry, OHSU
Director, VAPORHCS Center to Improve Veteran Involvement in Care
Oregon Health & Science University
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Several health care systems across the United States now offer patients online access to all of their clinical notes (sometimes referred to as progress notes) through electronic health record portals; this type of access has been referred to as OpenNotes (see www.opennotes.org for more information on the national OpenNotes initiative). Veterans have been able to use OpenNotes in the Veterans Health Care (VHA) system since 2013. However, some individuals have expressed concern that online access to clinical notes related to mental health could cause some patient harms.
We are conducting a VA-funded research project with several objectives:
1) to examine benefits and unintended negative consequences of OpenNotes use as perceived by veterans receiving VHA mental health care and by VHA mental health clinicians, and
2) to develop and evaluate brief web-based courses designed to help veterans and clinicians use OpenNotes in ways that optimize Veteran-clinician collaboration and minimize unintended consequences.
04 Mar More than a Feeling: Emotions Determine What You Remember
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_32628" align="alignleft" width="200"]
Dr. Signy Sheldon[/caption]
Signy Sheldon, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Psychology
McGill University
Montreal, QC, CAN
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: It is clear to most people that emotion and memory are strongly linked - thinking about our past experiences is often accompanied with a strong feelings, sometimes good and sometimes bad.
In psychological research, many investigations have looked at how emotional memories are remembered differently than non-emotional memories. A lot of this research has found that the valence of a memory, whether it is positive or negative, will impact how detailed a past event can be recalled. Much less research as looked at how the emotions we feel at the time of remembering can also influence the way that memory is recalled. This is a very important area of research. If emotions during remembering can influence what memories are accessed and how we experience these memories, this would suggest that our memories are tagged and organized according to emotions.
In this study, we looked at how different aspects of emotion can affect the types of past experiences we bring to mind to further investigate how emotions direct memory retrieval.
To do this, we had participants listen to unfamiliar excerpts of music that ranged in both memory valence (positive and negative) and arousal (high or low levels). To each piece of music, participants were asked to think of a past memory and then describe their experience of that event they were remembering.
03 Mar Intermittent Explosive Disorder Linked To Higher Risk of Substance Abuse
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_32622" align="alignleft" width="175"]
Dr. Emil Coccaro[/caption]
Emil F. Coccaro, M.D.
Ellen C. Manning Professor
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience
The University of Chicago
Chicago, Illinois 60637
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Aggressive behavior and drug use have been related for years but this study shows people with problematic aggression (Intermittent Explosive Disorder: IED) are in fact at risk for developing alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis use disorders and that the onset of problematic aggression (IED) begins before the onset of the drug use.
The increased risk for alcohol use disorder was nearly six-fold higher, the increased risk for cannabis use disorder was seven-fold higher, and the increased risk for tobacco use disorder was four-fold higher. In addition, the presence of IED increased the severity of the substance use disorder.
02 Mar Environmental Pyrethroids May Be Associated With Behavioral Problems in Children
Posted at 12:28h
in Author Interviews, BMJ, Environmental Risks, Mental Health Research, Pediatrics, Toxin Research
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Professor Jean-Francois Viel
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health
University Hospital
Rennes, France
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: The use of pyrethroid insecticides has increased substantially throughout the world over the past several decades, replacing organophosphate and carbamate insecticides, because of their chemical potency against many pests, their relatively low mammalian toxicity and their favorable environmental profiles. However, despite the neurotoxicity of these insecticides at high doses, the potential impact of environmental exposure to pyrethroid insecticides on child neurodevelopment has only just started to receive attention.
Using a longitudinal design (PELAGIE mother-child cohort), we were able to assess pyrethroid exposure (trough urine concentrations) both prenatally and during childhood (at 6 years of age). We showed that increased prenatal concentrations of one pyrethroid metabolite (cis-DCCA, a metabolite of permethrin, cypermethrin and cyfluthrin) were associated with internalising difficulties (children showing behaviours that are inhibited and over-controlled).
Moreover, for childhood 3-PBA (a common metabolite of up to 20 synthetic pyrethroid insecticides) concentrations, a positive association was observed with externalising difficulties (children showing behaviours that are under-controlled and having generally a more challenging temperament).
01 Mar Multiple Sclerosis Patients Show Cognitive Benefit From Remotely Supervised Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_32556" align="alignleft" width="149"]
Dr. Charvet[/caption]
Leigh E. Charvet, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Neurology
Department of Neurology
New York University Langone Medical Center
New York, NY
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for transcranial direct current stimulation? What are the main findings of this study in multiple sclerosis patients?
Response: The application of tDCS is a relatively recent therapeutic development that utilizes low amplitude direct currents to induce changes in cortical excitability. When paired with a rehabilitation activity, it may improve learning rates and outcomes.
Multiple repeated sessions are needed for both tDCS and cognitive training sessions to see a benefit. Because it is not feasible to have participants come to clinic daily for treatments, we developed a method to deliver tDCS paired with cognitive training (using computer-based training games) to patients at home. Our protocol uses a telemedicine platform with videoconferencing to assist study participants with all the procedures and to ensure safety and consistency across treatment sessions.
When testing our methods, we enrolled 25 participants with multiple sclerosis (MS) completed 10 sessions of tDCS (2.0 mA x 20 minutes, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, left anodal) using the remotely-supervised telerehabilitation protocol. This group was compared to n=20 MS participants who completed 10 sessions of cognitive training only (also through remote supervision).
We administered cognitive testing measures at baseline and study end. We found that both the tDCS and cognitive training only group had similar and slight improvements on composites of standard neuropsychological measures and basic attention. However, the tDCS group had a significantly greater gain on computer-based measures of complex attention and on a measure of intra-individual variability in response times.
01 Mar Safety and Immunogenicity of the Tau Vaccine AADvac1 in Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_32529" align="alignleft" width="200"]
Dr. Petr Novak[/caption]
Petr Novak, MD, PhD
AXON Neuroscience
Bratislava, Slovakia
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Alzheimer’s disease is a complex, multifactorial disorder, with many-faceted neuropathology. A hallmark finding is the co-existence of neurofibrillary pathology (such as neurofibrillary tangles) composed of tau protein, and amyloid-β pathology (plaques) [1].
Neurofibrillary pathology is closely correlated with cognitive impairment in Alzheimer’s disease [2], while support for the role amyloid in the disease pathogenesis comes from the ability of certain mutations to induce AD in an autosomal-dominant fashion [3].
The field has explored various anti-amyloid therapies to great extent, and continues to do so with undiminished effort [4]; meanwhile, there is a noticeable paucity of investigated therapies aimed at neurofibrillary tau protein pathology, despite the ability of tau protein dysfunction to cause a multitude of neurodegenerative disorders, collectively named “tauopathies” [5].
AADvac1 is the first tau-targeted immunotherapy investigated in humans [6], a pioneering effort to target the component of AD neuropathology that is proximal to neuronal damage and cognitive loss, and thus to halt or slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.
01 Mar Subtle Differences in Brain Volume Detected On MRI In ADHD
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: M. (Martine) Hoogman PhD. Postdoc and PI of ENIGMA-ADHD Radboud universitair medisch centrum Department of Human Genetics Nijmegen, The Netherlands MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: There are many neuro-imaging studies aimed at investigating structural brain changes related to ADHD, but the results are often inconclusive. There are two main reasons for this: 1) the small sample size of the studies and 2) the heterogeneous methods used. We tried to address these issues by forming an international collaboration to provide a sample size sufficient to detect even small effects in volume differences. And in addition, we analyzed all the raw scans again using homogenized methods. There are data of more than 1700 patients (aged 4-63 years of age) and more than 1500 healthy controls in our dataset, coming from 23 sites around the world. We studied the possible volume differences between cases and controls of 7 subcortical regions and intracranial volume by performing mega- and meta-analysis.28 Feb Following Stroke, Children Face Behavioral and Emotional Difficulties
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_32495" align="alignleft" width="144"]
Dr. Maxwell[/caption]
Emily C. Maxwell, Ph.D.
Pediatric Neuropsychology Bugher Fellow
Division of Neurology
Instructor | Department of Pediatrics
University of Colorado School of Medicine
Aurora, CO 80045
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Previous research has found increased psychological problems and significantly higher rates of psychiatric disorders after pediatric stroke. However, past studies have mainly used global indices, without comparison to age-based norms. Thus, little is known about the discrete symptomatology exhibited by these children and how discrepant these symptoms may be from normative expectations.
At the University of Colorado Denver and Children’s Hospital Colorado, we studied 50 patients who suffered an arterial ischemic stroke during childhood. The parents of these patients completed the Child Behavior Checklist, a questionnaire assessing emotional and behavioral problems. We found that children with stroke had higher symptoms of depression, anxiety, physical complaints, and behavioral difficulties compared to a normative sample of same-aged peers. Additionally, levels of anxiety were higher in children who had a stroke at an early age (before 6 years of age) compared to children who had a stroke at a later age (after 10 years of age).
27 Feb Money for Medication Improved Adherence To Medications for Psychosis
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_32460" align="alignleft" width="180"]
Ernst L Noordraven[/caption]
Ernst L Noordraven MSc, PhD student
Department of Psychiatry
Epidemiological and Social Psychiatric Research institute
Erasmus University Medical Center
Rotterdam Netherlands
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Provision of financial incentives is a promising intervention for improving adherence in patients taking antipsychotic medication. We aimed to assess the effectiveness of this intervention for improving adherence to antipsychotic depot medication in patients with psychotic disorders, irrespective of their previous compliance.
Our 12-month randomized controlled trial showed that financial incentives improved adherence to antipsychotic depot medications in patients with psychotic disorders, regardless of their level of compliance at study entrance. Patients received either treatment as usual plus a financial reward for each depot of medication received (€30 per month if fully compliant; intervention group) or treatment as usual alone (control group). Based on the use of depot registrations from 155 patients (92%), the adjusted difference in adherence was 14·9% (95% CI 8·9–20·9%; p<0·0001) in favour of the intervention group.
Our study is also the first to demonstrate that the effects on medication adherence persist after monetary rewards are discontinued, for at least a 6-month follow-up period (adjusted difference 6·5%, 95% CI 2·0–10·9; p=0·047).
27 Feb Prostate Cancer: No Association Between Androgen Deprivation Therapy and Dementia
Posted at 13:34h
in ASCO, Author Interviews, Cognitive Issues, Endocrinology, Journal Clinical Oncology, Prostate Cancer, Testosterone
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Farzin Khosrow-Khavar, M.Sc. Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, McGill University
Center for Clinical Epidemiology - Jewish General Hospital
Montreal, QC
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Previous studies have shown an association between androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) and risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. However, these studies had methodological limitations that may account for this positive association. Using appropriate study design and methodology, we found no association between androgen deprivation therapy and risk of dementia (including Alzheimer’s disease) in patients with prostate cancer. These results were consistent by cumulative duration of androgen deprivation therapy use and by ADT modality.
26 Feb Stopping Warfarin in Dementia Patients with Atrial Fib Associated With Increased Risk of Stroke and Death
Posted at 17:36h
in Alzheimer's - Dementia, Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Geriatrics, Heart Disease, Stroke
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
[caption id="attachment_32407" align="alignleft" width="200"]
Dr. Ariela Orkaby[/caption]
Ariela Orkaby, MD, MPH
Geriatrics & Preventive Cardiology
Associate Epidemiologist
Division of Aging, Brigham and Women's Hospital
Instructor in Medicine, Harvard Medical School
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Atrial Fibrillation is a common heart rhythm that affects 1 in 25 adults over age 60 and 1 in 10 adults over age 80. The feared consequence of atrial fibrillation is stroke, leading to the prescription of blood thinning medications (anticoagulants such as warfarin) to prevent strokes. However, there is an underutilization of these life-saving medications in older adults, and particularly in those who have dementia. In part, this is due to a lack of research and inclusion of older adults with dementia in prior studies.
In this study, we used clinical Veterans Administration data, linked to Medicare, to follow 2,572 individuals over age 65 who had atrial fibrillation and until a diagnosis of dementia. The average age was 80 years, and 99% were male. We found that only 16% remained on warfarin. We used statistical methods to account for reasons why a patient would or would not be treated with warfarin and found that those who continued to take warfarin had a significantly lower risk of stroke (HR 0.74, 95% Confidence interval 0.54- 0.99, p=0.47) and death (HR 0.72, 95% CI 0.60-0.87, p<0.01) compared to those who did not continue to take warfarin, without an increased risk of bleeding.
25 Feb Excessive Sleeping May Be Early Marker of Dementia
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_32381" align="alignleft" width="135"]
Dr. Matthew Pase[/caption]
Dr. Matthew P. Pase
Sidney Sax NHMRC Fellow, Department of Neurology
Boston University School of Medicine
Investigator, Framingham Heart Study;
Senior Research Fellow, Swinburne University of Technology.
Boston MA 02118
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Sleep disturbances are common in dementia. However, most studies have focused on patients who already have dementia and so it is unclear whether disturbed sleep is a symptom or a cause of dementia.
We studied 2,457 older participants enrolled in the Framingham Heart Study, a large group of adults sampled from the community in Framingham, Massachusetts. We asked participants to indicate how long they typically slept each night. Participants were then observed for the following 10-years to determine who developed dementia, including dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease. Over the 10 years, we observed 234 cases of dementia. Information on sleep duration was then examined with respect to the risk of developing dementia.
24 Feb Deep Brain Stimulation Shows Promise in Anorexia Nervosa
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_32302" align="alignleft" width="150"]
Dr. Andres Lozano[/caption]
Andres M Lozano OC, MD PhD FRCSC FRSC
University Professor, University of Toronto
Dan Family Professor and Chairman of Neurosurgery
RR Tasker Chair in Functional Neurosurgery
Canada Research Chair in Neuroscience
Toronto Western Hospital
Toronto
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: We discovered an area of the brain that is overactive in patients with depression and anxiety the subcallosal cingulate area (SCC). As these problems feature prominently in patients with Anorexia, we hypothesized that adjusting thie activity of this brain area with Deep brain stimulation (DBS) could be helpful. Our findings suggest that DBS in anorexia patients is relatively safe, can normalize abnormal brain activity and may help some with severe and resistant symptoms.
24 Feb Optical Manipulation May Be Able To Erase Fearful Memories
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Takuya Takahashi M.D. Ph.D. Professor, Department of Physiology Yokohama City University Graduate School of Medicine Yokohama Japan MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: A number of patients suffer from traumatic fear memories (eg. PTSD). At this point, there exists no treatment to control aversive fear memories. People can form aversive fear memory from traumatic events such as disasters and accidents. These fear memories can induce depression and anxiety disorders (eg. panic disorders). Therefore, it is crucial to understand the molecular mechanism underlying fear memory formation and this could lead to the invention of novel technology to control fear memories. We have previously reported that the formation of fear memory modifies synapses by the incorporation of AMPA receptors at hippocampus. Further, this molecular events are required for the fear memory formation (Mitsushima et al. PNAS 2011, Mitsushima et al. Nature Communications 2013). Here, we invented the novel technology to erase fear memory by the optical manipulation of AMPA receptor, an important molecule at glutamatergic synapses.24 Feb Singing Enhances Mother-Infant Bond Even When Mom Has PostPartum Depression
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_32349" align="alignleft" width="138"]
Dr. de l’Etoile[/caption]
Shannon K. de l’Etoile, Ph.D., MT-BC
Associate Dean of Graduate Studies
Professor, Music Therapy
University of Miami
Phillip and Patricia Frost School of Music
Coral Gables, FL
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Infant-directed (ID) singing allows infants to have emotionally-synchronized interactions with caregivers, during which they gain valuable experience in self-regulation. Maternal depression can disrupt mother-infant interaction, thus hindering infants’ efforts at self-regulation and possibly contributing to a depressed interaction style that can generalize to infant interaction with strangers. Additionally, maternal depression can alter the acoustic parameters of ID singing, such that mothers may not modify musical elements (i.e., tempo and key), to accommodate infant state.
23 Feb Antidepressants Have Variable Effects On Symptom Clusters
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_32285" align="alignleft" width="160"]
Adam Chekroud[/caption]
Adam Chekroud
PhD Candidate
Human Neuroscience Lab
Department of Psychology
Yale University
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: We know that depression includes a wide range of symptoms, from low mood and feeling worthless, to problems sleeping, slowed thinking, and suicidal ideation.
We wanted to know whether antidepressants work well in treating all of these symptoms, or whether they are primarily effective on certain kinds of symptoms.
23 Feb Self-Guided Internet Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Shows Promise For Depression
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Eirini Karyotaki, MSc Department of Clinical Psychology and EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Amsterdam, the Netherlands MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Depression is broadly acknowledged as a major health issue associated with a great risk of mortality and morbidity. Nevertheless, help-seeking rates are low among individuals with depression. Some of the barriers that impede help seeking are the limited availability of trained clinicians, the fear of stigmatisation and the cost of treatment. Self-guided Internet based Cognitive behavioural therapy (iCBT) has the potential to overcome many of these treatment barriers. However, recent randomised controlled trials (RCTs) have produced mixed evidence regarding the effects of self-guided iCBT in treating adults with depressive symptoms. To gain more insight in the effectiveness of self-guided iCBT, an Individual Participant Data meta-analysis was performed. 3876 individual participant data across 13 RCTs were collected and analysed.21 Feb State Same-Sex Marriage Policies Associated With Reduced Adolescent Suicide Attempts
Posted at 01:32h
in Author Interviews, Gender Differences, JAMA, Johns Hopkins, Mental Health Research, Pediatrics
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Julia R.G. Raifman, ScD
Post-doctoral fellow
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Suicide is the second leading cause of death among adolescents between the ages of 15 and 24 years old in the United States. Gay, lesbian, and bisexual adolescents have elevated rates of suicide attempts. In our study, we found that 29% of gay, lesbian, and bisexual adolescents reported attempting suicide in the past year relative to 6% of heterosexual adolescents.
17 Feb Role Identified for Neuronal Protein in Dementia of Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Shinsuke Ishigaki Department of Neurology Department of Therapeutics for Intractable Neurological Disorders Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine Nagoya,Japan MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) is a pathological process that has been characterized by personality changes, abnormal behaviors, language impairment, and progressive dementia. The genetic and pathological similarities in fused in sarcoma (FUS), transactive response (TAR) DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43), and C9orf72 in relation to FTLD and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) have recently lead to the recognition that the two conditions represent points on a spectrum of a single disease entity. Additionally, Frontotemporal lobar degeneration has also been classified as a tauopathy, characterized by an accumulation of phosphorylated microtubule-associated protein tau (tau) in affected neurons. Our study demonstrated a biological link between FUS/SFPQ and the regulation of tau isoforms involved in the early phase of Frontotemporal lobar degeneration.17 Feb Paternal Depression Linked To Not Being in Relationship With Mother
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Lisa Underwood, PhD Research Fellow| Centre for Longitudinal Research Growing Up in New Zealand | Who are Today’s Dads? School of Population Health, Faculty of Medical & Health Sciences University of Auckland Auckland MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: This study is part of the contemporary, longitudinal study Growing Up in New Zealand, which is tracking the development of more than 6000 children born in 2009 and 2010. In previous reports we investigated antenatal and postnatal depression symptoms among the mothers of our cohort children. In this study we looked at the partners of those mothers to explore whether men and women have different risks for depression in each perinatal period. Our main findings were that expectant fathers were at risk if they felt stressed or were in poor health. Elevated depression symptoms following their child’s birth, were also linked to social and relationship problems. The strongest predictor of postnatal paternal depression was no longer being in a relationship with the child’s mother.14 Feb Ketamine Before Stressful Event May Reduce Risk of PTSD
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_31986" align="alignleft" width="200"]
Dr. Christine Ann Denny[/caption]
Christine Ann Denny, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Psychiatry
Columbia University
Division of Integrative Neuroscience
Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene, Inc.
New York, NY 10032-2695
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one of the most common psychiatric illnesses, affecting about 8 million adult Americans, and an annual prevalence of about 3.5% worldwide. At-risk populations such as soldiers and veterans are at a higher risk to develop PTSD. Stress exposure is one of the major risk factors for PTSD and major depressive disorder (MDD), a disorder which is often co-morbid with PTSD.
There are currently very limited treatments for PTSD and MDD. In addition, these disorders are treated in a symptom-suppression approach, which only mitigate symptoms and work in only a small fraction of patients. Prevention is rarely an approach considered except in the form of behavioral intervention. However, pharmacological approaches to preventing psychiatric diseases has not yet been developed.
Our laboratory has previously found that ketamine, a general anesthetic and rapid-acting antidepressant, administered sub-anesthetically prior to stress can prevent against stress-induced depressive-like behaviors. We decided to delve into the literature to determine whether ketamine has any effects on PTSD in the clinic. We found numerous reports linking ketamine to PTSD, but the results were varied. We realized that the main difference in all of these studies was the timing of administration. We decided to systematically test the efficacy of ketamine in mice at various time points relative to a stressor to determine when would be the most effective window to buffer against heightened fear expression.
We found that ketamine administered 1 week, but not 1 month or 1 day, prior to a stressor was the most effective time point to administer the drug to buffer fear. This is critical, as it suggests that a pharmacological approach to enhance resilience can be more effective at protecting against PTSD symptoms than attempting to mitigate symptoms after it has already affected an individual.
12 Feb Brain–Computer Interface Allows Communication With Locked-In Patients
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_31785" align="alignleft" width="180"]
Dr. Ujwal Chaudhary[/caption]
Dr. Ujwal Chaudhary, PhD
Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology
University of Tübingen
Tübingen, Germany
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder which causes an Individual to be in Locked-in state (LIS), i.e. the patients have control of their vertical eye movement and blinking, and ultimately in Completely Locked-in state (CLIS), i.e, no control over their eye muscle. There are several assistive and augmentative (AAC) technology along with EEG based BCI which can be used be by the patients in LIS for communication but once they are in CLIS they do not have any means of communication. Hence, there was a need to find an alternative learning paradigm and probably another neuroimaging technique to design a more effective BCI to help ALS patient in CLIS with communication.
11 Feb Executive Brain Function Predictive of Success on the Soccer Pitch
Posted at 20:57h
in Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Karolinski Institute, Mental Health Research, PLoS
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Torbjörn Vestberg
Licensed Psychologist & Researcher
Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet
Stockholm, Sweden
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: The aim of our research is to study the importance of executive functions for successful behaviour. In our first study published in 2012 (Executive Functions Predict the Success of Top-Soccer Players) we showed that the level of elite soccer players’ higher executive functions was in general 2 standard deviations above the normal population. It was the same for both men and women.
Moreover, we also found a strong correlation between the capacities of higher executive functions and the number of goals and assists the player made after two and a half year.
In our new study we were interested in how the situation is at a younger age, from twelve to nineteen years of age. Because of the maturation of the brain, higher executive functions do not reach their full capacity before nineteen years of age.
On basis of this, our question was whether there were other parts of the executive functions that correlated with success in soccer. In this new study, we focused on core executive functions like the working memory, as it reaches its full capacity in the early teens. We found that there was a moderate correlation with the accuracy of the working memory and the number of goals the junior elite players made during a period of two years. When we made a composite measurement of both the demanding working memory and the test for the capacity of the higher executive functions, we found a strong correlation between these results and the number of goals that the players made during the two years of time. When we measured IQ and physical features, like length, we found out that those did not influence the results.
09 Feb Moderate Screen Time Didn’t Increase Behavioral Problems in Kids
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_31868" align="alignleft" width="150"]
Dr. Christopher Ferguson[/caption]
Dr. Christopher J. Ferguson PhD
Professor of Psychology
Stetson University
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: The degree to which screen time influences youth across a variety of behavioral outcomes has been a source of debate and contention for decades. For many years the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended to parents that they allow older children no more than 2 hours of screen time per day. However, this number was never clearly based on good data. And in 2014 one study (Przybylski, 2014 in Pediatrics) suggested that ties between screen time and behavioral outcomes were very weak, and only seen for the most extreme screen users. So I was curious to see if these results would replicate for a large sample of US youth.
09 Feb Hip Fractures Increase Mortality Risk in Cognitively Impaired Men
Posted at 01:56h
in Author Interviews, Cognitive Issues, Gender Differences, Hip Fractures, Orthopedics
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
[caption id="attachment_31853" align="alignleft" width="180"]
Dr. Ann Gruber-Baldini[/caption]
Ann L. Gruber-Baldini, Ph.D.
Professor, Division of Gerontology
Director, Program in Epidemiology and Human Genetics
Department of Epidemiology & Public Health
University of Maryland School of Medicine
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: While men make up only about 25% of all hip fractures, the number of men who fracture their hip is increasing and we know men are more likely to die than women after a hip fracture. It is also known that those with cognitive impairments, typically due to delirium and Alzheimer's disease and related dementia, are more likely to do more poorly after the fracture. The impact of both sex and cognition on outcomes after hip fracture has not been fully explored.
08 Feb When Is It Safe To Drive After a Concussion?
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_31844" align="alignleft" width="142"]
Dr. Julianne Schmidt[/caption]
Julianne Schmidt, PhD, ATC
Assistant Professor
Department of Kinesiology
The University of Georgia
Athens GA
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Less than half of all people with a concussion intend to reduce their driving at any point.
Current recommendations surrounding concussion focus on when it is safe to return to sport or return to the classroom, but return to driving is usually ignored and has not been studied.
07 Feb Disorder-Specific vs Nonspecific Psychotherapy for Chronic Depression
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_31668" align="alignleft" width="100"]
Dr. Elisabeth Schramm[/caption]
Prof. Dr. phil. Elisabeth Schramm
Klinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Chronic depression is a highly prevalent and disabling disorder. As compared to acute episodically depressed patients, chronic depressives benefit less from psychological and pharmaceutical treatment.
Prior investigations suggest that these patients need longer treatment duration for symptom improvement.
In this randomized clinical trial including 268 adults with early onset chronic depression not taking antidepressant medication, patients treated with a disorder-specific psychological treatment (Cognitive Behavioral Analysis System of Psychotherapy; CBASP) reported significantly less severe depressive symptoms after 20 and 48 weeks as compared to a nonspecific supportive therapy. CBASP patients were also more likely to reach remission and showed significant advantages in global functioning and quality of life.