Gender specific therapies and disorders

INTRODUCTION: The management of type 1 diabetes, a non-preventable chronic disease, leads to a high physical and psychological burden on the individual. Digital health technology can improve a person's psychosocial self-efficacy and thereby contribute to improved diabetes self-care. The aim of this study was to explore associations between psychosocial self-efficacy and demographic-, disease specific-, well-being as well as digital health technology (DHT) related factors among adults with type 1 diabetes...

OBJECTIVE: We studied the impact of depressive symptoms on adverse effects (AEs) in people with epilepsy (PWE) on antiseizure medication (ASM) therapy. An effect of depression on the AE burden has already been reported. We studied the correlation of various depressive symptoms with specific AEs to assess which AEs are especially prone to being confounded by particular depressive symptoms. METHODS: PWE filled in a variety of questionnaires including the "Neurological Disorder Depression Inventory for Epilepsy" (NDDI-E), "Emotional Thermometers 4" (ET4) and "Liverpool Adverse Events Profile" (LAEP)...

Sex differences are consistently identified in determining the prevalence, manifestation, and response to therapies in several systemic disorders, including those affecting the cardiovascular (CV), skeletal muscle, and nervous system. Interestingly, such differences are often more noticeable as we age. For example, premenopausal women experience a lower risk of CV disease than men of the same age. While at an advanced age, with menopause, the risk of cardiovascular diseases and adverse outcomes increases exponentially in women, exceeding that of men...

OBJECTIVE: Loot boxes (LBs) are virtual items embedded within video games that contain randomly generated in-game prizes. LB use can become risky, so it is important to have good measurement instruments, especially among adolescents, who are particularly involved in video gaming and LB purchasing. The present study analyses the adequacy of the Risky Loot Box Index (RLI; Brooks & Clark, 2019) by applying item response theory (IRT). METHOD: Participants were 2,443 (59% males, mean age = 16...

Over the last century, there has been a growing interest in researching pathological gambling, particularly in industrialized nations. Historically, gambling was widely perceived as morally questionable, condemned by religious groups. However, contemporary concerns have shifted towards the health repercussions of gambling disorders and broader societal impacts like increased crime and money laundering. Governments, aiming to mitigate social harm, often regulate or directly oversee gambling activities. The global surge in legal gambling has resulted in a substantial rise in its prevalence, popularity, and accessibility in the last two decades...

Objectives: We aimed to describe the methods of smartphone-based cognitive ecological momentary assessment designs in clinical populations, with an intention to evaluate how the role of sex and/or gender has been considered in the design and analyses, particularly including female-specific physiology. Methods: This scoping review was conducted based on JBI scoping review methodology. On March 2nd, 2023, we searched for literature across four databases. Screening of the results and data extraction were conducted in duplicate according to the a priori methods in the pre-registered protocol...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: GRIN-related disorders are neurodevelopmental disorders caused by mutations in N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) subunit genes. A large fraction of these mutations lead to a 'gain of function' (GoF) of the NMDAR. Patients present with a range of symptoms including epilepsy, intellectual disability, behavioural and motor. Controlling seizures is a significant unmet medical need in most patients with GRIN-related disorders. Although several hundred GRIN mutations have been identified in humans, until recently none of the mouse models carrying Grin mutations/deletions showed an epileptic phenotype...

BACKGROUND: Sleep is an essential health behavior, and sleep difficulties are strongly associated with adolescent health, potentially leading to more severe sleep disorders. The beneficial effects of physical activity (PA) in alleviating sleep difficulties have been well-documented. Numerous investigations reveal influence in moderate to high-intensity physical activity (PA) positively influences sleep quality. Despite these findings, a gap in the literature exists, particularly regarding the association between frequency of vigorous-intensity physical activity (VPA) and sleep difficulties...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of recent evidence on female-specific risk factors related to reproductive status or pregnancy. RECENT FINDINGS: Pregnancy-related factors, including hypertensive disorders and gestational diabetes, increase the risk of heart failure in women, while breastfeeding and hormone therapy may offer protection. Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, gestational diabetes, polycystic ovarian syndrome, placental abruption, younger maternal age at first live birth, younger maternal age at last live birth, number of stillbirths, number of pregnancies, onset of menstruation before 12 years of age, shorter reproductive age, ovariectomy, and prolonged absence of ovarian hormones may increase the risk of heart failure in women...

Heart failure affects over 2.6 million people in the United States. While women have better overall survival rates, they also suffer from higher morbidity as shown by higher rates of hospitalization and worse quality of life. Several anatomical differences in women's hearts affect both systolic and diastolic cardiac physiology. Despite these findings, women are significantly underrepresented in clinical trials, necessitating extrapolation of data from males. Because women have sex-specific etiologies of heart failure and unique manifestations in genetic-related cardiomyopathies, meaningful sex-related differences affect heart failure outcomes as well as access to and outcomes in advanced heart failure therapies in women...

INTRODUCTION: Women show a gender-specific risk for co-occurring opioid use disorder (OUD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Expert groups have called for the development of integrated treatments for women with OUD/PTSD, but there remains limited information on such interventions. METHODS: This mixed-methods study interviewed and surveyed 10 women with current or past OUD and co-occurring posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and 16 providers who work with these women...

Anderson-Fabry disease (AFD) is a lysosomal storage disorder characterized by glycolipid accumulation in cardiac cells, associated with a peculiar form of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). Up to 1% of patients with a diagnosis of HCM indeed have AFD. With the availability of targeted therapies for sarcomeric HCM and its genocopies, a timely differential diagnosis is essential. Specifically, the therapeutic landscape for AFD is rapidly evolving and offers increasingly effective, disease-modifying treatment options...

OBJECTIVE: Nonspecific relational factors, such as therapist empathy, play an important role in therapy effectiveness. Building on this literature, some researchers have attempted to incorporate relational factors into electronic brief interventions (e-BIs) by using interactive narrators to guide participants through the intervention. However, few studies have examined which characteristics of these interactive narrators increase intervention acceptability and efficacy. The present study sought to systematically manipulate animated narrator characteristics in an e-BI and to examine their effects on respondents' alcohol use and subjective reactions...

Panic disorder (PD), characterized by recurrent and intense panic attacks, presents a complex interplay between psychological and neurobiological factors. Although the amygdala and hippocampus have been studied extensively in the context of PD, the brainstem's involvement remains relatively underexplored. This study aims to address this gap by examining structural abnormalities within specific brainstem regions, including the medulla, pons, and midbrain. The study sample population comprised twenty-one adult patients diagnosed with PD and an age-gender-education-matched control group...

INTRODUCTION: During the COVID-19 pandemic, an influx of adolescents presented worldwide with acute onset of functional tic-like behaviors (FTLBs). Our goal was to evaluate psychosocial factors around onset, to elucidate outcomes after pandemic isolation protocols were lifted, and to examine therapy and medication management. METHODS: A retrospective review was performed of 56 patients ages 10-18 years with new-onset FTLBs seen at Boston Children's Hospital beginning in March 2020...

Takotsubo syndrome (TTS), commonly referred to as "broken heart syndrome," is a distinctive form of acute and reversible heart failure that primarily affects young to middle-aged individuals, particularly women. While emotional or physical stressors often trigger TTS, rare cases have been linked to interventional procedures for congenital heart disease (CHD). Despite its recognition, the exact causes of TTS remain elusive. Research indicates that dysregulation in autonomic nerve function, involving sympathetic and parasympathetic activities, plays a pivotal role...

BACKGROUND: High-risk stroke patients are recommended to receive high-intensity statin therapy to reduce the risk of stroke recurrence. However, doubling the dosage of statin drugs did not increase the achievement rate of LDL-C target or provide additional clinical benefits, but significantly increased the risk of adverse reactions. Statins and ezetimibe work through different mechanisms and the combined use of statins and ezetimibe significantly improves outcomes with comparable safety profiles...

PURPOSE: The purposes of this study were (a) to investigate adult listeners' perceptions of age and gender in typically developing children and children with dysarthria and (b) to identify predictors of their estimates among auditory-perceptual parameters and an acoustic measure of vocal pitch ( F 0). We aimed to evaluate the influence of dysarthria on the listeners' impressions of age and gender against the background of typical developmental processes. METHOD: In a listening experiment, adult listeners completed age and gender estimates of 144 typically developing children (3-9 years of age) and 25 children with dysarthria (5-9 years of age)...

BACKGROUND: Functional connectivity changes in clinically overt neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia with Lewy bodies have been described, but studies on connectivity changes in the pre-dementia phase are scarce. OBJECTIVES: We concentrated on evaluating striato-cortical functional connectivity differences between patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment with Lewy bodies and healthy controls and on assessing the relation to cognition. METHODS: Altogether, we enrolled 77 participants (47 patients, of which 35 met all the inclusion criteria for the final analysis, and 30 age- and gender-matched healthy controls, of which 28 met all the inclusion criteria for the final analysis) to study the seed-based connectivity of the dorsal, middle, and ventral striatum...

Background Publicly-insured and uninsured individuals-many of whom are marginalized because of race/ethnicity, disability and/or sexual preferences-experience barriers to accessing evidence-based interventions for eating disorders (EDs). Additionally, EBIs have not been developed with or for diverse populations, exacerbating poor treatment uptake. Mobile technology is perfectly positioned to bridge this gap and increase access to low-cost, culturally-sensitive EBIs. Methods This study leverages a user-centered design approach to adapt an existing coached cognitive-behavioral therapy-based digital program and evaluate its usability in a sample of 11 participants with (sub)clinical binge-purge type EDs who are publicly-insured ( n  = 10) or uninsured ( n  = 1)...