Cognitive - Communicative Disorders

As the world emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, there is an urgent need to understand patient factors that may be used to predict the occurrence of severe cases and patient mortality. Approximately 20% of SARS-CoV-2 infections lead to acute respiratory distress syndrome caused by the harmful actions of inflammatory mediators. Patients with severe COVID-19 are often afflicted with neurologic symptoms, and individuals with pre-existing neurodegenerative disease have an increased risk of severe COVID-19. Although collectively, these observations point to a bidirectional relationship between severe COVID-19 and neurologic disorders, little is known about the underlying mechanisms...

OBJECTIVES: The reported prevalence of mental health conditions (MHCs) in people with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) ranges widely. Whether MHCs are associated with increased risk of SLE or the outcomes of the disease is unclear. This paper aimed to conduct an umbrella and updated meta-analysis of MHCs in people with SLE and to identify whether MHCs are associated with the risk of SLE or patient outcomes. METHODS: We comprehensively searched PubMed, Web of Science, and Embase databases to identify relevant studies published before June 2023...

ADHD has huge knowledge gaps concerning its etiology. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) provide promising diagnostic biomarkers of human pathophysiology and may be a novel therapeutic option. The aim was to investigate the levels of miR-34c-3p, miR-155, miR-138-1, miR-296-5p, and plasma brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in a group of children with ADHD compared to neurotypicals and to explore correlations between these measures and some clinical data. The participants were children with ADHD in Group I (N = 41; age: 8...

Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders in the world. Common epileptic drugs generally affect ion channels or neurotransmitters and prevent the emergence of seizures. However, up to a third of the patients suffer from drug-resistant epilepsy, and there is an urgent need to develop new therapeutic strategies that go beyond acute antiepileptic (antiseizure) therapies towards therapeutics that also might have effects on chronic epilepsy comorbidities such as cognitive decline and depression. The mitochondrial calcium uniporter (MCU) mediates rapid mitochondrial Ca2+ transport through the inner mitochondrial membrane...

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to explore the long-term impacts of exposure to earthquake in adolescence on later-life cognitive function in China. METHODS: Data were from the 2015 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). Our analytical sample comprised 4394 participants aged 49 to 78 from two birth cohorts born between 1937 and 1966: exposed cohort during adolescence (born between 1952 and 1966), and non-exposed cohort during adolescence (born between 1937 and 1951)...

BACKGROUND: A significant proportion of people with clozapine-treated schizophrenia develop 'checking' compulsions, a phenomenon yet to be understood. AIMS: To use habit formation models developed in cognitive neuroscience to investigate the dynamic interplay between psychosis, clozapine dose and obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCS). METHOD: Using the anonymised electronic records of a cohort of clozapine-treated patients, including longitudinal assessments of OCS and psychosis, we performed longitudinal multi-level mediation and multi-level moderation analyses to explore associations of psychosis with obsessiveness and excessive checking...

PURPOSE: Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a key intervention for management of misophonia, hyperacusis, and tinnitus. The aim of this study was to perform a preliminary analysis comparing the scores for self-report questionnaires before and after audiologist-delivered CBT via video calls for adults with misophonia, hyperacusis, or tinnitus or a combination of these. METHOD: This was a retrospective cross-sectional study. The data for 37 consecutive patients who received CBT for misophonia, hyperacusis, or tinnitus from a private institute in the United Kingdom were analyzed...

INTRODUCTION: Prenatal alcohol exposure causes a variety of impairments to the fetus called Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). Since it is very difficult to identify women that consume alcohol during pregnancy, different methods have been studied to evaluate alcohol exposure. Ethyl Glucuronide (EtG) and Fatty Acid Ethyl Esters (FAEEs) are commonly used to measure alcohol consumption in individuals at-risk for alcohol abuse, including pregnant women. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a study of two cohorts of 1...

BACKGROUND: There are major challenges in determining the aetiology of vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) clinically, especially in the presence of mixed pathologies, such as vascular and amyloid. Most recently, two criteria (American Heart Association/American Stroke Association [AHA/ASA] and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition [DSM-V]) have been proposed for the clinical diagnosis of VCI but have not as yet been validated using neuroimaging. AIMS: This study aims to determine whether the AHA/ASA and DSM-V criteria for VCI can distinguish between cases with predominantly vascular pathology and cases with mixed pathology...

Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a rare genetic disorder characterized by hypothalamic dysfunction, hypotonia, cognitive deficits, and hyperphagia, primarily resulting from genetic abnormalities on chromosome 15. Among its varied manifestations, musculoskeletal issues, notably scoliosis, pose important challenges in management. This study aims to investigate differences in postural-motor development and spinal range of movement between preadolescents and adolescents with PWS, with and without scoliosis, while also exploring the potential impact of scoliosis on caregiving burden, an aspect yet to be thoroughly explored in existing literature...

The effects of PM2.5 on human health fluctuate greatly among various age groups, influenced by a range of physiological and immunological reactions. This paper compares the pathogenesis of the disease caused by PM2.5 in people of different ages, focusing on how children, adults, and the elderly are each susceptible to it because of differences in their bodies. Regarding children, exposure to PM2.5 is linked to many negative consequences. These factors consist of inflammation, oxidative stress, and respiratory problems, which might worsen pre-existing conditions and potentially cause neurotoxicity and developmental issues...

Patients with long-term disease experience low resilience, emphasising the importance of psychological interventions to improve resilience. However, there is no comprehensive evidence on the efficacy of resilience-related psychological interventions (RRPIs) in this population. Therefore, we performed a meta-analysis to evaluate and extend knowledge from previous meta-analyses on the efficacy of RRPIs on resilience, stress, anxiety, depression and quality of life among patients with long-term disease. Cochrane Library, Embase, Ovid-MEDLINE, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and CINAHL electronic databases were searched until 3 February 2023...

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to examine factors associated with engagement in meaningful activity among residents with dementia in assisted living. We hypothesized that greater functional independence, less pain, and lower behavioral and psychological symptom severity would be associated with higher engagement in meaningful activity after controlling for residents' age, gender, comorbidities, and cognition. Understanding factors associated with engagement in meaningful activity can help to inform strategies for optimizing engagement among residents with dementia in assisted living...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Primary CNS vasculitis (PCNSV) is a rare inflammatory disorder that affects the blood vessels of the central nervous system (CNS). We aimed to analyze the neurological presentations, clinical follow-up, and long-term outcomes of patients with primary central nervous system vasculitis. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective analysis of medical records to assess the neurological presentation, rate of remission, and functional status at the last follow-up in patients with primary central nervous system vasculitis seen in our center in the last 13 years (2010-2023)...

BACKGROUND: Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a complex neuropsychiatric disorder indicated by a deterioration in the functioning of hepatocytes. Impaired brain function is observed in advanced alcoholic liver disease particularly manifesting as HE. The pathophysiology of alcohol-related HE remains unclear. Accordingly, this study aimed to assess alcoholism and socioeconomic status of patients with liver disease compared with stages of HE. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 62 alcoholic patients who have been consuming alcohol for more than 14 years...

OBJECTIVE: Although empathy is known to be a strength, recent studies suggest that empathy can be a risk factor for psychopathology under certain conditions in children. This study examines parental mental illness as such a condition. Further, it aims to investigate whether maladaptive emotion regulation (ER) mediates the relationship between empathy and psychopathological symptoms of children. METHODS: Participants were 100 children of parents with a mental illness (55% female) and 87 children of parents without a mental illness (50% female) aged 6 - 16 years and their parents...

An integrative approach is presented to understand the transmission mechanisms of attachment trauma and the quality of the internal working model through manifestations of bodily symptoms concerning physical and mental health. A case of dissociative symptomatology is described in a woman whose ancestors experienced individual and collective trauma related to the political regime. The approach allows for an analytical view beyond the standard complaints of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic symptoms, eating disorders, etc...

As a crucial component of the cerebral cholinergic system and the Papez circuit in the basal forebrain, dysfunction of the nucleus basalis of Meynert (NBM) is associated with various neurodegenerative disorders. However, no drugs, including existing cholinesterase inhibitors, have been shown to reverse this dysfunction. Due to advancements in neuromodulation technology, researchers are exploring the use of deep brain stimulation (DBS) therapy targeting the NBM (NBM-DBS) to treat mental and neurological disorders as well as the related mechanisms...

INTRODUCTION: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurological disorder characterized by mild memory loss and ranks as a leading cause of mortality in the USA, accounting for approximately 120,000 deaths per year. It is also the primary form of dementia. Early detection is critical for timely intervention as the neurodegenerative process often starts 15-20 years before cognitive symptoms manifest. This study focuses on determining feature importance in AD classification using fused texture features from 3D magnetic resonance imaging hippocampal and entorhinal cortex and standardized uptake value ratio (SUVR) derived from positron emission tomography (PET) images...

BACKGROUND: Residents in psychiatry can be confronted with patient-related stressful experiences which can be impactful. Guidelines for dealing with these are lacking. AIM: Questioning residents in psychiatry about patient-related stressful adversities, their impact and resources to contribute to the existing literature. METHOD: Qualitative study through semi-structured interviews of six psychiatry residents, followed by data-analysis using thematic analysis...