Psychiatry research
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Psychiatry research · Oct 2015
Comparison of obese adults with poor versus good sleep quality during a functional neuroimaging delay discounting task: A pilot study.
This study aimed to determine if obese adults with poor versus good sleep quality demonstrate reduced self-regulatory capacity and different patterns of neural activation when making impulsive monetary choices. Six obese, good quality sleepers (M age=44.7 years, M BMI=38.1 kg/m(2)) were compared to 13 obese, poor quality sleepers (M age=42.6, M BMI=39.2 kg/m(2)) on sleep and eating behavior and brain activation in prefrontal and insular regions while engaging in a delay discounting task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). ⋯ Behaviorally, poor compared to good quality sleepers reported higher scores in the night eating questionnaire. Obese adults with poor sleep quality demonstrate decreased brain activation in multiple regions that regulate cognitive control and interceptive awareness, possibly reducing self-regulatory capacity when making immediately gratifying decisions.
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Psychiatry research · Oct 2015
Race/ethnicity and gender differences in mental health diagnoses among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.
Veterans who served in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF; predominantly in Afghanistan) and Operations Iraqi Freedom and New Dawn (OIF and OND; predominantly in Iraq) and are enrolled in the VA are comprised of a growing cohort of women and higher proportions of racial/ethnic minorities than civilians. To compare rates of mental health disorders by race/ethnicity and gender for this diverse cohort, we conducted a retrospective analysis of existing records from OEF/OIF/OND veterans who were seen at the VA 10/7/01-8/1/2013 (N=792,663). ⋯ Research is needed to identify contributing factors to differential rates of diagnoses based on race/ethnicity and gender. A/PIs and AI/ANs have unique patterns of mental health diagnoses indicating they should be considered separately to present a comprehensive picture of veteran mental health.
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Psychiatry research · Oct 2015
Adverse childhood experiences influence white matter microstructure in patients with schizophrenia.
Integrity of brain white matter (WM) tracts in adulthood could be detrimentally affected by exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACE). Changes of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) measures suggesting WM disruption have been reported in patients with schizophrenia together with a history of childhood maltreatment. We therefore hypothesized that ACE could be associated with altered DTI measures of WM integrity in patients with schizophrenia. ⋯ We observed an inverse correlation between severity of ACE and DTI measures of FA, and a positive correlation with MD in several WM tracts including corona radiata, thalamic radiations, corpus callosum, cingulum bundle, superior longitudinal fasciculus, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, uncinate fasciculus. Lower FA and higher MD are indexes of a reduction in fibre coherence and integrity. The association of ACE to reduced FA and increased MD in key WM tracts contributing to the functional integrity of the brain suggests that ACE might contribute to the pathophysiology of schizophrenia through a detrimental action on structural connectivity in critical cortico-limbic networks.
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Psychiatry research · Sep 2015
The Mental Health Literacy Scale (MHLS): A new scale-based measure of mental health literacy.
Although Mental Health Literacy (MHL) has been a topic of substantial interest, measurement of this concept using a scale-based measure has been limited, including a lack of psychometric and methodologically robust scale-based measures of MHL. This study developed a new scale-based measure of MHL, the Mental Health Literacy Scale (MHLS), which assesses all attributes of MHL. Construction of the MHLS was done over three key stages, including measure development, pilot testing and assessment of psychometrics and methodological quality. ⋯ The MHLS also demonstrated good internal and test-retest reliability. Evaluation of the methodological quality of the MHLS indicated that it has substantial methodological advantages in comparison to existing scale-based measures of MHL. The MHLS can be used in assessing individual and population level differences in MHL and in determining the impact of programmes designed to improve MHL.
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Psychiatry research · Sep 2015
Review Comparative StudyComparison of automated brain segmentation using a brain phantom and patients with early Alzheimer's dementia or mild cognitive impairment.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and brain volumetry allow for the quantification of changes in brain volume using automatic algorithms which are widely used in both, clinical and scientific studies. However, studies comparing the reliability of these programmes are scarce and mainly involved MRI derived from younger healthy controls. This study evaluates the reliability of frequently used segmentation programmes (SPM, FreeSurfer, FSL) using a realistic digital brain phantom and MRI brain acquisitions from patients with manifest Alzheimer's disease (AD, n=34), mild cognitive impairment (MCI, n=60), and healthy subjects (n=32) matched for age and sex. ⋯ With poor image quality, especially noise, SPM provides the best segmentation results. An optimised template for segmentation had no significant effect on segmentation results. While our findings underline the applicability of the programmes investigated, SPM may be the programme of choice when MRIs with limited image quality or brain images of elderly should be analysed.