Meta-analysis of brain activation in depressive patients with emotional perception disorders

OBJECTIVE：To elucidate the distribution of abnormally activated brain regions in depressive patients during emotional perception processing using activation likelihood estimation,a quantitative meta-analytic technique.DATA SOURCES：Computer-based online retrieval was conducted using the PscyINFO,Pubmed and CNKI databases,searching literature from the establishment of each database until June 2010.STUDY SELECTION：Inclusion criteria：（1） studies examined emotion perception tasks using func-tional magnetic resonance imaging; （2） studies indicated regional brain activation abnormalities in depressive patients compared with controls in standard Talairach or MNI coordinates.Any analyzed coordinates based on the MNI system were converted to Talairach space with icbm2tal software.The map of activation likelihood estimation was finally created through the Gaussian smooth （full-width half-maximum=8 mm）,permutation test and corrected for multiple comparisons using the false discovery rate method （q=0.05） with Ginger-ALE 2.0 software.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES：Activation of brain regions in patients.RESULTS：Seventeen studies were identified,involving a total of 261 patients,273 healthy controls and 201 foci.Meta-analysis revealed a dysfunctional emotion regulation loop in depressive patients,comprised of the prefrontal cortex,the basal ganglia and the limbic lobe,in which the amygdala was a key component.During emotion processing,the left prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia were hy-poactive among depressive patients,whereas the opposite change was found in the limbic lobe.CONCLUSION：Abnormal connections among the prefrontal cortex,basal ganglia and limbic lobe may be involved in the pathophysiology of depressive disorder.

Being a Father of a Premature Newborn: The Parental Experience and the Father/Premature Newborn Relationship: A Study Carried out in the Department of Neonatology Intensive Care Unit of Mohammed VI University Hospital

Introduction: Despite advances in obstetrics and pediatrics over the past 20 years, premature birth remains an unpredictable event that can have a devastating impact on parenthood. This study aimed to analyze the psycho-affective experiences of fathers of premature newborns. Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study, carried out in the department of neonatology and neonatal intensive care unit of the CHU Mohamed VI in OUJDA, over 6 months from March 2022 to August 2022. It focused on 30 fathers of premature newborns hospitalized in our department. Results: The majority of fathers described a state of fear and stress, and attributed their negative experience to the unexpected nature of the premature birth. At the first meeting, half the fathers had a positive image of their newborn’s physical appearance, while 22% of fathers reported feeling uncomfortable about their newborn’s low weight. Most fathers reported that they appreciated the welcome they received, the skill with which they cared for their newborn, and the availability of the pediatrician to provide information on their child’s state of health. Two fathers enjoyed skin-to-skin contact with their newborns. None of the fathers met a psychologist. When they returned home, half the fathers had a positive outlook, marked by happiness at being able to fully invest in their role as fathers, the other half reported being torn between the desire to see their child integrated into the family cocoon and the fear of not being able to manage delicate situations properly without a medical team. Conclusion: Bringing a premature baby into the world can be a difficult experience, leading to the development of even minor psychological distress in some fathers, and hence the need for specific psychological care.

Mitochondrial transplantation ameliorates hippocampal damage following status epilepticus

Background:Hippocampal damage caused by status epilepticus(SE)can bring about cognitive decline and emotional disorders,which are common clinical comorbidities in patients with epilepsy.It is therefore imperative to develop a novel therapeutic strat-egy for protecting hippocampal damage after SE.Mitochondrial dysfunction is one of contributing factors in epilepsy.Given the therapeutic benefits of mitochondrial replenishment by exogenous mitochondria,we hypothesized that transplantation of mitochondria would be capable of ameliorating hippocampal damage following SE.Methods:Pilocarpine was used to induced SE in mice.SE-generated cognitive de-cline and emotional disorders were determined using novel object recognition,the tail suspension test,and the open field test.SE-induced hippocampal pathology was assessed by quantifying loss of neurons and activation of microglia and astrocytes.The metabolites underlying mitochondrial transplantation were determined using metabonomics.Results:The results showed that peripheral administration of isolated mitochon-dria could improve cognitive deficits and depressive and anxiety-like behaviors.Exogenous mitochondria blunted the production of reactive oxygen species,pro-liferation of microglia and astrocytes,and loss of neurons in the hippocampus.The metabonomic profiles showed that mitochondrial transplantation altered multiple metabolic pathways such as sphingolipid signaling pathway and carbon metabolism.Among potential affected metabolites,mitochondrial transplantation decreased levels of sphingolipid(d18:1/18:0)and methylmalonic acid,and elevated levels of D-fructose-1,6-bisphosphate.Conclusion:To the best of our knowledge,these findings provide the first direct ex-perimental evidence that artificial mitochondrial transplantation is capable of amelio-rating hippocampal damage following SE.These new findings support mitochondrial transplantation as a promising therapeutic strategy for epilepsy-associated psychiat-ric and cognitive disorders.

Effect of an optimization management model based on multi-disciplinary treatment on patients with emotional disorders caused by cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases

Background Cardiovascular diseases are common worldwide,with coronary heart disease and stroke being the leading causes of human death.Additionally,most surviving patients often experience cognitive,behavioral,and emotional impairments,severely hindering physical function recovery and reducing their quality of life.Methods Fifty-eight patients with emotional disorders caused by cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases admitted to our hospital from January 2020 to January 2022 were enrolled and evenly divided into an observation group and a control group according to a random number table method.The control group(29 cases)received routine management,while the observation group(29 cases)received an optimized management model based on Multi-Disciplinary Treatment(MDT)in addition to the routine management.The coping style,negative emotions,cognitive function,and quality of life were observed in both groups.Results After 3 months of intervention,the observation group had higher scores for positive coping styles compared to the control group.The observation group had lower scores for negative coping styles,Self-rating Depression Scale(SDS)and Self-Rating Anxiety Scale(SAS)scores respectively compared to the control group(P<0.05).The observation group had higher Montreal Cognitive Assessment Scale(MOCA)and Simple Cognitive State Assessment Scale(MMSE)scores compared to the control group(P<0.05).What's more,the observation group scored higher in all dimensions of Quality of Life Profile(QOLBREF)compared to the control group(P<0.05).Conclusions The application of an optimized management model based on MDT in patients with emotional disorders caused by cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases helps strengthen the patient's coping styles,alleviate negative emotions,improve cognitive function,and enhance their quality of life.

Efficacy and safety of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation combined with conventional rehabilitation training in acute stroke patients: a randomized controlled trial conducted for 1 year involving 60 patients

Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation(ta-VNS)is a novel noninvasive treat-ment for stroke that directly stimulates the peripheral auricular branch of the vagus nerve.There have been recent reports that ta-VNS combined with conventional rehabilitation training promotes the recovery of neurological function of patients with acute stroke.However,these were small-sample-sized studies on the recovery of neurological function in patients after percutaneous vagus nerve stimulation in the subacute and chronic phases after stroke.This double-blinded randomized controlled trial involved 60 acute ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke patients aged 18-80 years who received treatment in the Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University.The subjects were randomly assigned to receive ta-VNS or sham ta-VNS combined with conventional rehabilitation training.The follow-up results over 1 year revealed that ta-VNS combined with conventional rehabilitation training greatly improved the recovery of motor and sensory functions and emotional responses compared with sham ta-VNS combined with conventional rehabilitation training.There were no obvious side effects.These findings suggest that ta-VNS combined with conventional rehabilitation training for the treatment of acute ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke patients is safe and effective.

Airborne fine particulate matter induces cognitive and emotional disorders in offspring mice exposed during pregnancy

Gestational exposure to PM_(2.5) is associated with adverse postnatal outcomes.PM_(2.5) can enter alveoli by using intratracheal instillation,even penetrate through lung cells into the blood circulation.Subsequently,they are transferred across the placenta and fetal blood brain barrier,causing the adverse birth outcomes of offspring.This study demonstrated that the gestational exposure resulted in cognitive and emotional disorders in female offspring although the offspring were not exposed to PM_(2.5).Placental metabolic pathways modulated fetal brain development and played a pivotal role for maternal-placentalfetal interactions in the fetal programming of adult behavioral and mental disorders.Samples of fetus,offspring hippocampus and placenta from the mice exposed to PM_(2.5) were investigated using a comprehensive approach including mass spectrometry-based lipidomics and three-dimensional imaging.The exposure induced the neuro-degeneration in hippocampus,impairment of placental cytoarchitecture,and reprogramming of lipidome,which might affect the modulation of maternal-fetal cross-talk and result in the behavior disorders of offspring.The variation of spatial distribution of lipids was profoundly affected in dorsal pallium and hippocampal formation regions of fetal brain,offspring hippocampus,as well as labyrinth and junctional zones of placenta.The abundance alteration of lipid markers associated with neurodegenerative diseases was validated in transgenic mouse model with Alzheimer’s disease and human cerebrospinal fluid from patients with Parkinson’s disease.The finding could help with the selection of more suitable heterogeneous-related substructures targeting PM_(2.5) exposure and the exploration of PM_(2.5)-induced toxicological effects on neurodegenerative diseases.

Should borderline personality disorder be included in the fourth edition of the Chinese classification of mental disorders?

Borderline personality disorder （BPD） is a serious personality disorder characterized by a pervasive pattern of disturbances in mood regulation, impulse control, self-image and interpersonal relationships） In the United States, the prevalence of BPD has been estimated at 1%-2% of the general population, 10% of psychiatric outpatients, and 20% of inpatients. According to the 4th text revision of diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders （DSM-IV-TR）, about 75% of BPD patients are women. The BPD diagnosis has been associated with heightened risk （8.5% to 10.0% among BPD patients） for completed suicide, a rate almost 50 times higher than in the general population.

Shugan Jieyu capsule(舒肝解郁胶囊) improve sleep and emotional disorder in coronavirus disease 2019 convalescence patients: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy of the Shugan Jieyu capsule(舒肝解郁胶囊) on improving sleep and emotional disorder during Coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19) convalescence. METHODS: We conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, and recruit 200 COVID-19 convalescence patients and then divide the subjects into two groups respectively: the experimental group(n = 100) and the control group(n = 100). Patients in the control group were given doses as a placebo, while those in the experimental group were given Shugan Jieyu capsule.The investigators mainly observed the differences between the two groups before and after treatment in terms of the rate of reduction and the rate of efficiency in Hamilton Depression Scale(HAMD-17) total scores from baseline, and recorded the scores of Hamilton Anxiety Scale(HAMA), Patient Health Questionnaire-15(PHQ-15), Insomnia Severity Index(ISI) and Treatment Emergent Symptom Scale at 2 week, the 4 week and the 6 week respectively after treatment, and compared the differences between the groups. And the occurrence of adverse events was recorded. RESULTS: After 6-week treatment, there were statistically significant differences in the rate of reduction as well as efficiency in HAMD-17 scores, HAMA Total Scores, PHQ-15 Score, ISI Score from baseline in the experimental group and control group(P < 0.05). There were 4 adverse events in the experimental group and 1 in the control group. CONCLUSION: Shugan Jieyu capsule could significantly improve sleep and emotional disorder in patients during COVID-19 convalescence.

A Fiber Tractography Study of Social-Emotional Related Fiber Tracts in Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder

The symptoms of autism spectrum disorder（ASD） have been hypothesized to be caused by changes in brain connectivity. From the clinical perspective, the‘‘disconnectivity＇＇ hypothesis has been used to explain characteristic impairments in ‘‘socio-emotional＇＇ function.Therefore, in this study we compared the facial emotional recognition（FER） feature and the integrity of socialemotional-related white-matter tracts between children and adolescents with high-functioning ASD（HFA） and their typically developing（TD） counterparts. The correlation between the two factors was explored to find out if impairment of the white-matter tracts is the neural basis of social-emotional disorders. Compared with the TD group,FER was significantly impaired and the fractional anisotropy value of the right cingulate fasciculus was increased in the HFA group（P ／ 0.01）. In conclusion, the FER function of children and adolescents with HFA was impaired and the microstructure of the cingulate fasciculus had abnormalities.

A single-center retrospective study on epidemiological and Traditional Chinese Medicine syndrome characteristics of 21010 patients with reflux/heartburn symptoms

OBJECTIVE:To provide a basis for the clinical identification of true and false reflux,integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine,and psychosomatic treatment,we conducted a retrospective study of the etiology and epidemiological and Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM) syndrome characteristics of patients with reflux/heartburn symptoms.METHODS:The 210 10 patients with reflux/heartburn treated at Tianjin Nankai Hospital from January 1,2016,to December 31,2019,were divided into four groups according to their pathogenesis.Sex,age,course of disease,incidence rate,gastroscopy,24-h p Himpedance,esophageal manometry,Hamilton Anxiety Scale(HAMA)/Hamilton Depression Scale(HAMD) score,8-week proton pump inhibitor(PPI) treatment effect,and TCM syndrome characteristics were statistically analyzed.RESULTS:A total of 21010 patients(8864 men and 12146 women),with reflux/heartburn symptoms were screened,including 6284(29.9%) patients with reflux esophagitis(RE),10427(49.6%) patients with nonerosive reflux esophagitis(NERD),2430(11.6%) patients with reflux hypersensitivity(RH),and 1870(8.9%) patients with functional heartburn(FH).The incidence of the disease was higher in women than in men(P <0.0001).The ranking of the incidence of anxiety and depression in these four groups was FH > RH > NERD > RE(P < 0.0001).There were more women than men in the groups with anxiety and more men than women in the groups with depression(P < 0.0001),and there was no significant difference in the distribution of anxiety and depression between men and women(P = 0.5689).There were significant differences in TCM syndrome characteristics between NERD,RE,and functional esophageal diseases(P < 0.01).The highest proportion of functional esophageal disease TCM symptoms was Qi stagnation and phlegm obstruction syndrome(36.16%),and there was no significant difference between RH and FH.The effective rates of PPI treatment at 8 weeks in patients in the RE,NERD,RH,and FH groups were 89%,72%,54%,and 0%,respectively.RE was classified into grades A,B,C,and D according to the Los Angeles grading system.The ranking of the incidence of these four grades was A > B > C > D(P < 0.0001).The effective rates of PPI treatment at 8 weeks were 91%,81%,69%,and 63% in patients with grade A,B,C,and D RE,respectively(P < 0.0001).The highest proportion of TCM syndrome types of NERD and RE was the stagnated heat syndrome in the liver and stomach syndrome,38.99% and 33.90%,respectively.CONCLUSION:Reflux/heartburn symptoms are relatively common in middle-aged women,and NERD is the most common etiology,followed by RE,RH,and FH.The most common TCM syndrome characteristics in NERD and RE were stagnated heat syndrome in the liver and stomach syndrome,and Qi stagnation and phlegm obstruction syndrome in functional esophageal diseases.Most patients with reflux/heartburn symptoms also experienced anxiety and depression.