JAMA psychiatry
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When men are depressed they may experience symptoms that are different than what is included in the current diagnostic criteria. ⋯ When alternative and traditional symptoms are combined, sex disparities in the prevalence of depression are eliminated. Further study is needed to clarify which symptoms truly describe men's experiences of depression.
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Clinical Trial
Effectiveness of national implementation of prolonged exposure therapy in Veterans Affairs care.
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a pervasive and often debilitating condition that affects many individuals in the general population and military service members. Effective treatments for PTSD are greatly needed for both veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and veterans of other eras. Prolonged exposure (PE) therapy has been shown to be highly efficacious in clinical trials involving women with noncombat trauma, but there are limited data on its effectiveness in real-world clinical practice settings and with veterans. ⋯ Clinically significant reductions in PTSD symptoms were achieved among male and female veterans of all war eras and veterans with combat-related and non-combat-related PTSD. Results also indicate that PE is effective in reducing depression symptoms, even though depression is not a direct target of the treatment.
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The human brain forms a large-scale structural network of regions and interregional pathways. Recent studies have reported the existence of a selective set of highly central and interconnected hub regions that may play a crucial role in the brain's integrative processes, together forming a central backbone for global brain communication. Abnormal brain connectivity may have a key role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. ⋯ Our findings provide novel biological evidence that schizophrenia is characterized by a selective disruption of brain connectivity among central hub regions of the brain, potentially leading to reduced communication capacity and altered functional brain dynamics.