Journal of psychiatric research
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Neuroticism and extraversion are affected by depressive disorder state. Less is known about depressive state effects on conscientiousness, agreeableness and openness. Furthermore, state effects of anxiety disorders on personality have been far less studied than those of depressive disorder. Here, we aim to determine the extent of change in all five personality traits associated with the occurrence of or recovery from depressive and anxiety disorders. ⋯ State effects were small. When assessing neuroticism, the presence of both depressive and anxiety disorders should be taken into account, as both may independently increase neuroticism scores. However, when assessing extraversion and conscientiousness, depressive disorders but not anxiety disorders are likely to be of influence. Agreeableness and openness are influenced by neither.
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Depressive disorders have been strongly linked to suicidality, but the association with anxiety disorders is less well established. This exploratory study aims to examine whether anxiety and depressive disorders are both independent risk factors for suicidal ideation and attempted suicide, and additionally examined the role of specific clinical characteristics (disorder type, severity, duration, onset age) in suicidality. Data are from 1693 persons with a current (6-month) CIDI based depressive or anxiety disorder and 644 healthy controls participating in the baseline measurement of the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety, which is an existing dataset. ⋯ Although depression and anxiety severity were univariate risk indicators for suicidal ideation and attempted suicide, only depression severity remained a risk indicator for suicidal ideation and attempted suicide in multivariate analyses. Additional risk indicators were an early age at disorder onset for both suicidal ideation and attempted suicide, male gender for suicidal ideation and lower education for attempted suicide. These findings suggest that although anxiety and depression tend to converge in many important areas, they appear to diverge with respect to suicidality.
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T-817MA [1-{3-[2-(1-benzothiophen-5-yl)ethoxy]propyl}azetidin-3-ol maleate] is a newly synthesized neuroprotective agent for the treatment of psychiatric disorders characterized by cognitive disturbances, such as Alzheimer's disease. Cognitive impairment has also been suggested to be a cardinal feature of schizophrenia. We sought to determine whether T-817MA would ameliorate sensorimotor gating deficits and loss of parvalbumin (PV)-positive γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) neurons in the brain of rats transiently exposed to MK-801, an N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor blocker, in the neonatal stage, as an animal model of schizophrenia. ⋯ T-817MA (10 or 20 mg/kg) or vehicle was administered for 14 days (on PD 49-62). Administration of T-817MA at 20 mg/kg, but not 10 mg/kg, ameliorated PPI deficits and completely reversed the decrease in the number of PV-positive GABAergic neurons in rats given MK-801. These results indicate that T-817MA may provide a novel therapeutic approach for the treatment of cognitive deficits of schizophrenia.
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Histone acetylation, which alters the compact chromatin structure and changes the accessibility of DNA to regulatory proteins, is emerging as a fundamental mechanism for regulating gene expression. Histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors increase histone acetylation and enhance fear extinction. In this study, we examined whether vorinostat, an HDAC inhibitor, facilitates fear extinction, using a contextual fear conditioning (FC) paradigm, in Sprague-Dawley rats. ⋯ Last, we investigated the levels of acetylated histones and phospho-CREB (p-CREB) binding at the promoter of the NR2B gene using the chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assay followed by RT-PCR. The ChIP assay revealed increases in the levels of acetylated histones and they were accompanied by enhanced binding of p-CREB to its binding site at the promoter of the NR2B gene 2 h after vorinostat administration. These findings suggest that vorinostat increases the expression of NR2B in the hippocampus by enhancing histone acetylation, and this process may be implicated in fear extinction.
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The objectives of this study were to evaluate 1) the prevalence of chronic and neuropathic pain features (NeP); 2) their comorbidities with psychiatric disorders and organic diseases; and 3) their impact on daily life and health care utilization. A random sample of 3011 participants (≥15 years), representative of Germany, was interviewed by telephone. Chronic pain duration was set at three months. ⋯ Individuals with obesity, diabetes, hypertension, cerebrovascular diseases, diseases of the nervous system, and diseases of the blood and blood-forming organs were at higher risk of having NeP but not non-NeP. These differences in prevalence and comorbidities between non-NeP and NeP features show how important it is to regard these different modalities of pain separately. Participants with NeP features suffer more and have greater impairment in their daily life than those with non-NeP.