Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-consumption Predicts the Risk of Excessive Alcohol Consumption After Liver Transplantation.

Excessive alcohol consumption has a negative impact on graft survival after liver transplantation (LT). However, it is difficult to predict alcohol relapse before LT. This study surveyed the alcohol consumption of LT recipients to identify the risk factors for harmful drinking.

[Complementary and alternative medicine for insomnia].

Frequency of insomnia is increasing with age. Benzodiazepine receptor agonist has been prescribed for insomnia in the elderly, but there are some patients who complain the effect is not sufficient. Adherence for sleeping pills is very low in elderly Japanese, because there has been strong stigma against sleeping pills.

A case of chronic anorexia nervosa with child-bearing by in vitro fertilization necessitating comprehensive team support.

Generalists should be aware of the issues surrounding pregnancy in patients with anorexia nervosa and discuss well with patients and their families before in vitro fertilization.

Possible involvement of rumination in gray matter abnormalities in persistent symptoms of major depression: an exploratory magnetic resonance imaging voxel-based morphometry study.

Background: A recent meta-analysis of many magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies has identified brain regions with gray matter (GM) abnormalities in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). A few studies addressing GM abnormalities in patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD) have yielded inconsistent results. Moreover, although TRD patients tend to exhibit ruminative thoughts, it remains unclear whether rumination is related to GM abnormalities in such patients or not.

Neural basis of anticipatory anxiety reappraisals.

Reappraisal is a well-known emotion regulation strategy. Recent neuroimaging studies suggest that reappraisal recruits both medial and lateral prefrontal brain regions. However, few studies have investigated neural representation of reappraisals associated with anticipatory anxiety, and the specific nature of the brain activity underlying this process remains unclear.

Distinctive neural responses to pain stimuli during induced sadness in patients with somatoform pain disorder: An fMRI study.

Pain is a multidimensional phenomenon. Patients with somatoform pain disorder suffer from long-lasting pain, with the pathology being closely associated with cognitive-emotional components. Differences between these patients and controls in cerebral responses to pain stimuli have been reported.

Automatic and intentional brain responses during evaluation of face approachability: correlations with trait anxiety.

Background: The judgment of the approachability of others based on their facial appearance often precedes social interaction. Whether we ultimately approach or avoid others may depend on such judgments.

Method: We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to determine the neural basis for such approachability judgments and the relationship between these judgments and trait anxiety.

Hippocampal activation during associative encoding of word pairs and its relation to symptomatic improvement in depression: a functional and volumetric MRI study.

Background: Altered emotional memory is one of the core cognitive functions that causes and maintains depression. Although many studies have investigated the relationship between hippocampal volume, depression and treatment response, no studies have investigated the relationship for hippocampal activity. Additionally, few studies have examined the relationship between functional and structural abnormalities in depression.

The valproate serum level in maintenance therapy for bipolar disorder in Japan.

The appropriate therapeutic serum valproate level in maintenance therapy for bipolar disorder is not well known. We studied the serum valproate levels in seventeen bipolar I and twenty-four bipolar II disorder outpatients who had been treated with stable doses of valproate successfully for at least 12 months as prophylactic therapy. The trough serum valproate levels were 52.

[Effects of serotonin on delay discounting for rewards--an application for understanding of pathophysiology in psychiatric disorders].

In our daily life, we constantly make such choices between actions leading to rewards of various sizes after different delays. "Delay discounting" is a theoretical concept in which the "value" of reward R after delay. A steep rate of discounting results in impulsive choice, defined by an abnormally frequent choice of the more immediate reward.