Study Profile of the Tohoku Medical Megabank Community-Based Cohort Study.

Background: We established a community-based cohort study to assess the long-term impact of the Great East Japan Earthquake on disaster victims and gene-environment interactions on the incidence of major diseases, such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases.

Methods: We asked participants to join our cohort in the health check-up settings and assessment center based settings. Inclusion criteria were aged 20 years or over and living in Miyagi or Iwate Prefecture.

Does social capital reduce child behavior problems? Results from the Great East Japan Earthquake follow-up for Children Study.

Purpose: We sought to investigate the association between social capital and child behavior problems in Iwate prefecture, Japan, in the aftermath of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.

Methods: Children and their caregivers were recruited from four nursery schools in coastal areas affected by the tsunami, as well as one in an unaffected inland area (N = 94). We assessed the following via caregiver questionnaire: perceptions of social capital in the community, child behavior problems (Child Behavior Checklist, Strength and Difficulty Questionnaire), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, child's exposure to trauma (e.

Detection of changes in the ventral tegmental area of patients with schizophrenia using neuromelanin-sensitive MRI.

The ventral tegmental area (VTA), one of the neuromelanin-containing dopaminergic nuclei in the midbrain, is closely related to the pathogenesis of schizophrenia, but its imaging findings remain unclear. Here, we investigated whether neuromelanin-sensitive MRI can detect alterations in the signals of the VTA of patients with schizophrenia. Neuromelanin-sensitive T1-weighted images at 3 T were obtained in 14 patients with schizophrenia and 22 healthy individuals.

Docosahexaenoic Acid Promotes Axon Outgrowth by Translational Regulation of Tau and Collapsin Response Mediator Protein 2 Expression.

n-3 PUFAs are essential for neuronal development and brain function. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying their biological effects remain unclear. Here we examined the mechanistic action of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), the most abundant n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in the brain.

Endogenous Asymmetric Dimethylarginine Pathway in High Altitude Adapted Yaks.

Hypoxia-induced and high altitude pulmonary hypertension are a major problem in the mountain areas of the world. The asymmetric methylarginines (ADMA) inhibit nitric oxide (NO) synthesis by competing with L-arginine, and high levels of plasma ADMA predict adverse outcomes in pulmonary hypertension. However, little is known about the regulation of the ADMA-NO pathway in animals adapted to high altitudes.

Effect of free radical scavenger, edaravone, for patients with carbon monoxide poisoning.

Objective: Chronic neurological symptoms after carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning are caused by various biological processes in the damaged brain, with free radicals playing roles as mediators in establishing pathological processes leading to chronic neurological symptoms under CO poisoning. This study aimed to clarify the effects of a free radical scavenger, edaravone, in patients with CO poisoning.

Methods: We retrospectively compared two groups comprising patients treated with hyperbaric oxygenation alone (Group A, n=25) or edaravone in addition to hyperbaric oxygenation (Group B, n=25).

Blunted activation of Rho-kinase in yak pulmonary circulation.

Yaks have adapted to high altitude and they do not develop hypoxic pulmonary hypertension. Although we previously identified the important role of augmented nitric oxide synthase activity in the yak pulmonary circulatory system, evidence of the direct involvement of Rho-kinase as a basal vascular tone regulator is lacking. Four domesticated male pure-bred yaks and four bulls that were born and raised at an altitude of 3000 m in the Tien-Shan mountains were studied at an altitude of 3,100 m.

[Mental health activities following the Great East Japan Earthquake in the stricken coastal area of Iwate Prefecture].

Since the Great East Japan Earthquake, many survivors have experienced psychological crises because of the immense damage in the coastal area of Iwate Prefecture. Mental care teams started activities in March 2011 along the coast of Iwate. We employed a mid- to long-term care model.

[Paliperidone, risperidone].

Risperidone, a serotonin-dopamine antagonist, is effective in preventing delusions and hallucinations by D2 receptor antagonism and treating negative symptoms by 5-HT2A receptor antagonism. It is less likely to produce extrapyramidal symptoms than conventional antipsychotics, enabling safe drug therapy for schizophrenia. Paliperidone, based on 9OH-risperidone(major metabolite of risperidone), was developed to make the best use of the high therapeutic efficacy of Risperdal and enable continued treatment with lower prevalence of adverse events.

Predisposition for borderline personality disorder with comorbid major depression is associated with that for polycystic ovary syndrome in female Japanese population.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common lifestyle-related endocrinopathy in women of reproductive age and is associated with several mental health problems. We examined the genotypic distributions of IRS-1 Gly972Arg and CYP11B2 -344T/C, which were previously described as influencing PCOS, and assayed the serum levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), in a set of female patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) with comorbid major depressive disorder (MDD) (n = 50) and age-matched control subjects (n = 100), to investigate the predisposition for BPD with MDD. The results showed that the patients were more frequently IRS-1 972Arg variant allele carriers (P = 0.