The effects of ketamine on symptoms of depression and anxiety in real-world care settings: A retrospective controlled analysis.

Introduction: Ketamine intravenous therapy (KIT) appears effective for treating depression in controlled trials testing a short series of infusions. A rapidly proliferating number of clinics offer KIT for depression and anxiety, using protocols without a strong evidence basis. Controlled comparison of mood and anxiety from real-world KIT clinics, and the stability of outcomes, is lacking.

A Retrospective Real-World Study of the Effectiveness and Tolerability of Tildrakizumab in UK Adults with Moderate-to-Severe Chronic Plaque Psoriasis.

Introduction: As with most medicines historically, clinicians prescribing tildrakizumab have relied on information derived from registration studies undertaken in a prospective controlled clinical trial setting. More recently, clinicians, policymakers, and commissioners increasingly rely on real-world data to inform both policy and practice.

Methods: A retrospective real-world data study was undertaken at four specialist dermatology departments in the United Kingdom.

A retrospective analysis of ketamine intravenous therapy for depression in real-world care settings.

Background: Outcomes of ketamine intravenous therapy (KIT) for depression in real-world care settings have been minimally evaluated. We set out to quantify treatment response to KIT in a large sample of patients from community-based practices.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 9016 depression patients who received KIT between 2016 and 2020 at one of 178 community practices across the United States.

Drinking games among university students in five countries: Participation rates, game type, contexts, and motives to play.

Most published studies, regarding students' participation in drinking games (DGs), originate from the United States of America (USA). This study extends research to the United Kingdom (UK) and countries of mainland Europe. University students from five countries completed an anonymous online questionnaire which included measures of the frequency of DG participation, along with types, contexts and motives for participation.

Self-reported Perceptions of Weight and Eating Behavior of School Children in Sunderland, England.

The main aim of this study was to determine the self-reported perceptions of weight and eating behaviors of school-age children in Sunderland in the North East of England. The results presented are derived from data collected by a Health-Related Behaviour Survey developed by Schools and Students Health Education Unit at Exeter University, and this study is based on analysis of the data set collected for Sunderland. A total of 12,213 pupils from nine secondary schools completed the questionnaire biennially from 1996 to 2012.

A Randomized Controlled Trial of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Treatment-Resistant Depression.

Background: Due to the clinical challenges of treatment-resistant depression (TRD), we evaluated the efficacy of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) relative to a structurally equivalent active comparison condition as adjuncts to treatment-as-usual (TAU) pharmacotherapy in TRD.

Methods: This single-site, randomized controlled trial compared 8-week courses of MBCT and the Health Enhancement Program (HEP), comprising physical fitness, music therapy and nutritional education, as adjuncts to TAU pharmacotherapy for outpatient adults with TRD. The primary outcome was change in depression severity, measured by percent reduction in the total score on the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D17), with secondary depression indicators of treatment response and remission.

Synaptic, transcriptional and chromatin genes disrupted in autism.

The genetic architecture of autism spectrum disorder involves the interplay of common and rare variants and their impact on hundreds of genes. Using exome sequencing, here we show that analysis of rare coding variation in 3,871 autism cases and 9,937 ancestry-matched or parental controls implicates 22 autosomal genes at a false discovery rate (FDR) < 0.05, plus a set of 107 autosomal genes strongly enriched for those likely to affect risk (FDR < 0.

Distinct Bradyrhizobium [corrected] communities nodulate legumes native to temperate and tropical monsoon Australia.

Geographic isolation and growing climate aridity played major roles in the evolution of Australian legumes. It is likely that these two factors also impacted on the evolution of their root-nodule bacteria. To investigate this issue, we applied a multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA) approach to examine Bradyrhizobium isolates originating from temperate areas of Western Australia (WA) and the tropical-monsoon area of the Northern Territory (NT).

Haploinsufficiency of Gtf2i, a gene deleted in Williams Syndrome, leads to increases in social interactions.

Identifying genes involved in social behavior is important for autism research. Williams-Beuren syndrome (WBS) is a developmental syndrome with unique neurocognitive features, including low IQ, deficits in visuospatial and visual-motor abilities, hypersensitivity to sounds, hypersociability, and increased general anxiety. The syndrome is caused by a recurrent hemizygous deletion of the 7q11.

A large-scale survey of the novel 15q24 microdeletion syndrome in autism spectrum disorders identifies an atypical deletion that narrows the critical region.

Background: The 15q24 microdeletion syndrome has been recently described as a recurrent, submicroscopic genomic imbalance found in individuals with intellectual disability, typical facial appearance, hypotonia, and digital and genital abnormalities. Gene dosage abnormalities, including copy number variations (CNVs), have been identified in a significant fraction of individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). In this study we surveyed two ASD cohorts for 15q24 abnormalities to assess the frequency of genomic imbalances in this interval.

Developmental expression profile of quaking, a candidate gene for schizophrenia, and its target genes in human prefrontal cortex and hippocampus shows regional specificity.

Decreased expression of oligodendrocyte/myelin-related (OMR) genes, including quaking (QKI), is a consistent finding in gene expression studies of post-mortem brain from subjects with schizophrenia, and these changes are most prominent in the hippocampus vs. the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Although expression of QKI and other OMR genes has been examined in rodents, little is known about their developmental trajectory in the human brain.

The sounds of silence: language, cognition, and anxiety in selective mutism.

Objectives: To determine whether oral language, working memory, and social anxiety differentiate children with selective mutism (SM), children with anxiety disorders (ANX), and normal controls (NCs) and explore predictors of mutism severity.

Method: Children ages 6 to 10 years with SM (n = 44) were compared with children with ANX (n = 28) and NCs (n = 19) of similar age on standardized measures of language, nonverbal working memory, and social anxiety. Variables correlating with mutism severity were entered in stepwise regressions to determine predictors of mute behavior in SM.

CD38 regulates oxytocin secretion and complex social behavior.

The peptide hormone oxytocin plays a critical role in regulating affiliative behaviors including mating, pair-bond formation, maternal/parenting behavior, social recognition, separation distress and other aspects of attachment. Jin and colleagues recently reported intriguing findings that CD38, a transmembrane receptor with ADP-ribosyl cyclase activity, plays a critical role in maternal nurturing behavior and social recognition by regulating oxytocin secretion. This research may have implications for understanding disorders marked by deficits in social cognition and social functioning, including autism, social anxiety disorder, borderline personality disorder and schizophrenia.

Preliminary evidence of beneficial effects of methylphenidate on listening comprehension in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Objective: The effect of methylphenidate (MPH) on listening comprehension for information passages, and on working memory, was examined in a clinical sample of 16 children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Method: Drug effects on comprehension of spoken language at the levels of single sentences and passages, and on verbal and visual-spatial working memory (WM) skills were assessed over a 4-day placebo-controlled, double-blind, crossover treatment trial of MPH at low, medium, and high doses. Concurrent behavior ratings were also completed.

Duplication of 17(p11.2p11.2) in a male child with autism and severe language delay.

Duplications of 17(p11.2p11.2) have been associated with various behavioral manifestations including attention deficits, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, autistic traits, and language delay.

Early rapid rise in EAAT2 expression follows the period of maximal seizure susceptibility in human brain.

Seizures are relatively common in the first weeks of life and can have lasting effects on brain development due to glutamate excitotoxicity. The excitatory amino acid transporter 2 (EAAT2) is responsible for the majority of glutamate uptake in the brain and mice with this gene deleted die from seizures. Therefore, we reasoned that developmental changes in the expression of EAAT2 might correlate with the period of increased susceptibility to seizures in humans, reflecting a changing vulnerability to excitotoxic insults.

A quantitative regional expression profile of EAAT2 known and novel splice variants reopens the question of aberrant EAAT2 splicing in disease.

The glutamate transporter 1 (GLT1) in rodents, or EAAT2 in humans, is alternatively spliced in a complex manner including the use of multiple 5' and 3' untranslated regions and several coding variants. We used quantitative RT-PCR to profile these splice variants in human and rat brain. We also used RT-PCR and Northern blotting to demonstrate that a novel isoform of GLT1b has an approximately 11kb 3' UTR extending through intron 9, exon 10 and approximately 5kb into the 3' untranslated region of GLT1.

Characterization of KIAA0513, a novel signaling molecule that interacts with modulators of neuroplasticity, apoptosis, and the cytoskeleton.

KIAA0513 was previously identified as upregulated in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of subjects with schizophrenia by microarray analysis. In the present study, the differential expression in the schizophrenic subjects was confirmed by quantitative RT-PCR. The limited homology to proteins of known function and lack of functional domains in the encoded protein have made it difficult to predict a function for KIAA0513.

An atypical deletion of the Williams-Beuren syndrome interval implicates genes associated with defective visuospatial processing and autism.

Background: During a genetic study of autism, a female child who met diagnostic criteria for autism spectrum disorder, but also exhibited the cognitive-behavioural profile (CBP) associated with Williams-Beuren syndrome (WBS) was examined. The WBS CBP includes impaired visuospatial ability, an overly friendly personality, excessive non-social anxiety and language delay.

Methods: Using array-based comparative genomic hybridisation (aCGH), a deletion corresponding to BAC RP11-89A20 in the distal end of the WBS deletion interval was detected.

RNA metabolism and dysmyelination in schizophrenia.

Decreased expression of a subset of oligodendrocyte and myelin-related genes is the most consistent finding among gene expression studies of postmortem brain tissue from subjects with schizophrenia (SCZ), although heritable variants have yet to be found that can explain the bulk of this data. However, expression of the glial gene Quaking (QKI), encoding an RNA binding (RBP) essential for myelination, was recently found to be decreased in SCZ brain. Both oligodendrocyte/myelin related genes, and other RBPs that are known or predicted to be targets of QKI, are also decreased in SCZ.

European origin of Bradyrhizobium populations infecting lupins and serradella in soils of Western Australia and South Africa.

We applied a multilocus phylogenetic approach to elucidate the origin of serradella and lupin Bradyrhizobium strains that persist in soils of Western Australia and South Africa. The selected strains belonged to different randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD)-PCR clusters that were distinct from RAPD clusters of applied inoculant strains. Phylogenetic analyses were performed with nodulation genes (nodA, nodZ, nolL, noeI), housekeeping genes (dnaK, recA, glnII, atpD), and 16S-23S rRNA intergenic transcribed spacer sequences.

When silence is not golden: an integrated approach to selective mutism.

Selective mutism (SM) is a rare disorder that is associated with both anxiety and communication impairments. Preliminary evidence suggests that educational attainment and development of social skills and self-esteem may be affected by SM in a significant proportion of cases. There is a critical need for cross-disciplinary research from the fields of speech-language pathology, psychiatry, and clinical psychology to develop protocols for assessing language and cognitive functioning in children with SM and developing interventions that address psychiatric, communicative, and social aspects of this disorder.