PBTK model-based analysis of CYP3A4 induction and the toxicokinetics of the pyrrolizidine alkaloid retrorsine in man.

Cytochrome P450 (CYP)3A4 induction by drugs and pesticides plays a critical role in the enhancement of pyrrolizidine alkaloid (PA) toxicity as it leads to increased formation of hepatotoxic dehydro-PA metabolites. Addressing the need for a quantitative analysis of this interaction, we developed a physiologically-based toxicokinetic (PBTK) model. Specifically, the model describes the impact of the well-characterized CYP3A4 inducer rifampicin on the kinetics of retrorsine, which is a prototypic PA and contaminant in herbal teas.

A guide for a student-led doctoral-level qualitative methods short course in epidemiology: faculty and student perspectives.

Qualitative research and mixed methods are core competencies for epidemiologists. In response to the shortage of guidance on graduate course development, we wrote a course development guide aimed at faculty and students designing similar courses in epidemiology curricula. The guide combines established educational theory with faculty and student experiences from a recent introductory course for epidemiology and biostatistics doctoral students at the University of Zurich and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich.

PBTK modeling of the pyrrolizidine alkaloid retrorsine to predict liver toxicity in mouse and rat.

Retrorsine is a hepatotoxic pyrrolizidine alkaloid (PA) found in herbal supplements and medicines, food and livestock feed. Dose-response studies enabling the derivation of a point of departure including a benchmark dose for risk assessment of retrorsine in humans and animals are not available. Addressing this need, a physiologically based toxicokinetic (PBTK) model of retrorsine was developed for mouse and rat.

Post-viral mental health sequelae in infected persons associated with COVID-19 and previous epidemics and pandemics: Systematic review and meta-analysis of prevalence estimates.

Aims: Post-viral mental health problems (MHP) in COVID-19 patients and survivors were anticipated already during early stages of this pandemic. We aimed to synthesize the prevalence of the anxiety, depression, post-traumatic and general distress domain associated with virus epidemics since 2002.

Methods: In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched PubMed, PsycINFO, and Embase from 2002 to April 14, 2021 for peer-reviewed studies reporting prevalence of MHP in adults with laboratory-confirmed or suspected SARS-CoV-1, H1N1, MERS-CoV, H7N9, Ebolavirus, or SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Relationship between Job Demands-Resources and turnover intention in chronic disease - The example of multiple sclerosis.

Considering the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, this study investigated the relation between job demands, job resources and turnover intention among persons with multiple sclerosis (pwMS) as an example of chronic disease. We hypothesized that job demands and job resources are related to turnover intention, as mediated by work engagement, burnout, and MS-related work difficulties. Moreover, we assumed that MS-related work difficulties mediate the relationship between job demands/job resources and burnout and between job resources and work engagement.

Prevalence of Mental Health Problems During Virus Epidemics in the General Public, Health Care Workers and Survivors: A Rapid Review of the Evidence.

The swift spread of SARS-CoV-2 provides a challenge worldwide. As a consequence of restrictive public health measures like isolation, quarantine, and community containment, the provision of mental health services is a major challenge. Evidence from past virus epidemics and the current SARS-CoV-2 outbreak indicate high prevalence rates of mental health problems (MHP) as short- and long-term consequences.

Factors associated with employment and expected work retention among persons with multiple sclerosis: findings of a cross-sectional citizen science study.

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) notably affects adults of working age. For persons with MS (PwMS), being employed enhances their quality of life and it may be regarded as an indicator of overall functioning. Thus, ensuring work participation in PwMS is of general public health interest.

Capturing interprofessional collaboration between physicians and nurses in an acute care setting. A validation study of the revised German version of the Collaborative Practice Scales.

The relevance of interprofessional collaboration (IPC) is widely acknowledged. Given the lack of a fully validated instrument in the German language for measuring the level of IPC, we built upon the current, albeit psychometrically weak, German-language version of the instrument to devise a new version with improved wording and for subsequent psychometric testing. In a tertiary hospital in German-speaking Switzerland, 160 physicians and 374 nurses completed the revised Collaborative Practice Scales in German (CPS-G) and additional scales regarding positive and negative activation at work and regarding job demands and job resources.

Report from the BfR expert hearing on practicability of hormonal measurements: recommendations for experimental design of toxicological studies with integrated hormonal end points.

This publication summarizes discussions that were held during an international expert hearing organized by the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) in Berlin, Germany, in October 2017. The expert hearing was dedicated to providing practical guidance for the measurement of circulating hormones in regulatory toxicology studies. Adequate measurements of circulating hormones have become more important given the regulatory requirement to assess the potential for endocrine disrupting properties for all substances covered by the plant protection products and biocidal products regulations in the European Union (EU).

Goal Pursuit in Organizational Health Interventions: The Role of Team Climate, Outcome Expectancy, and Implementation Intentions.

In taking a goal pursuit perspective into account, the present study examined associations between the context, process and outcome evaluation of an organizational health intervention (OHI) implemented within 29 teams in a hospital setting. In doing so, team climate for innovation as a context factor was measured at baseline ( = 529). Four to six weeks after baseline, = 250 team representatives participated in a 4-day workshop.

The influence of coercive measures on patients' stances towards psychiatric institutions.

Objective: To examine the impact of coercive interventions (CI) on patients' evaluations of psychiatric hospitals as adversaries versus allies.

Methods: Self-constructed interviews were conducted relating to quantitative and subjective aspects of coercion and the attitude towards psychiatry of 79 patients with psychotic and bipolar disorders. The Coercion Experience Scale (CES) and the Admission Experience Survey (AES) were used to establish the subjective impact of CI.

[Coercive Interventions in Psychiatry: Prevention and Patients' Preferences].

This study explores patients' preferences and measures of prevention of coercive methods in psychiatric treatment. Structured interviews of 90 patients with psychotic disorders were undertaken, most of whom had previously experienced coercive methods. Participants saw preventive potential in a wider availability of individual non-pharmacological therapy, improvement of staff professional competence and communication skills, high staff-to-patient ratios and retreat facilities.

Subjective experience of emotions and emotional empathy in paranoid schizophrenia.

Unlike the cognitive dimensions, alterations of the affective components of empathy in schizophrenia are less well understood. This study explored cognitive and affective dimensions of empathy in the context of the subjective experience of aspects of emotion processing, including emotion regulation, emotional contagion, and interpersonal distress, in individuals with schizophrenia and healthy controls. In addition, the predictive value of these parameters on psychosocial function was investigated.

Association between oxytocin receptor gene polymorphisms and self-rated 'empathic concern' in schizophrenia.

The nonapeptide oxytocin (OXT) and its receptor (OXTR) have been implicated in social cognition, empathy, emotion and stress regulation in humans. Previous studies reported associations between OXT and OXTR genetic polymorphisms and risk for disorders characterized by impaired socio-emotional functioning, such as schizophrenia and autism. Here we investigate the influence of two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the OXTR gene on a measure of socio-emotional functioning in schizophrenic patients.

Aggressive behavior and measurement of psychopathy in female inmates of German prisons--a preliminary study.

Studies concerning inmate psychopathy (as measured by Psychopathy-Checklist-Revised, PCL-R; Hare, 1991) have predominantly been concerned with male inmates. This study was the first to look into psychopathy using the PCL-R with the whole required procedure in German prisons with female inmates. The aims of the present study were to gain data about the prevalence of psychopathy in this sample and to examine potential relations between the types and motive of aggression, prosocial behavior and scores on the PCL-R.

The contribution of thioredoxin-2 reductase and glutathione peroxidase to H(2)O(2) detoxification of rat brain mitochondria.

Brain mitochondria are not only major producers of reactive oxygen species but they also considerably contribute to the removal of toxic hydrogen peroxide by the glutathione (GSH) and thioredoxin-2 (Trx2) antioxidant systems. In this work we estimated the relative contribution of both systems and catalase to the removal of intrinsically produced hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)) by rat brain mitochondria. By using the specific inhibitors auranofin and 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene (DNCB), the contribution of Trx2- and GSH-systems to reactive oxygen species (ROS) detoxification in rat brain mitochondria was determined to be 60±20% and 20±15%, respectively.

Subtle deficits of cognitive theory of mind in unaffected first-degree relatives of schizophrenia patients.

Alterations of theory of mind (ToM) and empathy were implicated in the formation of psychotic experiences, and deficits in psychosocial functioning of schizophrenia patients. Inspired by concepts of neurocognitive endophenotypes, the existence of a distinct, potentially neurobiologically based social-cognitive vulnerability marker for schizophrenia is a matter of ongoing debate. The fact that previous research on social-cognitive deficits in individuals at risk yielded contradictory results may partly be due to an insufficient differentiation between qualitative aspects of ToM.

Subjective underchallenge at work and its impact on mental health.

Purpose: To investigate the relation between subjective underchallenge at work and the degree of depressiveness and life satisfaction.

Methods: A representative sample of the German general population of N = 1,178 (52.5% men; age: M = 40.

Different aspects of theory of mind in paranoid schizophrenia: evidence from a video-based assessment.

In schizophrenia, impairments of theory of mind (ToM) may be due to excessive ('overmentalizing') or defective ('undermentalizing') attribution of mental states. However, most ToM tests differentiate neither between 'overmentalizing' and 'undermentalizing' nor between cognitive and affective ToM in schizophrenia. This study aimed at differentiating these aspects of ToM in 80 patients diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and 80 matched healthy controls using the 'Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition' (MASC).

Investigation of the fluorolysis of magnesium methoxide.

The structures of magnesium methoxide and magnesium methoxide fluoride obtained via the reaction of Mg(OCH(3))(2) with HF were investigated by single-crystal structure analysis and multinuclear solid-state NMR ((13)C and (19)F). The fluorolysis of magnesium methoxide transforms the cubane structure units in hexanuclear dicubane units containing micro(4)-fluorine atoms. The resulting Mg(6)F(2)(OCH(3))(10)(CH(3)OH)(14) compound crystallizes in two different crystalline modifications.

Gender and age differences in domain-specific life satisfaction and the impact of depressive and anxiety symptoms: a general population survey from Germany.

Purpose: Determine age and gender differences and interaction effects in domain-specific life satisfaction in the German population and examine to which degree depressive and anxiety symptoms are associated with life satisfaction in addition to sociodemographic variables, and which domains are affected.

Methods: Representative survey of the German population conducted 2006 with 5,036 participants (53.6% female).