Publications by authors named "Aoi Kawamura"

Article Synopsis
  • - The study aimed to compare neuronal injury biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid of pediatric patients experiencing complex febrile seizures (CFS) versus those with infection-triggered acute encephalopathy (AE), specifically looking at the pathogenesis of AE with biphasic seizures.
  • - Researchers analyzed cerebrospinal fluid samples from 63 patients collected within 24 hours of neurological symptoms; results indicated significantly higher levels of the biomarkers S100B and GDF-15 in patients diagnosed with AESD and AE, respectively.
  • - The findings suggest that elevated S100B levels indicate active astrocyte involvement in AESD pathology, while increased GDF-15 points to a stronger defense response linked to more severe neurological injuries in infection-trigger
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Unlabelled: Health effects of weekend catch-up sleep (CUS) could differ depending on both the ability to obtain sufficient sleep during weekdays and amount of weekend CUS required to compensate for sleep lost during the week. Using data from 3128 middle-aged (40-64 years) participants of the Sleep Heart Health Study, we examined the longitudinal association of these two aspects of sleep with all-cause mortality. CUS was calculated as the difference in self-reported habitual sleep duration between weekends and weekdays, and classified into no, short (1 h), and long (2 h or more) CUS.

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  • This study investigated how COVID-19 preventive behaviors and job-related stress impact sleep quality among healthcare workers in Japan.
  • Out of 586 participants, 38.1% reported poor sleep quality, despite high adherence to safety measures like mask-wearing and handwashing.
  • The analysis found work-related stress, financial instability, and low remote work adherence significantly contributed to poor sleep quality, even after adjusting for factors like age and psychological distress.
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Although the causes of neurodevelopmental disorders remain unknown, several environmental risk factors have attracted considerable attention. We conducted a retrospective, longitudinal, population-based cohort study using data from infant health examinations of children born to mothers with pregnancies between April 1, 2014 and March 31, 2016 in Kobe City to identify the perinatal factors associated with neurodevelopmental referrals in 3-year-old children. There were 15,223 and 1283 children in the normal and referral groups, respectively.

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Background: The average sleep duration of Japanese people is shorter than that of people from other countries, and bedtime procrastination is suspected to be one of the factors contributing to this issue. This study aimed to develop and validate the Japanese version of the Bedtime Procrastination Scale (BPS-J).

Methods: The BPS-J was developed through procedures including the translation and back-translation of the scale, cognitive interviews with 100 participants who reported having experiences of being diagnosed with insufficient sleep syndrome (ISS) or receiving treatment for ISS using open-ended online questionnaires, and expert checking.

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  • Sleep plays a crucial role in boosting the immune response to mRNA vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, although the specific relationship is still being explored.
  • A study involving 48 healthy adults assessed how sleep habits affected antibody levels after receiving mRNA vaccines, using both objective (actigraphy) and subjective (sleep diaries) measures of sleep.
  • Results indicated that longer objective sleep duration after the booster shot was linked to significantly higher antibody levels, suggesting that better sleep could enhance vaccine effectiveness.
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  • Health anxiety (HA) during the COVID-19 pandemic can influence how individuals, particularly healthcare workers, engage in preventive behaviors against the virus.
  • The study found that feeling awful about potential illnesses led to decreased adherence to recommended preventive measures, while perceived likelihood of getting sick did not show the same effect.
  • Emphasizing the awfulness dimension of HA could improve self-protection strategies during health crises, benefiting both public health and healthcare workers' well-being.
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  • * It found that children who went to bed earlier (between 18:00-20:00) scored higher in national language tests compared to those who had later bedtimes, with significant drops in scores as bedtime became later.
  • * Additionally, earlier bedtimes at age 3 were linked to better non-cognitive skills, such as diligence, suggesting that establishing good sleep patterns in early childhood could lead to better academic outcomes later on.
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Background: Insomnia is known to be a major risk factor for incident hypertension. Nonrestorative sleep (NRS), which refers to insufficiently rested sleep, has reported to associate with various diseases. This study aimed to investigate the longitudinal association between insomnia-related symptoms including NRS and incident hypertension 1-2 years later by age group (young, 18-39 years and middle-age, 40-64 years) using existing cohort data involving Hispanics/Latinos.

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We report a case of vertical transmission of Coxsackievirus (CV)-A6 with severe congenital pneumonia/sepsis. A male infant presented with severe respiratory symptoms at birth and was treated with full cardiopulmonary support, including inhaled nitric oxide. Three days before delivery, his older brother was diagnosed with hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD).

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Unlabelled: Automatic algorithms are a proposed alternative to manual assessment of polysomnography data for analyzing sleep structure; however, none are acceptably accurate for clinical use. We investigated the feasibility of an automated sleep stage scoring system called Sleep Scope, which is intended for use with portable 1-channel electroencephalograph, and compared it with the traditional polysomnography scoring method. Twenty-six outpatients and fourteen healthy volunteers underwent Sleep Scope and polysomnography assessments simultaneously.

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This study investigated the difference in the severity of mental distress and factors contributing to mental distress in frontline and non-frontline healthcare professionals during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. A cross-sectional web-based survey of medical staff collected by snow-ball sampling was performed in Japan in October 2020 using the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6) as an outcome measure for mental distress. Originally developed items asking about the degree of change in psychological and physical burdens, COVID-19-related fear, and experience of discrimination were obtained.

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Study Objectives: Periocular skin warming before bedtime has been demonstrated to improve subjective sleep initiation in healthy adults with sleep difficulties scored six or higher in the Pittsburgh Sleep Questionnaire Index. This study aimed to investigate the effects of periocular skin warming on sleep initiation and thermoregulation processes in patients with insomnia disorder.

Methods: Participants included those with sleep difficulty ( = 22) and those with insomnia disorder ( = 16).

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Objective: Recent studies suggest that depression is associated with somatic pain. Despite growing research interest in the topic, the effects of depression-related somatic pain remain unclear. The present study sought to investigate the relationships between depression-related somatic pain, treatment satisfaction, and functions of daily living, and to compare them with the relationships between these factors and mental health measures.

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Various psychological therapies have been shown to be effective for the treatment of mood disorders. Among them, family psychoeducation has demonstrated efficacy in reducing symptom severity and extending the time to relapse. We tested the efficacy of adding psychoeducation focussed on how to deal with the family's expressed emotion to treatment as usual (TAU) to prevent relapse among patients with remitted major depression.

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Objectives: There is an increasing recognition that pain often coexists with depression. The current survey was undertaken to ascertain patients' and clinicians' perceptions of pain as a physical symptom associated with depression in everyday clinical practices in Japan.

Methods: Web-based surveys were undertaken by a market research company for patients with depression and for physicians treating patients with depression (psychiatrists, psychosomatic physicians, general internists).

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