A generalizable normative deep autoencoder for brain morphological anomaly detection: application to the multi-site StratiBip dataset on bipolar disorder in an external validation framework.

The heterogeneity of psychiatric disorders makes researching disorder-specific neurobiological markers an ill-posed problem. Here, we face the need for disease stratification models by presenting a generalizable multivariate normative modelling framework for characterizing brain morphology, applied to bipolar disorder (BD). We used deep autoencoders in an anomaly detection framework, combined for the first time with a confounder removal step that integrates training and external validation.

Hikikomori (prolonged social withdrawal) and co-occurring psychiatric disorders and symptoms in adolescents and young adults: A scoping review.

Background: Hikikomori, or prolonged social withdrawal, is a clinical condition usually emerging during adolescence or young adulthood, characterized by severe self-isolation in one's home, and often associated with other psychiatric disorders and symptoms.

Objective: The study summarized evidence of hikikomori diagnostic criteria, clinical manifestations, and comorbidity with psychiatric disorders and symptoms in adolescents and young adults.

Methods: A scoping review was conducted following PRISMA guidelines, with four electronic databases searched for original works in English, French, and Italian published since 2010.

Assessment of ComBat Harmonization Performance on Structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging Measurements.

Data aggregation across multiple research centers is gaining importance in the context of MRI research, driving diverse high-dimensional datasets to form large-scale heterogeneous sample, increasing statistical power and relevance of machine learning and deep learning algorithm. Site-related effects have been demonstrated to introduce bias in MRI features and confound subsequent analyses. Although Combating Batch (ComBat) technique has been recently reported to successfully harmonize multi-scale neuroimaging features, its performance assessments are still limited and largely based on qualitative visualizations and statistical analyses.

Physical activity interventions to improve cognition in first-episode psychosis: What we know so far.

Background: Cognitive impairment is a core feature of psychosis, which adversely affects global functioning and quality of life and has been consistently reported from the early stages of illness. Patients with first-episode psychosis (FEP) exhibit deficits in processing speed, short-term memory, attention, working memory, and executive functioning, which respond poorly to psychotropic drugs. Among non-pharmacological approaches, physical activity has shown promise in improving cognitive functioning in schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

A generalizable normative deep autoencoder for brain morphological anomaly detection: application to the multi-site StratiBip dataset on bipolar disorder in an external validation framework.

The heterogeneity of psychiatric disorders makes researching disorder-specific neurobiological markers an ill-posed problem. Here, we face the need for disease stratification models by presenting a generalizable multivariate normative modelling framework for characterizing brain morphology, applied to bipolar disorder (BD). We employed deep autoencoders in an anomaly detection framework, combined with a confounder removal step integrating training and external validation.

A bifunctional antibody conjugate marks the location of DNA binding proteins on deproteinized DNA fibers.

Immunofluorescent foci of DNA Damage Response (DDR) proteins serve as surrogates for DNA damage and are frequently interpreted as denoting specific lesions. For example, Double Strand Breaks (DSBs) are potent inducers of the DDR, whose best-known factor is the phosphorylated histone variant H2AX (γ-H2AX). The association with DSBs is so well established that the reverse interpretation that γ-H2AX invariably implies DSBs is routine.

Communication in oncology between healthcare providers, patients, the scientific community, and the media: recommendations from the Italian Association of Medical Oncology (AIOM).

Aim: To identify barriers between health and communication in oncology in order to promote the best possible practice. The areas of communication to be focused on are communication directly with the patient, communication within the scientific community, and communication with the media.

Material And Methods: A working group including eminent experts from the national mass media, healthcare system, and patients' advocacy has been established on behalf of the Italian Association of Medical Oncology (AIOM), with the aim of developing suitable recommendations for the best communication in oncology.

Developing a brief telematic cognitive behavioral therapy for the treatment of social isolation in young adults.

Objective: The present study aims to present a novel cognitive-behavioral intervention protocol focused on treating social isolation through telematic interaction, thus overcoming common barriers characteristic of face-to-face interventions.

Methods: We examined current literature about face-to-face and telematic psychotherapeutic interventions for the treatment of social isolation in early adulthood. Current evidence is mixed, suggesting the need to develop novel interventions focused on patients' cognitive functioning.

Repair of genomic interstrand crosslinks.

Genomic interstrand crosslinks (ICLs) are formed by reactive species generated during normal cellular metabolism, produced by the microbiome, and employed in cancer chemotherapy. While there are multiple options for replication dependent and independent ICL repair, the crucial step for each is unhooking one DNA strand from the other. Much of our insight into mechanisms of unhooking comes from powerful model systems based on plasmids with defined ICLs introduced into cells or cell free extracts.

Cannabis Dependence is Associated with Reduced Hippocampal Subregion Volumes Independently of Sex: Findings from an ENIGMA Addiction Working Group Multi-Country Study.

Males and females who consume cannabis can experience different mental health and cognitive problems. Neuroscientific theories of addiction postulate that dependence is underscored by neuroadaptations, but do not account for the contribution of distinct sexes. Further, there is little evidence for sex differences in the neurobiology of cannabis dependence as most neuroimaging studies have been conducted in largely male samples in which cannabis dependence, as opposed to use, is often not ascertained.

Neural correlates of cognitive behavioral therapy-based interventions for bipolar disorder: A scoping review.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is among the gold-standard psychotherapeutic interventions for the treatment of psychiatric disorders, including bipolar disorder (BD). While the clinical response of CBT in patients with BD has been widely investigated, its neural correlates remain poorly explored. Therefore, this scoping review aimed to discuss neuroimaging studies on CBT-based interventions in bipolar populations.

A critical overview of emotion processing assessment in non-affective and affective psychoses.

Aims: Patients with affective and non-affective psychoses show impairments in both the identification and discrimination of facial affect, which can significantly reduce their quality of life. The aim of this commentary is to present the strengths and weaknesses of the available instruments for a more careful evaluation of different stages of emotion processing in clinical and experimental studies on patients with non-affective and affective psychoses.

Methods: We reviewed the existing literature to identify different tests used to assess the ability to recognise (e.

Compatible co-administration of BioThrax® vaccine and ciprofloxacin-Results of a randomized open-label drug-vaccine interaction trial.

The recommended treatment for post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) following known/suspected exposure to involves immunization with anthrax vaccine adsorbed (AVA, i.e., BioThrax® vaccine) and a course of antimicrobial therapy.

The Response of the Replication Apparatus to Leading Template Strand Blocks.

Duplication of the genome requires the replication apparatus to overcome a variety of impediments, including covalent DNA adducts, the most challenging of which is on the leading template strand. Replisomes consist of two functional units, a helicase to unwind DNA and polymerases to synthesize it. The helicase is a multi-protein complex that encircles the leading template strand and makes the first contact with a leading strand adduct.

White matter integrity in bipolar disorder investigated with diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging and fractal geometry.

Background: Growing evidence suggests the presence of white matter (WM) alterations in bipolar disorder (BD). In this study we aimed to investigate the state of WM structures, in terms of tissue integrity and morphological complexity, in BD patients compared to healthy controls (HC), in an attempt to better elucidate the microstructural changes associated with BD.

Methods: We collected a dataset of 399 Diffusion Tensor Magnetic Resonance Imaging (167 BD and 232 healthy controls) images, acquired at five different sites, which was processed with Tract-Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS) and fractal analysis.

Psychophysiological responses to psychological stress exposure and neural correlates in adults with mental disorders: a scoping review.

Introduction: The dysregulation of psychophysiological responses to mental stressors is a common issue addressed in individuals with psychiatric conditions, while brain circuit abnormalities are often associated with psychiatric conditions and their manifestations. However, to our knowledge, there is no systematic overview that would comprehensively synthesize the literature on psychophysiological responses during laboratory-induced psychosocial stressor and neural correlates in people with mental disorders. Thus, we aimed to systematically review the existing research on psychophysiological response during laboratory-induced stress and its relationship with neural correlates as measured by magnetic resonance imaging techniques in mental disorders.

Measuring white matter microstructure in 1,457 cannabis users and 1,441 controls: A systematic review of diffusion-weighted MRI studies.

Introduction: Cannabis is the most widely used regulated substance by youth and adults. Cannabis use has been associated with psychosocial problems, which have been partly ascribed to neurobiological changes. Emerging evidence to date from diffusion-MRI studies shows that cannabis users compared to controls show poorer integrity of white matter fibre tracts, which structurally connect distinct brain regions to facilitate neural communication.

Brain volumes in alcohol use disorder: Do females and males differ? A whole-brain magnetic resonance imaging mega-analysis.

Emerging evidence suggests distinct neurobiological correlates of alcohol use disorder (AUD) between sexes, which however remain largely unexplored. This work from ENIGMA Addiction Working Group aimed to characterize the sex differences in gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM) correlates of AUD using a whole-brain, voxel-based, multi-tissue mega-analytic approach, thereby extending our recent surface-based region of interest findings on a nearly matching sample using a complementary methodological approach. T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data from 653 people with AUD and 326 controls was analyzed using voxel-based morphometry.

Neuropsychological instruments for bipolar disorders: A systematic review on psychometric properties.

Background: Cognitive deficits are a core feature of bipolar disorder (BD) that persist during the euthymic phase and affect global functioning. However, nowadays, there is no consensus on the optimal tool to capture cognitive deficits in BD. Therefore, this review aims to examine the psychometric properties of tools commonly used to assess cognitive functioning in BD.

Imaging the cellular response to an antigen tagged interstrand crosslinking agent.

Immunofluorescence imaging is a standard experimental tool for monitoring the response of cellular factors to DNA damage. Visualizing the recruitment of DNA Damage Response (DDR) components requires high affinity antibodies, which are generally available. In contrast, reagents for the display of the lesions that induce the response are far more limited.

White matter modifications of corpus callosum in bipolar disorder: A DTI tractography review.

Background: The recent widespread use of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) tractography allowed researchers to investigate the diffusivity modifications and neuroanatomical changes of white matter (WM) fascicles in major psychiatric disorders, including bipolar disorder (BD). In BD, corpus callosum (CC) seems to have a crucial role in explaining the pathophysiology and cognitive impairment of this psychiatric disorder. This review aims to provide an overview on the latest results emerging from studies that investigated neuroanatomical changes of CC in BD using DTI tractography.

Feasibility and preliminary efficacy of brief tele-psychotherapy for COVID-19 patients and their first-degree relatives.

Background: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic compromised the mental health of COVID-19 patients and their family members. Due to social distancing and lockdown measures, a remote, tele-psychotherapy program for former or current COVID-19 patients and their relatives was implemented.

Objective: The primary goal of this project was to evaluate intervention feasibility.

A machine learning approach on whole blood immunomarkers to identify an inflammation-associated psychosis onset subgroup.

Psychosis onset is a transdiagnostic event that leads to a range of psychiatric disorders, which are currently diagnosed through clinical observation. The integration of multimodal biological data could reveal different subtypes of psychosis onset to target for the personalization of care. In this study, we tested the existence of subgroups of patients affected by first-episode psychosis (FEP) with a possible immunopathogenic basis.