Publications by authors named "Berardi D"

Background: The association between cannabis and psychosis is established, but the role of underlying genetics is unclear. We used data from the EU-GEI case-control study and UK Biobank to examine the independent and combined effect of heavy cannabis use and schizophrenia polygenic risk score (PRS) on risk for psychosis.

Methods: Genome-wide association study summary statistics from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium and the Genomic Psychiatry Cohort were used to calculate schizophrenia and cannabis use disorder (CUD) PRS for 1098 participants from the EU-GEI study and 143600 from the UK Biobank.

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Objectives: Pathways to Care (PtC) are useful indicators of how patients access mental healthcare, especially in the context of first-episode psychosis (FEP). We explored how PtC: source of referral, is associated with patients' characteristics and clinical presentation and assessed the cross-country differences of the PtC predictors between South London and Bologna.

Methods: This study included 427 FEP individuals in the context of the European Union Gene-Environment Interactions (EU-GEI) study.

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Objective: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is conventionally classified as right sided, left sided, and rectal cancer. Clinicopathological, molecular features and risk factors do not change abruptly along the colorectum, and variations exist even within the refined subsites, which may contribute to inconsistencies in the identification of clinically relevant CRC biomarkers. We generated a CRC metabolome map to describe the association between metabolites, diagnostic and survival heterogeneity in cancers of different subsites of the colorectum.

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Objectives: Breast cancer remains a prevalent disease in women worldwide. Though advancements in breast cancer care have improved patient survival, a breast cancer diagnosis, and subsequent interventions have a lasting impact on patients' lived experiences during the pandemic.

Methods: We present the collaborative learning process from this patient engagement workshop series as a community-academic partnership.

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Unlabelled: Increasingly, information technology facilitates the storage and management of data useful for risk analysis and event prediction. Studies on data extraction related to occupational health and safety are increasingly available; however, due to its variability, the construction sector warrants special attention. This review is conducted under the research programs of the National Institute for Occupational Accident Insurance (Inail).

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Article Synopsis
  • Differences in survival rates for colorectal cancer patients exist based on sex and disease stage, with potential mechanisms not fully understood.
  • Research indicates that asparagine synthetase (ASNS) and G protein-coupled estrogen receptor-1 (GPER1) are key players in how female patients respond to nutrient depletion, which is linked to poorer outcomes.
  • In a study, it's shown that KRAS mutant cells adapt to nutrient scarcity by upregulating ASNS and GPER1 and resist protective effects of estradiol, highlighting important factors influencing cancer growth and survival in females with advanced stage colorectal cancer.
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  • The study investigates the relationship between setting-level deprivation and cannabis use in affecting the incidence of first-episode psychotic disorders (FEP).
  • Researchers used data from 14 settings in the EU-GEI study to analyze how factors like owner-occupancy and daily cannabis use correlate with FEP incidence among individuals aged 18-64.
  • Findings revealed that lower owner-occupancy rates were linked to higher rates of psychosis, while daily cannabis use was specifically associated with affective psychoses, suggesting environmental factors play a significant role in psychotic disorder incidence.
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Aim: Although the presence of psychotic symptoms has been widely recognized in Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), no study previously investigated cognitive Basic Symptoms (BS) and their clinical implications in patients with BPD.

Methods: This cross-sectional study specifically examined the prevalence of COGDIS (cognitive disturbances) BS criteria in 93 help-seeking outpatients with BPD by using the Schizophrenia Proneness Instrument-Adult Version (SPI-A). We then explored associations of COGDIS with personality traits, functioning and core psychopathological features of BPD.

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Background: We examined whether cannabis use contributes to the increased risk of psychotic disorder for non-western minorities in Europe.

Methods: We used data from the EU-GEI study (collected at sites in Spain, Italy, France, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands) on 825 first-episode patients and 1026 controls. We estimated the odds ratio (OR) of psychotic disorder for several groups of migrants compared with the local reference population, without and with adjustment for measures of cannabis use.

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Corpse concealment involves hiding a body for criminal purposes for many different reasons, such as destroy evidence of a murder or avoid the discovery of the victim. Although defendants could argue that they did not conceal the corpse with any criminal intent, but rather to spare themselves or others from emotional distress or to honor the wishes of the deceased. However, these arguments are often challenging to substantiate, and defendants may encounter significant legal obstacles when attempting to justify their actions.

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Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) are persistent environmental contaminants that are of increasing public concern worldwide. However, their relationship with colorectal cancer (CRC) is poorly understood. This study aims to comprehensively investigate the effect of PFOS and PFOA on the development and progression of CRC using a series of biological techniques and metabolic profiling.

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  • Illegal stimulant use is linked to a higher risk of first-episode psychosis (FEP), with 14.5% of patients experiencing FEP reporting lifetime stimulant use compared to 10.8% of controls.
  • The study analyzed 1,130 FEP patients and 1,497 controls across Europe and Brazil, using logistic regression to determine the relationship between stimulant use and FEP risk.
  • Findings suggest that eliminating stimulant use could potentially prevent 3.35% to 7.61% of FEP cases, indicating a significant public health concern that varies by country.
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This study investigated if the association between childhood maltreatment and cognition among psychosis patients and community controls was partially accounted for by genetic liability for psychosis. Patients with first-episode psychosis (N = 755) and unaffected controls (N = 1219) from the EU-GEI study were assessed for childhood maltreatment, intelligence quotient (IQ), family history of psychosis (FH), and polygenic risk score for schizophrenia (SZ-PRS). Controlling for FH and SZ-PRS did not attenuate the association between childhood maltreatment and IQ in cases or controls.

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Background: A history of childhood adversity is associated with psychotic disorder, with an increase in risk according to the number of exposures. However, it is not known why only some exposed individuals go on to develop psychosis. One possibility is pre-existing polygenic vulnerability.

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Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a severe mental disorder, characterized by deficits in emotion regulation, interpersonal dysfunctions, dissociation and impulsivity. Brain abnormalities have been generally explored; however, the specific contribution of different limbic structures to BPD symptomatology is not described. The aim of this study is to cover this gap, exploring functional and structural alterations of amygdala and insula and to highlight their contribution to neuropsychiatric symptoms.

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Background: Antipsychotic treatment resistance affects up to a third of individuals with schizophrenia, with recent research finding systematic biological differences between antipsychotic resistant and responsive patients. Our aim was to determine whether cognitive impairment at first episode significantly differs between future antipsychotic responders and resistant cases.

Methods: Analysis of data from seven international cohorts of first-episode psychosis (FEP) with cognitive data at baseline (N = 683) and follow-up data on antipsychotic treatment response: 605 treatment responsive and 78 treatment resistant cases.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study developed and validated a diagnostic model to quickly identify individuals at risk for first episode psychosis (FEP) by analyzing data from 2,627 participants across six countries.
  • - A binary logistic regression model was used, incorporating 22 predictor variables, and achieved high accuracy in distinguishing between individuals with FEP and controls, with specificity and sensitivity rates indicating strong overall performance.
  • - Despite showing some signs of overfitting in certain countries, the model demonstrated good discrimination and calibration, suggesting it could be broadly applicable in diverse ethnic settings.
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Purpose: Individuals with Common Mental Disorders (CMDs) may have a higher cancer mortality. The purpose of this study was to examine cancer-related mortality among patients with CMDs and verify which cancer types are predominantly involved.

Methods: We used the Regional Mental Health Registry of the Emilia-Romagna region, in Northern Italy to identify patients aged ≥ 18 years who received an ICD 9-CM diagnosis of CMDs (i.

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Inhibition of the electron transport chain (ETC) prevents the regeneration of mitochondrial NAD, resulting in cessation of the oxidative tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle and a consequent dependence upon reductive carboxylation for aspartate synthesis. NAD regeneration alone in the cytosol can rescue the viability of ETC-deficient cells. Yet, how this occurs and whether transfer of oxidative equivalents to the mitochondrion is required remain unknown.

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Article Synopsis
  • * Researchers found that individuals from migrant backgrounds, particularly those from non-Western countries, experienced higher rates of CM and that this exposure was linked to greater incidence of FEP.
  • * The findings suggest that although migrant status weakens the direct link between CM and FEP, these groups still face a significant risk and should be targeted in policies aimed at reducing child maltreatment.
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Introduction: Our aim was to, firstly, identify characteristics at first-episode of psychosis that are associated with later antipsychotic treatment resistance (TR) and, secondly, to develop a parsimonious prediction model for TR.

Methods: We combined data from ten prospective, first-episode psychosis cohorts from across Europe and categorised patients as TR or non-treatment resistant (NTR) after a mean follow up of 4.18 years (s.

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Hepatic steatosis is a major etiological factor in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but factors causing lipid accumulation leading to HCC are not understood. We identify BNIP3 (a mitochondrial cargo receptor) as an HCC suppressor that mitigates against lipid accumulation to attenuate tumor cell growth. Targeted deletion of decreased tumor latency and increased tumor burden in a mouse model of HCC.

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  • The study investigates how nutrient starvation, particularly amino acid scarcity, influences mitochondrial dynamics, revealing that cells initiate mitochondrial fusion to avoid degradation.
  • Supplementing with certain amino acids (glutamine, leucine, and arginine) intensifies mitochondrial hyperfusion, driven by specific fusion proteins (Mfn1 and Opa1), but does not involve the MTORC1 pathway.
  • The research highlights the importance of metabolic processes, including the TCA cycle and purine biosynthesis, in the amino acid-induced hyperfusion response, suggesting a mechanism through which cells sense and respond to nutrient availability.
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