Spatio-temporal variation of mood and anxiety symptom treatments in Christchurch in the context of the 2010/11 Canterbury earthquake sequence.

This article explores the spatio-temporal variation of mood and anxiety treatments in the context of a severe earthquake sequence. The aim was to examine a possible earthquake exposure effect, identify populations at risk and areas with particularly large mood and anxiety treatment rate increases or decreases in the affected Christchurch urban area. A significantly stronger increase of mood and anxiety treatments among residents in Christchurch compared to others in New Zealand have been found, as well as children and elderly identified as especially vulnerable.

The effects of spatially varying earthquake impacts on mood and anxiety symptom treatments among long-term Christchurch residents following the 2010/11 Canterbury earthquakes, New Zealand.

This study investigates the effects of disruptions to different community environments, community resilience and cumulated felt earthquake intensities on yearly mood and anxiety symptom treatments from the New Zealand Ministry of Health's administrative databases between September 2009 and August 2012. The sample includes 172,284 long-term residents from different Christchurch communities. Living in a better physical environment was associated with lower mood and anxiety treatment rates after the beginning of the Canterbury earthquake sequence whereas an inverse effect could be found for social community environment and community resilience.

The effects of relocation and level of affectedness on mood and anxiety symptom treatments after the 2011 Christchurch earthquake.

In this longitudinal study, we compare the effects of different types of relocation and level of affectedness on the incidence and relapse of mood and anxiety symptom treatments identified by publicly funded care or treatment one year before and one and two years after the '2011 Christchurch earthquake' in New Zealand. Based on a subset of Christchurch residents from differently affected areas of the city identified by area-wide geotechnical land assessments (no to severe land damage) 'stayers', 'within-city movers', 'out-of-city movers' and 'returners' were identified to assess the interaction effect of different levels of affectedness and relocation on the incidence and relapse of mood and anxiety symptom treatments over time. Health and sample information were drawn from the New Zealand Ministry of Health's administrative databases allowing us to do a comparison of the pre-/post-disaster treatment status and follow-up on a large study sample.

Geographic variation of clinically diagnosed mood and anxiety disorders in Christchurch after the 2010/11 earthquakes.

The 22nd February 2011 Christchurch earthquake killed 185 people, injured over 8000, damaged over 100,000 buildings and on-going aftershocks maintained high anxiety levels. This paper examines the dose of exposure effect of earthquake damage assessments, earthquake intensity measures, liquefaction and lateral spreading on mood and anxiety disorders in Christchurch after this event. We hypothesise that such disorders are more likely to develop in people who have experienced greater exposure to these impacts within their neighborhood than others who have been less exposed, but also live in the city.

Human genetic variation and its effect on miRNA biogenesis, activity and function.

miRNAs are small non-coding regulators of gene expression that are estimated to regulate over 60% of all human genes. Each miRNA can target multiple mRNA targets and as such, miRNAs are responsible for some of the 'fine tuning' of gene expression and are implicated in regulation of all cellular processes. miRNAs bind to target genes by sequence complementarity, resulting in target degradation or translational blocking and usually a reduction in target gene expression.