Effects of separate and combined estradiol and progesterone administration on fear extinction in healthy pre-menopausal women.

Altered fear conditioning and extinction learning are discussed as key etiological features in anxiety disorders. Women have an increased risk for anxiety disorders and fear conditioning has been shown to be influenced by the menstrual cycle phase and circulating gonadal hormones. The objective of our study was to investigate the effects of separate and combined estradiol and progesterone administration on fear extinction in healthy women.

Acute stress and blockade of mineralocorticoid or glucocorticoid receptors: Effects on working memory.

Although early studies were able to demonstrate a negative impact of stress on working memory performance, present research findings are heterogeneous. Numerous further studies found no effects or even improved performance, with the direction of these stress effects likely depending on the underlying biological mechanisms. The aim of this study was to investigate receptor-specific effects, as part of the stress-induced cortisol response, on working memory performance.

Treatment exit options for non-infectious uveitis registry: participant characteristics at 3 years.

Purpose: The Treatment exit Options For non-infectious Uveitis (TOFU) registry documents disease courses for non-anterior non-infectious uveitis entities with and without treatment to generate more evidence for clinical management recommendations including treatment exit strategies. In this article, we present the participants' baseline characteristics after the first 3 years.

Methods: TOFU is an observational, prospective registry and recruits patients ≥18 years of age with non-anterior non-infectious uveitis with or without a history of previous disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) treatment.

Real-world insights and outcomes related to ciclosporin A 0.1% cationic emulsion for the long-term treatment of dry eye disease in Germany: Country-level sub-analysis of the PERSPECTIVE study.

Purpose: The PERSPECTIVE study was a real-world European, non-interventional, multicenter, observational study that evaluated the effectiveness, tolerability, and safety of ciclosporin A (CsA) 0.1% cationic emulsion (CE) in routine clinical practice as a treatment for adults with severe keratitis and dry eye disease (DED) that remained insufficiently controlled with artificial tears. This sub-analysis examined data from ophthalmology clinics in Germany to provide more precise insights into treatment patterns, outcomes, and clinical decision-making related to CsA 0.

The influence of pharmacological mineralocorticoid and glucocorticoid receptor blockade on the cortisol response to psychological stress.

The glucocorticoid cortisol is the end product of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and crucial for the stress response in humans. Cortisol regulates numerous biological functions by binding to two different types of receptors: the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) and the glucocorticoid receptor (GR). Both receptors are found in the brain where they are crucially involved in various mental functions and in feedback inhibition of cortisol release.

Non-instrumental information seeking is resistant to acute stress.

Previous research has shown that people intrinsically value non-instrumental information, which cannot be used to change the outcome of events, but only provides an early resolution of uncertainty. This is true even for information about rather inconsequential events, such as the outcomes of small lotteries. Here we investigated whether participants' willingness to pay for non-instrumental information about the outcome of simple coin-flip lotteries with guaranteed winnings was modulated by acute stress.

Causes, clinical characteristics, and outcomes of high lithium levels and intoxications: Retrospective analysis of patient records.

Background: The mood stabilizer lithium has a narrow therapeutic index with a relevant risk of intoxication. We used real-world hospital data to identify causes, treatment courses, and outcomes of high lithium levels and intoxications.

Methods: Retrospective chart review of patients with a lithium concentration of ⩾1.

Evidence of deviant parasympathetic response to social exclusion in women with borderline personality disorder.

Stressful social situations like social exclusion are particularly challenging for patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and often lead to dysfunctional reactive behaviour of aggression and withdrawal. The autonomous signature of these core symptoms of BPD remains poorly understood. The present study investigated the parasympathetic response to social exclusion in women with BPD (n = 62) and healthy controls (HC; n = 87).

[Association of the different forms of uveitis with inflammatory rheumatic diseases and their treatment].

The etiology of uveitis greatly varies worldwide, whereby in industrial nations noninfectious causes occur relatively more frequently. In Germany, 44% of all cases of uveitis are due to systemic diseases. In rheumatology, uveitis or other kinds of ocular inflammation, such as scleritis or retinal vasculitis, most commonly occur in spondylarthritis, vasculitis and sarcoidosis.

Impact of social exclusion on empathy in women with borderline personality disorder.

Unstable interpersonal relationships and fear of abandonment are core symptoms of borderline personality disorder (BPD) that often intensify during stress. Psychosocial stress, which includes components of social exclusion and increases cortisol secretion, enhances emotional empathy in healthy individuals. Women with BPD, on the contrary, react with reduced emotional empathy.

A new small molecule DHODH-inhibitor [KIO-100 (PP-001)] targeting activated T cells for intraocular treatment of uveitis - A phase I clinical trial.

Unlabelled: Uveitis is a T cell-mediated, intraocular inflammatory disease and one of the main causes of blindness in industrialized countries. There is a high unmet need for new immunomodulatory, steroid-sparing therapies, since only ciclosporin A and a single TNF-α-blocker are approved for non-infectious uveitis. A new small molecule inhibitor of dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (DHODH), an enzyme pivotal for synthesis of pyrimidines, has a high potency for suppressing T and B cells and has already proven highly effective for treating uveitis in experimental rat models.

[Association of the different forms of uveitis with inflammatory rheumatic diseases and their treatment].

The etiology of uveitis greatly varies worldwide, whereby in industrial nations noninfectious causes occur relatively more frequently. In Germany, 44% of all cases of uveitis are due to systemic diseases. In rheumatology, uveitis or other kinds of ocular inflammation, such as scleritis or retinal vasculitis, most commonly occur in spondylarthritis, vasculitis and sarcoidosis.

[Clinical aspects, diagnostics and differential diagnostics of uveitis for rheumatologists].

This review article presents the different forms of uveitis and their clinical manifestations. The exact type and localization of the ocular inflammation is crucial for the probability of the underlying rheumatological disease and thus for a correct differential diagnosis. In this first part, in addition to the anatomy of the eye, the different forms of uveitis including the associated nomenclature, typical symptoms, diagnostics and possible complications are presented.

Approach-avoidance tendencies in depression and childhood trauma: No effect of noradrenergic stimulation.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACE) are a major risk factor for major depressive disorder (MDD) in later life. Both conditions are characterized by dysregulations in the noradrenergic system related which again could represent a mediating mechanism for deficits in affective processing and behavioral functioning. In this double-blind, placebo-controlled study we tested the hypothesis that ACE and MDD are characterized by aberrant approach-avoidance (AA) tendencies and that these are mitigated after noradrenergic stimulation with yohimbine.

No influence of mineralocorticoid and glutamatergic NMDA receptor stimulation on spatial learning and memory in individuals with major depression.

Background: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with impairments in spatial learning and memory and with altered functioning of central mineralocorticoid receptors (MR) and glutamatergic N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDA-R). Both receptors are highly expressed in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex - brain areas that are critical for spatial learning and memory. Here, we examined the effects of separate and combined MR and NMDA-R stimulation on spatial learning and memory in individuals with MDD and healthy controls.

Telomere length in individuals with and without major depression and adverse childhood experiences.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) and adverse childhood experiences (ACE) are associated with poor physical and mental health in adulthood. One underlying mechanism might be accelerated cellular aging. For example, both conditions, MDD and ACE, have been related to a biological marker of cellular aging, accelerated shortening of telomere length (TL).

Patients' Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence in Dentistry: A Controlled Study.

Background: As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly important in modern dentistry, we aimed to assess patients’ perspectives on AI in dentistry specifically for radiographic caries detection and the impact of AI-based diagnosis on patients’ trust. Methods: Validated questionnaires with Likert-scale batteries (1: “strongly disagree” to 5: “strongly agree”) were used to query participants’ experiences with dental radiographs and their knowledge/attitudes towards AI as well as to assess how AI-based communication of a diagnosis impacted their trust, belief, and understanding. Analyses of variance and ordinal logistic regression (OLR) were used (p < 0.

Uveitis in Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis - Case Reports on Guideline-based Diagnostic Work-up and Treatment.

Objectives: Case report based presentation of the current German interdisciplinary guideline on the diagnosis and management of juvenile idiopathic arthritis-associated (JIA) uveitis.

Material And Methods: Guideline of the German Society of Ophthalmology, the Society of Paediatric and Adolescent Rheumatology, the German Society of Rheumatology, the Professional Association of German Ophthalmologists, with the participation of patient representatives. Recent primary publications were critically graduated for evidence and recommendations; the methodology included consensus building through Delphi rounds and external peer review.

Yohimbine-Induced Reactivity of Heart Rate Variability in Unmedicated Depressed Patients With and Without Adverse Childhood Experience.

Stressful life events play a role in the pathogenesis of major depressive disorder (MDD) and many patients with MDD were exposed to developmental stress due to adverse childhood experiences (ACE). Furthermore, dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system and higher incidence of cardiovascular disease are found in MDD. In MDD, and independently in individuals with ACE, abnormalities in heart rate variability (HRV) have been reported.

Attentional bias in individuals with depression and adverse childhood experiences: influence of the noradrenergic system?

Rationale: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a severe mental disorder with affective, cognitive, and somatic symptoms. Mood congruent cognitive biases, including a negative attentional bias, are important for development, maintenance, and recurrence of depressive symptoms. MDD is associated with maladaptive changes in the biological stress systems such as dysregulations of central noradrenergic alpha2-receptors in the locus coeruleus-noradrenergic system, which can affect cognitive processes including attention.

Selective attention to emotional stimuli and emotion recognition in patients with major depression: The role of mineralocorticoid and glutamatergic NMDA receptors.

Background: Mineralocorticoid receptors (MR) are highly expressed in limbic brain areas and prefrontal cortex, which are closely related to selective attention to emotional stimuli and emotion recognition. Patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) show alterations in MR functioning and both cognitive processes. MR stimulation improves cognitive processes in MDD and leads to glutamate release that binds upon N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDA-R).