Lateralized white matter integrity changes across the lifespan in major depression: AES-SDM meta-analysis.

This meta-analysis examined white matter fractional anisotropy (FA) differences across the lifespan to better understand underlying neurobiological mechanisms of major depressive disorder (MDD). Using anisotropic effect size-based-signed differential mapping (AES-SDM), the study meta-analyzed 67 whole-brain FA voxel-based analysis (VBA) and tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) studies. The sample included 3620 individuals with MDD and 3764 age-matched healthy controls, ranging from adolescence to older adulthood.

The impact of widowhood on mental health: anxiety, depression, and stress among widowed women in Nepal.

Introduction: In South Asia, particularly in regions with strong patriarchal norms, widowhood is stigmatized, compounding the negative impact of grief and partner loss. This study measured the prevalence of mental health symptoms among widows in Nepal and its relationship to demographic variables.

Methods: This cross-sectional study surveyed 588 Nepalese widows from six districts in Nepal (mean age = 52.

Exploring Cultural Competence, Inclusivity, and Diversity in Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy: A Phenomenological Study.

Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), and other minoritized populations are insufficiently represented in research on therapeutic psychedelics. This research was a phenomenological qualitative exploration of a culturally diverse (Hispanic, African American, Asian, Native American, biracial, or LGBTQIA+) and low-income sample of 15 individuals receiving ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) at a sliding-scale fee community clinic. Participants were interviewed after a ketamine session, after a ketamine integration session, and one month later.

Caregiver expressed emotion as mediator of the relationship between neuropsychiatric symptoms of dementia patients and caregiver mental health in Hong Kong.

Quality of life among Hong Kong's family dementia caregivers is a current heightened public health concern. This was one of the first East Asian studies to examine the role of family expressed emotion (EE) in the negative caregiver outcomes associated with dementia caregiving. EE comprises overinvolved and critical communications in families of people with mental illness.

Angry characters and frightened souls: Patients and family explanatory models of bipolar disorder in Taiwan.

Bipolar disorder (BD) affects a significant proportion of Taiwanese individuals (Weissman et al., 1996; Yang, Yeh, & Hwu, 2012). Psychotropic medications are typically the mainstay of treatment for BD, and there is an abundance of international research on biological etiology and medication options.

Sleep disturbance is common among servicemembers and veterans of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.

Sleep routines that develop as an adaptation or reaction to deployment can persist upon return stateside. Sleep problems intensify and are intensified by psychiatric distress. This research presents the findings of a comprehensive survey of sleep impairment in relation to demographic data, military history, combat exposure, and mental illness symptoms among a general sample of 375 servicemembers and veterans of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) at a wide range of times postdeployment.

Promoting optimal collaboration between mental health providers and nutritionists in the treatment of eating disorders.

The mental health provider-nutritionist collaboration is a primary partnership in the treatment of eating disorders, and its integrity is important for good patient care. Utilizing critical incident qualitative methodology, 22 professionals who specialize in the treatment of eating disorders (12 mental health providers, 10 registered dieticians) were interviewed about instances of problems in collaborations between these two professions, and the impact and resolution of such conflicts. Findings were used to compile a list of best practices.

Sleep impairment in patients with painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy.

Objective: This study evaluated sleep impairment associated with painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN), a neuropathic pain condition. Sleep is of critical concern for DPN because sleep impairment and its comorbidities may influence type 2 diabetes progression.

Methods: This is a supplemental analysis of sleep data from a burden of illness study of patients with painful DPN (N=255, 61+/-12.

Validation of a modified version of the Brief Pain Inventory for painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy.

Neuropathic pain is the focus of current clinical research, clinical identification, and treatment. It is unique from nociceptive pain and requires evaluation of the relevance and utility of common pain measures created for other painful conditions. This study evaluated the psychometric properties of a modified Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) for patients with painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy (BPI-DPN).

Validation of a modified version of the brief pain inventory for painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy.

Neuropathic pain is the focus of current clinical research, clinical identification, and treatment. It is unique from nociceptive pain and requires evaluation of the relevance and utility of common pain measures created for other painful conditions. This study evaluated the psychometric properties of a modified Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) for patients with painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy (BPI-DPN).

Identification of cut-points for mild, moderate and severe pain due to diabetic peripheral neuropathy.

This study identified discrete categories of pain severity in a sample of patients with painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN), through derivation of cut-points on a 0-10 scale of pain severity (Brief Pain Inventory-DPN, BPI-DPN). Subjects were participants in a burden of illness survey (N=255). Serlin and colleagues' method establishing cut-points for cancer pain was adapted, considering all possible cut-points between 4 and 8.

Categorizing the severity of cancer pain: further exploration of the establishment of cutpoints.

Previous work by Serlin and colleagues [Serlin R C, Mendoza T R, Nakamura Y, Edwards K R, Cleeland C S. When is cancer pain mild, moderate, or severe? Grading pain severity by its interference with function. Pain 1995;61:277-84] established cutpoints for mild, moderate, and severe cancer pain based on the pain's level of interference with function.

Acceptable, manageable, and tolerable days: patient daily goals for medication management of persistent pain.

Although the construct of "a symptom-free day" has been widely applied in asthma and gastric reflux disease, there is no analogous concept in the field of pain management. This study represents the initial development of a "day of acceptable or manageable pain control," a construct which reflects patients' daily strategic use of pain medication in order to allow the accomplishment of desired activities while minimizing side effects. Focus group methodology was used to extract patient-generated themes of "an acceptable day of pain control.

Development of a metric for a day of manageable pain control: derivation of pain severity cut-points for low back pain and osteoarthritis.

The objective of this study was to adapt the concept of 'episode-free day', a metric for measuring symptom relief in daily units, to the clinical outcome literature for persistent pain. The episode-free day metric is widely used in other medical literature, but no analogous measure exists in pain literature. Prior focus groups with this population suggested that a 'Day of Manageable Pain Control' was an appropriate name for the metric.

The effects of induced mood on laboratory pain.

Sixty-five subjects experienced 2 cold pressor immersions. Following the initial immersion, subjects participated in the Velten mood induction procedure by reading either depressive, neutral or elative statements. The sensory discriminative response to pain was measured by ratings of pain, and the affective-reactive response to pain was measured by pain tolerance.