Virtual Reality and Psychedelics for the Treatment of Psychiatric Disease: A Systematic Literature Review.

Objective: Hallucinogenic substances or psychedelic drugs have been historically used by humans worldwide for centuries, and interest grows around them because of the therapeutic potential that they pose for mental disease. Virtual Reality (VR), has been highly developed and improved in the last decade, and it is also gaining importance due to their potential as therapeutic tools. In this article, the most recent and relevant information regarding the medical applications of both VR and psychedelics was highlighted, and diverse potential therapeutic uses were explored in hope to set the ground for further research on this topic.

Management of Procedural Pain in Children.

In recent years, there has been increased interest in the study of pain in children and its treatment. It is known that when facing diagnostic and therapeutic procedures similar to those performed on adults, children either do not receive specific pain treatment or receive it on a significantly lower scale. However, recent research suggests a change in attitude and an improvement in the current treatment of children's pain.

Associations between STR autosomal markers and longevity.

Life span is a complex and multifactorial trait, which is shaped by genetic, epigenetic, environmental, and stochastic factors. The possibility that highly hypervariable short tandem repeats (STRs) associated with longevity has been largely explored by comparing the genotypic pools of long lived and younger individuals, but results so far have been contradictory. In view of these contradictory findings, the present study aims to investigate whether HUMTHO1 and HUMCSF1PO STRs, previously associated with longevity, exert a role as a modulator of life expectancy, as well as to assess the extent to which other autosomal STR markers are associated with human longevity in population from northern Spain.

Serum albumin and health in older people: Review and meta analysis.

Albumin is the most abundant plasmatic protein. It is only produced by the liver and the full extent of its metabolic functions is not known in detail. One of the main roles assigned to albumin is as an indicator of malnutrition.

Oestrogen receptor polymorphisms are an associated risk factor for mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer disease in women APOE {varepsilon}4 carriers: a case-control study.

Objectives: Examine the role of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the oestrogen receptor (ER) genes: rs9340799, rs2234693, rs2228480 (in the ESR1 gene) and rs4986938 (in the ESR2 gene) as a risk factor for amnesic mild cognitive impairment (MCIa) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) and its possible association with the apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene.

Design: We have investigated the independent and combined association of different alleles of the oestrogen receptor genes and APOE*ε4 allele with cognitive impairment using a case-control design.

Setting: Participants were prospectively recruited from the neurology departments of several Basque Country hospitals.

[Gelatinous nutritional supplements: a useful alternative in dysphagia].

The oropharingeal dysphagia is a very prevalent syndrome among the elderly, and even more among institutionalized individuals. Dysphagia is frequently caused by neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular conditions, the dementia syndrome being the most common of them, where the latest stages of the process are often accompanied by frequent swallowing problems requiring to incorporate thick foodstuffs in the diet of the elderly, such as the pudding. Nutritional supplements with a puddinglike consistency are not financed by the National Health System.

Progression from amnesic mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer's disease: ESR1 and ESR2 polymorphisms and APOE gene.

Background: Many genes have been studied to determine how they might be involved in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Estrogens have a protective effect in the central nervous system. The mechanisms of action of estrogens are mediated by two estrogen receptors (ERs), ERα and ERβ.

[Role of genetics in the etiology of synucleinopathies].

The protein family known as synucleins is composed of α-, β- and γ-synuclein. The most widely studied is the α-synuclein protein due to its participation in essential processes of the central nervous system. Neurotoxicity of this protein is related to the presence of multiplications (duplications and triplications) and point mutations in the gene sequence of the α-synuclein gene (SNCA), differential expression of its isoforms and variations in post-transductional modifications.

[Genetic profiles of longevity and healthy cognitive aging in nonagenarians from the Basque Country].

Introduction: Currently there are notable differences in the aging of individuals in modern populations. While some of them enjoy a long healthy aging, others develop neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). Environmental factors are critical, but genetics could explain the differences observed.

[Approach to dysphagia in advanced dementia].

From the onset, dementia affects the patient's nutritional status, producing anorexia, weight loss, feeding apraxia and dysphagia. Distinct strategies are required in each of the stages of this disease, starting with awareness and knowledge of the problem and its prompt detection. In dementia, dysphagia usually appears in advanced phases, when the patient is often institutionalized.

Lrrk2-associated parkinsonism is a major cause of disease in Northern Spain.

Herein we describe a comparative clinical and genetic study of Lrrk2-associated parkinsonism in Northern Spain. In our sample from the Basque region, Lrrk2 R1441G and G2019S account for 15 out of 50 kindreds (30%) with familial Parkinson's disease. We observe common founder haplotypes for both R1441G and G2019S carriers.

Polymorphism in the cholesterol 24S-hydroxylase gene (CYP46A1) associated with the APOEpsilon3 allele increases the risk of Alzheimer's disease and of mild cognitive impairment progressing to Alzheimer's disease.

Background: Late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD) is associated with changes in certain proteins, such as ApoE and Cyp46A1, of the elimination route for cerebral cholesterol. The main lipoprotein involved in its transport is ApoE whose Epsilon4 allele is the least efficient. However, the presence or absence of this allele does not determine the development of LOAD, which implies the existence of other susceptibility factors associated with the disease, such as the CYP46A1 gene that encodes the enzyme cholesterol 24S-hydroxylase.

5-Hydroxytryptamine 6 receptor (5-HT(6)) receptor and apolipoprotein E (ApoE) polymorphisms in patients with Alzheimer's disease in the Basque Country.

Although there is considerable evidence implicating apolipoprotein E (ApoE) epsilon4 in the development of the Alzheimer's disease (AD), additional factors are also known to be involved. Thus, an association has been described between C267T polymorphism of the 5-hydroxytryptamine 6 receptor (5-HT(6)) receptor gene and AD. This case-control study analyzes the ApoE and 5-HT(6) receptor polymorphisms in 173 cases and 102 age and sex matched controls from Araba and Bizkaia (The Basque Country, Spain).