Processes of change in a randomized clinical trial of radically open dialectical behavior therapy (RO DBT) for adults with treatment-refractory depression.

Objective: Radically open dialectical behavior therapy (RO DBT) is an empirically supported psychotherapy for treatment-refractory depression (TRD) that targets psychological inflexibility and interpersonal functioning within the context of maladaptive overcontrol. However, it is unknown whether change in these mechanistic processes is associated with decreased symptoms. This study tested whether change in psychological inflexibility and interpersonal functioning is associated with change in depressive symptoms in RO DBT.

Refractory depression - cost-effectiveness of radically open dialectical behaviour therapy: findings of economic evaluation of RefraMED trial.

Background: Refractory depression is a major contributor to the economic burden of depression. Radically open dialectical behaviour therapy (RO DBT) is an unevaluated new treatment targeting overcontrolled personality, common in refractory depression, but it is not yet known whether the additional expense of RO DBT is good value for money.AimsTo estimate the cost-effectiveness of RO DBT plus treatment as usual (TAU) compared with TAU alone in people with refractory depression (trial registration: ISRCTN85784627).

Refractory depression - mechanisms and efficacy of radically open dialectical behaviour therapy (RefraMED): findings of a randomised trial on benefits and harms.

Background: Individuals with depression often do not respond to medication or psychotherapy. Radically open dialectical behaviour therapy (RO DBT) is a new treatment targeting overcontrolled personality, common in refractory depression.

Aims: To compare RO DBT plus treatment as usual (TAU) for refractory depression with TAU alone (trial registration: ISRCTN 85784627).

Short communication: Vitamin D status and responses in dairy cows naturally infected with Mycobacterium avium ssp. paratuberculosis.

Serum samples were obtained from Holstein dairy control cows and cows naturally infected with Mycobacterium avium ssp. paratuberculosis (MAP) to evaluate the effects of disease status on serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) levels. Disease status was stratified for infected cows into asymptomatic, subclinical infection (n = 25), and cows demonstrating clinical signs (n = 20), along with noninfected control (n = 12) cows for comparison.

Radically open DBT: Targeting emotional loneliness in Anorexia Nervosa.

This article conceptualizes Anorexia Nervosa (AN) as a prototypical overcontrolled disorder, characterized by low receptivity and openness, low flexible control, pervasive inhibited emotional expressiveness, low emotional awareness, and low social connectedness and intimacy with others. As a result, individuals with AN often report high levels of emotional loneliness. A new evidence-based treatment, Radically Open Dialectical Behavior Therapy (RO-DBT), and its underlying neuroregulatory theory, offer a novel way of understanding how self-starvation and social signaling deficits are used as maladaptive regulation strategies to reduce negative affect.

What can we learn from trial decliners about improving recruitment? Qualitative study.

Background: Trials increasingly experience problems in recruiting participants. Understanding the causes of poor recruitment is critical to developing solutions. We interviewed people who had declined a trial of an innovative psychological therapy for depression (REFRAMED) about their response to the trial invitation, in order to understand their decision and identify ways to improve recruitment.

Transcriptional Profiling of Ileocecal Valve of Holstein Dairy Cows Infected with Mycobacterium avium subsp. Paratuberculosis.

Johne's disease is a chronic infection of the small intestine caused by Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP), an intracellular bacterium. The events of pathogen survival within the host cell(s), chronic inflammation and the progression from asymptomatic subclinical stage to an advanced clinical stage of infection, are poorly understood. This study examines gene expression in the ileocecal valve (ICV) of Holstein dairy cows at different stages of MAP infection.

Refractory depression: mechanisms and evaluation of radically open dialectical behaviour therapy (RO-DBT) [REFRAMED]: protocol for randomised trial.

Introduction: Only 30-40% of depressed patients treated with medication achieve full remission. Studies that change medication or augment it by psychotherapy achieve only limited benefits, in part because current treatments are not designed for chronic and complex patients. Previous trials have excluded high-risk patients and those with comorbid personality disorder.

Radically Open-Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Disorders of Over-Control: Signaling Matters.

Radically Open-Dialectical Behavior Therapy (RO-DBT) is a transdiagnostic treatment designed to address a spectrum of difficult-to-treat disorders sharing similar phenotypic and genotypic features associated with maladaptive over-control-such as anorexia nervosa, chronic depression, and obsessive compulsive personality disorder. Over-control has been linked to social isolation, aloof and distant relationships, cognitive rigidity, high detailedfocused processing, risk aversion, strong needs for structure, inhibited emotional expression, and hyper-perfectionism. While resting on the dialectical underpinnings of standard DBT, the therapeutic strategies, core skills, and theoretical perspectives in RO-DBT often substantially differ.

Assessment of strength, flexibility, and running mechanics in men with iliotibial band syndrome.

Study Design: Cross-sectional laboratory study.

Objectives: To assess differences in hip strength, iliotibial band length, and hip and knee mechanics during running between male runners with iliotibial band syndrome (ITBS) and healthy controls.

Background: Flexibility, strength, and running mechanics are commonly assessed in patients with ITBS.

Radically open-dialectical behavior therapy for adult anorexia nervosa: feasibility and outcomes from an inpatient program.

Background: Anorexia Nervosa (AN) is a highly life-threatening disorder that is extremely difficult to treat. There is evidence that family-based therapies are effective for adolescent AN, but no treatment has been proven to be clearly effective for adult AN. The methodological challenges associated with studying the disorder have resulted in recommendations that new treatments undergo preliminary testing prior to being evaluated in a randomized clinical trial.

Cerebral white matter and retinal arterial health in hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus.

We examined 33 hypertensive (22 with comorbid type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM)) and 29 normotensive (8 with T2DM) middle-aged and elderly adults, comparable in age and education. Relative to normotensive participants, those with hypertension, in addition to a higher prevalence of periventricular white matter (WM) lesions, had significantly lower WM microstructural integrity of major fiber tracts as seen with MRI-based diffusion tensor imaging. Among participants with hypertension, those with co-morbid T2DM (n = 22) had more widespread WM pathology than those without T2DM (n = 11).

That "poker face" just might lose you the game! The impact of expressive suppression and mimicry on sensitivity to facial expressions of emotion.

Successful interpersonal functioning often requires both the ability to mask inner feelings and the ability to accurately recognize others' expressions--but what if effortful control of emotional expressions impacts the ability to accurately read others? In this study, we examined the influence of self-controlled expressive suppression and mimicry on facial affect sensitivity--the speed with which one can accurately identify gradually intensifying facial expressions of emotion. Muscle activity of the brow (corrugator, related to anger), upper lip (levator, related to disgust), and cheek (zygomaticus, related to happiness) were recorded using facial electromyography while participants randomized to one of three conditions (Suppress, Mimic, and No-Instruction) viewed a series of six distinct emotional expressions (happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust) as they morphed from neutral to full expression. As hypothesized, individuals instructed to suppress their own facial expressions showed impairment in facial affect sensitivity.

The role of the RNA chaperone Hfq in Haemophilus influenzae pathogenesis.

Background: The RNA binding protein Hfq of Haemophilus influenzae is highly homologous to Hfq from other bacterial species. In many of these other bacteria, Hfq affects the expression of a broad range of genes and enhances the ability to respond to stressful environments. However, the role of Hfq in H.

Evaluation of a dedicated MDCT protocol using iterative image reconstruction after cervical spine trauma.

Aim: To evaluate radiation exposure for 64-row computed tomography (CT) of the cervical spine comparing two optimized protocols using filtered back projection (FBP) and adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction (ASIR), respectively.

Materials And Methods: Sixty-seven studies using FBP (scanner 1) were retrospectively compared with 80 studies using ASIR (scanner 2). The key scanning parameters were identical (120 kV dose modulation, 64 × 0.

Cardiac Responses during Picture Viewing in Young Male Patients with Schizophrenia.

Previous research investigating the emotion recognition ability in patients with schizophrenia has mainly focused on the recognition of facial expressions. To broaden our understanding of emotional processes in patients with schizophrenia, this study aimed to investigate whether these patients experience and process other emotionally evocative stimuli differently from healthy participants. To investigate this, we measured the cardiac and subjective responses of 33 male patients (9 with and 24 without antipsychotic medication) and 40 male control subjects to emotion-eliciting pictures.

Signature-tagging of a bacterial isolate demonstrates phenotypic variability of the progeny in vivo in the absence of defined mutations.

Awareness of the high degree of redundancy that occurs in several nutrient uptake pathways of Haemophilus influenzae led us to attempt to develop a quantitative STM method that could identify both null mutants and mutants with decreased fitness that remain viable in vivo. To accomplish this task we designed a modified STM approach that utilized a set of signature tagged wild-type (STWT) strains (in a single genetic background) as carriers for mutations in genes of interest located elsewhere in the genome. Each STWT strain differed from the others by insertion of a unique, Q-PCR-detectable, seven base pair tag into the same redundant gene locus.

A functional tonB gene is required for both virulence and competitive fitness in a chinchilla model of Haemophilus influenzae otitis media.

Background: Haemophilus influenzae requires heme for aerobic growth and possesses multiple mechanisms to obtain this essential nutrient.

Methods: An insertional mutation in tonB was constructed and the impact of the mutation on virulence and fitness in a chinchilla model of otitis media was determined. The tonB insertion mutant strain was significantly impacted in both virulence and fitness as compared to the wildtype strain in this model.

Unmyelinated and myelinated skin nerve damage in Guillain-Barré syndrome: correlation with pain and recovery.

We performed a prospective study in 32 patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) or its variants to correlate intraepidermal nerve fiber density (IENFD) at the distal leg and lumbar region with pain, autonomic dysfunction, and outcome. In the acute phase, IENFD was reduced in 60% and 61.9% of patients at the distal leg and lumbar region, respectively.

Type 2 diabetes affects hippocampus volume differentially in men and women.

Background: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has been shown to result in medical complications on several organ systems including the kidneys, eyes, cardiovascular system, and most recently described the brain, including the hippocampus. There is also evidence that females are disproportionately affected by these medical complications. Brain volume reductions have also been associated with chronic low-grade inflammation and dyslipidaemia.

Diurnal cortisol patterns of young male patients with schizophrenia.

Aims: It has been suggested that schizophrenic patients are more vulnerable to stress than healthy persons, and that stressors can trigger a psychotic episode or worsen symptoms. The biological system often studied in relation to stress is the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which controls the release of cortisol. We investigated whether the diurnal basal activity of the HPA axis differed between young male patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls.

The effect of antipsychotic medication on facial affect recognition in schizophrenia: a review.

Patients with schizophrenia suffer from impairments in facial affect recognition and social functioning. Since antipsychotic medication affects different areas in the brain, they may also affect target areas involved in emotional processing mechanisms. In this article, we review the findings of the effect of antipsychotic medication on facial affect recognition in schizophrenia.

Cardiovascular variability during treatment with haloperidol, olanzapine or risperidone in recent-onset schizophrenia.

This study aimed to investigate the effects of treatment with haloperidol, olanzapine and risperidone on cardiovascular variability in patients with recent-onset schizophrenia by means of spectral analysis. Unmedicated patients (n = 18) had a higher mean heart rate and a tendency for a lower high-frequency power of heart rate variability than healthy control subjects (n = 57), indicating a decreased cardiac vagal control in unmedicated patients with schizophrenia. Patients treated with haloperidol (n = 10) showed significantly lower low-frequency power of heart rate and systolic blood pressure variability compared with olanzapine-treated patients, suggesting that haloperidol attenuated sympathetic functioning.