Publications by authors named "Iyo Masaomi"

Our study examined the diagnostic accuracy of ADHD among referral patients, revealing that 66% had confirmed ADHD while 24% had their diagnosis changed, primarily to bipolar disorder. These findings emphasize the need for comprehensive evaluation and multidisciplinary collaboration to ensure accurate diagnosis and effective treatment.

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Patients with bipolar disorder (BD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) experience psychological distress associated with daily events that do not meet the threshold for traumatic experiences, referred to as event-related psychological distress (ERPD). Recently, we developed an assessment tool for ERPD, the ERPD-24. This tool considers four factors of ERPD: feelings of revenge, rumination, self-denial, and mental paralysis.

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Aim: The large number of new long-stay (NLS) patients and high readmission rates in psychiatric hospitals are longstanding concerns in Japan despite reforms to encourage multidisciplinary support of such patients. Staffing shortages of specialists, especially mental health social workers (MHSWs), may be one of the reasons for these problems to remain unsolved.

Methods: The authors examined the effectiveness of the MHSW-centered multidisciplinary care model in preventing NLSs and rehospitalization in terms of both patient dynamics and cost by retrospective comparison of before and after program implementation.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study examines Japan's shift from hospital-based mental healthcare to community-focused treatment, highlighting the critical role of mental health social workers (MHSWs) in coordinating care for patients post-discharge.
  • A survey was conducted with 82 psychiatric emergency wards, analyzing factors like staffing and services, and how they relate to patient hospitalization duration and community integration.
  • Findings indicate that heavy MHSW caseloads are linked to longer hospital stays and less community integration, suggesting that reducing these caseloads to 20 cases or fewer could enhance patient outcomes.
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Aim: The spread of the novel coronavirus infection (coronavirus disease 2019 [COVID-19]) has caused behavioral changes and mental illness in patients and their attendants during its early phase. The present study aimed to examine the association between precautionary behaviors against COVID-19 and psychosocial factors in outpatients with pre-existing disease and their attendants.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional paper-based questionnaire survey in Chiba University Hospital on 1019 patients and 513 attendants, and a web-based questionnaire survey in Japan on 3981 individuals from the general population.

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Background: The management of offenders with mental disorders has been a significant concern in forensic psychiatry. In Japan, the introduction of the Medical Treatment and Supervision Act in 2005 addressed the issue. However, numerous psychiatric patients at risk of violence still find themselves subject to the administrative involuntary hospitalization (AIH) scheme, which lacks clarity and updated standards.

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  • Most genetic studies have struggled to identify specific genetic factors distinguishing treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS) patients from those who respond to treatment, but evidence suggests a difference in dopamine levels between the two groups.
  • A genetic analysis involving 435 TRS patients, 539 non-TRS patients, and 489 healthy controls revealed distinct genotype distributions related to dopamine-related genes, indicating TRS patients had a higher proportion of the A allele of rs3756450.
  • The findings imply that certain genetic variants affecting dopamine levels may play a role in determining patients' responses to antipsychotic medications, potentially aiding in the classification of TRS versus non-TRS individuals.
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We describe the case of an unvaccinated 21-year-old Japanese male who experienced psychotic symptoms attributed to encephalopathy, known as post-acute COVID-19 syndrome (PACS). One week after his discharge following the remission of a SARS-CoV-2 infection, he experienced hyperactive delirium and unexpected movements of his limbs. As COVID-19-associated encephalopathy was suspected as a cause of the psychotic symptoms, he was admitted to the Department of Neurology.

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  • Persistent genital arousal disorder/genito-pelvic dysesthesia (PGAD/GPD) is often overlooked but can severely affect patients' lives, as demonstrated in a case study of a 61-year-old woman with bipolar disorder and PGAD/GPD.
  • Despite years of various treatments, including medication and therapy, her PGAD/GPD and bipolar symptoms showed little improvement until she was prescribed brexpiprazole.
  • Ultimately, the successful treatment of her bipolar disorder with brexpiprazole resulted in noticeable improvement in her PGAD/GPD symptoms, suggesting a potential link between the two conditions.
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  • The study investigates the effectiveness of novel hypnotics compared to benzodiazepine receptor agonists (BZRAs) in reducing BZRA use among patients with psychiatric disorders.
  • 289 patients who were on BZRAs for over a year switched to either dual-orexin receptor antagonists (suvorexant or lemborexant) or a melatonin receptor agonist (ramelteon), with results tracked at baseline and three months later.
  • Findings showed significant reductions in BZRA use for all new medications, with DORAs proving more effective than melatonin in decreasing BZRA dosage, indicating the greater efficacy of DORAs in managing sleep issues.
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Clozapine is an atypical antipsychotic used for treatment-resistant schizophrenia. In Japan, its use requires management by a blood monitoring system called the Clozaril Patient Monitoring Service (CPMS) for the early detection of serious side effects such as agranulocytosis, which is extremely rare. Monitoring services vary among the clozapine suppliers in different countries.

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Background: Although findings from both animal and clinical research indicate that the blood-brain barrier (BBB) contributes to the pathogenesis of various psychiatric disorders (including depression), the underlying mechanisms are unknown. We investigated the levels of the tight-junction proteins claudin-5 and aquaporin-4 (AQP-4) in astrocytes of learned helplessness (LH) rats (an animal model of depression) and non-LH rats (a model of resilience).

Methods: We administered inescapable mild electric shock to rats and then identified the LH and non-LH rats by a post-shock test.

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Background: The purpose of this study was to develop an internet-based Guided Self-Help CBT (iGSH-CBT) for Bulimia Nervosa (BN) / Binge Eating Disorder (BED) for Japanese patients and to test its feasibility.

Methods: A single-arm feasibility study. After baseline assessment, patients underwent a 16-week iGSH-CBT program, our Japanese adaption of the European-based Salut BN program.

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Background: Several studies have reported that a switch to the dopamine partial agonist (DPA) aripiprazole (ARP), especially when the switch is abrupt, is likely to fail and sometimes worsen psychosis in schizophrenia patients already under high-dose antipsychotic treatment. Such a switching failure is speculated to be related to be the dopamine supersensitivity state. The risks of switching to the DPA brexpiprazole (BREX) have not been reported.

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Using natural language processing (NLP) technology to analyze and organize textual information in psychiatric electronic medical records can identify undiscovered factors associated with treatment discontinuation. This study aimed to evaluate brexpiprazole treatment continuation rate and factors affecting brexpiprazole discontinuation using a database that employs the MENTAT® system with NLP technology. This retrospective observational study evaluated patients with schizophrenia who were newly initiated on brexpiprazole (April 18, 2018-May 15, 2020).

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Both the underutilization of clozapine and treatment resistance of patients to clozapine are serious problems worldwide. Identifying clinical markers predicting response to clozapine would help clinicians more effectively utilize clozapine treatment. The present study retrospectively assessed dopamine supersensitivity psychosis (DSP) in addition to other measures such as age at disease onset and delay of clozapine introduction for a total of 47 treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS) patients.

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Dopamine supersensitivity psychosis (DSP) is an unstable clinical condition observed in individuals with schizophrenia who have been treated with an antipsychotic medication at a high dosage and/or for a long period. An up-regulation of dopamine D2 receptors (DRD2) is thought to be involved in the essential pathology of DSP. An antipsychotic agent with both tight binding to DRD2 and a long half-life is generally effective for treating DSP, but a patient who meets the criteria of treatment-resistant schizophrenia sometimes needs treatment with clozapine.

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Background: Dopamine supersensitivity psychosis (DSP) is an unstable psychotic state in patients with schizophrenia due to an upregulation of dopamine D2 receptors induced by antipsychotic medication. Long-acting antipsychotic injectable (LAI) could be advantageous for controlling the dopamine supersensitivity state, but it is not known if long-term treatment with LAI might ultimately lead to development or exacerbation of DSP.

Methods: The present study included 58 patients who had been treated with LAI for at least 3 years, with medical records for the 3 years before its introduction.

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Background: Although numerous studies reported some changes of cortical silent period (CSP), an indicator of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) function in central nervous system, in schizophrenia patients, it has been unknown how the disease stage and antipsychotic medication affect CSP values.

Methods: The present study conducted a systematic review of previous literature comparing CSP between schizophrenia patients and healthy subjects, and then performed meta-analysis on the effects of (1) the disease stage and (2) antipsychotics on CSP.

Results: (1) In the comparison of the disease stage comprising a total of 17 reports, there was no significant difference in CSP between patients under drug-naïve first-episode psychoses and healthy controls, or between patients with antipsychotic medication and healthy controls.

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Background: Several lines of evidence suggest that glutamatergic neurotransmission via the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor plays a role in certain behavioral manifestations common to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Ifenprodil tartrate is a neuroprotective agent that binds to the GluN2B subunit of the NMDA receptor. The aim of this study is to confirm whether ifenprodil tartrate is effective in the adolescent PTSD patients.

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Unlabelled: Lemborexant is a dual orexin antagonist and is considered a safe and effective hypnotic. Dual orexin antagonists induce physiological sleep by blocking orexin receptors. Although the blockade of orexin signaling has triggered narcolepsy-like symptoms in rodents, there is currently no evidence of lemborexant inducing narcolepsy-like symptoms in humans.

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Multiple lines of evidence indicate that antipsychotic agents could affect brain structures of schizophrenia patients. However, the effect of antipsychotic dosage or type on brain structure is uncertain. The present study retrospectively analyzed brain computed tomography (CT) images from a psychiatric hospital to examine the relationship between cumulative dose of antipsychotics and brain volume reduction in schizophrenia patients.

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Background: GABAergic system dysfunction has been implicated in the etiology of schizophrenia and of cognitive impairments in particular. Patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS) generally suffer from profound cognitive impairments in addition to severe positive symptoms, suggesting that GABA system dysfunction could be involved more closely in patients with TRS.

Methods And Results: In the present study, exome sequencing was conducted on fourteen TRS patients, whereby four SNPs were identified on GAD1, GABBR1 and GABBR2 genes.

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Although many screening tools for delirium are available, delirium is still occasionally overlooked or misdiagnosed. One of the reasons for this is the lack of brief screening tools that do not require specialized training to use. The 4 'A's test (the 4AT) is a validated screening tool for delirium that can be administered in a very short time without specialized training.

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