Exploring the Precipitating Events and Gambling-Related Activities that Prompt Problem Gamblers and Spouses/Cohabitants to Contact a Gambling Helpline.

Gambling helplines have progressed to offer support and brief interventions for both the problem gambler (PG) and their spouse/cohabitant (S/C). S/Cs play an important role in assisting their partner with their recovery from a gambling disorder. However, few studies have investigated the concerns of both PGs and S/Cs who contact gambling helplines.

Structural brain plasticity and inflammation are independently related to changes in depressive symptoms six months after an index ECT course.

Background: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is effective for treatment-resistant depression and leads to short-term structural brain changes and decreases in the inflammatory response. However, little is known about how brain structure and inflammation relate to the heterogeneity of treatment response in the months following an index ECT course.

Methods: A naturalistic six-month study following an index ECT course included 20 subjects with treatment-resistant depression.

Interleukin-8 and depressive responses to an inflammatory challenge: secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial.

Emerging evidence suggests that interleukin (IL)-8 has a protective role in the context of depression. Higher levels of IL-8 are associated with lower depressive symptom severity among depressed patients, and treatment-related increases in IL-8 correlate with a positive response in depressed patients. This study (a secondary analysis of a completed randomized controlled trial) aimed to examine whether higher levels of IL-8 mitigate increases in depressed mood in response to an experimental model of inflammation induced depression.

Interleukin-8 and lower severity of depression in females, but not males, with treatment-resistant depression.

Introduction: In cross-sectional studies of depressed patients, relationships between depression and levels of IL-8 are inconsistent, and have not been examined in relation to sex. Given identified sex differences in longitudinal data, it is important to evaluate sex-specific cross-sectional relationships between IL-8 and depressive symptoms, which may explain some inconsistency in the extant literature. It is further unknown whether IL-8 levels may relate to specific symptom profiles among depressed patients, with or without regard to sex.

Depression treatment response to ketamine: sex-specific role of interleukin-8, but not other inflammatory markers.

Inflammation plays a role in depression pathophysiology and treatment response, with effects varying by sex and therapeutic modality. Lower levels of interleukin(IL)-8 predict depression response to antidepressant medication and to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), although ECT effects are specific to females. Whether IL-8 predicts depression response to ketamine and in a sex-specific manner is not known.

Non-Convulsive Status Epilepticus in the Presence of Catatonia: A Clinically Focused Review.

Introduction: Catatonia is classically associated with psychiatric conditions but may occur in medical and neurologic disorders. Status epilepticus (SE) is a seizure lasting more than five minutes or two or more seizures within a five-minute period without interictal recovery of consciousness. Non-convulsive status epilepticus (NCSE) is SE without prominent motor activity that may present with catatonic symptoms.

Inflammation and depression treatment response to electroconvulsive therapy: Sex-specific role of interleukin-8.

Females suffer from depression at twice the rate of males and have differential neural and emotional responses to inflammation. However, sex-specific evaluation of relationships between inflammation and response to depression treatments are lacking. Some data suggest that interleukin(IL)-8 predicts treatment response to antidepressants and has a relationship with depressive symptom severity.

Kynurenine metabolism and inflammation-induced depressed mood: A human experimental study.

Inflammation has an important physiological influence on mood and behavior. Kynurenine metabolism is hypothesized to be a pathway linking inflammation and depressed mood, in part through the impact of kynurenine metabolites on glutamate neurotransmission in the central nervous system. This study evaluated whether the circulating concentrations of kynurenine and related compounds change acutely in response to an inflammatory challenge (endotoxin administration) in a human model of inflammation-induced depressed mood, and whether such metabolite changes relate to mood change.

Inflammation and Improvement of Depression Following Electroconvulsive Therapy in Treatment-Resistant Depression.

Objective: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is the most robust acute treatment for severe major depressive disorder, yet clinical response is variable. Inflammation is associated with depression, especially in women, and levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin (IL)-6 predict response to antidepressant medications. This study evaluated whether markers of inflammation predicted response to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in patients with treatment-resistant depression and to what extent this association differed between men and women.

Long-term risk of myocardial infarction and stroke in bipolar I disorder: A population-based Cohort Study.

Objectives: To estimate the risk of fatal and non-fatal myocardial infarction (MI) and stroke in patients with bipolar I disorder compared to people without bipolar I disorder.

Method: Utilizing a records-linkage system spanning 30 years (1966-1996), a population-based cohort of 334 subjects with bipolar I disorder and 334 age and sex-matched referents from Olmsted County, Minnesota, U.S.

Psychiatric Autoimmunity: N-Methyl-D-Aspartate Receptor IgG and Beyond.

Background: Descriptions of psychiatric autoimmunity beyond N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor encephalitis are sparse.

Objective: To report the autoimmune psychiatric spectrum currently recognized in Mayo Clinic practice.

Methods: Medical record review, testing of stored serum and cerebrospinal fluid for IgGs reactive with synaptic receptors and ion channels, neuronal nuclear and cytoplasmic antigens (including glutamic acid decarboxylase 65-kDa isoform) and case-control comparison were conducted.

Sick and tired: mood, fatigue, and inflammation in cancer.

Cancer patients commonly experience depression and fatigue before, during, and after treatment. Symptoms can be debilitating, and the risks associated with unrecognized or inadequately treated depression are substantial. Inflammation may be important in the genesis of depression and fatigue in cancer patients; potential neurobiological mechanisms of inflammation-related behavioral symptoms are reviewed.

Anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor encephalitis: a targeted review of clinical presentation, diagnosis, and approaches to psychopharmacologic management.

Background: Anti-N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (anti-NMDAR) encephalitis was formally described in 2007 and includes a range of psychiatric and neurologic symptoms. Most patients with anti-NMDAR encephalitis initially present to psychiatrists for diagnosis and treatment. However, there is limited literature summarizing treatment strategies for psychiatric symptoms.