Efficacy and Safety of Lurasidone vs. Quetiapine XR in Acutely Psychotic Patients With Schizophrenia in Korea: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Active-Controlled Trial.

Objective: This study was performed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of lurasidone (160 mg/day) compared to quetiapine XR (QXR; 600 mg/day) in the treatment of acutely psychotic patients with schizophrenia.

Methods: Patients were randomly assigned to 6 weeks of double-blind treatment with lurasidone 160 mg/day (n=105) or QXR 600 mg/day (n=105). Primary efficacy measure was the change from baseline to week 6 in Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) total score and Clinical Global Impressions severity (CGI-S) score.

Psychometric Properties of the Korean Version of THINC-integrated Tool (THINC-it-K): A Tool for Screening Assessment of Cognitive Function in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder.

Objective: : The present study was performed to investigate the validity and reliability of the Korean version of the THINC-it tool (THINC-it-K) in adult patients with major depressive disorder (MDD).

Methods: : Subjects aged 19-65 years with recurrent MDD experiencing moderate to severe major depressive episode (n = 44) were evaluated and compared to age and sex matched healthy controls (n = 44). Subjects completed the THINC-it-K which includes variants of the Identification Task (IDN) using Choice Reaction Time, One-Back Test, Digit Symbol Substitution Test, Trail Making Test-Part B, and the Perceived Deficits Questionnaire for Depression-5-item (PDQ-5-D).

Trajectories of self-rated health among community-dwelling individuals with depressive symptoms: A latent class growth analysis.

Background: This study identified differences between individuals with and without depression regarding demographic and socioeconomic variables, health behavior, health status, health care utilization, and self-rated health (SRH) to identify the depressed group's SRH trajectories.

Methods: Data of individuals with (n = 589) and without (n = 6856) depression aged ≥20 from the 2013-2017 Korean Health Panel were analyzed. A chi-square test and t-tests examined differences in demographic and socioeconomic variables, health behaviors, health status, health care utilization, and the mean of SRH.

How COVID-19 Affected Healthcare Workers in the Hospital Locked Down due to Early COVID-19 Cases in Korea.

Background: The healthcare workers (HCWs) were exposed to never-experienced psychological distress during the early stage of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The aim of this study was to investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the mental health of HCWs during the hospital lockdown period due to mass healthcare-associated infection during the early spread of COVID-19.

Methods: A real-time online survey was conducted between April 14-18, 2020 among HCWs who worked at the university hospital where COVID-19 was confirmed in a patient, and the hospital was shut down for 3 weeks.

High Work-Related Stress and Anxiety as a Response to COVID-19 Among Health Care Workers in South Korea: Cross-sectional Online Survey Study.

Background: The COVID-19 outbreak had a severe impact on health care workers' psychological health. It is important to establish a process for psychological assessment and intervention for health care workers during epidemics.

Objective: We investigated risk factors associated with psychological impacts for each health care worker group, to help optimize psychological interventions for health care workers in countries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pessimistically biased perception in panic disorder during risk learning.

Background: Despite the well-known association between anxiety and risk-avoidant decision making, it is unclear how pathological anxiety biases risk learning. We propose a Bayesian inference model with bias parameters of prior, learning, and perception during risk learning in individuals with pathological anxiety.

Methods: Patients with panic disorder (PD, n = 40) and healthy control subjects (n = 84) completed the balloon analog risk task (BART).

Deciphering reward-based decision-making in schizophrenia: A meta-analysis and behavioral modeling of the Iowa Gambling Task.

Background: Patients with schizophrenia (SZP) have been reported to exhibit impairments in reward-based decision-making, but results are heterogeneous with multiple potential confounds such as age, intelligence level, clinical symptoms or medication, making it difficult to evaluate the robustness of these impairments.

Methods: We conducted a meta-analysis of studies comparing the performance of SZP and healthy controls (HC) in the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) as well as comprehensive analyses based on subject-level data (n = 303 SZP, n = 188 HC) to investigate reward-based decision-making in SZP. To quantify differences in the influence of individual deck features (immediate gain, gain frequency, net loss) between SZP and HC, we additionally employed a least-squares model.

Tardive Dystonia Related with Aripiprazole.

Tardive dystonia is characterized by sustained, generally slow involuntary twisting movements. It is estimated to occur at a frequency of 1% to 4% among patients who are taking an antipsychotic agent. Unlike the first generation antipsychotics, the second generation antipsychotics are less likely to cause neuroleptic-induced movement disorder.

Different alterations in brain functional networks according to direct and indirect topological connections in patients with schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia displays connectivity deficits in the brain, but the literature has shown inconsistent findings about alterations in global efficiency of brain functional networks. We supposed that such inconsistency at the whole brain level may be due to a mixture of different portions of global efficiency at sub-brain levels. Accordingly, we considered measuring portions of global efficiency in two aspects: spatial portions by considering sub-brain networks and topological portions by considering contributions to global efficiency according to direct and indirect topological connections.

The Efficacy and Safety of Clonazepam in Patients with Anxiety Disorder Taking Newer Antidepressants: A Multicenter Naturalistic Study.

Objective: This study compared the efficacy and tolerability of clonazepam with other benzodiazepines in patients with anxiety disorders.

Methods: Inclusion criteria were as follows: age >20 years, diagnosis of anxiety disorder according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th edition, text revision (DSM-IV-TR) criteria, taking only one type of antidepressant, and prescribed one of three oral benzodiazepines (alprazolam, clonazepam, or lorazepam). At baseline and week 6, clinical benefit was evaluated using the Clinical Global Impression-Severity Scale (CGI-S), Clinical Global Impression-Anxiety Scale (CGI-anxiety), and Clinical Global Impression-Sleep Scale (CGI-sleep).

Higher prevalence of dementia in patients with schizophrenia: A nationwide population-based study.

Introduction: This study investigates the prevalence of dementia in patients with and without schizophrenia, with a particular focus on age-specific and sex-specific differences.

Methods: We conducted a population-based study using the National Health Insurance claims database from 2010 to 2013. Using a 10:1 matching ratio, 248,919 patients without schizophrenia and 26,591 patients with schizophrenia were identified based on the ICD-10 code.

Effect of emotion regulation training in patients with panic disorder: Evidenced by heart rate variability measures.

Objective: We aimed to examine the effect of emotion regulation training in patients with panic disorder (PD) by measuring heart rate variability (HRV).

Methods: Forty-eight patients with PD were randomly divided into emotion regulation group (n=25) and no-regulation group (n=23). Three five-minute ECG recordings were taken in the following states: 1) baseline, 2) while subjects viewed 15 aversive pictures (active stimulus), 3) resting state after aversive pictures (post-stimulus).

Modulation of prefrontal-cingulate connectivity in affective processing of children with experiences of ostracism.

Background: The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) has been shown to be involved in emotional distress induced by social exclusion and the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) in the regulation or inhibition of the distress. Here, we examined modulation of effective connectivity between the regions in response to emotional feedback in children with experiences of ostracism in their everyday life.

Methods: In functional magnetic resonance imaging experiments, 10 ostracized children and 11 control children were provided emotional feedback inducing negative or positive affective states.

Emotion-Induced Topological Changes in Functional Brain Networks.

In facial expression perception, a distributed network is activated according to stimulus context. We proposed that an interaction between brain activation and stimulus context in response to facial expressions could signify a pattern of interactivity across the whole brain network beyond the face processing network. Functional magnetic resonance imaging data were acquired for 19 young healthy subjects who were exposed to either emotionally neutral or negative facial expressions.