The Opioid Crisis in Missouri: A Call to Action for Physicians, Legislators, and Society.

Opioid overdose deaths in the United States increased sharply over the last decade leading the President to declare a national emergency. The neurobiology of opioid addiction is explored in conjunction with the historical events preceding the current epidemic. A patient-centric perspective is provided along with rationale for contemporary Medical Assisted Therapy (MAT) options to safely reduce overdose deaths and other preventable consequences of prescription misuse and heroin abuse.

Association of cerebral metabolic activity changes with vagus nerve stimulation antidepressant response in treatment-resistant depression.

Background: Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) has antidepressant effects in treatment resistant major depression (TRMD); these effects are poorly understood. This trial examines associations of subacute (3 months) and chronic (12 months) VNS with cerebral metabolism in TRMD.

Objective: (17)Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography was used to examine associations between 12-month antidepressant VNS response and cerebral metabolic rate for glucose (CMRGlu) changes at 3 and 12 months.

Pretreatment cerebral metabolic activity correlates with antidepressant efficacy of vagus nerve stimulation in treatment-resistant major depression: a potential marker for response?

Background: Pretreatment brain activity in major depressive disorder correlates with response to antidepressant therapies, including pharmacotherapies and transcranial magnetic stimulation. The purpose of this trial was to examine whether pretreatment regional metabolic activity in selected regions of interest (ROIs) predicts antidepressant response following 12 months of vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) in 15 patients with treatment-resistant major depression (TRMD).

Methods: Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG PET) was used to assess regional mean relative cerebral metabolic rate for glucose (CMRGlu) in four ROIs (anterior insular, orbitofrontal, anterior cingulate, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices) at baseline (prior to VNS activation).

Diminished recall and the cohort effect of major depression: a simulation study.

Several large-scale epidemiological surveys have reported increasing lifetime rates of psychopathology among recently born cohorts. In the case of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) younger cohorts tend to manifest higher lifetime prevalences of the condition than older cohorts, at any given age. In some studies, cohort differences are so large that the youngest cohort exceeds the lifetime prevalence of the oldest cohort well before passing through their total period of risk.