From brain to body: exploring the connection between altered reward processing and physical fitness in schizophrenia.

Understanding the underlying mechanisms that link psychopathology and physical comorbidities in schizophrenia is crucial since decreased physical fitness and overweight pose major risk factors for cardio-vascular diseases and decrease the patients' life expectancies. We hypothesize that altered reward anticipation plays an important role in this. We implemented the Monetary Incentive Delay task in a MR scanner and a fitness test battery to compare schizophrenia patients (SZ, n = 43) with sex- and age-matched healthy controls (HC, n = 36) as to reward processing and their physical fitness.

Exploring the link between functional connectivity of ventral tegmental area and physical fitness in schizophrenia and healthy controls.

Decreased physical fitness and being overweight are highly prevalent in schizophrenia, represent a major risk factor for comorbid cardio-vascular diseases and decrease the life expectancy of the patients. Thus, it is important to understand the underlying mechanisms that link psychopathology and weight gain. We hypothesize that the dopaminergic reward system plays an important role in this.

Using the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child Model to Support Mental Health in Schools.

The COVID-19 pandemic increased already high rates of student mental health concerns and further underscored inequities and disparities in access to services and care. As schools continue to address the effects of the pandemic, they must prioritize student mental health and well-being. In this commentary, using feedback from the Maryland School Health Council, we present the connection between mental health in school and the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model, a school health model commonly employed by schools and school districts.

Trends in (not) using scales in major depression: A categorization and clinical orientation.

Background: Standard depression rating scales like the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale were developed more than 40 years ago. They are mandatory in clinical trials but are for a variety of reasons seldom used in clinical practice. Moreover, most clinicians are less familiar with more recent trends or with some dilemmas in assessment tools for major depression.

Age at natural menopause and life expectancy with and without type 2 diabetes.

Objective: Effective interventions of future health care require a better understanding of the health risks associated with early onset of menopause and diabetes, but the necessary data are scarce. Little quantitative information is available about the combined association of early menopause and diabetes on life expectancy and the number of years lived with and without diabetes.

Methods: We included 3,650 postmenopausal women aged 45+ years from the Rotterdam Study, a prospective population-based cohort study.