The impact of the first UK COVID-19 lockdown on presentations with psychosis to mental health services for older adults: An electronic health records study in South London.

Objectives: Social distancing restrictions in the COVID-19 pandemic may have had adverse effects on older adults' mental health. Whereby the impact on mood is well-described, less is known about psychotic symptoms. The aim of this study was to compare characteristics associated with psychotic symptoms during the first UK lockdown and a pre-pandemic comparison period.

Acknowledging sexual bereavement: a path out of disenfranchised grief.

Despite increasing awareness of the importance of sexuality for older adults, research and popular literature rarely acknowledge what we term "sexual bereavement" - mourning the loss of sexual intimacy when predeceased. The reluctance to acknowledge sexual bereavement may create "disenfranchised grief" leaving the bereaved unsupported in coping with this aspect of mourning. This preliminary study focuses on women in the United States and sought to determine whether they anticipate missing sex if predeceased, whether they would want to talk about this loss, and identified factors associated with communicating about sexual bereavement.

Identification of a major locus, TNF1, that controls BCG-triggered tumor necrosis factor production by leukocytes in an area hyperendemic for tuberculosis.

Background: Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) is a key immune regulator of tuberculosis resistance, as exemplified by the highly increased risk of tuberculosis disease among individuals receiving TNF-blocker therapy.

Methods: We determined the extent of TNF production after stimulation with BCG or BCG plus interferon gamma (IFN-γ) using a whole blood assay in 392 children belonging to 135 nuclear families from an area hyperendemic for tuberculosis in South Africa. We conducted classical univariate and bivariate genome-wide linkage analysis of TNF production using the data from both stimulation protocols by means of an extension of the maximum-likelihood-binomial method for quantitative trait loci to multivariate analysis.

Impact of age and sex on mycobacterial immunity in an area of high tuberculosis incidence.

Setting: The extent of immune reactivity measured by the tuberculin skin test (TST) and interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) T-cell assays is usually not analysed.

Objective: To determine the impact of age and sex on assay positivity and on the extent of reactivity of both TST and T-cell assays in young persons in an area of South Africa with high TB transmission.

Results: Age had a strong impact on assay positivity for all seven immune phenotypes tested (P < 0.

Tuberculin skin test and in vitro assays provide complementary measures of antimycobacterial immunity in children and adolescents.

Background: Although many studies have compared in vitro TB diagnostic tests with the venerable tuberculin skin test (TST), there is little understanding of the quantitative relationship between critical measures of antimycobacterial immunity used to detect TB infection. We, therefore, decided to determine the degree of redundancy between quantitative read-outs of in vivo and in vitro assays of antimycobacterial immunity.

Methods: We enrolled 475 healthy HIV-negative children and young adults living in a hyperendemic area of TB.