Serum cytokine variations among inpatients with major depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia healthy controls: a prospective 'true-to-life' study.

Background: There is increasing evidence of the association between chronic low-grade inflammation and severe mental illness (SMI). The objective of our study was to assess serum cytokine levels (SCLs) at admission and discharge in a true-to-life-setting population of inpatients with major depression (MD), bipolar disorder (BD), and schizophrenia (Sz), as well as of healthy controls.

Methods: We considered MD, BD, and Sz to be SMIs.

Potential predictors of depressive symptoms during the initial stage of the COVID-19 outbreak among Brazilian adults.

Background: In early 2020, Sars-Cov-2 was identified in China as a new coronavirus. Due to its transmission, Sars-Cov-2 has spread rapidly across the world. In the early stage of the disease outbreak, psychiatric symptoms have been reported, including depressive symptoms.

Different cytokine patterns associate with melancholia severity among inpatients with major depressive disorder.

Background: Six melancholic features (MFs) of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D) represent the construct of melancholia along a continuum of severity (from least to most severe: depressed mood, work and activities, somatic symptoms, psychic anxiety, guilty feelings, psychomotor retardation). We aimed to evaluate the association between these MFs and inflammatory cytokines (IC) in the blood.

Methods: Each IC [interferon gamma (IFN-γ), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), interleukin 2 (IL-2), IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, and IL-17] was associated with the HAM-D MFs of 139 severely depressed inpatients, using multiple linear regressions adjusted for covariates.

Psychotic depression in hospitalized patients: Longitudinal outcomes of psychotic vs. nonpsychotic depression among inpatients.

Even though psychotic depression is related to worse outcomes than nonpsychotic depression, there is increasing evidence that this greater severity is not solely explained by the depressive symptoms. We evaluated the socio-demographic and clinical characteristics, as well as the differences in clinical outcomes of psychiatric hospitalization between psychotic and non-psychotic depression. Two-hundred-eighty-eight depressive inpatients were assessed within 72 h after hospitalization and 24 h before discharge.

Youth homicide: a study of homicide predictor factors in adolescent offenders in custody in the south of Brazil.

Objectives: To assess the sociodemographic, psychiatric and criminal profile of adolescent offenders complying with temporary custody for homicide/homicide attempt and to compare it to that of the population of adolescents in custody for other crimes.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was based on the review of the medical records of 74 juvenile offenders in temporary custody at socioeducational agency Fundação de Atendimento Sócio-Educativo do Rio Grande do Sul. For the analysis, variables that presented p < 0.

Lower levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor are associated with melancholic psychomotor retardation among depressed inpatients.

Objectives: Melancholic depression is a type of depression which is closely related to biological variables than are other types of depression. Its clinical features can be assessed using six items on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D ). Previous studies have shown, using item response theory, that the symptom depressed mood is the least severe melancholic feature; work and activities, somatic symptoms and psychic anxiety are of moderate severity; and feelings of guilt and psychomotor retardation are the most severe.

The Major Depressive Disorder Hierarchy: Rasch Analysis of 6 items of the Hamilton Depression Scale Covering the Continuum of Depressive Syndrome.

Objectives: Melancholic features of depression (MFD) seem to be a unidimensional group of signs and symptoms. However, little importance has been given to the evaluation of what features are related to a more severe disorder. That is, what are the MFD that appear only in the most depressed patients.