SITUATIONAL AND PERSONAL PREDICTORS OF MENTAL HEALTH OUTCOMES AMONG HEALTH CARE WORKERS DURING COVID-19: DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NURSES AND PHYSICIANS.

Caregivers have been exposed to important stresses during the COVID-19 pandemic leading to important mental health issues. Previous researches showed that nurses were particularly emotionally affected compared to physicians. To study the differences in psychological symptoms between nurses and physicians during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as three months later and to compare the predictors of these symptoms between both professions.

Psychological distress among hospital caregivers during and after the first wave of COVID-19: Individual factors involved in the severity of symptoms expression.

Coronavirus disease 2019 has spread rapidly over the globe and has put an unprecedent psychological pressure on health care workers (HCWs). The present study aimed at quantifying the psychological consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on HCWs during and after the first wave and identify sociodemographic, situational, and psychological risk/protective factors for symptoms severity. An online survey was sent by e-mail to all nurses and physicians employed by a teaching hospital in Brussels, Belgium.

Efficacy of yoga, tai chi and qi gong on the main symptoms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A systematic review.

Introduction: The aim of this systematic review was to summarize the effects of yoga, qi gong or tai chi in COPD patients.

Methods: Studies evaluating effects of the selected complementary therapies on lung function, dyspnea, quality of life or functional exercise capacity in COPD patients were identified and reviewed from three databases.

Results: Eighteen studies were included.

The power of power wheelchairs: Mobility choices of community-dwelling, older adults.

Background: Power wheelchairs are purported to have a positive effect on health, occupation, and quality of life. However, there is limited knowledge about what factors shape power wheelchair use decisions.

Aims/objectives: A study was undertaken to understand the mobility choices of community-dwelling, power wheelchair users.

Comparison of methods for evaluation of the suppressive effects of prednisolone on the HPA axis and bone turnover: changes in s-DHEAS are as sensitive as the ACTH test.

Objective: Different hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function tests are used for diagnosing disease and evaluating suppressive effects of corticosteroid treatment. Our objectives were to evaluate sensitivity and precision of different HPA axis tests to be able to select one that combines good performance with good practicability, suitable for investigation of new corticosteroids in clinical trials.

Methods: In this descriptive, double-blind, parallel-group study, 60 healthy male volunteers were treated with once-daily morning doses of prednisolone for 2 weeks.

Insulin sensitivity, adjusted beta-cell function and adiponectinaemia among lean drug-naive schizophrenic patients treated with atypical antipsychotic drugs: a nine-month prospective study.

Atypical antipsychotic drugs (AADs) induce weight gain and truncal adiposity, and even the metabolic syndrome (MetS), which may progress to IFG/IGT or DM. AAD effects in lean schizophrenic patients without MetS have not been documented, especially in terms of weight gain and changes in insulin sensitivity (S), beta-cell function (beta) and adiponectinaemia. We prospectively determined the effects of nine-month therapy with AADs on anthropometrics, metabolism and adiponectinaemia, including homoeostasis model assessment (HOMA) modelling of S, beta and betaxS (hyperbolic product, assessing individual beta adjusted for S).

Absolute and relative stability of alexithymia in alcoholic inpatients undergoing alcohol withdrawal: relationship to depression and anxiety.

To evaluate whether alexithymia in alcohol-dependent patients is a personality trait or a state-dependent phenomenon related to depression and anxiety, we evaluated absolute stability (the extent to which alexithymia scores change over time) and relative stability (the extent to which relative differences among individuals remain the same over time) of alexithymia during alcohol withdrawal. Seventy alcohol-dependent inpatients were assessed for alexithymia, depression and anxiety with the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory at the onset of withdrawal, after 2 days and 2 weeks. Paired t-tests and correlational analyses were performed to evaluate absolute and relative stability of alexithymia and hierarchical regression analyses to assess whether alexithymia was related to anxiety and depression.

The role of alexithymia factors in glucose control of persons with type 1 diabetes: a pilot study.

Objective: To clarify the respective contribution of demographic characteristics, health conditions and three psychological variables (depression, anxiety, alexithymia) for glycaemic control measured by glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c).

Materials And Methods: Sixty-four persons diagnosed with type 1 diabetes completed psychological measures and demographic information at admission (T1) to the hospital and in a follow-up (+8 weeks) (T2). Additional information about their health conditions was also considered.

Gene profiling reveals decreased expression of uteroglobin and other anti-inflammatory genes in nasal fluid cells from patients with intermittent allergic rhinitis.

Background: Intermittent allergic rhinitis (IAR) results from interactions between a large number of pro- and anti-inflammatory mediators. Little is known about anti-inflammatory mediators in IAR. DNA microarrays allow simultaneous analysis of the whole transcriptome in a sample.

Adult liver transplantation at UCL: update 2002.

The authors present the results of a single centre study of 587 liver transplants performed in 522 adults during the period 1984-2002. Results have improved significantly over time due to better pre-, peri- and post-transplant care. One, five, ten and fifteen year actuarial survivals for the whole patient group are 81.

Self-inflicted repetitive optic nerve injury: a case report.

Purpose: To describe an obsessive-compulsive patient who developed blindness after self-inflicted repetitive optic nerve injury.

Methods: Case report.

Results: A myopic 46-year-old male became blind as a result of intermittent rubbing of his eyes, causing stretching of the optic nerves.

The effect of the vasoactive intestinal polypeptide agonist Ro 25-1553 on induced tone in isolated human airways and pulmonary artery.

Ro 25-1553 is a metabolically stable analogue of endogenous vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP). This compound is a potent bronchodilator in vitro as well as in vivo. Moreover, Ro 25-1553 has been shown to be highly selective of the VPAC2 receptor.

Cerebellar abnormalities in mental illness. A study on Purkinje cell density in schizophrenic men.

The linear Purkinje cell density in the cerebellar vermis was investigated in a small cohort of adult onset schizophrenic men with well-documented hippocampal abnormalities. There were no differences in comparison with age-matched controls. This negative finding indicates that vermian abnormalities undoubtedly seen in some schizophrenic patients may constitute a subsyndrome, possibly related to autistic disorders in which cerebellar abnormalities are well corroborated.

Glucose utilisation in the lungs of septic rats.

Sequestration and degranulation of leucocytes in the pulmonary microcirculation is considered to be a key event in the development of acute respiratory distress syndrome in patients with sepsis. Glucose serves as the main source of energy in activated leucocytes. The aim of this study was to assess whether glucose utilisation in the lungs can be used as an indicator of pulmonary leucocyte accumulation in an experimental model of sepsis of intra-abdominal origin.

Pyramidal neuron size in the hippocampus of schizophrenics correlates with total cell count and degree of cell disarray.

Hippocampal pyramidal neuron size was determined in all Cornu Ammonis subregions - CA1-CA4 - in five chronic schizophrenic men and compared with eight controls matched with respect to age and sex. Four out of five probands and the same eight controls had been examined in a previous study showing a significantly lower cell count and disorientation of pyramidal cells in the CA1- CA3 subregions of the schizophrenics. There was also a negative correlation between the total number of cells and the number of disoriented cells.

Uniform abnormalities in the hippocampus of five chronic schizophrenic men compared with age-matched controls.

In a post-mortem study five chronic schizophrenic men were matched with respect to age and sex to five control subjects without a known history of psychiatric illness, and were compared in pairs with regard to neurone number and pyramidal cell orientation in the left hippocampus. All five schizophrenics had significantly more disoriented pyramidal cells in the Cornu Ammonis subregions CA1-CA3 than their matched controls. They also had significantly fewer pyramidal cells in the observed areas of CA1 and CA3, but not in CA2 and CA4.

Hippocampal pyramidal cell disarray correlates negatively to cell number: implications for the pathogenesis of schizophrenia.

Brains from patients with therapy-refractory schizophrenia were examined with respect to pyramidal cell disarray in the hippocampus, a finding reported in some studies, but not confirmed in others. A significantly higher number of disarrayed cells was seen in the brains of the schizophrenic patients in all subfields of the Cornu Ammonis (CA) investigated. Compared with controls the schizophrenic patients also had significantly fewer pyramidal cells in the observed areas of CA1-CA3, but not in CA4.

Neuropeptide Y in salivary glands of the rat: origin, release and secretory effects.

In the parotid gland, double immunostaining showed the perivascular and most of the periductal neuropeptide Y (NPY)-immunoreactive nerve fibres to contain dopamine beta-hydroxylase, while the majority of periacinar NPY-fibres contained vasoactive intestinal peptide. Sympathectomy caused a marked depletion of perivascular and periductal NPY-fibres, leaving periacinar NPY-fibres less affected. Following combined sympathectomy and parasympathectomy, only a few NPY-fibres persisted.

Changes in neuroendocrine elements in bronchial mucosa in chronic lung disease in adults.

Background: It is not clear whether there is any association between metaplasia of the bronchial epithelium and changes in the distribution of neuroendocrine cells. This study examined, by immunohistological techniques, the distribution of neuroendocrine cells and juxtamucoscal nerve fibres in bronchial biopsies showing metaplastic changes.

Methods: Bronchial biopsies from 12 subjects with epithelial metaplasia associated with bronchiectasis and diffuse pulmonary fibrosis were examined by conventional light microscopy and immunohistological techniques for protein gene product 9.

[The localization of protein gene product 9.5 in the lungs of children with bronchitis and bronchiectasis].

Human respiratory tract has a rich innervation with nerve fibers. Presence and distribution of nerve elements labeled with protein gene product 9.5 (PGP) were studied in the lungs of children with bronchitis and bronchiectasis.

Distribution and origin of the peripheral innervation of rat cervical esophagus.

Several neurotransmitters, neuropeptide Y (NPY), vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP), galanin, enkephalin, calcitonin-gene related peptide (GGRP), substance P, as well as nitric oxide synthase (NOS), and the noradrenergic marker tyrosine-hydroxylase (TH) were localized by immunocytochemistry in the cervical esophagus of rat. Nerve fibers containing the neuropeptides, NOS, and TH were distributed in the myenteric plexus, around muscle bundles and small blood vessels. Injection of the retrograde tracer True Blue (TB) into the cervical esophagus resulted in the appearance of labeled nerve cell bodies in the superior cervical, the stellate, the nodose, the sphenopalatine, the dorsal root ganglia at levels C2-C7, and in local ganglia close to the thyroid.

Basement membrane components of bronchial epithelium in humans suffering from chronic nonspecific lung diseases.

Collagen IV and laminin are important constituents of the basement membrane (BM). By use of immunocytochemistry we examined the occurrence and distribution of these two components in the BM beneath normal, mucoid and metaplastic epithelium of large bronchi in 22 adults suffering from chronic nonspecific lung diseases. Both collagen IV and laminin were expressed as a thin and continuous layer beneath the epithelium in most tissue specimens with normal epithelium.

Calcitonin, CGRP and helodermin in endocrine cells of the developing rat lung.

Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), calcitonin and immunoreactive helodermin occur in endocrine cells in the murine airways. In the lungs these cells form clusters, while they occur scattered in the larynx and trachea. In the present study of the developing rat CGRP-immunoreactive cells were more numerous at all stages than the calcitonin- and helodermin-containing ones.