Publications by authors named "Malla A"

Delusions are a defining feature of psychosis and play an important role in the conceptualization and diagnosis of psychotic disorders; however, the particular role that different delusions play in the prognosis of these disorders is not well understood. This study explored relationships between delusions and other symptoms in 674 first episode psychosis (FEP) individuals by comparing symptom networks between baseline and 12 months after intake to an early intervention service. Specifically, we (1) estimated regularized partial correlation networks at baseline and month 12, (2) identified the most central symptoms in each network, (3) identified clusters of highly connected symptoms, and (4) compared networks to examine changes in structure and connectivity.

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  • Social anxiety disorder (SAD) often occurs alongside first-episode psychosis (FEP), which can worsen cognitive issues; this study investigates whether group cognitive remediation (CR) is more effective than group cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for improving cognition in FEP+SAD patients.
  • Participants with FEP+SAD were divided into two groups, receiving either CR or CBT, and their cognitive performance was measured at various points, showing significant improvement in executive functions and visual memory for those in the CR group.
  • While 44% of participants completed the CR sessions, the study found challenges in engagement and acceptability, suggesting the need for future research to enhance participation in CR programs.
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Regulation of the transcriptome to promote meiosis is important for sperm development and fertility. However, how chromatin remodeling directs the transcriptome during meiosis in male germ cells is largely unknown. Here, we demonstrate that the ISWI family ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling factor SMARCA5 (SNF2H) plays a critical role in regulating meiotic prophase progression during spermatogenesis.

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  • - Nepal experiences frequent devastating earthquakes, like the 2023 Jajarkot quake, which exacerbate existing healthcare issues and lead to infectious diseases, mental health challenges, and nutritional deficiencies.
  • - The article stresses the importance of a global health perspective in addressing the multifaceted health impacts of these disasters, emphasizing long-term effects like mental health disorders and the need for better coordination and building safety measures.
  • - It advocates for community involvement and international collaboration in developing strategies to enhance resilience against future earthquakes, while also highlighting the interconnection between climate change and seismic risks.
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To evaluate the extent to which pharmacies in Hetauda Sub-metropolitan City, Nepal adhere to the recommended practices outlined in the good pharmacy practice guidelines formulated by International Pharmaceutical Federation and draft developed by Nepal Pharmacy Council. Good Pharmacy Practice evaluates the safety, effectiveness, availability, and accessibility of medicines, ensuring their correct usage which is essential component of community pharmacies. Data was collected by visiting community pharmacies throughout Hetauda sub-metropolitan city.

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  • High rates of NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) are found in individuals experiencing their first episode of psychosis (FEP), which can be influenced by both sociodemographic and clinical factors.
  • The study used statistical analyses on 440 FEP patients to explore how sociodemographic variables (like socioeconomic status) and clinical variables (like negative symptom severity) interactively affect NEET status.
  • Results showed that both negative symptom severity and socioeconomic status independently contribute to NEET status, and their intersection highlights the complexity of these patients' functional outcomes, underscoring the need for tailored support that addresses both mental health and vocational resources.
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Importance: Despite growing interest in the phenomenology of delusions in psychosis, at present little is known about their content and evolution over time, including whether delusion themes are consistent across episodes.

Objective: To examine the course of delusions and thematic delusion content across relapse episodes in patients presenting to an early intervention service for psychosis.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This longitudinal, observational study used clinical data systematically collected from January 2003 to March 2018 from a cohort of consenting patients with affective or nonaffective first-episode psychosis, followed up naturalistically for up to 2 years in an early intervention service for psychosis in Montréal, Quebec, Canada.

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Purpose: We describe the development of an online fidelity questionnaire for early intervention in psychosis (EIP) services, to be used in population-level research, and that can be completed using self-reports from EIP staff.

Methods: A review of key literature sources on the components of EIP services was used to identify those components eligible for inclusion in the questionnaire. A modified Delphi approach, using experts in EIP services, was used to select the most important components to include in the questionnaire.

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Purpose: Fast, easy, and cost-effective methods are needed for fidelity assessment, quality improvement initiatives, and population-based studies in Early Intervention for Psychosis (EIP) services. Having an online questionnaire assessing the fidelity of EIP services, completed by staff self-reports, and having evidence of reliability and validity, could fill that gap. We assess the reliability and validity of the Early Intervention for Psychosis Services Fidelity Questionnaire (EIPS-FQ), developed in Part I of this set of papers.

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Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is common in up to 50% of patients with facial fractures. Orbital fractures account for 25% of all facial fractures. The authors sought to determine the prevalence and risk factors for TBI in patients undergoing orbital fracture repair (OFR) and assess the impact of TBI on surgical timing.

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Infiltrating gliomas are challenging to treat, as the blood-brain barrier significantly impedes the success of therapeutic interventions. While some clinical trials for high-grade gliomas have shown promise, patient outcomes remain poor. Microbubble-enhanced focused ultrasound (MB-FUS) is a rapidly evolving technology with demonstrated safety and efficacy in opening the blood-brain barrier across various disease models, including infiltrating gliomas.

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  • Neurocognitive impairment is a key characteristic of schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSDs), with existing research indicating a strong link between cognitive issues and negative symptoms of the disorders.
  • The study utilized iterative Constrained Principal Component Analysis (iCPCA) on a group of 121 SSD patients to analyze the connection between 18 cognitive measures and 46 symptoms, aiming to clarify which specific negative symptoms correlate with cognitive impairments.
  • Results revealed that verbal memory problems were associated with negative and disorganized emotional communication, while working memory deficits were linked to motor impairment symptoms, suggesting different brain networks are affected and emphasizing the need for more research into tailored treatments.
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Background: Cross-cultural psychosis research has mostly focused on outcomes, rather than patient and family experiences. Therefore, our aim was to examine differences in patients' and families' experiences of their treating teams in early intervention services for psychosis in Chennai, India [low- and middle-income country] and Montreal, Canada [high-income country].

Methods: Patients (165 in Chennai, 128 in Montreal) and their families (135 in Chennai, 110 in Montreal) completed Show me you care, a patient- and family-reported experience measure, after Months 3, 12, and 24 in treatment.

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Cancer cells exhibit a unique metabolic preference for the glycolytic pathway over oxidative phosphorylation for maintaining the tumor microenvironment. Lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA) is a key enzyme that facilitates glycolysis by converting pyruvate to lactate and has been shown to be upregulated in multiple cancers due to the hypoxic tumor microenvironment. Diclofenac (DCF), a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, has been shown to exhibit anticancer effects by interfering with the glucose metabolism pathway.

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Hallucinations are a core feature of psychosis, and their severity during the acute phase of illness is associated with a range of poor outcomes. Various clinical and sociodemographic factors may predict hallucinations and other positive psychotic symptoms in first episode psychosis (FEP). Despite this, the precise factors associated with hallucinations at first presentation to an early intervention service have not been extensively researched.

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Background: Global evidence on psychosis is dominated by studies conducted in Western, high-income countries. The objectives of the Study of Context Of Psychoses to improve outcomes in Ethiopia (SCOPE) are (1) to generate rigorous evidence of psychosis experience, epidemiology and impacts in Ethiopia that will illuminate aetiological understanding and (2) inform development and testing of interventions for earlier identification and improved first contact care that are scalable, inclusive of difficult-to-reach populations and optimise recovery.

Methods: The setting is sub-cities of Addis Ababa and rural districts in south-central Ethiopia covering 1.

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Cobra () venom contains many toxins including α-neurotoxin (αNTX) and phospholipase A2 (PLA2), which can cause neurodegeneration, respiratory failure, and even death. The traditional antivenom derived from animal serum faces many challenges and limitations. Heavy-chain-only antibodies (HCAb), fusing V with human IgG Fc region, offer advantages in tissue penetration, antigen binding, and extended half-life.

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Multiscale neuroscience conceptualizes mental illness as arising from aberrant interactions across and within multiple biopsychosocial scales. We leverage this framework to propose a multiscale disease progression model of psychosis, in which hippocampal-cortical dysconnectivity precedes impairments in episodic memory and social cognition, which lead to more severe negative symptoms and lower functional outcome. As psychosis represents a heterogeneous collection of biological and behavioral alterations that evolve over time, we further predict this disease progression for a subtype of the patient sample, with other patients showing normal-range performance on all variables.

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