Physical activity and energy expenditure during depressive episodes of major depression.

Background: Recent data suggest a substantial association between physical activity and depressive symptoms, but there is a lack of research evaluating the physical activity levels in patients suffering from unipolar depression across different stages of disease in an objective way. The aim of the present pilot study was to objectively examine physical activity levels of this patient group compared to healthy controls.

Methods: Physical activity performance of 19 patients with major depressive episode and 19 healthy controls was assessed at three different time points using a multisensory armband device (SenseWear® Pro3 Armband) and was reported as total energy expenditure (TEE), active energy expenditure (EE), metabolic equivalents (METs), physical activity (PA) and time of lying down (LD), in each case over 24h.

Catatonic dilemma in a 33-year-old woman: a discussion.

Case. We report a case of catatonia with elevated CK, elevated temperature, and hypoferritinemia after abrupt discontinuation of clozapine in a patient with known proneness to catatonic symptoms. Reinstatement of clozapine therapy was contraindicated due to leukopenia.

The psychophysical assessment of odor valence: does an anchor stimulus influence the hedonic evaluation of odors?

Olfactory stimuli are experienced primarily in terms of their hedonic tone and the assessment of olfactory hedonic estimates is a prevalent task in scientific and industrial contexts. However, measuring conditions are poorly standardized. Our study aims to fill this gap, focusing on the influence of anchor stimuli on olfactory hedonic evaluations, frequency of anchor presentation, and temporal stability of results.

Olfactory perception in schizophrenia: the rating range for hedonic judgements is increased during acute episodes.

Deficits in olfactory performance have been reported in schizophrenia but results on subjective odour ratings remain unclear. Compared to controls (N=34), schizophrenia inpatients (N=34) expressed deficits concerning odour threshold, discrimination and identification but intact intensity ratings. Most interestingly, patients showed an increased rating range concerning olfactory hedonic judgements.

Schizophrenia risk polymorphisms in the TCF4 gene interact with smoking in the modulation of auditory sensory gating.

Several polymorphisms of the transcription factor 4 (TCF4) have been shown to increase the risk for schizophrenia, particularly TCF4 rs9960767. This polymorphism is associated with impaired sensorimotor gating measured by prepulse inhibition--an established endophenotype of schizophrenia. We therefore investigated whether TCF4 polymorphisms also affect another proposed endophenotype of schizophrenia, namely sensory gating assessed by P50 suppression of the auditory evoked potential.

Neurocognitive impairments in non-deprived smokers--results from a population-based multi-center study on smoking-related behavior.

The aim of the present study was to examine neurocognitive function associated with chronic nicotine use. A total of 2163 healthy participants (1002 smokers, 1161 never-smoking controls) participated in a population-based case-control design. The main outcome measures were six cognitive domain factors derived from a neuropsychological test battery.

Olfactory abnormalities in anxiety disorders.

The olfactory system plays an important role in both animal and human anxiety reactions. However, results on olfactory performance during the course of clinical anxiety disorders remain scarce. Therefore, we conducted an exploratory pilot study in 17 patients currently diagnosed with an anxiety disorder.

The German multi-centre study on smoking-related behavior-description of a population-based case-control study.

Tobacco smoking is a major risk factor for most of the diseases leading in mortality. Nicotine dependence (ND), which sustains regular smoking, is now acknowledged to be under substantial genetic control with some environmental contribution. At present, however, genetic studies on ND are mostly conducted in populations that have been poorly characterized with regard to ND-related phenotypes for the simple reason that the respective populations were not primarily collected to study ND.

P50 sensory gating and smoking in the general population.

P50 gating is a major functional biomarker in research on schizophrenia and other psychiatric conditions with high smoking prevalence. It is used as endophenotype for studying nicotinic systems genetics and as surrogate endpoint measure for drug development of nicotinic agonists. Surprisingly, little is known about P50 gating in the general population and the relationship to smoking-related characteristics.

Psychological and hormonal features of smokers at risk to gain weight after smoking cessation--results of a multicenter study.

Preclinical and clinical data suggest modulating effects of appetite-regulating hormones and stress perception on food intake. Nicotine intake also interferes with regulation of body weight. Especially following smoking cessation gaining weight is a common but only partially understood consequence.

NACP-Rep1 relates to Beck Depression Inventory scores in healthy humans.

Alpha-synuclein (SNCA) is associated with a range of psychiatric diseases including neurodegeneration, alcohol craving, and depression. It regulates cellular homeostasis by virtue of its ability to interfere in dopaminergic, serotonergic, and noradrenergic pathways. To date, it is unclear whether the previously described association between SNCA and depressive symptomatology is limited to females with eating disorders or whether it could be extended to include healthy individuals.

ERK1/2 protein and mRNA levels in human blood are linked to smoking behavior.

From studies in cultured cells and animal models, nicotine and alcohol are known to regulate extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1 and 2 (ERK1/2). Alterations of ERK1/2 are thought to contribute to the drugs' rewarding effects. Accumulating evidence supports the importance of ERK1/2 in the molecular pathophysiology of depression and affective regulation in the hippocampus.

The relation between depression, anhedonia and olfactory hedonic estimates--a pilot study in major depression.

Several studies investigating olfactory hedonics in major depression have brought conflicting results and an analysis of the relation between severity of depression, anhedonia and olfactory hedonics is still lacking. In order to investigate olfactory perception in different depressive states, we carried out olfactory testing during a depressive episode (n=37) and in a remitted state (n=17). As expected, patients were significantly less depressed (p<0.

Smoking behaviour is associated with expression and phosphorylation of CREB in human buffy coat.

Nicotine induces various acute und chronic pharmacological effects which can be long lasting and might lead to nicotine dependence. Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are involved in nicotine-induced phosphorylation of CREB (cyclic AMP response element-binding protein) in PC12h cells. Several studies, mainly done in animal models, report that CREB plays a role in anxiety, memory and substance abuse as well as in affective disorders.