Web-Based Therapist Training in Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Depression: Pilot Study.

Background: Training mental health professionals to deliver evidence-based therapy (EBT) is now required by most academic accreditation bodies, and evaluating the effectiveness of such training is imperative. However, shortages of time, money, and trained EBT clinician teachers make these challenges daunting. New technologies may help.

Circulating myeloid-derived suppressor cells increase in patients undergoing neo-adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer.

This study sought to evaluate whether myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) could be affected by chemotherapy and correlate with pathologic complete response (pCR) in breast cancer patients receiving neo-adjuvant chemotherapy. Peripheral blood levels of granulocytic (G-MDSC) and monocytic (M-MDSC) MDSC were measured by flow cytometry prior to cycle 1 and 2 of doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide and 1st and last administration of paclitaxel or paclitaxel/anti-HER2 therapy. Of 24 patients, 11, 6 and 7 patients were triple negative, HER2+ and hormone receptor+, respectively.

Chronic use of PAH-specific therapy in World Health Organization Group III Pulmonary Hypertension: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) complicating chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD-PH) and interstitial lung disease (ILD-PH) (World Health Organization [WHO] Group III PH) increases medical costs and reduces survival. Despite limited data, many clinicians are using pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH)-specific therapy to treat WHO Group III PH patients. To further investigate the utility of PAH-specific therapy in WHO Group III PH, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Dynamic illumination of spatially restricted or large brain volumes via a single tapered optical fiber.

Optogenetics promises precise spatiotemporal control of neural processes using light. However, the spatial extent of illumination within the brain is difficult to control and cannot be adjusted using standard fiber optics. We demonstrate that optical fibers with tapered tips can be used to illuminate either spatially restricted or large brain volumes.

Ethanol Interactions With Dexmethylphenidate and dl-Methylphenidate Spheroidal Oral Drug Absorption Systems in Healthy Volunteers.

Background/purpose: Ethanol coadministered with immediate-release dl-methylphenidate (dl-MPH) or dexmethylphenidate (d-MPH) significantly increases the geomean maximum plasma concentration (Cmax) of d-MPH 22% and 15%, respectively, and elevates overall drug exposure and psychostimulant effects. We asked the question: Are these ethanol-MPH interactions based more fundamentally on (1) inhibition of postabsorption d-MPH metabolism or (2) acceleration of MPH formulation gastric dissolution by ethanol in the stomach? This was investigated using the pulsatile, distinctly biphasic, spheroidal oral drug absorption systems of dl-MPH and d-MPH.

Methods: In a randomized, 4-way crossover study, 14 healthy subjects received pulsatile dl-MPH (40 mg) or d-MPH (20 mg), with or without ethanol (0.

Working Alliance, Interpersonal Problems, and Depressive Symptoms in Tele-Interpersonal Psychotherapy for HIV-infected Rural Persons: Evidence for Indirect Effects.

Objective: Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) has demonstrated efficacy for the treatment of depression, yet little is known about its therapeutic mechanisms. As a specific treatment, IPT has been shown to directly reduce depressive symptoms, although it is unclear whether these reductions occur via interpersonal changes. Within IPT, the potential role of the working alliance, a common factor, as a predictor of depression and interpersonal changes is also unclear.

Examination of Psychosocial and Physiological Risk for Bulimic Symptoms in Youth With Type 1 Diabetes Transitioning to an Insulin Pump: A Pilot Study.

Objectives: This study tested hypotheses drawn from a risk model positing that psychosocial risk plus disease-related and treatment factors contribute to bulimic symptoms in youth with type 1 diabetes (T1D) transitioning to an insulin pump. The goal of this study was to examine whether disease-related factors, particularly disease- and treatment-based disruption in hunger and satiety, contribute to report of bulimic symptoms in youth with T1D after accounting for psychosocial risk factors.

Methods: 43 youth (ages 10-17, 54% female) with established T1D were recruited before transition from multiple daily injections to insulin-pump therapy from three tertiary pediatric diabetes centers.

Plasma MicroRNA Levels Following Resection of Metastatic Melanoma.

Melanoma remains the leading cause of skin cancer-related deaths. Surgical resection and adjuvant therapies can result in disease-free intervals for stage III and stage IV disease; however, recurrence is common. Understanding microRNA (miR) dynamics following surgical resection of melanomas is critical to accurately interpret miR changes suggestive of melanoma recurrence.

The effect of milk thistle (Silybum marianum) and its main flavonolignans on CYP2C8 enzyme activity in human liver microsomes.

Milk thistle is a widely-consumed botanical used for an array of purported health benefits. The primary extract of milk thistle is termed silymarin, a complex mixture that contains a number of structurally-related flavonolignans, the flavonoid, taxifolin, and a number of other constituents. The major flavonolignans present in most extracts are silybin A, silybin B, isosilybin A and isosilybin B, silydianin, silychristin and isosilychristin.

The use of baseline biomarkers to predict outcome in melanoma patients treated with pembrolizumab.

In an elegant study by Weide ., baseline biomarkers to predict responses to anti-programmed death-1 (PD-1) (pembrolizumab) therapy in melanoma patients were investigated (1).

Stability-preserving decompression in degenerative versus congenital spinal stenosis: demographic patterns and patient outcomes.

Background Context: Although lumbar spinal stenosis often presents as a degenerative condition (degenerative stenosis [DS]), some patients present with symptoms from lifelong narrowing of the spinal canal. These patients have congenital stenosis (CS) and present with symptoms of stenosis at a younger age. Patients with CS often have a distinct pathophysiology with fewer degenerative changes but present with multilevel involvement.

History of sexual trauma moderates psychotherapy outcome for posttraumatic stress disorder.

Background: Moderators of differential psychotherapy outcome for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are rare, yet have crucial clinical importance. We tested the moderating effects of trauma type for three psychotherapies in 110 unmedicated patients with chronic DSM-IV PTSD.

Methods: Patients were randomized to 14 weeks of prolonged exposure (PE, N = 38), interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT, N = 40), or relaxation therapy (RT, N = 32).

Prediction of complicated disease course for children newly diagnosed with Crohn's disease: a multicentre inception cohort study.

Background: Stricturing and penetrating complications account for substantial morbidity and health-care costs in paediatric and adult onset Crohn's disease. Validated models to predict risk for complications are not available, and the effect of treatment on risk is unknown.

Methods: We did a prospective inception cohort study of paediatric patients with newly diagnosed Crohn's disease at 28 sites in the USA and Canada.

Infliximab Is Not Associated With Increased Risk of Malignancy or Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis in Pediatric Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Background And Aims: Immunosuppressive therapy for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in pediatric patients is thought to increase the risk of malignancy and lymphoproliferative disorders, including hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH). We compared unadjusted incidence rates of malignancy and HLH in pediatric patients with IBD exposed to infliximab (IFX) with patients not exposed to biologics and calculated standardized incidence ratios (SIRs).

Methods: We collected and analyzed data from 5766 participants in a prospective study of long-term outcomes of pediatric patients with IBD (NCT00606346), from May 31, 2007 through June 30, 2016.

Mucosal Expression of Type 2 and Type 17 Immune Response Genes Distinguishes Ulcerative Colitis From Colon-Only Crohn's Disease in Treatment-Naive Pediatric Patients.

Background & Aims: There is controversy regarding the role of the type 2 immune response in the pathogenesis of ulcerative colitis (UC)-few data are available from treatment-naive patients. We investigated whether genes associated with a type 2 immune response in the intestinal mucosa are up-regulated in treatment-naive pediatric patients with UC compared with patients with Crohn's disease (CD)-associated colitis or without inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and whether expression levels are associated with clinical outcomes.

Methods: We used a real-time reverse-transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction array to analyze messenger RNA (mRNA) expression patterns in rectal mucosal samples from 138 treatment-naive pediatric patients with IBD and macroscopic rectal disease, as well as those from 49 children without IBD (controls), enrolled in a multicenter prospective observational study from 2008 to 2012.

An Appraisal of Drug-Drug Interactions with Green Tea (Camellia sinensis).

This review summarizes published , animal, and clinical studies investigating the effects of green tea () extract and associated catechins on drug-metabolizing enzymes and drug transporters. studies suggest that green tea extract and its main catechin, (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate, to varying degrees, inhibit the activity of CYP1A1, CYP1A2, CYP2B6, CYP2C8, CYP2C9, CYP2D6, and CYP3A4. UGT1A1 and UGT1A4 isoforms were also inhibited by (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate.

Pulmonary pulse wave transit time is associated with right ventricular-pulmonary artery coupling in pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Pulmonary pulse wave transit time (pPTT), defined as the time for the systolic pressure pulse wave to travel from the pulmonary valve to the pulmonary veins, has been reported to be reduced in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH); however, the underlying mechanism of reduced pPTT is unknown. Here, we investigate the hypothesis that abbreviated pPTT in PAH results from impaired right ventricular-pulmonary artery (RV-PA) coupling. We quantified pPTT using pulsed-wave Doppler ultrasound from 10 healthy age- and sex-matched controls and 36 patients with PAH.

Side Effects to Antidepressant Treatment in Patients With Depression and Comorbid Panic Disorder.

Objective: Side effects to antidepressant medication can affect the efficacy of treatment, but few predictors foretell who experiences side effects and which side effects they experience. This secondary data analysis examined whether depressed patients with comorbid panic disorder were more likely to experience side effects than those without panic disorder. The study also examined whether greater burden of side effects predicted a poorer treatment course for patients with panic disorder than those without panic disorder.

A phase IB study of ipilimumab with peginterferon alfa-2b in patients with unresectable melanoma.

Background: Ipilimumab and peginterferon alfa-2b are established systemic treatment options for melanoma that have distinct mechanisms of action. Given the need for improved therapies for advanced melanoma, we conducted an open-label, single institution, phase Ib study to assess the safety and tolerability of using these two agents in combination.

Methods: Study treatment consisted of ipilimumab given every 3 weeks, for a total of four infusions, concurrent with peginterferon alfa-2b administered subcutaneous weekly for a total of 12 weeks.

Altered resting state functional connectivity of fear and reward circuitry in comorbid PTSD and major depression.

Background: Individuals with comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder and major depressive disorder (PTSD-MDD) often exhibit greater functional impairment and poorer treatment response than individuals with PTSD alone. Research has not determined whether PTSD-MDD is associated with different network connectivity abnormalities than PTSD alone.

Methods: We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure resting state functional connectivity (rs-FC) patterns of brain regions involved in fear and reward processing in three groups: patients with PTSD-alone (n = 27), PTSD-MDD (n = 21), and trauma-exposed healthy controls (TEHCs, n = 34).

Unstable neurons underlie a stable learned behavior.

Motor skills can be maintained for decades, but the biological basis of this memory persistence remains largely unknown. The zebra finch, for example, sings a highly stereotyped song that is stable for years, but it is not known whether the precise neural patterns underlying song are stable or shift from day to day. Here we demonstrate that the population of projection neurons coding for song in the premotor nucleus, HVC, change from day to day.

The combination of MLN2238 (ixazomib) with interferon-alpha results in enhanced cell death in melanoma.

The ubiquitin-proteasome signaling pathway is critical for cell cycle regulation and neoplastic growth. Proteasome inhibition can activate apoptotic pathways. Bortezomib, a selective proteasome inhibitor, has anti-melanoma activity.

Neural changes in extinction recall following prolonged exposure treatment for PTSD: A longitudinal fMRI study.

Background: Neurobiological models of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) implicate fear processing impairments in the maintenance of the disorder. Specific deficits in extinction recall, the retention of learned extinction, have been demonstrated. While deficient extinction recall, and the associated activation pattern of prefrontal and hippocampal regions, distinguishes individuals with PTSD from controls, research has not yet examined changes following treatment.

MicroRNA profiling of patient plasma for clinical trials using bioinformatics and biostatistical approaches.

Background: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short noncoding RNAs that function to repress translation of mRNA transcripts and contribute to the development of cancer. We hypothesized that miRNA array-based technologies work best for miRNA profiling of patient-derived plasma samples when the techniques and patient populations are precisely defined.

Methods: Plasma samples were obtained from five sources: melanoma clinical trial of interferon and bortezomib (12), purchased normal donor plasma samples (four), gastrointestinal tumor bank (nine), melanoma tumor bank (ten), or aged-matched normal donors (eight) for the tumor bank samples.