Publications by authors named "Marte van der Horst"

Background: Temperature increases in the context of climate change affect numerous mental health outcomes. One such relevant outcome is involuntary admissions as these often relate to severe (life)threatening psychiatric conditions. Due to a shortage of studies into this topic, relationships between mean ambient temperature and involuntary admissions have remained largely elusive.

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The second-generation antipsychotic clozapine is used as a medication for treatment-resistant schizophrenia. It has previously been associated with epigenetic changes in pre-clinical rodent models and cross-sectional studies of treatment-resistant schizophrenia. Cross-sectional studies are susceptible to confounding, however, and cannot disentangle the effects of diagnosis and medication.

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Background: Antibodies against the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) have been described in the serum of people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (schizophrenia). However, the prevalence and clinical relevance of these antibodies in schizophrenia is unclear. This knowledge gap includes the possibility of such antibodies being associated with a distinct clinical profile, which in turn might warrant a distinct treatment approach.

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Article Synopsis
  • Recent advances in psychiatric genetics are raising discussions about using polygenic scores, which are tools that measure how genes could affect mental health.
  • There are important ethical questions to consider, and it's suggested that more genetic counseling services should be offered for patients and their families.
  • Combining polygenic scores with genetic counseling could make psychiatric care better and help patients and their families understand their genetic information more safely and responsibly.
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Clozapine is often underused due to concerns about adverse drug reactions (ADRs) but studies into their prevalences are inconclusive. We therefore comprehensively examined prevalences of clozapine-associated ADRs in individuals with schizophrenia and demographic and clinical factors associated with their occurrence. Data from a multi-center study (n = 698 participants) were collected.

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Article Synopsis
  • * The article examines the challenges of clozapine-resistant schizophrenia and reviews current guidelines, diagnostic tests, and treatment methods, stressing the lack of research on this condition in low- and middle-income countries.
  • * Suggestions for future research focus on innovative clinical trials, genetic studies, real-world epidemiological research, and interventional studies that include input from patients and caregivers, aiming to improve global understanding and treatment of the condition.
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Obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCS) are frequently observed in individuals with schizophrenia (SCZ) treated with clozapine (CLZ). This study aimed to analyze prevalence of OCS and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in this subgroup and find possible correlations with different phenotypes. Additionally, this is the first study to examine polygenetic risk scores (PRS) in individuals with SCZ and OCS.

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Importance: Predictors consistently associated with psychosis liability and course of illness in schizophrenia (SCZ) spectrum disorders (SSD), including the need for clozapine treatment, are lacking. Longitudinally ascertained medication use may empower studies examining associations between polygenic risk scores (PRSs) and pharmacotherapy choices.

Objective: To examine associations between PRS-SCZ loading and groups with different liabilities to SSD (individuals with SSD taking clozapine, individuals with SSD taking other antipsychotics, their parents and siblings, and unrelated healthy controls) and between PRS-SCZ and the likelihood of receiving a prescription of clozapine relative to other antipsychotics.

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Although supported housing facilities (SHF) appear to be an ideal setting for supporting people with severe mental illness (SMI) to obtain a healthier lifestyle, little is known about the effects of lifestyle interventions in SHF and the factors contributing to successful implementation. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the effect of lifestyle interventions on mental and physical health in people with SMI in SHF, and reviewed which intervention factors contribute to successful implementation. A meta-analysis using a random effects model was undertaken.

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Article Synopsis
  • Epigenetic clocks, used to measure biological age from DNA methylation, often show high variability and can differ by up to 9 years due to technical noise, compromising their effectiveness.
  • The authors propose a new computational method that calculates principal components from methylation data, enhancing the reliability of six prominent epigenetic clocks to within 1.5 years across replicates.
  • This improved method is straightforward to implement, requires no prior knowledge for training, and is crucial for advancing personalized medicine and clinical research related to aging.
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Genetic testing has evolved rapidly over recent years and new developments have the potential to provide insights that could improve the ability to diagnose, treat, and prevent diseases. Information obtained through genetic testing has proven useful in other specialties, such as cardiology and oncology. Nonetheless, a range of barriers impedes techniques, such as whole-exome or whole-genome sequencing, pharmacogenomics, and polygenic risk scoring, from being implemented in psychiatric practice.

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Objective: Clozapine response varies widely from person to person, which may be due to inter-individual genetic variability. This umbrella review aims to summarize the current evidence on associations between pharmacodynamic genes and response to clozapine treatment.

Methods: Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis methodology, a systematic literature search was conducted in the PubMed and EMBASE databases from inception to November 2021 to identify systematic reviews and meta-analyses of studies that examined genetic determinants of clozapine response.

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Background: Previous studies into mental health service utilisation during the COVID-19 pandemic are limited to a few countries or specific type of service. In addition, data on changes in telepsychiatry are currently lacking.

Aims: We aimed to investigate whether the COVID-19 pandemic is associated with changes in mental health service utilisation, including telepsychiatry, and how these changes were distributed among patients with mental illness during the first COVID-19 outbreak.

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