Combined Processing of Facial and Vocal Emotion in Remitted Patients With Bipolar I Disorder.

Objectives: Bipolar disorder (BD) is associated with impairments in facial emotion and emotional prosody perception during both mood episodes and periods of remission. To expand on previous research, the current study investigated cross-modal emotion perception, that is, matching of facial emotion and emotional prosody in remitted BD patients.

Methods: Fifty-nine outpatients with BD and 45 healthy volunteers were included into a cross-sectional study.

Drug-induced phospholipidosis caused by combinations of common drugs in vitro.

Drug-induced phospholipidosis (DIPLD), characterized by the accumulation of phospholipids within lysosomes, is suspected to impair lysosomal function and considered an adverse side effect of the administered medication. The increasing use of polypharmacy and the resultant elevated risks of adverse drug reactions raise the need to explore the effects of drug combinations with respect to their influence on side effects, such as DIPLD. In this study, we utilized an in vitro assay to investigate DIPLD that was caused by 24 commonly used drugs applied alone and in binary combinations with each other.

Safety and tolerability of anticonvulsant medication in bipolar disorder.

Introduction: Anticonvulsants (AC) are widely used and recommended as a treatment option in different phases of bipolar disorder (BD). In contrast to ample evidence for efficacy in acute mania, there is generally less unambiguous evidence for maintenance treatment or bipolar depression, and data on long-term tolerability in BD are sparse, although this varies greatly between different compounds. This review summarizes the clinically relevant tolerability and safety profile of ACs commonly used for the treatment of BD based on findings from randomized controlled trials (RCT).

Prosodic and semantic affect perception in remitted patients with bipolar I disorder.

Objective: Bipolar disorder is associated with impairments in emotion processing that are present during both mood episodes and periods of remission. In this context, most previous studies have investigated facial emotion recognition abilities. In contrast, the current study focused on the perception of prosodic and semantic affect.

Functional inhibitors of acid sphingomyelinase (FIASMAs).

Sphingolipids are not only structural components of biological membranes, but also play an important role in cellular signalling and, thus, are involved in cell proliferation and differentiation but also stress and cell death. It is therefore of great clinical relevance to define inhibitors of the enzymes involved in sphingolipid metabolism. Here, we describe the state of the art of functional inhibitors of the acid sphingomyelinase.

Identification of PPARgamma partial agonists of natural origin (I): development of a virtual screening procedure and in vitro validation.

Background: Although there are successful examples of the discovery of new PPARγ agonists, it has recently been of great interest to identify new PPARγ partial agonists that do not present the adverse side effects caused by PPARγ full agonists. Consequently, the goal of this work was to design, apply and validate a virtual screening workflow to identify novel PPARγ partial agonists among natural products.

Methodology/principal Findings: We have developed a virtual screening procedure based on structure-based pharmacophore construction, protein-ligand docking and electrostatic/shape similarity to discover novel scaffolds of PPARγ partial agonists.

Identification of drugs inducing phospholipidosis by novel in vitro data.

Drug-induced phospholipidosis (PLD) is a lysosomal storage disorder characterized by the accumulation of phospholipids within the lysosome. This adverse drug effect can occur in various tissues and is suspected to impact cellular viability. Therefore, it is important to test chemical compounds for their potential to induce PLD during the drug design process.

Qualitative prediction of blood-brain barrier permeability on a large and refined dataset.

The prediction of blood-brain barrier permeation is vitally important for the optimization of drugs targeting the central nervous system as well as for avoiding side effects of peripheral drugs. Following a previously proposed model on blood-brain barrier penetration, we calculated the cross-sectional area perpendicular to the amphiphilic axis. We obtained a high correlation between calculated and experimental cross-sectional area (r = 0.

Facial emotion recognition and its relationship to subjective and functional outcomes in remitted patients with bipolar I disorder.

Objectives:   Outcome in bipolar disorder (BD) is multidimensional and consists of clinical and psychosocial domains. Difficulties in affect recognition and in emotional experience are a hallmark of BD, but there is little research investigating the consequences of this deficit on the psychosocial status of patients who are in remission.

Methods:   This cross-sectional study examined the relationship of facial affect recognition and treatment outcomes in terms of psychopathology, quality of life, and psychosocial functioning in remitted BD patients compared to healthy volunteers.

Identification of novel functional inhibitors of acid sphingomyelinase.

We describe a hitherto unknown feature for 27 small drug-like molecules, namely functional inhibition of acid sphingomyelinase (ASM). These entities named FIASMAs (Functional Inhibitors of Acid SphingoMyelinAse), therefore, can be potentially used to treat diseases associated with enhanced activity of ASM, such as Alzheimer's disease, major depression, radiation- and chemotherapy-induced apoptosis and endotoxic shock syndrome. Residual activity of ASM measured in the presence of 10 µM drug concentration shows a bimodal distribution; thus the tested drugs can be classified into two groups with lower and higher inhibitory activity.

Conformation-dependent QSPR models: logPOW.

Quantitative structure-property relationships for predicting the water-octanol partition coefficient, logP(OW), are reported. The models are based on local properties calculated at the standard isodensity surface using semiempirical molecular orbital theory and use descriptors obtained as the areas of the surface found in each bin in a predefined binning scheme. The effect of conformation is taken into account but was found to have little effect on the predictive power of the models.

Functional Inhibitors of Acid Sphingomyelinase (FIASMAs): a novel pharmacological group of drugs with broad clinical applications.

Acid sphingomyelinase (ASM) is an important lipid-metabolizing enzyme cleaving sphingomyelin to ceramide, mainly within lysosomes. Acid ceramidase (AC) further degrades ceramide to sphingosine which can then be phosphorylated to sphingosine-1-phosphate. Ceramide and its metabolite sphingosine-1-phosphate have been shown to antagonistically regulate apoptosis, cellular differentiation, proliferation and cell migration.

Brief relaxation versus music distraction in the treatment of dental anxiety: a randomized controlled clinical trial.

Background: Dental anxiety is a significant cause of poor dental health. Because patients often prefer nonpharmacological interventions, the clinical effectiveness of clearly structured approaches is of particular interest.

Methods: This prospective randomized controlled study compares a brief relaxation method (BR) with music distraction (MD) and with a control group (C).

Influence of topiramate on olanzapine-related weight gain in women: an 18-month follow-up observation.

In a randomized controlled trial, we compared the efficacy of topiramate versus placebo in women undergoing olanzapine therapy and found that topiramate effectively contributed to weight loss in short-term treatment and had a positive effect on health-related quality of life, the patients' actual state of health, and psychological impairments. The aim of this observational study was to assess whether topiramate has a sustained benefit in long-term treatment of olanzapine-associated weight gain in subjects who had participated in the previous randomized controlled trial comparing topiramate with placebo. The subjects (topiramate group, n = 25; former placebo group, n = 18) were observed in an 18-month open-label study.

Bioenergetic exercises in inpatient treatment of Turkish immigrants with chronic somatoform disorders: a randomized, controlled study.

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine whether bioenergetic exercises (BE) significantly influence the inpatient psychotherapeutic treatment results for Turkish immigrants with chronic somatoform disorders.

Method: In a 6-week randomized, prospective, controlled trial, we treated a sample of 128 Turkish patients: 64 were randomly assigned to BE and 64 participated in gymnastic exercises in lieu of BE. The Symptom Checklist (SCL-90-R) and State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI) were employed.

Topiramate in treatment of patients with chronic low back pain: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.

Objective: Chronic low back pain (CLBP) is a widespread ailment. The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of topiramate in the treatment of CLBP and the changes in anger status and processing, body weight, subjective pain-related disability and health-related quality of life during the course of treatment.

Methods: We conducted a 10-week, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of topiramate in 96 (36 women) patients with CLBP.

Influence of family therapy on bullying behaviour, cortisol secretion, anger, and quality of life in bullying male adolescents: A randomized, prospective, controlled study.

Objective: To determine the influence of brief strategic family therapy (BSFT) on salivary cortisol, anger, and health-related quality of life (QoL) in adolescent boys with bullying behaviour.

Method: We selected a sample of 72 boys demonstrating bullying behaviour from the general population and treated 36 with BSFT for 12 weeks. The other 36 boys formed the control group.

Pregnant women with bronchial asthma benefit from progressive muscle relaxation: a randomized, prospective, controlled trial.

Background: Asthma is a serious medical problem in pregnancy and is often associated with stress, anger and poor quality of life. The aim of this study was to determine the efficacy of progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) on change in blood pressure, lung parameters, heart rate, anger and health-related quality of life in pregnant women with bronchial asthma.

Methods: We treated a sample of 64 pregnant women with bronchial asthma from the local population in an 8-week randomized, prospective, controlled trial.

Aripiprazole in the treatment of patients with borderline personality disorder: a double-blind, placebo-controlled study.

Objective: Aripiprazole is a relatively new atypical antipsychotic agent that has been successfully employed in therapy for schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders. A few neuroleptics have been used in therapy for patients with borderline personality disorder, which is associated with severe psychopathological symptoms. Aripiprazole, however, has not yet been tested for this disorder, and the goal of this study was to determine whether aripiprazole is effective in the treatment of several domains of symptoms of borderline personality disorder.

[Treatment results from inpatient psychosomatic rehabilitation of Turkish migrants: a prospective study].

Psychosomatic rehabilitation and the concluding social-medical assessment constitute a particular challenge. The aim of this study was to examine whether inpatient psychosomatic rehabilitation in the context of an integrated treatment concept, conducted in Turkish and German, is effective in the rehabilitation of Turkish migrant laborers, and what concluding socio-medical assessment results from this treatment. 195 Turkish patients--44 male and 151 female--received inpatient psychosomatic treatment for approximately 40 days.