Mental Health of Medical Students Before and During COVID-19 Pandemic: a 3-Year Prospective Study.

Background: Very few studies prospectively analyzed medical students' mental health before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to prospectively evaluate mental health in medical students in 2018, 2019, and 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

Methods: All students from first to fourth year were invited to participate in 2018.

Mental health in medical students during COVID-19 quarantine: a comprehensive analysis across year-classes.

Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic brought abrupt changes when quarantine measures were implemented. Most medical students had distance learning as their main content delivery mode, but in clerkship (fifth and sixth years), in-person activities were maintained under new protocols. These different modes may have affected student mental health.

Relationship between Brain Age-Related Reduction in Gray Matter and Educational Attainment.

Inter-subject variability in age-related brain changes may relate to educational attainment, as suggested by cognitive reserve theories. This voxel-based morphometry study investigated the impact of very low educational level on the relationship between regional gray matter (rGM) volumes and age in healthy elders. Magnetic resonance imaging data were acquired in elders with low educational attainment (less than 4 years) (n = 122) and high educational level (n = 66), pulling together individuals examined using either of three MRI scanners/acquisition protocols.

Psychotic symptoms in older people without dementia from a Brazilian community-based sample.

Background: The international prevalence of psychotic symptoms in older subjects without dementia varies from 0.9% to 8.0%.

Structural brain changes as biomarkers and outcome predictors in patients with late-life depression: a cross-sectional and prospective study.

The relationship between structural changes in grey matter and treatment response in patients with late-life depression remains an intriguing area of research. This magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study compares the baseline grey matter volume of elderly people with and without major depression (according to the DSM-IV-TR criteria) and assesses its association with antidepressant treatment response. Brain MRI scans were processed using statistical parametric mapping and voxel-based morphometry.

DTI voxelwise analysis did not differentiate older depressed patients from older subjects without depression.

Introduction: Neuroimaging has been widely used in studies to investigate depression in the elderly because it is a noninvasive technique, and it allows the detection of structural and functional brain alterations. Fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) are neuroimaging indexes of the microstructural integrity of white matter, which are measured using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). The aim of this study was to investigate differences in FA or MD in the entire brain without a previously determined region of interest (ROI) between depressed and non-depressed elderly patients.

Validation of a treatment algorithm for major depression in an older Brazilian sample.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a modified version of the Duke Somatic Algorithm Treatment for Geriatric Depression (STAGED) in a Brazilian sample of older patients with major depression. Besides, we aimed to investigate possible baseline predictive factors for remission in this sample.

Methods: Sixty-seven depressed individuals were treated according to STAGED over 24 weeks in a prospective cohort design with follow-up.

Treatment of depression in older adults.

Depression is the most frequent mental disorder in older people, often causing emotional distress and reduced quality of life. Despite its clinical significance, depression remains underdiagnosed and inadequately treated in older patients. Regarding prognosis, data suggest that almost 70% of patients, treated long enough and with appropriate doses, recover from an index episode of depression.

Cholinesterase inhibitors as adjunctive therapy in patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder: a review and meta-analysis of the literature.

Background: Cognitive deficits have been described in patients with schizophrenia from the first descriptions of dementia praecox to current concepts of cognitive dysmetria. Nevertheless, little is known about how to deal with them. In Alzheimer disease, cholinergic deficit is found and cholinesterase inhibitors have been used to delay the progression of memory and cognitive dysfunction.

Effect of temporal lobe structure volume on memory in elderly depressed patients.

Objective: To compare the volume of the hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus in elderly individuals with and without depressive disorders, and to determine whether the volumes of these regions correlate with scores on memory tests.

Method: Clinical and demographic differences, as well as differences in regional gray matter volumes, were assessed in 48 elderly patients with depressive disorders and 31 control subjects. Brain (structural MRI) scans were processed using statistical parametric mapping and voxel-based morphometry.

Influence of education and depressive symptoms on cognitive function in the elderly.

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the influence that education and depression have on the performance of elderly people in neuropsychological tests.

Methods: The study was conducted at the Institute of Psychiatry, University of São Paulo School of Medicine, Hospital das Clínicas. All of the individuals evaluated were aged 60 or older.

Profile of caregivers of Alzheimer's disease patients attended at a reference center for cognitive disorders.

Unlabelled: This is a study on burden of caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's disease attended at a Reference Center for Cognitive Disorders.

Objective: To evaluate the profile and burden on caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's disease attended at a Reference Center for Cognitive Disorders.

Methods: We collected demographic information and data on the relationship with the patient from caregivers, and measured burden with the Zarit scale.