Reported Health Behaviour Changes after a Diagnosis of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus among Ethnic Minority Women Living in Canada.

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to examine differences in health behaviours among ethnic minority and Caucasian women after a diagnosis of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Data were derived from medical charts and a questionnaire among a multi-ethnic cohort of 898 Canadian pregnant women diagnosed with GDM attending prenatal diabetes clinics in Ontario, Canada. Health behaviours were compared between ethnic minority and Caucasian women, adjusting for relevant covariates.

Effects of short-term quetiapine treatment on emotional processing, sleep and circadian rhythms.

Background: Quetiapine is an atypical antipsychotic that can stabilise mood from any index episode of bipolar disorder. This study investigated the effects of seven-day quetiapine administration on sleep, circadian rhythms and emotional processing in healthy volunteers.

Methods: Twenty healthy volunteers received 150 mg quetiapine XL for seven nights and 20 matched controls received placebo.

On est ensemble: social capital and maternal health care use in rural Cameroon.

Background: Every day approximately 1500 women worldwide die due to pregnancy or childbirth related complications. Maternal health care use is critical in reducing maternal mortality worldwide. Cameroon has one of the highest maternal mortality rates worldwide, but there is little knowledge about maternal health care use in Cameroon, particularly in more remote areas.

The subjective impact of a diagnosis of gestational diabetes among ethnically diverse pregnant women: a qualitative study.

Objective: Women diagnosed with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) require enhanced medical care, social support and health behaviour changes to reduce the complications of pregnancy and future adverse health outcomes. Little is known about how a GDM diagnosis positively and negatively impacts women, especially those of diverse ethnic backgrounds. This qualitative study sought to gain insight into the reactions and experiences of multiethnic women diagnosed with GDM.

Readiness for diabetes prevention and barriers to lifestyle change in women with a history of gestational diabetes mellitus: rationale and study design.

Aims: Women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) have a high risk of future diabetes, which can be prevented with lifestyle modification. Prior diabetes prevention programmes in this population have been limited by lack of adherence. The aim of this study is to evaluate readiness for behaviour change at different time points after GDM diagnosis and identify barriers and facilitators, to inform a lifestyle modification programme specifically designed for this group.

Short-term quetiapine treatment alters the use of reinforcement signals during risky decision-making and promotes the choice of negative expected values in healthy adult males.

Effective decision-making can involve using environmental signals about the possible good and bad outcomes, and their probabilities, to select optimal actions. Problematic decision-making in psychiatric disorders, and particularly bipolar illness, may result from disrupted use of these reinforcement cues, leading to actions that reflect or precipitate pathological changes in mood. Previous experiments indicate that the processing of reinforcement cues while selecting between risky actions can be influenced by dopamine and serotonin activity.

Effects of short-term varenicline administration on cortisol in healthy, non-smoking adults: a randomized, double-blind, study.

Rationale: Varenicline is the most effective drug for smoking cessation, but its use decreased because of reports of depressogenic side effects. However, because smoking and smoking cessation on their own are associated with depression, it remains unclear whether reported depressogenic effects are attributable to varenicline, or to smoking, and/or smoking cessation themselves.

Objectives: Previously, we observed no depressogenic effects of varenicline on a psychological level.

Beta adrenergic blockade reduces utilitarian judgement.

Noradrenergic pathways are involved in mediating the central and peripheral effects of physiological arousal. The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of noradrenergic transmission in moral decision-making. We studied the effects in healthy volunteers of propranolol (a noradrenergic beta-adrenoceptor antagonist) on moral judgement in a set of moral dilemmas pitting utilitarian outcomes (e.

Propranolol reduces implicit negative racial bias.

Background: Implicit negative attitudes towards other races are important in certain kinds of prejudicial social behaviour. Emotional mechanisms are thought to be involved in mediating implicit "outgroup" bias but there is little evidence concerning the underlying neurobiology. The aim of the present study was to examine the role of noradrenergic mechanisms in the generation of implicit racial attitudes.

Short-term NK1 receptor antagonism and emotional processing in healthy volunteers.

Background: Despite early promise in phase II, the performance of the NK1 receptor antagonist aprepitant in subsequent clinical trials has been disappointing. Healthy volunteer models of emotional processing offer a potential means by which novel drugs can be screened prior to clinical trials. Here, we consider the effect of 7 days of treatment with aprepitant in such a model.

National female literacy, individual socio-economic status, and maternal health care use in sub-Saharan Africa.

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals have identified improving women's access to maternal health care as a key target in reducing maternal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa (sSA). Although individual factors such as income and urban residence can affect maternal health care use, little is known about national-level factors associated with use. Yet, such knowledge may highlight the importance of global and national policies in improving use.

Low-dose tryptophan depletion in recovered depressed women induces impairments in autobiographical memory specificity.

Background: Depressed patients perform poorly on tests of autobiographical memory specificity (AMS); this may have negative consequences for other important cognitive abilities, delays recovery from mood episodes, and, in recovered patients, may mediate vulnerability to future episodes. Although the cognitive mechanisms underlying AMS deficits are beginning to be understood, the neurobiological mechanisms remain unclear. Serotonin is implicated in both depression and long-term memory; therefore, temporary lowering of brain serotonin function via acute tryptophan depletion (ATD) offers a means of studying the role of serotonin in autobiographical memory specificity.

Effects of acute tyrosine depletion on subjective craving and selective processing of smoking-related cues in abstinent cigarette smokers.

We investigated the impact of the administration of a tyrosine-depleting amino acid mixture compared to a balanced mixture on measures of mood, craving and selective processing of smoking-related cues in healthy cigarette smokers instructed to abstain from smoking for 12 h prior to, and during, the experiment. A modified stroop task was used to index selective processing of smoking-related cues. We observed evidence for an increase in subjective craving among males, and an attenuation of the selective processing of smoking-related cues compared to control cues among females, in the tyrosine-depleting condition compared to the balanced condition.

Tyrosine depletion alters cortical and limbic blood flow but does not modulate spatial working memory performance or task-related blood flow in humans.

Dopamine appears critical in regulating spatial working memory (SWM) within the PFC of non-human primates; however findings in humans are less clear. Recent studies of the effects of global depletion of dopamine via acute tyrosine/phenylalanine depletion (TPD) on SWM task performance have yielded inconsistent results, which may be partly related to task differences. These previous studies do not address whether TPD can directly impair PFC functioning.

The effects of acute tyrosine and phenylalanine depletion on spatial working memory and planning in healthy volunteers are predicted by changes in striatal dopamine levels.

Rationale: Dopamine (DA) is considered important in the modulation of tasks of spatial working memory. However, the findings from studies in humans to date are mixed. While this may be due to the characteristics of the tasks used, it is also possible that these findings are explained by variable central effects of the manipulations used.

Lack of effect of tyrosine depletion on mood in recovered depressed women.

The role of dopamine (DA) pathways in the pathophysiology of depressive disorder is poorly understood. However, because DA plays a key role in motivational behavior, it is important to study in a disorder characterized by anhedonia, lack of energy and psychomotor retardation. A recently developed dietary manipulation ('tyrosine (TYR) depletion') offers a novel method to assess the role of DA in major depression.

Reduction of brain dopamine concentration with dietary tyrosine plus phenylalanine depletion: an [11C]raclopride PET study.

Objective: Extracellular dopamine concentrations were estimated through measurement of [(11)C]raclopride binding with positron emission tomography after dietary manipulation of the dopamine precursors tyrosine and phenylalanine.

Method: Healthy male subjects were scanned on two occasions: once after receiving a balanced amino acid drink and once after receiving a drink mixture from which tyrosine and phenylalanine were omitted.

Results: Dietary tyrosine and phenylalanine depletion increased [(11)C]raclopride binding in the striatum by a mean of 6%.

Eosinophilic gastroenteritis in a dog.

A 9-year-old mixed-breed dog was evaluated for chronic intermittent vomiting, hematemesis, and melena lasting several months. Biopsy specimens obtained during exploratory laparotomy revealed eosinophilic gastroenteritis. Treatment included drug therapy to reduce gastrointestinal inflammation and dietary management to limit antigenic exposure.

A dose-finding study on the effects of branch chain amino acids on surrogate markers of brain dopamine function.

Rationale: We have previously shown in healthy volunteers that an amino acid mixture lacking tyrosine and phenylalanine reduces tyrosine availability to the brain and produces cognitive and neuroendocrine effects consistent with reduced dopamine function. This could provide a potential nutritional approach to disorders such as mania and schizophrenia, which are characterised by overactivity of dopamine pathways. The amino acid mixture we tested previously is unpalatable, whereas mixtures containing only branch chain amino acids can be made more palatable.

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation to right prefrontal cortex does not modulate the psychostimulant effects of amphetamine.

Preliminary evidence indicates lateralized efficacy of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in the treatment of mood disorders. Right-sided prefrontal cortex (PFC) stimulation has been reported to treat symptoms of mania. The acute effect of amphetamine serves as a model of mania in healthy individuals, hence rTMS to right PFC was hypothesized to attenuate the psychostimulant action of amphetamine in healthy volunteers.