Multimodal Psychotherapeutic Inpatient Therapy of Depression Is Successful in Patients With High Cytokine Production.

In experimental settings, systemically elevated inflammation markers interfere with major depression treatment. In German healthcare, compulsory national health insurance covers treatment of a wide variety of depressive disorders, if it follows evidence-based medicine guidelines combining recommended therapies. To date, little is known about the relevance of immune system cytokine production with regard to real-world clinical care for patients with moderate depression.

Progranulin serum levels and gene expression in subcutaneous vs visceral adipose tissue of severely obese patients undergoing bariatric surgery.

Background: Progranulin represents an adipokine putatively mediating insulin resistance and inflammation. Data in humans are sparse, and the source of circulating progranulin in obesity is unknown.

Objectives: Serum progranulin concentrations and subcutaneous (sc) as well as visceral (vis) adipose tissue (AT) progranulin expression were quantified in a large cohort of patients with obesity undergoing bariatric surgery (BS) (n = 153) or a low-calorie diet (LCD) (n = 121).

Culture and healthcare in medical education: migrants' health and beyond.

One of the main challenges for teaching programs on immigration, ethnic diversity and health is to transform the commonplace notion of "culture" into a helpful tool for medical training and practice. This paper presents the teaching approach of an interdisciplinary course on "migrants' health" established at the University of Giessen since 2004, which has recently been complemented by a thematically related collaboration with two universities in Latin America (Ecuador, Peru). The overall goal is to translate the abstract philosophy of "think global and teach local" into medical practice, and to provide students with the insights, attitudes and skills needed for a fruitful use of concepts like "culture", "ethnicity" and "migration background".