Psychiatric and non-psychiatric patients during the midst of Covid-19: Pandemic distress, psychosis and the belief in conspiracy theories.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with increased levels of psychological distress in the general population, at the same time providing a perfect breeding ground for conspiracy beliefs. Psychiatric patients are considered as a population with an increased vulnerability for stressful events, and conspiracy beliefs show overlaps with paranoid ideations. The aim of the present study was to investigate if psychiatric patients experienced higher levels of pandemic distress than non-psychiatric patients, if they were more prone to conspiracy beliefs and if pandemic distress as well as other mental health variables were associated with believing in conspiracy theories.

A preliminary choroid plexus volumetric study in individuals with psychosis.

The choroid plexus (ChP) is part of the blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier, regulating brain homeostasis and the brain's response to peripheral events. Its upregulation and enlargement are considered essential in psychosis. However, the timing of the ChP enlargement has not been established.

Loneliness in Elderly Inpatients.

Purpose: Loneliness among the elderly is a widespread phenomenon and is connected to various negative health outcomes. Nevertheless, loneliness among elderly inpatients, especially those with a psychiatric diagnosis, has hardly been examined. Our study assessed loneliness in elderly inpatients, identified predictors, and compared levels of loneliness between inpatients on psychiatric and somatic wards.

Novel Effective Fluorinated Benzothiophene-Indole Hybrid Antibacterials against and MRSA Strains.

Increasing antibacterial drug resistance threatens global health, unfortunately, however, efforts to find novel antibacterial agents have been scaled back by the pharmaceutical industry due to concerns about a poor return on investment. Nevertheless, there is an urgent need to find novel antibacterial compounds to combat antibacterial drug resistance. The synthesis of novel drugs from natural sources is mostly cost-intensive due to those drugs' complicated structures.

Structured Interventions to Optimize Polypharmacy in Psychiatric Treatment and Nursing Homes: A Systematic Review.

Background: Polypharmacy is a common clinical issue. It increases in prevalence with older age and comorbidities of patients and has been recognized as a major cause for treatment complications. In psychiatry, polypharmacy is also commonly seen in younger patients and can lead to reduced treatment satisfaction and incompliance.

Fast myocardial T mapping in mice using k-space weighted image contrast and a Bloch simulation-optimized radial sampling pattern.

Purpose: T dispersion quantification can potentially be used as a cardiac magnetic resonance index for sensitive detection of myocardial fibrosis without the need of contrast agents. However, dispersion quantification is still a major challenge, because T mapping for different spin lock amplitudes is a very time consuming process. This study aims to develop a fast and accurate T mapping sequence, which paves the way to cardiac T dispersion quantification within the limited measurement time of an in vivo study in small animals.

Psychosocial Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic in Elderly Psychiatric Patients: a Longitudinal Study.

The study was designed to investigate the impact of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on mental health and perceived psychosocial support for elderly psychiatric patients in a longitudinal design. n = 32 patients with affective or anxiety disorders aged ≥60 years were included. Telephone interviews were conducted in April/May 2020 (T1) and August 2020 (T2).

The association of matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9) with hippocampal volume in schizophrenia: a preliminary MRI study.

Matrix metalloproteinases 9 (MMP9) are enzymes involved in regulating neuroplasticity in the hippocampus. This, combined with evidence for disrupted hippocampal structure and function in schizophrenia, has prompted our current investigation into the relationship between MMP9 and hippocampal volumes in schizophrenia. 34 healthy individuals (mean age = 32.

Balanced spin-lock preparation for B -insensitive and B -insensitive quantification of the rotating frame relaxation time T.

Purpose: Accurate and artifact-free T quantification is still a major challenge due to a susceptibility of the spin-locking module to B and/or B field inhomogeneities. In this study, we present a novel spin-lock preparation module (B-SL) that enables an almost full compensation of both types of inhomogeneities.

Methods: The new B-SL module contains a second 180° refocusing pulse to compensate each pulse in the preparation block by a corresponding pulse with opposite phase.

Hemispheric differences in the duration of focal onset seizures.

Objective: To assess hemispheric differences in the duration of focal onset seizures and its association with clinical and demographic factors.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed on adult patients with drug-resistant unifocal epilepsy, who underwent intracranial EEG recording between 01/2006 and 06/2016. Seizure duration was determined based on the subdural and/or stereo-EEG (sEEG) recordings.

Who seizes longest? Impact of clinical and demographic factors.

Objective: To investigate the impact of clinical and demographic parameters on the duration of focal onset seizures with and without secondary generalization using precise duration measurements from intracranial electroencephalographic (iEEG) recordings.

Methods: Patients with unifocal epilepsy syndromes and iEEG recording were retrospectively identified from the database of the local epilepsy center (2006-2016). Seizure duration was defined as time difference of iEEG seizure pattern onset and cessation.

Novel Small-molecule Antibacterials against Gram-positive Pathogens of and Species.

Defeat of the antibiotic resistance of pathogenic bacteria is one great challenge today and for the future. In the last century many classes of effective antibacterials have been developed, so that upcoming resistances could be met with novel drugs of various compound classes. Meanwhile, there is a certain lack of research of the pharmaceutical companies, and thus there are missing developments of novel antibiotics.

Impact of withdrawal of antiepileptic medication on the duration of focal onset seizures.

Purpose: To systematically evaluate the duration of focal onset seizures under medication withdrawal as a function of drug half-life.

Methods: Adults with drug resistant focal epilepsy and invasive electroencephalographic (iEEG) recording between 01/2006 and 06/2016 (n = 128) were identified. Patients with multifocal or unknown epileptic foci were excluded, as well as subclinical seizures, isolated auras, or status epileptic.