Publications by authors named "Tania C Alves"
Objective: To review functional neuroimaging studies about the relationship between cardiovascular risk factors (CVRFs), Alzheimer's disease (AD), and mild cognitive impairment (MCI).
Methods: We performed a comprehensive literature search to identify articles in the neuroimaging field addressing CVRF in AD and MCI. We included studies that used positron emission tomography (PET), single photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT), or functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
Objective: To analyze the predictors of smoking cessation treatment outcomes in a sample with a high rate of medical and psychiatric disorders and addictions.
Methods: Analysis of predictors of success of a 6-week treatment provided by an addiction care unit (CAPS-AD) to 367 smokers in Brazil from 2007 to 2010. Forty variables were collected at baseline.
Relationship between regional brain volumes and cognitive performance in the healthy aging: an MRI study using voxel-based morphometry.
J Alzheimers Dis
December 2012
The presence of cognitive impairment is a frequent complaint among elderly individuals in the general population. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between aging-related regional gray matter (rGM) volume changes and cognitive performance in healthy elderly adults. Morphometric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measures were acquired in a community-based sample of 170 cognitively-preserved subjects (66 to 75 years).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Vascular depression (VaD) hypothesis supports a bidirectional relationship between cerebrovascular risk factors (CRFs) and depression. We examined whether such concept is appropriate for clinical interventions; i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA double-blind, placebo-controlled treatment trial of citalopram for major depressive disorder in older patients with heart failure: the relevance of the placebo effect and psychological symptoms.
Contemp Clin Trials
May 2009
Background: Little is known about the treatment of depression in older patients with heart failure. This study was developed to investigate the effectiveness of antidepressant treatment for major depressive disorder (MDD) in the elderly with heart failure.
Methods: We enrolled 72 older outpatients with ejection fraction <50 and diagnosed with MDD by the structured clinical interview for DSM-IV.
Background: Medical education and training can contribute to the development of depressive symptoms that might lead to possible academic and professional consequences. We aimed to investigate the characteristics of depressive symptoms among 481 medical students (79.8% of the total who matriculated).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe authors evaluated levels of inflammatory markers in 34 chronic heart failure (CHF) out-patients age 65 years and over, with (N=18) and without (N=16) major depressive disorder (MDD), and healthy-control subjects (N=13). Patients with CHF had left-ventricular ejection fractions <0.40 and were in the New York Heart Association functional class II or III.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCognitive deficits are common in association with heart failure (HF), and it is possible that their severity is magnified by the concomitant presence of major depressive disorder (MDD). Using the Cambridge Mental Disorders of the Elderly Examination battery, the authors compared the cognitive performance of MDD-HF subjects (N=20), nondepressed HF subjects (N=23), and healthy control subjects (N=18). Scores were lower in both HF groups relative to control subjects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To discuss whether there are similarities between the functional brain abnormalities detectable in association with the diagnoses of heart failure (HF) and Alzheimer's disease (AD), focusing particularly on neuroimaging findings in vivo.
Methods: Using an electronic database (Medline), we reviewed imaging studies that have evaluated resting cerebral blood flow (CBF), resting glucose metabolism or amyloid deposition in groups of subjects suffering AD or HF compared with healthy controls.
Results: Single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) investigations have reported global CBF reductions in HF groups compared with controls.
Background And Purpose: Depressive symptoms are frequently associated with heart failure (HF), but the brain mechanisms underlying such association are unclear. We hypothesized that the presence of major depressive disorder (MDD) emerging after the onset of HF would be associated with regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) abnormalities in medial temporal regions previously implicated in primary MDD, namely the hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus.
Method: Using 99mTc-SPECT, we measured rCBF in 17 elderly MDD-HF patients, 17 non-depressed HF patients, and 18 healthy controls, matched for demographic variables.
Background And Purpose: Reduced resting global cerebral blood flow has been previously detected in association with heart failure (HF), but it is not clear whether there are brain regions that could be specifically affected by those brain perfusion deficits. The authors used a fully automated, voxel-based image analysis method to investigate, across the entire cerebral volume, the presence of resting regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) abnormalities in HF patients compared to healthy controls.
Methods: rCBF was evaluated with 99mTc-single-photon emission computed tomography in 17 HF patients (New York Heart Association functional class II or III) and 18 elderly healthy volunteers.
Objective: To investigate the depressive symptoms that differentiate patients with and without depression associated to medical disease.
Method: During 1998, 293 consecutive referrals for consultations were studied, 168 (57.5%) of females and 124 (42.