Elevated brain pulsations in depression: insights from a pooled ultrasound cohort study.

Excessive brain tissue pulsations (BTP), measured by ultrasound, have been associated with depression and are hypothesized to contribute to brain damage in this population at risk for cerebrovascular lesions. However, previous research has been limited by small sample sizes. To address this issue, our study pooled data from three separate investigations, resulting in the largest cohort of depressed participants with BTP measurements to date.

Learning curves of novice residents on cataract surgery simulator: the E3CAPS pedagogic study.

Introduction: Training novice ophthalmology residents on the EyeSi simulator increases cataract surgery safety. However, there is no consensus regarding how much training residents should perform before their first time on patients. We evaluated the French national training program through the analysis of the learning curves of novice residents.

Microstructural brain assessment in late-life depression and apathy using diffusion MRI multi-compartments models and tractometry.

Late-life depression (LLD) is both common and disabling and doubles the risk of dementia onset. Apathy might constitute an additional risk of cognitive decline but clear understanding of its pathophysiology is lacking. While white matter (WM) alterations have been assessed using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), this model cannot accurately represent WM microstructure.

Connectivity patterns of the core resting-state networks associated with apathy in late-life depression.

Background: Apathy is associated with reduced antidepressant response and dementia in late-life depression (LLD). However, the functional cerebral basis of apathy is understudied in LLD. We investigated the functional connectivity of 5 resting-state networks (RSN) hypothesized to underlie apathy in LLD.

Improvement of hedonic perception of odors as a marker of treatment response to escitalopram: olfactory changes through an open-label antidepressant trial.

Objectives: To assess olfactory functions (threshold, identification, and hedonic valence) of depressed subjects before and after an 8-week trial of escitalopram and compare the results of responders and nonresponders.

Methods: Fifty-two depressed subjects were recruited. Participants received escitalopram and were evaluated at two visits: baseline (V0) and week 8 (V8).

Different Trajectories of Apathy and Depression Among Subjective Cognitive Impairment Individuals with or without Conversion to Dementia: Results from the Memento Cohort in France.

Background: Apathy and depression are two early behavioral symptoms in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related disorders that often occur prior to the onset of cognitive decline and memory disturbances. Both have been associated with an increased risk of conversion to dementia, with a distinct neuropathology.

Objective: The assessment of the trajectories of apathy and depression and their independent impact on dementia conversion.

Educational Concerns About the Safety of Cataract Surgery During Residency: The E3CAPS Pedagogic Study.

Introduction: Cataract surgery is the most common surgical procedure performed in France. While the incidence of intraoperative complications affecting visual prognosis is extremely low, given the large number of patients operated on, the absolute number of patients affected by complications is quite high. Complication rates are significantly higher when ophthalmology residents (ORs) perform the surgery.

Mania associated olfactory dysfunction: A comparison between bipolar subjects in mania and remission.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the olfactory functions of patients with bipolar disorder in manic phase and to compare them to those of bipolar subjects in remission and healthy controls.

Methods: We recruited 96 participants divided in 3 groups: bipolar mania (MB), euthymic bipolar in remission (EB) and healthy controls (HC). All participants underwent an assessment of their olfactory functions using the Sniffin' sticks threshold and identification tests.

Decrease in ultrasound Brain Tissue Pulsations as a potential surrogate marker of response to antidepressant.

Previous cross-sectional studies found excessive Brain Tissue Pulsations (BTP) in mid-life depression, which could constitute a mechanism of brain damage in depression. However, it remains unclear whether successful antidepressant therapy restores BTP amplitudes. In this prospective study, we investigated longitudinal changes in BTP in patients with a major depressive episode (MDE), among responders and non-responders to escitalopram.

Psychological Impact of Exposure to the COVID-19 Sanitary Crisis on French Healthcare Workers: Risk Factors and Coping Strategies.

COVID-19 sanitary crisis is associated with emotional difficulties such as depression, anxiety and reactional post-traumatic symptoms among healthcare workers. Indeed, healthcare workers were particularly exposed to COVID-19 sanitary crisis. This study aimed to investigate the effects of exposure to COVID-19 sanitary crisis on affective symptoms (anxiety, post-traumatic stress, burnout) among French healthcare workers and the mediating role of cognitive emotion regulation strategies (positive re-evaluation and set in perspective) and coping strategies (active coping, planning, instrumental support, emotional support, emotional expression, positive reappraisal, acceptance, denial, blame, humor, religion, distraction, substance use, behavioral disengagement).

Left amygdala volume and brain tissue pulsatility are associated with neuroticism: an MRI and ultrasound study.

Brain changes associated with the personality trait of neuroticism have been partly elucidated. While subcortical brain volume changes, especially a larger amygdala, appear consistent in high neuroticism, functional changes, such as cerebral blood flow (CBF) differences, have shown conflicting results, possibly because of the limitations in methods of CBF measurement. In our study, we investigated changes in amygdala volume and CBF-related function associated with neuroticism in healthy and depressed subjects using both conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measures of brain volume and the innovative technique of ultrasound Tissue Pulsatility Imaging (TPI), which has a high level of detection in measuring brain tissue pulsatility (BTP).

Recurrence After Stopping Maintenance Electroconvulsive Therapy: A Retrospective Case Series.

Objectives: Relapses and recurrence remain the greatest risks posed by patients with severe mood disorders after discontinuation of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). To date, despite a wide range of literature on ECT, little is known about the rate of recurrence of depression after maintenance ECT (mECT) discontinuation specifically. This study sought to address this lacuna, confronting literature data to the results of a retrospective case study.

[The role of the old age psychiatrist in a mobile geriatric team: an example in Tours city area (France)].

Background: Demographic changes require an adaptation of the geriatric care offer, which is readily oriented towards the community and including the development of out-of-hospital mobile geriatric team (MGT). Although psychiatric disorders of older persons require a comprehensive, integrative and multidisciplinary approach, geriatrics and old age psychiatry mobile units often work in parallel without concertation for the management of complex pathologies. The aim of this paper is to present the organisation and the results of a out-of-hospital MGT with a geriatrician and old age psychiatrists (OAP) in a same unit.

A systematic review of ultrasound imaging and therapy in mental disorders.

Background: Increasing evidence suggests that ultrasound (US) imaging may provide biomarkers and therapeutic options in mental disorders. We systematically reviewed the literature to provide a global overview of the possibilities of US for psychiatry.

Methods: Original English language articles published between January 2000 and September 2019 were identified through databases searching and analyzed to summarize existing evidence according to PRISMA methodology.

Neuroinflammation and depression: A review.

Some recent clinical and preclinical evidence suggests that neuroinflammation is a key factor that interacts with the three neurobiological correlates of major depressive disorder: depletion of brain serotonin, dysregulation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and alteration of the continuous production of adult-generated neurons in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus. This review discusses the main players in brain immunity as well as how inflammation interacts with the above three mechanisms. It is reported that kynurenine (KYN) pathway alteration in favour of its excitotoxic component and HPA axis dysregulation have the common effect of increasing extracellular glutamate levels and glutamate neurotransmission, which can impact hippocampal neurogenesis.

When classical music relaxes the brain: An experimental study using Ultrasound Brain Tissue Pulsatility Imaging.

Introduction: Recent evidence suggests that biomechanical parameters of the brain, such as Brain Tissue Pulsatility (BTP), could be involved in emotional reactivity. However, no study has investigated the impact of an emotional task on BTP. We used the ultrasound method of Tissue Pulsatility Imaging (TPI) to assess changes in BTP to exciting and relaxing classical music, in a musical perception task, as a validated paradigm to assess emotional reactivity.

Benzodiazepine use and brain amyloid load in nondemented older individuals: a florbetapir PET study in the Multidomain Alzheimer Preventive Trial cohort.

It remains unclear whether benzodiazepines (BZDs) constitute a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this study, we investigated associations between chronic use of BZDs and brain amyloid load, a hallmark of AD, in 268 nondemented older individuals. F-florbetapir positron emission tomography scans were performed to assess amyloid load as measured by standardized uptake value ratios, which were compared between chronic BZD users and nonusers using adjusted multiple linear regressions.

[The « syndrome de glissement »].

The "syndrome de glissement" The "syndrome de glissement » is a controversial notion that is still used by some French geriatricians, although it does not belong to any international disease classification and has very few evidence-based data. Some authors found clinical relevance to this notion, whereas others believe its use is potentially associated with certain risks. The clinical practice and the few available evidence related to syndrome de glissement" tend to suggest that this syndrome usually belong to other disorders including apathy, depression and delusional disorder.

Study protocol on Alzheimer's disease and related disorders: focus on clinical and imaging predictive markers in co-existing lesions.

Background: One of the crucial challenges for the future of therapeutic approaches to Alzheimer's disease (AD) is to target the main pathological processes responsible for disability and dependency. However, a progressive cognitive impairment occurring after the age of 70, the main population affected by dementia, is often related to mixed lesions of neurodegenerative and vascular origins. Whereas young patients are mostly affected by pure lesions, ageing favours the occurrence of co-lesions of AD, cerebrovascular disease (CVD) and Lewy body dementia (LBD).

Ultrasound Measures of Brain Pulsatility Correlate with Subcortical Brain Volumes in Healthy Young Adults.

Increasing evidence suggests that brain pulsatility is involved in the pathophysiology of various neurological and psychiatric disorders. However, it remains unclear whether high brain pulsatility is damaging to or protective of the brain in normal conditions, and this could depend on the age of the individual and the methods used to measure brain pulsatility. The goal of our study was to investigate associations between subcortical volumes and brain pulsatility as assessed with ultrasound in healthy young adults using both a conventional method (transcranial Doppler pulsatility index [TCD-PI]) and the innovative method of tissue pulsatility imaging (TPI), which allows a high level of detection of small brain movements (micrometers).