Serum Oxytocin Levels and Logical Memory in Older People in Rural Japan.

Objective: The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between serum oxytocin (OT) and logical memory among older people in rural Japan.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study using a survey conducted from October 2009 through March 2011. Most of the study was conducted as part of a national prevalence survey of dementia in Japan.

Progressive symptom-associated prefrontal volume loss occurs in first-episode schizophrenia but not in affective psychosis.

Although smaller gray matter volumes (GMV) in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder have been reported cross-sectionally, there are, to our knowledge, no reports of longitudinal comparisons using manually drawn, gyrally based ROI, and their associations with symptoms. The object of this study was to determine whether first-episode schizophrenia (FESZ) and first-episode affective psychosis (FEAFF) patients show initial and progressive PFC GMV reduction in bilateral frontal pole, superior frontal gyrus (SFG), middle frontal gyrus (MFG), and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and examine their symptom associations. Twenty-one FESZ, 24 FEAFF and 23 healthy control subjects (HC) underwent 1.

Effect of Excessive Coffee Consumption on the Clinical Course of a Patient With Bipolar Disorder: A Case Report and Literature Review.

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the impact of excessive caffeine consumption on therapeutic outcomes in bipolar disorder.

Methods And Results: We report on a case of a patient with bipolar disorder whose psychiatric symptoms were ameliorated with the elevation of lithium concentrations after the reduction of excessive daily coffee consumption, and we review the relevant literatures.

Conclusions: Excessive coffee consumption may exacerbate the therapeutic course of bipolar disorder through its effects on the mechanisms underlying bipolar disorder itself, as well as by affecting the blood concentration of lithium.

Safety of Long-term Use of Lamotrigine for the Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders.

Objectives: Lamotrigine (LTG) is a drug commonly used to treat epilepsy and can also be used to manage mood disorders, such as bipolar disorder. One of the most dangerous adverse effects of LTG is skin rash, which can make early cessation necessary. Here, we examine the adverse effects associated with long-term use of LTG for the treatment of mood disorders.

Aripiprazole-Associated Hypoprolactinemia in the Clinical Setting.

Background: The increase in prolactin (PRL) levels is a common adverse effect that occurs when using conventional and atypical antipsychotic drugs. Aripiprazole (ARI) is beneficial for antipsychotic-associated hyperprolactinemia but has been reported to decrease PRL secretion. Therefore, we investigated blood levels of PRL in patients who had taken ARI alone or in combination with other antipsychotics.

An association between belief in life after death and serum oxytocin in older people in rural Japan.

Objective: Previous research suggests that spirituality/religiosity has benefits for both mental and physical health, measured using biological indices such as cortisol and IL-6. However, there have been few studies concerning the association of religious beliefs with oxytocin, a neuropeptide hormone secreted by the pituitary. Levels of peripheral oxytocin are thought to reflect the strength of bonding and stress regulation in social relationships.

Abnormal behaviours during pramipexole treatment for Cotard's syndrome: a case report.

Cotard's syndrome is a relatively rare condition that involves a delusion of negation in which an individual believes he or she has lost his or her soul, is dead, or is without functional body systems. This syndrome is observed in various neuropsychiatric disorders but most commonly in mood disorders. Pramipexole has often been used in the adjunctive treatment of both bipolar and unipolar depression, and it is known to cause rare but serious adverse effects such as compulsive behaviours in the treatment of Parkinson's disease.

A patient with Alzheimer's disease complicated by elderly-onset Cushing's syndrome who had undergone surgical treatment for adrenocorticotropic hormone-independent macronodular adrenal hyperplasia.

Cushing's syndrome (CS) is a rare disorder, especially in older people. Loss of brain volume and neurocognitive impairment of varying degrees has been demonstrated in patients with CS. However, there is a large difference between the median age of presentation of CS and that of Alzheimer's disease.

Association of inflammatory biomarkers with depressive symptoms and cognitive decline in a community-dwelling healthy older sample: a 3-year follow-up study.

Background: The relationship between the pathophysiology of dementia and neuroinflammation is well-known. The number of reports stating that depression is a risk factor for dementia has recently been increasing. These epidemiological findings suggest the possibility that both depression and dementia have common pathophysiological backgrounds of neuroinflammation.

Belief in life after death, salivary 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol, and well-being among older people without cognitive impairment dwelling in rural Japan.

Objectives: Research has found that spirituality/religiosity has a salutary association with mental/physical health. However, the association of belief in life after death with well-being has rarely been studied, and the same is true of its association with biological indices, such as monoamine transmitters. Therefore, we examined the associations between well-being and religiosity, salivary 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol (sMHPG), and demographic characteristics.

Association of salivary cortisol levels and later depressive state in elderly people living in a rural community: a 3-year follow-up study.

Background: Late-life depressive disorder is becoming an important issue in health economics in the world, as it has been reported to be one of major risk factors for incidence of dementia. Identification of predictive markers associated with depression in later life is therefore of high priority in public health. The aim of the study was to examine the association of salivary cortisol levels with a later depressive state in elderly healthy people living in a rural Japan community.

Prefrontal cortex volume deficit in schizophrenia: a new look using 3T MRI with manual parcellation.

In this study we use high resolution Magnetic Resonance imaging (MRI) and apply rigorous manual tracing criteria in order to assess volumetrically the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in schizophrenia. Previous MRI studies suggested PFC is included in neural systems necessary for emotional processing and cognition, and regional PFC abnormalities might, thus, lead to specific negative symptoms, as well as a frequent association of poorer performance in category switching. The aim of this study was to use 3T imaging and reliable manual parcellation to determine if, as hypothesized, this higher precision would reveal additional MRI abnormalities in PFC in schizophrenia, and an association between PFC abnormalities and specific negative symptoms, as well as in category switching.

Disruption of function-structure coupling in brain regions sub-serving self monitoring in schizophrenia.

Deficits in self monitoring are a core feature of cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia, and may be the basis for disturbances of self and lack of insight, ultimately impacting social functioning. However, the functional and structural neural correlates of such deficits in self monitoring are not well understood. We investigated this issue using measurements of neurophysiological and structural brain indices, i.

Alzheimer's disease: diagnosis by different methods of voxel-based morphometry.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the optimal computational options in voxel-based morphometry (VBM) for discrimination between Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients and healthy control (HC) subjects.

Materials And Methods: Structural magnetic resonance images of 24 AD patients and 26 HC subjects were analyzed using VBM to determine brain regions with significant gray matter (GM) loss due to AD. The VBM analyses were performed with 4 different computational options: gray matter concentration (GMC) analysis with and without global normalization, and gray matter volume (GMV) analysis, with and without global normalization.

Simultaneous arterial spin labeling cerebral blood flow and morphological assessments for detection of Alzheimer's disease.

Rationale And Objectives: The relative roles of arterial spin-labeling (ASL) perfusion imaging and magnetic resonance morphological assessment in diagnosing Alzheimer's disease (AD) have not been established. Our purposes were to directly compare the diagnostic performance of ASL regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) measurement and that of morphological assessment, and to determine whether or not the combination of the two methods improves diagnostic performance.

Materials And Methods: We analyzed 23 consecutive, retrospectively identified AD patients and 23 healthy control subjects.

Deterioration of abstract reasoning ability in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease: correlation with regional grey matter volume loss revealed by diffeomorphic anatomical registration through exponentiated lie algebra analysis.

Objective: To determine which brain regions are relevant to deterioration in abstract reasoning as measured by Raven's Colored Progressive Matrices (CPM) in the context of dementia.

Methods: MR images of 37 consecutive patients including 19 with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and 18 with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) were retrospectively analyzed. All patients were administered the CPM.

Uncinate fasciculus abnormalities in recent onset schizophrenia and affective psychosis: a diffusion tensor imaging study.

Two of the most frequently investigated regions in diffusion tensor imaging studies in chronic schizophrenia are the uncinate fasciculus (UF) and cingulum bundle (CB). The purpose of the present study was to determine whether UF and CB white matter integrity were altered at the early stage of illness and specific to schizophrenia. Fifteen schizophrenia subjects and 15 affective psychosis within 4 years of first hospitalization (12 patients with schizophrenia and 12 patients with affective psychosis during their first hospitalization), and 15 psychiatrically healthy controls underwent line-scan diffusion tensor imaging.

Relationship between saliva level of 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol and mental health in the elderly general population.

Aims: A large number of studies on the monoamine systems in Alzheimer's disease (AD) have found abnormalities of the noradrenergic system in the brain, but there has been no report concerning the relationship between noradrenergic activity and cognitive function in elderly living in a community. The aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between saliva level of 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol (sMHPG) and mental health in this population.

Methods: The study was to examine the relationship between sMHPG and performance on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB), and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) in 213 elderly people living in the local community.

Orbitofrontal volume deficit in schizophrenia and thought disorder.

Orbitofrontal Cortex (OFC) structural abnormality in schizophrenia has not been well characterized, probably due to marked anatomical variability and lack of consistent definitions. We previously reported OFC sulcogyral pattern alteration and its associations with social disturbance in schizophrenia, but OFC volume associations with psychopathology and cognition have not been investigated. We compared chronically treated schizophrenia patients with healthy control (HC) subjects, using a novel, reliable parcellation of OFC subregions and their association with cognition, especially the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), and with schizophrenic psychopathology including thought disorder.

Altered orbitofrontal sulcogyral pattern in schizophrenia.

Orbitofrontal alteration in schizophrenia has not been well characterized, likely due to marked anatomical variability. To investigate the presence of such alterations, we evaluated the sulcogyral pattern of this 'H-shaped' sulcus. Fifty patients with schizophrenia (100 hemispheres) and 50 age- and gender-matched control subjects (100 hemispheres) were evaluated using 3D high-spatial resolution MRI.

Aluminum chloride does not facilitate deposition of human synthetic amyloid beta1-42 peptide in the rat ventricular system of a short-term infusion model.

Recent data have demonstrated that a 39-43 amino acid peptide called beta-amyloid peptide (Abeta), which predominantly contains 42 residues (Abeta1-42), has a strong tendency to form insoluble aggregates and that the toxic effects of Abeta are based on its aggregation. In a previous study, we reported that infusion of 100 microg of human synthetic Abeta1-42 (sAbeta1-42), which is a main component of diffuse plaques, into the lateral ventricle of the rat brain of a short-term infusion model resulted in almost complete disappearance of sAbeta1-42 aggregates from the ventricles by 28 days. In addition, aluminum is considered a potential etiological factor in Alzheimer's disease (AD).