The use of antipsychotics is associated with lower mortality in patients with Alzheimer's disease: A nationwide population-based nested case-control study in Taiwan.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify the association between antipsychotics and mortality in Alzheimer's disease patients.

Methods: Using the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database, 735 newly diagnosed Alzheimer's disease patients aged over 65 years and receiving antipsychotic treatments, and 735 age, sex, physical comorbidity, and entry year with propensity scores, matched control subjects were enrolled and followed for a 10-year period until the end of 2011. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression models were used for analysis.

Perceived Occupational Stress is associated with Decreased Cortical Activity of the Prefrontal Cortex: A Multichannel Near-infrared Spectroscopy Study.

Despite an increasing number of reports on the associations between chronic occupational stress and structural and functional changes of the brain, the underlying neural correlates of perceived occupational stress is still not clear. Perceived stress reflects the extents to which situations are appraised as stressful at a given point in one's life. Using near-infrared spectroscopy, we investigated the associations between perceived occupational stress and cortical activity over the bilateral frontotemporal regions during a verbal fluency test.

Duration of Untreated Psychosis and Brain Function during Verbal Fluency Testing in First-Episode Schizophrenia: A Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study.

A longer duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) has been associated with poor clinical outcomes in patients with schizophrenia (SZ); however, it remains unclear whether this is due to neurotoxic effects of psychosis. The purpose of this study was to use near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to investigate the influence of DUP on brain function using two verbal fluency tests (VFTs) in patients with first-episode SZ (FES). A total of 28 FES patients and 29 healthy controls (HC) underwent NIRS during VFTs.

Isolation of 16 polymorphic microsatellite markers from an endangered and endemic species, Podocarpus nakaii (Podocarpaceae).

Premise Of The Study: Sixteen polymorphic microsatellite markers were isolated and characterized from the endangered evergreen tree Podocarpus nakaii to evaluate the population structure for conservation efforts.

Methods And Results: Based on a modified amplified fragment length polymorphism and magnetic bead enrichment method, 16 polymorphic primer sets were developed for this endangered insular species. Allele numbers ranged from five to seven, with an observed heterozygosity ranging from 0.