Publications by authors named "Wei-Hung Chang"

Background: The insula has a significant impact on interoception and depression. This study aims to explore the role of the insula in mediating treatment responses to high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) targeting the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC).

Methods: Twenty-five patients with either bipolar disorder (BD, n = 15) or major depressive disorder (MDD, n = 10) were recruited.

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Objectives: Personal Assistive RObot (PARO) interventions have been used to treat agitation and mood symptoms of dementia effectively. However, the effects of a PARO intervention on physiological and cognitive function are unclear. To examine the effects of a group-based PARO intervention for older adults with mild dementia.

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Background: Persistent cognitive deficits and functional impairments are associated with bipolar disorder (BD), even during the euthymic phase. The dysfunction of default mode network (DMN) is critical for self-referential and emotional mental processes and is implicated in BD. The current study aims to explore the balance of excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters, i.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study examined the link between inflammation, specifically pro-inflammatory cytokines like TNF-α, and emotion recognition in euthymic bipolar disorder (BD) patients and healthy controls (HCs) to see how inflammation affects social cognition.
  • - Researchers found that euthymic BD patients had elevated levels of TNF-α compared to HCs, and higher TNF-α correlated with poorer accuracy in recognizing sadness among those patients.
  • - The results suggest that chronic inflammation may negatively impact sadness recognition in euthymic BD patients, highlighting a potential vulnerability to depression tied to elevated TNF-α levels in this group.
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Wolfberry, also known as goji berry or , is a highly valued fruit with significant health benefits and nutritional value. For more efficient and comprehensive usage of published genomic data, we established the Wolfberry database. The utility of the Wolfberry Genome Database (WGDB) is highlighted through the Genome browser, which enables the user to explore the genome, browse specific chromosomes, and access gene sequences.

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  • The study explores the relationship between minor physical anomalies (MPAs) and schizophrenia, using machine learning to predict schizophrenia risk based on MPA measurements in 470 patients and 354 healthy controls.
  • The Random Forest model demonstrated the best predictive accuracy for schizophrenia, identifying key MPAs like skull height and mouth width that indicate a higher risk for the disorder.
  • Additionally, the research uncovered significant two-item interactions among various MPAs contributing to the risk of schizophrenia, with weaker interactions found among three items.
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Exposure to the physicochemical agents that interact with nucleic acids (NA) may lead to modification of DNA and RNA (i.e., NA modifications), which have been associated with various diseases, including cancer.

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Background: Despite extensive literature documenting emotion-related social-cognitive deficits in euthymic patients with bipolar disorder (BD), the factors contributing to these deficits have not been definitively established. To address this gap, the present study aimed to examine the association between peripheral insulin resistance (IR) and emotion-related social-cognitive abilities in BD patients and controls.

Method: Sixty-five BD patients and 38 non-psychiatric controls were recruited, and their social cognitive ability and IR were measured using the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) and the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), respectively.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigated the link between visuomotor coordination and social cognition in euthymic bipolar disorder (BD) patients, hypothesizing a positive correlation due to shared neurobiological factors.
  • Results showed that euBD patients had deficits in nonverbal emotion recognition and visuomotor skills compared to healthy controls, with a noteworthy correlation between the two abilities.
  • Ultimately, striatal dopamine transporter availability was found to be a key predictor of emotion recognition accuracy, highlighting the role of dopaminergic dysfunction in the relationship between social cognition and visuomotor coordination in euBD.
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Objective: Previous studies have shown that certain severe mental illnesses (SMIs) increase the risk of dementia, but those that increase the risk to a greater degree in comparison with other SMIs are unknown. Furthermore, physical illnesses may alter the risk of developing dementia, but these cannot be well-controlled.

Methods: Using the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database, patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder (MDD) were recruited.

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Objective: To evaluate post-discharge use of antipsychotics in patients with incident hospital-acquired delirium and the associated risk of mortality.

Methods: We conducted a nested case-control study for patients newly diagnosed with hospital-acquired delirium and subsequently discharged from hospital using Taiwan's National Health Insurance Database (NHID) from 2011 to 2018.

Results: The use of antipsychotics after discharge did not increase the risk of mortality (adjusted OR: 1·03; 95% CI: 0·98-1·09).

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Background: Bipolar disorder is a mood dysregulation characterized by recurrent symptoms and episodes of mania, hypomania, depression, and mixed mood. The complexity of treating patients with bipolar disorder prompted the Taiwanese Society of Biological Psychiatry and Neuropsychopharmacology (TSBPN) to publish the first Taiwan consensus on pharmacological treatment of bipolar disorders in 2012. This paper presents the updated consensus, with changes in diagnostic criteria (i.

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Objective: Hypoactivity in the reward system among patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a well-known phenomenon. Whether the activity in the reward pathway is related to harm avoidance, such as in sensitivity to punishment, is unclear. Evidence regarding the potential difference between ADHD patients and controls in terms of this association is scarce.

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Bipolar disorder (BD) and metabolic disturbance represent a chronic state of low-grade inflammation and corticostriatal circuitry alterations. Herein, we aimed to investigate whether plasma leptin, an adipokine that plays a key role in the interplay of metabolism and inflammation, is associated with corticostriatal connectivity in patients with BD. Twenty-eight BD I patients, 36 BD II patients and 66 healthy controls were enrolled and completed the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, the Young Mania Rating Scale, and the Recent Life Change Questionnaire.

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Objective: The impact of serotonergic system on obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is well studied. However, the correlation between OC presentations and autonomic nervous system (ANS) is still unclear. Furthermore, whether the correlation might be modulated by serotonin is also uncertain.

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Emotion recognition deficit is related to impaired community functioning. Loneliness is also associated with impaired social performance. However, the way in which emotion recognition and loneliness may contribute to social functioning remains unclear in euthymic patients with bipolar disorder.

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Tolvaptan has been approved for the treatment of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease and heart failure. However, the role of tolvaptan in patients with abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) has not been examined. Human aortic smooth muscle cells (HASMCs) were used as the in vitro model.

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In support of the neurodevelopmental model of schizophrenia, minor physical anomalies (MPAs) have been suggested as biomarkers and potential pathophysiological significance for schizophrenia. However, an integrated, clinically useful tool that used qualitative and quantitative MPAs to visualize and predict schizophrenia risk while characterizing the degree of importance of MPA items was lacking. We recruited a training set and a validation set, including 463 schizophrenia patients and 281 healthy controls to conduct logistic regression and the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (Lasso) regression to select the best parameters of MPAs and constructed nomograms.

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Objective: To evaluate the association between the use of antipsychotic drugs and cholinesterase inhibitors and the risk of falls and fractures in elderly patients with major neurocognitive disorders.

Design: Self-controlled case series.

Setting: Taiwan's National Health Insurance Database.

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A 76-year-old male presented with a recurrent depressive episode, an unsteady gait and cognitive impairment. Extensive blood tests, including hemogram, biochemical tests, folic acid, vitamin B12, and thyroid hormone, showed normal results. With the exception of the unsteady gait, neurological examination was negative.

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Reliable protein markers for pre-diabetes in humans are not clinically available. In order to identify novel and reliable protein markers for pre-diabetes in humans, healthy volunteers and patients diagnosed with pre-diabetes and stroke were recruited for blood collection. Blood samples were collected from healthy and pre-diabetic subjects 12 h after fasting.

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Late blight (LB) disease is a major threat to potato and tomato production. It is caused by the hemibiotrophic pathogen, . can destroy all of the major organs in plants of susceptible crops and result in a total loss of productivity.

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Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS) are evidenced-based treatments for patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) who fail to respond to standard first-line therapies. However, although various TMS protocols have been proven to be clinically effective, the response rate varies across clinical applications due to the heterogeneity of real-world psychiatric comorbidities, such as generalized anxiety disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, panic disorder, or substance use disorder, which are often observed in patients with MDD. Therefore, individualized treatment approaches are important to increase treatment response by assigning a given patient to the most optimal TMS treatment protocol based on his or her individual profile.

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