Background: The aim of the present study was to determine whether the Brief Evaluation of Alcohol-Related Neuropsychological Impairments (BEARNI), a screening tool developed to identify neuropsychological deficits in alcohol use disorder (AUD) patients, can also be used for the early identification of AUD patients at risk of developing Korsakoff's syndrome (KS).
Methods: Eighteen KS patients, 47 AUD patients and 27 healthy controls underwent BEARNI testing (including 5 subtests targeting episodic memory, working memory, executive function, visuospatial abilities, and ataxia) and a comprehensive neuropsychological examination.
Results: Performance of AUD and KS patients on BEARNI subtests was consistent with the results on the standardized neuropsychological assessment. On BEARNI, ataxia and working memory deficits observed in AUD were as severe as those exhibited by KS patients, whereas for visuospatial abilities, a graded effect of performance was found. In contrast, the subtests involving long-term memory abilities (episodic memory and fluency) were impaired in KS patients only. AUD patients with a score lower than 1.5 points (out of 6) on the episodic memory subtest of BEARNI exhibited the lowest episodic memory performance on the neuropsychological battery and could be considered at risk of developing KS.
Conclusions: These findings suggest that BEARNI is a useful tool for detecting severe memory impairments, suggesting that it could be used for the early identification of AUD patients at high risk of developing KS.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/acer.14548 | DOI Listing |
Am J Psychiatry
January 2025
Department of Psychiatry, NYU Langone Center for Psychedelic Medicine, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York (Pagni, Zeifman, Mennenga, Carrithers, Goldway, O'Donnell, Ross, Bogenschutz); School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe (Mennenga); Department of Psychology, New York University, New York (Goldway); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Albuquerque (Bhatt).
Objective: Evidence suggests that psilocybin-assisted therapy (PAT) leads to durable shifts in personality structure. However, such changes have yet to be characterized in disorders of addiction. In this secondary analysis from a randomized controlled trial, the authors examined the effect of PAT on personality dimensions in patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD), hypothesizing that PAT would attenuate personality abnormalities in AUD and that reductions in trait impulsiveness would be associated with lower drinking.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJMIR Form Res
December 2024
Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States.
Background: Anxiety disorders are common in alcohol use disorder (AUD) treatment patients. Such co-occurring conditions ("comorbidity") have negative prognostic implications for AUD treatment outcomes, yet they commonly go unaddressed in standard AUD care. Over a decade ago, we developed and validated a cognitive behavioral therapy intervention to supplement standard AUD care that, when delivered by trained therapists, improves outcomes in comorbid patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Med Res Methodol
December 2024
Erasmus School of Health Policy and Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Background: The aim of this study is to develop a method we call "cost mining" to unravel cost variation and identify cost drivers by modelling integrated patient pathways from primary care to the palliative care setting. This approach fills an urgent need to quantify financial strains on healthcare systems, particularly for colorectal cancer, which is the most expensive cancer in Australia, and the second most expensive cancer globally.
Methods: We developed and published a customized algorithm that dynamically estimates and visualizes the mean, minimum, and total costs of care at the patient level, by aggregating activity-based healthcare system costs (e.
Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry
December 2024
Department of Psychiatry, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC; Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC. Electronic address:
Objective: Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a complex neuropsychiatric condition influenced by genetic and environmental factors. Nerve growth factor (NGF) plays a crucial role in neuronal neuroplasticity and chronic alcohol consumption may alter NGF levels in specific brain regions. The study investigates the associations between NGF gene polymorphisms, susceptibility to AUD, and specific stress and personality characteristics.
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