Sleep disturbances are key symptoms of very early stage Alzheimer disease with behavioral and psychological symptoms: a Japan multi-center cross-sectional study (J-BIRD).

Background: Sleep disturbances in Alzheimer disease (AD) may affect behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD). Our aim was to elucidate the associations between sleep disturbances and other BPSD at different stages of AD.

Methods: This investigation was part of a multicenter-retrospective study in Japan (J-BIRD).

Prevalence of Depressive Symptoms and Related Factors in Japanese Employees: A Comparative Study between Surveys from 2007 and 2010.

Aims. The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of depressive symptoms and their related factors in Japan. The results were analyzed to identify the relationship between high scores on the CES-D, sociodemographic status, and employment-related variables.

The association of active and secondhand smoking with oral health in adults: Japan public health center-based study.

Background: Smoking is one of the major risk factors for oral diseases, and many studies have found that active smoking is closely associated with the prevalence or severity of periodontal disease and fewer remaining teeth. In contrast to the established association between active smoking and oral health, there have been very few studies investigating the effects of secondhand smoking on oral health, and whether secondhand smoking deteriorates oral health has not been fully clarified. The purpose of the present study was to examine whether active and secondhand smoking were associated with the prevalence of severe periodontal disease and number of teeth among Japanese adults.

[Private facilities for the mentally disturbed in the Tohoku region, Japan].

Purpose: The modernization of mental health services in Japan began in 1868 during the Meiji Restoration (restoration of imperial government from Shogun era). However, mental institutions in Japan were inadequate until the end of World War II in 1945. The Tohoku region, comprised of 6 prefectures located in northeastern Japan, experienced a delay in modernization, struggled economically, and also showed a delay in the development of mental institutions.

Prevalence of depressive symptoms and related factors in Japanese employees as measured by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D).

This study aimed to examine the prevalence of depressive symptoms and related factors in Japan. For this purpose, a questionnaire including the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) was administered to employees from Akita prefecture, Japan. The cutoff point for CES-D scores was 16 or above (high scorers).

Posttraumatic stress in professional firefighters in Japan: rescue efforts after the Great East Japan Earthquake (Higashi Nihon Dai-Shinsai).

Introduction: Firefighters are often exposed to stressful duty-related events and may experience extreme trauma. Such work-related stress can result in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It is therefore important to understand the traumatic stress experienced by firefighters in the course of their work and to promote appropriate intervention when necessary.

The Relationship between Individual Personality Traits (Internality-Externality) and Psychological Distress in Employees in Japan.

This study examines the relationship between the internality-externality (I-E) scale as an indicator of coping styles and the Kessler 6 (K6) scale as an indicator of psychological distress and analyzes the effects of sociodemographic and employment-related factors on this relationship. Employees from Akita prefecture in Japan were invited to complete self-administered questionnaires. A uniform pattern of findings emerged in the relationship between the two scales as follows: all the significant correlations were negative, that is, as the I-E score increased, the K6 score decreased.

Progression of P300 in a patient with bilateral hippocampal lesions.

Objective: To evaluate the effects of hippocampal damages on P300 of event-related potentials (ERPs).

Methods: ERPs were recorded over about 8 months using the auditory oddball paradigm in a patient with bilateral hippocampal lesions confirmed on brain magnetic resonance imaging. Findings were compared with those from clinical electroencephalography (periodic lateralized epileptiform discharges (PLEDs) or bilateral independent PLEDs (BIPLEDs)).

[Application of the OS-EM method to the 123I-IMP ARG method: comparison between FBP and OS-EM methods].

We investigated application of the OS-EM method to the (123)I-IMP ARG method to measure regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF). First, scan time and subsets were fixed at 20 min and 16, respectively, and the influence of iteration on the CCF and quantitative rCBF values obtained by the ARG method was investigated when the iteration number was set at 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 90. Next, with the number of iterations set at 4, we compared the scanning times of OS-EM and FBP.