Inflammatory blood cells and ratios at remission for psychosis relapse prediction: A three-year follow-up of a cohort of first episodes of schizophrenia.

Background: The clinical course following a first episode of schizophrenia (FES) is often characterized by recurrent relapses, resulting in unfavorable clinical and functional outcomes. Inflammatory dysregulation has been implicated in relapse risk; however, the predictive value of inflammatory blood cells in clinically remitted patients after a FES has not been previously explored.

Methods: In this study, we closely monitored 111 patients in remission after a FES until relapse or a three-year follow-up endpoint.

Women with psychotic episodes during pregnancy show increased markers of placental damage with Tenney-Parker changes.

Psychosis is a hazardous and functionally disruptive psychiatric condition which may affect women in pregnancy, entailing negative consequences for maternofetal well-being. The precise pathophysiological basis and consequences of a psychotic episode in pregnancy remain to be further elucidated. The placenta is a pivotal tissue with many functions in the gestational period, critically influencing the fate and development of pregnancy.

Failure of deactivation in bipolar disorder during performance of an fMRI adapted version of the Stroop task.

Introduction: Few studies have examined the functional brain correlates of the performance of the Stroop task in bipolar disorder (BD). It is also not known whether it is associated with failure of de-activation in the default mode network, as has been found in studies using other tasks.

Methods: Twenty-four BD patients and 48 age, sex and educationally estimated intellectual quotient (IQ) matched healthy subjects (HS) underwent a functional MRI during performance of the counting Stroop task.

Microbiota-gut-brain axis mechanisms in the complex network of bipolar disorders: potential clinical implications and translational opportunities.

Bipolar disorders (BD) represent a severe leading disabling mental condition worldwide characterized by episodic and often progressive mood fluctuations with manic and depressive stages. The biological mechanisms underlying the pathophysiology of BD remain incompletely understood, but it seems that there is a complex picture of genetic and environmental factors implicated. Nowadays, gut microbiota is in the spotlight of new research related to this kind of psychiatric disorder, as it can be consistently related to several pathophysiological events observed in BD.

The relationship between cognition and functioning in Bipolar Disorder: An investigation using functional imaging during working memory performance.

The psychosocial functioning of individuals suffering from bipolar disorder (BD) has a significant impact on prognosis and quality of life. The aim of this study was to assess brain functional correlates of psychosocial functioning in BD individuals during the performance of a working memory task. Sixty-two subjects (31 euthymic BD individuals and 31 matched healthy controls) underwent structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning while performing the 1- and 2-back versions of the n-back task (1-back and 2-back).

Immune-Mediated Diseases from the Point of View of Psychoneuroimmunoendocrinology.

Immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) represent a large group of diseases (Crohn's, ulcerative colitis, psoriasis, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis) evidenced by systemic inflammation and multiorgan involvement. IMIDs result in a reduced quality of life and an economic burden for individuals, health care systems, and countries. In this brief descriptive review, we will focus on some of the common biological pathways of these diseases from the point of view of psychoneuroimmunoendocrinology (PNIE).

What about mental health after one year of COVID-19 pandemic? A comparison with the initial peak.

A psychiatric epidemic has accompanied the COVID-19 pandemic and specific vulnerable populations have been identified. We aimed to explore the presence of anxiety, acute stress and depression among these vulnerable groups after a year of pandemic and relate them to our previous results obtained with the same methodology during the initial peak of the pandemic in Spain. A total of 2182 participants conducted a national survey, starting on March 2021.

Nutrition, Epigenetics, and Major Depressive Disorder: Understanding the Connection.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a complex, multifactorial disorder of rising prevalence and incidence worldwide. Nearly, 280 million of people suffer from this leading cause of disability in the world. Moreover, patients with this condition are frequently co-affected by essential nutrient deficiency.

Can you change your mind? An ERP study of cognitive flexibility and new evidence integration.

Cognitive flexibility is an ability that allows individuals to integrate external evidence into previous expectancies. Individual differences in this ability were examined using Event-Related Potentials (ERPs), focusing on the fact that new evidence can either confirm or disprove an initial impression. Written scenarios prompted to make a prediction while either confirmatory or disconfirmatory evidence followed.

Evaluation of Brain Functional Connectivity from Electroencephalographic Signals Under Different Emotional States.

The identification of the emotional states corresponding to the four quadrants of the valence/arousal space has been widely analyzed in the scientific literature by means of multiple techniques. Nevertheless, most of these methods were based on the assessment of each brain region separately, without considering the possible interactions among different areas. In order to study these interconnections, this study computes for the first time the functional connectivity metric called cross-sample entropy for the analysis of the brain synchronization in four groups of emotions from electroencephalographic signals.

Emotional Processing Profile in Patients with First Episode Schizophrenia: The Influence of Neurocognition.

This study sought to investigate the influence of neurocognition on the emotional processing profiles of patients with first-episode schizophrenia, using the 4-branch Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) (Perceiving Emotions; Facilitating Emotions; Understanding Emotions and Managing Emotions). A sample of 78 patients with first-episode schizophrenia and a group of 90 non-psychiatric control subjects were included in this work. The initial results showed that patients had lower scores than controls for the "Understanding Emotions" and "Managing Emotions" MSCEIT branches.

The Problem of Malnutrition Associated with Major Depressive Disorder from a Sex-Gender Perspective.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is an incapacitating condition characterized by loss of interest, anhedonia and low mood, which affects almost 4% of people worldwide. With rising prevalence, it is considered a public health issue that affects economic productivity and heavily increases health costs alone or as a comorbidity for other pandemic non-communicable diseases (such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, inflammatory bowel diseases, etc.).

Areas of Interest and Social Consideration of Antidepressants on English Tweets: A Natural Language Processing Classification Study.

Background: Antidepressants are the foundation of the treatment of major depressive disorders. Despite the scientific evidence, there is still a sustained debate and concern about the efficacy of antidepressants, with widely differing opinions among the population about their positive and negative effects, which may condition people's attitudes towards such treatments. Our aim is to investigate Twitter posts about antidepressants in order to have a better understanding of the social consideration of antidepressants.

Development of an Ecologically Valid Assessment for Social Cognition Based on Real Interaction: Preliminary Results.

Many social cognitive assessment measures that are appropriate for clinical use are currently available, but there is a general concern about their ecological validity. This study aimed to develop an applicable real interaction-based test to assess social cognition. A sample of 50 subjects (mean age 22 ± 5.

Augmented Humanity: A Systematic Mapping Review.

Augmented humanity (AH) is a term that has been mentioned in several research papers. However, these papers differ in their definitions of AH. The number of publications dealing with the topic of AH is represented by a growing number of publications that increase over time, being high impact factor scientific contributions.

Gut Microbiota Metabolites in Major Depressive Disorder-Deep Insights into Their Pathophysiological Role and Potential Translational Applications.

The gut microbiota is a complex and dynamic ecosystem essential for the proper functioning of the organism, affecting the health and disease status of the individuals. There is continuous and bidirectional communication between gut microbiota and the host, conforming to a unique entity known as "holobiont". Among these crosstalk mechanisms, the gut microbiota synthesizes a broad spectrum of bioactive compounds or metabolites which exert pleiotropic effects on the human organism.

Neurocognition, functional outcome, and quality of life in remitted and non-remitted schizophrenia: A comparison with euthymic bipolar I disorder and a control group.

There are discrepancies about if the severity of the symptomatology in schizophrenia is related to neurocognitive performance, functional outcome, and quality of life (QoL). Also, there are controversial data about the comparison between euthymic bipolar patients and different subgroups of schizophrenia in neurocognition, functioning, and QoL level. The present study aimed to compare the neurocognitive performance, functional outcome, and QoL of remitted and non-remitted patients with SC with respect to a group of euthymic patients with BD, and a control group.

Assessment of Antipsychotic Medications on Social Media: Machine Learning Study.

Antipsychotic medications are the first-line treatment for schizophrenia. However, non-adherence is frequent despite its negative impact on the course of the illness. In response, we aimed to investigate social media posts about antipsychotics to better understand the online environment in this regard.

Activation and deactivation patterns in schizophrenia during performance of an fMRI adapted version of the stroop task.

The Stroop task, which examines an aspect of executive function/cognitive control, the ability to inhibit prepotent responses, has been relatively little examined in schizophrenia, and the findings have been inconsistent. Whether performance of this task is associated with failure of de-activation in the disorder is also uncertain. We examined 42 schizophrenic patients and 61 healthy controls during performance of an fMRI-adapted version of the Stroop task, the counting Stroop task.

How Interpersonal Distance Between Avatar and Human Influences Facial Affect Recognition in Immersive Virtual Reality.

The purpose of this study was to determine the optimal interpersonal distance (IPD) between humans and affective avatars in facial affect recognition in immersive virtual reality (IVR). The ideal IPD is the one in which the humans show the highest number of hits and the shortest reaction times in recognizing the emotions displayed by avatars. The results should help design future therapies to remedy facial affect recognition deficits.

Social Cognition and Interaction Training (SCIT) versus Training in Affect Recognition (TAR) in patients with schizophrenia: A randomized controlled trial.

Introduction: Training in Affect Recognition (TAR) is a "targeted" and computer-aided program that has been shown to effectively attenuate facial affect recognition deficits and improve social functioning in patients with schizophrenia. Social Cognition and Interaction Training (SCIT) is a group "broad-based" intervention, that has also been shown to improve emotion recognition, theory of mind (ToM), and social functioning. To date, no study has compared the efficacy of two different social cognitive interventions.

Areas of Interest and Attitudes towards the Pharmacological Treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Thematic and Quantitative Analysis Using Twitter.

We focused on tweets containing hashtags related to ADHD pharmacotherapy between 20 September and 31 October 2019. Tweets were classified as to whether they described medical issues or not. Tweets with medical content were classified according to the topic they referred to: side effects, efficacy, or adherence.