Ventral Striatal-Hippocampus Coupling During Reward Processing as a Stratification Biomarker for Psychotic Disorders.

Background: Altered ventral striatal (vST) activation to reward expectancy is a well-established intermediate phenotype for psychiatric disorders, specifically schizophrenia (SZ). Preclinical research suggests that striatal alterations are related to a reduced inhibition by the hippocampal formation, but its role in human transdiagnostic reward-network dysfunctions is not well understood.

Methods: We performed functional magnetic resonance imaging during reward processing in 728 individuals including healthy control subjects (n = 396), patients (SZ: n = 46; bipolar disorder: n = 45; major depressive disorder: n = 60), and unaffected first-degree relatives (SZ: n = 46; bipolar disorder: n = 50; major depressive disorder: n = 85).

Characterization and quantification of alcohol-related polyneuropathy by magnetic resonance neurography.

Background: We characterized and quantified peripheral nerve damage in alcohol-dependent patients (ADP) by magnetic resonance neurography (MRN) in correlation with clinical and electrophysiologic findings.

Methods: Thirty-one adult patients with a history of excessive alcohol consumption and age-/sex-matched healthy controls were prospectively examined. After detailed neurologic and electrophysiologic testing, the patient group was subdivided into ADP with alcohol-related polyneuropathy (ALN) and without ALN (Non-ALN).

A multinational case-control study comparing forensic and non-forensic patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders: the EU-VIORMED project.

Background: The relationship between schizophrenia and violence is complex. The aim of this multicentre case-control study was to examine and compare the characteristics of a group of forensic psychiatric patients with a schizophrenia spectrum disorders and a history of significant interpersonal violence to a group of patients with the same diagnosis but no lifetime history of interpersonal violence.

Method: Overall, 398 patients (221 forensic and 177 non-forensic patients) were recruited across five European Countries (Italy, Germany, Poland, Austria and the United Kingdom) and assessed using a multidimensional standardised process.

Evaluation of coercive measures in different psychiatric hospitals: the impact of institutional characteristics.

Background: Epidemiological studies have demonstrated considerable differences in the use of coercive measures among psychiatric hospitals; however, the underlying reasons for these differences are largely unclear. We investigated to what extent these differences could be explained by institutional factors.

Methods: Four psychiatric hospitals with identical responsibilities within the mental health care system, but with different inpatient care organizations, participated in this prospective observational study.

Do oldest old individuals perceive receipt of informal care as a restriction or support of their autonomy?

Objectives: Autonomy (defined as self-governance; not equivalent to independence) is relevant to well-being and psychological functioning. However, there is a lack of research on individuals aged >85 years and their perception of autonomy when receiving informal care. This study aims to answer the question if and how the receipt of informal care is associated with perceived autonomy of individuals aged over 85 years.

Interdisciplinary management of peripheral arteriovenous malformations: review of the literature and current proceedings.

Arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) are a rare congenital vascular disorder. They represent a fast-flow vascular malformation. Clinically, AVMs present a heterogenous expression and can affect every part of the body.

Reliability of the fMRI-based assessment of self-evaluation in individuals with internet gaming disorder.

The self-concept-defined as the cognitive representation of beliefs about oneself-determines how individuals view themselves, others, and their actions. A negative self-concept can drive gaming use and internet gaming disorder (IGD). The assessment of the neural correlates of self-evaluation gained popularity to assess the self-concept in individuals with IGD.

A multinomial modelling approach to face identity recognition during instructed threat.

To organise future behaviour, it is important to remember both the central and contextual aspects of a situation. We examined the impact of contextual threat or safety, learned through verbal instructions, on face identity recognition. In two studies ( = 140), 72 face-context compounds were presented each once within an encoding session, and an unexpected item/source recognition task was performed afterwards (including 24 new faces).

Early neurophysiological stimulus processing during a performance-monitoring task differentiates women with bipolar disorder from women with ADHD.

Adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or bipolar disorder (BD) may display similar cognitive impairments and clinical symptoms, which might reflect shared mechanisms. Initial evidence indicates disorder-specific and overlapping neurophysiological alterations using event-related potentials (ERPs) in individuals with BD or ADHD during attentional tasks, but it is unknown whether impairments generalize across other processes and tasks. We conduct the first comparison between women with ADHD (n = 20), women with BD (n = 20) and control women (n = 20) on ERPs from a performance-monitoring flanker task.

The Role of Social Isolation and the Development of Depression. A Comparison of the Widowed and Married Oldest Old in Germany.

Widowhood is common in old age, can be accompanied by serious health consequences and is often linked to substantial changes in social network. Little is known about the impact of social isolation on the development of depressive symptoms over time taking widowhood into account. We provide results from the follow-up 5 to follow-up 9 from the longitudinal study AgeCoDe and its follow-up study AgeQualiDe.

Personalized at-home neurofeedback compared to long-acting methylphenidate in children with ADHD: NEWROFEED, a European randomized noninferiority trial.

Background: Neurofeedback is considered a promising intervention for the treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). NEWROFEED is a prospective, multicentre, randomized (3:2), reference drug-controlled trial in children with ADHD aged between 7 and 13 years. The main objective of NEWROFEED was to demonstrate the noninferiority of personalized at-home neurofeedback (NF) training versus methylphenidate in the treatment of children with ADHD.

Non-random relations in drug use expressed as patterns comprising prescription and over-the-counter drugs in multimorbid elderly patients in primary care: Data of the exploratory analysis of the multicentre, observational cohort study MultiCare.

Background: The elderly population deals with multimorbidity (three chronic conditions) and increasinged drug use with age. A comprehensive characterisation of the medication - including prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) drugs - of elderly patients in primary care is still insufficient.

Objectives: This study aims to characterise the medication (prescription and OTC) of multimorbid elderly patients in primary care and living at home by identifying drug patterns to evaluate the relationship between drugs and drug groups and reveal associations with recently published multimorbidity clusters of the same cohort.

Editorial: The Complexity of Neurofeedback and Control of Placebo Effects.

The Neurofeedback Collaborative Group made substantial efforts in assessing clinical effects of neurofeedback (NF) as a promising nonpharmacological treatment option for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In a double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial (RCT), they evaluated the specific effects of a standard NF protocol (theta/beta ratio [TBR] training) compared to a placebo-like control group. Similar to pharmacological studies, the placebo-like intervention can be considered as a gold standard, as it allows evaluation of specific effects of NF training.

Chemotherapy de-escalation using an F-FDG-PET-based pathological response-adapted strategy in patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer (PHERGain): a multicentre, randomised, open-label, non-comparative, phase 2 trial.

Background: Several de-escalation approaches are under investigation in patients with HER2-positive, early-stage breast cancer. We assessed early metabolic responses to neoadjuvant trastuzumab and pertuzumab using F-fluorodeoxyglucose (F-FDG)-PET (F-FDG-PET) and the possibility of chemotherapy de-escalation using a pathological response-adapted strategy.

Methods: We did a multicentre, randomised, open-label, non-comparative, phase 2 trial in 45 hospitals in Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, the UK, Italy, and Portugal.

Rapid Neural Representations of Personally Relevant Faces.

The faces of those most personally relevant to us are our primary source of social information, making their timely perception a priority. Recent research indicates that gender, age and identity of faces can be decoded from EEG/MEG data within 100 ms. Yet, the time course and neural circuitry involved in representing the personal relevance of faces remain unknown.

Social Support and Functional Decline in the Oldest Old.

Objective: Longitudinal studies investigating the link between social support and functional decline are limited among the oldest old. Thus, the aim of this study was to examine whether changes in social support are associated with functional decline among the oldest old longitudinally using panel regression models.

Methods: Longitudinal data from 3 waves (waves 7, 8, and 9) of a multicenter prospective cohort study covering primary care patients aged ≥85 years were used.

Placebo and nocebo responses in randomised, controlled trials of medications for ADHD: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

The nature and magnitude of placebo and nocebo responses to ADHD medications and the extent to which response to active medications and placebo are inter-correlated is unclear. To assess the magnitude of placebo and nocebo responses to ADHD and their association with active treatment response. We searched literature until June 26, 2019, for published/unpublished double-blind, randomised placebo-controlled trials (RCTs) of ADHD medication.

Dreaming in Adolescents During the COVID-19 Health Crisis: Survey Among a Sample of European School Students.

According to the continuity hypothesis of dreaming and contemporary psychodynamic approaches, dreams reflect waking life. The aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and dreaming in adolescents. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Italy, Romania and Croatia involving 2,105 secondary school students (69% girls, mean age 15.

Neural Correlates of Affective Benefit From Real-life Social Contact and Implications for Psychiatric Resilience.

This cohort study examines the association of daily-life social affective benefit with brain structure and psychiatric risk and resilience measures in 2 independent community-based samples.

The Effects of the Lockdown during the COVID-19 Pandemic on Alcohol and Tobacco Consumption Behavior in Germany.

Background: Similar to other countries, the government of Germany has implemented various restrictions of social life in March 2020 to slow the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. This results in millions of people being isolated for long periods, which may increase feelings of worry and anxiety. As the consumption of alcohol and tobacco is an often used dysfunctional strategy to cope with such feelings, these restrictions might cause an increase of consumption.

Who Was Shopping More During the Spring Lockdown 2020 in Germany?

During the lockdown, governmental restrictions resulted in changes to the day-to-day routines of many individuals. Some people appear to cope with stress by panic buying in an attempt to stockpile specific goods, resulting in empty supermarket shelves. Moreover, e-commerce experienced significant growth during this period.

Affective Dysregulation in Children Is Associated With Difficulties in Response Control in Emotional Ambiguous Situations.

Background: Affective dysregulation (AD), or synonymously "irritability," is a transdiagnostic construct that serves as a diagnostic criterion in various childhood mental disorders. It is characterized by severe or persistent outbursts of anger and aggression. Emotional self-regulation is highly dependent on the ability to process relevant and ignore conflicting emotional information.

Impaired contextual fear conditioning in RasGRF2 mutant mice is likely Ras-ERK-dependent.

Ras/Raf/MEK/ERK (Ras-ERK) signaling has been shown to play an important role in fear acquisition. However, little information is known regarding the mechanisms that contribute to the regulation of this pathway in terms of the learning of conditioned fears. Ras Guanine Nucleotide Releasing Factor 2 (RasGRF2) is one of two guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEF) that regulates the Ras-ERK signaling pathway in a Ca-dependent manner via control of the cycling of Ras isoforms between an inactive and active state.

Health-related quality of life and ego integrity among the oldest old - Evidence from the multicenter AgeCoDe-AgeQualiDe study.

Purpose: To investigate the association between health-related quality of life and ego integrity among the oldest old.

Materials And Methods: Cross-sectional data were taken from follow-up wave 9 of the multicenter prospective cohort study "Needs, health service use, costs and health-related quality of life in a large sample of oldest-old primary care patients (85+)" (AgeQualiDe). Our analytical sample comprised n = 495 observations.