(Mal)adaptive Mentalizing in the Cognitive Hierarchy, and Its Link to Paranoia.

Unlabelled: Humans need to be on their toes when interacting with competitive others to avoid being taken advantage of. Too much caution out of context can, however, be detrimental and produce false beliefs of intended harm. Here, we offer a formal account of this phenomenon through the lens of Theory of Mind.

Risk factors and outcomes of anxiety symptom trajectories in type 2 diabetes: the Fremantle Diabetes Study Phase II.

Aim: To identify determinants and outcomes of 4-year trajectories of anxiety symptoms in a community-based cohort with type 2 diabetes.

Methods: Some 1091 participants in the Fremantle Diabetes Study-Phase II with type 2 diabetes completed the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale at baseline and biennially for 4 years, in addition to psychological, biomedical and self-management measures. Latent growth mixture modelling identified trajectories of anxiety symptom severity, and regression models determined predictors of trajectory membership and associated outcomes.

A rapid absorbance-based growth assay to screen the toxicity of oligomer Aβ and protect against cell death in yeast.

Multiple lines of evidence show that soluble oligomer forms of amyloid β protein (Aβ) are the most neurotoxic species in the brain and correlates with the degree of neuronal loss and cognitive deficit in Alzheimer's disease. Although many studies have used mammalian cells to investigate oligomer Aβ toxicity, the use of more simple eukaryotic cellular systems offers advantages for large-scale screening studies. We have previously established and validated budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae to be a simple and a robust model to study the toxicity of Aβ.

Fatal and non-fatal opioid overdose in opioid dependent patients treated with methadone, buprenorphine or implant naltrexone.

Background: Illicit opioid use is associated with high rates of fatal and non-fatal opioid overdose. This study aims to compare rates of fatal and serious but non-fatal opioid overdose in opioid dependent patients treated with methadone, buprenorphine or implant naltrexone, and to identify risk factors for fatal opioid overdose.

Methods: Opioid dependent patients treated with methadone (n=3515), buprenorphine (n=3250) or implant naltrexone (n=1461) in Western Australia for the first time between 2001 and 2010, were matched against state mortality and hospital data.

Morbidity and mortality in opioid dependent patients after entering an opioid pharmacotherapy compared with a cohort of non-dependent controls.

Aims: To compare morbidity and mortality in opioid dependence patients following the commencement of treatment with the general population.

Methods: Morbidity and mortality in all patients treated with methadone, buprenorphine or implant naltrexone for opioid dependence for the first time between 2001 and 2010 in Western Australia was compared to a cohort of age and gender matched controls using state health records.

Results: Compared to community controls rates of all-cause mortality, hospital admissions and Emergency Department attendances are significantly elevated in opioid dependent persons following the commencement of their first treatment.

A Retrospective Cohort Study of Obstetric Outcomes in Opioid-Dependent Women Treated with Implant Naltrexone, Oral Methadone or Sublingual Buprenorphine, and Non-Dependent Controls.

Background: Opioid pharmacotherapies play an important role in the treatment of opioid-dependent women; however, very little is known about the safety of naltrexone in pregnant patients.

Objective: This study examined the obstetric health of opioid-dependent women who were treated with implant naltrexone during pregnancy, and compared them with women treated with methadone and/or buprenorphine and a cohort of non-opioid-dependent controls.

Methods: Women treated with implant naltrexone, oral methadone or sublingual buprenorphine between 2001 and 2010, along with a cohort of age-matched controls, were linked with records from midwives, hospital and emergency departments (EDs) and the death registry to identify pregnancy and health events that occurred during pregnancy and in the post-partum period.

Adjunctive antidepressant use in schizophrenia in China: A national survey (2002-2012).

Objective: This study examined the pattern of adjunctive antidepressant use in schizophrenia patients and its demographic and clinical correlates in a nationwide survey in China.

Methods: Fourteen thousand and thirteen patients in 45 Chinese psychiatric hospitals or centers were interviewed (4,486 in 2002, 5,288 in 2006, and 4,239 in 2012). Patients' sociodemographic and clinical characteristics were recorded using a standardized protocol and data collection procedure.

Dissociation of local and global contributions to detection of shape with age.

Radial Frequency (RF) patterns are a useful stimulus for assessing sensitivity to changes in shape. With these patterns it is possible to separate sensitivity to local curvature information from the ability to globally integrate information around the contour. Previous work has demonstrated that young, school-age children are less sensitive to deformation in RF patterns than adults.

Vascular insufficiency, not inflammation, contributes to chronic gliosis in a rat CNS transplantation model.

Purpose: There is considerable variability in the extent and nature of the glial response to injury and neurodegeneration. Transplantation of fetal cortical tissue onto the brain of neonatal host rats or mice results in region-specific changes dependent on where the fetal tissue is placed. These changes include chronic astrocytic and microglial gliosis, oxidative stress, and altered metabolism of a number of proteins associated with the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease.

The Effects of Latrepirdine on Amyloid-β Aggregation and Toxicity.

Latrepirdine (Dimebon) has been demonstrated to be a neuroprotective and cognition improving agent in neurodegenerative diseases that feature protein aggregation and deposition, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). The accumulation of amyloid-β (Aβ) protein aggregates is a key event in the neurodegenerative process in AD. This study explores if latrepirdine modulation of protein aggregation contributes to its neuroprotective mechanism of action.

Symptom dimensions of the psychotic symptom rating scales in psychosis: a multisite study.

The Psychotic Symptom Rating Scales (PSYRATS) is an instrument designed to quantify the severity of delusions and hallucinations and is typically used in research studies and clinical settings focusing on people with psychosis and schizophrenia. It is comprised of the auditory hallucinations (AHS) and delusions subscales (DS), but these subscales do not necessarily reflect the psychological constructs causing intercorrelation between clusters of scale items. Identification of these constructs is important in some clinical and research contexts because item clustering may be caused by underlying etiological processes of interest.

Studying hallucinations within the NIMH RDoC framework.

We explore how hallucinations might be studied within the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) framework, which asks investigators to step back from diagnoses based on symptoms and focus on basic dimensions of functioning. We start with a description of the objectives of the RDoC project and its domains and constructs. Because the RDoC initiative asks investigators to study phenomena across the wellness spectrum and different diagnoses, we address whether hallucinations experienced in nonclinical populations are the same as those experienced by people with psychotic diagnoses, and whether hallucinations studied in one clinical group can inform our understanding of the same phenomenon in another.

Pontine microbleeds and depression in stroke.

Objectives: Depression is the most common affective disorder following stroke yet the neuroanatomical model of poststroke depression (PSD) remains unclear. This study examined the association between PSD and cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) and hypothesized that CMBs in specific regions would be associated with PSD.

Methods: Of the 4766 patients with first ever or recurrent acute ischemic stroke admitted to the Acute Stroke Unit of the Prince of Wales Hospital between June 2004 and October 2010, 229 met the entry criteria and formed the study sample.

Aging, cortical injury and Alzheimer's disease-like pathology in the guinea pig brain.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized histopathologically by the abnormal deposition of the proteins amyloid-beta (Aβ) and tau. A major issue for AD research is the lack of an animal model that accurately replicates the human disease, thus making it difficult to investigate potential risk factors for AD such as head injury. Furthermore, as age remains the strongest risk factor for most of the AD cases, transgenic models in which mutant human genes are expressed throughout the life span of the animal provide only limited insight into age-related factors in disease development.

Cerebral microbleeds as a predictor of 1-year outcome of poststroke depression.

Background And Purpose: Cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) are common in stroke survivors and community-dwelling elderly. The clinical significance of CMBs in the outcome of poststroke depression (PSD) is unknown. This study examined the association between the 1-year outcome of PSD and CMBs.

Assessing the usefulness of health data linkage in obtaining adverse event data in a randomised controlled trial of oral and implant naltrexone in the treatment of heroin dependence.

Background: The completeness of self-reported serious adverse events (SAEs) in clinical trials can be reduced by inaccuracies in subject reporting and lost to follow-up.

Purpose: This study assesses the usefulness of a health data linkage system in obtaining SAE data in a randomised controlled study of oral and implant naltrexone.

Methods: SAEs were collected from 68 heroin-dependent subjects during a randomised controlled trial of oral and implant naltrexone with follow-up to 26 weeks.

Examination of mortality rates in a retrospective cohort of patients treated with oral or implant naltrexone for problematic opiate use.

Aims: To examine and compare mortality rates in patients treated with oral and implant naltrexone.

Design: A retrospective cohort study.

Setting: A community not-for-profit drug treatment clinic.

Olfactory dysfunction is associated with subjective memory complaints in community-dwelling elderly individuals.

Olfactory dysfunction has been reported in clinical and preclinical phases of Alzheimer's disease. Subjective memory complaints have been proposed as a potential early indicator for increased risk of Alzheimer's disease, but have also been associated with depression, personality characteristics, and health problems. In this study, we aimed to determine which of these putative markers can predict memory complaints in community-dwelling elderly individuals, focusing on olfactory symptoms.

The relationship between memory complaints, perceived quality of life and mental health in apolipoprotein Eepsilon4 carriers and non-carriers.

Apolipoprotein E epsilon4 (APOE-epsilon4) is a major genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. In this study, we addressed the question of whether possession of the APOE-epsilon4 allele results in adverse effects on perceived health-related quality of life (HRQL) and on symptoms of depression and anxiety in people with subjective memory complaints (SMC). 138 healthy, community-dwelling elderly volunteers, aged 52 to 85, were assessed for HRQL, depression, and anxiety.

It is too early for adjusting the adjustment disorder category.

Purpose Of Review: Despite the relative frequency with which the diagnosis of adjustment disorder is made, there is a very limited research literature in regard to its cause, epidemiology and treatment. This review summarizes recent papers and findings in relation to this diagnostic category.

Recent Findings: The conceptual underpinnings of the diagnosis adjustment disorder is the subject of ongoing debate as is its differentiation from other psychiatric disorders such as depressive disorders.

No support for an association with TAAR6 and schizophrenia in a linked population of European ancestry.

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the trace amine associated receptor trace amine associated receptor 6 gene and 3' flanking region have been shown to be associated with schizophrenia. To replicate these findings, we conducted a family-based association study with the five most significant SNPs in our sample of 79 sib-pair families (56/79 sib-pair families showed linkage to 6q23) and 125 triads. No evidence for association was obtained between these SNPs and schizophrenia in our sample, even when limited to the 56 linked families (P>0.

A multivariate electrophysiological endophenotype, from a unitary cohort, shows greater research utility than any single feature in the Western Australian family study of schizophrenia.

Background: Previous studies have found several electrophysiological endophenotypes that each co-varies individually with schizophrenia. This study extends these investigations to compare and contrast four electrophysiological endophenotype, mismatch negativity, P50, P300, and antisaccades, and analyze their covariance on the basis of a single cohort tested with all paradigms. We report a multivariate endophenotype that is maximally associated with diagnosis and evaluate this new endophenotype with respect to its application to genetic analysis.

Understanding the stresses and strains of being a doctor.

Stress in doctors is a product of the interaction between the demanding nature of their work and their often obsessive, conscientious and committed personalities. In the face of extremely demanding work, a subjective lack of control and insufficient rewards are powerful sources of stress in doctors. If demands continue to rise and adjustments are not made, then inevitably a "correction" will occur, which may take the form of "burnout" or physical and/or mental impairment.