4,920 results match your criteria: "Semel Institute.[Affiliation]"

Opioid-related emergency admissions in people with opioid dependence/use disorder with and without sickle cell disease: An analysis of multi-state insurance claims.

Gen Hosp Psychiatry

December 2024

Health and Behavior Research Center, Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, 660 S. Euclid Ave, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America. Electronic address:

Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to evaluate opioid-related hospital admissions among patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) who have opioid-related disorders, analyzing a decade's worth of data from over 191,000 individuals in the U.S.
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  • Findings revealed that while patients with SCD had more all-cause admissions, only a small percentage were for opioid-related events, highlighting that vaso-occlusive crises (VOCs) were far more prevalent.
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  • Although SCD patients showed a higher likelihood of opioid-related admissions compared to those without SCD, these events were still relatively uncommon, suggesting that the perception of elevated substance use risk may be overstated.
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  • This study looked at how living in diverse neighborhoods affects young people at risk for schizophrenia compared to those who are not.
  • Researchers found that living in neighborhoods with lots of different racial and ethnic groups can lead to fewer symptoms of mental health issues for some young people.
  • They also discovered that experiences like being bullied and discrimination can play a role in how these feelings are affected by neighborhood diversity.
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Cognitive Impairment Associated With Schizophrenia: New Research Agenda.

Schizophr Bull Open

January 2024

Department of Psychiatry, Semel Institute for Neuroscience at UCLA and the VA VISN 22 Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

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Transcriptomic markers of biological aging in breast cancer survivors: a longitudinal study.

J Natl Cancer Inst

October 2024

Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA, USA.

Background: The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of breast cancer therapy on biological aging as measured by expression of genes for cellular senescence (p16INK4a, SenMayo), DNA damage response, and proinflammatory senescence-associated secretory phenotype.

Methods: This longitudinal, observational study evaluated women diagnosed with breast cancer (stage 0-III) prior to radiation therapy (RT) and/or chemotherapy (CT) and at repeated visits out to 2 years. Peripheral blood mononuclear cell gene expression was assessed using RNA sequencing on quality-verified RNA.

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The World Health Organization has designated Pseudomonas aeruginosa as a critical pathogen for the development of new antimicrobials. Bacterial viruses, or bacteriophages, have been used in various clinical settings, commonly called phage therapy, to address this growing public health crisis. Here, we describe a high-resolution structural atlas of a therapeutic, contractile-tailed Pseudomonas phage, Pa193.

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Article Synopsis
  • Social disconnection, including objective isolation and subjective loneliness, significantly impacts health, especially in mental illness.
  • A study utilized machine learning to identify predictors of social isolation and loneliness specifically in individuals with schizophrenia, comparing them to groups with bipolar disorder and a socially isolated community sample.
  • The findings indicated that social anhedonia is a common predictor of isolation and loneliness across all groups, while nonsocial cognition uniquely influenced social isolation in schizophrenia, suggesting different intervention strategies may be needed.
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Low-intensity focused ultrasound to the insula differentially modulates the heartbeat-evoked potential: A proof-of-concept study.

Clin Neurophysiol

November 2024

Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech Carilion, Roanoke, VA 24016, USA; Center for Human Neuroscience Research, Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech Carilion, Roanoke, VA 24016, USA; Center for Health Behaviors Research, Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech Carilion, Roanoke, VA 24016, USA; School of Neuroscience, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24016, USA; Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, Roanoke, VA 24016, USA; Graduate Program in Translational Biology, Medicine, and Health, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Roanoke, VA 24016, USA; Department of Neurosurgery, Carilion Clinic, Roanoke, VA 24016, USA. Electronic address:

Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates how focused ultrasound (LIFU) can modify brain responses tied to heartbeat, known as heartbeat evoked potentials (HEP), and focuses on specific brain regions like the insula and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC).
  • Healthy participants received targeted LIFU while their brain activity (EEG) and heart activity (ECG) were monitored, with the main goal of observing changes in HEP amplitudes.
  • Results showed that LIFU to the posterior insula reduced HEP amplitudes, but it did not alter heart rate or variability, indicating the potential for targeting brain areas to influence interoceptive processing.
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Pathways to maternal health inequities: Structural racism, sleep, and physiological stress.

Brain Behav Immun

January 2025

Department of Psychological Sciences, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA; Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA.

Racial inequities in health are vast and well-documented, particularly regarding maternal and infant health. Sleep health, including but not limited to duration and quality, is central to overall health and well-being. However, research has not adequately addressed how racism embedded in structures and systems, in addition to individual experiences, may affect maternal health by impacting sleep.

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Article Synopsis
  • White adipose tissue (WAT) plays a crucial role in storing lipids and maintaining energy balance, making adipocyte formation and stability important for addressing obesity and metabolic disorders.
  • Researchers identified PATZ1 as a significant adipogenic transcription factor involved in the development of adipocytes, as it promotes adipogenesis through specific protein interactions and DNA binding.
  • Experiments revealed that removing PATZ1 in mice resulted in decreased adipocyte precursor cells and fat mass, highlighting its essential regulatory role in adipocyte differentiation and overall fat tissue development.
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MEF2C is a critical transcription factor in neurodevelopment, whose loss-of-function mutation in humans results in MEF2C haploinsufficiency syndrome (MHS), a severe form of autism spectrum disorder (ASD)/intellectual disability (ID). Despite prior animal studies of MEF2C heterozygosity to mimic MHS, MHS-specific mutations have not been investigated previously, particularly in a human context as hiPSCs afford. Here, for the first time, we use patient hiPSC-derived cerebrocortical neurons and cerebral organoids to characterize MHS deficits.

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Safety and efficacy of targeting the supplementary motor area with double-cone deep transcranial magnetic stimulation vs figure-eight coil in treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder with comorbid major depressive disorder.

J Psychiatr Res

November 2024

TMS Clinical and Research Service, Neuromodulation Division, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, USA; Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

Background And Objective: The Supplementary Motor Area (SMA), a relatively large brain structure predominantly located along the interhemispheric fissure, is an established target for repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). We investigated the feasibility, safety, and efficacy of targeting SMA using a double-cone "deep" TMS coil compared to conventional figure-eight coil for treatment of OCD with comorbid Major Depressive Disorder (MDD).

Methods: Sixty-two patients with treatment-resistant OCD and comorbid MDD participated in the study.

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Article Synopsis
  • Scientists used a technique called Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to study how our brains control movement and the sounds we hear.
  • They found that TMS can help improve how people tell different sounds apart, showing that it can change how our brains work.
  • Their results suggest that TMS might be a good way to understand brain activity better, especially in how we process different types of sounds.
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A Longitudinal Study of Aggression in People with Autism and Other Neurodevelopmental Disabilities.

J Autism Dev Disord

September 2024

Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, 760 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90024, USA.

Aggression is common in autism and neurodevelopmental disorders, but longitudinal research on aggression is lacking. We longitudinally tracked aggression in 254 individuals from toddlerhood to emerging adulthood. Our sample included participants with a range of cognitive abilities, with 39.

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Background: Neurorehabilitation in military populations is complicated by higher rates of PTSD and unique characteristics of military institutions. These factors can adversely impact the patient-therapist therapeutic alliance and engagement with the rehabilitation process leading to poorer outcomes. MDMA is a non-classical psychedelic with pro-social and fear regulating properties.

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  • The study focuses on the mental health and substance use patterns among youth facing various life challenges, including those from marginalized groups and low socioeconomic backgrounds.
  • Researchers followed 1,728 participants from Los Angeles and New Orleans over 8 months to analyze how trauma relates to depression and substance use.
  • Results show that higher trauma levels are linked to increased depressive symptoms and substance use, indicating the need for targeted interventions focusing on trauma for these vulnerable youth.
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XK disease is a very rare, multi-system disease, which can present with a wide spectrum of symptoms. This disorder can also be identified pre-symptomatically with the incidental detection of serological abnormalities when typing erythrocytes in peripheral blood, or on other routine laboratory testing. Increasing awareness of this disorder and improved access to genetic testing are resulting in increasing identification of affected patients and families.

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Modeling Travel Time to HIV Treatment in Malawi: Identifying Rural-Urban and Wealth Inequities.

J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr

February 2025

Center for Biomedical Modeling, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA.

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A "blunt" is a hollowed-out cigar/cigarillo from which much of the loose tobacco has been removed, and the remaining tobacco wrapper filled with cannabis. Although blunts contain significant levels of tobacco/nicotine, they are often treated as if they were exclusive cannabis products and omitted from surveys of tobacco products. Whereas the prevalence of virtually all other tobacco products is on the decline in the USA, available data suggest that the prevalence of blunt smoking is not - and in fact, it may be increasing.

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To provide an evidence-based review of the Comprehensive Behavioral Intervention for Tic (CBIT) disorders. For close to a century, behavioral interventions for managing tics associated with Tourette and other tic disorders (TDs) were incorrectly considered ineffective and dangerous by the professional community, due, in large part, to unfounded fears that efforts to suppress tics would lead to a host of negative psychological, and even physical, outcomes (e.g.

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Artificial intelligence and cybercrime: implications for individuals and the healthcare sector.

Br J Psychiatry

October 2024

Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany.

The malicious use of artificial intelligence is growing rapidly, creating major security threats for individuals and the healthcare sector. Individuals with mental illness may be especially vulnerable. Healthcare provider data are a prime target for cybercriminals.

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A fast and responsive voltage indicator with enhanced sensitivity for unitary synaptic events.

Neuron

November 2024

Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Department of Neurobiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. Electronic address:

Article Synopsis
  • Researchers developed a new genetically encoded voltage indicator (GEVI) called ASAP5, which offers improved detection of excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs) and action potentials (APs) with better signal quality compared to previous indicators.
  • ASAP5 was able to detect both spiking and subthreshold neuronal activities in real-time, showing its effectiveness in both animal models and cultured human neurons, even capturing small EPSPs of about 1-mV.
  • The study revealed that EPSP amplitudes decrease as they move away from the source, with further implications for using voltage imaging in studying neuronal dysfunction related to diseases, including those affecting human neurons.
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Socioeconomic status, reserve capacity, and depressive symptoms predict pain in Rheumatoid Arthritis: an examination of the reserve capacity model.

BMC Rheumatol

September 2024

Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, UCLA Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

Background: Guided by the reserve capacity model, we evaluated the unique relationships between socioeconomic status (SES), reserve capacity (helplessness, self-efficacy, social support), and negative emotions on pain in patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA).

Methods: The secondary analysis used baseline, cross-sectional data from 106 adults in a clinical trial comparing behavioral treatments for RA. Patients were eligible if they were ≥ 18 years old, met the ACR criteria for RA (determined by study rheumatologist), had stable disease and drug regimens for 3 months, and did not have a significant comorbid condition.

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Population bottlenecks can impact the rate of adaptation in evolving populations. On the one hand, each bottleneck reduces the genetic variation that fuels adaptation. On the other hand, each founder that survives a bottleneck can undergo more generations and leave more descendants in a resource-limited environment, which allows surviving beneficial mutations to spread more quickly.

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Function, cognition, and quality of life among older adults with lung cancer who live alone: A prospective cohort study.

J Geriatr Oncol

November 2024

Division of Geriatrics, University of California, San Francisco and San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, USA; Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente Northern California, The Permanente Medical Group, Oakland, CA, USA. Electronic address:

Introduction: Among older adults without cancer, living alone is associated with poor health outcomes. However, among older adults with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who live alone, data on function, cognition, and quality of life (QOL) during systemic treatment remain limited.

Materials And Methods: We enrolled adults aged ≥65 with advanced NSCLC starting a new chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and/or targeted therapy regimen with non-curative intent.

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