Developing neurocognitive standard clinical care: A study of young adult inpatients.

Neuropsychological assessments have provided the field of psychiatry with important information about patients. As an assessment tool, a neuropsychological battery can be useful in a clinical setting; however, implementation as standard clinical care in an inpatient unit has not been extensively evaluated. A computerized cognitive battery was administered to 103 current young adult inpatients (19.

Potential Causal Influence of Neighborhood Disadvantage on Disordered Gambling: Evidence From a Multilevel Discordant Twin Design.

The quality of the neighborhood in which one lives has been linked to disordered gambling (DG), but whether this reflects a causal relation has not yet been empirically examined. Participants were 3,450 Australian twins who completed assessments of past-year DG and personality and for whom census-derived indicators of disadvantage were used to characterize their neighborhood. Multilevel models were employed to estimate within-twin-pair and betweentwin-pair effects of neighborhood disadvantage on DG, with the within-twin-pair effect representing a potentially causal association and the between-twin-pair effect representing a noncausal association.

Healthy aging affects cerebrovascular reactivity and pressure-flow responses, but not neurovascular coupling: A cross-sectional study.

Background And Purpose: Aging leads to alterations in cerebrovascular function, and these are thought to contribute to cognitive decline/dementia. Disturbances to cerebral blood flow regulation have been reported, but the findings are inconsistent and to date no study has comprehensively tested the collective and independent contribution of these parameters in the same age range. Such lines of enquiry are vital since aging is a heterogeneous and complex process, with cerebrovascular parameters being differentially affected depending on the individual.

Interactive impact of childhood maltreatment, depression, and age on cortical brain structure: mega-analytic findings from a large multi-site cohort.

Background: Childhood maltreatment (CM) plays an important role in the development of major depressive disorder (MDD). The aim of this study was to examine whether CM severity and type are associated with MDD-related brain alterations, and how they interact with sex and age.

Methods: Within the ENIGMA-MDD network, severity and subtypes of CM using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire were assessed and structural magnetic resonance imaging data from patients with MDD and healthy controls were analyzed in a mega-analysis comprising a total of 3872 participants aged between 13 and 89 years.

Elucidating the glutamatergic processes underlying mismatch negativity deficits in early stage bipolar disorder and schizophrenia: A combined H-MRS and EEG study.

Impairments in mismatch negativity (MMN) in schizophrenia are well-established; these findings have been extended to show impairments at early illness stages and in bipolar disorder. A substantial literature supports MMN as an index of NMDA receptor output, however, few studies have conducted in vivo assessments to elucidate the neurochemical underpinnings of MMN. Sixty young (16-33 years) participants with bipolar disorder (n = 47) or schizophrenia (n = 13) underwent H-MRS and MMN assessment.

A case study of feedback and cognitive assessment of a young adult inpatient with major depressive disorder.

Objectives: Neurocognitive assessment and feedback to a young adult inpatient.

Methods: Computerised neurocognitive assessment and feedback.

Results: A collaborative process of personalised intervention.

Cerebral Blood Flow during Interval and Continuous Exercise in Young and Old Men.

Purpose: Aging is associated with impaired cerebral blood flow (CBF) and increased risk of cerebrovascular disease. Acute increases in CBF during exercise may initiate improvements in cerebrovascular health, but the CBF response is diminished during continuous exercise in older adults. The effect of interval exercise for promoting increases in CBF in young and old adults is unknown.

Mental training affects electrophysiological markers of attention resource allocation in healthy older adults.

Aging is associated with a decline in performance and speed of attentional processing. Mindfulness has been shown to enhance attentional performance, however evidence of this is lacking in aging cohorts. A longitudinal RCT was conducted to examine the effect of mindfulness training on attentional performance in healthy older adults (n = 49) together with an active control computer-based attention training group (n = 30).

Exploring associations between early substance use and longitudinal socio-occupational functioning in young people engaged in a mental health service.

Neuropsychiatric disorders (including substance misuse) are associated with the greatest burden of functional disability in young people, and contributory factors remain poorly understood. Early-onset substance use is one candidate risk factor which may inform functional prognosis and facilitate direction of interventions aiming to curtail impairment. Accordingly, we modelled associations between early-onset use of alcohol, tobacco, cannabis and amphetamine-type stimulants (ATSs) and longitudinal socio-occupational functioning (indexed by the Social and Occupational Functioning Assessment Scale) in an observational cohort presenting to early intervention mental health services.

The neuropsychological profiles of young psychosis patients with and without current cannabis use.

Introduction: Evidence suggests that patients with psychosis who have a history of cannabis use, but currently abstain, demonstrate superior cognitive performance than patients who have never used cannabis. The present study aimed to determine the neurocognitive profiles of patients who are in adolescence or early adulthood, when both illness- and drug-onset typically occur.

Methods: Subjects were 24 cannabis-using and 79 cannabis-naïve psychosis patients between 16 and 25 years of age.

Parallel Changes in Mood and Melatonin Rhythm Following an Adjunctive Multimodal Chronobiological Intervention With Agomelatine in People With Depression: A Proof of Concept Open Label Study.

Agomelatine is a melatonin agonist and 5HT antagonist developed for the treatment of major depressive disorder which also has some effects on the circadian system. Since circadian dysfunctions are thought to play a role in the pathophysiology of depression, some of the mechanism of action of this drug may relate to improvements in circadian rhythms. This proof of concept open-label study sought to determine if improvements in depressive symptoms following an adjunctive multimodal intervention including agomelatine intake are associated with the magnitude of circadian realignment.

Brain GABA levels are reduced in alcoholic liver disease: A proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy study.

Background And Aims: Baclofen, a selective γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptor agonist, has emerged as a potential treatment for alcohol use disorder with much unexplained variation in response to treatment efficacy and dose regimen. Several positive studies include patients with alcoholic liver disease (ALD) and/or history of heavy drinking. The aim of this paper was to examine the association of cortical GABA+ concentration with severity of liver disease (including markers of liver injury) and other clinical characteristics in alcohol patients.

Insomnia symptoms and short sleep duration predict trajectory of mental health symptoms.

Objectives: We evaluated whether insomnia symptoms and short or long sleep duration, alone or in combination, are robustly associated with subsequent trajectory of mental health symptoms.

Methods: Participants were 2598 individuals (15 to 94 years of age) with elevated mental health symptoms at baseline (2013-14). Associations of baseline insomnia symptoms and sleep duration with two-year trajectory of mental health were estimated and adjusted for multiple potential confounders.

Sleep-wake, cognitive and clinical correlates of treatment outcome with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation for young adults with depression.

The utility of key phenotypes of depression in predicting response to repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), namely sleep-wake behaviour, cognition and illness chronicity, has been understudied and not been extended to young samples. This study aimed to determine whether sleep-wake disturbance, cognition or depression chronicity are associated with rTMS outcome in young depressed adults. Sixteen depressed young adults diagnosed with mood disorders (aged 18-29 years) completed this open-label study.

Fast and furious: A neglected issue in health promotion among young drivers.

Issues Addressed: This paper investigates the influence of mood while driving, advocates for identifying high-risk groups and detects associations between mood while driving and risky driving behaviours. While commensurate studies regarding aggressive driving have confirmed significant detriments in driving performance, little scholarly research has studied the gaps and opportunities at the intersection of mood and risky driving in young drivers.

Methods: A cross-sectional design was implemented using 660 young drivers (17-25 years) from Australia (34.

Neurocognitive clusters: A pilot study of young people with affective disorders in an inpatient facility.

Background: There is growing evidence to support the need for personalised intervention in the early stages of a major psychiatric illness, as well as the clear delineation of subgroups in psychiatric disorders based on cognitive impairment. Affective disorders are often accompanied by neurocognitive deficits; however a lack of research among young adult inpatients highlights the need to assess the utility of cognitive testing in this population.

Methods: A computerised cognitive battery was administered to 50 current inpatient young adults (16-30 years; 75% female) with an affective disorder.

A data-driven transdiagnostic analysis of white matter integrity in young adults with major psychiatric disorders.

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) has been utilized to index white matter (WM) integrity in the major psychiatric disorders. However, the findings within and across such disorders have been mixed. Given this, transdiagnostic sampling with data-driven statistical approaches may lead to new and better insights about the clinical and functional factors associated with WM abnormalities.

The My Active and Healthy Aging (My-AHA) ICT platform to detect and prevent frailty in older adults: Randomized control trial design and protocol.

Introduction: Frailty increases the risk of poor health outcomes, disability, hospitalization, and death in older adults and affects 7%-12% of the aging population. Secondary impacts of frailty on psychological health and socialization are significant negative contributors to poor outcomes for frail older adults.

Method: The My Active and Healthy Aging (My-AHA) consortium has developed an information and communications technology-based platform to support active and healthy aging through early detection of prefrailty and provision of individually tailored interventions, targeting multidomain risks for frailty across physical activity, cognitive activity, diet and nutrition, sleep, and psychosocial activities.

The association of insomnia with future mental illness: is it just residual symptoms?

Objectives: To evaluate whether the prospective association between insomnia and mental illness in the general population remained after controlling for multiple confounders, or whether this represented partly remitted prior mental illness.

Design: Cohort study.

Setting: Australian general population.

Development of a higher-order instruction coding taxonomy for observational data: Initial application to professional driving instruction.

Development of a higher-order instruction taxonomy, informed by best practice in driver education (Goals for Driver Education) and self-determination theory (guiding teaching strategies), was tested. Inter-coder reliability was assessed by coding 93 data elements from 5-min clips from three driving instructors. Seventy-three instruction and 32 teaching approach codes were selected.

A qualitative exploration of driving stress and driving discourtesy.

Background: Driving courtesy, and conversely driving discourtesy, recently has been of great interest in the public domain. In addition, there has been increasing recognition of the negative impact of stress upon the individual's health and wellbeing, with a plethora of interventions aimed at minimising stress more generally. The research literature regarding driving dis/courtesy, in comparison, is scant, with a handful of studies examining the dis/courteous driving behaviour of road users, and the relationship between driving discourtesy and driving stress.

Response inhibition and emotional cognition improved by atomoxetine in children and adolescents with ADHD: The ACTION randomized controlled trial.

Although the non-stimulant medication atomoxetine is effective for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children and adolescents, there are still significant gaps in our knowledge about whether atomoxetine improves anxiety symptoms or cognition in children. Furthermore, while cognition has been proposed as an intermediate phenotype for ADHD dysfunction, the relationships between clinical and cognitive outcomes are not yet understood. We addressed these knowledge gaps in a controlled trial using objective assessments of both general and emotional cognitive functions implicated in ADHD and in anxiety, which commonly co-occurs with ADHD.

Distress and sleep quality in young amphetamine-type stimulant users with an affective or psychotic illness.

Misuse of amphetamine-type stimulant (ATS) drugs may disrupt key neurodevelopmental processes in young people and confer protracted neurocognitive and psychopathological harm. ATS users with a co-occurring psychiatric illness are typically excluded from research, reducing generalisability of findings. Accordingly, we conducted a cross-sectional examination of key clinical, sleep, socio-occupational and neurocognitive measures in current, past and never users of ATS drugs who were accessing a youth mental health service (headspace) for affective- or psychotic-spectrum illnesses.

Meta-analysis of neurocognition in young psychosis patients with current cannabis use.

Objective: Adult psychosis patients (i.e. over the age of 25 years) who are also lifetime cannabis users (CANN±) appear to exhibit superior cognition compared to never-using patients (CANN-).