299 results match your criteria: "University Psychiatric Center KU Leuven.[Affiliation]"

Dopaminergic system gains importance in homeostatic sleep regulation, but the role of different dopamine receptors is not well-defined. 72 h rat electrocorticogram and sleep recordings were made after single application of dopaminergic drugs in clinical use or at least underwent clinical trials. The non-selective agonist apomorphine evoked short pharmacological sleep deprivation with intense wakefulness followed by pronounced sleep rebound.

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Narcolepsy type 1 (NT1) is a clinical syndrome defined by recurrent episodes of excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS), episodes of cataplexy, hypnagogic hallucinations, and sleep paralysis. Symptoms typically manifest in the second or third decade with another small peak in the fourth decade. In this report we describe the case of a 64-year-old woman presenting with new-onset visual hallucinations as the main complaint.

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Preserved social facilitation and preferential processing of partner-relevant information in Huntington's disease.

Brain Commun

December 2024

Center Neuropsychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, Psychiatry Research Group, Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.

Article Synopsis
  • The commentary discusses the concept of the "joint memory effect" in the context of Huntington's disease and how it may influence perceptions of stigma.
  • It highlights the importance of understanding shared memories and experiences among individuals affected by Huntington's disease to combat the "selfish stigma" often associated with the condition.
  • The piece encourages further exploration of the psychological and social dimensions of Huntington's disease to improve support for those affected and challenge negative stereotypes.
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Neuropsychological profile of POLR3A-related spastic ataxia.

Neurol Sci

December 2024

Memory Clinic, Department of Neurology, Onze-Lieve-Vrouwziekenhuis, Aalst, Belgium.

Background And Objectives: POLR3-related disorders are a group of autosomal recessive neurodegenerative diseases that usually cause leukodystrophy and can lead to cognitive dysfunction. Literature reporting comprehensive neuropsychological assessment in POLR3A-related diseases is sparse. Here we describe the neuropsychological profile of a case of childhood-onset POLR3A-related spastic ataxia without leukodystrophy.

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Schizophrenia (SCZ), bipolar (BD) and major depression disorder (MDD) are severe psychiatric disorders that are challenging to treat, often leading to treatment resistance (TR). It is crucial to develop effective methods to identify and treat patients at risk of TR at an early stage in a personalized manner, considering their biological basis, their clinical and psychosocial characteristics. Effective translation of theoretical knowledge into clinical practice is essential for achieving this goal.

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The effects of acute exercise on emotional pattern separation in adolescents and young adults.

Neuroimage

December 2024

KU Leuven, Department of Neurosciences, Center for Clinical Psychiatry, ON5b Herestraat 49, bus 1029, 3000, Leuven, Belgium; University Psychiatric Center KU Leuven, Leuvensesteenweg 517, 3070, Leuven-Kortenberg, Belgium.

Acute exercise has been associated with cognitive improvements, particularly in memory processes linked to the hippocampus, such as the ability to discriminate between similar stimuli, called hippocampal pattern separation. This can be assessed behaviorally with a mnemonic discrimination task and neurally with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Additionally, previous research has shown an emotional modulatory effect on pattern separation, involving the amygdala.

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Article Synopsis
  • Clozapine is an antipsychotic for schizophrenia that has serious side effects, making drug-drug interaction (DDI) databases important for clinician reference.
  • This study analyzed DDI information from five different databases to assess their agreement on potential interactions with clozapine.
  • Out of 183 potential DDIs identified, only 47.5% showed consensus across the databases, highlighting significant discrepancies that could affect patient safety and prescribing practices.
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Article Synopsis
  • Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is effective for major depressive disorder, but individual responses vary and are hard to predict due to differences in symptoms.
  • The study analyzed data from 161 patients to determine which specific baseline depression symptoms could predict remission using a Mixed Graphical Model approach.
  • Results showed that suicidality negatively predicted remission, while symptoms like psychomotor retardation and hypochondriasis were positively associated with better treatment outcomes.
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Predictors of treatment response trajectories to cognitive behavioral therapy for chronic fatigue syndrome: A cohort study.

J Psychosom Res

December 2024

Laboratory for Brain-Gut Axis Studies (LaBGAS), Translational Research in Gastrointestinal Disorders (TARGID), Department of Chronic Diseases and Metabolism (CHROMETA), KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; REVAL - Rehabilitation Research Center, Faculty of Rehabilitation Sciences, Hasselt University, Diepenbeek, Belgium. Electronic address:

Background: The response to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) varies greatly between patients, but predictors of treatment success remain to be elucidated. We aimed to identify patient subgroups based on fatigue trajectory during CBT, identify pre-treatment predictors of subgroup membership, and disentangle the direction of predictor - outcome relationships over time.

Methods: 297 individuals with CFS were enrolled in a standardized CBT program consisting of 17 sessions, with session timing variable between participants.

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Social determinants of health and youth chronic pain.

Complement Ther Clin Pract

November 2024

Department of Physical Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China. Electronic address:

Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to understand how various social determinants of health (SDOH) relate to chronic pain in children and adolescents in the U.S.
  • Researchers analyzed data from a national sample of 30,287 youth, focusing on five SDOH domains, alongside caregiver self-reports of chronic pain.
  • Findings indicated that factors like food insufficiency, parental unemployment, limited access to quality healthcare, and low school engagement significantly increased the likelihood of chronic pain among these youth.
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Objectives: We aimed to review and summarise the existing human literature on the association between lithium and hyperparathyroidism.

Methods: A systematic literature search was carried out according to PRISMA guidelines (last search 27 February 2024), using MEDLINE, Web of Science, Embase and the Cochrane Library. A meta-analysis was performed to determine the prevalence of lithium-associated hypercalcemia (LAH) in lithium-treated patients.

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The Role of Electroconvulsive Therapy in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Systematic Review.

J ECT

August 2024

From the KU Leuven, Department of Neurosciences, Research Group Psychiatry, Neuropsychiatry, Academic Center for ECT and Neuromodulation (AcCENT), University Psychiatric Center KU Leuven, Kortenberg, Belgium.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with a high burden of disability and mortality. Despite standard treatments with antidepressants and/or psychotherapy, remission is often difficult to achieve. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is an effective treatment for mood disorders but is currently not recognized as a treatment modality for PTSD.

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Article Synopsis
  • Neuroimaging databases for neuro-psychiatric disorders provide valuable data for researchers to explore diseases, develop machine learning models, and redefine understanding of these conditions.* ! -
  • A review identified 42 global MRI datasets totaling 23,293 samples from patients with various disorders, including mood, developmental, schizophrenia, Parkinson's, and dementia.* ! -
  • Improved governance and addressing technical issues of these databases are essential for sharing data across borders, aiding in understanding, diagnosing, and creating early interventions for neuro-psychiatric disorders.* !
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Late Life Depression is Not Associated With Alzheimer-Type Tau: Preliminary Evidence From a Next-Generation Tau Ligand PET-MR Study.

Am J Geriatr Psychiatry

January 2025

Department of Neurosciences, Neuropsychiatry (TVC, ML, MVC, MVDB, JVDS, FB, LE, MV), KU Leuven, Leuven Brain Institute, Leuven, Belgium; Geriatric Psychiatry (KV, MVDB, JVDS, FB, LE), University Psychiatric Center KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.

Objective: To investigate whether tau accumulation is higher in late life depression (LLD) compared to non-depressed cognitively unimpaired (CU) older adults. To situate these findings in the neurodegeneration model of LLD by assessing group differences in tau and grey matter volume (GMV) between LLD, non-depressed CU and mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer's Disease (MCI).

Design: Monocentric, cross-sectional study.

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Characterization of gray matter volume changes from one week to 6 months after termination of electroconvulsive therapy in depressed patients.

Brain Stimul

August 2024

KU Leuven, Leuven Brain Institute, Department of Neurosciences, Neuropsychiatry, B-3000, Leuven, Belgium; Geriatric Psychiatry, University Psychiatric Center KU Leuven, B-3000, Leuven, Belgium; KU Leuven, Leuven Brain Institute, Department of Imaging and Pathology, Translational MRI, B-3000, Leuven, Belgium.

Background: Increased gray matter volume (GMV) following electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has been well-documented, with limited studies reporting a subsequent decrease in GMV afterwards.

Objective: This study characterized the reversion pattern of GMV after ECT and its association with clinical depression outcome, using multi-site triple time-point data from the Global ECT-MRI Research Collaboration (GEMRIC).

Methods: 86 subjects from the GEMRIC database were included, and GMV in 84 regions-of-interest (ROI) was obtained from automatic segmentation of T1 MRI images at three timepoints: pre-ECT (T), within one-week post-ECT (T), and one to six months post-ECT (T).

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Acoustic Stimulation to Improve Slow-Wave Sleep in Alzheimer's Disease: A Multiple Night At-Home Intervention.

Am J Geriatr Psychiatry

January 2025

Geriatric Psychiatry (LVDB, KV, LE, MV, MVDB), University Psychiatric Center KU Leuven, Leuven 3000, Belgium; Neuropsychiatry (LVDB, KV, LE, MV, MVDB), Research Group Psychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Leuven 3000, Belgium. Electronic address:

Objectives: To investigate the efficacy of closed-loop acoustic stimulation (CLAS) during slow-wave sleep (SWS) to enhance slow-wave activity (SWA) and SWS in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) across multiple nights and to explore associations between stimulation, participant characteristics, and individuals' SWS response.

Design: A 2-week, open-label at-home intervention study utilizing the DREEM2 headband to record sleep data and administer CLAS during SWS.

Setting And Participants: Fifteen older patients with AD (6 women, mean age: 76.

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Background And Objectives: The number of people with dementia is expected to triple to 152 million in 2050, with 90% having accompanying behavioral and psychological symptoms (BPSD). Agitation is among the most critical BPSD and can lead to decreased quality of life for people with dementia and their caregivers. This study aims to explore objective quantification of agitation in people with dementia by analyzing the relationships between physiological and movement data from wearables and observational measures of agitation.

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Lack of positive mood and anhedonia probably are the most specific depressive symptoms. Anhedonia is a multifaceted concept: the clinical language describes anticipatory/consummatory anhedonia and sensory/social anhedonia while the cognitive neuroscience language describes readiness for reward, energy expenditure to attain reward, updating reward presence and value. Mounting evidence supports the potential of kappa-opioid receptor (KOR) antagonists as novel pharmacotherapies for major depressive disorder : aticaprant is a potent, selective, short-acting KOR antagonist.

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Continuous theta burst stimulation for bipolar depression: A multicenter, double-blind randomized controlled study exploring treatment efficacy and predictive potential of kynurenine metabolites.

J Affect Disord

September 2024

Scientific Initiative of Neuropsychiatric and Psychopharmacological Studies (SINAPS), University Psychiatric Centre Duffel, Duffel, Belgium; Collaborative Antwerp Psychiatric Research Institute (CAPRI), Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.

Background: While theta burst stimulation (TBS) shows promise in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), its effectiveness in bipolar depression (BD-D) remains uncertain. Optimizing treatment parameters is crucial in the pursuit of rapid symptom relief. Moreover, aligning with personalized treatment strategies and increased interest in immunopsychiatry, biomarker-based stratification of patients most likely to benefit from TBS might improve remission rates.

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Article Synopsis
  • The Syndrome of Irreversible Lithium-Effectuated Neurotoxicity (SILENT) is a rare but serious brain-related condition that can occur due to lithium poisoning, which has been noted since the 1960s yet remains poorly understood.
  • A scoping review conducted found that out of 117 SILENT cases examined, 77% showed long-lasting problems with motor coordination (cerebellar dysfunction), with other issues like cognitive difficulties and movement disorders also noted.
  • Awareness and further systematic research into SILENT are essential, as lithium usage is more regulated now, but the risk of severe neurological effects still exists.
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Late-life depression has been consistently associated with lower gray matter volume, the origin of which remains largely unexplained. Recent in-vivo PET findings in early-onset depression and Alzheimer's Disease suggest that synaptic deficits contribute to the pathophysiology of these disorders and may therefore contribute to lower gray matter volume in late-life depression. Here, we investigate synaptic density in vivo for the first time in late-life depression using the synaptic vesicle glycoprotein 2A receptor radioligand C-UCB-J.

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Objective: Short-term RCTs have demonstrated that MPH-treatment significantly reduces ADHD-symptoms, but is also associated with adverse events, including sleep problems. However, data on long-term effects of MPH on sleep remain limited.

Methods: We performed a 2-year naturalistic prospective pharmacovigilance multicentre study.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to investigate the long-term safety of methylphenidate (MPH), particularly regarding its impact on pubertal maturation and bone age.
  • Participants from a two-year observational study were compared across three groups: those on MPH, those not on MPH, and a control group without ADHD.
  • Results showed no differences in sexual maturation between medicated and unmedicated ADHD groups, and while there was slight bone maturation acceleration in the medicated group, their predicted adult height remained stable, indicating no long-term safety concerns with MPH.
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Corticosteroids and mania: A systematic review.

World J Biol Psychiatry

March 2024

Academic Center for ECT and Neuromodulation (AcCENT), University Psychiatric Center KU Leuven, Kortenberg, Belgium.

Objectives: Corticosteroids are widely prescribed for a variety of medical conditions. Accumulating evidence suggests that their use may be associated with adverse psychiatric effects, including mania. In this systematic review, we aim to critically evaluate the existing literature on the association between corticosteroid use and the emergence of mania.

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