Transcranial direct current stimulation as an additional treatment to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in adults with major depressive disorder in Germany (DepressionDC): a triple-blind, randomised, sham-controlled, multicentre trial.

BACKGROUND: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been proposed as a feasible treatment for major depressive disorder (MDD). However, meta-analytic evidence is heterogenous and data from multicentre trials are scarce. We aimed to assess the efficacy of tDCS versus sham stimulation as an additional treatment to a stable dose of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in adults with MDD. METHODS: The DepressionDC trial was triple-blind, randomised, and sham-controlled and conducted at eight hospitals in Germany. Patients being treated at a participating hospital aged 18-65 years were eligible if they had a diagnosis of MDD, a score of at least 15 on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (21-item version), no response to at least one antidepressant trial in their current depressive episode, and treatment with an SSRI at a stable dose for at least 4 weeks before inclusion; the SSRI was continued at the same dose during stimulation. Patients were allocated (1:1) by fixed-blocked randomisation to receive either 30 min of 2 mA bifrontal tDCS every weekday for 4 weeks, then two tDCS sessions per week for 2 weeks, or sham stimulation at the same intervals. Randomisation was stratified by site and baseline Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) score (ie, <31 or ≥31). Participants, raters, and operators were masked to treatment assignment. The primary outcome was change on the MADRS at week 6, analysed in the intention-to-treat population. Safety was assessed in all patients who received at least one treatment session. The trial was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02530164). FINDINGS: Between Jan 19, 2016, and June 15, 2020, 3601 individuals were assessed for eligibility. 160 patients were included and randomly assigned to receive either active tDCS (n=83) or sham tDCS (n=77). Six patients withdrew consent and four patients were found to have been wrongly included, so data from 150 patients were analysed (89 [59%] were female and 61 [41%] were male). No intergroup difference was found in mean improvement on the MADRS at week 6 between the active tDCS group (n=77; -8·2, SD 7·2) and the sham tDCS group (n=73; -8·0, 9·3; difference 0·3 [95% CI -2·4 to 2·9]). Significantly more participants had one or more mild adverse events in the active tDCS group (50 [60%] of 83) than in the sham tDCS group (33 [43%] of 77; p=0·028). INTERPRETATION: Active tDCS was not superior to sham stimulation during a 6-week period. Our trial does not support the efficacy of tDCS as an additional treatment to SSRIs in adults with MDD. FUNDING: German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

The out-of-pocket expenses of people with tinnitus in Europe.

BACKGROUND: Despite the high frequency of tinnitus and its impact on wellbeing, little is known about its economic burden and no data to our knowledge are available on out-of-pocket (OOP) expenses. METHODS: In 2022 a survey was conducted on OOP costs of tinnitus. We enrolled 679 participants with slight, moderate and severe tinnitus in Italy, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Germany and Spain. We estimated annual OOP expenses for tinnitus-related healthcare visits, treatments, medications and alternative medicine practices. Prevalence of tinnitus in the general population, obtained from a representative survey we conducted in Europe in 2017-2018, was used to generalise costs for people with any tinnitus at the national level. RESULTS: OOP expenses were 368€ (95% confidence intervals (CI), 78€-690€), 728€ (95% CI, 316€-1,288€), and 1,492€ (95% CI, 760€-2,688€) for slight, moderate, and severe tinnitus, respectively, with annual expenditure of 565€ for people with any tinnitus: 209€ for healthcare visits, 93€ for treatments, 16€ for drugs, 64€ for hearing supporting systems and 183€ for acupuncture, homeopathy and osteopathy. Individuals with slight, moderate, and severe tinnitus expressed a willingness to invest 1.6, 4.3, and 7.0 times their monthly income, respectively, to achieve complete relief from tinnitus. CONCLUSIONS: This study offers for the first time insights into the OOP expenses incurred by individuals with tinnitus. OOP expenses exhibited substantial variations based on severity status, accounting for more than 17 thousand million€ in the countries considered. In terms of financial burden, these findings align tinnitus to the recognised leading disabilities, including back pain and migraine.

Activate & fire: a feasibility study in combining acoustic stimulation and continuous theta burst stimulation in chronic tinnitus.

BACKGROUND: Low frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is commonly used to inhibit pathological hyperactivity of the auditory cortex in tinnitus. Novel and supposedly superior and faster inhibitory protocols such as continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) were examined as well, but so far there is not sufficient evidence for a treatment application in chronic tinnitus. rTMS effects in general are dependent on the brain state immediate before stimulation. This feasibility study was designed based on the concept to shift the pathological intrinsic brain state of tinnitus patients via acoustic stimulation ("activate") and induce inhibitory effects via cTBS ("fire"). METHODS: Seven tinnitus patients with response in residual inhibition received 10 consecutive daily sessions of a combinatory treatment comprised of 3-minute acoustic stimulation with white noise followed by 600 pulses of cTBS over the left temporo-parietal cortex (activate & fire). A control group of 5 patients was treated parallel to the activate & fire data collection with 10 sessions á 3000 pulses of 1 Hz rTMS over the left temporo-parietal cortex. RESULTS: The activate & fire protocol was well tolerated except in one patient with tinnitus loudness increase. This patient was excluded from analyses. No statistical superiority of the activate & fire treatment approach in alleviating tinnitus-related symptoms was evident. Power calculations showed an effect size of 0.706 and a needed sample size of 66 for statistical significant group differences. On a descriptive level the activate & fire group demonstrated a stronger decrease in tinnitus-related symptoms. CONCLUSION: The present feasibility study showed that combining acoustic stimulation with magnetic brain stimulation may be well-tolerable in the majority of patients and represents a promising treatment approach for tinnitus by hypothetically alter the intrinsic state prior to brain stimulation.

Effects of Early Clozapine Treatment on Remission Rates in Acute Schizophrenia (The EARLY Trial): Protocol of a Randomized-Controlled Multicentric Trial.

BACKGROUND: Quick symptomatic remission after the onset of psychotic symptoms is critical in schizophrenia treatment, determining the subsequent disease course and recovery. In this context, only every second patient with acute schizophrenia achieves symptomatic remission within three months of initiating antipsychotic treatment. The potential indication extension of clozapine-the most effective antipsychotic-to be introduced at an earlier stage (before treatment-resistance) is supported by several lines of evidence, but respective clinical trials are lacking. METHODS: Two hundred-twenty patients with acute non-treatment-resistant schizophrenia will be randomized in this double-blind, 8-week parallel-group multicentric trial to either clozapine or olanzapine. The primary endpoint is the number of patients in symptomatic remission at the end of week 8 according to international consensus criteria ('Andreasen criteria'). Secondary endpoints and other assessments comprise a comprehensive safety assessment (i. e., myocarditis screening), changes in psychopathology, global functioning, cognition, affective symptoms and quality of life, and patients' and relatives' views on treatment. DISCUSSION: This multicentre trial aims to examine whether clozapine is more effective than a highly effective second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs), olanzapine, in acute schizophrenia patients who do not meet the criteria for treatment-naïve or treatment-resistant schizophrenia. Increasing the likelihood to achieve symptomatic remission in acute schizophrenia can improve the overall outcome, reduce disease-associated burden and potentially prevent mid- and long-term disease chronicity.

Adaptive data collection for intraindividual studies affected by adherence.

Recently, the use of mobile technologies in ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) and interventions has made it easier to collect data suitable for intraindividual variability studies in the medical field. Nevertheless, especially when self-reports are used during the data collection process, there are difficulties in balancing data quality and the burden placed on the subject. In this paper, we address this problem for a specific EMA setting that aims to submit a demanding task to subjects at high/low values of a self-reported variable. We adopt a dynamic approach inspired by control chart methods and design optimization techniques to obtain an EMA triggering mechanism for data collection that considers both the individual variability of the self-reported variable and of the adherence. We test the algorithm in both a simulation setting and with real, large-scale data from a tinnitus longitudinal study. A Wilcoxon signed rank test shows that the algorithm tends to have both a higher F1 score and utility than a random schedule and a rule-based algorithm with static thresholds, which are the current state-of-the-art approaches. In conclusion, the algorithm is proven effective in balancing data quality and the burden placed on the participants, especially in studies where data collection is impacted by adherence.

[Mild behavioral impairment checklist : English-German translation and feasibility study assessing its use in clinical practice]. / "Mild-behavioral-impairment"-Checkliste : Englisch-deutsche Übersetzung und Beurteilung der Anwendbarkeit in klinischer Praxis.

BACKGROUND: The mild behavioral impairment (MBI) syndrome is defined by the emergence in later life of persistent neuropsychiatric symptoms. The MBI checklist (MBI-C) can be used for systematic detection and documentation of such symptoms. OBJECTIVE: Development of a German version of the MBI­C and assessment of its application in a clinical setting. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The MBI­C was translated from English into German in collaboration with the main author of the original version, and its practical application was then tested on a study population (n = 21) in a gerontopsychiatric inpatient clinic. Patient compliance, understanding of questions, time effort, evaluation procedure and possible discrepancy between patient and family member evaluations were assessed. RESULTS: The German translation of the original MBI­C obtained certification as an official version and can be downloaded at https://mbitest.org . All 34 questions were fully completed by the study population, the level of understanding of questions was good, with the mean time effort being 16 min. In some cases, significant differences between patients' and family members' responses were found. DISCUSSION: The presence of MBI may indicate the development of an otherwise presymptomatic neurodegenerative dementia syndrome. Hence, the MBI­C could aid in the early detection of neurodegenerative dementia. By means of the translated version of the MBI­C presented in this study, this hypothesis can now be tested in German-speaking countries.

Therapeutic Approaches to the Treatment of Tinnitus.

Tinnitus is a highly prevalent condition that is associated with hearing loss in most cases. In the absence of external stimuli, phantom perceptions of sounds emerge from alterations in neuronal activity within central auditory and nonauditory structures. Pioneering studies using lidocaine revealed that tinnitus is susceptible to pharmacological interventions. However, lidocaine is not effective in all patients, and no other drug has been identified with clear efficacy for the long-term treatment of tinnitus. In this review, we present recent advances in tinnitus research, including more detailed knowledge of its pathophysiology and involved neurotransmitter systems. Moreover, we summarize results from animal and clinical treatment studies as well as from studies that identified tinnitus as a side effect of pharmacological treatments. Finally, we focus on challenges in the development of pharmacological compounds for the treatment of tinnitus, namely the limitations of available animal models and of standardized clinical research methodologies.

Random Forest Classification to Predict Response to High-Definition Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation for Tinnitus Relief: A Preliminary Feasibility Study.

OBJECTIVES: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex has been hypothesized to reduce tinnitus severity by modifying cortical activity in brain regions associated with the perception of tinnitus. However, individual response to tDCS has proven to be variable. We investigated the feasibility of using random forest classification to predict the response to high-definition (HD) tDCS for tinnitus relief. DESIGN: A retrospective analysis was performed on a dataset consisting of 99 patients with subjective tinnitus receiving six consecutive sessions of HD-tDCS at the Antwerp University Hospital. A baseline assessment consisted of pure-tone audiometry and a set of questionnaires including the Tinnitus Functional Index (TFI), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and Edinburgh Handedness Inventory. Random forest classification was applied to predict, based on baseline questionnaire scores and hearing levels, whether each individual responded positively to the treatment (defined as a decrease of at least 13 points on the TFI). Further testing of the model was performed on an independent cohort of 32 patients obtained from the tinnitus center at the University of Regensburg. RESULTS: Twenty-four participants responded positively to the HD-tDCS treatment. The random forest classifier predicted treatment response with an accuracy of 85.71% (100% sensitivity, 81.48% specificity), significantly outperforming a more traditional logistic regression approach. Performance of the classifier on an independent cohort was slightly but not significantly above chance level (71.88% accuracy, 66.67% sensitivity, 73.08% specificity). Feature importance analyses revealed that baseline tinnitus severity, co-occurrence of depressive symptoms and handedness were the most important predictors of treatment response. Baseline TFI scores were significantly higher in responders than in nonresponders. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed random forest classifier predicted treatment response with a high accuracy, significantly outperforming a more traditional statistical approach. Machine learning methods to predict treatment response might ultimately be used in a clinical setting to guide targeted treatment recommendations for individual tinnitus patients.

Attention Networks in the Parietooccipital Cortex Modulate Activity of the Human Vestibular Cortex during Attentive Visual Processing.

Previous studies in human subjects reported that the parieto-insular vestibular cortex (PIVC), a core area of the vestibular cortex, is inhibited when visual processing is prioritized. However, it has remained unclear which networks in the brain modulate this inhibition of PIVC. Based on previous results showing that the inhibition of PIVC is strongly influenced by visual attention, we here examined whether attention networks in the parietooccipital cortex modulate the inhibition of PIVC. Using diffusion-weighted and resting-state fMRI in a group of female and male subjects, we found structural and functional connections between PIVC and the posterior parietal cortex (PPC), a major brain region of the cortical attention network. We then temporarily inhibited PPC by repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and hypothesized that the modulatory influence of PPC over PIVC would be reduced; and, as a result, PIVC would be less inhibited. Subjects performed a visual attentional tracking task immediately after rTMS, and the inhibition of PIVC during attentive tracking was measured with fMRI. The results showed that the inhibition of PIVC during attentive tracking was less pronounced compared with sham rTMS. We also examined the effects of inhibitory rTMS over the occipital cortex and found that the visual-vestibular posterior insular cortex area was less activated during attentive tracking compared with sham rTMS or rTMS over PPC. Together, these results suggest that attention networks in the parietooccipital cortex modulate activity in core areas of the vestibular cortex during attentive visual processing.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Although multisensory integration is generally considered beneficial, it can become detrimental when cues from different senses are in conflict. The occurrence of such multisensory conflicts can be minimized by inhibiting core cortical areas of the subordinate sensory system (e.g., vestibular), thus reducing potential conflict with ongoing processing of the prevailing sensory (e.g., visual) cues. However, it has remained unclear which networks in the brain modulate the magnitude of inhibition of the subordinate sensory system. Here, by investigating the inhibition of the vestibular sensory system when visual processing is prioritized, we show that attention networks in the parietooccipital cortex modulate the magnitude of inhibition of the vestibular cortex.

Interactive System for Similarity-Based Inspection and Assessment of the Well-Being of mHealth Users.

Recent digitization technologies empower mHealth users to conveniently record their Ecological Momentary Assessments (EMA) through web applications, smartphones, and wearable devices. These recordings can help clinicians understand how the users' condition changes, but appropriate learning and visualization mechanisms are required for this purpose. We propose a web-based visual analytics tool, which processes clinical data as well as EMAs that were recorded through a mHealth application. The goals we pursue are (1) to predict the condition of the user in the near and the far future, while also identifying the clinical data that mostly contribute to EMA predictions, (2) to identify users with outlier EMA, and (3) to show to what extent the EMAs of a user are in line with or diverge from those users similar to him/her. We report our findings based on a pilot study on patient empowerment, involving tinnitus patients who recorded EMAs with the mHealth app TinnitusTips. To validate our method, we also derived synthetic data from the same pilot study. Based on this setting, results for different use cases are reported.

Tinnitus: perspectives from human neuroimaging.

Tinnitus is the perception of phantom sound in the absence of a corresponding external source. It is a highly prevalent disorder, and most cases are caused by cochlear injury that leads to peripheral deafferentation, which results in adaptive changes in the CNS. In this article we critically assess the recent neuroimaging studies in individuals with tinnitus that suggest that the disorder is accompanied by functional and structural brain abnormalities in distributed auditory and non-auditory brain regions. Moreover, we consider how the identification of the neuronal mechanisms underlying the different forms of tinnitus would benefit from larger studies, replication and comprehensive clinical assessment of patients.

A view behind the mask of sanity: meta-analysis of aberrant brain activity in psychopaths.

Psychopathy is a disorder of high public concern because it predicts violence and offense recidivism. Recent brain imaging studies suggest abnormal brain activity underlying psychopathic behavior. No reliable pattern of altered neural activity has been disclosed so far. This study sought to identify consistent changes of brain activity in psychopaths and to investigate whether these could explain known psychopathology. First, we used activation likelihood estimation (p < 0.05, corrected) to meta-analyze brain activation changes associated with psychopathy across 28 functional magnetic resonance imaging studies reporting 753 foci from 155 experiments. Second, we characterized the ensuing regions functionally by employing metadata of a large-scale neuroimaging database (p < 0.05, corrected). Psychopathy was consistently associated with decreased brain activity in the right laterobasal amygdala, the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, and bilaterally in the lateral prefrontal cortex. A robust increase of activity was observed in the fronto-insular cortex on both hemispheres. Data-driven functional characterization revealed associations with semantic language processing (left lateral prefrontal and fronto-insular cortex), action execution and pain processing (right lateral prefrontal and left fronto-insular), social cognition (dorsomedial prefrontal cortex), and emotional as well as cognitive reward processing (right amygdala and fronto-insular cortex). Aberrant brain activity related to psychopathy is located in prefrontal, insular, and limbic regions. Physiological mental functions fulfilled by these brain regions correspond to disturbed behavioral patterns pathognomonic for psychopathy. Hence, aberrant brain activity may not just be an epiphenomenon of psychopathy but directly related to the psychopathology of this disorder.

Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation as a Potential Tool to Reduce Sexual Arousal: A Proof of Concept Study.

BACKGROUND: Hypersexuality and hyposexuality occur frequently, often in a variety of psychiatric disorders, and are difficult to treat. While there is meta-analytic evidence for the significant effect of non-invasive brain stimulation on drug and food craving, no study has investigated the potential of this technique to modulate sexual behavior. AIM: Here, we tested the hypothesis that a single session of high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) would reduce sexual arousal. METHODS: We employed a randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled crossover study design. 19 healthy male participants received high-frequency rTMS over the left DLPFC, high-frequency rTMS over the right DLPFC, and sham rTMS (each 10 Hz; 110% resting motor threshold; 60 trains with 50 pulses) in randomized and counterbalanced order with a 1-week interval between stimulation sessions to avoid carryover effects. Participants were exposed to neutral and sexual cues before and after each intervention and rated their sexual arousal after each block of cue presentation. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Efficacy of the respective intervention was operationalized by the change of subjective sexual arousal according to a rating scale. RESULTS: rTMS of the right DLPFC significantly reduced subjective sexual arousal (t18 = 2.282, P = .035). In contrast, neither sham rTMS nor rTMS of the left DLPFC affected sexual arousal (P > .389). Greater rTMS-induced reduction of subjective sexual arousal was observed in participants with higher trait-based dyadic sexual desire within the last 12 months (r = -0.417, P = .038). CLINICAL IMPLICATION: Non-invasive brain stimulation might hold potential for influencing hypersexual behavior. STRENGTH & LIMITATION: This was a randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled crossover study with subjective but no physiological measures of sexual arousal. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that 1 session of high-frequency rTMS (10 Hz) of the right DLPFC could significantly reduce subjective sexual arousal induced by visual stimuli in healthy subjects. On this basis, future studies with larger sample sizes and more stimulation sessions are needed to explore the therapeutic potential of rTMS in hypersexual behavior. Schecklmann M, Sakreida K, Oblinger B, et al. Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation as a Potential Tool to Reduce Sexual Arousal: A Roof of Concept Study. J Sex Med 2020;17:1553-1559.

A randomized double-blind controlled trial to assess the benefits of amisulpride and olanzapine combination treatment versus each monotherapy in acutely ill schizophrenia patients (COMBINE): methods and design.

This report presents the rationale and design of a multi-center clinical trial that examines the efficacy and safety of antipsychotic combination treatment in acutely ill schizophrenia patients compared to antipsychotic monotherapy. Antipsychotic combination treatment is common in clinical practice worldwide, despite clinical guidelines generally not recommending such practice due to lacking evidence for its efficacy and safety. Olanzapine has a related chemical structure and comparable receptor-binding profile as clozapine, which demonstrated superior efficacy in combination studies, but has a more unfavorable side-effect profile compared to olanzapine. Amisulpride and olanzapine have shown promising therapeutic efficacy in meta-analyses in monotherapy for people with schizophrenia. Combining amisulpride and olanzapine, complementary receptor-binding properties may enhance efficacy and possibly reduce (or at least not augment) side effects due to the different receptor profiles and metabolization pathways. Accordingly, we hypothesize that patients treated with amisulpride plus olanzapine show greater improvement on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale total score after 8 weeks versus either monotherapy. A randomized, double-blind controlled trial is performed at 16 German centers comparing flexibly dosed monotherapy of oral amisulpride (400-800 mg/day), and olanzapine (10-20 mg/day) and amisulpride-olanzapine co-treatment. Sample size was calculated to be n = 101 per treatment arm, assuming an effect size of 0.500 and a two-sided alpha = 0.025 and beta = 0.90. Recruitment for this trial started in June 2012. Until December 2018, 328 patients have been randomized. Trial conduct has been extended to reach the projected sample size. Publication of the study results is expected in 2019 informing an evidence-based recommendation regarding specific antipsychotic combination treatment.

Cognitive behavioural therapy for tinnitus.

BACKGROUND: Tinnitus affects up to 21% of the adult population with an estimated 1% to 3% experiencing severe problems. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a collection of psychological treatments based on the cognitive and behavioural traditions in psychology and often used to treat people suffering from tinnitus. OBJECTIVES: To assess the effects and safety of CBT for tinnitus in adults. SEARCH METHODS: The Cochrane ENT Information Specialist searched the ENT Trials Register; CENTRAL (2019, Issue 11); Ovid MEDLINE; Ovid Embase; CINAHL; Web of Science; ClinicalTrials.gov; ICTRP and additional sources for published and unpublished trials. The date of the search was 25 November 2019. SELECTION CRITERIA: Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of CBT versus no intervention, audiological care, tinnitus retraining therapy or any other active treatment in adult participants with tinnitus. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: We used the standard methodological procedures expected by Cochrane. Our primary outcomes were the impact of tinnitus on disease-specific quality of life and serious adverse effects. Our secondary outcomes were: depression, anxiety, general health-related quality of life, negatively biased interpretations of tinnitus and other adverse effects. We used GRADE to assess the certainty of evidence for each outcome. MAIN RESULTS: We included 28 studies (mostly from Europe) with a total of 2733 participants. All participants had had tinnitus for at least three months and their average age ranged from 43 to 70 years. The duration of the CBT ranged from 3 to 22 weeks and it was mostly conducted in hospitals or online. There were four comparisons and we were interested in outcomes at end of treatment, and 6 and 12 months follow-up. The results below only refer to outcomes at end of treatment due to an absence of evidence at the other follow-up time points. CBT versus no intervention/wait list control Fourteen studies compared CBT with no intervention/wait list control. For the primary outcome, CBT may reduce the impact of tinnitus on quality of life at treatment end (standardised mean difference (SMD) -0.56, 95% confidence interval (CI) -0.83 to -0.30; 10 studies; 537 participants; low certainty). Re-expressed as a score on the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI; range 0 to 100) this is equivalent to a score 10.91 points lower in the CBT group, with an estimated minimal clinically important difference (MCID) for this scale being 7 points. Seven studies, rated as moderate certainty, either reported or informed us via personal communication about serious adverse effects. CBT probably results in little or no difference in adverse effects: six studies reported none and in one study one participant in the CBT condition worsened (risk ratio (RR) 3.00, 95% CI 0.13 to 69.87). For the secondary outcomes, CBT may result in a slight reduction in depression (SMD -0.34, 95% CI-0.60 to -0.08; 8 studies; 502 participants; low certainty). However, we are uncertain whether CBT reduces anxiety, improves health-related quality of life or reduces negatively biased interpretations of tinnitus (all very low certainty). From seven studies, no other adverse effects were reported (moderate certainty). CBT versus audiological care Three studies compared CBT with audiological care. CBT probably reduces the impact of tinnitus on quality of life when compared with audiological care as measured by the THI (range 0 to 100; mean difference (MD) -5.65, 95% CI -9.79 to -1.50; 3 studies; 444 participants) (moderate certainty; MCID = 7 points). No serious adverse effects occurred in the two included studies reporting these, thus risk ratios were not calculated (moderate certainty). The evidence suggests that CBT may slightly reduce depression but may result in little or no difference in anxiety or health-related quality of life (all low certainty) when compared with audiological care. CBT may reduce negatively biased interpretations of tinnitus when compared with audiological care (low certainty). No other adverse effects were reported for either group (moderate certainty). CBT versus tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT) One study compared CBT with TRT (including bilateral sound generators as per TRT protocol). CBT may reduce the impact of tinnitus on quality of life as measured by the THI when compared with TRT (range 0 to 100) (MD -15.79, 95% CI -27.91 to -3.67; 1 study; 42 participants; low certainty). For serious adverse effects three participants deteriorated during the study: one in the CBT (n = 22) and two in the TRT group (n = 20) (RR 0.45, 95% CI 0.04 to 4.64; low certainty). We are uncertain whether CBT reduces depression and anxiety or improves health-related quality of life (low certainty). CBT may reduce negatively biased interpretations of tinnitus. No data were available for other adverse effects. CBT versus other active control Sixteen studies compared CBT with another active control (e.g. relaxation, information, Internet-based discussion forums). CBT may reduce the impact of tinnitus on quality of life when compared with other active treatments (SMD -0.30, 95% CI -0.55 to -0.05; 12 studies; 966 participants; low certainty). Re-expressed as a THI score this is equivalent to 5.84 points lower in the CBT group than the other active control group (MCID = 7 points). One study reported that three participants deteriorated: one in the CBT and two in the information only group (RR 1.70, 95% CI 0.16 to 18.36; low certainty). CBT may reduce depression and anxiety (both low certainty). We are uncertain whether CBT improves health-related quality of life compared with other control. CBT probably reduces negatively biased interpretations of tinnitus compared with other treatments. No data were available for other adverse effects. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: CBT may be effective in reducing the negative impact that tinnitus can have on quality of life. There is, however, an absence of evidence at 6 or 12 months follow-up. There is also some evidence that adverse effects may be rare in adults with tinnitus receiving CBT, but this could be further investigated. CBT for tinnitus may have small additional benefit in reducing symptoms of depression although uncertainty remains due to concerns about the quality of the evidence. Overall, there is limited evidence for CBT for tinnitus improving anxiety, health-related quality of life or negatively biased interpretations of tinnitus.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation in the treatment of depression during pregnancy: a review.

The aim of this study is to elucidate the role of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) for treating depression during pregnancy. The treatment of depression in pregnant women poses a number of therapeutic challenges. Psychotherapy can be beneficial but is associated with limited availability and possibly an onset of effect which may be too long to be acceptable. Pharmacotherapy is limited by concerns of fetotoxicity, both real and possibly exaggerated in the view of patients and caregivers alike. While efficacy and safety of rTMS are well established for the treatment of depression, the available data for use in pregnancy is still sparse. We reviewed the available literature on the topic on PubMed. In addition to a number of case reports, three studies concerning the treatment of depressed pregnant women with rTMS are available. According to the data, rTMS seems to be safe for both the pregnant woman and her unborn offspring. No obstetric complications or adverse postnatal effects on development have been reported. rTMS alleviated depressive symptoms better than sham treatment in one study. rTMS seems to be safe and effective in treating depression in pregnant women. Further studies with larger numbers of participants are warranted to further clarify the significance of rTMS for the treatment of depression in pregnancy.

Limited predictive value of admission time in clinical psychiatry.

BACKGROUND: A large proportion of admissions to psychiatric hospitals happen as emergency admissions and many of them occur out of core working hours (during the weekends, on public holidays and during night time). However, very little is known about what determines admission times and whether the information of admission time bears any relevance for the clinical course of the patients. In other words, do admission times correlate with diagnostic groups? Can accumulations of crises be detected regarding circadian or weekly rhythms? Can any differences between workdays and weekends/public holidays be detected? May it even be possible to use information on admission times as a predictor for clinical relevance and severity of the presented condition measured by the length of stay? METHODS: In the present manuscript we analyzed data derived from 37'705 admissions to the Psychiatric District Hospital of Regensburg located in the Southern part of Germany covering the years 2013 to 2018 with regard to ICD-10 diagnostic groups and admission times. The hospital provides 475 beds for in-patient treatment in all fields of clinical psychiatry including geriatrics and addiction medicine. RESULTS: Several core questions could be answered based on our analysis: 1st Our analysis confirms that there is a high percentage of unheralded admissions out of core time showing broad variation. 2nd In contrary to many psychiatrists' misconceptions the time of admission has no relevant impact on the length of stay in the hospital. 3rd The predictive value of admission time regarding the allocation to ICD-10 diagnostic groups is low explaining only 1% of variability. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, our data reveal the enormous variation of admission times of psychiatric patients accounting for the need of adequate and consistent provision of personnel and spatial resources.

Applying Machine Learning to Daily-Life Data From the TrackYourTinnitus Mobile Health Crowdsensing Platform to Predict the Mobile Operating System Used With High Accuracy: Longitudinal Observational Study.

BACKGROUND: Tinnitus is often described as the phantom perception of a sound and is experienced by 5.1% to 42.7% of the population worldwide, at least once during their lifetime. The symptoms often reduce the patient's quality of life. The TrackYourTinnitus (TYT) mobile health (mHealth) crowdsensing platform was developed for two operating systems (OS)-Android and iOS-to help patients demystify the daily moment-to-moment variations of their tinnitus symptoms. In all platforms developed for more than one OS, it is important to investigate whether the crowdsensed data predicts the OS that was used in order to understand the degree to which the OS is a confounder that is necessary to consider. OBJECTIVE: In this study, we explored whether the mobile OS-Android and iOS-used during user assessments can be predicted by the dynamic daily-life TYT data. METHODS: TYT mainly applies the paradigms ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and mobile crowdsensing to collect dynamic EMA (EMA-D) daily-life data. The dynamic daily-life TYT data that were analyzed included eight questions as part of the EMA-D questionnaire. In this study, 518 TYT users were analyzed, who each completed at least 11 EMA-D questionnaires. Out of these, 221 were iOS users and 297 were Android users. The iOS users completed, in total, 14,708 EMA-D questionnaires; the number of EMA-D questionnaires completed by the Android users was randomly reduced to the same number to properly address the research question of the study. Machine learning methods-a feedforward neural network, a decision tree, a random forest classifier, and a support vector machine-were applied to address the research question. RESULTS: Machine learning was able to predict the mobile OS used with an accuracy up to 78.94% based on the provided EMA-D questionnaires on the assessment level. In this context, the daily measurements regarding how users concentrate on the actual activity were particularly suitable for the prediction of the mobile OS used. CONCLUSIONS: In the work at hand, two particular aspects have been revealed. First, machine learning can contribute to EMA-D data in the medical context. Second, based on the EMA-D data of TYT, we found that the accuracy in predicting the mobile OS used has several implications. Particularly, in clinical studies using mobile devices, the OS should be assessed as a covariate, as it might be a confounder.

Efficient Processing of Geospatial mHealth Data Using a Scalable Crowdsensing Platform.

Smart sensors and smartphones are becoming increasingly prevalent. Both can be used to gather environmental data (e.g., noise). Importantly, these devices can be connected to each other as well as to the Internet to collect large amounts of sensor data, which leads to many new opportunities. In particular, mobile crowdsensing techniques can be used to capture phenomena of common interest. Especially valuable insights can be gained if the collected data are additionally related to the time and place of the measurements. However, many technical solutions still use monolithic backends that are not capable of processing crowdsensing data in a flexible, efficient, and scalable manner. In this work, an architectural design was conceived with the goal to manage geospatial data in challenging crowdsensing healthcare scenarios. It will be shown how the proposed approach can be used to provide users with an interactive map of environmental noise, allowing tinnitus patients and other health-conscious people to avoid locations with harmful sound levels. Technically, the shown approach combines cloud-native applications with Big Data and stream processing concepts. In general, the presented architectural design shall serve as a foundation to implement practical and scalable crowdsensing platforms for various healthcare scenarios beyond the addressed use case.

Meta-analytic Evidence for Neural Dysactivity Underlying Sexual Dysfunction.

INTRODUCTION: About 30-40% of the population report sexual dysfunction. Although it is well known that the brain controls sexual behavior, little is known about the neural basis of sexual dysfunction. AIM: To assess convergence of altered brain activity associated with sexual dysfunction across available functional imaging studies. METHODS: We used activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis to quantify interstudy concordance across 14 functional imaging studies reporting 179 foci from 40 individual analyses involving 191 subjects with sexual dysfunction and 123 controls. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Activation likelihood estimation scores were used to assess convergence of findings. RESULTS: Consistently decreased brain activity associated with sexual dysfunction was identified in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, ventral striatum, dorsal midbrain, anterior midcingulate cortex, and lateral orbitofrontal cortex. CLINICAL IMPLICATION: These findings can serve as a basis for further studies on the pathophysiology of this highly common disorder with the view to development of more-specific treatment strategies. STRENGTH & LIMITATIONS: Findings are based on an observer-independent meta-analysis that provides robust evidence for and anatomic localization of altered brain activity related to sexual dysfunction. Our analysis cannot distinguish between the putative sources of sexual dysfunction, but it provides a more ubiquitous and general pattern of related altered neural activity. CONCLUSION: The identified regions have previously been shown to be critically involved in mediating sexual arousal and to be part of the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system. This suggests that the disturbance of brain activity associated with sexual dysfunction primarily affects sexual arousal already at early stages that are controlled by the sympathetic nervous system. Poeppl TB, Langguth B, Laird AR, et al. Meta-analytic Evidence for Neural Dysactivity Underlying Sexual Dysfunction. J Sex Med 2019;16:614-617.