Peripheral Interleukin-18 is negatively correlated with abnormal brain activity in patients with depression: a resting-state fMRI study.

BACKGROUND: Interleukin-18 (IL-18) may participate in the development of major depressive disorder, but the specific mechanism remains unclear. This study aimed to explore whether IL-18 correlates with areas of the brain associated with depression. METHODS: Using a case-control design, 68 subjects (34 patients and 34 healthy controls) underwent clinical assessment, blood sampling, and resting-state functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). The total Hamilton depression-17 (HAMD-17) score was used to assess depression severity. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect IL-18 levels. Rest-state fMRI was conducted to explore spontaneous brain activity. RESULTS: The level of IL-18 was higher in patients with depression in comparison with healthy controls. IL-18 was negatively correlated with degree centrality of the left posterior cingulate gyrus in the depression patient group, but no correlation was found in the healthy control group. CONCLUSION: This study suggests the involvement of IL-18 in the pathophysiological mechanism for depression and interference with brain activity.

The Mediating Role of Coping Style in the Relationship Between Sleep Quality and Burnout: A Cross-Sectional Study Among Psychiatric Nurses.

Background: Although sleep quality is clearly associated with job burnout as shown in the existing research, the mechanism underpinning such relationship remains undefined. This work, thus, aimed to assess the current situation of sleep quality and burnout in Chinese psychiatric nurses, and to analyze the relationships between sleep quality, burnout and coping style, in order to provide possible targets to enhance mental health and wellbeing among psychiatric nurses. Method: This cross-sectional study was carried out in seven rehabilitation centers located in four different regions of China. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, the Epworth Sleeping Scale, the Maslach Burnout Inventory General Survey, and the Coping Style Questionnaire were distributed to 853 nurses in various mental hospitals, with a total of 664 participants being recruited in the final research. Results: The results of this current study showed a high prevalence of sleep disorders and burnout in Chinese psychiatric nurses. Moreover, emotional exhaustion (r = 0.456), cynicism (r = 0.323) and negative coping style (r = 0.191) in nurses were all positively correlated with total Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) score, while professional efficacy (r = -0.079) and positive coping style (r = -0.140) were negatively correlated with total PSQI score. More interestingly, of all negative coping strategies, we found that self-blame had the most significant effect (ß = 0.156). Conclusions: The above results showed that coping style mediates the association of poor sleep quality with job burnout in Chinese psychiatric nurses. This study claimed that there is an urgent need to development the coping skills to sustain a healthy work life for nurses.

Can Daytime Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Treatment Change the Sleep Electroencephalogram Complexity of REM Sleep in Depressed Patients? A Double-Blinded, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial.

Study Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of daytime transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on sleep electroencephalogram (EEG) in patients with depression. Methods: The study was a double-blinded, randomized, controlled clinical trial. A total of 37 patients diagnosed with a major depression were recruited; 19 patients (13 females and 6 males mean age 44.79 ± 15.25 years) received tDCS active stimulation and 18 patients (9 females and 9 males; mean age 43.61 ± 11.89 years) received sham stimulation. Ten sessions of daytime tDCS were administered with the anode over F3 and the cathode over F4. Each session delivered a 2 mA current for 30 min per 10 working days. Hamilton-24 and Montgomery scales were used to assess the severity of depression, and polysomnography (PSG) was used to assess sleep structure and EEG complexity. Eight intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) were computed from each EEG signal in a channel. The sample entropy of the cumulative sum of the IMFs were computed to acquire high-dimensional multi-scale complexity information of EEG signals. Results: The complexity of Rapid Eye Movement (REM) EEG signals significantly decreased intrinsic multi-scale entropy (iMSE) (1.732 ± 0.057 vs. 1.605 ± 0.046, P = 0.0004 in the case of the C4 channel, IMF 1:4 and scale 7) after tDCS active stimulation. The complexity of the REM EEG signals significantly increased iMSE (1.464 ± 0.101 vs. 1.611 ± 0.085, P = 0.001 for C4 channel, IMF 1:4 and scale 7) after tDCS sham stimulation. There was no significant difference in the Hamilton-24 (P = 0.988), Montgomery scale score (P = 0.726), and sleep structure (N1% P = 0.383; N2% P = 0.716; N3% P = 0.772) between the two groups after treatment. Conclusion: Daytime tDCS changed the complexity of sleep in the REM stage, and presented as decreased intrinsic multi-scale entropy, while no changes in sleep structure occurred. This finding indicated that daytime tDCS may be an effective method to improve sleep quality in depressed patients. Trial registration This trial has been registered at the ClinicalTrials.gov (protocol ID: TCHIRB-10409114, in progress).

Association Between Depressive Symptoms and Serum Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Levels in Patients With First-Episode and Drug-Naïve Schizophrenia.

Previous studies have revealed that brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels are inversely associated with the severity of depressive symptoms. In addition, serum BDNF levels tend to increase with improvement in depressive symptoms. There is also evidence that BDNF has a possible role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine whether BDNF levels correlated with depressive symptoms in patients with first-episode and drug-naïve (FEDN) schizophrenia. In this study, 90 patients with FEDN schizophrenia and 60 healthy controls were recruited. The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and the 17-item Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD-17) were used to gage psychopathological and depressive symptoms, respectively. All participants had their BDNF levels measured using a sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent test. Serum BDNF levels were lower in patients with FEDN schizophrenia compared with healthy controls. Moreover, patients with depressive symptoms exhibited a higher PANSS total score and a higher general psychopathology score than those without depressive symptoms (p < 0.05). For patients with depressive symptoms, serum BDNF levels were higher than in those without depressive symptoms (p < 0.05). An association between BDNF levels and the positive subscore was also observed (p < 0.01). However, there was no significant association between BDNF levels and HAMD scores (p > 0.05). In conclusion, BDNF levels were shown to be higher in the serum of patients with FEDN schizophrenia with depressive symptoms than in those without. Additionally, low levels of serum BDNF may contribute to the positive symptoms of FEDN schizophrenia but not to depressive symptoms.

Sleep status of psychiatric nurses: A survey from China.

AIM: Our study aimed to evaluate the sleep status of psychiatric nurses in Chinese population and analyse the influencing factors. DESIGN: Cross-sectional, correlation design with logistic regression analysis. METHODS: We investigated 1,044 psychiatric nurses from seven psychiatric hospitals in China. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and Maslach Burnout Inventory General Survey were used as main measures. RESULTS: The average Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index score of 1,044 psychiatric nurses was 7.00 ± 3.59, and 38.63% of nurses had a total Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index score >7. Our study found that middle-night shift nurses had poor sleep quality and sleep disorders are positively correlated with emotional exhaustion and cynical disregard for job burnout. Middle-night shift nurses showed 1.586 times more likely to suffer from sleep disorders than those non-middle-night shift. The higher the score of emotional exhaustion, the greater the risk of sleep disorders.