Temperament and character traits in patients with tinnitus: a prospective case series with comparisons.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the personality traits of temperament and character in patients with tinnitus and to identify differences in these traits associated with the severity of tinnitus. STUDY DESIGN: Case series with comparisons. SETTING: Tertiary referral centre. PARTICIPANTS: From January to December 2014, one hundred and thirty-four adult patients with chronic subjective tinnitus completed psychoacoustic measurements of tinnitus and the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI). MEASUREMENTS: Personality traits were assessed by the TCI. The TCI assesses seven dimensions of personality traits and four temperaments 'novelty seeking, harm avoidance, reward dependence, persistence', as well as three characters 'self-directedness, cooperativeness, self-transcendence'. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The values of the TCI parameters in the tinnitus patients were compared with reference data from a non-institutional adult population, and associations between TCI parameter values and tinnitus severity were evaluated. RESULTS: In terms of temperament, tinnitus patients had higher scores for 'harm avoidance', whereas scores for 'novelty seeking', 'reward dependence' and 'persistence' were significantly lower than the reference. In terms of character, lower 'cooperativeness' and 'self-transcendence' were identified in the subjects with tinnitus. The 'novelty seeking' score was inversely related to tinnitus severity (r = -0.285, P = 0.001), while other temperament and character traits did not show significant correlations. CONCLUSIONS: There may be a connection between tinnitus and personality traits, especially in the case of 'novelty seeking', which is relatively constant over a lifetime. The TCI questionnaire may be useful in facilitating the application of personality traits to tailored counselling for tinnitus.

Liquiritigenin decreases selective molecular and behavioral effects of cocaine in rodents.

Cocaine, as an indirect dopamine agonist, induces selective behavioral and physiological events such as hyperlocomotion and dopamine release. These changes are considered as consequences of cocaine-induced molecular adaptation such as CREB and c-Fos. Recently, methanolic extracts from licorice was reported to decrease cocaine-induced dopamine release and c-Fos expression in the nucleus accumbens. In the present study, we investigated the effects of liquiritigenin (LQ), a main compound of licorice, on acute cocaine-induced behavioral and molecular changes in rats. LQ attenuated acute cocaine-induced hyperlocomotion in dose-dependent manner. In addition, LQ inhibited CREB phosphorylation and c-Fos expression in the striatum and the nucleus accumbens induced by acute cocaine. Results provide strong evidence that LQ effectively attenuates the acute behavioral effects of cocaine exposure and prevents the induction of selective neuroadaptive changes in dopaminergic signaling pathways. Further investigation of LQ from licorice extract might provide a novel therapeutic strategy for the treatment of cocaine addiction.

Development of bacteraemia or fungaemia after removal of colonized central venous catheters in patients with negative concomitant blood cultures.

There are limited data on the clinical significance of positive central venous catheter (CVC) tip cultures associated with concomitant negative blood cultures performed at the time of CVC removal. A retrospective cohort study of all patients who yielded isolated positive CVC tip cultures was conducted in a tertiary-care hospital with 2200 beds during a 10-year period. All patients with isolated positive CVC tip cultures were observed for the development of subsequent bacteraemia or fungaemia between 2 and 28 days after CVC removal. An isolated positive CVC tip culture was defined as a case in which (i) a CVC tip culture yielded > or = 15 colonies using a semiquantitative culture method and (ii) at least two sets of blood samples revealed no organism at, or close to, the time of CVC removal (48 h before to 48 h after CVC removal). During the study period, 312 patients with isolated positive CVC cultures were enrolled. Eight (2.6%; 95% CI 1.2-5.1) of the 312 patients yielding isolated bacterial or fungal CVC tip cultures developed subsequent bloodstream infection (BSI) caused by the same species as that isolated from the tip culture (Staphylococcus aureus, 1: Enterococcus spp.; 2: Pseudomonas aeruginosa; and 3: Candida spp.). Among 125 patients from whose CVC tips the above four organisms were grown, seven (12.3%) of 57 patients who did not receive appropriate antibiotic therapy within 48 h after CVC removal subsequently developed BSI, but only one (1.5%) of 68 patients who did receive appropriate therapy developed BSI (OR 0.11, p 0.02).