Clinical reappraisal of the composite international diagnostic interview version 3.3 in Qatar's National Mental Health Study.

OBJECTIVES: Lifetime DSM-5 diagnoses generated by the lay-administered Composite International Diagnostic Interview for DSM-5 (CIDI) in the World Mental Health Qatar (WMHQ) study were compared to diagnoses based on blinded clinician-administered reappraisal interviews. METHODS: Telephone follow-up interviews used the non-patient edition of the Structured Clinician Interview for DSM-5 (SCID) oversampling respondents who screened positive for five diagnoses in the CIDI: major depressive episode, mania/hypomania, panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Concordance was also examined for a diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder based on a short-form versus full version of the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5). RESULTS: Initial CIDI prevalence estimates differed significantly from the SCID for most diagnoses ( χ 1 2 ${\chi }_{1}^{2}$  = 6.6-31.4, p = 0.010 < 0.001), but recalibration reduced most of these differences and led to consistent increases in individual-level concordance (AU-ROC) from 0.53-0.76 to 0.67-0.81. Recalibration of the short-form PCL-5 removed an initially significant difference in PTSD prevalence with the full PCL-5 (from χ 1 2 ${\chi }_{1}^{2}$  = 610.5, p < 0.001 to χ 1 2 ${\chi }_{1}^{2}$  = 2.5, p = 0.110) while also increasing AU-ROC from 0.76 to 0.81. CONCLUSIONS: Recalibration resulted in valid diagnoses of common mental disorders in the Qatar National Mental Health Survey, but with inflated prevalence estimates for some disorders that need to be considered when interpreting results.

Outbreak of Human Trichinellosis - Arizona, Minnesota, and South Dakota, 2022.

Trichinellosis is a parasitic zoonotic disease transmitted through the consumption of meat from animals infected with Trichinella spp. nematodes. In North America, human trichinellosis is rare and is most commonly acquired through consumption of wild game meat. In July 2022, a hospitalized patient with suspected trichinellosis was reported to the Minnesota Department of Health. One week before symptom onset, the patient and eight other persons shared a meal that included bear meat that had been frozen for 45 days before being grilled and served rare with vegetables that had been cooked with the meat. Investigation identified six trichinellosis cases, including two in persons who consumed only the vegetables. Motile Trichinella larvae were found in remaining bear meat that had been frozen for >15 weeks. Molecular testing identified larvae from the bear meat as Trichinella nativa, a freeze-resistant species. Persons who consume meat from wild game animals should be aware that that adequate cooking is the only reliable way to kill Trichinella parasites and that infected meat can cross-contaminate other foods.

Design and field procedures for the clinical reappraisal of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview version 3.3 in Qatar's national mental health study.

BACKGROUND: The Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) has been clinically reappraised in several studies conducted mainly in the US and Europe. This report describes the methodology used to conduct one of the Middle East's largest clinical reappraisal studies. The study was carried out in conjunction with the World Mental Health Qatar-the first national psychiatric epidemiological study of common mental disorders in the country. This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic consistency of core modules of the newly translated and adapted Arabic version of the CIDI 5.0 against the independent clinical diagnoses based on the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5 (SCID-5). METHODS: Telephone follow-up interviews were administered by trained clinicians using the latest research edition of the SCID for DSM-5. Telephone administered interviews were key in the data collection, as the study took place during the COVID-19 pandemic. RESULTS: Overall, within 12 months, 485 interviews were completed. The response rate was 52%. Quality control monitoring documented excellent adherence of clinical interviews to the rating protocol. CONCLUSIONS: The overall methods used in this study proved to be efficient and effective. For future research, instrument cultural adaptation within the cultural context is highly recommended.

The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Individuals With Pre-existing Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in the State of Qatar: An Exploratory Cross-Sectional Study.

Background: Published evidence about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is conflicting. Most studies suggest an increase in the severity of OCD in people with pre-existing OCD, whereas some do not. Aim: Given the conflicting evidence globally and lack of data from the Arab world, we aimed to explore the impact of the pandemic on obsessive-compulsive symptoms in adults with pre-existing OCD. Methods: A telephonic questionnaire-based cross-sectional study among adults with pre-existing OCD and specifically with fear of contamination and washing compulsions being major symptom dimensions of OCD. The severity of OCD during the pandemic was compared with their pre-pandemic scores. The severity of OCD was assessed using the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (YBOCS). Results: Those with the duration of diagnosis of OCD of<10 years showed a statistically significant increase in the mean YBOCS score of 5.54 from pre-pandemic to during pandemic, which was significant at p = 0.006. This significance was maintained across the Compulsive and Obsessive subsets of the scale. Conclusion: Adults with pre-existing OCD with fear of contamination reported a statistically significant increase in severity of obsessive-compulsive symptoms only if the duration of their OCD diagnosis was relatively shorter (<10 years). In the context of the conflicting evidence regarding the worsening of OCD symptoms due to the unique infection control measures of this pandemic, this study highlights the importance of the impact of the duration of the disorder and the subtype of the disorder. Such classification might help public health resources to be directed better at those most at risk and also help us understand the very nature of this disorder better.

Blunted neuroeconomic loss aversion in schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: Abnormal social decision-making is prominent in schizophrenia. Antipsychotic medication often improves interpersonal functioning but this action is poorly understood. Neuroeconomic paradigms are an effective method of investigating social decision-making in psychiatric disorders that can be adapted for use with neuroimaging. Using a neuroeconomic approach, it has been shown that healthy humans reproducibly alter their behavior in different contexts, including exhibiting loss aversion: a higher sensitivity to loss outcomes compared to gains of the same magnitude. METHODS: Here, using a novel loss aversion task and fMRI, we tested three hypotheses: controls exhibiting normal behavioral loss aversion show changes in brain activity consistent with previous studies on healthy subjects; behavioral loss aversion is significantly reduced in schizophrenia and associated with abnormal activity in the same brain regions activated in controls during loss aversion behavior; and for the patient group alone, there is a significant correlation between increased psychotic symptoms, blunted loss aversion and abnormal brain activity. These hypotheses were tested in patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls using a loss aversion paradigm and fMRI. RESULTS: The results support the hypotheses, with patients exhibiting significantly blunted behavioral loss aversion compared to controls. Controls showed a robust loss aversion brain activation pattern in the medial temporal lobe, insula and dopaminergic-linked areas, which was blunted in schizophrenia. CONCLUSIONS: Our results are consistent with blunted loss aversion being a reproducible feature of schizophrenia, likely due to abnormal dopaminergic and medial temporal lobe function, suggesting a route by which antipsychotics could influence interpersonal behavior.

Abnormal corneal nerve morphology and brain volume in patients with schizophrenia.

Neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative pathology occur in Schizophrenia. This study compared the utility of corneal confocal microscopy (CCM), an ophthalmic imaging technique with MRI brain volumetry in quantifying neuronal pathology and its relationship to cognitive dysfunction and symptom severity in schizophrenia. Thirty-six subjects with schizophrenia and 26 controls underwent assessment of cognitive function, symptom severity, CCM and MRI brain volumetry. Subjects with schizophrenia had lower cognitive function (P ≤ 0.01), corneal nerve fiber density (CNFD), length (CNFL), branch density (CNBD), CNBD:CNFD ratio (P < 0.0001) and cingulate gyrus volume (P < 0.05) but comparable volume of whole brain (P = 0.61), cortical gray matter (P = 0.99), ventricle (P = 0.47), hippocampus (P = 0.10) and amygdala (P = 0.68). Corneal nerve measures and cingulate gyrus volume showed no association with symptom severity (P = 0.35-0.86 and P = 0.50) or cognitive function (P = 0.35-0.86 and P = 0.49). Corneal nerve measures were not associated with metabolic syndrome (P = 0.61-0.64) or diabetes (P = 0.057-0.54). The area under the ROC curve distinguishing subjects with schizophrenia from controls was 88% for CNFL, 84% for CNBD and CNBD:CNFD ratio, 79% for CNFD and 73% for the cingulate gyrus volume. This study has identified a reduction in corneal nerve fibers and cingulate gyrus volume in schizophrenia, but no association with symptom severity or cognitive dysfunction. Corneal nerve loss identified using CCM may act as a rapid non-invasive surrogate marker of neurodegeneration in patients with schizophrenia.

Ketamine as the anaesthetic for electroconvulsive therapy: the KANECT randomised controlled trial - CORRIGENDUM.

This notice describes a correction to the above mentioned paper.

Schizophrenia illness severity is associated with reduced loss aversion.

Loss aversion, whereby losses weigh more heavily than equal-sized gains, has been demonstrated in many decision-making settings. Previous research has suggested reduced loss aversion in schizophrenia, but with little evidence of a link between loss aversion and schizophrenia illness severity. In this study, 20 individuals with schizophrenia and 16 control participants, matched by age and sex, played two versions of the Iterated Prisoners' Dilemma, one version with only positive payoffs and another version in which negative payoffs were possible, with the second version being derived from the first by subtracting a constant value from all payoffs. The control group demonstrated significantly lower cooperation rates under negative payoffs, compared with the version with only positive payoffs, indicative of loss aversion. The patient group on average showed no loss aversion response. Moreover, the extent of loss aversion in patients was found to be negatively correlated with schizophrenia illness severity, with less ill patients showing loss aversion more similar to controls. Results were found to be robust to the inclusion of potential confounding factors as covariates within rigorous probit regression analyses. Reduced loss aversion is a feature of schizophrenia and related to illness severity.

Ketamine as the anaesthetic for electroconvulsive therapy: the KANECT randomised controlled trial.

BackgroundKetamine has recently become an agent of interest as an acute treatment for severe depression and as the anaesthetic for electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Subanaesthetic doses result in an acute reduction in depression severity while evidence is equivocal for this antidepressant effect with anaesthetic or adjuvant doses. Recent systematic reviews call for high-quality evidence from further randomised controlled trials (RCTs).AimsTo establish if ketamine as the anaesthetic for ECT results in fewer ECT treatments, improvements in depression severity ratings and less memory impairment than the standard anaesthetic.MethodDouble-blind, parallel-design, RCT of intravenous ketamine (up to 2 mg/kg) with an active comparator, intravenous propofol (up to 2.5 mg/kg), as the anaesthetic for ECT in patients receiving ECT for major depression on an informal basis. (Trial registration: European Clinical Trials Database (EudraCT): 2011-000396-14 and clinicalTrials.gov: NCT01306760)ResultsNo significant differences were found on any outcome measure during, at the end of or 1 month following the ECT course.ConclusionsKetamine as an anaesthetic does not enhance the efficacy of ECT.

Precise QCD Predictions for the Production of Dijet Final States in Deep Inelastic Scattering.

The production of two-jet final states in deep inelastic scattering is an important QCD precision observable. We compute it for the first time to next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in perturbative QCD. Our calculation is fully differential in the lepton and jet variables and allows one to impose cuts on the jets in both the laboratory and the Breit frame. We observe that the NNLO corrections are moderate in size, except at kinematical edges, and that their inclusion leads to a substantial reduction of the scale variation uncertainty on the predictions. Our results will enable the inclusion of deep inelastic dijet data in precision phenomenology studies.

Differences in Cognitive Outcomes After ECT Depending on BDNF and COMT Polymorphisms.

OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to explore cognitive outcomes after electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) depending on which version of common single nucleotide polymorphisms the patient expressed for brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT). METHODS: A total of 87 patients from the clinical ECT service in Aberdeen, Scotland, were included in the study. Cognitive function testing (using Spatial Recognition Memory task from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery and Mini-Mental State Examination) and mood ratings (Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale) were performed before ECT, after 4 treatments, at the end of ECT and 1 and 3 months after the end of treatment. These scores were compared depending on BDNF and COMT variant at each time point using the Student t test and using a time series generalized least squares random effects model. RESULTS: No differences were found between the val and met versions of the BDNF or COMT polymorphism in either cognitive or mood outcomes at any time point during ECT treatment or up to 3 months of follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: This study did not detect significant differences in cognitive or mood outcomes between patients who have the val66val or met versions of the BDNF polymorphism. Our results suggest that these polymorphisms will not be helpful in clinical practice for predicting cognitive outcomes after ECT.

Over-expression of miR-31 or loss of KCNMA1 leads to increased cisplatin resistance in ovarian cancer cells.

Ovarian cancers have a high mortality rate; this is in part due to resistance to the platinum-based compounds used in chemotherapy. In this paper, we assess the role of microRNA-31 in the development of chemoresistance to cisplatin. We used previous data from microarray experiments to identify potential microRNAs (miRNAs) involved in chemoresistance. The functional significance of these microRNAs was tested using miRNA mimics. We used RNA-seq to identify pathways and genes de-regulated in the resistant cell line and then determined their role using RNAi. Analysis of publically available datasets reveals the potential clinical significance. Our data show that miR-31 is increased, whilst potassium channel calcium activated large conductance subfamily M alpha, member 1 (KCNMA1), a subunit of calcium-regulated big potassium (BK) channels, is reduced in resistant ovarian cells. Over-expression of miR-31 increased resistance, as did knockdown of KCNMA1 or inhibition of BK channels. This suggests that these genes directly modulate cisplatin response. Our data also suggest that miR-31 represses KCNMA1 expression. Comparing the levels of miR-31 and KCNMA1 to cisplatin resistance in the NCI60 panel or chemoresistance in cohorts of ovarian cancer tumours reveals correlations that support a role for these genes in vitro and in vivo. Here we show that miR-31 and KCNMA1 are involved in mediating cisplatin resistance in ovarian cancer. Our data gives a new insight into the potential mechanisms to therapeutically target in cisplatin resistance common to ovarian cancer.

Anticonvulsant Mechanisms of Electroconvulsive Therapy and Relation to Therapeutic Efficacy.

BACKGROUND: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is held to confer anticonvulsant effects, although the role of rise in seizure threshold upon clinical effect is uncertain. This study investigated the relationship in a large, consecutive, retrospective sample of patients receiving ECT in Aberdeen. We have tested the hypotheses of previous authors to further examine the relationship between seizure and therapeutic effect as well as discuss the potential underlying neurobiological mechanisms. METHODS: All patients receiving ECT at the Royal Cornhill Hospital between 2000 and the end of 2008 were identified from the Scottish ECT Accreditation Network. Electroconvulsive therapy was administered twice weekly with a bifrontotemporal electrode placement using routine dosage schedules. Data were gathered from the Scottish ECT Accreditation Network and case notes regarding ECT course and clinical effect. RESULTS: The seizure threshold increased in 219 (94.4%) patients, stayed the same in 13 (5.6%) patients, and decreased in 0 patient (n = 232). No significant relationship was present between change in seizure threshold and change in Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale score (P = 0.39; Kendall τ b r = 0.047; n = 182), although responders did display greater increase in seizure threshold than nonresponders. CONCLUSIONS: Electroconvulsive therapy confers anticonvulsant effects in a consecutive sample of real-life patients. Neither initial seizure threshold nor magnitude of seizure threshold increase is a predictor of clinical response to ECT. A rise in seizure threshold is not essential for therapeutic effect but may represent an important marker of underlying neuronal state. The evidence reviewed in this article supports a link between neuroplastic effects of ECT and the evidenced rise in seizure threshold.

Micro- and nano-structured metal oxides based chemical sensors: an overview.

This article examines various kinds of chemical sensors, their mechanism of operation and the ways to improve their performance. It reports the results of exploratory investigation of binary composite polycrystalline thick-films such as SnO2-WO3, SnO2-In2O3, and SnO2-ZnO for the detection of volatile organic compound (isopropanol) are reported. It also contains an overview on the status of the new types of metal oxide based nanostructured sensors, such as nano belts, nanorods, nanotubes, nanofibers, nanocomposites, etc.

Meta-analysis using a novel database, miRStress, reveals miRNAs that are frequently associated with the radiation and hypoxia stress-responses.

Organisms are often exposed to environmental pressures that affect homeostasis, so it is important to understand the biological basis of stress-response. Various biological mechanisms have evolved to help cells cope with potentially cytotoxic changes in their environment. miRNAs are small non-coding RNAs which are able to regulate mRNA stability. It has been suggested that miRNAs may tip the balance between continued cytorepair and induction of apoptosis in response to stress. There is a wealth of data in the literature showing the effect of environmental stress on miRNAs, but it is scattered in a large number of disparate publications. Meta-analyses of this data would produce added insight into the molecular mechanisms of stress-response. To facilitate this we created and manually curated the miRStress database, which describes the changes in miRNA levels following an array of stress types in eukaryotic cells. Here we describe this database and validate the miRStress tool for analysing miRNAs that are regulated by stress. To validate the database we performed a cross-species analysis to identify miRNAs that respond to radiation. The analysis tool confirms miR-21 and miR-34a as frequently deregulated in response to radiation, but also identifies novel candidates as potentially important players in this stress response, including miR-15b, miR-19b, and miR-106a. Similarly, we used the miRStress tool to analyse hypoxia-responsive miRNAs. The most frequently deregulated miRNAs were miR-210 and miR-21, as expected. Several other miRNAs were also found to be associated with hypoxia, including miR-181b, miR-26a/b, miR-106a, miR-213 and miR-192. Therefore the miRStress tool has identified miRNAs with hitherto unknown or under-appreciated roles in the response to specific stress types. The miRStress tool, which can be used to uncover new insight into the biological roles of miRNAs, and also has the potential to unearth potential biomarkers for therapeutic response, is freely available at http://mudshark.brookes.ac.uk/MirStress.

Socioeconomic status of patients receiving electroconvulsive therapy.

This study describes the relationship between socioeconomic deprivation and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) prescription and outcomes. Two research questions are addressed in this study: (1) Does the rate of ECT prescription increase with deprivation? and (2) Does deprivation influence ECT outcomes? Electroconvulsive therapy outcomes, of consecutive patients from Aberdeen, were compared across socioeconomic groups determined by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) quintiles. A primary care sample, invited to complete the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), was used for comparison. The proportion of patients in the most affluent quintile (32%) was greater than that in the least affluent (9%): this reflects the distribution of the local population, unlike the prevalence of depressive disorder, as demonstrated in our primary care group. Severity of depressive symptoms in patients receiving ECT was no different across the socioeconomic groups: before ECT (χ = 8.056; df = 4; P = 0.09), after ECT (χ = 6.035; df = 4; P = 0.197); nor was the total change in score (χ = 4.367; df = 4; P = 0.359). There were no differences among the SIMD quintiles for the number of ECT treatments administered (χ = 6.076; df = 4; P = 0.194) or the number of courses of ECT each patient had during contact with the service (χ = 6.505; df = 4; P = 0.164).Socioeconomic deprivation has no effect on the rate of ECT prescription or treatment outcomes despite a higher proportion of patients with severe depressive symptoms in the least affluent groups in a local community sample.

Usefulness of treatment reports for electroconvulsive therapy.

OBJECTIVES: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is often given by a specialist ECT team on behalf of a patient's treating psychiatrist. A key aspect of this interface is the communication between these care teams. This study describes the introduction of an ECT treatment report at the Royal Cornhill Hospital in Aberdeen. The aim of the current study was to evaluate whether these reports were useful to psychiatrist. METHODS: The report was designed to provide feedback to the treating psychiatrists on a range cognitive (Mini Mental State Examination, spatial recognition memory on the Cambridge Automated Neuropsychological Testing Battery, Squire Subjective Memory Scale, and Prospective And Retrospective Memory Questionnaire) and mood scores (Montgomery Åsberg Depression Rating Scale) routinely collected by the ECT team. The reports contain the patient's score and the mean of all patients treated in the service. A questionnaire was sent to all treating psychiatrists to evaluate the usefulness of the reports. RESULTS: A 76% response rate was obtained. The reports were well received by treating teams, among whom 78.9% thought they were necessary, 74% thought they were easy to understand, and 79% thought the report was informative. A minority 47.4% thought the report influenced clinical practice, and only 31.3% showed the report to patients. CONCLUSIONS: From the results of our evaluation, the provision of an "ECT Treatment Report" providing a summary of the routinely collected mood and cognitive rating data was useful for psychiatrists prescribing ECT. It is thus likely that such a report would be useful in other ECT services.

Evolution of mir-92a underlies natural morphological variation in Drosophila melanogaster.

Identifying the genetic mechanisms underlying phenotypic change is essential to understanding how gene regulatory networks and ultimately the genotype-to-phenotype map evolve. It is recognized that microRNAs (miRNAs) have the potential to facilitate evolutionary change [1-3]; however, there are no known examples of natural morphological variation caused by evolutionary changes in miRNA expression. Therefore, the contribution of miRNAs to evolutionary change remains unknown [1, 4]. Drosophila melanogaster subgroup species display a portion of trichome-free cuticle on the femur of the second leg called the "naked valley." It was previously shown that Ultrabithorax (Ubx) is involved in naked valley variation between D. melanogaster and D. simulans [5, 6]. However, naked valley size also varies among populations of D. melanogaster, ranging from 1,000 up to 30,000 µm(2). We investigated the genetic basis of intraspecific differences in the naked valley in D. melanogaster and found that neither Ubx nor shavenbaby (svb) [7, 8] contributes to this morphological difference. Instead, we show that changes in mir-92a expression underlie the evolution of naked valley size in D. melanogaster through repression of shavenoid (sha) [9]. Therefore, our results reveal a novel mechanism for morphological evolution and suggest that modulation of the expression of miRNAs potentially plays a prominent role in generating organismal diversity.

A stochastic T cell response criterion.

The adaptive immune system relies on different cell types to provide fast and coordinated responses, characterized by recognition of pathogenic challenge, extensive cellular proliferation and differentiation, as well as death. T cells are a subset of the adaptive immune cellular pool that recognize immunogenic peptides expressed on the surface of antigen-presenting cells by means of specialized receptors on their membrane. T cell receptor binding to ligand determines T cell responses at different times and locations during the life of a T cell. Current experimental evidence provides support to the following: (i) sufficiently long receptor-ligand engagements are required to initiate the T cell signalling cascade that results in productive signal transduction and (ii) counting devices are at work in T cells to allow signal accumulation, decoding and translation into biological responses. In the light of these results, we explore, with mathematical models, the timescales associated with T cell responses. We consider two different criteria: a stochastic one (the mean time it takes to have had N receptor-ligand complexes bound for at least a dwell time, τ, each) and one based on equilibrium (the time to reach a threshold number N of receptor-ligand complexes). We have applied mathematical models to previous experiments in the context of thymic negative selection and to recent two-dimensional experiments. Our results indicate that the stochastic criterion provides support to the thymic affinity threshold hypothesis, whereas the equilibrium one does not, and agrees with the ligand hierarchy experimentally established for thymic negative selection.