Understanding the dark side of personality in sex offenders considering the level of sexual violence.

This study examined the relationship between the actual level of physical violence in sexual offenses and dark triad, empathic and impulsive personality traits of their perpetrators. Sixty-four male perpetrators of sexual offenses without any serious mental illness were included. A 5-point Likert-type coding system based on Violence Profile for Current Offense was applied to assess the severity of physical violence of each sexual offense. Personality traits of dark triad (psychopathy, Machiavellianism, narcissism), trait empathy and impulsiveness were also evaluated. Multivariate analyses indicated that non-stranger victim, secondary psychopathy, narcissism and empathy could significantly predict greater involvement of physical violence in a sexual offense. In addition, empathy was negatively correlated with all dark triad traits. Sexual violence should be conceptualized in the form of a continuum, and, considering such an approach, offenders with high secondary psychopathy and narcissism may show preference for sexual assaults that are more violent in nature.

The Association Between Mood Stabilizers, Sleep Quality, and Functioning in Patients With Remitted Bipolar Disorder.

PURPOSE/BACKGROUND: The current study aimed to examine the differences in sleep quality, illness severity, and functioning in remitted bipolar disorder patients who are using mood stabilizers and antipsychotics either as monotherapy or as combination/additional therapy. METHODS/PROCEDURES: A total of 113 remitted outpatients with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fifth Edition) bipolar disorder were recruited. The patients were classified on the basis of their current treatment regimen: 44 patients were receiving a single mood stabilizer, 21 patients were receiving a single antipsychotic, and 48 patients were receiving a combination therapy of a single mood stabilizer and a single antipsychotic. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF), and Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) were applied. FINDINGS/RESULTS: The GAF score was significantly lower in the combination group compared with the other 2 groups. Scores on the PSQI and ISI did not differ between the 3 groups. More than half (66.4%) of all patients had poor sleep quality. Total score on the PSQI was significantly correlated with age, body mass index, and GAF. Insomnia Severity Index was significantly correlated with the duration of illness, total number of episodes, and GAF. Multiple linear regression analysis indicated that GAF ( ß = -0.114) and ISI ( ß = 0.661) were significantly associated with the PSQI total score. IMPLICATIONS/CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that implementing interventions to enhance functioning is crucial for improving sleep quality in remitted bipolar patients.

Increased Dispersion of Ventricular Repolarization as an Arrhythmic Risk Marker in Drug-free Patients With Major Depressive Disorder: A Preliminary Comparative Study.

OBJECTIVE: Drug-free patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) are understudied in terms of increased risk for arrhythmias. In this study, we compared changes in corrected QT interval (QTc), QTc dispersion (QTcd), Tpeak-Tend (Tp-e), Tp-e/QT ratio, corrected JT interval (JTc), and JTc dispersion (JTcd), which are considered to be among the risk factors for the emergence of ventricular arrhythmias in patients with MDD. METHODS: The study involved 50 patients with MDD who had been free of psychotropic medications for at least 1 month and 52 age-matched and sex-matched healthy controls. Illness-related characteristics, including duration of illness and Beck Depression Inventory scores, were recorded. Electrocardiography recordings made under a standardized procedure were performed for all participants, and arrhythmia risk markers were calculated from the electrocardiograms. RESULTS: The patient group had significantly higher QTcd, JTc, and JTcd values compared with the controls. Among electrocardiogram markers, only Tp-e/QTc was significantly and inversely correlated with the duration of illness, while none of the markers was associated with Beck Depression Inventory scores. CONCLUSIONS: Alterations in electrocardiogram-derived markers of ventricular arrhythmia, which can be obtained easily and inexpensively, can be evaluated for the prediction and prevention of severe cardiac conditions in patients with MDD and considered in selecting the safest antidepressant options available.

Sexual Behavioral Disinhibition Associated with Nucleus Lentiformis Lesion: A Forensic Neuroscience Perspective Through a Case.

Organic brain disturbances particularly related to frontal cortex structures and subcortical areas including the basal ganglia may play a role in behavioral disinhibition disorders. Kluver-Bucy syndrome (KBS), which is one of the better knowns of these syndromes, includes hyperorality, visual agnosia, and hypersexuality, has been reported to occur after temporal lobe and amygdala lesions; however, several patients who had focal lesions in areas other than the temporal cortex and amygdala have been reported to present partial KBS symptoms. Nucleus lentiformis refers to a large portion of the basal ganglia including the putamen and globus pallidus, and specific structures within this broad area are known to be important for reward and value-based decision making. To date, KBS symptoms including hypersexual behavior associated with nucleus lentiformis lesions have never been reported. Here, we present a 38-year-old male patient who developed increased sexual interest and hyperorality after infarctions in the right lenticular nucleus and right occipitotemporal region and committed a first-degree sexual assault. He was sent to our institution for the assessment of criminal responsibility to the index sexual crime. According to a comprehensive and thorough forensic psychiatric evaluation, he was diagnosed as having an organic personality disorder with partial KBS symptoms. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported case of deviant sexual behavior and hyperorality developing after nucleus lentiformis infarction. We aimed to discuss possible neurobiologic explanations of late-onset deviant sexual behavior, which resulted in sexual criminal behavior following a cerebrovascular infarction.

Graphical data mining of cancer mechanisms with SEMA.

MOTIVATION: An important goal of cancer genomics initiatives is to provide the research community with the resources for the unbiased query of cancer mechanisms. Several excellent web platforms have been developed to enable the visual analyses of molecular alterations in cancers from these datasets. However, there are few tools to allow the researchers to mine these resources for mechanisms of cancer processes and their functional interactions in an intuitive unbiased manner. RESULTS: To address this need, we developed SEMA, a web platform for building and testing of models of cancer mechanisms from large multidimensional cancer genomics datasets. Unlike the existing tools for the analyses and query of these resources, SEMA is explicitly designed to enable exploratory and confirmatory analyses of complex cancer mechanisms through a suite of intuitive visual and statistical functionalities. Here, we present a case study of the functional mechanisms of TP53-mediated tumor suppression in various cancers, using SEMA, and identify its role in the regulation of cell cycle progression, DNA repair and signal transduction in different cancers.SEMA is a first-in-its-class web application designed to allow visual data mining and hypothesis testing from the multidimensional cancer datasets. The web application, an extensive tutorial and several video screencasts with case studies are freely available for academic use at https://sema.research.cchmc.org/. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: SEMA is freely available at https://sema.research.cchmc.org. The web site also contains a detailed Tutorial (also in Supplementary Information), and a link to the YouTube channel for video screencasts of analyses, including the analyses presented here. The Shiny and JavaScript source codes have been deposited to GitHub: https://github.com/msolmazm/sema. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Is there a complex relation between social anxiety disorder, childhood traumatic experiences and dissociation?

BACKGROUND: A possible relationship has been suggested between social anxiety and dissociation. Traumatic experiences, especially childhood abuse, play an important role in the aetiology of dissociation. AIM: This study assesses childhood trauma history, dissociative symptoms, and dissociative disorder comorbidity in patients with social anxiety disorder (SAD). METHOD: The 94 psychotropic drug-naive patients participating in the study had to meet DSM-IV criteria for SAD. Participants were assessed using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Dissociative Disorders (SCID-D), the Dissociation Questionnaire (DIS-Q), the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS), and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). Patients were divided into two groups using the DIS-Q, and the two groups were compared. RESULTS: The evaluation found evidence of at least one dissociative disorder in 31.91% of participating patients. The most prevalent disorders were dissociative disorder not otherwise specified (DDNOS), dissociative amnesia, and depersonalization disorders. Average scores on LSAS and fear and avoidance sub-scale averages were significantly higher among the high DIS-Q group (p < .05). In a logistic regression taking average LSAS scores as the dependent variable, the five independent variables DIS-Q, CTQ-53 total score, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, and emotional neglect were associated with average LSAS scores among patients with SAD (p < .05). CONCLUSIONS: It is concluded that, on detecting SAD symptoms during hospitalization, the clinician should not neglect underlying dissociative processes and traumatic experiences among these patients.

Long-term results in obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) after laser-assisted uvulopalatoplasty (LAUP).

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is a serious disease. The etiology of and optimum therapy options for this disorder have been much discussed and have been the subject of many publications. One much discussed therapy option is laser-assisted uvulopalatoplasty (LAUP). Despite conflicting opinions and guidelines which recommend that it should not be used, it remains in use. Patients who had previously undergone this procedure were invited for follow-up appointments, at which they were asked to complete a questionnaire, underwent an ENT examination and underwent sleep laboratory analysis using a portable sleep lab device. The average time since LAUP treatment was 11 years. The cohort comprised 25 patients. The average preoperative apnea-hypopnea-index (AHI) score was 25.25/h; the average postoperative AHI score 23.62/h. Closer examination of our data enabled us to identify 10 responders (40%) and 15 non-responders (60%). 12% (3/25) of non-responders experienced either no reduction in their AHI score or an increase compared to their preoperative AHI score of less than 5/h. In the remaining 48% (12/25), AHI increased by more than 5/h compared to the preoperative figure. Our questionnaire showed that 40% (10/25) of patients suffered from dry mouth and 20% (5/25) from foreign body sensation. The data led us to conclude that laser-assisted uvulopalatoplasty can indeed result in a reduction in AHI score comparable to other mucosal resection methods. Also in common with these methods, the efficacy of the therapy reduces with time and the procedure carries a high risk of bringing about an increase in the patient's AHI score.

Alexithymia and Self-Esteem in Patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis.

INTRODUCTION: Ankylosing spondylitis (AS), which has an unknown etiology, inflammatory disorder, characterized by inflammation of the spinal joints and adjacent structures. It has a negatif effect on all aspects of a patients's life: Physcally, psychologically and socially. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of AS on self-esteem and alexithymia. METHOD: In this study, 50 patients from the department of physical therapy and rehabilitation with the diaognosis of AS who were under traetment and follow-up and 50 healty volunteers who matched for age and gender were taken. Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI) were performed to both patients and control group. RESULTS: Compared to the control group, the anxiety and depression scores were higher in the patient group and the alexithymic characteristics were significantly higher, self-esteem scores were significantly lower in the patient group (p<.05). CONCLUSION: Like all the other inflammatory chronic diseases, depression and anxiety are commonly seen in AS patients. Alexithymai and self-esteem of these patients should be considered carefully. More studies are needed on this regard.

Association of gender and schizophrenia subtype with age at disease onset in a cohort from rural Turkey

Background and Objectives: This study was designed to investigate the association of the gender and subtype diagnosis with the onset age of the disease, marriage, reproductive rates in the schizophrenic inpatients. Methods: Total of 463 patients (329 males and 134 females) hospitalized with the diagnosis of schizophrenia according to DSM-IV criteria and who were between 15-65years of age were included in the study. We evaluated the age, gender, marital status, number of children, onset of the disease and subtype of schizophrenia. Results: Mean of onset of the disease score was higher statistically in the females (27.6 ±4.3) than the males (23.7 ± 3.9) (p < 0.05) in our study. The paranoid subtype was the commonest, while women were more likely to be married than men, men had more children than women; and the paranoid subtype were more likely to be married than the other groups. Conclusions: Onset age of schizophrenia was four years higher in the women than in men and that the rates of the schizophrenia subtypes were consistent with those detected in the other studies demonstrates that these rates were determined by neurobiological mechanisms rather than socio-cultural factors (AU)