Oral Microbiota Composition and Antimicrobial Antibody Response in Patients with Recurrent Aphthous Stomatitis.

Recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS) is the most common disease of the oral mucosa, and it has been recently associated with bacterial and fungal dysbiosis. To study this link further, we investigated microbial shifts during RAS manifestation at an ulcer site, in its surroundings, and at an unaffected site, compared with healed mucosa in RAS patients and healthy controls. We sampled microbes from five distinct sites in the oral cavity. The one site with the most pronounced differences in microbial alpha and beta diversity between RAS patients and healthy controls was the lower labial mucosa. Detailed analysis of this particular oral site revealed strict association of the genus Selenomonas with healed mucosa of RAS patients, whereas the class Clostridia and genera Lachnoanaerobaculum, Cardiobacterium, Leptotrichia, and Fusobacterium were associated with the presence of an active ulcer. Furthermore, active ulcers were dominated by Malassezia, which were negatively correlated with Streptococcus and Haemophilus and positively correlated with Porphyromonas species. In addition, RAS patients showed increased serum levels of IgG against Mogibacterium timidum compared with healthy controls. Our study demonstrates that the composition of bacteria and fungi colonizing healthy oral mucosa is changed in active RAS ulcers, and that this alteration persists to some extent even after the ulcer is healed.

Personalized cognitive training in unipolar and bipolar disorder: a study of cognitive functioning.

Patients with unipolar depressive disorder and in the depressive phase of bipolar disorder often manifest psychological distress and cognitive deficits, notably in executive control. We used computerized cognitive training in an attempt to reduce psychological affliction, improve everyday coping, and cognitive function. We asked one group of patients (intervention group) to engage in cognitive training three times a week, for 20 min each time, for eight consecutive weeks. A second group of patients (control group) received standard care only. Before the onset of training we administered to all patients self-report questionnaires of mood, mental and psychological health, and everyday coping. We also assessed executive control using a broad computerized neurocognitive battery of tests which yielded, among others, scores in Working Memory, Shifting, Inhibition, Visuomotor Vigilance, Divided Attention, Memory Span, and a Global Executive Function score. All questionnaires and tests were re-administered to the patients who adhered to the study at the end of training. When we compared the groups (between-group comparisons) on the amount of change that had taken place from baseline to post-training, we found significantly reduced depression level for the intervention group. This group also displayed significant improvements in Shifting, Divided Attention, and in the Global executive control score. Further exploration of the data showed that the cognitive improvement did not predict the improvements in mood. Single-group data (within-group comparisons) show that patients in the intervention group were reporting fewer cognitive failures, fewer dysexecutive incidents, and less difficulty in everyday coping. This group had also improved significantly on the six executive control tests and on the Global executive control score. By contrast, the control group improved only on the reports of cognitive failure and on working memory.

Comparison of Wisconsin Card Sorting Test results between Czech subjects dependent on methamphetamine versus healthy volunteers.

BACKGROUND: Methamphetamine is a neurotoxic agent. Its chronic abuse may result in cognitive impairment with negative consequences for patients' treatment and rehabilitation. The aim of the study was to compare Wisconsin Card Sorting Test profiles of Czech subjects dependent on methamphetamine with healthy individuals. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Forty-three hospitalized Czech Caucasian patients including twenty-seven men at the average age of 25.3±5.2 years dependent on methamphetamine for 6.2±3.3 years were assessed by the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. We used the same neurocognitive test for the comparison group of healthy controls with the same ethnicity (N=52, men N=28, average age of 38.7±12.1 years). We applied the Chi-Square Test, Two-Sample T Test, Mann-Whitney U Test and Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test to compare methamphetamine dependent patients with healthy volunteers. RESULTS: All recorded Wisconsin Card Sorting Test parameters were significantly different in the group of methamphetamine dependent patients versus healthy volunteers (P=0.04-0.006; Mann-Whitney U Test, Two-Sample T Test). The results showed a higher error rate and a smaller achievement quality in the patients as against healthy subjects. We ascertained a significant cognitive deterioration in the patients as compared to healthy volunteers even if the average patients' achievements were in the normal range according to the test norms. CONCLUSIONS: A cognitive impairment was present in the group of patients as compared to healthy controls. Better understanding of neurocognitive symptoms in methamphetamine dependent subjects should help to generate modern therapeutic approaches, both pharmacological and psychosocial, to prevent or attenuate the long-term negative consequences of methamphetamine use disorders.

Cognitive deficits in hospitalized and neverhospitalized remitted unipolar depressive patients

Background and Objectives: Little is known about the differences between patients managing depression on an out patient basis as compared with hospitalized ones. This study investigated the performance of attention, executive function and verbal memory during remission from unipolar depressive episodes and compare patients with and without history of hospitalization. Methods: The sample of participants who had undergone one or more hospitalizations (hospitalized, N = 46) as well as in a sample without hospitalization (never hospitalized,N = 46) and controls (N = 92) were used. The Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT) and the TrailMaking Test (TMT) were administrated to test this hypothesis. Results and conclusion: The hospitalized sample had similar results in all four neuropsychological variables in comparison with the never hospitalized group, and both groups had some lower results in comparison with controls. In comparison with the controls, hospitalized sample had mean cognitive deficits of 34% (28-41%), the never hospitalized group had a mean of 20% (21-35%). Contrary to previous reports we have found no meaningful differences between the two patient groups (AU)

[Education in schizophrenia: how patients and their relatives assess the relapse prevention programme PREDUKA]. / Edukace u schizofrenie: Jak pacienti a príbuzní hodnotí program prevence relapsu PREDUKA.

Antipsychotic medication and early relapse warning signs detection are the cornerstone of relapse prevention in schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Many patients do not use antipsychotic medication because of lack of information about its preventive effects and the risk of relapse. We introduce PREDUKA--PREventive EDUcational programme for relapse prevention. The goal of the programme is to deliver the information about schizophrenia to patients and their relatives. 178 patients and 252 relatives (118 mothers and 51 fathers) took part in 25 one-day psychoeducational programmes in 6 centres in the Czech Republic between January 2008 and June 2009 and anonymously fulfilled a short questionnaire. Patients and relatives assessed the programme with an average mark 1.4 (1 best, 5 worst). 49.4% patients and 49.0% relatives had received enough information about psychotic disorders during their hospitalization. Moreover 94.1% patients and 95.7% relatives confirmed acquiring new information on how to live with psychosis as a result of PREDUKA programme. 59.6% patients and 73.8% relatives were interested in ITAREPS - Information Technology Aided Relapse Prevention Programme. Mothers were significantly more interested (82.2%) than fathers (62.2%) (p = 0.031). Expressed high interest of patients and their relatives in both programmes indicates their readiness to become active and competent partners in the long-term treatment of schizophrenia spectrum disorders.