FACEHBI: A Prospective Study of Risk Factors, Biomarkers and Cognition in a Cohort of Individuals with Subjective Cognitive Decline. Study Rationale and Research Protocols.

BACKGROUND: Long-term longitudinal studies with multimodal biomarkers are needed to delve into the knowledge of preclinical AD. Subjective cognitive decline has been proposed as a risk factor for the development of cognitive impairment. Thus, including individuals with SCD in observational studies may be a cost-effective strategy to increase the prevalence of preclinical AD in the sample. OBJECTIVES: To describe the rationale, research protocols and baseline characteristics of participants in the Fundació ACE Healthy Brain Initiative (FACEHBI). DESIGN: FACEHBI is a clinical trial (EudraCT: 2014-000798-38) embedded within a long-term observational study of individuals with SCD. SETTING: Participants have been recruited at the memory clinic of Fundació ACE (Barcelona) from two different sources: patients referred by a general practitioner and individuals from an Open House Initiative. PARTICIPANTS: 200 individuals diagnosed with SCD with a strictly normal performance in a comprehensive neuropsychological battery. MEASUREMENTS: Individuals will undergo an extensive neuropsychological protocol, risk factor assessment and a set of multimodal biomarkers including florbetaben PET, structural and functional MRI, diffusion tensor imaging, determination of amyloid species in plasma and neurophthalmologic assessment with optical coherence tomography. RESULTS: Two hundred individuals have been recruited in 15 months. Mean age was 65.9 years; mean MMSE was 29.2 with a mean of 14.8 years of education. CONCLUSIONS: FACEHBI is a long-term study of cognition, biomarkers and lifestyle that has been designed upon an innovative symptom-based approach using SCD as target population. It will shed light on the pathophysiology of preclinical AD and the role of SCD as a risk marker for the development of cognitive impairment.

[Prevalence of postpartum depression in Spanish mothers: comparison of estimation by mean of the structured clinical interview for DSM-IV with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale]. / Prevalencia de la depresión posparto en las madres españolas: comparación de la estimación mediante la entrevista clínica estructurada y la escala de depresión posparto de Edimburgo.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Our objectives were: To estimate the prevalence of postpartum depression (PD) by two evaluation methods: Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID), and self-report Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), and to identify the EPDS cut-off to provide an unbiased estimation of PD prevalence. PATIENTS AND METHOD: We report data from all women (n = 1191) attending to postnatal routine checking visits at six weeks postpartum during one year in the Gynaecology and Obstetrics Department of the Hospital Clínic of Barcelona (Spain). A two-stage method was used. In the first stage, all women selected completed the EPDS. In the second stage, all women with an EPDS score >= 9 (probable PD cases) and a randomized sample of 16% with a score < 9 were evaluated by a psychiatrist using the SCID interview to establish a psychiatric diagnosis of major and minor depression. 402 postpartum women were offered the SCID interview; 68 of them refused to participate. RESULTS: The prevalence of depression according to the SCID interview was 10.15% (CI 95%, 8.43-11.87). The prevalence of major depression was 3.6% (CI 95%, 2.55-4.67) and it was 6.5% (CI 95%, 5.14-7.95) for minor depression. An EPDS cut-off of 11/12 provided an unbiased estimation of the postpartum depression prevalence rate. CONCLUSIONS: Our results justify the need to use different EPDS cut-offs. A cut-off of 10/11 is effective for identifying the population at risk and a cut-off of 11/12 is useful to estimate the prevalence in epidemiological studies.

Prevalencia de la depresión posparto en las madres españolas: comparación de la estimación mediante la entrevista clínica estructurada y la escala de depresión posparto de Edimburgo / Prevalence of postpartum depression in Spanish mothers: comparison of estimation by mean of the structured clinical interview for DSM-IV with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale

FUNDAMENTO Y OBJETIVO: Estimar la prevalencia de la depresión posparto (DPP) en una muestra poblacional mediante dos métodos de evaluación: la entrevista clínica estructurada para el DSM-IV (SCID) y la medida de autoinforme de la Edinburgh Postnatal Depressión Scale (EPDS), así como identificar el punto de corte del EPDS que proporcione una estimación sin sesgo de la prevalencia de DPP. PACIENTES Y MÉTODO: Se incluyó en el estudio a todas las madres (n = 1.191) que, durante el período de un año, acudieron al Servicio de Obstetricia y Ginecología del Hospital Clínic de Barcelona para realizar la visita de control del puerperio (6 semanas posparto). Se utilizó un método en dos fases. En la primera etapa, todas las madres incluidas completaron el EPDS. En la segunda, todas aquellas con una puntuación en la EPDS de 9 o superior (casos probables de DPP), y una muestra aleatoria del 16 por ciento de madres con puntuaciones de la EPDS inferior a 9 fueron evaluadas por una psiquiatra utilizando la entrevista SCID, para establecer el diagnóstico de depresión mayor y menor. Se invitó a realizar la entrevista SCID a un total de 402 mujeres, de las cuales 68 no quisieron participar. RESULTADOS: La prevalencia de depresión según la entrevista SCID fue del 10,15 por ciento (intervalo de confianza [IC] del 95 por ciento, 8,43-11,87). La prevalencia de depresión mayor fue del 3,6 por ciento (IC del 95 por ciento, 2,55-4,67) y la de depresión menor del 6,5 por ciento (IC del 95 por ciento, 5,14-7,95). El punto de corte 11/12 de la EPDS permite realizar una estimación sin sesgo de la tasa de prevalencia de DPP. CONCLUSIONES: El presente estudio justifica la necesidad de utilizar diferentes puntos de corte de la EPDS: el punto de corte 10/11 para identificar la población de riesgo y el 11/12 para estimar la prevalencia en estudios epidemiológicos (AU)

Atención a los efectos secundarios de la radioterapia / Management of side effects of radiotherapy

Más del 50 per cent de pacientes con cáncer precisarán tratamiento con radioterapia para el control tumoral o como terapia paliativa. Pese a ello la radioterapia y sus efectos secundarios son poco conocidos para la mayoría de los profesionales de la Atención Primaria. Los efectos secundarios pueden ser agudos o crónicos y están relacionados con la dosis y su fraccionamiento, con el tamaño del tumor y extensión, volumen de tejido normal irradiado, tratamientos concomitantes y variables individuales del paciente. El objetivo de este artículo es informar al profesional de Atención Primaria de los principales efectos secundarios y su manejo (AU)

Patients' representations of psychotherapy: a new focus for psychodynamic research.

This article presents a psychodynamic framework and research methods for investigating the significance of patients' internal representations of therapy-with-their-therapists. In this article, 2 instruments developed for this purpose--the Therapist Representation Inventory and the Intersession Experience Questionnaire--are introduced, and their psychometric characteristics are described. Also, findings from a series of studies conducted with these instruments are summarized. Finally, the types of questions these instruments appear to be well suited to are proposed for addressing in future research.