No NLRP3 Inflammasome Expression in the Ouabain Animal Model of Bipolar Disorder.

Introduction Inflammation is believed to play a role in both bipolar illness and unipolar depression. Markers of inflammation are elevated during acute mood episodes. Specifically, gene expressions of the nucleotide-binding domain and leucine-rich repeat pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3)-related proteins in peripheral blood have been purported to be upregulated in patients with bipolar disorder. We examined the elaboration of NLRP3 in the ouabain animal model of bipolar disorder.  Methods The frontal cortex, hippocampus, and basal ganglia tissue from young, male Sprague-Dawley rats who received intracerebroventricular (ICV) ouabain as a model of bipolar disorder or artificial cerebrospinal fluid (aCSF) were examined for NLRP3 utilizing protein immunoblot (Western) analysis.  Results We could not demonstrate any NLRP3 in rat brain, but NLRP3 was detected in control from mouse brain and lung. Discussion This study demonstrates that the manifestation of manic behavior in rats treated with ICV ouabain is not accompanied by elaboration of NLRP3 inflammasome. This raises the question of the primacy of inflammation in the pathophysiology of mania. If these findings are reproduced in this and other animal models of mania, they would raise important questions about whether inflammation is a primary or secondary phenomenon in the brains of subjects with bipolar disorder.

Effects of somatic treatments on suicidal ideation and completed suicides.

OBJECTIVE: This work was undertaken to define and characterize the role of currently available somatic treatments in psychiatry in either increasing or reducing the risk for suicide. METHODS: Members of the Suicide Prevention Task Group of the National Network of Depression Centers performed a literature review of somatic treatments known to increase or reduce the risk for suicide. The reviews ventured to include all relevant information about the risk for both suicide ideation and completed suicides. RESULTS: Lithium and clozapine are the only two somatic treatments that have high-quality data documenting their antisuicide effects in mood disorders and schizophrenia, respectively. Lithium discontinuation is also associated with increased suicide risk. Ketamine and esketamine may have a small, but immediate, antisuicide effect. Despite the recent Food and Drug Administration approval of esketamine use in depressed suicidal patients, the small disproportional overrepresentation of suicide in subjects who had received esketamine versus placebo (3 vs. 0 among > 3500 subjects) requires ongoing evaluation. The purported antisuicide effect of electroconvulsive therapy is based on low-quality data. The effect of antidepressants is not at all clear. There appears to be direct evidence for antidepressants increasing suicidal ideation and the risk for suicide over the short-term in young people, but indirect (low quality) evidence that antidepressants reduce suicide risk over the long term. CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians have an expanding pharmacopeia to address suicide potential in their patients. Some of the agents with documented antisuicide effects may also increase suicidality under specific circumstances.

Early use of telepsychotherapy in resident continuity clinics-our experience and a review of literature.

Telepsychotherapy is an underutilized tool in training programs, and use of telepsychiatry often occurs in the later years of residency. This study evaluates the feasibility of early exposure to telepsychotherapy in residency continuity clinics and reviews the existing literature on the use of telemedicine in the training of psychiatrists. Feedback from the participating residents and patients was used to determine the benefit of such a training curriculum. The results of the feedback and evidence from the review of literature indicate that the early use of telepsychotherapy should be employed in psychiatric training.