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Introduction: The outbreak of coronavirus disease has negatively impacted college students' mental health across the world. In addition, substance abuse also is trouble among these students. This study aims to find the gender difference in Chinese international college students' mental health and substance abuse during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: We conducted an online survey using PHQ-9, GAD-7, and several questions related to substance abuse frequency, self-injury, and suicidal thoughts, 535 male and 475 female Chinese international college students whose ages ranged from 18 to 23 years old (x = 20.19, SD = 1.50) were recruited during the epidemic. We utilized t-test and binary logistic regression in our study to find out the difference and statistical significance between substance abuse issues and mental health problems across gender. Results: Both male and female Chinese international college students had statistical significance with self-injury ideas and behaviors (t = -2.21, p < 0.05). Furthermore, the male college students with anxiety problems had positive statistical significance with medicine (OR = 3.47, 95%CI = 1.45-8.30, p < 0.01) and negative statistical significance with drinks (OR = 0.23, 95%CI = 0.08-0.65, p < 0.01). While for female college students with an anxiety problem, they had positive statistical significance with medicine (OR = 4.88, 95%CI = 1.53-15.57, p < 0.01), drugs (OR = 4.48, 95%CI = 1.41-14.25, p < 0.05) and cigarettes (OR = 6.63, 95%CI = 1.95-22.57, p < 0.01) and negative statistical significance with drinks (OR = 0.18, 95%CI = -0.05 to 0.65, p < 0.01). Conclusion: This is the first cross-sectional study focusing on the Chinese international college students' mental health and substance abuse problems during the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that Chinese international college students' mental health and substance abuse situation has been negatively influenced during this period. In addition, the self-injury ideas and behaviors also showed a high tendency for these students. The findings of our study also highlight the need to find more interventions and preventions to solve the different mental health and substance abuse problems for college students, especially for female Chinese international college students.
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BACKGROUND: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized by memory impairment. Previous studies have largely focused on alterations of static brain activity occurring in patients with AD. Few studies to date have explored the characteristics of dynamic brain activity in cognitive impairment, and their predictive ability in AD patients. METHODS: One hundred and eleven AD patients, 29 MCI patients, and 73 healthy controls (HC) were recruited. The dynamic amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (dALFF) and the dynamic fraction amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (dfALFF) were used to assess the temporal variability of local brain activity in patients with AD or mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Pearson's correlation coefficients were calculated between the metrics and subjects' behavioral scores. RESULTS: The results of analysis of variance indicated that the AD, MCI, and HC groups showed significant variability of dALFF in the cerebellar posterior and middle temporal lobes. In AD patients, these brain regions had high dALFF variability. Significant dfALFF variability was found between the three groups in the left calcarine cortex and white matter. The AD group showed lower dfALFF than the MCI group in the left calcarine cortex. CONCLUSIONS: Compared to HC, AD patients were found to have increased dALFF variability in the cerebellar posterior and temporal lobes. This abnormal pattern may diminish the capacity of the cerebellum and temporal lobes to participate in the cerebrocerebellar circuits and default mode network (DMN), which regulate cognition and emotion in AD. The findings above indicate that the analysis of dALFF and dfALFF based on functional magnetic resonance imaging data may give a new insight into the neurophysiological mechanisms of AD.
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BACKGROUND: To study the efficacy of tandospirone citrate in treating Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients with anxiety. METHODS: Thirty mild-to-moderate AD patients with anxiety symptoms were randomly divided into a monotherapy group (donepezil) and a combination therapy group (donepezil and tandospirone). The treatment lasted for 12 weeks. Drug efficacy was regularly assessed using psychological assessment scales and quantitative pharmaco-electroencephalogram (QPEEG) power spectral analysis. RESULTS: After 12 weeks of treatment, the mean Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAMA) score and mean Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) score of the combination therapy group were 5.13±4.18 and 4.2±5.0, respectively, which was significantly lower compared to baseline and the monotherapy group (all P<0.05). The mean attention score on the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-cognitive subscale (ADAS-Cog) was 0.07±0.26 for the combination group, which was significantly lower than that of the monotherapy group (P<0.05). QPEEG revealed that the power values of the δ wave in the right prefrontal lobe, left middle temporal lobe and right posterior temporal lobe decreased in the combination therapy group but not in the monotherapy group. Similarly, the power values of the α2 wave in the right parietal, right posterior temporal and left middle temporal lobes, and the ß1 wave power values of left middle temporal and left posterior temporal lobes were also significantly decreased in the combination therapy group, but not in the monotherapy group. CONCLUSIONS: Tandospirone citrate can significantly improve anxiety symptoms and attention in patients with mild to moderate AD. QPEEG examination might provide a objective way for the efficacy of the tandospirone in anxiety symptoms of the patients with Alzheimer's disease.
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BACKGROUND: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an age-progressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects cognitive function. There have been several functional connectivity (FC) strengths; however, FC density needs more development in AD. Therefore, this study wanted to determine the alternations in resting-state functional connectivity density (FCD) induced by Alzheimer's and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). METHODS: One hundred and eleven AD patients, 29 MCI patients, and 73 healthy controls (age- and sex-matched) were recruited and assessed using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning. The ultra-fast graph theory called FCD mapping was used to calculate the voxel-wise short- and long-range FCD values of the brain. We performed voxel-based between-group comparisons of FCD values to show the cerebral regions with significant FCD alterations. We performed Pearson's correlation analyses between aberrant functional connectivity densities and several clinical variables with adjustment for age and sex. RESULTS: Patients with cognition decline showed significantly abnormal long-range FCD in the cerebellum crus I, right insula, left inferior frontal gyrus, left superior frontal gyrus, left inferior frontal gyrus, and right middle frontal gyrus. The short-range FCD changed in the cerebellum crus I, left inferior frontal gyrus, left superior occipital gyrus, and right middle frontal gyrus. The long- and short-range functional connectivity in the left inferior frontal gyrus was positively correlated with Mini-mental State Examination (MMSE) scores. CONCLUSIONS: FCD in the identified regions reflects mechanism and compensation for loss of cognitive function. These findings could improve the pathology of AD and MCI and supply a neuroimaging marker for AD and MCI.