Bibliometrics methods have allowed researchers to assess the popularity of brain research through the ever-growing number of brain-related research papers. While many topics of brain research have been covered by previous studies, there is no comprehensive overview of the evolution of brain research and its various specialties and funding practices over a long period of time.

This paper aims to (1) determine how brain research has evolved over time in terms of number of papers, (2) countries' relative and absolute positioning in terms of papers and impact, and (3) how those various trends vary by area.

Using a list of validated keywords, we extracted brain-related articles and journals indexed in the Web of Science over the 1991–2020 period, for a total of 2,467,708 papers. We used three indicators to perform: number of papers, specialization, and research impact.

Our results show that over the past 30 years, the number of brain-related papers has grown at a faster pace than science in general, with China being at the forefront of this growth. Different patterns of specialization among countries and funders were also underlined. Finally, the NIH, the European Commission, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the UK Medical Research Council, and the German Research Foundation were found to be among the top funders.

Despite data-related limitations, our findings provide a large-scope snapshot of the evolution of brain research and its funding, which may be used as a baseline for future studies on these topics.

Huntington’s Disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant, neurodegenerative condition with a prevalence of 10.6-13.7 per 100,000, caused by the trinucleotide CAG (cytosine, adenine, guanine) repeat expansion in the HTT gene. HD is characterized by a range of motor, cognitive, and psychiatric symptoms, the latter of which usually manifest prior to the onset of motor or cognitive disturbances. Amongst psychiatric symptoms, changes in personality are most common, followed by depression. Psychosis has a higher prevalence in those with early-onset HD.

This case report aims to demonstrate an apporach to the management of neuropsychiatric disturbances in HD as well as expose the need for development of an evidence-based apprach to treatment.

PubMed was searched for the criteria Huntington’s Disease AND Psychosis, with a secondary search for Management of Psychosis in Huntington’s Disease.

The patient is a 54-year-old male with no psychiatric history and reported past medical history of Huntington’s Disease, diagnosed one month ago. He was brought to the Psychiatric ED due to agitation and disorganized behavior at home. On admission, he demonstrated disorganized behavior, grandiose delusions, neurocognitive deficits, and reported auditory hallucinations. With the initiation of tetrabenazine and risperidone his psychiatric symptoms improved and he was able to be discharged to a long-term care facility.

Literature is scarce regarding treatment of psychiatric manifestations of HD. We catered our approach towards safe and effective symptoms management in a multidisciplinary manner. Further research is required to reach an evidence-based consensus as well as develop specific guidelines for managing psychiatric conditions related to HD.

No significant relationships.

The combination of cognitive behavioral interventions and art therapy provides a unique tool for image transformation as a strategy for managing distress in extremely stressful situations. Previous studies offer evidence of the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral- and art-based (CB-ART) interventions in reducing stress related to community crises such as wars and earthquakes.

This study aimed to extend current knowledge by investigating the effectiveness of CB-ART interventions in the Covid-19 context, and the mechanisms underlying them.

Online CB-ART interventions were implemented during the first national lockdown in Israel with 15 women. The intervention included drawing three pictures related to: (1) Covid-19-related emotions and thoughts; (2) resources that may help them cope with the pandemic outcomes; and (3) integration of the stressful image and the resource picture. To examine the intervention effect, participants’ Subjective Units of Distress (SUDs) values were measured using a pre-post design.

Participants’ initial distress levels decreased on completion of the intervention. Another key finding is the reduction of the initial size of the stressful image and enlargement of the resource images within the integrated drawing. This may be the proposed mechanisms underlying the reduction of the SUDs values.

The new perspective derived from the compositional transformations performed by the participants may have increased their sense of control and competence, enabling them to perceive the Covid-19-related stressors as less threatening. The described art-based tool can be easily implemented online by mental health professionals with diverse populations in times of community crises.

No significant relationships.

Negative attitudes towards treatment hospitalization of patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) exist among mental health clinicians. These attitudes could affect the treatment administered to these patients, the length of hospitalization and its cost.

To establish recommendations for health officials regarding the hospitalization and treatment of BPD patients in order to shorten the length of hospitalization of patients with BPD and improve the quality of their treatment.

A thorough examination of the attitudes towards BPD patients among four professions (psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and nurses) in four hospitals, and of the directors of the hospitals and of several wards, so as to evaluate their policy regarding the admission and the treatment of BPD patients.

We administered questionnaires on explicit and implicit attitudes towards these patients to 710 clinicians in 4 hospitals in Israel, and interviewed the hospitals’ directors and several ward directors. We collected data on the hospitalizations of patients with BPD during the period 2009-2011 and analyzed differences on these measures between professions and hospitals.

Nurses and psychiatrists had the most negative attitudes towards these patients, and differences were noted between hospitals. While hospital D was characterized by more negative attitudes, less negative attitudes were found in hospital A, and accordingly the longer were admissions and hospitalizations’ costs in this hospital.

Nurses and psychiatrists are likely to express negative attitudes towards these patients. Possibly, the directors’ attitudes and policy influenced lengths of the hospitalizations and costs of treatment of BPD patients.

Current guidelines recommend highly specialized care for patients with severe personality disorders (PDs). However, there is little knowledge about how to detect older patients with severe PDs. The aim of the current study was to develop an age-specific tool to detect older adults with severe PDs for highly specialized mental health care.

In a Delphi study, a tool to detect adults with severe PDs for highly specialized mental health care was adjusted for older adults based on expert opinion. Subsequently, the psychometric properties of the age-specific tool were evaluated.

The psychometric part of the study was performed in two Dutch highly specialized centers for PDs in older adults.

Patients (N = 90) from two highly specialized centers on PDs in older adults were enrolled.

The age-specific tool was evaluated using clinical judgment as the gold standard.

The Delphi study resulted in an age-specific tool, consisting of seven items to detect older adults with severe PDs for highly specialized mental health care. Psychometric properties of this tool were evaluated. Receiver operating curve analysis showed that the questionnaire was characterized by sufficient diagnostic accuracy. Internal consistency of the tool was sufficient and inter-rater reliability was moderate.

An age-specific tool to detect older adults with severe PDs was developed based on expert opinion. Psychometric properties were evaluated showing sufficient diagnostic accuracy. The tool may preliminarily be used in mental health care to detect older adults with severe PDs to refer them to highly specialized care in an early phase.

The Brazilian Household Food Insecurity Measurement Scale (EBIA) has eight general/adult items applied in all households and six additional items exclusively asked in households with children and/or adolescents (HHCA). Continuing an investigation programme on the adequacy of model-based cut-off points for EBIA, the present study aims to: (i) explore the capacity of properly stratifying HHCA according to food insecurity (FI) severity level by applying only the eight ‘generic’ items; and (ii) compare it against the fourteen-item scale.

Latent class factor analysis (LCFA) models were applied to the answers to the eight general/adult items to identify latent groups corresponding to FI levels and optimal group-separating cut-off points. Analyses involved a thorough classification agreement evaluation and were performed at the national level and by macro-regions.

Data derived from the cross-sectional Brazilian National Household Sample Survey of 2013.

A nationally representative sample of 116 543 households.

In all households and investigated domains, LCFA detected four distinct household food (in)security groups (food security and three levels of severity of FI) and the same set of cut-off points (1/2, 4/5 and 6/7). Misclassification in the aggregate data was 0·66 % in adult-only households and 1·06 % in HHCA. Comparison of the scale reduced to eight items with the ‘original’ fourteen-item scale demonstrated consistency in the classification. In HHCA, the agreement between both classifications was 96·2 %.

Results indicate the eight ‘generic’ items in HHCA can be reliably used when it is not possible to apply the fourteen-item scale.

To identify the prognostic significance of specific lymph node related characteristics for disease persistence and recurrence in patients with pre- or intra-operative evidence of neck metastases and no other risk factors.

Sixty-eight patients were identified; 50 per cent had persistent or recurrent disease. All underwent the same treatment strategy. There were no statistically significant differences in any of the patient- or tumour-related parameters when patients with and without persistence or recurrence were compared. Patients with recurrent or persistent disease had significantly larger (>3 cm) metastatic lymph nodes, but there were no differences regarding other lymph node related parameters (i.e. number, extracapsular extension, number of lymph nodes with extracapsular extension, and central vs lateral neck location). On multivariate analysis, however, none of the parameters were predictive of persistent or recurrent disease.

In papillary thyroid carcinoma patients with no other risk factors, pre- or intra-operative evidence of cervical metastases was associated with a very high rate of disease persistence or recurrence. Specific lymph node characteristics were not shown to have prognostic significance.

The Geriatric Anxiety Scale (GAS; Segal et al. (Segal, D. L., June, A., Payne, M., Coolidge, F. L. and Yochim, B. (2010). Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 24, 709–714. doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2010.05.002) is a self-report measure of anxiety that was designed to address unique issues associated with anxiety assessment in older adults. This study is the first to use item response theory (IRT) to examine the psychometric properties of a measure of anxiety in older adults.

A large sample of older adults (n = 581; mean age = 72.32 years, SD = 7.64 years, range = 60 to 96 years; 64% women; 88% European American) completed the GAS. IRT properties were examined. The presence of differential item functioning (DIF) or measurement bias by age and sex was assessed, and a ten-item short form of the GAS (called the GAS-10) was created.

All GAS items had discrimination parameters of 1.07 or greater. Items from the somatic subscale tended to have lower discrimination parameters than items on the cognitive or affective subscales. Two items were flagged for DIF, but the impact of the DIF was negligible. Women scored significantly higher than men on the GAS and its subscales. Participants in the young-old group (60 to 79 years old) scored significantly higher on the cognitive subscale than participants in the old-old group (80 years old and older).

Results from the IRT analyses indicated that the GAS and GAS-10 have strong psychometric properties among older adults. We conclude by discussing implications and future research directions.

To study the molecular epidemiology of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE) colonization and to identify modifiable risk factors among patients with hematologic malignancies.

A hematology-oncology unit with high prevalence of VRE colonization.

Patients with hematologic malignancies and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation recipients admitted to the hospital.

Patients underwent weekly surveillance by means of perianal swabs for VRE colonization and, if colonized, were placed in contact isolation. We studied the molecular epidemiology in fecal and blood isolates by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis over a 1-year period. We performed a retrospective case-control study over a 3-year period. Cases were defined as patients colonized by VRE, and controls were defined as patients negative for VRE colonization. Case patients and control patients were matched by admitting service and length of observation time.

Molecular genotyping demonstrated the primarily polyclonal nature of VRE isolates. Colonization occurred at a median of 14 days. Colonized patients were characterized by longer hospital admissions. Previous use of ceftazidime was associated with VRE colonization (P < .001), while use of intravenous vancomycin and antibiotics with anaerobic activity did not emerge as a risk factor. There was no association with neutropenia or presence of colonic mucosal disruption, and severity of illness was similar in both groups.

Molecular studies showed that in the majority of VRE-colonized patients the strains were unique, arguing that VRE acquisition was sporadic rather than resulting from a common source of transmission. Patient-specific factors, including prior antibiotic exposure, rather than breaches in infection control likely predict for risk of fecal VRE colonization.