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We show that the Weibel or current filamentation instability can lead to the emission of circularly polarized radiation. Using particle-in-cell simulations and a radiation post-processing numerical algorithm, we demonstrate that the level of circular polarization increases with the initial plasma magnetization, saturating at ${\sim }13\,\%$ when the magnetization, given by the ratio of magnetic energy density to the electron kinetic energy density, is larger than 0.05. Furthermore, we show that this effect requires an ion–electron mass ratio greater than unity. These findings, which could also be tested in currently available laboratory conditions, show that the recent observation of circular polarization in gamma-ray burst afterglows could be attributed to the presence of magnetized current filaments driven by the Weibel or current filamentation instability.
The prevalence of psychotic experiences (PEs) is higher in low-and-middle-income-countries (LAMIC) than in high-income countries (HIC). Here, we examine whether this effect is explicable by measurement bias.
Methods
A community sample from 13 countries (N = 7141) was used to examine the measurement invariance (MI) of a frequently used self-report measure of PEs, the Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences (CAPE), in LAMIC (n = 2472) and HIC (n = 4669). The CAPE measures positive (e.g. hallucinations), negative (e.g. avolition) and depressive symptoms. MI analyses were conducted with multiple-group confirmatory factor analyses.
Results
MI analyses showed similarities in the structure and understanding of the CAPE factors between LAMIC and HIC. Partial scalar invariance was found, allowing for latent score comparisons. Residual invariance was not found, indicating that sum score comparisons are biased. A comparison of latent scores before and after MI adjustment showed both overestimation (e.g. avolition, d = 0.03 into d = −0.42) and underestimation (e.g. magical thinking, d = −0.03 into d = 0.33) of PE in LAMIC relative to HIC. After adjusting the CAPE for MI, participants from LAMIC reported significantly higher levels on most CAPE factors but a significantly lower level of avolition.
Conclusion
Previous studies using sum scores to compare differences across countries are likely to be biased. The direction of the bias involves both over- and underestimation of PEs in LAMIC compared to HIC. Nevertheless, the study confirms the basic finding that PEs are more frequent in LAMIC than in HIC.
Using as a starting point a clinical case, the authors performed a literature review to clarify the relationship between Behçet disease and acute psychosis.
Methods
Analysis of the patient's clinical process and brief review of the latest available literature on the subject, published in PubMed/Medline databases.
Results
Male patient, 55 years old, brought to the emergency room by fever, headache, hetero-aggressive behavior, disinhibited behavior, mood swings, euphoria, persecutory delusions and insomnia, in the last 4 days. He had no insight into his illness. There was no personal or family history of psychiatric illness and toxicological habits were irrelevant. Due to the personal history of posterior uveitis with bilateral macular edema, retinal vasculitis, genital aphthosis, papulo-vesicular lesions and recurrent bipolar aphthosis, the hypothesis of neuro-behçet was raised.
Conclusions
Behçet's disease can present with neurological involvement - neuro -behçet - and can manifest itself with several psychiatric symptoms (euphoria, lack of insight, disinhibited behavior, agitation or psychomotor retardation, persecutory delusions, obsessive thoughts, anxiety, depression, insomnia or memory changes). Fever and headache usually appear in the prodromal stage and can be signs of onset or recurrence of the disease. The prevalence of neuro-behçet ranges from 2 to 50% and usually occurs 1 to 10 years after the first symptoms of the disease. Since it appears as the first manifestation of the disease in only 3% of cases, it is difficult to diagnose. The literature suggests that symptoms are generally resistant to treatment with conventional psychotropic drugs and so it is an important cause of morbidity and mortality.”
In previous studies, we have identified several families of 5-nitroindazole derivatives as promising antichagasic prototypes. Among them, 1-(2-aminoethyl)-2-benzyl-5-nitro-1,2-dihydro-3H-indazol-3-one, (hydrochloride) and 1-(2-acetoxyethyl)-2-benzyl-5-nitro-1,2-dihydro-3H-indazol-3-one (compounds 16 and 24, respectively) have recently shown outstanding activity in vitro over the drug-sensitive Trypanosoma cruzi CL strain (DTU TcVI). Here, we explored the activity of these derivatives against the moderately drug-resistant Y strain (DTU TcII), in vitro and in vivo. The outcomes confirmed their activity over replicative forms, showing IC50 values of 0.49 (16) and 5.75 μm (24) towards epimastigotes, 0.41 (16) and 1.17 μm (24) against intracellular amastigotes. These results, supported by the lack of toxicity on cardiac cells, led to better selectivities than benznidazole (BZ). Otherwise, they were not as active as BZ in vitro against the non-replicative form of the parasite, i.e. bloodstream trypomastigotes. In vivo, acute toxicity assays revealed the absence of toxic events when administered to mice. Moreover, different therapeutic schemes pointed to their capability for decreasing the parasitaemia of T. cruzi Y acute infected mice, reaching up to 60% of reduction at the peak day as monotherapy (16), 79.24 and 91.11% when 16 and 24 were co-administered with BZ. These combined therapies had also a positive impact over the mortality, yielding survivals of 83.33 and 66.67%, respectively, while untreated animals reached a cumulative mortality of 100%. These findings confirm the 5-nitroindazole scaffold as a putative prototype for developing novel drugs potentially applicable to the treatment of Chagas disease and introduce their suitability to act in combination with the reference drug.
Approximately 5 % of adolescents present psychotic symptoms which are not necessarily associated with a psychopathological alteration and that are known as subclinical psychotic-like experiences. Said symptoms have been found to be closely linked to the presence of affective psychopathology, such as high levels of anxiety, stress, dysphoria or depression in this population.
Objectives
The main objective of this work was to compare the emotional and behavioral problems reported by adolescents with and without psychotic-like symptoms.
Method
The sample was composed of 1,713 non-clinical adolescents with a mean age of 14.7 years (SD = 1.7), of which 832 (48.6 %) were males.
Results
The results showed that the participants with psychotic-like symptoms reported a higher number of emotional and behavioral problems compared to the participants who did not inform of said experiences.
Conclusions
The findings converge with data from previous studies of patients with schizophrenia as well as in schizophrenia-prone individuals, offering support to the dimensional models of psychosis, and have clear implications with a view to establishing primary prevention strategies for these high-risk individuals.
Coping strategies have been defined as the cognitive-behavioral efforts in continuous change made by a subject in order to manage internal and/or external demands which exceed his/her personal resources (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Said coping strategies have been extensively investigated in individuals with symptoms of psychosis-proneness.
Objectives
The main objective of the present study was to compare the coping strategies used by adolescents with and without subclinical psychotic symptoms.
Method
The sample was composed of 1,713 Spanish adolescents, 881 (51.4%) females, with a mean age of 14.7 years (SD = 1.7).
Results
The results showed that the adolescents with subclinical psychotic symptoms used Avoidance-type coping strategies more frequently and Positive-type coping strategies less frequently in comparison to the control group.
Conclusions
These findings indicate a pattern of deficit in the strategies used to cope with stress similar to that of patients with schizophrenia, which is very interesting with a view to establishing lines of intervention within early detection and treatment programs for high-risk individuals aimed at modifying these patterns of deficit in coping with environmental stimuli in these populations.
A clear distinction between schizophrenia and some clusters of dementia is sometimes difficult to do in clinical practice.
Case report
A 38-years-old-male patient, with history of alcohol dependence, was admitted in our unit for generalized tremor, sweating, agitation, auditive, visual and cenestesic hallucinations, thought broadcasting and persecutory delusion. Agitation and the vegetative symptoms gradually subsided within 48 hours. Lab work showed no clinically significant changes. EEG and EKG were normal. MRI showed augmented cortical encephalic sulci. 5 days after the admission 10 mg of olanzapine was prescribed due to psychotic symptoms persistence. Haloperidol was stopped. A gradually improvement occurred and 26 days after the admission the patient was discharged home asymptomatic. Neuropsychological testing revealed severe fronto-temporal cognitive defect suggestive of alcoholic dementia.
Discussion
The difficulty to clearly distinct schizophrenia from some dementias may be because, as Kraepelin stated in the 19th century, schizophrenia is itself a form of early dementia. His concept of dementia praecox is supported nowadays by the knowledge acquired from several neuropsychological and neuroimaging tests that a progressive cognitive deterioration appears to occur in schizophrenic patients.
The short version of the Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences (sO-LIFE) is a widely used measure assessing schizotypy. There is limited information, however, on how sO-LIFE scores compare across different countries. The main goal of the present study is to test the measurement invariance of the sO-LIFE scores in a large sample of non-clinical adolescents and young adults from four European countries (UK, Switzerland, Italy, and Spain). The scores were obtained from validated versions of the sO-LIFE in their respective languages. The sample comprised 4190 participants (M = 20.87 years; SD = 3.71 years). The study of the internal structure, using confirmatory factor analysis, revealed that both three (i.e., positive schizotypy, cognitive disorganisation, and introvertive anhedonia) and four-factor (i.e., positive schizotypy, cognitive disorganisation, introvertive anhedonia, and impulsive nonconformity) models fitted the data moderately well. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis showed that the three-factor model had partial strong measurement invariance across countries. Eight items were non-invariant across samples. Significant statistical differences in the mean scores of the s-OLIFE were found by country. Reliability scores, estimated with Ordinal alpha ranged from 0.75 to 0.87. Using the Item Response Theory framework, the sO-LIFE provides more accuracy information at the medium and high end of the latent trait. The current results show further evidence in support of the psychometric proprieties of the sO-LIFE, provide new information about the cross-cultural equivalence of schizotypy and support the use of this measure to screen for psychotic-like features and liability to psychosis in general population samples from different European countries.
Data from elderly suicides was obtained from two previous studies of community suicides in two localities of Northern Spain, namely, Oviedo between 1983 and 1990, and Gijón between 1975 and 1986. Data from the two localities were obtained by the revision of court register cases. A retrospective study on elderly suicide (over 60 years of age) was carried out. Mean annual specific rates for the elderly in Oviedo for 1982–1991 were 37.7 (58.1 for men and 23.3 for women) and for those in Gijón for the period 1975–1986, 23.4 (40 for men and 11.5 for women). A marked increase was seen in the rates for Gijón from the first (1975–1978) to the last period (1983–1986). This was particularly marked in men. The greatest increase in the rate was seen in men over 75 from Gijón and in those between 1970–1974 from Oviedo. In contrast a decrease was seen in the 65–69 age group rates for both men and women. A tendency for the rates to increase was seen but no important increase for elderly suicides was evident.
Men and women who develop schizophrenia are at increased risk, compared with the general population, to engage in violence toward others and, in so doing, often lay waste to their own lives. The reasons for this finding remain obscure.
The present work aims to analyze the relationship between active symptoms of the disease, substance abuse and violence in schizophrenic patients admitted to a forensic ward in our country (Portugal).
Methods:
A population of inpatients (male and female) from two forensic wards was studied as to personal and psychiatric history, substance abuse, social and cultural background, family history, symptoms at the time of the violent behavior and patient's insight.
Results:
The prevalence of offenses was the highest among male schizophrenic subjects with coexisting substance abuse, and more than half of the schizophrenic offenders also had problems with substance abuse. Most perpetrators were acutely ill at the time of the offence but only a small number was under mental healthcare.
Conclusions:
Our results were consistent with those found in classic literature. We hope this will help us start a structured programme in our hospitals in which behavioral factors, substance misuse and social dislocation are managed together with the active symptoms of the disorder in order to prevent such violent behavior and to promote adequate treatment of schizophrenic patients.
Different psychoeducational and family-based interventions have been shown to improve chronic physical diseases, such as asthma. There is an increasing consistency of therapeutic effects in these programmes, across the literature. However, scientific validation of the benefits of each programme and what is the best model/method are required.
Objective
To evaluate the effects of Multifamily/MG and Psychoeducational/PG interventions for asthma on psychological, biological and morbidity outcomes.
Methods
A sample with 299 outpatients with asthma diagnosis from a University Hospital was recruited consecutively. Patients with moderate/severe asthma were included in a five-month randomized controlled study with simple occultation. There was a balanced inclusion of 141 patients allocated to three groups: MG, PG and control group/CG. All patients continued usual pharmacological treatment. Anxiety (SAS/STAIY), depression (BDI), coping mechanisms (WCAEL), quality of life (MiniAQLQ), asthma control (ACQ), lung function (FEV1/PEF), airway inflammation (FeNO), asthma severity and morbidity were assessed at the beginning and the end of the study.
Results
Both MG and PG improved asthma control. The overall quality of life score increased in MG (0.5 U) and PG (0.8 U), but not in the CG. A significant decrease was also found in the use of oral steroids in MG and in the hospitalization in PG. The behavioural changes improved psychological parameters (anxiety, depression, coping), and lung function.
Conclusion
Multidisciplinary group interventions seem to improve physical/psychological parameters in asthma, and assessment of efficacy is necessary after a longer follow-up period, as is identification of patients’ clusters which benefit the most from each intervention.
Endocannabinoid System (ECS) has been highlighted as one of the most relevant research topics by neurobiologists, pharmacists, basic scientists and clinicians (Skaper and Di Marzo, 2012). Recent work has associated major depressive disorder with the ECS (Ashton and Moore, 2011). Despite the close relationship between depression and bipolar disorders, as far as we know, there is no characterization of ECS and congeners in a sample of patients with bipolar disorders.
Aims and objectives
The objective of this work is to characterize the plasma levels of endocannabinoids and congeners in a sample of patients with bipolar disorders.
Method
The clinical group was composed by 19 patients with a diagnosis of bipolar disorders using SCID-IV (First et al., 1999). The control group was formed by 18 relatives of first- or second-degree of the patients.
The following endocannabinoids and congeners were quantified: N-palmitoleoylethanolamide (POEA), N-palmitolylethanolamide (PEA), N-oleoylethanolamide (OEA), N-stearoylethanolamide (SEA), N-arachidonoylethanolamide (AEA), N-dihomo-γ-linolenoylethanolamide (DGLEA), N-docosatetraenoylethanolamide (DEA), N-linoleoylethanolamide (LEA), N-docosahexaenoylethanolamide (DHEA), 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG), 2-linoleoylglycerol (2-LG), and 2-oleoylglycerol (2-OG).
Results
The result showed statistically significant lower levels of AEA, DEA and DHEA in clinical sample. Previous research also identified lower levels of AEA in depressed women (Hill et al., 2008, 2009). Until date, it is unknown if DEA and DHEA have some effect on EC receptors, and whether they have some direct effects on endocannabinoids.
Conclusions
It would be necessary to carry our other research with a larger sample, which could allow the control of potential confounding variables.
Disclosure of interest
The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.
Sturge-Weber syndrome or encephalotrigeminal angiomatosis is an uncommon neurocutaneous syndrome that manifests with vascular malformations involving the brain, eye and skin; Severe cases present with refractory seizures, sometimes requiring major surgery such as hemispherectomy. Most of the times, some degree of mental retardation and behavioral problems are associated, requiring use of psychotropic medication and other contention strategies. This report describes the case of a 19-year-old boy who was submitted to a left hemispherectomy by the age of one, and was still able to successfully complete basic education. He started presenting severe behavioral problems, with aggressive outbursts, by the beginning of adulthood, having been committed to psychiatry ward. By the age of 22, the patient finds himself calm and functional considering his limitations, with no need for hospital admission for 2 years.
Objectives/aims
To describe a clinical case whilst reviewing literature concerning this matter.
Methods
Case report with complete clinical history and medical data. Non-systematic review of PubMed database under the terms “Sturge-Weber disease”, “Hemisferectomy”, “behavioral disorder due to organic causes”, “post hemisferectomy out-comes”.
Results/discussion
Although presenting with severe arteriovenous malformation, refractory epilepsy and left hemispherectomy, the patient was able to conclude basic instruction; He has lived with his family until the age of 19, when he started displaying disruptive behaviour; after 3 hospital admissions and perfecting psychotropic drugs treatment, the patient was admitted to an institution for rare diseases patients Since then he has experienced a calm and functional life, with trained professionals who can offer the non-pharmacological approaches he needs.
Disclosure of interest
The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.
Comorbidity between alcoholism and depression has long been acknowledged, and the possibility that similar brain mechanisms, involving both serotonergic (5-HT) and noradrenergic systems (NE), underlie both pathologies has been suggested. Thus, inhibitors of NE and 5HT uptake have been proposed for the treatment of alcoholism, as they have shown to reduce alcohol intake in various animal models. However, most of the studies mentioned were carried out acutely and there is a lack of knowledge of the possible long-term effects. Clinical studies report an overall low efficacy of antidepressant treatment on alcohol consumption, or even a worsened prognosis. In addition, several cases of alcohol dependence following antidepressant treatment have been reported in the literature.
Objectives
We aimed at comparing the acute and chronic effects of the treatment with the antidepressant drug reboxetine on alcohol consumption.
Methods
We used a rat model of alcohol self-administration, and two different schedules of reboxetine administration (acute and chronic).
Results
Our results confirm the acute suppressant effects of reboxetine on alcohol consumption but indicate that, when this drug is administered chronically in a period of abstinence from alcohol, it can significantly increase the rate of alcohol self-administration.
Conclusions
These results are important for the understanding of the clinical reports describing cases of increased alcohol consumption after antidepressant treatment, and suggest that much more research is needed to fully understand the long term effects of antidepressants, which remain the most widely prescribed class of drugs.
Disclosure of interest
The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.
Eating disorders (EDs) are mental illnesses, defined by abnormal eating habits. EDs are chronic, severe and difficult to treat, and cause psychological, social and physical consequences. It occurs predominantly in adolescents and young adults women (around 90%), causing severely disability, major biopsychosocial losses, and high morbidity and mortality. EDs are considered by WHO as a public health problem, affecting different ages, genres, times, regions and contexts.
Objective
Case report of a patient with Anorexia Nervosa and bizarre behavior.
Methods
Clinical observation in hospital.
Results
Woman with 43 years old, with a peace of 65 years, who was hospitalized in Psychiatric Service – Eating Disorders, in August 2015, because of its extreme thinness, with difficulty to walk and with severe edema of the feet, ankles and legs. At the entrance, she weighed 29 kg, after 4 days her weight reduced to 23 kg, reaching a BMI of 8.5 kg/m2. In the first week, she showed a high cognitive impairment, confusional state and detailed and ruminative speech about food. She had developed multiple techniques to hide food and to hide and take dietary supplements for weight loss. Furthermore, she had a bizarre behavior and marked social isolation, not interacting with other patients.
Conclusion
Although the low prevalence of EDs, these have a high morbidity, and are one of the psychiatric disorders that most often leads to a fatal outcome. Treatment is lengthy and cumbersome, requiring serious investments under the personal point of view, family and clinical, yet still, these patients can have a full life and quality.
Disclosure of interest
The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.
Mephedrone is a synthetic cathinone derivative included in the class of “New-Novel Psychoactive Substances”. Synthetic cathinones are marketed as “bath salts” or “plant food” and gained notable popularity for similar effects to 4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, ecstasy), or amphetamines. Mephedrone is commonly consumed simultaneously with alcohol.
Objectives and aims
The aim of the present study was to evaluate the interactions between mephedrone and ethanol in humans.
Methods
Twelve healthy male, recreational users of psychostimulants participated as outpatients in four experimental sessions. They received a single oral dose of mephedrone (200 mg) and alcohol (0.8 g/kg), mephedrone placebo and alcohol (0.8 g/kg), mephedrone (200 mg) and placebo alcohol, and both placebos. Design was double-blind, double-dummy, randomized, cross-over and controlled with placebo. Study variables included: vital signs (blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, and pupil diameter), subjective effects (visual analogue scales-VAS, ARCI-49 item short form, and VESSPA questionnaire).
Results
The combination produced an increase in the cardiovascular effects of mephedrone and induced more intense feeling of euphoria and well-being in comparison to mephedrone and alcohol. Mephedrone reduced the drunkenness and sedation produced by alcohol.
Conclusions
These results are similar to those obtained with the combination of other psychostimulants as amphetamines and MDMA. Abuse liability of the combination is greater that induced by mephedrone.
Disclosure of interest
The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.
We present a detailed overview of the cosmological surveys that we aim to carry out with Phase 1 of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA1) and the science that they will enable. We highlight three main surveys: a medium-deep continuum weak lensing and low-redshift spectroscopic HI galaxy survey over 5 000 deg2; a wide and deep continuum galaxy and HI intensity mapping (IM) survey over 20 000 deg2 from
$z = 0.35$
to 3; and a deep, high-redshift HI IM survey over 100 deg2 from
$z = 3$
to 6. Taken together, these surveys will achieve an array of important scientific goals: measuring the equation of state of dark energy out to
$z \sim 3$
with percent-level precision measurements of the cosmic expansion rate; constraining possible deviations from General Relativity on cosmological scales by measuring the growth rate of structure through multiple independent methods; mapping the structure of the Universe on the largest accessible scales, thus constraining fundamental properties such as isotropy, homogeneity, and non-Gaussianity; and measuring the HI density and bias out to
$z = 6$
. These surveys will also provide highly complementary clustering and weak lensing measurements that have independent systematic uncertainties to those of optical and near-infrared (NIR) surveys like Euclid, LSST, and WFIRST leading to a multitude of synergies that can improve constraints significantly beyond what optical or radio surveys can achieve on their own. This document, the 2018 Red Book, provides reference technical specifications, cosmological parameter forecasts, and an overview of relevant systematic effects for the three key surveys and will be regularly updated by the Cosmology Science Working Group in the run up to start of operations and the Key Science Programme of SKA1.
The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is a planned large radio interferometer designed to operate over a wide range of frequencies, and with an order of magnitude greater sensitivity and survey speed than any current radio telescope. The SKA will address many important topics in astronomy, ranging from planet formation to distant galaxies. However, in this work, we consider the perspective of the SKA as a facility for studying physics. We review four areas in which the SKA is expected to make major contributions to our understanding of fundamental physics: cosmic dawn and reionisation; gravity and gravitational radiation; cosmology and dark energy; and dark matter and astroparticle physics. These discussions demonstrate that the SKA will be a spectacular physics machine, which will provide many new breakthroughs and novel insights on matter, energy, and spacetime.