Few previous studies have established Snaith–Hamilton Pleasure Scale (SHAPS) cut-off values using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis and applied these values to compare predictors of anhedonia between clinical and nonclinical groups.

To determine the optimal cut-off values for the SHAPS and use them to identify predictors of anhedonia in clinical and nonclinical groups in Taiwan.

This cross-sectional and correlational study used convenience sampling to recruit 160 patients from three hospitals and 412 students from two universities in northern Taiwan. Data analysis included receiver operating characteristic curve, univariate and multivariate analyses.

The optimal SHAPS cut-off values were 29.5 and 23.5 for the clinical and nonclinical groups, respectively. Moreover, two-stage analysis revealed that participants in the clinical group who perceived themselves as nondepressed, and participants in the nonclinical group who did not skip classes and whose fathers exhibited higher levels of care and protection were less likely to attain the cut-off values. Conversely, participants in the nonclinical group who reported lower academic satisfaction and were unwilling to seek help from family or friends were more likely to attain the cut-off values.

Our findings highlight the importance of optimal cut-off values in screening for depression risk within clinical and nonclinical groups. Accordingly, the development of comprehensive, individualised programmes to monitor variation trends in SHAPS scores and relevant predictors of anhedonia across different target populations is crucial.

Previous studies had shown that very low birth weight(VLBW) preterm children with normal early development had poorer cognitive executive functions(CEFs) and emotional executive functions(EEFs) at preschool-aged. There were still about 73% of children with deficits of CEFs and 74% of them with deficits of EEFs at school-aged. (Ni et al., 2011; Chiang et al., 2019; Lee et al., 2022). Besides, former studies less discuss the core neuropsychological ability related to the EFs development. In this study, meta-attention was chosen as the core ability. This study applied longitudinal design aimed to discuss the predictive power of meta-attention at preschool-aged on the CEFs and EEFs at school-aged for VLBW preterm and typically developing children.

The VLBW group was referred by Premature Baby Foundation of Taiwan. These children have been followed up with Bayley Scales of Infant Development(BSID) II or III administered at the age of 12 months and 24 months and Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Revised(WPPSI-R) at the age of 5-year-old. Children with visual impairment, auditory impairment, cerebral palsy developmental indices of BSID-II or III less than 70, or full-scale IQ of WPPSI-R less than 70 were excluded.

The typical group was recruited from the community and included 30 children whose development was typical. Both preterm and typically developing children completed the CEFs and EEFs test at 6 and 8. Four types of CEFs including 33 indicators were assessed: Meta-attention including 18 indicators through Comprehensive Nonverbal Attention Test Battery(CNAT), working memory including 2 indicators through Digit Span Subtest of Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-IV(WISC-IV) and Knox’s Cube Test(KCT), planning ability including 6 indicators through Tower of London(ToL), and cognitive flexibility including 7 indicators through Wisconsin Card Sorting Test(WCST).

Two types of EEFs including 5 indicators were assessed. We designed Emotional EF Ecological Assessment Battery for Children in Taiwan to assess EEFs, including 3 indicators of theory of mind and 2 indicators of emotion regulation. Data were analyzed with correlation analysis and independent sample t-test.

Meta-attention at 6 among the VLBW group significantly correlated with 73.3% of CEFs and 80% of EEFs indicators at 8 and had significant predictive power on working memory, planning ability, cognitive flexibility, emotion regulation, and theory of mind. (p<.05) When the significance level was 0.01, meta-attention still correlated with 33% of CEFs and 80% of EEFs indicators and can predict those CEFs and EEFs among the VLBW group. Meta-attention at 6 among the typical group significantly correlated with 26.7% of CEFs and 80% of EEFs indicators at 8 and had significant predictive power on working memory, planning ability, emotion regulation, and theory of mind. (p<.05)

When the significance level was 0.01, meta-attention only correlated with 80% of EEFs indicators and can’t predict any CEFs and EEFs among the typical group.

Meta-attention at 6 can predict CEFs and EEFs among VLBW preterm children at 8, while the effect didn’t be found among typically developing children. Thus, meta-attention can be served as a clinical cut-point for VLBW preterm children to find the deficits and intervene early.

The concurrent incidence of autoimmune comorbidities in obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) is known. However, the association between OCD and related autoimmune skin diseases (ASDs) has not been well studied.

This study aimed to investigate the association between OCD and the risk of ASDs.

To assess the risk of developing ASDs, we recruited 44 324 patients with OCD and 177 296 matched controls from the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan. A Cox regression model was used for the analyses.

After adjusting for confounders, an increased risk of ASDs among the patients with OCD (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR]: 6.36; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 5.43-7.45) was found when compared to the controls. Statistically significant associations were found between OCD and seven individual ASDs, including psoriasis (aHR: 12.52; 95% CI: 8.78-17.85), lichen planus (aHR: 27.22; 95% CI: 13.09-56.60), alopecia areata (aHR: 13.69; 95% CI: 9.38-19.98), autoimmune bullous diseases (aHR: 4.30; 95% CI: 2.03-9.11), hidradenitis suppurativa (aHR: 29.95; 95% CI: 3.35-267.62), vitiligo (aHR: 9.35; 95% CI: 5.35-16.32), and lupus erythematosus (aHR: 2.10; 95% CI: 1.52-2.91).

Patients with OCD had an increased risk of developing ASDs compared to matched controls. Further studies are required to clarify the underlying mechanisms.

Cognitive impairment is common in late-life depression, which may increase Alzheimer disease (AD) risk. Therefore, we aimed to investigate whether late-life major depressive disorder (MDD) has worse cognition and increases the characteristic AD neuropathology. Furthermore, we carried out a comparison between treatment-resistant depression (TRD) and non-TRD. We hypothesized that patients with late-life depression and TRD may have increased β-amyloid (Aβ) deposits in brain regions responsible for global cognition.

We recruited 81 subjects, including 54 MDD patients (27 TRD and 27 non-TRD) and 27 matched healthy controls (HCs). Neurocognitive tasks were examined, including Mini-Mental State Examination and Montreal Cognitive Assessment to detect global cognitive functions. PET with Pittsburgh compound-B and fluorodeoxyglucose were used to capture brain Aβ pathology and glucose use, respectively, in some patients.

MDD patients performed worse in Montreal Cognitive Assessment (p = 0.003) and had more Aβ deposits than HCs across the brain (family-wise error-corrected p < 0.001), with the most significant finding in the left middle frontal gyrus. Significant negative correlations between global cognition and prefrontal Aβ deposits existed in MDD patients, whereas positive correlations were noted in HCs. TRD patients had significantly more deposits in the left-sided brain regions (corrected p < 0.001). The findings were not explained by APOE genotypes. No between-group fluorodeoxyglucose difference was detected.

Late-life depression, particularly TRD, had increased brain Aβ deposits and showed vulnerability to Aβ deposits. A detrimental role of Aβ deposits in global cognition in patients with late-onset or non-late-onset MDD supported the theory that late-life MDD could be a risk factor for AD.

To investigate potential risk factors for mild behavioral impairment (MBI) among non-demented geriatrics.

Population-based, cross-sectional survey.

Taiwan Alzheimer Disease Association (TADA) Database.

Participants were selected by multistage random sampling of all Taiwan counties. They received in-person interviews between December 2011 and March 2013.

Demographic data, lifestyle and habits, medical comorbidities, cognitive status measured by the Taiwanese Mini-Mental Status Examination (TMSE) and presence of MCI of the participants were collected. Subjects were distributed to the MBI and non-MBI groups. These factors had been evaluated for their effects on MBI in the univariate and multivariable logistic regression models.

In total, 6,196 non-demented participants aged 65 years or older, including 409 MBI and 5,787 non-MBI participants, were recruited. After adjustment for age, sex, education, body mass index, lifestyle and habits, medical comorbidities, and MCI, good sleep was associated with lower risk of MBI (OR 0.09, 95% CI 0.07 – 0.12). Low body weight (OR 2.01, 95% CI 1.21–3.33), low-to-medium education (OR 1.40, 95%CI 1.06–1.85; OR 2.32, 95% CI 1.67–3.21), medical comorbidities of hypertension (OR 1.56, 95% CI 1.25–1.95), hyperlipidemia (OR 1.29, 95% CI 1.00–1.67), cancer (OR 2.05, 95% CI 1.37–3.06) were significantly associated with increased MBI risk. MCI neither increased nor decreased risk of MBI (OR 1.00, 95% CI 0.76–1.32).

Good sleep was associated with lower MBI risk. Underweight, lower education, medical comorbidities of cancer, hypertension, hyperlipidemia were predictive of MBI.

Population-based colorectal cancer (CRC) screening programs that use a fecal immunochemical test (FIT) are often faced with a noncompliance issue and its subsequent waiting time (WT) for those FIT positives complying with confirmatory diagnosis. We aimed to identify factors associated with both of the correlated problems in the same model.

A total of 294,469 subjects, either with positive FIT test results or having a family history, collected from 2004 to 2013 were enrolled for analysis. We applied a hurdle Poisson regression model to accommodate the hurdle of compliance and also its related WT for undergoing colonoscopy while assessing factors responsible for the mixture of the two outcomes.

The effect on compliance and WT varied with contextual factors, such as geographic areas, type of screening units, and level of urbanization. The hurdle score, representing the risk score in association with noncompliance, and the WT score, reflecting the rate of taking colonoscopy, were used to classify subjects into each of three groups representing the degree of compliance and the level of health awareness.

Our model was not only successfully applied to evaluating factors associated with the compliance and the WT distribution, but also developed into a useful assessment model for stratifying the risk and predicting whether and when screenees comply with the procedure of receiving confirmatory diagnosis given contextual factors and individual characteristics.

Genetic variants and medication adherence have been identified to be the main factors contributing to lithium treatment response in bipolar disorders.

To simultaneously examine effects of variant glutamate decarboxylase-like protein 1 (GADL1) and medication adherence on response to lithium maintenance treatment in Han Chinese patients with bipolar I (BPI) disorder.

Frequencies of manic and depressive episodes between carriers and non-carriers of the effective GADL1 rs17026688 T allele during the cumulative periods of off-lithium, poor adherence to lithium treatment and good adherence to lithium treatment were compared in Han Chinese patients with BPI disorder (n = 215).

GADL1 rs17026688 T carriers had significantly lower frequencies of recurrent affective episodes than non-T carriers during the cumulative period of good adherence, but not during those of poor adherence.

GADL1 rs17026688 and medication adherence jointly predict response to lithium maintenance treatment in Han Chinese BPI patients.

Voriconazole is a broad-spectrum azole exhibiting strong anti-Aspergillus activity and good long-term tolerance. However, the evidence for voriconazole efficacy against refractory Aspergillus otomycosis is weak.

We reviewed the medical records of patients with Aspergillus otomycosis treated with voriconazole from January 2008 to June 2012 in a Taiwanese regional hospital. Demographic data and information regarding underlying diseases, clinical features, treatment and outcome were assessed.

In total, 14 cases of Aspergillus otomycosis were treated with voriconazole, including 5 patients with Aspergillus invasive otitis externa. All patients had failed to respond to local treatment, antibiotics or topical agents. One case was lost to follow up. The symptoms of two patients recurred after voriconazole treatment: one patient received a second 12-week course of voriconazole and was cured; and symptoms of the other patient recurred after a second 12-week course of voriconazole, leading to surgical debridement. The remaining 11 patients were cured by voriconazole treatment without extensive surgical debridement.

This study demonstrates that voriconazole can be a very effective and convenient therapeutic option for the management of refractory Aspergillus otomycosis.