Heart rate variability and self-control—A meta-analysis

Heart rate variability (HRV) has been suggested as a biological correlate of self-control. Whereas many studies found a relationship between HRV at rest and self-control, effect sizes vary substantially across studies in magnitude and direction. This meta-analysis evaluated the association between HRV at rest and self-control in laboratory tasks, with a particular focus on the identification of moderating factors (task characteristics, methodological aspects of HRV assessment, demographics). Overall, 24 articles with 26 studies and 132 effects (n=2317, mean age=22.44, range 18.4-57.8) were integrated (random effects model with robust variance estimation). We found a positive average effect …

Maladaptive stress coping: An additional psychological factor in the process of chronification of pain or pruritus

Background: Inflammatory skin diseases with chronic pruritus and chronic back pain are very common symptoms in the general population and are associated with a reduced quality of life (QOL). In addition to biological factors, psychosocial reasons are also considered to be responsible for their development. So far, it is not known whether chronic pruritus and chronic back pain are related to maladaptive stress coping. Patients and methods: In our matched pilot case-control study with a total of 259 analyzed subjects, we compared outpatient groups, one suffering from chronic skin diseases with pruritus, the other with chronic back pain, to a healthy control group in terms of their stress copi…

Kontinuierliches Glukosemonitoring im Erleben des individuellen Patienten

Patientensysteme zum kontinuierlichen Glukosemonitoring (CGM) liefern den Patienten wertvolle Information uber Glukoseverlaufe und -trends und haben prinzipiell das Potenzial, die Diabetes(selbst)behandlung deutlich zu verbessern. Zahlreiche empirische Befunde aus klinischen Studien belegen die Effektivitat von CGM. Allerdings zeigt sich auch, dass die Effektivitat von Patient zu Patient stark variieren kann und nicht alle Patienten die Informationen, die CGM liefert, optimal fur die Diabetesbehandlung nutzen. Ausgehend von einem systematischen Uberblick uber die bestehende Befundlage, werden in diesem Beitrag psychosoziale und Verhaltensfaktoren diskutiert, die mit beeinflussen konnen, ob …

Psychosocial Aspects of Continuous Glucose Monitoring

Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems provide people with diabetes with valuable real-time information on glucose trajectories and trends, thus offering opportunities for improving diabetes self-management. Ample evidence from clinical trials underscores CGM effectiveness for biomedical outcomes including HbA1C and hypoglycemia. However, interindividual variability in CGM uptake seems to be substantial: Neither do all individuals with diabetes adopt CGM readily in their diabetes self-management, nor do all of them benefit from CGM. In this article, we focus on CGM effects on quality of life and the potential role of psychosocial patient characteristics for determining the uptake and …

Treg activation and their role in different subtypes of chronic rhinosinusitis

Severe chronic spontaneous urticaria in children – treatment options according to the guidelines and beyond – a 10 years review

This is a retrospective study of 18 children with chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU), where standard therapies, including up-dosing of antihistamines and omalizumab, were unable to cure the disease and where alternative strategies with experimental and off-label medication had to be used. Being aware that our questionnaire is validated only for elder children or adults, we utilized the UAS7 to monitor disease control with the help of the parents. The UAS7 score decreased from a mean of 25 to an average of 13 after 8 weeks of therapy in 13 patients. Five patients had no significant reduction of UAS7 by week 8. In two of five patients, where periodic improvement was seen, omalizumab therapy …

Increased Neural Activity in Mesostriatal Regions after Prefrontal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation and L-DOPA Administration

Dopamine dysfunction is associated with a wide range of neuropsychiatric disorders commonly treated pharmacologically or invasively. Recent studies provide evidence for a nonpharmacological and noninvasive alternative that allows similar manipulation of the dopaminergic system: transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). In rodents, tDCS has been shown to increase neural activity in subcortical parts of the dopaminergic system, and recent studies in humans provide evidence that tDCS over prefrontal regions induces striatal dopamine release and affects reward-related behavior. Based on these findings, we used fMRI in healthy human participants and measured the fractional amplitude of low…

Epidemiology of urticaria in German children

Background To date, robust epidemiological metrics as well as data on comorbidity in pediatric urticaria are lacking. They form the basis for the design of efficient healthcare. Methods Retrospective study to analyze epidemiological data in pediatric urticaria. The analysis is based on routine data of a health insurance company operating throughout Germany (DAK-Gesundheit). Insured people under 18 years of age who received at least one confirmed outpatient or inpatient urticaria diagnosis according to the ICD-10 classification in the years 2010 to 2015 were included in the analysis and compared to children without a corresponding diagnosis. Results Of 2.3 million insured individuals, 313,58…

Focus group study to identify the central facets of fear of hypoglycaemia in people with Type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Aims To determine key worries about hypoglycaemia among insulin-using adults with Type 2 diabetes using a focus group approach. Methods Thirteen focus groups were conducted in three diabetes outpatient care units and one peer support group was set up, in Germany. A total of 64 insulin-dependent adults with Type 2 diabetes (36.5% women, mean age 65.2 ± 11.0 years) discussed their worries about hypoglycaemia. The qualitative results were assigned into thematic categories using a bottom-up coding procedure. Participants completed the Hypoglycaemia Fear Survey and demographic measures were recorded. The results of the Hypoglycaemia Fear Survey were contrasted with the focus group findings to ev…