The collaborative outcomes study on health and functioning during infection times in adults (COH-FIT-Adults): Design and methods of an international online survey targeting physical and mental health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic

BACKGROUND: . High-quality comprehensive data on short-/long-term physical/mental health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are needed. METHODS: . The Collaborative Outcomes study on Health and Functioning during Infection Times (COH-FIT) is an international, multi-language (n=30) project involving >230 investigators from 49 countries/territories/regions, endorsed by national/international professional associations. COH-FIT is a multi-wave, on-line anonymous, cross-sectional survey [wave 1: 04/2020 until the end of the pandemic, 12 months waves 2/3 starting 6/24 months threreafter] for adults, adolescents (14-17), and children (6-13), utilizing non-probability/snowball and representative samp…

Predicting the risk of drug–drug interactions in psychiatric hospitals: a retrospective longitudinal pharmacovigilance study

ObjectivesThe aim was to use routine data available at a patient’s admission to the hospital to predict polypharmacy and drug–drug interactions (DDI) and to evaluate the prediction performance with regard to its usefulness to support the efficient management of benefits and risks of drug prescriptions.DesignRetrospective, longitudinal study.SettingWe used data from a large multicentred pharmacovigilance project carried out in eight psychiatric hospitals in Hesse, Germany.ParticipantsInpatient episodes consecutively discharged between 1 October 2017 and 30 September 2018 (year 1) or 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2019 (year 2).Outcome measuresThe proportion of rightly classified hospital epi…

Fear Network Unresponsiveness in Women with Anorexia Nervosa

MicroRNA hsa-miR-4717-5p regulates RGS2 and may be a risk factor for anxiety-related traits

Regulator of G-protein Signaling 2 (RGS2) is a key regulator of G-protein-coupled signaling pathways involved in fear and anxiety. Data from rodent models and genetic analysis of anxiety-related traits and disorders in humans suggest down-regulation of RGS2 expression to be a risk factor for anxiety. Here we investigated, whether genetic variation in microRNAs mediating posttranscriptional down-regulation of RGS2 may be a risk factor for anxiety as well. 75 microRNAs predicted to regulate RGS2 were identified by four bioinformatic algorithms and validated experimentally by luciferase reporter gene assays. Specificity was confirmed for six microRNAs (hsa-miR-1271-5p, hsa-miR-22-3p, hsa-miR-3…

Polypharmacy and the risk of drug-drug interactions and potentially inappropriate medications in hospital psychiatry.

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to analyze the epidemiology of polypharmacy in hospital psychiatry. Another aim was to investigate predictors of the number of drugs taken and the associated risks of drug-drug interactions and potentially inappropriate medications in the elderly. METHODS Daily prescription data were obtained from a pharmacovigilance project sponsored by the Innovations Funds of the German Federal Joint Committee. RESULTS The study included 47 071 inpatient hospital cases from eight different study centers. The mean number of different drugs during the entire stay was 6.1 (psychotropic drugs = 2.7; others = 3.4). The mean number of drugs per day was 3.8 (psychotropic drugs …

Pharmacotherapy, drug-drug interactions and potentially inappropriate medication in depressive disorders.

Introduction The aim of this study was to describe the number and type of drugs used to treat depressive disorders in inpatient psychiatry and to analyse the determinants of potential drug-drug interactions (pDDI) and potentially inappropriate medication (PIM). Methods Our study was part of a larger pharmacovigilance project funded by the German Innovation Funds. It included all inpatients with a main diagnosis in the group of depressive episodes (F32, ICD-10) or recurrent depressive disorders (F33) discharged from eight psychiatric hospitals in Germany between 1 October 2017 and 30 September 2018 or between 1 January and 31 December 2019. Results The study included 14,418 inpatient cases.…

Subclinical levels of anxiety but not depression are associated with planning performance in a large population-based sample

BackgroundMajor depression and anxiety disorders are known to negatively influence cognitive performance. Moreover, there is evidence for greater cognitive decline in older adults with generalized anxiety disorder. Except for clinical studies, complex executive planning functions and subclinical levels of anxiety have not been examined in a population-based sample with a broad age range.MethodsPlanning performance was assessed using the Tower of London task in a population-based sample of 4240 participants aged 40–80 years from the Gutenberg Health Study (GHS) and related to self-reported anxiety and depression by means of multiple linear regression analysis.ResultsHigher anxiety ratings we…

Consensus Guidelines for Therapeutic Drug Monitoring in Neuropsychopharmacology: Update 2017

AbstractTherapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is the quantification and interpretation of drug concentrations in blood to optimize pharmacotherapy. It considers the interindividual variability of pharmacokinetics and thus enables personalized pharmacotherapy. In psychiatry and neurology, patient populations that may particularly benefit from TDM are children and adolescents, pregnant women, elderly patients, individuals with intellectual disabilities, patients with substance abuse disorders, forensic psychiatric patients or patients with known or suspected pharmacokinetic abnormalities. Non-response at therapeutic doses, uncertain drug adherence, suboptimal tolerability, or pharmacokinetic drug…

Physical and mental health impact of COVID-19 on children, adolescents, and their families: The Collaborative Outcomes study on Health and Functioning during Infection Times-Children and Adolescents (COH-FIT-C&A)

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has altered daily routines and family functioning, led to closing schools, and dramatically limited social interactions worldwide. Measuring its impact on mental health of vulnerable children and adolescents is crucial. METHODS: The Collaborative Outcomes study on Health and Functioning during Infection Times (COH-FIT - www.coh-fit.com) is an on-line anonymous survey, available in 30 languages, involving >230 investigators from 49 countries supported by national/international professional associations. COH-FIT has thee waves (until the pandemic is declared over by the WHO, and 6-18 months plus 24-36 months after its end). In addition to adults, COH-FIT also…

Mismatch or allostatic load? Timing of life adversity differentially shapes gray matter volume and anxious temperament

Traditionally, adversity was defined as the accumulation of environmental events (allostatic load). Recently however, a mismatch between the early and the later (adult) environment (mismatch) has been hypothesized to be critical for disease development, a hypothesis that has not yet been tested explicitly in humans. We explored the impact of timing of life adversity (childhood and past year) on anxiety and depression levels (N = 833) and brain morphology (N = 129). Both remote (childhood) and proximal (recent) adversities were differentially mirrored in morphometric changes in areas critically involved in emotional processing (i.e. amygdala/hippocampus, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, res…

Applying polygenic risk scoring for psychiatric disorders to a large family with bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder

Psychiatric disorders are thought to have a complex genetic pathology consisting of interplay of common and rare variation. Traditionally, pedigrees are used to shed light on the latter only, while here we discuss the application of polygenic risk scores to also highlight patterns of common genetic risk. We analyze polygenic risk scores for psychiatric disorders in a large pedigree (n ~ 260) in which 30% of family members suffer from major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder. Studying patterns of assortative mating and anticipation, it appears increased polygenic risk is contributed by affected individuals who married into the family, resulting in an increasing genetic risk over generat…

Neurobiological signature of intimacy in anorexia nervosa

Background Intimacy and psychosexual development represent core problems of anorexia nervosa (AN). Experiential and neurobiological evidence however is scarce. Material and methods Thirty-one female AN patients were compared with 35 non-patients (NP) and 22 recovered participants (REC) by using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Participants viewed pictures of couples in intimate relationships and control stimuli. Results AN patients experienced intimate stimuli with lower valence and dominance. AN showed decreased activation of parietal cortices. NP decreased the prefrontal cortex response, which AN patients did not. REC participants did not differ from NP on a behavioural level, thoug…

GLRB allelic variation associated with agoraphobic cognitions, increased startle response and fear network activation: a potential neurogenetic pathway to panic disorder.

Contains fulltext : 177350.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) The molecular genetics of panic disorder (PD) with and without agoraphobia (AG) are still largely unknown and progress is hampered by small sample sizes. We therefore performed a genome-wide association study with a dimensional, PD/AG-related anxiety phenotype based on the Agoraphobia Cognition Questionnaire (ACQ) in a sample of 1370 healthy German volunteers of the CRC TRR58 MEGA study wave 1. A genome-wide significant association was found between ACQ and single non-coding nucleotide variants of the GLRB gene (rs78726293, P=3.3 x 10-8; rs191260602, P=3.9 x 10-8). We followed up on this finding in a larger dimensional AC…