Search results for "59"
showing 10 items of 1607 documents
Expectations among patients and health professionals regarding Web-based interventions for depression in primary care: A qualitative study
2015
Background: One-quarter of the world's population will suffer from depression symptoms at some point in their lives. Mental health services in developed countries are overburdened. Therefore, cost-effective interventions that provide mental health care solutions such as Web-based psychotherapy programs have been proposed. Objective: The intent of the study was to identify expectations regarding Web-based psychotherapy for the treatment of depression in primary care among patients and health professionals that might facilitate or hinder its effects. Methods: The expectations of untreated patients and health professionals were examined by means of interviews and focus groups. There were 43 pa…
Efficacy of Three Low-Intensity, Internet-Based Psychological Interventions for the Treatment of Depression in Primary Care: Randomized Controlled Tr…
2020
Background: Primary care is a major access point for the initial treatment of depression, but the management of these patients is far from optimal The lack of time in primary care is one of the major difficulties for the delivery of evidence-based psychotherapy. During the last decade, research has focused on the development of brief psychotherapy and cost-effective internet-based interventions mostly based on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Very little research has focused on alternative methods of treatment for depression using CBT. Thus, there is a need for research into other therapeutic approaches. Objective: This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of 3 low-intensity, internet…
Therapeutic Potential of Inhibitors of Endocannabinoid Degradation for the Treatment of Stress-Related Hyperalgesia in an Animal Model of Chronic Pain
2014
The occurrence of chronic stress, depression, and anxiety can increase nociception in humans and may facilitate the transition from localized to chronic widespread pain. The mechanisms underlying chronic widespread pain are still unknown, hindering the development of effective pharmacological therapies. Here, we exposed C57BL/6J mice to chronic unpredictable stress (CUS) to investigate how persistent stress affects nociception. Next, mice were treated with multiple intramuscular nerve growth factor (NGF) injections, which induced chronic widespread nociception. Thus, combination of CUS and NGF served as a model where psychophysiological impairment coexists with long-lasting hyperalgesia. We…
Reduced anxiety-like behaviour induced by genetic and pharmacological inhibition of the endocannabinoid-degrading enzyme fatty acid amide hydrolase (…
2007
Anandamide and 2-arachidonoyl glycerol, referred to as endocannabinoids (eCBs), are the endogenous agonists for the cannabinoid receptor type 1 (CB1). Several pieces of evidence support a role for eCBs in the attenuation of anxiety-related behaviours, although the precise mechanism has remained uncertain. The fatty acid amid hydrolase (FAAH), an enzyme responsible for the degradation of eCBs, has emerged as a promising target for anxiety-related disorders, since FAAH inhibitors are able to increase the levels of anandamide and thereby induce anxiolytic-like effects in rodents. The present study adopted both genetic and pharmacological approaches and tested the hypothesis that FAAH-deficient…
Cell type-specific circuits of cortical layer IV spiny neurons
2003
Sensory signal processing in cortical layer IV involves two major morphological classes of excitatory neurons: spiny stellate and pyramidal cells. It is essentially unknown how these two cell types are integrated into intracortical networks and whether they play different roles in cortical signal processing. We mapped their cell-specific intracortical afferents in rat somatosensory cortex through a combination of whole-cell patch-clamp recordings and caged glutamate photolysis. Spiny stellate cells received monosynaptic excitation and inhibition originating almost exclusively from neurons located within the same barrel. Pyramidal cells, by contrast, displayed additional excitatory inputs fr…
Abnormal synchrony and effective connectivity in patients with schizophrenia and auditory hallucinations
2014
Auditory hallucinations (AH) are the most frequent positive symptoms in patients with schizophrenia. Hallucinations have been related to emotional processing disturbances, altered functional connectivity and effective connectivity deficits. Previously, we observed that, compared to healthy controls, the limbic network responses of patients with auditory hallucinations differed when the subjects were listening to emotionally charged words. We aimed to compare the synchrony patterns and effective connectivity of task-related networks between schizophrenia patients with and without AH and healthy controls. Schizophrenia patients with AH (n = 27) and without AH (n = 14) were compared with healt…
Sperm competition in yellow dung flies: No consistent effect of sperm size
2022
The male competition for fertilization that results from female multiple mating promotes the evolution of increased sperm numbers and can impact sperm morphology, with theory predicting that longer sperm can at times be advantageous during sperm competition. If so, males with longer sperm should sire more offspring than competitors with shorter sperm. Few studies have directly tested this prediction, and findings are inconsistent. Here we assessed whether longer sperm provide a competitive advantage in the yellow dung fly (Scathophaga stercoraria; Diptera: Scathophagidae). Initially, we let brothers with different temperature-mediated mean sperm lengths compete - thus minimizing confounding…
Symptom-specific amygdala hyperactivity modulates motor control network in conversion disorder
2016
Initial historical accounts as well as recent data suggest that emotion processing is dysfunctional in conversion disorder patients and that this alteration may be the pathomechanistic neurocognitive basis for symptoms in conversion disorder. However, to date evidence of direct interaction of altered negative emotion processing with motor control networks in conversion disorder is still lacking. To specifically study the neural correlates of emotion processing interacting with motor networks we used a task combining emotional and sensorimotor stimuli both separately as well as simultaneously during functional magnetic resonance imaging in a well characterized group of 13 conversion disorder…
Sexual conflict over the duration of copulation in Drosophila montana: why is longer better?
2009
Background Conflicts of interest between the sexes are increasingly recognized as an engine driving the (co-)evolution of reproductive traits. The reproductive behaviour of Drosophila montana suggests the occurrence of sexual conflict over the duration of copulation. During the last stages of copulation, females vigorously attempt to dislodge the mounting male, while males struggle to maintain genital contact and often successfully extend copulations far beyond the females' preferred duration. Results By preventing female resistance, we show that females make a substantial contribution towards shortening copulations. We staged matings under different sex ratio conditions, and provide eviden…
Bayesian model to detect phenotype-specific genes for copy number data
2012
Abstract Background An important question in genetic studies is to determine those genetic variants, in particular CNVs, that are specific to different groups of individuals. This could help in elucidating differences in disease predisposition and response to pharmaceutical treatments. We propose a Bayesian model designed to analyze thousands of copy number variants (CNVs) where only few of them are expected to be associated with a specific phenotype. Results The model is illustrated by analyzing three major human groups belonging to HapMap data. We also show how the model can be used to determine specific CNVs related to response to treatment in patients diagnosed with ovarian cancer. The …