分类: 心理学 >> 临床与咨询心理学 分类: 医学、药学 >> 预防医学与公共卫生学 提交时间: 2020-02-29
摘要: We noticed an unusual increase of first-time patients with schizophrenia (F20) in January 2020 since the outbreak of COVID-19. The aim of this retrospective study is to validate this observation and find potential risk factors, if applicable. A total number of 13,783 records from outpatients in January 2020 were investigated thoroughly. Comparisons between incidence of schizophrenia in outpatients in January 2020 and similar periods of 2017-2019 were made to minimize seasonal influence. Relationship of incidence of schizophrenia and COVID-19 infections in China was calculated. Limited personal information (age, gender, approximate residence) was analyzed to find risk factors.After excluding seasonal factors such as Spring festival, a positive relationship between incidence of schizophrenia in first-time patients and countrywide epidemic situation was found. Statistical results further showed a significant increase of median age from 39 to 50 for first-time patients diagnosed with schizophrenia which is unusual. Meanwhile, a slight but not significant change was found in distribution of gender and approximate residence (urban/suburb). Our data supported that COVID-19 outbreak increased risk of schizophrenia in aged adults which is consistent with the fact that COVID-19 is more lethal to elders. We strongly appeal that public healthcare in countries either with or without infected patients should prepare in advance for potential risks in public mental health.
分类: 生物学 >> 生物物理学 提交时间: 2016-05-12
摘要: Radial migration of pyramidal neurons is an important event during the development of cerebral cortex. Neurons experience series of morphological and directional transitions to get to their final laminar positions. Here we report that the histone methyltransferase enhancer of zest homolog 2 (Ezh2) is involved in the regulation of cortical radial migration. We show that Ezh2 knockdown leads to disturbed neuronal orientation, which results in the impairment of radial migration. Further results reveal that this migration deficiency may be due to the derepression of Reelin transcription in the migrating neurons. Our study provides evidence that epigenetic regulation of Reelin by Ezh2 maintains appropriate Reelin expression pattern to fulfill proper orientation of migrating neurons.
分类: 生物学 >> 生物物理学 >> 生物物理、生物化学与分子生物学 提交时间: 2016-05-11
摘要: Exposure of pregnant females to strong prenatal stress generally induces psychotic-like behavioral impairments in their offspring. In contrast to strong stress exposure, mild prenatal stress exposure (MPSE) has been reported to increase the vulnerability of the nervous system to adverse environmental stimuli. However, the impacts of MPSE on treatment with antipsychotic medication have not been well investigated. In addition, although commonly utilized in animal experiments, the potential influences of injections per se on animal behavior have not been evaluated. Here, we investigated how MPSE, postnatal injections and olanzapine (OLZ) treatment might interact to affect the behavior of rats. Pregnant female rats were exposed to mild stress or left undisturbed during the last week of gestation. Their offspring were divided into three sub-groups and subjected to injections with saline or OLZ (2 mg/kg) on postnatal days (PDs) 7, 9 and 11 or were left undisturbed without injection. Social and olfactory discrimination tests were performed during adolescent (PD 35) and adult (PD 60) periods. Total exploratory time and the degree of preference in the discrimination tests were measured. We found that postnatal injections changed the degree of preference in adolescent prenatally stressed rats but had no effect on the degree of preference in the non-stressed rats. OLZ treatment increased the social exploratory time in the non-stressed rats during the adolescent and adult periods. However, these enhancing effects were diminished in the prenatally stressed rats. Our results indicate that MPSE could contribute to the behavioral changes induced by adverse stimuli such as postnatal injections and could reduce the treatment effects of antipsychotic medication.
分类: 心理学 >> 医学心理学 分类: 心理学 >> 临床与咨询心理学 分类: 心理学 >> 心理学史 提交时间: 2019-10-20
摘要: Schizophrenia是指患者出现行为异常、感知觉异常、无法理解现实等症状的一种精神疾 病,其中文诊断名翻译为“精神分裂症”,意为“心智分裂的疾病”。然而,这一诊断名并不能准确 地反映疾病本身的情况,也存在严重的污名化问题。本文认为,Schizophrenia需要新的中文诊断名。 近年来,周边国家和地区纷纷推动Schizophrenia诊断名的变更,日本将Schizophrenia的诊断名从“精神 分裂症”更改为“统合失调症”,韩国将诊断名从“精神分裂症”更改为“调弦病”,中国的香港和 台湾地区,则均将诊断名从“精神分裂症”调整为“思觉失调症”。研究表明,Schizophrenia诊断名 的更改带来了诸多益处。中国大陆医学界可以从周边国家和地区的更名运动中学习经验,推动 Schizophrenia新中文诊断名的命名工作。本文倡议将Schizophrenia的诊断名从“精神分裂症”更改为 “思觉失调症”。
分类: 生物学 >> 生物物理学 >> 神经科学 提交时间: 2016-05-11
摘要: Early brain development is a complex and rapid process, the disturbance of which may cause the onset of brain disorders. Based on longitudinal imaging data acquired from 6 to 16 months postnatal, we describe a systematic trajectory of monkey brain development during late infancy, and demonstrate the influence of phencyclidine (PCP) on this trajectory. Although the general developmental trajectory of the monkey brain was close to that of the human brain, the development in monkeys was faster and regionally specific. Gray matter volume began to decrease during late infancy in monkeys, much earlier than in humans in whom it occurs in adolescence. Additionally, the decrease of gray matter volume in higher-order association regions (the frontal, parietal and temporal lobes) occurred later than in regions for primary functions (the occipital lobe and cerebellum). White matter volume displayed an increasing trend in most brain regions, but not in the occipital lobe, which had a stable volume. In addition, based on diffusion tensor imaging, we found an increase in fractional anisotropy and a decrease in diffusivity, which may be associated with myelination and axonal changes in white matter tracts. Meanwhile, we tested the influence of 14-day PCP treatment on the developmental trajectories. Such treatment tended to accelerated brain maturation during late infancy, although not statistically significant. These findings provide comparative information for the understanding of primate brain maturation and neurodevelopmental disorders. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
分类: 生物学 >> 生物物理学 提交时间: 2016-05-12
摘要: Sensory gating is a process in which the brain's response to a repetitive stimulus is attenuated; it is thought to contribute to information processing by enabling organisms to filter extraneous sensory inputs from the environment. To date, sensory gating has typically been used to determine whether brain function is impaired, such as in individuals with schizophrenia or addiction. In healthy subjects, sensory gating is sensitive to a subject's behavioral state, such as acute stress and attention. The cortical response to sensory stimulation significantly decreases during sleep; however, information processing continues throughout sleep, and an auditory evoked potential (AEP) can be elicited by sound. It is not known whether sensory gating changes during sleep. Sleep is a non-uniform process in the whole brain with regional differences in neural activities. Thus, another question arises concerning whether sensory gating changes are uniform in different brain areas from waking to sleep. To address these questions, we used the sound stimuli of a Conditioning-testing paradigm to examine sensory gating during waking, rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and Non-REM (NREM) sleep in different cortical areas in rats. We demonstrated the following: 1. Auditory sensory gating was affected by vigilant states in the frontal and parietal areas but not in the occipital areas. 2. Auditory sensory gating decreased in NREM sleep but not REM sleep from waking in the frontal and parietal areas. 3. The decreased sensory gating in the frontal and parietal areas during NREM sleep was the result of a significant increase in the test sound amplitude.
分类: 生物学 >> 生物物理学 >> 细胞生物学 提交时间: 2016-05-12
摘要: The large dense-core vesicle (LDCV), a type of lysosome-related organelle, is involved in the secretion of hormones and neuropeptides in specialized secretory cells. The granin family is a driving force in LDCV biogenesis, but the machinery for granin sorting to this biogenesis pathway is largely unknown. The mu mutant mouse, which carries a spontaneous null mutation on the Muted gene (also known as Bloc1s5), which encodes a subunit of the biogenesis of lysosome-related organelles complex-1 (BLOC-1), is a mouse model of Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome. Here, we found that LDCVs were enlarged in mu adrenal chromaffin cells. Chromogranin A (CgA, also known as CHGA) was increased in mu adrenals and muted-knockdown cells. The increased CgA in mu mice was likely due a failure to export this molecule out of immature LDCVs, which impairs LDCV maturation and docking. In mu chromaffin cells, the size of readily releasable pool and the vesicle release frequency were reduced. Our studies suggest that the muted protein is involved in the selective export of CgA during the biogenesis of LDCVs.