Comparative Study of Major Depressive Symptoms Among Pregnant Women by Employment Status.

Comparative study of major depressive symptoms among pregnant women by employment status.

Springerplus. 2013 Dec; 2(1): 201
Fall A, Goulet L, Vézina M

The objectives of our study were to compare the prevalence of major depressive symptoms between subgroups of pregnant women: working women, women who had stopped working, housewives and students; and to identify risk factors for major depressive symptoms during pregnancy. The CES-D scale (Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale) was used to measure major depressive symptoms (CES-D score ?23) in 5337 pregnant women interviewed at 24-26 weeks of pregnancy. Multivariate logistic regression models were developed to identify risk factors associated with major depressive symptoms. Prevalence of major depressive symptoms was 11.9% (11.0-12.8%) for all pregnant women. Working women had the lowest proportion of major depressive symptoms [7.6% (6.6-8.7%); n = 2514] compared to housewives [19.1% (16.5-21.8%); n = 893], women who had stopped working [14.4% (12.7-16.1%); n = 1665], and students [14.3% (10.3-19.1%); n = 265]. After adjusting for major risk factors, the association between pregnant women’s employment status and major depressive symptoms remained significant for women who had stopped working (OR: 1.61; 95% CI 1.26 to 2.04) and for housewives (OR: 1.46; 95% CI 1.10 to 1.94), but not for students (OR: 1.37; 95% CI 0.87 to 2.16). In multivariate analyses, low education, low social support outside of work, having experienced acute stressful events, lack of money for basic needs, experiencing marital strain, having a chronic health problem, country of birth, and smoking were significantly associated with major depressive symptoms. Health professionals should consider the employment status of pregnant women when they evaluate risk profiles. Prevention, detection and intervention measures are needed to reduce the prevalence of prenatal depression. HubMed – depression

Alterations of Serum Levels of BDNF-Related miRNAs in Patients with Depression.

PLoS One. 2013; 8(5): e63648
Li YJ, Xu M, Gao ZH, Wang YQ, Yue Z, Zhang YX, Li XX, Zhang C, Xie SY, Wang PY

Depression is a serious and potentially life-threatening mental disorder with unknown etiology. Emerging evidence shows that brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and microRNAs (miRNAs) play critical roles in the etiology of depression. Here this study was aimed to identify and characterize the roles of BDNF and its putative regulatory miRNAs in depression. First, we identified that miR-182 may be a putative miRNA that regulates BDNF levels by bioinformatic studies, and characterized the effects of miR-182 on the BDNF levels using cell-based studies, side by side with miR-132 (a known miRNA that regulates BDNF expression). We showed that treatment of miR-132 and miR-182 respectively decreased the BDNF protein levels in a human neuronal cell model, supporting the regulatory roles of miR-132 and miR-182 on the BDNF expression. Furthermore, we explored the roles of miR-132 and miR-182 on the BDNF levels in depression using human subjects by assessing their serum levels. Compared with the healthy controls, patients with depression showed lower serum BDNF levels (via the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays) and higher serum miR-132 and miR-182 levels (via the real-time PCR). Finally, the Pearson’s (or Spearman’s) correlation coefficient was calculated to study whether there was a relationship among the Self-Rating Depression Scale score, the serum BDNF levels, and serum BDNF-related miRNA levels. Our results revealed that there was a significant negative correlation between the SDS scores and the serum BDNF levels, and a positive correlation between the SDS scores and miR-132 levels. In addition, we found a reverse relationship between the serum BDNF levels and the miR-132/miR-182 levels in depression. Collectively, we provided evidence supporting that miR-182 is a putative BDNF-regulatory miRNA, and suggested that the serum BDNF and its related miRNAs may be utilized as important biomarkers in the diagnosis or as therapeutic targets of depression. HubMed – depression

Opposite Effective Connectivity in the Posterior Cingulate and Medial Prefrontal Cortex between First-Episode Schizophrenic Patients with Suicide Risk and Healthy Controls.

PLoS One. 2013; 8(5): e63477
Zhang H, Wei X, Tao H, Mwansisya TE, Pu W, He Z, Hu A, Xu L, Liu Z, Shan B, Xue Z

The schizophrenic patients with high suicide risk are characterized by depression, better cognitive function, and prominent positive symptoms. However, the neurobiological basis of suicide attempts in schizophrenia is not clear. The suicide in schizophrenia is implicated in the defects in emotional process and decision-making, which are associated with prefrontal-cingulate circuit. In order to explore the possible neurobiological basis of suicide in schizophrenia, we investigated the correlation of prefrontal-cingulate circuit with suicide risk in schizophrenia via dynamic casual modelling.Participants were 33 first-episode schizophrenic patients comprising of a high suicide risk group (N?=?14) and a low suicide risk group (N?=?19). A comparison group of healthy controls (N?=?15) were matched for age, gender and education. N-back tasking functional magnetic resonance imaging data was collected.Compared with healthy controls group, the two patients groups showed decreased task-related suppression during 2-back task state versus baseline state in the left posterior cingulate and medial prefrontal cortex; the hyper-connectivity from the left posterior cingulate cortex to the left medial prefrontal cortex existed in both schizophrenic patients groups, but hypo-connectivity in the opposite direction only existed in the schizophrenic patients group with high suicide risk.The hyper-connectivity from the left posterior cingulate cortex to the left medial prefrontal cortex may suggest that the abnormal effective connectivity was associated with risk for schizophrenia. The hypo-connectivity in the opposite direction may represent a possible correlate of increased vulnerability to suicide attempt. HubMed – depression