Resilience in Shock and Swim Stress Models of Depression.

Resilience in shock and swim stress models of depression.

Front Behav Neurosci. 2013; 7: 14
Drugan RC, Christianson JP, Warner TA, Kent S

Experimental models of depression often entail exposing a rodent to a stressor and subsequently characterizing changes in learning and anhedonia, which may reflect symptoms of human depression. Importantly, not all people, and not all laboratory rats, exposed to stressors develop depressed behavior; these “resilient” individuals are the focus of our review. Herein we describe research from the “learned helplessness” and “intermittent swim stress” (ISS) models of depression in which rats that were allowed to control the offset of the aversive stimulus with a behavioral response, and in a subset of rats that were not allowed to control the stressor that appeared to be behaviorally and neurochemically similar to rats that were either naive to stress or had controllability over the stressor. For example, rats exposed to inescapable tailshock, but do not develop learned helplessness, exhibit altered sensitivity to the behavioral effects of GABA receptor antagonists and reduced benzodiazepine receptor ligand binding. This pattern suggested that resilience might involve activation of an endogenous benzodiazepine-like compound, possibly an allostatic modulator of the GABA receptor like allopregnanolone. From the ISS model, we have observed in resilient rats protection from stressor-induced glucocorticoid increases and immune activation. In order to identify the neural mediators of these correlates of resilience, non-invasive measures are needed to predict the resilient or vulnerable phenotype prior to analysis of neural endpoints. To this end, we found that ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) appear to predict the resilient phenotype in the ISS paradigm. We propose that combining non-invasive predictive measures, such as USVs with biological endpoint measures, will facilitate future research into the neural correlates of resilience. HubMed – depression

 

Randomized controlled trial of telephone-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy for chronic insomnia.

Sleep. 2013; 36(3): 353-62
Arnedt JT, Cuddihy L, Swanson LM, Pickett S, Aikens J, Chervin RD

To compare the efficacy of telephone-delivered cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia to an information pamphlet control on sleep and daytime functioning at pretreatment, posttreatment, and 12-wk follow-up.Randomized controlled parallel trial.N/A.Thirty individuals with chronic insomnia (27 women, age 39.1 ± 14.4 years, insomnia duration 8.7 ± 10.7 years).Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBTI) delivered in up to eight weekly telephone sessions (CBTI-Phone, n = 15) versus an information pamphlet control (IPC, n = 15).Sleep/wake diary, sleep-related questionnaires (Insomnia Severity Index, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, 16-item Dysfunctional Beliefs and Attitudes about Sleep), and daytime symptom assessments (fatigue, depression, anxiety, and quality of life) were completed at pretreatment, posttreatment, and 12-wk follow-up. Linear mixed models indicated that sleep/wake diary sleep efficiency and total sleep time improved significantly at posttreatment in both groups and remained stable at 12-wk follow-up. More CBTI-Phone than IPC patients showed posttreatment improvements in unhelpful sleep-related cognitions (P < 0.001) and were classified as "in remission" from insomnia at follow-up (P < 0.05). Posttreatment effect sizes on most daytime symptoms were large (Cohen d = 0.8-2.5) for CBTI-Phone patients and small to moderate (Cohen d = -0.1-0.6) for IPC patients. All CBTI-Phone patients completed posttreatment and 12-wk follow-up assessments, but three IPC patients discontinued the study.The findings provide preliminary support for telephone-delivered CBTI in the treatment of chronic insomnia. Future larger-scale studies with more diverse samples are warranted. Some individuals with insomnia may also benefit from pamphlet-delivered CBTI with brief telephone support. CITATION: Arnedt JT; Cuddihy L; Swanson LM; Pickett S; Aikens J; Chervin RD. Randomized controlled trial of telephone-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy for chronic insomnia. 2013;36(3):353-362. HubMed – depression

 

Processes linking cultural ingroup bonds and mental health: the roles of social connection and emotion regulation.

Front Psychol. 2013; 4: 52
Roberts NA, Burleson MH

Cultural and ethnic identities influence the relationships individuals seek out and how they feel and behave in these relationships, which can strongly affect mental and physical health through their impacts on emotions, physiology, and behavior. We proposed and tested a model in which ethnocultural identifications and ingroup affiliations were hypothesized explicitly to enhance social connectedness, which would in turn promote expectancy for effective regulation of negative emotions and reduce self-reported symptoms of depression and anxiety. Our sample comprised women aged 18-30 currently attending college in the Southwestern US, who self-identified as Hispanic of Mexican descent (MAs; = 82) or as non-Hispanic White/European American (EAs; = 234) and who completed an online survey. In the full sample and in each subgroup, stronger ethnocultural group identity and greater comfort with mainstream American culture were associated with higher social connectedness, which in turn was associated with expectancy for more effective regulation of negative emotions, fewer depressive symptoms, and less anxiety. Unexpectedly, preference for ingroup affiliation predicted social connectedness in both groups. In addition to indirect effects through social connection, direct paths from mainstream comfort and preference for ingroup affiliation to emotion regulation expectancy were found for EAs. Models of our data underscore that social connection is a central mechanism through which ethnocultural identities-including with one’s own group the mainstream cultural group-relate to mental health, and that emotion regulation may be a key aspect of this linkage. We use the term to make explicit a process that, we believe, has been implied in the ethnic identity literature for many years, and that may have consequential implications for mental health and conceptualizations of processes underlying mental disorders. HubMed – depression

 

Anaesthetic Management of a Geriatric Patient with Parkinson’s Disease, who was Posted for Emergency Laparotomy- A Case Report.

J Clin Diagn Res. 2013 Jan; 7(1): 148-9
Holyachi RT, Karajagi S, Biradar SM

Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a relatively common neuro degenerative disorder in the geriatric age group. The pathophysiological changes in these patients predispose to major systemic complications like aspiration pneumonitis, respiratory depression, myocardial depression and postural hypotension. Anaesthetic agents interact with the anti-Parkinsonian medication and this may lead to adverse effects. Here, we are presenting a case report of the anaesthetic management of a patient with a history of Parkinson’s disease, who was posted for emergency laparotomy. HubMed – depression