Depression Treatment: Neural Correlates of Deficits in Pain-Related Affective Meaning Construction in Patients With Chronic Pain Disorder.

Neural Correlates of Deficits in Pain-Related Affective Meaning Construction in Patients With Chronic Pain Disorder.

Filed under: Depression Treatment

Psychosom Med. 2013 Jan 29;
Noll-Hussong M, Otti A, Wohlschlaeger AM, Zimmer C, Henningsen P, Lahmann C, Ronel J, Subic-Wrana C, Lane RD, Decety J, Guendel H

ObjectivePsychological and neural mechanisms of the affective dimension of pain are known to be disturbed in patients with chronic pain disorder. The aim of this functional magnetic resonance imaging study was to assess the neurofunctional and behavioral measures underlying the ability to construct pain-related affective meaning in a painful situation by comparing 21 clinically and psychometrically well-characterized patients with persistent non-nociceptive somatoform pain with 19 healthy controls.MethodsThe functional magnetic resonance imaging task involved viewing pictures depicting human hands and feet in different painful and nonpainful situations. Participants were asked to estimate the perceived pain intensity. These data were correlated with behavioral measures of depression, alexithymia, and general cognitive and emotional empathy.ResultsIn a hypothesis-driven region-of-interest analysis, the healthy control group exhibited greater activation of the left perigenual anterior cingulate cortex than patients with pain (Montreal Neurological Institute coordinates (x y z) = -8 38 0; cluster extent = 54 voxels; T = 4.28; p = .006 corrected for multiple comparisons at cluster level). No group differences in the activation of the anterior insular cortex were found. Scores on self-assessment instruments (Beck Depression Inventory I, Interpersonal Reactivity Index, and 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale) did not influence neuroimaging results.ConclusionsOur results suggest that patients with chronic medically unexplained pain have an altered neural pain perception process owing to decreased activation of empathetic-affective networks, which we interpret as a deficit in pain-related affective meaning construction. These findings may lead to a more specific and detailed neurobiological understanding of the clinical impression of disturbed affect in patients with chronic pain disorder.
HubMed – depression

A Randomized Controlled Trial of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Women With Early-Stage Breast Cancer Receiving Radiotherapy.

Filed under: Depression Treatment

Integr Cancer Ther. 2013 Jan 28;
Henderson VP, Massion AO, Clemow L, Hurley TG, Druker S, Hébert JR

PURPOSE: To testthe relative effectiveness of a mindfulness-based stress reduction program (MBSR) compared with a nutrition education intervention (NEP) and usual care (UC) in women with newly diagnosed early-stage breast cancer (BrCA)undergoing radiotherapy. METHODS: Datawere available from a randomized controlled trialof 172 women, 20 to 65 years old, with stage I or II BrCA. Data from women completing the 8-week MBSR program plus 3 additional sessions focuses on special needs associated with BrCA were compared to women receiving attention control NEP and UC. Follow-up was performed at 3 post-intervention points: 4 months, and 1 and 2 years. Standardized, validated self-administered questionnaires were used to assess psychosocial variables. Descriptive analyses compared women by randomization assignment. Regression analyses, incorporating both intention-to-treat and post hoc multivariable approaches, were used to control for potential confounding variables. RESULTS: A subset of 120 women underwent radiotherapy; 77 completed treatment prior to the study, and 40 had radiotherapy during the MBSR intervention. Women who actively received radiotherapy (art) while participating in the MBSR intervention (MBSR-art) experienced a significant (P < .05) improvement in 16 psychosocial variables compared with the NEP-art, UC-art, or both at 4 months. These included health-related, BrCA-specific quality of life and psychosocial coping, which were the primary outcomes, and secondary measures, including meaningfulness, helplessness, cognitive avoidance, depression, paranoid ideation, hostility, anxiety, global severity, anxious preoccupation, and emotional control. CONCLUSIONS: MBSR appears to facilitate psychosocial adjustment in BrCA patients receiving radiotherapy, suggesting applicability for MBSR as adjunctive therapy in oncological practice. HubMed – depression

Influence of Gasoline Inhalation on the Enantioselective Pharmacokinetics of Fluoxetine in Rats.

Filed under: Depression Treatment

Chirality. 2013 Jan 30;
Cardoso JL, Lanchote VL, Pereira MP, Capela JM, Lepera JS

Fluoxetine is used clinically as a racemic mixture of (+)-(S) and (-)-(R) enantiomers for the treatment of depression. CYP2D6 catalyzes the metabolism of both fluoxetine enantiomers. We aimed to evaluate whether exposure to gasoline results in CYP2D inhibition. Male Wistar rats exposed to filtered air (n?=?36; control group) or to 600 ppm of gasoline (n?=?36) in a nose-only inhalation exposure chamber for 6 weeks (6 h/day, 5 days/week) received a single oral 10-mg/kg dose of racemic fluoxetine. Fluoxetine enantiomers in plasma samples were analyzed by a validated analytical method using LC-MS/MS. The separation of fluoxetine enantiomers was performed in a Chirobiotic V column using as the mobile phase a mixture of ethanol:ammonium acetate 15 mM. Higher plasma concentrations of the (+)-(S)-fluoxetine enantiomer were found in the control group (enantiomeric ratio AUC((+)-(S)/(-)-(R)) ?=?1.68). In animals exposed to gasoline, we observed an increase in AUC(0-?) for both enantiomers, with a sharper increase seen for the (-)-(R)-fluoxetine enantiomer (enantiomeric ratio AUC((+)-(S)/(-)-(R)) ?=?1.07), resulting in a loss of enantioselectivity. Exposure to gasoline was found to result in the loss of enantioselectivity of fluoxetine, with the predominant reduction occurring in the clearance of the (-)-(R)-fluoxetine enantiomer (55% vs. 30%). Chirality, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
HubMed – depression

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