Another secondary efficacy measure was a global assessment of

Another secondary efficacy measure was a global assessment of overall treatment effectiveness completed by both the patient and the investigator separately. This was measured on a 5-point scale (1 = poor, 2 = fair, 3 = good, 4 = very good,

5 = excellent). No formal statistical testing was done on the data; only summary statistics were produced. For baseline Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical and each of the 12 monthly visits, absolute observed values were used; whereas end point was calculated using the last observation carried forward (LOCF) method. Safety measures included monitoring of AEs, early discontinuations, concomitant medications, and physical examination findings. GCP standards were followed to record all AEs occurring during the study regardless of whether they were considered to be related to the study drug. Formal definitions of AEs and questionnaires were not used. AEs were coded using the Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA) classification. Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Safety data were summarised descriptively.

Results Study population 68 patients were Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical enrolled into the study (Belgium, n = 14; Canada, n = 7; France, n = 2; Germany, n = 2; Netherlands, n = 22; Spain, n = 7; UK, n = 14). 35 patients had been taking OROS® hydromorphone and 33 had been taking CR morphine sulphate in the previous equivalence study. 10 patients (14.7%) completed the 1-year study, 4 patients (11.4%) who had previously been taking OROS® hydromorphone and 6 patients (18.2%) who had been taking CR morphine. The reasons for not completing the study

are shown in Table ​Table2;2; Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical the most common reasons for not completing were death (22.1% of patients) and progression of disease (20.6%). Only a small proportion discontinued owing to lack of efficacy (11.8%). The rate and reasons for the dropouts did not appear to be related to prior therapy. The baseline demographics and clinical characteristics of the study population were similar between patients who had taken the two previous treatments (Table ​(Table33). Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Table 2 Patient disposition (overall and by previous treatment) Table 3 Baseline demographic and clinical characteristics until (overall and by previous treatment) Extent of exposure to study medication During the study, for all patients, the mean (standard deviation [SD]) PKA inhibitor duration of exposure to study medication was 139 (129.9) days (range, 2.0 to 438 days). The mean (SD) average daily consumption of OROS® hydromorphone was 43.7 (28.14) mg/day (range, 9.6 to 139.2 mg/day). Each of these variables was slightly higher in patients who received morphine in the previous study. At the beginning of the study, 8 patients received doses of ≥ 64 mg (64 mg, n = 1; 72 mg, n = 4; 96 mg, n = 3); at end point, this increased to 20 patients (64 mg, n = 2; 72 mg, n = 4; 80 mg, n = 3; 96 mg, n = 6; and n = 1 each for 112, 128, 168, 176, and 192 mg).

Comorbidity of

anxiety with other psychiatric disorders T

Comorbidity of

anxiety with other psychiatric disorders The comorbidity of anxiety disorders with each other and with other psychiatric disorders,11 particularly mood12, has been observed and accepted for many decades. It is known that patients with major depression invariably show either syndromal comorbidity of one or Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical another anxiety disorder or clinically significant severity of anxiety symptoms.13 Also, the efficacy of many major psychotropic drugs in the treatment of depression and a broad spectrum of anxiety disorders, eg, GAD, PD, social anxiety disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), is well established. However, wherever possible, mood and anxiety have been separated and delineated into different disorders. Evidence for a common genetic PI 103 etiology for bipolar disorder and PD came from a family study14 in which an unusually high prevalence of PD in 57 families with high rates of bipolar disorder was reported. Families at high risk Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of PD showed linkage to markers on the long arm of chromosome 18 (18q), whereas families of probands without

PD did not. This led the Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical authors to conclude that there may be a genetic subset of patients with bipolar disorder who had comorbid PD. These results were Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical very recently extended and confirmed by the same group in an independent group of bipolar disorder families.15 In the same recent

issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, Rotondo and colleagues16 conducted a casecontrol association study of the genetic polymorphisms of three monoamine neurotransmitter system candidate genes, catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT), serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine or 5-HT) transporter (5-HTT), and tryptophan hydroxylase (TPH), in patients with bipolar disorder with and without lifetime Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical PD. Remarkably, the patients with bipolar disorder without PD showed significantly higher frequencies of the COMT Met158 and the short 5-HTTLPR alleles and genotypes. These results suggest Ribonucleotide reductase that bipolar disorder with and without comorbid PD represent distinct genetic forms, although no single genetic model could be applied to the subset of families with PD. The boundaries between the bipolar/panic phenotype remain obscure, and the question arises as to whether the bipolar/panic phenotype includes individuals with panic attacks below the threshold for a diagnosis of PD.15 Thus, it is still not clear whether panic vulnerability in families with a high prevalence of bipolar disorder is the result of general nongcnctic activation of anxiety mechanisms, a specific, partially penetrant gene, or a combination of genes.

Given the likelihood of involving a relatively high rate of false

Given the likelihood of involving a relatively high rate of false-positive identifications,

pre -illness intervention was not considered either feasible or ethical. However, the emergence of the new novel antipsychotics has changed this situation and has provided the tools for preventive intervention. Given the reduced side effects of the novel antipsychotics currently available,18-20 intervening early in the illness process, before psychosis sets in, has been increasingly regarded as ethically acceptable. Characterizing the prodrome The early studies of the prodromal stage Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of schizophrenia, conducted primarily in Germany, were typically retrospective and involved the recollection of the signs and symptoms preceding

onset by patients in the early stages of illness and their family members.21-23 The initial Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical prodromal clinical assessment that emerged, the Bonn Scale for the Assessment of Basic Symptoms (BSABS),22,24,25 has had a major influence on the development of several subsequent measures, including: (i) the Instrument for the Retrospective Assessment of the Onset of Schizophrenia (IROAS), developed by Hafner Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical and colleagues26,29; (ii) the Multidimensional Assessment of the Psychotic Prodrome (MAPP) used in the Personal Assessment and Crisis Evaluation (PACE) clinic assessments30; and, in turn, (iii) the Structured Interview for Prodromal Symptoms (SIPS) and Scale of Prodromal Symptoms (SOPS) developed by McGlashan and colleagues.31 With the exception of the BSABS,25 research concerned with the prospective

validity of prodromal assessments, especially those developed in the United States, has just begun.30-34 As a result, prodromal diagnostic Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical MS-275 in vitro criteria are in the process of evolving. Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical In terms of the definitions most widely used at present, much of the groundbreaking work has been carried out by McGorry and colleagues in Australia.30,32,34 Based on a series of creative early studies, they have developed a highly influential set of criteria for identifying prodromal individuals. Their system consists of three separate categories of selection criteria.35 Category 1 requires at least one of the following 3-mercaptopyruvate sulfurtransferase attenuated (ie, subthreshold) positive symptoms: ideas of reference, odd beliefs, or magical thinking; perceptual disturbance; odd thinking and speech; paranoid ideation; and odd behavior or appearance. Category 2 consists of individuals who have experienced transient psychotic symptoms that have spontaneously resolved within 1 week. Category 3 combines genetic risk (ie, being the first-degree relative of an individual with a diagnosis of schizophrenia) with state change in functioning (must have undergone a substantial decline in the previous year). These categories have also been integrated into the SIPS and SOPS developed by McGlashan and colleagues.

The latter may be attributed to automatic, effortless, and effic

The latter may be attributed to automatic, effortless, and efficient spreading of activation to the phonological lexicon. Likewise, automatic spreading

of activation to phonetic/articulatory processing may have caused the prominent suppression of bilateral sensory-motor regions for categorical distractors, which at the same time placed strong #I-BET151 cost keyword# demands on semantic memory retrieval and cognitive control to inhibit the distractor. This finding offers a neural explanation for a previous cognitive account of the facilitatory potential in categorical distractors (Finkbeiner and Caramazza 2006). All of these neural components have been predescribed to be sensitive to conceptual/semantic priming. Below, we present a detailed discussion of our findings. Table 5 Overview of brain areas suppressed for each distractor type organized according to Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical their presumed functions Resemblance of suppression in interference tasks to priming We aimed to examine if suppressed brain networks resembled those previously found for priming and predicted this to be true (see Table 5; Fig. 3). Indeed, each related distractor revealed Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical reduced brain activations in priming-related brain regions, that is, in visual areas regularly observed for perceptual/visual object priming (occipitotemporal regions; Simons et

al. 2003; Wig et al. 2005; Horner and Henson 2008) and in areas related to monitoring previously found to be implicated in priming (ACC; Wible et al. 2006; Matsumoto et al. 2005; Simons et al. 2003; electrophysiological

findings Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical in Hirschfeld et al. 2008). Moreover, areas linked to word production were suppressed (bilateral precentral gyrus, insula, thalamus; Indefrey and Levelt 2004). The presence of deactivation in both hemispheres despite left-hemisphere language dominance is in accordance with our previous findings Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical on the bilateral network of picture naming (Abel et al. 2011). The distractors varied in the extent and plenitude of suppressed brain areas over and above these general priming effects (Table 5; Fig. 3). Phonological distractors yielded the broadest repetition suppression effects (see Table 5); they additionally placed low demands on mental imagery (precuneus; Cabeza next and Nyberg 2000), conceptual processing (bilateral FG; Simons et al. 2003; Vigneau et al. 2006), cognitive control (inhibition in left orbitomedial prefrontal cortex [OMPFC]: Fuster et al. 2000), controlled processing (pre-SMA: Alario et al. 2006), memory retrieval and encoding (bilateral parahippocampal gyrus; Cabeza and Nyberg 2000), and word production (bilateral postcentral gyrus, cerebellum, brainstem; Indefrey and Levelt 2004). This pattern of deactivations most closely resembles the neural responses reported for visual object priming.

Contributor Information Sara L Partington, Boston Children’s Hos

Contributor Information Sara L. Partington, Boston Children’s Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. Anne Marie Valente, Boston Children’s Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
Introduction The prevalence of valvular heart disease is increasing along with the life span of the population. In assessing individuals with valve disease, echocardiography is the primary imaging modality used by clinicians both for initial assessment and for longitudinal

evaluation. Information regarding valve morphology and function, cardiac chamber size, wall thickness, ventricular function, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical and estimates of pulmonary artery pressures can be readily obtained and integrated to formulate an assessment of valve disease severity. In some instances, however, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical body habitus or the presence of coexisting lung disease may result in suboptimal acoustic windows on echocardiography, which may lead to technically difficult studies. Additionally, in some patients, information from clinical history and physical examination or other diagnostic tests may be discordant with echocardiographic findings. In these instances, there is a significant clinical role for cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR). The

diagnostic capabilities of CMR have increased Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical substantially over the past 20 years due to hardware and software advances. Today, CMR has a number of unique advantages over other Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical imaging modalities. It provides a view of the entire heart without limitations from inadequate imaging windows or body habitus. CMR also can obtain

imaging data in any imaging plane prescribed by the scan operator, which makes it ideal Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical for accurate investigation of all cardiac valves: aortic, mitral, pulmonic, and tricuspid. In addition, CMR for valve assessment is noninvasive, free of ionizing radiation, and in most instances does not require contrast administration. This review focuses on the most common valvular indications for performing clinical CMR studies in our laboratory: mitral insufficiency, aortic stenosis, and aortic regurgitation.1 It includes a description Vasopressin Receptor of the CMR techniques and an overview of selected validation and reproducibility studies. The objectives of a comprehensive CMR study for JNK-IN-8 purchase evaluating valvular heart disease are threefold: 1) to provide insight into the mechanism of the valvular lesion (via anatomic assessment); 2) to quantify the severity of the valvular lesion; and 3) to discern the consequences of the valvular lesion including its effects on left ventricular (LV) volume, LV systolic function, and left atrial volumes. In most instances this information can be obtained without the need for intravenous contrast agents (gadolinium). Therefore, CMR can be performed even in patients with severe renal failure.

6-97 4%) suggesting that lymph node tissue should be avoided when

6-97.4%) suggesting that lymph node tissue should be avoided when possible for testing (39). Either primary or metastatic tissue can be tested for KRAS per the NCCN guidelines (19). KRAS mutational analysis in mCRC represents a negative predictive test by selecting out those patients who are unlikely to respond to anti-EGFR therapy. This represents an important step forward since in the absence of benefit, patients will avoid the potential toxicities and cost of this therapy. The absence of a mutation in KRAS will not guarantee a response and the search for positive biomarkers remains an

area of intense research in mCRC. Results of recent clinical trials (with a focus on KRAS wild type tumors) The first two trials conducted in the pre-KRAS mutational Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical testing era showed similar efficacy for cetuximab (40) and panitumumab (41) compared to best supportive care with a distinct pattern of the progression-free survival

(PFS) curves in both studies suggesting that a biomarker might explain the later separation Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical observed. This was later identified as the presence of KRAS mutations in about 40% of patient tumor samples. After the discovery of the importance on KRAS mutational status in 2006, investigators analyzed their clinical trials selecting for KRAS status retrospectively and updated Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical their results to confirm the importance of selecting for the absence of a mutation (Table 1). Table 1 Clinical trials with EGFR inhibitors, KRAS wild-type patients only Cetuximab The first trial conducted with single agent cetuximab compared to best supportive care showed a significant improvement in ORR (13% vs. 0%), PFS (3.7 vs. 1.9 mo, P<0.001) and OS (9.5 vs. 4.8 mo; Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical P<0.001) when looking at patients with KRAS wild-type tumors only. This trial did not allow

for cross-over upon progression (24). The first combination chemotherapy trial with an EGFR inhibitor was the BOND trial, published in 2004, in the pre-KRAS era. Patients who had previously progressed on irinotecan-based chemotherapy had an overall response rate (ORR) of 22%, a PFS of 4.1 months and OS of 8.6 months when find more treated with irinotecan and cetuximab while patients Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical on single-agent cetuximab had an ORR of 10.8%, PFS MYO10 1.5 mo and OS 6.9 mo (42). This trial did not look at KRAS mutational status. These results suggested that EGFR inhibitors could potentially “resensitize” tumors to irinotecan after prior progression to the same agent. The largest trial to date conducted with cetuximab is the CRYSTAL trial that explored cetuximab in combination with FOLFIRI as 1st line therapy (13). An updated analysis published in 2011 revealed that cetuximab given with FOLFIRI improved response rates (57.3% vs. 39.7%, P<0.001), median PFS (9.9 vs. 8.4 mo, P=0.0012) and median OS (23.5 vs. 20.0 mo, P=0.0093) compared to FOLFIRI alone in patients with KRAS wild-type tumors (25). The FDA approved cetuximab in conjunction with FOLFIRI as first-line therapy in July 2012 largely based on the results of this trial.

Further, this study is limited to Swedish psychiatric inpatient

Further, this study is limited to Swedish psychiatric inpatient care. It could therefore be interesting to study the clinical practice use of the see more quetiapine formulations in the outpatient setting

as well as in other countries. This retrospective, observational study has provided new insight into the differential use of quetiapine XR versus quetiapine IR in the clinical treatment of patients with schizophrenia in the acute, inpatient setting. Whereas quetiapine Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical XR is used in significantly higher doses, and as a primary antipsychotic medication, quetiapine IR is used in lower doses, more often as an add-on medication, possibly for its anxiolytic or sedative effects. Polypharmacy was very common in this patient population and reflects the reality for psychiatrists who treat severe Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical mental illness. This is an important

finding because these severely ill patients are often excluded from traditional RCTs. Our study thus suggests that more knowledge is needed about treatment patterns and patient outcomes in clinical practice, to complement the picture provided by RCTs with their often Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical highly selected patient populations. The differential quetiapine XR/IR usage is most likely due to differences in titration, dosing, and pharmacological and tolerability profiles. Most likely it also reflects the psychiatrist’s need for treatment choice. An individualized treatment is essential Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical for treatment success in schizophrenia. Restricting the range of drugs to which psychiatrists have access risks worsening treatment outcomes, according to European psychiatrists [Altamura et al. 2008]. Our study shows that quetiapine XR and quetiapine IR are not substitutes, but complement each other when treating schizophrenia inpatients. Both quetiapine XR and quetiapine IR are needed in clinical practice for the treatment of schizophrenia. Footnotes Funding: Dr Graz.yna Söderbom, Klipspringer AB, rovided medical writing

support funded by AstraZeneca. This study was sponsored by AstraZeneca. Conflict of interest statement: Lars Eriksson (Principal Investigator) has participated Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical in clinical trials by Janssen, EliLilly, and AstraZeneca; and given lectures and participated in advisory only boards for Janssen, BMS, EliLilly, and AstraZeneca. Andreas Carlborg is a consultant to and has participated in clinical trials by AstraZeneca; and given lectures for Wyeth. Teresa Hallerbäck and Leif Jørgensen are employees of AstraZeneca. This manuscript was prepared in line with guidelines established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and published in its Uniform Requirements of Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals. Contributor Information Lars Eriksson, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Lillhagsparken 3, Hisings-Backa, SE42250, Gothenburg, Sweden. Teresa Hallerbäck, AstraZeneca, Södertälje, Sweden. Leif Jørgensen, AstraZeneca, Södertälje, Sweden.

Therefore, labeled annexin A5 provides a useful tool for in situ

Therefore, labeled annexin A5 provides a useful tool for in situ this website detection of cell death in vivo and also, at least potentially, in clinical settings.11) Imaging of cellular and molecular events with contrast-enhanced ultrasound has recently been achieved with the use of novel targeted microbubble contrast agents that are retained within diseased organs.12) Unlike inert microbubble blood tracers, targeted microbubbles were designed to adhere to specific endothelial surface epitopes to allow ultrasonic detection of these epitopes.13) The relative advantage of using ultrasound is that Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical it is well-balanced in terms of sensitivity and spatial resolution.

In comparison to radionuclide imaging, ultrasound is slightly less sensitive, mostly as a result of the influence of background tissue signal, but has superior spatial resolution. Other potential advantages of Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical ultrasound include its low cost, high temporal resolution, and rapid data acquisition.14) The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of targeted ultrasound imaging of apoptosis with microbubbles conjugated with annexin A5 (A5MB) in acute doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity models. Methods Preparation of microbubbles conjugated with annexin A5 Biotinylated microbubbles Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical with lipid shells were prepared by sonication (35 W, 4 minutes) of octafluoropropan

gas with aqueous dispersion of 5 mg/mL 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (Avanti Polar Lipids, Inc., Alabaster, AL, USA), 5 mg/mL polyethylenglycol distearate (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA), and 2.5 mg/mL 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine-N-[biotinyl (polyethyleneglycol) 2000] (Avanti Polar Lipids, Inc.) in normal saline. Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical After sonication, the microbubbles were placed in a tube and centrifuged for 3 minutes at 2,000 rpm. The bottom Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical saline was drained and 5 mL of saline was added to the foam and the centrifuge was washed 2 times. Prepared microbubbles were combined with NeutrAvidin (Pierce Biotechnology, Inc., Rockford, IL, USA) for 30 min and washed with saline. Then the microbubbles Edoxaban were combined with biotinylated

annexin A5 for 30 min and washed 2 times. Human annexin A5 was produced by expression in Escherichia coli. fluorescein-5-isothiocyanate (FITC)-labeled A5MB for flow cytometry were prepared using FITC-labeled NeutrAvidin. in vitro study Flow cytometry Specific binding of A5MB to apoptotic cells was confirmed by flow cytometry. Rat aorta smooth muscle cells (SMC) were cultured over 70% confluency in Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium (GIBCO BRL, Rockville, MD, USA) with 10% fetal bovine serum and treated with hydrogen peroxide 100 µM. Three hours after the treatment, the cells were collected and washed with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) and then resuspended in a binding solution of 500 µL (2% BSA, 10 mM HEPES, 150 mM NaCl, 2.

921, p = 0 343; η2 = 0 22) No psychotomimetic problems were note

921, p = 0.343; η2 = 0.22). No psychotomimetic problems were noted in the ketamine group, although these typically brief and self-limiting phenomena might be masked by post-anaesthetic recovery. The work by Abdallah and colleagues had a similar design, although it included participants with bipolar depression, and ECT could be unilateral or bilateral for six sessions over 2 weeks [Abdallah et al. 2012]. The number of participants evaluated (n = 18) was smaller than originally planned as the trial was prematurely terminated

due to a lack of between-group clinical differences (measured on the HDRS) in improvement Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of depressive symptoms at 24 or 72 hours after the first ECT session, or after the final (sixth) one. This result is interesting in that the very commonly seen initial positive response

to ketamine was not demonstrated. The authors postulate Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical that the known GABAergic potentiation and AMPA blocking effects of the barbiturate anaesthetic might have pharmacologically countered the actions of ketamine. Use of ketamine as an anaesthetic in ECT Three papers explored the effect of ketamine use as the anaesthetic agent in ECT compared with a common anaesthesia. The methodology was quite different in each, with two prospective studies, one evaluating single-session ECT [Wang et al. 2012] and the other an Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical eight-session protocol [Okamoto et al. 2010], as well as one retrospective case-note study [Kranaster et al. 2011]. All demonstrated significantly improved depression scores in the ketamine groups, although benefits were short-lived. The single session ECT study by Wang and colleagues had an interesting methodology

in that 48 patients Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical with MDD were randomized into three equal-sized (n = 16) groups, each receiving a differing ECT anaesthesia protocol [Wang et al. 2012]: ‘standard’ propofol, ketamine (0.8 mg/kg) and a third group that received combined ketamine (0.8 mg/kg) and buy NVP-AEW541 propofol anaesthesia. This allowed the authors to test dual hypotheses of the clinical superiority Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of ketamine in treating depressive symptoms as well evaluating whether the combination through might result in propofol ameliorating any ketamine-induced cardiovascular excitement. Patients were clinically assessed 1 day before and 1, 2, 3 and 7 days post-single-session bilateral ECT with the HDRS in a double-blinded paradigm. HDRS scores improved earlier (up to and including day 3 post-ECT) in the two ketamine groups compared with the propofol-alone group (p < 0.01), but this difference was lost by day 7 (p > 0.05). The combination anaesthesia group showed fewer physical (hypertension, p = 0.037) and psychological (post-anaesthetic hallucinations, p = 0.33) adverse effects than the ketamine-alone group. The longer prospective study [Okamoto et al.

Three cortico-striatopallido-thalamo-corti cal (CSPTC) pathways m

Three cortico-striatopallido-thalamo-corti cal (CSPTC) pathways may be relevant to depression.76,77 Damage of the orbitofrontal circuit may lead to disinhibition, irritability, and diminished sensitivity to social cues.76 Damage of the anterior cingulate may result in apathy

and reduced initiative.76 Damage of the dorsolateral circuit may result in difficulties in set shifting, learning, and word list generation.76 These behavioral abnormalities resemble in part the depressive syndrome. Treatment response in vascular depression Several studies suggest that vascular depression may have a poor outcome. Late-onset Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical depression, an entity that often occurs in the context of vascular disease, is a rather chronic disorder.78 In elderly dépressives, leukoencephalopathy

was found to be associated with low quantitative electroencephalogram (qEEG) coherence79,80; low qEEG coherence predicted failure to recover, residual depressive symptomatology, increased mortality, and disability.79,80 Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical We studied the relationship of clinical, neuropsychological, and electrophysiological measures Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of prefrontal dysfunction with treatment response in elderly patients with major depression.81 Abnormal initiation/perseveration scores of the Dementia Rating Scale, psychomotor retardation, and long P300 latency of the auditory evoked potential predicted 58% of the variance in change of depression scores from baseline to 6 weeks. Depressed patients who remained symptomatic had more abnormal Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical initiation/perseveration scores and longer P300 latency compared with depressed patients who achieved remission and control subjects. There were no differences between the last two groups. These findings suggest that prefrontal dysfunction is associated with poor or delayed antidepressant response in depressed elderly patients. Although not very specific, abnormal initiation/perseveration

Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical scores, psychomotor retardation, and long P300 latency are thought to reflect striatofrontal impairment, an abnormality often caused by vascular disease.82 also We are currently conducting a study of average evoked SGC-CBP30 in vivo responses following the Stroop response inhibition test. The Stroop requires integrity of the anterior cingulate and thus is more specific to frontal dysfunction than our earlier tests. Preliminary findings suggest that, compared with controls, depressed elderly patients overrecruit prefrontal neurons during the response inhibition task (Figure 3). Further research will examine whether this abnormality is associated with poor réponse to antidepressants. Figure 3. Increased frontal activation in a 73-year-old patient with major depression (top) compared with a 70-year-old psychiatrically normal subject (bottom). Evoked responses were recorded following the Stroop Color interference task. À total of 162 …