BACKGROUNDPsychotic depression is a severe disease with a lifetime prevalence between 0.35 and 1%. Several guidelines suggest electroconvulsion therapy (ECT) as first choice treatment, however, in ...practice a pharmacological approach is often used first. AIMTo offer an overview of scientific literature concerning the pharmacotherapeutic treatment of psychotic depression. METHODWe searched 'Pubmed' for Dutch or English articles, published after 1999. RESULTSThe search strategy produced 26 articles, of which 6 were excluded because of a too small study population. In the references of used literature 4 more articles were witheld. 24 articles were included. Despite the severity of the disease and the high prevalence, the research regarding treatment of psychotic depression is limited. Besides ECT, we consider combination therapy with an antidepressant and an antipsychotic as the most supported treatment, for a duration of at least four months. After four months tapering off the antipsychotic can be considered. CONCLUSIONBased on the discussed research, it's difficult to arrive at conclusions regarding the choice of products. Olanzapine or quetiapine were investigated the most in combination with an SSRI. The combination of an SNRI (venlafaxine) and quetiapine shows good results. The distinct effect of treatment with a TCA calls for further investigation.
Schizophrenia is a severe psychiatric disorder with a large symptomatic heterogeneity. Moreover, many patients with schizophrenia present with comorbid psychiatric symptoms or disorders. The relation ...between depressive symptoms and negative symptoms, such as blunted affect, alogia, anhedonia, asociality and avolition, is particularly intriguing. The negative symptoms can be primary or secondary of depression or overlapping with depressive symptoms. The aim of the present network analysis was to better understand the interactions between depressive symptoms and the different symptoms of schizophrenia and to investigate whether negative symptoms and depressive symptoms can be better delineated.
A network analysis on the baseline item scores of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia (CDSS) from the cariprazine-risperidone study in patients with predominant negative symptoms (PNS) was performed. The connections between all these symptoms (PANSS and CDSS) were investiged: node strength and network centrality were estimated and the Mohr 5-factor model of the PANSS was applied to test the validity of its different symptoms clusters.
Across 460 patients with schizophrenia and PNS, the most central symptom (largest node strength) was depression (PANSS) followed by depression (CDSS), anxiety, lack of judgment and insight and tension. The PANSS negative symptom cluster together and was only poorly connected with CDSS depresson symptoms. The Mohr 5 factor model was clearly recognized in the overall clustering of symptoms.
This network analysis suggests that depression and anxiety symptoms are the most central in this PNS patient population, despite the baseline low depression scores, and that negative symptoms are a clearly independent symptom cluster that can be delineated from depressive symptoms.
The use of CVD diamond in electronics has very stringent requirements. For a CVD diamond industry to become viable it is mandatory to obtain very large growth rates (>
5 µm/h), all the while ...maintaining extremely high purity, a crystalline defect density as low as possible, and large usable surface areas. At the same time, one must keep the stress level within the growing crystal below acceptable limits to avoid crack formation and preserve the crystal structural integrity. These imperatives imply to work to improve both the plasma deposition process and the CVD diamond crystal growth. In this paper, we propose a three-pronged approach: (i) We use detailed plasma models to establish the influence of process parameters (in particular deposition pressure) on plasma chemistry in order to optimize film growth rate and diamond quality; (ii) We emphasize the need for careful substrate pre-treatment and selection (including choosing a single-sector face) to minimize defects in the growing films; (iii) We employ a 3D geometrical model to predict the crystal shape under given growth conditions, and exploit this knowledge to devise a growth strategy maximizing the usable film surface area while minimizing stresses inside the films.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
This paper presents a multiphysics modeling of a switched reluctance motor (SRM) to simulate the acoustic radiation of the electrical machine. The proposed method uses a 2-D finite-element model of ...the motor to simulate its magnetic properties and a multiphysics mechatronic model of the motor and controls to simulate operating conditions. Magnetic forces on the stator are calculated using finite-element analysis and are used as the excitation on a forced response analysis that contains a finite-element model of the motor stator structure. Finally, sound power levels are calculated using the boundary element method. Simulation results of the model are shown and compared with experimental measurements for a four-phase 8/6 SRM.
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