Psychological factors such as stress, depression, and anxiety have been documented to contribute to the development of lesions in lichen planus (LP).
To evaluate the relationship between serotonin ...expression in LP lesions and depression/anxiety.
Forty patients (22 females, 18 males) with LP and 20 healthy control subjects were included in this study. The severity of LP was assessed with the palmar method (using the measurement of affected body surface area BSA). The depression and anxiety scores were measured with Beck's depression inventory (BDI) and Beck's anxiety inventory (BAI). The expression of serotonin was determined via immunohistochemistry in LP lesions and in the control group skin using a monoclonal antibody to serotonin.
The skin biopsies of the LP patients had significantly higher levels of serotonin than those of the control subjects (
<0.001). In the LP patients, and there was a positive correlation between serotonin expression and LP severity (
=0.022). Based on the results from the BDI and BAI, there was a significant relationship between the severity of depression/anxiety and intensity of serotonin expression (
<0.001).
Data from this study suggest that serotonin may have a possible role in the pathogenesis of LP. Further, the relationship between serotonin expression in acute cutaneous lesions and the depression/anxiety scores indicates that serotonin may be a mediator for the association of LP and depression/anxiety simultaneously. There is a need for more specific studies showing the expression of serotonin in the lichen planus to demonstrate the cause or effect.
Background:
The objective of this study was to validate the Turkish version of the Quick Mild Cognitive Impairment (Qmci-TR) screen.
Methods:
In total, 100 patients aged ≥65 years referred to a ...geriatric outpatient clinic with memory loss were included. The Qmci was compared to the Turkish versions of the standardized Mini-Mental State Examination and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA).
Results:
The Qmci-TR had higher accuracy than the MoCA in discriminating subjective memory complaints (SMCs) from cognitive impairment (mild cognitive impairment MCI or dementia), of borderline significance after adjusting for age and education (P = .06). The Qmci-TR also had higher accuracy than the MoCA in differentiating MCI from SMC, which became nonsignificant after adjustment (P = .15). A similar pattern was shown for distinguishing MCI from dementia. Test reliability for the Qmci-TR was strong.
Conclusion:
The Qmci-TR is a reliable and useful screening tool for discriminating MCI from SMC and dementia in a Turkish population.
Suffering comes in many ways for patients confronting cancer. One of these is an unspecifiable fear about death, which is an existential issue. The aim of this study was to investigate the ...relationship between death anxiety and its correlates in cancer patients. Seventy cancer patients were assessed using SCID-I, Templer's Death Anxiety Scale, the Hospital Anxiety (A) and Depression (D) Scale, the Distress Thermometer, the Visual Analogue Scale for pain (VAS), the Global Assessment of Functioning, and Glock and Stark's Dimensions of Religious Commitment scales, and these assessments were compared between cancer patients with and without death anxiety. Multiple regression analysis was conducted after correlation analysis between death anxiety and sociodemographic and clinical variables. Axis I psychiatric diagnosis, pain scores, and negative believes about what will happen after death were found to be higher in patients having death anxiety than patients not having death anxiety. Also life expectancy was perceived as shortened in patients with death anxiety. Death anxiety was associated with anxiety, depressive symptoms, and beliefs about what will happen after death. In conclusion, death anxiety could not be regarded as a natural consequence of having cancer; it is associated with the unresolved psychological and physical distress.
OBJECTIVES: To compare endothelial function of people with Alzheimer's disease (AD) with that of people without.
DESIGN: Case‐control study.
SETTING: Geriatric medicine outpatient clinic of a ...university hospital.
PARTICIPANTS: Twenty‐five patients with AD who were free of vascular risk factors and 24 healthy elderly controls were enrolled. Exclusion criteria were diabetes mellitus, hypertension, dyslipidemia, evident stroke, smoking, documented coronary artery disease, history of myocardial infarction, heart failure, acute or chronic infection, malignancy, peripheral artery disease, renal disease, rheumatologic diseases, alcohol abuse, and certain drugs that may affect endothelial function. Both groups underwent comprehensive geriatric assessment and neuropsychiatric assessment.
MEASUREMENTS: Endothelial function was evaluated according to flow‐mediated dilation (FMD) from the brachial artery.
RESULTS: Mean age ± standard deviation was 78 ± 5.9 in the group with AD (11 female and 14 male) and 72.1 ± 5.8 in the control group (9 female and 11 male). Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that FMD was significantly lower in patients with AD (median 3.45, range 0–7) than controls (median 8.41, range 1–14) (P < .001), independent of age. It was also found that FMD values were inversely correlated with the stage of the disease as determined according to the Clinical Dementia Rating scale (r=−0.603, P < .001).
CONCLUSION: Endothelial function is impaired in patients with AD. Endothelial function was worse in patients with severe AD. These findings provide evidence that vascular factors have a role in the pathogenesis of AD.
The Neuropsychiatric Inventory-Clinician (NPI-C) scale is one of the best-known scales for evaluating the behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia. This study aimed to assess the reliability ...and validity of the Turkish version of the NPI-C scale in patients with Alzheimer disease (AD).
The NPI-C scale was administered to 125 patients with AD. For reliability, both Cronbach's α and interrater reliability were analyzed. The Behavioral Pathology in Alzheimer's Disease (BEHAVE-AD) scale was applied for validity and, in addition, the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) scale, and Disability Assessment of Dementia (DAD) scale were completed.
The Turkish version of the NPI-C scale showed high internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.75) and mostly good interrater reliability. Assessments of validity showed that the NPI-C and corresponding BEHAVE-AD domains were found to be significantly correlated, between 0.925 and 0.195. Moreover, the correlations between NPI-C and MMSE were significant for all domains except the dysphoria, anxiety, and elation/euphoria domains. When we conducted a correlation analysis of NPI-C with IADL, all domains were statistically significantly correlated except aggression, anxiety, elation/euphoria, and dysphoria.
The Turkish version of the NPI-C scale was found to be a reliable and valid instrument to assess neuropsychiatric symptoms in Turkish elderly subjects with AD.
Inflammation may play an important role in Alzheimer disease (AD) pathogenesis. A growing amount of evidence indicates that resistin has hallmark regulatory functions such as inflammatory states. The ...aim of this study was to determine whether plasma resistin levels would be useful in the diagnosis of patients with AD and to investigate the relationships between resistin and other inflammatory markers such as hs-CRP and TNF-α. Materials and methods: In this cross-sectional study, 38 AD patients and 32 control subjects with normal cognitive function aged 65 years and over were included. The diagnosis of AD was made according to DSM-IV and NINCDS-ADRDA criteria. Serum levels of resistin were measured with an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method using the human resistin E50 kit. Results: The median resistin level of AD patients was significantly higher than in the control group (86.3 vs. 70.8 pg/mL, P = 0.002). Overall accuracy of resistin in determining AD was 70.66%, with sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV of 75.0%, 65.5%, 73.0%, and 67.9%, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference between AD patients and control subjects with respect to hs-CRP and TNF-α levels. Conclusion: Resistin levels may be considered as a predictor of AD and it may predict activation of the immune system in AD pathophysiology.
Symptoms of disturbed perception, thought content, mood, or behavior that frequently occur in patients with dementia are defined as the term "Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia ...(BPSD)." The behavioral symptoms of dementia include physical/verbal aggression, agitation, disinhibition, restlessness, wandering, culturally inappropriate behaviors, sexual disinhibition, and hoarding, and the psychological symptoms of dementia are anxiety, depressive mood, hallucinations and delusions, apathy, and misidentification syndrome. With the cognitive decline in Alzheimer's Dementia (AD), the frequency of neuropsychiatric symptoms increases. Apathy, depression, irritability, agitation, and anxiety are the most frequently detected neuropsychiatric symptoms of AD. In the mild stage of AD, affective symptoms are more likely to occur; agitated and psychotic behaviors are frequent in patients with moderately impaired cognitive function. When neuropsychiatric symptoms are first detected, medical conditions, such as delirium, infection, dehydration, diarrhea, and drug interactions, must be ruled out. The treatment of mild BPSD must be started with psychosocial approaches, such as behavioral management, caregiver education, and physical activity. Medications are indicated for BPSD symptoms that are refractory to non-pharmacological interventions or severe or jeopardizing the safety of a patient or others, often in conjunction with non-pharmacological interventions.
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