Depressed Subjects Research Articles

Different dorsolateral prefrontal activation during an emotionalautobiographical memory task between male and female depressed individuals: a fNIRS study.

Depression in male and female are commonly associated with different prevalence, severity, and, in some cases, distinct syndromes or subtypes. However, only a small amount of research has been conducted to completely understand the underlying neuroanatomical mechanisms. The goal of the current study was to provide neural markers for specific depression therapies by demonstrating the differences in aberrant prefrontal activity between male and female depressed subjects during an emotional autobiographical memory test. The study included 127 young adults who were randomly assigned to one of two groups: male depression (62 participants) or female depression (65 participants). The average oxyhemoglobin levels in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex throughout the emotional autobiographical memory task were assessed utilizing 53-channel functional near-infrared spectroscopy imaging equipment. The oxy-Hb activation in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (lDLPFC) and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC) had no significant interaction between groups and emotional valences. A significant main effect was found between male and female, with female depression groups showing lower oxy-Hb activity in lDLPFC and rDLPFC than male depression groups. Male and female depression patients showed distinct brain activation in the DLPFC during an emotional autobiographical memory test, suggesting potential specific neurological indicators for varied somatic symptoms in male and female depression patients. These distinctions should be taken into account while creating preventive measures.

Bipolar Disorder and Suicide

Suicide is a dramatic and frequent consequence of bipolar disorder. Prevention of suicidal behavior involves an assessment of suicidal vulnerability factors (history of suicidal behavior, impulsive personality, etc.), characteristics of depression (agitated depression, a subtype of bipolar disorder, etc.), psychiatric comorbidities, and stress factors. Psychosocial at the same time with the characteristics of suicidal behavior in a depressed subject (severe or repeated gestures in particular) make it possible to direct the diagnosis towards a bipolar disorder rather than a major depressive disorder. In addition to training caregivers to screen for bipolar disorder and assess suicidal behavior, the withdrawal of lethal means, networking, and treatment of depression reduce the risk of suicidal behavior. At the medicinal level, the use of lithium salts could be of particular interest in subjects at high risk of suicide.

Depression and Obesity—Do We Know Everything about It? A Narrative Review

Introduction: Due to similarities in their pathophysiology and common psychological background, depressive disorders and obesity often occur simultaneously. The treatment of obesity can reduce the symptoms of comorbid depression and, conversely, treating depression can improve weight reduction outcomes. Purpose of this study: This review aimed to analyze the available literature on the subject of various methods of treating obesity and comorbid depression and to demonstrate the mutual correlation between the therapy of depressive disorders and the therapy of obesity. Method: The Pubmed and Cochrane databases were searched for original articles on the subject of simultaneous depression and obesity that had been published between 2014 and 2024, using the key words “depression”, “depressive symptoms”, “obesity”, and “behavioral therapy”. Results and conclusions: The successful treatment of depression can help in treating obesity, especially in motivating patients to adjust their lifestyle by changing dietary habits and increasing their physical activity, which contribute to both changes in body mass index scores and reductions in depressive symptoms. Changes in self-perception, reduced daily stress, and dietary changes, as well as increased physical activity, contribute to both weight loss and the reduction of depressive symptoms. Depression and obesity should be treated as one two-dimensional disorder to achieve better long-term treatment results.

Reactive Astrocytosis-A Potential Contributor to Increased Suicide in Long COVID-19 Patients?

Long COVID-19 is an emerging chronic illness of significant public health concern due to a myriad of neuropsychiatric sequelae, including increased suicidal ideation (SI) and behavior (SB). This review provides a concise synthesis of clinical evidence that points toward the dysfunction of astrocytes, the most abundant glial cell type in the central nervous system, as a potential shared pathology between SI/SB and COVID-19. Depression, a suicide risk factor, and SI/SB were both associated with reduced frequencies of various astrocyte subsets and complex proteomic/transcriptional changes of astrocyte-related markers in a brain-region-specific manner. Astrocyte-related circulating markers were increased in depressed subjects and, to a less consistent extent, in COVID-19 patients. Furthermore, reactive astrocytosis was observed in subjects with SI/SB and those with COVID-19. Astrocyte dysfunctions occurred in depression, SI/SB, and COVID-19. Reactive-astrocyte-mediated loss of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) integrity and subsequent neuroinflammation-a factor previously linked to SI/SB development-might contribute to increased suicide in individuals with long COVID-19. As such, the formulation of new therapeutic strategies to restore astrocyte homeostasis, enhance BBB integrity, and mitigate neuroinflammation may reduce SI/SB-associated neuropsychiatric manifestations among long COVID-19 patients.

Intron retention as an excellent marker for diagnosing depression and for discovering new potential pathways for drug intervention.

Peripheral inflammation is often associated with depressive disorders, and immunological biomarkers of depression remain a focus of investigation. We performed RNA-seq analysis of RNA transcripts of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells from a case-control study including subjects with self-reported depression in the pre-symptomatic state of major depressive disorder and analyzed differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and the frequency of intron retention (IR) using rMATS. Among the statistically significant DEGs identified, the 651 upregulated DEGs were particularly enriched in the term "bacterial infection and phagocytosis", whereas the 820 downregulated DEGs were enriched in the terms "antigen presentation" and "T-cell proliferation and maturation". We also analyzed 158 genes for which the IR was increased (IncIR) and 211 genes for which the IR was decreased (DecIR) in the depressed subjects. Although the Gene Ontology terms associated with IncIR and DecIR were very similar to those of the up- and downregulated genes, respectively, IR genes appeared to be particularly enriched in genes with sensor functions, with a preponderance of the term "ciliary assembly and function". The observation that IR genes specifically interact with innate immunity genes suggests that immune-related genes, as well as cilia-related genes, may be excellent markers of depression. Re-analysis of previously published RNA-seq data from patients with MDD showed that common IR genes, particularly our predicted immune- and cilia-related genes, are commonly detected in populations with different levels of depression, providing validity for using IR to detect depression. Depression was found to be associated with activation of the innate immune response and relative inactivation of T-cell signaling. The DEGs we identified reflect physiological demands that are controlled at the transcriptional level, whereas the IR results reflect a more direct mechanism for monitoring protein homeostasis. Accordingly, an alteration in IR, namely IncIR or DecIR, is a stress response, and intron-retained transcripts are sensors of the physiological state of the cytoplasm. The results demonstrate the potential of relative IR as a biomarker for the immunological stratification of depressed patients and the utility of IR for the discovery of novel pathways involved in recovery from depression.

Resting-State EEG Alterations of Practice-Related Spectral Activity and Connectivity Patterns in Depression.

Depression presents with altered energy regulation and neural plasticity. Previous electroencephalography (EEG) studies showed that practice in learning tasks increases power in beta range (13-30 Hz) in healthy subjects but not in those with impaired plasticity. Here, we ascertain whether depression presents with alterations of spectral activity and connectivity before and after a learning task. We used publicly available resting-state EEG recordings (64 electrodes) from 122 subjects. Based on Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) scores, they were assigned to either a high BDI (hBDI, BDI > 13, N = 46) or a control (CTL, BDI < 7, N = 75) group. We analyzed spectral activity, theta-beta, and theta-gamma phase-amplitude coupling (PAC) of EEG recorded at rest before and after a learning task. At baseline, compared to CTL, hBDI exhibited greater power in beta over fronto-parietal regions and in gamma over the right parieto-occipital area. At post task, power increased in all frequency ranges only in CTL. Theta-beta and theta-gamma PAC were greater in hBDI at baseline but not after the task. The lack of substantial post-task growth of beta power in depressed subjects likely represents power saturation due to greater baseline values. We speculate that inhibitory/excitatory imbalance, altered plasticity mechanisms, and energy dysregulation present in depression may contribute to this phenomenon.

Methodological Aspect of Evaluating the Effectiveness of Public Policy in Depressed Regions

The paper considers the practical possibilities of using various methods of qualitative and quantitative assessment of the effectiveness of public policy implementation, detailed in the context of the problem of depressed regions rehabilitation. The aim of the study is to form a holistic and comprehensive model that allows analyzing the effectiveness of the implementation of state projects at the regional level, taking into account the specific features inherent in the economic and administrative spheres of the depressed subjects of the Russian Federation. The relevance of the research topic to these conditions is defined by the dynamic nature of the development of regional depression, as well as the need to improve public administration mechanisms in order to solve urgent problems of socio-economic development of regions and ensure opportunities for sustainable and balanced spatial development of the Russian Federation. The development of this topic includes the use of methods of retrospective statistical analysis, mathematical modeling, as well as abstraction and socio-economic comparison. Based on the results of the study, a theoretical concept has been formed, including a methodological apparatus that allows evaluating the effectiveness of existing models of public administration for the development of depressed regions. The conclusions obtained at the theoretical level are concretized in the context of a practice-oriented analysis of the state and prospects of development of the depressed region — the Ulyanovsk region; the results of the analysis fully prove the validity of the proposed methodological developments. Based on the results of the study, a number of practical conclusions were made, in particular, in the context of analyzing the effectiveness of public policy, the role of integrated non-financial quantitative assessment tools was updated, as well as a number of aspects of their practical application and further improvement were specified. The prospects for further use of the proposed evaluation model are related to the possibility of its implementation into the structure of software and analytical complexes currently used in public administration practice. The results of the study are of practical importance in the context of the possibilities of optimizing the control and evaluation functions of public authorities and, in particular, can be used by subjects of state strategic planning for the formation and subsequent assessment of territorial development plans of the Russian Federation.

Risk factors for prolonged infection and secondary infection in pediatric severe sepsis.

Sepsis causes significant worldwide morbidity and mortality. Inability to clear an infection and secondary infections are known complications in severe sepsis and likely result in worsened outcomes. We sought to characterize risk factors of these complications. We performed a secondary analysis of clinical data from 401 subjects enrolled in the PHENOtyping sepsis-induced Multiple organ failure Study. We examined factors associated with prolonged infection, defined as infection that continued to be identified 7days or more from initial identification, and secondary infection, defined as new infections identified ≥ 3days from presentation. Multivariable adjustment was performed to examine laboratory markers of immune depression, with immunocompromised and immunocompetent subjects analyzed separately. Illness severity, immunocompromised status, invasive procedures, and site of infection were associated with secondary infection and/or prolonged infection. Persistent lymphopenia, defined as an absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) < 1000 cells/µL twice in the first five days, and persistent neutropenia, defined as absolute neutrophil count (ANC) < 1000 cells/µL twice in the first five days, were associated with secondary and prolonged infections. When adjusted in multivariable analysis, persistent lymphopenia remained associated with secondary infection in both immunocompromised (aOR = 14.19, 95% CI [2.69, 262.22] and immunocompetent subjects (aOR = 2.09, 95% CI [1.03, 4.17]). Persistent neutropenia was independently associated with secondary infection in immunocompromised subjects (aOR = 5.34, 95% CI [1.92, 15.84]). Secondary and prolonged infections were associated with worse outcomes, including death. Laboratory markers of immune suppression can be used to predict secondary infection. Lymphopenia is an independent risk factor in immunocompromised and immunocompetent patients for secondary infection.

EEG based depression detection by machine learning: Does inner or overt speech condition provide better biomarkers when using emotion words as experimental cues?

BackgroundObjective diagnostic approaches need to be tested to enhance the efficacy of depression detection. Non-invasive EEG-based identification represents a promising area. AimsThe present EEG study addresses two central questions: 1) whether inner or overt speech condition result in higher diagnositc accuracy of depression detection; and 2) does the affective nature of the presented emotion words count in such diagnostic approach. MethodsA matched case-control sample consisting of 10 depressed subjects and 10 healthy controls was assessed. An EEG headcap containing 64 electrodes measured neural responses to experimental cues presented in the form of 15 different words that belonged to three emotional categories: neutral, positive, and negative. 120 experimental cues was presented for every participant, each containing an “inner speech” and an “overt speech” segment. An EEGNet neural network was utilized. ResultsThe highest diagnostic accuracy of the EEGNet model was observed in the case of the overt speech condition (i.e. 69.5%), while a an overall subject-wise accuracy of 80% was achieved by the model. Only a negligible difference in diagnostic accuracy could be found between aggregated emotion word categories, with the highest accuracy (i.e. 70.2%) associated with the presentation of positive emotion words. Model decision was primarily influenced by electrodes representing the regions of the left parietal, the left temporal lobe and the middle frontal areas. ConclusionsWhile the generalizability of our results is limited by the small sample size and potentially uncontrolled confounders, depression was associated with sensitive and presumably network-like aspects of these brain areas, potentially implying a higher level of emotion regulation that increases primarily in open communication.

The puzzle of mood rationality

AbstractMoods, orthodoxy holds, exist outside the space of reasons. A depressed subject may change their thoughts and behaviors as a result of their depression. But, according to this view, their mood gives them no genuine reason to do so. Instead, moods are mere causal influences on cognition. The issue is that moods, with their diffuse phenomenology, appear to lack intentionality (Directionlessness). But intentionality appears to be a necessary condition on rationality (The Content Constraint). Together, these principles conflict with the idea that moods are rational states of mind (Mood Rationality). The inconsistency of these three principles is the Puzzle of Mood Rationality. Now to many, this puzzle is hardly vexing: we should reject Mood Rationality. But, I argue, Mood Rationality is true despite its unpopularity. Thus, we need another way of resolving the puzzle. To do so, I distinguish intentionality as a first‐personal, phenomenological notion from representation as a third‐personal, cognitive scientific notion. I then argue that moods satisfy a revised version of the Content Constraint and sketch an account of moods as representational but non‐intentional mental states, drawing on the Valuationist paradigm in affective neuroscience. I end by showing how this account enables us to explain moods’ rationality.

Subanesthetic S-ketamine does not acutely alter striatal dopamine transporter binding in healthy Sprague Dawley female rats.

Major depressive disorder is one of the most prevalent mental health disorders, posing a global socioeconomic burden. Conventional antidepressant treatments have a slow onset of action, and 30% of patients show no clinically significant treatment response. The recently approved fast-acting antidepressant S-ketamine, an N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist, provides a new approach for treatment-resistant patients. However, knowledge of S-ketamine's mechanism of action is still being established. Depressed human subjects have lower striatal dopamine transporter (DAT) availability compared to healthy controls. Rodent studies report increased striatal dopamine concentration in response to acute ketamine administration. In vivo [18F]FE-PE2I ([18F]-(E)-N-(3-iodoprop-2-enyl)-2β-carbofluoroethoxy-3β-(4'-methyl-phenyl) nortropane) positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of the DAT has not previously been applied to assess the effect of acute subanesthetic S-ketamine administration on DAT availability. We applied translational in vivo [18F]FE-PE2I PET imaging of the DAT in healthy female rats to evaluate whether an acute subanesthetic intraperitoneal dose of 15mg/kg S-ketamine alters DAT availability. We also performed [3H]GBR-12935 autoradiography on postmortem brain sections. We found no effect of acute S-ketamine administration on striatal DAT binding using [18F]FE-PE2I PET or [3H]GBR-12935 autoradiography. This negative result does not support the hypothesis that DAT changes are associated with S-ketamine's rapid antidepressant effects, but additional studies are warranted.

Experience sampling of suicidality, religiosity and spirituality in depression: Network analyses using dynamic time warping

BackgroundSuicidality is a clinically important and multifaceted phenomenon, frequently present in depressed subjects. Religiosity and spirituality (R/S) can have an attenuating as well as a reinforcing effect on suicidality. MethodsFrom two Dutch mental health care settings, a sample of 31 depressed and in- and outpatients with suicidal ideation, self-identifying as being religious or spiritual, was selected by convenience sampling. Using an experience sampling method (ESM) mobile application, during six days (mean of 42 assessments per subject), the association between symptoms of depression, suicidality, and specific positive-supportive affective R/S and positive psychology variables. For 28 participants symptom network plots on a group level, and on an individual level, were analyzed using dynamic time warping (DTW). ResultsParticipants were on average 35.7 years old, and 65 % were women. In the group-level undirected network, R/S variables were linked to positive psychology variables via a bridge function of inner peace. Changes in the experience of inner peace and enjoying a physical activity preceded changes of several other symptoms. A network dynamic appeared with a dense cluster of ‘positive psychology’ items. LimitationsOnly a limited number of R/S variables were included. ConclusionThe results of this study suggest that religiosity and spirituality function as meaningful factors in depression and suicidality in religiously or spiritually engaged persons. Experienced inner peace has a positive association with reasons to live. Experience sampling method data can be effectively analyzed using dynamic time warping. Exploring individual religious or spiritual engagement can prove important in treating suicidality and depression.

INTEGRATING PSYCHOEDUCATION INTO MOTIVATIONAL THERAPY: A PROTOCOL FOR POSITIVE CHANGE IN DEPRESSIVE SUBJECTS

The combination of psychoeducation and motivational therapy is proved to be a powerful approach to help individuals making positive changes in their lives.(Miller &amp; Rollnick, 2013) This scientific paper provides practitioners with information on a draft protocol for psychoeducation in motivational therapy,which is combining the two approaches to optimize the change process. This protocol emphasizes the importance of tailoring treatment to the patient's individual needs, and reinforcing the motivation induced to promote lasting change. The protocol begins with the establishment of a trusting relationship between therapist and patient, followed by in-depth information on the problem to be treated. Next, sessions are organized to explore motivation, identify the advantages and disadvantages of change, set goals for change and, finally, reinforce the skills needed to achieve these goals. In addition, relapse prevention strategies are discussed with the patient, and a long-term support plan is drawn up involving his collaboration. This protocol offers a holistic and personalized approach to guide practitioners in the application of psychoeducation in motivational therapy, promoting positive and lasting results for people seeking change. The scientific paper concludes by highlighting the interest of this integrated approach for a variety of issues in Depressive Subjects, while emphasizing the need for follow-up sessions to maintain progress and ongoing support

221. Brain Phosphorus Bioenergetics Improves in Depressed Subjects After Eight Weeks of Creatine Monohydrate Supplementation

221. Brain Phosphorus Bioenergetics Improves in Depressed Subjects After Eight Weeks of Creatine Monohydrate Supplementation

Prevalence, treatment and correlates of depression in multiple sclerosis

BackgroundThe prevalence of depression in Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is often assessed by administering patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) examining depressive symptomatology to population cohorts; a recent review summarised 12 such studies, eight of which used the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale-Depression (HADS-D). In clinical practice, depression is diagnosed by an individual structured clinical interview; diagnosis often leads to treatment options including antidepressant medication. It follows that an MS population will include those whose current depressive symptoms meet threshold for depression diagnosis, plus those who previously met diagnostic criteria for depression and have been treated such that depressive symptoms have improved below that threshold. We examined a large MS population to establish a multi-attribute estimate of depression, taking into account probable depression on HADS-D, as well as anti-depressant medication use and co-morbidity data reporting current treatment for depression. We then studied associations with demographic and health status measures and the trajectories of depressive symptoms over time. MethodsParticipants were recruited into the UK-wide Trajectories of Outcome in Neurological Conditions-MS (TONiC-MS) study, with demographic and disease data from clinical records, PROMs collected at intervals of at least 9 months, as well as co-morbidities and medication. Interval level conversions of PROM data followed Rasch analysis. Logistic regression examined associations of demographic characteristics and symptoms with depression. Finally, a group-based trajectory model was applied to those with depression. ResultsBaseline data in 5633 participants showed the prevalence of depression to be 25.3 % (CI: 24.2–26.5). There were significant differences in prevalence by MS subtype: relapsing 23.2 % (CI: 21.8- 24.5), primary progressive 25.8 % (CI: 22.5–29.3), secondary progressive 31.5 % (CI: 29.0–34.0); disability: EDSS 0–4 19.2 % (CI: 17.8–20.6), EDSS ≥4.5 31.9 % (CI: 30.2–33.6); and age: 42–57 years 27.7 % (CI: 26.0–29.3), above or below this range 23.1 % (CI: 21.6–24.7). Fatigue, disability, self-efficacy and self esteem correlated with depression with a large effect size (>0.8) whereas sleep, spasticity pain, vision and bladder had an effect size >0.5. The logistic regression model (N = 4938) correctly classified 80 % with 93 % specificity: risk of depression was increased with disability, fatigue, anxiety, more comorbidities or current smoking. Higher self-efficacy or self esteem and marriage reduced depression. Trajectory analysis of depressive symptoms over 40 months in those with depression (N = 1096) showed three groups: 19.1 % with low symptoms, 49.2 % with greater symptoms between the threshold of possible and probable depression, and 31.7 % with high depressive symptoms. 29.9 % (CI: 27.6–32.3) of depressed subjects were untreated, conversely of those treated, 26.1 % still had a symptom level consistent with a probable case (CI: 23.5–28.9). ConclusionA multi-attribute estimate of depression in MS is essential because using only screening questionnaires, diagnoses or antidepressant medication all under-estimate the true prevalence.Depression affects 25.3 % of those with MS, almost half of those with depression were either untreated or still had symptoms indicating probable depression despite treatment. Services for depression in MS must be pro-active and flexible, recognising the heterogeneity of outcomes and reaching out to those with ongoing symptoms.

The Contribution of Genetic Testing in Optimizing Therapy for Patients with Recurrent Depressive Disorder.

(1) Background: The aim of this study was to analyze the impact of pharmacogenetic-guided antidepressant therapy on the 12-month evolution of the intensity of depressive symptoms in patients with recurrent depressive disorder (RDD) in comparison to a control group of depressive subjects who were treated conventionally. (2) Methods: This prospective longitudinal study was conducted between 2019 and 2022, and the patients were evaluated by employing the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D), Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A) and the Clinical Global Impressions Scale: Severity and Improvement. We followed them up at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months. (3) Results: Of the 76 patients with RDD, 37 were tested genetically (Group A) and 39 were not (Group B). Although the patients from Group A had statistically significantly more severe MDD at baseline than those from Group B (p < 0.001), by adjusting their therapy according to the genetic testing, they had a progressive and more substantial reduction in the severity of RDD symptoms [F = 74.334; η2 = 0.674; p < 0.001], indicating a substantial association with the results provided by the genetic testing (67.4%). (4) Conclusions: In patients with RDD and a poor response to antidepressant therapy, pharmacogenetic testing allows for treatment adjustment, resulting in a constant and superior reduction in the intensity of depression and anxiety symptoms.

독거노인 우울에 대한 연구동향 분석

Objectives The purpose of this study was to examine the research trends on depression of the elderly living alone in Korea and to drive implications.&#x0D; Methods A total of 71 papers dealing with the subjects related to depression of the elderly living alone among the domestic journals published for 10 years from 2013 to August 2023 were analyzed. In the analysis of each research topic, biological, psychological, social, and health-related factors were used, and classification by depression measurement tool was carried out. In addition, in order to understand the current status of the variables studied with depression, the analysis was conducted by independent variables, mediating variables, moderating variables, and dependent variables.&#x0D; Results First, in terms of the publication status of academic journals by year, the largest number of researches were conducted in 2016 with 10 (14.08%), and researches on the subject of depression of the elderly living alone were steadily conducted. Second, as a result of analysis by research subjects, 57 were the elderly living alone and 12 were the elderly women living alone. Third, in the analysis by research method, the survey research was the largest with 50, followed by 12 experimental research, 5 mixed research, and 4 qualitative research. Fourth, as a result of analysis by data analysis method, quantitative analysis was the highest with 62, and regression analysis was the highest with 47. Fifth, in the analysis of research topics and contents, psychological factors accounted for 69.23%, social factors 20.51%, health-related factors 7.05%, and biological factors 3.21%.&#x0D; Conclusions Based on these results, implications and suggestions for research on depression of the elderly living alone in Korea were provided.&#x0D;

„Nie daję łajbie żadnych szans”. Depresja: choroba czy rozczarowanie?

The subject of depression, often driven by personal experience, has lately become very prominent in the public sphere. Olga Hund's Psy ras drobnych [Dogs of Smaller Breeds] (2018) is a novel about depression, though unlike many European films and novels, it does not blame the condition on the individual – the main character of the story. Her book is memoir of sorts, a series of dramatic scenes from a mental ward of the Kobierzyn Psychiatric Hospital in Cracow. The whole is written, we may assume, to provoke out-rage: it is an accusation of the health care system, yet the blame for the mental condition rather than the wrong therapy, is put squarely on the structures and socio-economic mechanisms of the neoliberal society. The book makes two points. First, the psychiatric hospital by its very nature is a total institution that’s totally indispensable; and second – as seen from the interface of the ‘normal’ people and the mental patients – the social, economic and ideological factors have a significant role in generating suffering and the mental illness itself.

Manifold alteration between major depressive disorder and healthy control subjects using dynamic mode decomposition in resting-state fMRI data.

The World Health Organization has reported that approximately 300 million individuals suffer from the mood disorder known as MDD. Non-invasive measurement techniques have been utilized to reveal the mechanism of MDD, with rsfMRI being the predominant method. The previous functional connectivity and energy landscape studies have shown the difference in the coactivation patterns between MDD and HCs. However, these studies did not consider oscillatory temporal dynamics. In this study, the dynamic mode decomposition, a method to compute a set of coherent spatial patterns associated with the oscillation frequency and temporal decay rate, was employed to investigate the alteration of the occurrence of dynamic modes between MDD and HCs. Specifically, The BOLD signals of each subject were transformed into dynamic modes representing coherent spatial patterns and discrete-time eigenvalues to capture temporal variations using dynamic mode decomposition. All the dynamic modes were disentangled into a two-dimensional manifold using t-SNE. Density estimation and density ratio estimation were applied to the two-dimensional manifolds after the two-dimensional manifold was split based on HCs and MDD. The dynamic modes that uniquely emerged in the MDD were not observed. Instead, we have found some dynamic modes that have shown increased or reduced occurrence in MDD compared with HCs. The reduced dynamic modes were associated with the visual and saliency networks while the increased dynamic modes were associated with the default mode and sensory-motor networks. To the best of our knowledge, this study showed initial evidence of the alteration of occurrence of the dynamic modes between MDD and HCs. To deepen understanding of how the alteration of the dynamic modes emerges from the structure, it is vital to investigate the relationship between the dynamic modes, cortical thickness, and surface areas.

Lifestyle Factors and Heart Health: Exploring Effect Modification Using Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey Data

This study examined the potential relationship between sleep, exercise, and depression with coronary heart disease (CHD) using the 2020 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) (n = 391 750) during the COVID-19 pandemic. CHD was defined as the presence of self-reported CHD or myocardial infarction (MI). Descriptive statistics were used to report variable frequencies and percentages. Logistic regression models were used to assess potential relationships between lifestyle behaviors (individually and for effect modification) and CHD, with additional sensitivity analysis comparing depressed subjects with non-depressed subjects. Sleep and exercise were assessed in the model for potential effect modification. Those with insufficient sleep and those who did not exercise were more likely to report CHD ( sleep OR = 1.09; 95% CI: 1.06, 1.12); ( exercise OR = 2.00; 95% CI: 1.95, 2.05), though the interaction term was non-significant. Those with self-reported depression were found to be associated with CHD (OR = 1.34; 95% CI: 1.30, 1.38). Among depressed individuals, insufficient sleep and no exercise exhibited a stronger association ( sleep OR = 1.19; 95% CI: 1.13,1.25); ( exercise OR = 2.13; 95% CI = 2.03, 2.23). Results support an association between sleep, exercise, and self-report of CHD, and this association is potentially magnified among depressed individuals, which may be further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.