Memory mood congruency phenomenon in bipolar I disorder and major depression disorder patients

The objective of the present study was to evaluate memory performance in tasks with and without affective content (to confirm the mood congruency phenomenon) in acutely admitted patients with bipolar I disorder (BD) and major depression disorder (MDD) and in healthy participants. Seventy-eight participants (24 BD, 29 MDD, and 25 healthy controls) were evaluated. Three word lists were used as the memory task with affective content (positive, negative and indifferent). Psychiatric symptoms were also evaluated with rating scales (Young Mania Rating Scale for mania and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale for depression). Patients were selected during the first week of hospitalization. BD patients showed higher scores in the word span with positive tone than MDD patients and healthy controls (P = 0.002). No other difference was observed for tests with affective tone. MDD patients presented significantly lower scores in the Mini-Mental State Exam, logical memory test, visual recognition span, and digit span, while BD patients presented lower scores in the visual recognition test and digit span. Mood congruency effect was found for word span with positive tone among BD patients but no similar effect was observed among MDD patients for negative items. MDD patients presented more memory impairment than BD patients, but BD patients also showed memory impairment.

Evaluation of behavioral states among morning and evening active healthy individuals

The Horne-Östberg questionnaire partly covers some factors that may be important determinants of peak time and characterize patterns of behavior. We conducted a study for the evaluation of self-reported behavioral states (hunger sensation, availability for study, physical exercise, solving daily problems, and time preferences) as expressions of underlying cyclic activity. Three hundred and eighteen community subjects without history of medical, psychiatric, or sleep disorders were evaluated in a cross-sectional design. A self-report about daily highest level of activity was used to categorize individuals into morning, evening, and indifferently active. Time-related behavioral states were evaluated with 23 visual analog questions. The responses to most analogic questions were significantly different between morning and evening active subjects. Logistic regression analysis identified a group of behaviors more strongly associated with the self-reported activity pattern (common wake up time, highest subjective fatigue, as well as wake up, bedtime, exercise and study preferences). These findings suggested that the patterns of activity presented by normal adults were related to specific common behavioral characteristics that may contribute to peak time

Diagnosing dementia and normal aging: clinical relevance of brain ratios and cognitive performance in a Brazilian sample

The main objective of the present study was to evaluate the diagnostic value (clinical application) of brain measures and cognitive function. Alzheimer and multiinfarct patients (N = 30) and normal subjects over the age of 50 (N = 40) were submitted to a medical, neurological and cognitive investigation. The cognitive tests applied were Mini-Mental, word span, digit span, logical memory, spatial recognition span, Boston naming test, praxis, and calculation tests. The brain ratios calculated were the ventricle-brain, bifrontal, bicaudate, third ventricle, and suprasellar cistern measures. These data were obtained from a brain computer tomography scan, and the cutoff values from receiver operating characteristic curves. We analyzed the diagnostic parameters provided by these ratios and compared them to those obtained by cognitive evaluation. The sensitivity and specificity of cognitive tests were higher than brain measures, although dementia patients presented higher ratios, showing poorer cognitive performances than normal individuals. Normal controls over the age of 70 presented higher measures than younger groups, but similar cognitive performance. We found diffuse losses of tissue from the central nervous system related to distribution of cerebrospinal fluid in dementia patients. The likelihood of case identification by functional impairment was higher than when changes of the structure of the central nervous system were used. Cognitive evaluation still seems to be the best method to screen individuals from the community, especially for developing countries, where the cost of brain imaging precludes its use for screening and initial assessment of dementia

Mild depression levels after self-perceptions of future but not the recall of verbal information in elderly inpatients

In order to determine the correlation of levels of symptoms of depression and rate of forgetting and perception of the future, a total of 68 elderly inpatients without Major Depression admitted to a general hospital were evaluated by: 1) the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS), 2) the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), 3) a questionnaire on future self-perceptions (FSPQ), and 4) a test on the recall of verbal information to estimate the rate of forgetting. They were grouped according to the clinical prognosis of their disease (good, N = 48, 25 women, 23 men, age mean +/- SD, 68 +/- 6.64; poor, N = 20, 10 women, 10 men, age mean +/- SD, 69 +/- 6.68) which correlates with morbidity-mortality rates (low/high). There was no relationship between mild levels of signs and symptoms of depression and increased forgetting. However, levels of depression were negatively correlated to the score of future perceptions (B = -0. 18, beta = -0.29, P = 0.032). Patients with diseases with good prognosis did not present different levels of depression, rates of forgetting or future expectations from those of patients with poor prognosis (high mortality rates). However, individuals with negative FSPQ scores showed significantly higher MADRS scores, independent of the type of disease. These data suggest that the modifications in the processing of information related to the future are present in clinical patients without Major Depression but they occur within a small range of very mild signs and symptoms of depression.

Diazepam inhibits retroactive interference of memory in humans: pretreatment with naltrexone does not alter this effect

1. In a double-blind of the effects of diazepam and naltrexone on retroactive memory interference, 88 health human volunteers were asked to study a text on the 1954 world Soccer Cup and were submitted to a written questionnaire on the material 48 h later. Three hours reading the text, 58 of the subjects were exposed to a non-factual, derogatory comment on the worls Cup. 2. All subjects were given either placebo or naltrexone (50 mg) before reading the text, and either placebo or diazepam (5 mg), per os, 2h after reading the text (1 h prior to the comment), Subjects were assigned to the different treatment groups by a double-blind design. 3. Exposure to the derogatory comment caused retroactive memory interference with the retention of material from the text. Diazepam blocked the retroactive interference and had no effect of its own on retention of the text. Pretreatment with naltrexone did not influence retention, retrograde interference, or the effect of diazepam on these variables. 4. The results obtained here extend to health adult humans observations made on rats and mice in which diazepam blocked retroactive interference