Abnormal Prefrontal Brain Activation During a Verbal Fluency Task in Treatment-Resistant Depression Using Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

Objective@#The study investigated cognitive performance and brain function between treatment-resistant depression (TRD) and non- TRD patients to find potential neurobiological markers associated with refractoriness in depression patients. @*Methods@#Fourteen TRD patients, 26 non-TRD patients and 23 healthy controls (HC) were included in the present study. The neural function of prefrontal cortex (PFC) and cognitive performance among the three group were examined using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) during verbal fluency task (VFT). @*Results@#Both TRD and non-TRD groups exhibited significantly worse VFT performance and lower activation of oxygenated hemoglobin (oxy-Hb) changes in the bilateral dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC) compared to the HC group. Within the TRD and non-TRD groups, VFT performance was no significant difference, but activation of oxy-Hb changes in dorsomedial PFC (DMPFC) in TRD patients was significantly lower than non-TRD patients. In addition, activation of oxy-Hb changes in right DLPFC were negatively correlated with the severity of depressive symptoms in depression patients. @*Conclusion@#Both TRD patients and non-TRD patients exhibited lower oxy-Hb activation in DLPFC. TRD patients exhibit lower oxy- Hb activation in DMPFC than non-TRD patients. fNIRS maybe a useful tool for predict depressive patients with or without treatment resistant.

Association study of sleep apnea syndrome and polymorphisms in the serotonin transporter gene / 中华医学遗传学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To identify polymorphisms of the serotonin transporter(5-HTT) gene and to find out whether there was relationship between any such polymorphisms and sleep apnea syndrome (SAS).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>For two polymorphisms of 5-HTT target DNA gene was amplified using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and 6% non-denaturing polyacrylamide gels electrophoresis. The frequencies of the different forms of the genotypes and alleles of 5-HTT gene were analyzed in 104 patients with SAS and 150 healthy controls.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The frequencies of the S or L alleles and the S/S, S/L or L/L genotypes in promoter region of 5-HTT gene in SAS group were not significantly different to those in healthy controls (P > 0.05). However, the frequencies of 10/10, 12/10 genotypes of 5-HTT-VNTR in SAS patients were significantly higher than those in healthy control subjects (P < 0.05). Moreover, the frequency of the allele 10 of 5-HTT-VNTR in SAS patients was significantly higher than that in healthy controls (P<0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The allele 10 of 5-HTT-VNTR might be a susceptible factor in the pathogenesis of SAS.</p>

Quality of Life of Patient with Primary Insomnia / 中国心理卫生杂志

Objective:To explore the quality of life in patients with primary insomnia.Methods:Comprising 85 patients diagnosed as primary insomnia and 57 healthy controls,the study analyzed and compared the differences in quality of life between the two groups.Results:(1)Compared with healthy controls,the patients with primary in- somnia decreased in quality of life.total score,Physical functions,psychological function and social function in pri- mary insomnia group were significantly lower than those in control group in score of generic quality of life inventory (score:254.9?26.4/287.1?30.4,t=-5.15,P