A comparative study of cognitive functions in individuals at ultra high-risk for psychosis / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

Objective To investigate the differences of cognitive functions among ultra high-risk individuals(UHR),first-episode schizophrenia patients and healthy controls.Methods Twenty four participants meeting clinical inclusion criteria for initial prodromal states (IPS) selected from the first degree relatives of schizophrenia,23 first onset schizophrenia patients from the same family with UHR as well as 30 healthy controls were assessed with a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery including Trail Making Test (TMT),Stroop color word test and the Continuous Performance Test (CPT) to test the speed of information processing and sustained attention ability.Results ①The time of the Trail Making Test in UHR ((45.12±14.87) s) was shorter than first-episode schizophrenia patients((60.43± 19.30)s),but longer than healthy controls((27.13±7.74) s).The whole score of the Stroop color word test in UHR (28.46± 7.87) was higher than first-episode schizophrenia patients (18.78± 6.86),and lower than healthy controls (43.40±9.64).The score of the Continuous Performance Test in UHR (1.86 ± ± 1.05) was significanly higher than first-episode schizophrenia patients(1.17±0.67),but lower than healthy controls (2.63±0.67),and all these differences were significant (P＜0.01).②Taking age,years of education,occupation status,marital status and the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) scores as the covariance,the analysis of covariance showed TMT and Stroop color word test were still statistically significant.Conclusion There are cognitive function changes in individuals at ultra high-risk for psychosis,lying between first-episode schizophrenia cases and healthy controls.

Investigation on uncertainty in illness and social support among patients with post-traumatic brain syndrome and their correlation analysis / 中国实用护理杂志

Objective To investigate the status of uncertainty in illness and social support among patients with post-traumatic brain syndrome (PTBS) and analyze their correlation.Methods One hundred and fourteen patients with PTBS were selected by convenience sampling and assessment.They were evaluated by Chinese disease Mishel Uncertainty in Illness Scale (MUIS) and Social Support Assessment Scale (SSAS) and the correlation of two scales was analyzed.Results MUIS total score was(135.23±19.29) scores with a median of 128.74 scores and SSAS total score was (43.14±5.54) scores with a median of 42.00 scores in patients with PTBS.Among 114 patients with PTBS,regarding ambiguity score was negatively correlated with objective support,subjective support,utilization degree of support and SSAS total score,r=-0.301,-0.374,-0.521,-0.509,complexity score was negatively correlated with objective support,sub-jective support,SSAS total score and utilization degree of support,r=-0.367,-0.326,-0.355,-0.533,both lack of information and regarding unpredictability score were negatively correlated with utilization degree of support,r=-0.376,-0.330,MUIS total score was negatively correlated with objective support,utilization degree of support and SSAS total score,r=-0.284,-0.424,-0.305.Conclusion There is high uncertainty of PTBS patients;increase of patients' social support will be good for decreasing the ambiguity and com-plexity among patients' uncertainty;promotion of patients' utilization degree of support will help to reduce patients' lack of information and unpredictability.

Voxel based morphometric study of brain structure in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder / 生物医学工程学杂志

Voxel based morphometry (VBM) methods are used to detect the difference in brain structures between the posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) sufferers and the normal controls. Standard VBM method can detect the difference of the gray matter or white matter densities while the optimized VBM method can detect the difference of gray matter or white matter volumes in the whole brain. The experiments showed that for the patient group, gray matter density or volumes significantly increased in the right frontal lobe, middle frontal gyrus, vermis, left caudate and parietal lobe, compared with the normal controls. However, in the left frontal lobe and middle frontal gyrus, gray matter density significantly decreased. There is no significant difference in white matter between the two groups. These results are consistent with those of the fMRI, which not only provide the evidence for further study of the pathogeny in PTSD but also validate the efficiency of the VBM methods for detecting the difference in the whole brain structure.

The Ethical Problems in Neurotherapeutics Research / 中国医学伦理学

Three key ethical issues in neurotherapeutics research are discussed: the ethical challenges arising from changes in the financial incentive of researchers and their institutions,risk-benefit analysis on testing innovative interventions,and the research for informed consent.