A 12-session relapse prevention program vs psychoeducation in the treatment of Japanese alcoholic patients: A randomized controlled trial.

AIM: Alcoholism is the most prevalent substance use disorder in Japan; the estimated number of patients and high-risk drinkers is in the millions. Although studies in the West have shown that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is one of the most effective treatment strategies for alcoholic patients, there is a dearth of efficacy studies of CBT-based intervention for those patients in the non-Western setting. The aim of this study is to investigate the efficacy of a 12-session CBT-based relapse prevention program for Japanese alcoholic patients. METHODS: Forty-eight alcoholic patients (M = 36, F = 12) who were admitted to an addiction treatment unit were randomly allocated either to a 12-session relapse prevention (RP) program (n = 24) or a 12-session psychoeducation (PE) program (n = 24). Both treatment programs were conducted in a group format once a week for 12 weeks. Other aspects of inpatient treatment (group meetings, etc) were the same in both groups. Self-rating scales, which measure behavioral and cognitive coping, coping response, self-efficacy, and cognition of drinking, were administered at pretreatment, mid-treatment, and posttreatment periods. The proportion of participants who relapsed at 3 and 6 months after discharge was evaluated. RESULTS: Both RP and PE groups showed significant improvement in self-efficacy and cognition of drinking at posttreatment. However, there were no significant differences in the self-rating scales between both groups. In addition, there were no significant differences in relapse rate at 3 and 6 months after discharge between both groups. CONCLUSIONS: The 12-session CBT-based relapse prevention program and the psychoeducation program may be equally efficacious for alcoholic patients. Several factors that influenced the results are discussed.

Distinctiveness of prolonged grief disorder symptoms among survivors of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami.

Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD) has been proposed for diagnostic classification as an independent psychiatric disorder. Previous research has investigated it in relation to other axis I disorders in order to determine whether it could be considered an independent nosological entity. The distinctiveness of this condition was apparent in cases of ordinary bereavement and in those following human-made disasters. However, this disorder may be expanded to include bereavement resulting from natural disasters. The present study aims to explore the differences between this disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder or major depressive disorder as experienced after the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. The subjects were 82 hospital workers. Each type of disorder was assessed by means of the Inventory of Complicated Grief, the Impact of Event Scale-Revised, and the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. Exploratory factor analysis showed 3 dimensions, with PGD items independently clustering in the same dimension. Our findings support the uniqueness of PGD even in a post-natural disaster situation in a non-Western culture and warrant grief intervention for high-risk bereaved survivors.

Psychosocial factors associated with suicidal ideation in clinical patients with depression.

BACKGROUND: Depression is a major risk factor for suicide, but few studies have examined psychosocial risk factors for suicide in clinical patients with depression. The purpose of this study was to investigate psychosocial factors which could be associated with suicidal ideation in clinical patients with depression including: sick-leave, help-seeking behavior, and reluctance to admit mental health problems. METHODS: A multi-center cross-sectional survey using self-report questionnaire was conducted at 54 outpatient psychiatric clinics in Tokyo in 2012. Adult outpatients who were diagnosed by psychiatrists as mood disorders (F30-F39) in the International Classification of Diseases-10 (ICD-10) were included in the study. Those who met the criteria for current hypomanic or manic episode were excluded from the study. RESULTS: A total of 189 patients with depression participated in the survey. Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that taking sick-leave and having sought help from family were associated with decreased odds of current suicidal ideation. Moderate or more severe depression was associated with increased odds of suicidal ideation, and reluctance to admit own mental health problem tended to increase odds of suicidal ideation. LIMITATIONS: Living status and suicidal ideation before consultation with psychiatrist were not investigated. Severity of suicidal ideation and comorbid psychiatric disorders were not assessed. CONCLUSIONS: Importance of treatment of more severe depression for suicide prevention was confirmed. Industrial health staffs should consider the possibility of positive effect of taking sick-leave when they see employees with depression. Promoting help-seeking for family and reducing stigma of mental illness may be effective for suicide prevention.

[Development of antibodies for immunotherapy of Alzheimer's disease].

Based on the amyloid cascade hypothesis, immunotherapy targeting amyloid ß (Aß) for Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been developed. It was reported that active immunization using Aß peptide attenuates amyloid deposits and memory impairment in AD model mice. However, active immunization of patients with AD (AN-1792) was halted due to adverse effects in which a subset of patients developed meningoencephalitis. In order to avoid autoimmune encephalitis, passive immunotherapy using humanized monoclonal antibodies with specificity to Aß are in clinical trials. We also developed an anti-Aß monoclonal antibody 3.4A10, which react with AD brain-specific Aß oligomers. On the other hand, some studies showed that immunotherapy approach targeting tau could attenuate pathology in AD model mouse. Here we introduce a current trend of immunotherapy for AD.

Functional analysis of two isoforms of leaf-type ferredoxin-NADP(+)-oxidoreductase in rice using the heterologous expression system of Arabidopsis.

Ferredoxin-NADP(+)-oxidoreductase (FNR) mediates electron transfer between ferredoxin (Fd) and NADP(+); therefore, it is a key enzyme that provides the reducing power used in the Calvin cycle. Other than FNR, nitrite reductase, sulfite reductase, glutamate synthase, and Fd-thioredoxin reductase also accept electrons from Fd, an electron carrier protein in the stroma. Therefore, the regulation of electron partitioning in the chloroplast is important for photosynthesis and other metabolic pathways. The regulatory mechanism of electron partitioning, however, remains to be elucidated. We found, by taking advantage of a gain-of-function approach, that expression of two rice (Oryza sativa) full-length cDNAs of leaf-type FNRs (OsLFNR1 and OsLFNR2) led to altered chlorophyll fluorescence and growth in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and rice. We revealed that overexpression of the OsLFNR1 and OsLFNR2 full-length cDNAs resulted in distinct phenotypes despite the high sequence similarity between them. Expression of OsLFNR1 affected the nitrogen assimilation pathway without inhibition of photosynthesis under normal conditions. On the other hand, OsLFNR2 expression led to the impairment of photosynthetic linear electron transport as well as Fd-dependent cyclic electron flow around photosystem I. The endogenous protein level of OsLFNR was found to be suppressed in both OsLFNR1- and OsLFNR2-overexpressing rice plants, leading to changes in the stoichiometry of the two LFNR isoforms within the thylakoid and soluble fractions. Thus, we propose that the stoichiometry of two LFNR isoforms plays an important role in electron partitioning between carbon fixation and nitrogen assimilation.

Inhibition in superior colliculus neurons in a brightness discrimination task?

Simultaneous recordings were collected from between two and four buildup neurons from the left and right superior colliculi in rhesus monkeys in a simple two-choice brightness discrimination task. The monkeys were required to move their eyes to one of two response targets to indicate their decision. Neurons were identified whose receptive fields were centered on the response targets. The functional role of inhibition was examined by conditionalizing firing rate on a high versus low rate in target neurons 90 ms to 30 ms before the saccade and examining the firing rate in both contralateral and ipsilateral neurons. Two models with racing diffusion processes were fit to the behavioral data, and the same analysis was performed on simulated paths in the diffusion processes that have been found to represent firing rate. The results produce converging evidence for the lack of a functional role for inhibition between neural populations corresponding to the two decisions.

Neural mind reading of multi-dimensional decisions by monkey mid-brain activity.

Brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) have the potential to improve the quality of life for individuals with disabilities. We engaged in the development of neural mind-reading techniques for cognitive BMIs to provide a readout of decision processes. We trained 2 monkeys on go/no-go tasks, and monitored the activity of groups of neurons in their mid-brain superior colliculus (SC). We designed a virtual decision function (VDF) reflecting the continuous progress of binary decisions on a single-trial basis, and applied it to the ensemble activity of SC neurons. Post hoc analyses using the VDF predicted the cue location as well as the monkey's motor choice (go or no-go) soon after the presentation of the cue. These results suggest that our neural mind-reading techniques have the potential to provide rapid real-time control of communication support devices.

Systematic approaches to using the FOX hunting system to identify useful rice genes.

Ectopic gene expression, or the gain-of-function approach, has the advantage that once the function of a gene is known the gene can be transferred to many different plants by transformation. We previously reported a method, called FOX hunting, that involves ectopic expression of Arabidopsis full-length cDNAs in Arabidopsis to systematically generate gain-of-function mutants. This technology is most beneficial for generating a heterologous gene resource for analysis of useful plant gene functions. As an initial model we generated more than 23,000 independent Arabidopsis transgenic lines that expressed rice fl-cDNAs (Rice FOX Arabidopsis lines). The short generation time and rapid and efficient transformation frequency of Arabidopsis enabled the functions of the rice genes to be analyzed rapidly. We screened rice FOX Arabidopsis lines for alterations in morphology, photosynthesis, element accumulation, pigment accumulation, hormone profiles, secondary metabolites, pathogen resistance, salt tolerance, UV signaling, high light tolerance, and heat stress tolerance. Some of the mutant phenotypes displayed by rice FOX Arabidopsis lines resulted from the expression of rice genes that had no homologs in Arabidopsis. This result demonstrated that rice fl-cDNAs could be used to introduce new gene functions in Arabidopsis. Furthermore, these findings showed that rice gene function could be analyzed by employing Arabidopsis as a heterologous host. This technology provides a framework for the analysis of plant gene function in a heterologous host and of plant improvement by using heterologous gene resources.

Dual diffusion model for single-cell recording data from the superior colliculus in a brightness-discrimination task.

Monkeys made saccades to one of two peripheral targets based on the brightness of a central stimulus. Task difficulty was manipulated by varying the ratio of stimulus black-and-white pixels. Correct response probability for two monkeys varied directly with difficulty. Deep layer SC neurons exhibited robust presaccadic activity the magnitude of which was unaffected by task difficulty when the stimulus specified a saccade toward a target within the neuron's response field. Activity after stimuli specifying saccades to targets outside the response field was affected by task difficulty, increasing as the task became more difficult. A quantitative model derived from studies of human decision-making was fit to the behavioral data. The model assumes that information from the stimulus drives two independent diffusion processes. Simulated paths from the model were compared with neuron activity, assuming that firing rate is linearly related to position in the accumulation process. The firing rate data show delayed availability of discriminative information for fast, intermediate, and slow decisions when activity is aligned on the stimulus and very small differences in discriminative information when aligned on the saccade. The model produces exactly these patterns of results. The accumulation process is highly variable, allowing the process both to make errors, as is the case for the behavioral performance, and also to account for the firing rate results. Thus the dual diffusion model provides a quantitative account for both the behavior in a simple decision-making task as well as the patterns of activity in competing populations of neurons.

Single trial-based prediction of a go/no-go decision in monkey superior colliculus.

While some decision-making processes often result in the generation of an observable action, for example eye or limb movements, others may prevent actions and occur without an overt behavioral response. To understand how these decisions are made, one must look directly at their neuronal substrates. We trained two monkeys on a go/no-go task which requires a saccade to a peripheral cue stimulus (go) or maintenance of fixation (no-go). We performed binary regressions on the activity of single neurons in the superior colliculus (SC), with the go/no-go decision as a predictor variable, and constructed a virtual decision function (VDF) designed to provide a good estimation of decision content and its timing in a single trial decision process. Post hoc analyses by VDF correctly predicted the monkey's choice in more than 80% of trials. These results suggest that monitoring of SC activity has sufficient capacity to predict go/no-go decisions on a trial-by-trial basis.