Effect of emergency declaration on mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan: A social network service-based difference-in-differences approach.

Strong lockdowns to control COVID-19 pandemic have been enforced globally and strongly restricted social activities with consequent negative effects on mental health. Japan has effectively implemented a unique voluntary policy to control COVID-19, but the mental health impact of the policy has not been examined on a large scale. In this study, we examined the effect of the first declaration on the mental health of affected residents. We used population-level questionnaire data of 17,400 people living under the state of emergency and 9208 who were not through a social-networking-service app and applied a difference-in-differences regression model to estimate the causal effect of the declaration of the state of emergency on psychological wellbeing, stratified by job category. No statistically significant effect of the declaration was observed among all job categories. This suggests that residents' psychological situation has gradually changed, possibly influenced by other factors such as the surrounding environment, rather than the declaration itself. Given that Japan has a unique policy to control COVID-19 instead of a strict lockdown, our results showed the Japanese-style policy may serve as a form of harm reduction strategy, to control the epidemic with minimal psychological harm, and enable a policy that balances disease control and mental health. Caution is necessary that this study used self-reported data from a limited time period before and after the first declaration in April 2020.

Comparative analysis of autistic traits and behavioral disorders in Prader-Willi syndrome and Asperger disorder.

Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a neuro-genetic disorder caused by the absence/loss of expression of one or more paternally expressed genes on chromosome 15 (q11-13). In this study, a comparative analysis of intelligence level and autistic traits was conducted between children with PWS (n = 30; 18 males, 12 females; age = 10.6 ± 2.8 years) and those with Asperger disorder (AD; n = 31; 24 males, 7 females; age = 10.5 ± 3.1 years). The children were compared by age group: lower elementary school age (6-8 years), upper elementary school age (9-12 years), and middle school age (13-15 years). As results, the intelligence levels of children with PWS were significantly lower than those with AD across all age groups. Autistic traits, assessed using the Pervasive Developmental Disorders Autism Society Japan Rating Scale (PARS), revealed that among elementary school age children, those with PWS had less prominent autistic traits than those with AD, however, among middle school age children, those with PWS and AD showed similar prominence. An analysis of the PARS subscale scores by age group showed that while the profiles of autistic traits for children with PWS differed from those of children with AD at elementary school age, the profiles showed no significant differences between the groups at middle school age. The findings suggest that autistic traits in PWS become gradually more prominent with increasing of age and that these autistic traits differ in their fundamental nature from those observed in AD.

Comparison of pervasive developmental disorder and schizophrenia by the Japanese version of the National Adult Reading Test.

OBJECTIVE: In adults, it is sometimes difficult to discriminate between pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) and schizophrenia (SCH) when positive symptoms are not outstanding. We examined whether the Japanese version of the National Adult Reading Test (JART), is a valid scale for evaluating pre-morbid intelligence quotient (IQ) in patients with SCH, and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) are useful for helping to discriminate between PDD and SCH. METHODS: Sixteen patients with adult PDD and 16 age-, education- and sex-matched patients with SCH participated in the present study. In addition, two groups were matched for JART and GAF scores. All subjects were scored on the JART and WAIS-R after informed consent on the aim of this study. Examiners who were blind to the diagnoses measured JART and WAIS-R. RESULTS: Significant diagnosis-by-IQ examination interactions were found (F[1,30] = 10.049, P = 0.003). Furthermore, WAIS-R scores of the PDD group were higher than those of the SCH group (P = 0.002) considering two groups were matched for JART. CONCLUSIONS: The comparison of IQ in the PDD group and in the SCH group by JART and WAIS-R might be an easy and useful method for helping to discriminate between PDD and SCH.

Reduced prefrontal hemodynamic response in pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder as measured by near-infrared spectroscopy.

Recent developments in near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) have enabled non-invasive clarification of brain functions in psychiatric disorders. Functional neuroimaging studies of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have suggested that the frontal cortex and subcortical structures may play a role in the pathophysiology of the disorder. Twelve treatment-naïve children with OCD and 12 age- and sex-matched healthy control subjects participated in the present study after giving consent. The relative concentrations of oxyhemoglobin (oxy-Hb) were measured with prefrontal probes every 0.1 s during the Stroop color-word task, using 24-channel NIRS machines. During the Stroop color-word task, the oxy-Hb changes in the OCD group were significantly smaller than those in the control group in the prefrontal cortex, especially in the frontopolar cortex. The present study suggests that children with OCD have reduced prefrontal hemodynamic response as measured by NIRS.

Effects of osmotic-release methylphenidate in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder as measured by event-related potentials.

AIM: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a relatively common central nervous system disorder in school-age children, which may involve a specific disorder in cognition and/or information processing. Event-related potentials (ERP) are commonly used as physiological measures of cognitive function as they are easily measured and non-invasive. Thus, in the present study, we examined the effects of osmotic-release methylphenidate (MPH) (Concerta), a common treatment for childhood attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), in ADHD children as measured by ERP. METHODS: Ten ADHD children participated after giving consent. Based on the guidelines for evoked potential measurement, mismatch negativity (MMN) and P300 were obtained by auditory odd-ball tasks. We measured both MMN and P300 in the drug-naive condition and after intake of osmotic-release MPH. RESULTS: The MMN amplitudes after intake of osmotic-release MPH were significantly greater than those in the drug-naive situation at Pz and C4. The P300 amplitudes after intake of osmotic-release MPH were significantly greater than those in the drug-naive situation at Cz and Pz. CONCLUSION: MMN and P300 are sensitive tools for measuring the pharmacological effects of osmotic-release MPH in ADHD children.

Tai Chi exercise versus rehabilitation for the elderly with cerebral vascular disorder: a single-blinded randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Cerebral vascular disorder (CVD) might result in a quantifiable decrease in quality of life, which is determined not only by the neurological deficits but also by impairment of cognitive functions. There are few studies that report on the cognitive effect of Tai Chi exercise (Tai Chi) on the elderly with CVD. The purpose of the present study was to examine the cognitive effect of Tai Chi on the elderly with CVD using P300 measurement, in addition to the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). METHODS: A total of 34 patients with CVD were recruited from outpatient Akistu-Kounoike Hospital and randomly assigned to receive Tai Chi (n= 17) or rehabilitation (n= 17) in group sessions once a week for 12 weeks. To examine the time courses of each score (P300 amplitude, P300 latency, GHQ score and PSQI score), repeated-measures analysis of variance was carried out with groups and time as factors. RESULTS: For the time courses of P300 amplitudes and latencies, there were no significant effects of interaction between group and time. However, significant time-by-group interactions were found for Sleep Quality (P= 0.006), GHQ total score (P= 0.005), anxiety/insomnia score (P= 0.034), and severe depression score (P= 0.020). CONCLUSIONS: Tai Chi might therefore be considered a useful non-pharmacological approach, along with rehabilitation, for the maintenance of cognitive function in the elderly with CVD and might be a more useful non-pharmacological approach for the improvement of sleep quality and depressive symptoms in the elderly with CVD than rehabilitation.

Prefrontal dysfunction in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder as measured by near-infrared spectroscopy.

Recent developments in near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) have enabled non-invasive clarification of brain functions in psychiatric disorders with measurement of hemoglobin concentrations as cerebral blood volume. Twenty medication-naïve children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and 20 age- and sex-matched healthy control subjects participated in the present study after giving consent. The relative concentrations of oxyhemoglobin (oxy-Hb) were measured with frontal probes every 0.1 s during the Stroop color-word task, using 24-channel NIRS machines. During the Stroop color-word task, the oxy-Hb changes in the control group were significantly larger than that in the ADHD group in the inferior prefrontal cortex, especially in the inferior lateral prefrontal cortex bilaterally. The Stroop color-word task used with NIRS may be one useful measurement to assess prefrontal brain dysfunction in ADHD children.

Pervasive developmental disorder with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder-like symptoms and mismatch negativity.

The present study examined the correlation between the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) Rating Scale-IV Japanese version (ADHD RS-IV-J) score and mismatch negativity (MMN), in 10 pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) children with ADHD-like symptoms, and examined whether MMN become the objective measure to assess the severity of ADHD-like symptoms in PDD children. Consequently, score of ADHD RS-IV-J had a positive correlative tendency with MMN latency and had a significant strong negative correlation with MMN amplitude. Therefore, MMN may become an objective measure to assess the severity of ADHD-like symptoms in PDD children.