Oxidative stress reduction related to the efficacy of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in first episode schizophrenia: Secondary outcome analysis of the OFFER randomized trial.

Intervention studies of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFA) as add-on therapy in patients with schizophrenia have not examined changes in oxidative stress. A randomized placebo-controlled trial of a 26-week intervention composed of 2.2g/day of n-3 PUFA was found to reduce symptom severity in first-episode schizophrenia patients. The present study is an extension of our previous report, whose secondary aim was to assess the association between the clinical effect of n-3 PUFA and changes in oxidative stress indices. Seventy-one patients aged 16-35 were enrolled in the study and randomly assigned to the study arms. Total plasma antioxidant capacity and 8-epi-isoprostane F2α content were assessed at baseline and at weeks 8 and 26 of the study as secondary outcome measures. Significant changes in oxidative stress indices favouring the intervention group were observed: decreases in 8-isoprostane F2α (p<0.001) and increases in total plasma antioxidant capacity (p<0.001). Significant correlations between changes in clinical scores relevant to symptom severity and changes in oxidative indices were observed. The results of the present study hence suggest that the efficacy of a six-month intervention with n-3 PUFA observed in first-episode schizophrenia may be related to improvement in oxidative stress indices.

[Data for epidemiological research on ageing in Germany. Opportunities and limitations of existing datasets: results of the second workshop of the working group Epidemiology of Ageing within the German Society for Epidemiology (DGEpi)]. / Daten für die epidemiologische Altersforschung. Möglichkeiten und Grenzen vorhandener Datensätze. Ergebnisse des 2. Workshops der Arbeitsgruppe Epidemiologie des Alterns der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Epidemiologie (DGEpi).

Due to the increasing proportion of older people in the general population epidemiologists are interested in identifying which factors determine healthy ageing. For this reason within the German Society for Epidemiology we founded the working group 'Epidemiology of Ageing' in 2011. The working group organised a workshop to present useful datasets on ageing in Germany for epidemiological research. Those presented included: Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP) The German Ageing Survey (DEAS) Surveys from the Robert Koch Institute: German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Adults (DEGS) and the German Health Update (GEDA) The German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) Cooperative Health Research in the Region of Augsburg (KORA-Age) Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) Germany Claims data from statutory health insurance agencies Presentations contained a brief description of the datasets, methodologies, age-related themes, their strengths and limitations as well as their availability for secondary analysis. All presented datasets can be used for longitudinal analyses and are available to the scientific community.

Application of continuous wavelet transform for determination of fiber birefringence.

Measurements of the group-birefringence dispersion of a microstructured optical fiber using the wavelength-scanning technique are reported. Resulting interferograms are processed using the continuous wavelet transform. We discuss application of this approach for determination of birefringence of few-mode fibers and show that with careful analysis it is possible to determine birefringence dispersion of the higher-order modes in optical fibers.