The analysis of telephone consultation contents of patients with bipolar disorder received by a self-help group.

Aim: Previous research shows that telephone consultation is useful in suicide prevention, substance use disorder, and other mental illnesses. However, no study has been conducted with a specific focus on telephone consultation for patients with bipolar disorder (BPD). Therefore, this study investigates the utilization of telephone consultation by patients with BPD and their families and analyzes the consultation contents to identify specific issues that they face. Methods: We investigated a record book of telephone consultation conducted between 2013 and 2019 provided by the Japanese Alliance of Bipolar Disorder, which is a self-help group in Japan specializing in BPD. The main themes regarding consultation were extracted and labelled as diagnosis, symptoms, treatment, laws and social support, interpersonal relations, social life, other people with BPD, and others, with up to three items being labeled per consultation. Results: A total of 3540 consultations were sought, and consulters who were patients accounted for 74% of the calls. The largest number of consultations were those related to symptoms (1522), followed by interpersonal relations (1003), social life (896), and treatment (797). There was a significant difference in the distribution of consultation contents between patients and their families (χ 2 = 44.595, p < 0.0001). Conclusion: Most consultations by patients with BPD were about their psychiatric symptoms. Consultation contents differed between patients and families, with patients focusing more on their own social life and families focusing more on the treatment of BPD. These findings could help health-care professionals in formulating effective psychoeducation and psychotherapy programs.

The structure of the superior and inferior parietal lobes predicts inter-individual suitability for virtual reality.

The global virtual reality (VR) market is significantly expanding and being challenged with an increased demand owing to COVID-19. Unfortunately, VR is not useful for everyone due to large interindividual variability existing in VR suitability. To understand the neurobiological basis of this variability, we obtained neural structural and functional data from the participants using 3T magnetic resonance imaging. The participants completed one of two tasks (sports training or cognitive task) using VR, which differed in the time scale (months/minutes) and domain (motor learning/attention task). Behavioral results showed that some participants improved their motor skills in the real world after 1-month training in the virtual space or obtained high scores in the 3D attention task (high suitability for VR), whereas others did not (low suitability for VR). Brain structure analysis revealed that the structural properties of the superior and inferior parietal lobes contain information that can predict an individual's suitability for VR.

Reduction of global interference of scalp-hemodynamics in functional near-infrared spectroscopy using short distance probes.

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is used to measure cerebral activity because it is simple and portable. However, scalp-hemodynamics often contaminates fNIRS signals, leading to detection of cortical activity in regions that are actually inactive. Methods for removing these artifacts using standard source-detector distance channels (Long-channel) tend to over-estimate the artifacts, while methods using additional short source-detector distance channels (Short-channel) require numerous probes to cover broad cortical areas, which leads to a high cost and prolonged experimental time. Here, we propose a new method that effectively combines the existing techniques, preserving the accuracy of estimating cerebral activity and avoiding the disadvantages inherent when applying the techniques individually. Our new method accomplishes this by estimating a global scalp-hemodynamic component from a small number of Short-channels, and removing its influence from the Long-channels using a general linear model (GLM). To demonstrate the feasibility of this method, we collected fNIRS and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measurements during a motor task. First, we measured changes in oxygenated hemoglobin concentration (∆Oxy-Hb) from 18 Short-channels placed over motor-related areas, and confirmed that the majority of scalp-hemodynamics was globally consistent and could be estimated from as few as four Short-channels using principal component analysis. We then measured ∆Oxy-Hb from 4 Short- and 43 Long-channels. The GLM identified cerebral activity comparable to that measured separately by fMRI, even when scalp-hemodynamics exhibited substantial task-related modulation. These results suggest that combining measurements from four Short-channels with a GLM provides robust estimation of cerebral activity at a low cost.