Interleukin-6 and total antioxidant capacity levels following N-acetylcysteine and a combination nutraceutical intervention in a randomised controlled trial for bipolar disorder.

OBJECTIVE: The aims of this study were to evaluate changes in inflammatory and oxidative stress levels following treatment with N-acetylcysteine (NAC) or mitochondrial-enhancing agents (CT), and to assess the how these changes may predict and/or moderate clinical outcomes primarily the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS). METHODS: This study involved secondary analysis of a placebo-controlled randomised trial (n = 163). Serum samples were collected at baseline and week 16 of the clinical trial to determine changes in Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) following adjunctive CT and/or NAC treatment, and to explore the predictability of the outcome or moderator effects of these markers. RESULTS: In the NAC-treated group, no difference was observed in serum IL-6 and TAC levels after 16 weeks of treatment with NAC or CT. However, results from a moderator analysis showed that in the CT group, lower IL-6 levels at baseline was a significant moderator of MADRS χ2 (df) = 4.90, p = 0.027) and Clinical Global Impression-Improvement (CGI-I, χ2 (df) = 6.28 p = 0.012). In addition, IL-6 was a non-specific but significant predictor of functioning (based on the Social and Occupational Functioning Assessment Scale (SOFAS)), indicating that individuals with higher IL-6 levels at baseline had a greater improvement on SOFAS regardless of their treatment (p = 0.023). CONCLUSION: Participants with lower IL-6 levels at baseline had a better response to the adjunctive treatment with the mitochondrial-enhancing agents in terms of improvements in MADRS and CGI-I outcomes.

The identification, assessment and management of difficult-to-treat depression: An international consensus statement.

BACKGROUND: Many depressed patients are not able to achieve or sustain symptom remission despite serial treatment trials - often termed "treatment resistant depression". A broader, perhaps more empathic concept of "difficult-to-treat depression" (DTD) was considered. METHODS: A consensus group discussed the definition, clinical recognition, assessment and management implications of the DTD heuristic. RESULTS: The group proposed that DTD be defined as "depression that continues to cause significant burden despite usual treatment efforts". All depression management should include a thorough initial assessment. When DTD is recognized, a regular reassessment that employs a multi-dimensional framework to identify addressable barriers to successful treatment (including patient-, illness- and treatment-related factors) is advised, along with specific recommendations for addressing these factors. The emphasis of treatment, in the first instance, shifts from a goal of remission to optimal symptom control, daily psychosocial functional and quality of life, based on a patient-centred approach with shared decision-making to enhance the timely consideration of all treatment options (including pharmacotherapy, psychotherapy, neurostimulation, etc.) to optimize outcomes when sustained remission is elusive. LIMITATIONS: The recommended definition and management of DTD is based largely on expert consensus. While DTD would seem to have clinical utility, its specificity and objectivity may be insufficient to define clinical populations for regulatory trial purposes, though DTD could define populations for service provision or phase 4 trials. CONCLUSIONS: DTD provides a clinically useful conceptualization that implies a search for and remediation of specific patient-, illness- and treatment obstacles to optimizing outcomes of relevance to patients.

Cognitive and emotional impairments underpinning suicidal activity in patients with mood disorders: an fMRI study.

OBJECTIVE: Mood disorders are strongly associated with suicide, the prevention of which is predicated on timely detection of suicidal activity (ideation, behaviour). Building on our previous work, we sought to determine the nature of neural responses to an emotional-cognitive task in patients with varying degrees of suicidal activity. METHOD: Seventy-nine patients with mood disorders were assessed clinically and scanned using fMRI. Neural responses to an Emotional Face-Word Stroop task were compared with 66 healthy controls. We identified regions of interest from seven key networks and examined responses to incongruent stimuli (Happy face-'Sad' word; Sad face-'Happy' word). RESULTS: In comparison with healthy controls, patients had differential activity during both incongruent conditions. When examining for associations with suicidal activity within the patient group, those with higher scores had decreased default mode network activity for Happy face-'Sad' word manipulation, and increased basal ganglia network activity for Sad face-'Happy' word manipulation, after controlling for patient characteristics. CONCLUSION: The fMRI findings suggest that suicidal activity in patients with mood disorders may be underpinned by cognitive-emotional deficits. These findings have implications for future suicide research and for achieving a deeper understanding of suicidal activity that may ultimately inform clinical detection and management.

Separation from parents during childhood trauma predicts adult attachment security and post-traumatic stress disorder.

BACKGROUND: Prolonged separation from parental support is a risk factor for psychopathology. This study assessed the impact of brief separation from parents during childhood trauma on adult attachment tendencies and post-traumatic stress. METHOD: Children (n = 806) exposed to a major Australian bushfire disaster in 1983 and matched controls (n = 725) were assessed in the aftermath of the fires (mean age 7-8 years) via parent reports of trauma exposure and separation from parents during the fires. Participants (n = 500) were subsequently assessed 28 years after initial assessment on the Experiences in Close Relationships scale to assess attachment security, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was assessed using the PTSD checklist. RESULTS: Being separated from parents was significantly related to having an avoidant attachment style as an adult (B = -3.69, s.e. = 1.48, ß = -0.23, p = 0.013). Avoidant attachment was associated with re-experiencing (B = 0.03, s.e. = 0.01, ß = 0.31, p = 0.045), avoidance (B = 0.03, s.e. = 0.01, ß = 0.30, p = 0.001) and numbing (B = 0.03, s.e. = 0.01, ß = 0.30, p < 0.001) symptoms. Anxious attachment was associated with re-experiencing (B = 0.03, s.e. = 0.01, ß = 0.18, p = 0.001), numbing (B = 0.03, ß = 0.30, s.e. = 0.01, p < 0.001) and arousal (B = 0.04, s.e. = 0.01, ß = 0.43, p < 0.001) symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrate that brief separation from attachments during childhood trauma can have long-lasting effects on one's attachment security, and that this can be associated with adult post-traumatic psychopathology.

Common and distinct patterns of grey-matter volume alteration in major depression and bipolar disorder: evidence from voxel-based meta-analysis.

Finding robust brain substrates of mood disorders is an important target for research. The degree to which major depression (MDD) and bipolar disorder (BD) are associated with common and/or distinct patterns of volumetric changes is nevertheless unclear. Furthermore, the extant literature is heterogeneous with respect to the nature of these changes. We report a meta-analysis of voxel-based morphometry (VBM) studies in MDD and BD. We identified studies published up to January 2015 that compared grey matter in MDD (50 data sets including 4101 individuals) and BD (36 data sets including 2407 individuals) using whole-brain VBM. We used statistical maps from the studies included where available and reported peak coordinates otherwise. Group comparisons and conjunction analyses identified regions in which the disorders showed common and distinct patterns of volumetric alteration. Both disorders were associated with lower grey-matter volume relative to healthy individuals in a number of areas. Conjunction analysis showed smaller volumes in both disorders in clusters in the dorsomedial and ventromedial prefrontal cortex, including the anterior cingulate cortex and bilateral insula. Group comparisons indicated that findings of smaller grey-matter volumes relative to controls in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and left hippocampus, along with cerebellar, temporal and parietal regions were more substantial in major depression. These results suggest that MDD and BD are characterised by both common and distinct patterns of grey-matter volume changes. This combination of differences and similarities has the potential to inform the development of diagnostic biomarkers for these conditions.

Cognitive effects of adjunctive N-acetyl cysteine in psychosis.

BACKGROUND: Cognitive deficits are predictors of functional outcome in patients with psychosis. While conventional antipsychotics are relatively effective on positive symptoms, their impact on negative and cognitive symptoms is limited. Recent studies have established a link between oxidative stress and neurocognitive deficits in psychosis. N-acetylcysteine (NAC), a glutathione precursor with glutamatergic properties, has shown efficacy on negative symptoms and functioning in patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, respectively. However, there are few evidence-based approaches for managing cognitive impairment in psychosis. The present study aims to examine the cognitive effects of adjunctive NAC treatment in a pooled subgroup of participants with psychosis who completed neuropsychological assessment in two trials of both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. METHOD: A sample of 58 participants were randomized in a double fashion to receive 2 g/day of NAC (n = 27) or placebo (n = 31) for 24 weeks. Attention, working memory and executive function domains were assessed. Differences between cognitive performance at baseline and end point were examined using Wilcoxon's test. The Mann-Whitney test was used to examine the differences between the NAC and placebo groups at the end point. RESULTS: Participants treated with NAC had significantly higher working memory performance at week 24 compared with placebo (U = 98.5, p = 0.027). CONCLUSIONS: NAC may have an impact on cognitive performance in psychosis, as a significant improvement in working memory was observed in the NAC-treated group compared with placebo; however, these preliminary data require replication. Glutamatergic compounds such as NAC may constitute a step towards the development of useful therapies for cognitive impairment in psychosis.

Association of FKBP5 polymorphisms and resting-state activity in a frontotemporal-parietal network.

The FKBP5 polymorphism is a key regulator of the glucocorticoid system underpinning stress responsivity, and risk alleles can increase vulnerability for developing posttraumatic stress disorder. To delineate the specific role of FKBP5 risk alleles unencumbered by the confounds of psychopathology, this study investigated whether high-risk alleles of the FKBP5 polymorphism are characterized by distinctive neural activity during resting state. Thirty-seven healthy participants were selected on the basis of four SNPs in the FKBP5 gene region (rs3800373, rs9296158, rs1360780 and rs9470080) to determine participants who were carriers of the FKBP5 high- and low-risk alleles. Spatial maps, power spectra and connectivity in neural networks active during resting state were assessed with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). During resting-state fMRI, FKBP5 low-risk allele group displayed more power in the low frequency range (<0.1 Hz) than the high-risk allele group, who had significantly more power in higher frequency bins (>0.15 Hz). This difference was apparent only in a frontotemporoparietal network underpinning salience detection and emotion processing. This study provides initial evidence that the risk alleles of the FKBP5 polymorphism are associated with different resting-state activity in a frontotemporal-parietal network, and may point to mechanisms underpinning high-risk carriers' vulnerability to severe stress reactions.

Severity alone should no longer determine therapeutic choice in the management of depression in primary care: findings from a survey of general practitioners.

BACKGROUND: The treatment of depression in primary care remains suboptimal for reasons that are complex and multifactorial. Typically GPs have to make difficult decisions in limited time and therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the management of depression of varying severity and the factors associated with treatment choices. METHOD: Nested within a primary care educational initiative we conducted a survey of 1760 GPs. The GPs each identified four patients with clinical depression whom they had treated recently and then answered questions regarding their diagnosis and management of each patient. RESULTS: Comorbid anxiety, sadness and decreased concentration appeared to direct the management of depression toward psychological therapy, whereas comorbid pain and a patient's overall functioning, such as the ability to do simple everyday activities, directed the initiation of pharmacological treatment. The use of antidepressants with a broader spectrum of actions (acting on multiple neurotransmitters) increased from mild to severe depression, whereas this did not occur with the more selective agents. SSRIs were prescribed more frequently compared with all other antidepressants, irrespective of depression severity. LIMITATIONS: GPs chose the RADAR programme and therefore they were potentially more likely to have an interest in mental health compared to GPs who did not participate. CONCLUSIONS: GPs do not appear to be determining pharmacological treatment based on depression subtype and specificity, but rather on the basis of the total number of symptoms and overall severity. While acknowledging important differences between primary care and specialist practice, it is suggested that guidelines to assist GPs in matching treatment to depression subtype may be of practical assistance in decision-making, and the delivery of more effective treatments.

Chronobiology of mood disorders.

OBJECTIVE: As part of a series of papers examining chronobiology ['Getting depression clinical guidelines right: time for change?' Kuiper et al. Acta Psychiatr Scand 2013;128(Suppl. 444):24-30; and 'Manipulating melatonin in managing mood' Boyce & Hopwood. ActaPsychiatrScand 2013;128(Suppl. 444):16-23], in this article, we review and synthesise the extant literature pertaining to the chronobiology of depression and provide a preliminary model for understanding the neural systems involved. METHOD: A selective literature search was conducted using search engines such as MEDLINE/PubMed, combining terms associated with chronobiology and mood disorders. RESULTS: We propose that understanding of sleep-wake function and mood can be enhanced by simultaneously considering the circadian system, the sleep homoeostat and the core stress system, all of which are likely to be simultaneously disrupted in major mood disorders. This integrative approach is likely to allow flexible modelling of a much broader range of mood disorder presentations and phenomenology. CONCLUSION: A preliminary multifaceted model is presented, which will require further development and testing. Future depression research should aim to examine multiple systems concurrently in order to derive a more sophisticated understanding of the underlying neurobiology.

Getting depression clinical practice guidelines right: time for change?

OBJECTIVE: As part of a series of papers ['Chronobiology of mood disorders' Malhi & Kuiper. Acta Psychiatr Scand 2013;128(Suppl. 444):2-15; and 'It's time we managed depression: The emerging role of chronobiology' Malhi et al. Acta Psychiatr Scand 2013;128(Suppl. 444):1] examining chronobiology in the context of depression, this article examines recent western clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for the treatment of depression with respect to the recommendations they make, in particular as regards chronobiological treatments, and briefly considers the implications of their methodology and approach. METHOD: Five international treatment guidelines, which had been published in the past 5 years, were identified, representing North American and European views. Chosen guidelines were reviewed by the authors, and the relevant recommendations were distributed for discussion and subsequent synthesis. RESULTS: Most current guidelines do not address chronobiology in detail. Chronotherapeutic recommendations are tentative, although agomelatine is considered as an option for major depression and bright light therapy for seasonal affective disorder. Sleep deprivation is not routinely recommended. CONCLUSION: Recommendations are limited by the lack of reliable therapeutic markers for chronotherapeutics. Current evidence supports use of light therapy in seasonal depression, but in non-seasonal depression there is insufficient evidence to support reliance on chronotherapeutics over existing treatment modalities.