PurposeAfter completing treatment, cancer survivors may suffer from a multitude of physical and mental health impairments, resulting in compromised quality of life. This exploratory study investigated whether two mind–body interventions, i.e., Mind–Body Bridging (MBB) and Mindfulness Meditation (MM), could improve posttreatment cancer survivors’ self-reported sleep disturbance and comorbid symptoms, as compared to sleep hygiene education (SHE) as an active control.MethodsThis randomized controlled trial examined 57 cancer survivors with clinically significant self-reported sleep disturbance, randomly assigned to receive MBB, MM, or SHE. All interventions were conducted in three sessions, once per week. Patient-reported outcomes were assessed via the Medical Outcomes Study Sleep Scale and other indicators of psychosocial functioning relevant to quality of life, stress, depression, mindfulness, self-compassion, and well-being.ResultsMixed effects model analysis revealed that mean sleep disturbance symptoms in the MBB (p = .0029) and MM (p = .0499) groups were lower than in the SHE group, indicating that both mind–body interventions improved sleep. In addition, compared with the SHE group, the MBB group showed reductions in self-reported depression symptoms (p = .040) and improvements in overall levels of mindfulness (p = .018), self-compassion (p = .028), and well-being (p = .019) at postintervention.ConclusionsThis study provides preliminary evidence that brief sleep-focused MBB and MM are promising interventions for sleep disturbance in cancer survivors. Integrating MBB or MM into posttreatment supportive plans should enhance care of cancer survivors with sleep disturbance. Because MBB produced additional secondary benefits, MBB may serve as a promising multipurpose intervention for posttreatment cancer survivors suffering from sleep disturbance and other comorbid symptoms.Implications for Cancer SurvivorsTwo brief sleep-focused mind–body interventions investigated in the study were effective in reducing sleep disturbance and one of them further improved other psychosocial aspects of the cancer survivors’ life. Management of sleep problems in survivors is a high priority issue that demands more attention in cancer survivorship.

Febrile seizures are the most common form of childhood seizures, occurring in 2% to 5% of North American children. We report a large Utah family with 21 members affected by febrile seizures inherited as an autosomal dominant trait. All had generalized tonic–clonic seizures with onset associated with fever, consistent with the consensus febrile seizure phenotype, and none had febrile seizures beyond 6 years of age. Eighteen affected individuals had recurrent febrile seizures. Eight individuals developed afebrile seizures between ages 5 and 13 years. Afebrile seizures consisted of generalized tonic–clonic, generalized tonic, generalized atonic, simple partial, and partial complex seizure types and were associated with abnormal electroencephalographic findings in 5 individuals, all of whom were intellectually normal. We undertook linkage analysis in this family, defining the disease phenotype as febrile seizures alone. Linkage analysis in epilepsy candidate gene/loci regions failed to show evidence for linkage to febrile seizures. However, a genomewide scan and subsequent fine mapping revealed significant evidence for a new febrile seizure locus (FEB3) on chromosome 2q23‐24 with linkage to the marker D2S2330 (LOD score 8.08 at θ = 0.001). Haplotype analysis defined a critical 10‐cM region between markers D2S141 and D2S2345 that contains the FEB3 locus.

This study provides preliminary evidence that a brief sleep-focused MBB could be a promising intervention for sleep and potentially other comorbid symptoms (e.g., PTSD). MBB could help patients develop awareness skills to deal with sleep-related symptoms. Integration of MBB into primary care settings may enhance care of patients with sleep disturbance and co-morbid symptoms.

Objective The main aim of this exploratory study was to assess whether salivary α-amylase (sAA) and salivary cortisol levels would be positively modulated by sleep-focused mind-body interventions in female and male cancer survivors. Methods We conducted a randomized controlled trial in which 57 cancer survivors with self-reported sleep disturbance received either a Sleep Hygiene Education (SHE; n=18) control, or one of two experimental mind-body interventions, namely, Mind-Body Bridging (MBB; n=19) or Mindfulness Meditation (MM; n=20). Interventions were three sessions each conducted once per week for three consecutive weeks. Saliva cortisol and sAA were measured at baseline and one week after the last session. Participants also completed a sleep scale at the same time points when saliva was collected for biomarker measurement. Results Our study revealed that at post-study assessment, mean sAA levels upon awakening (“Waking” sample) declined in MBB compared with that of SHE. Mean Waking cortisol levels did not differ among treatment groups but declined slightly in SHE. Self-reported sleep improved across the three interventions at Post-assessment, with largest improvements in the MBB intervention. Conclusion In this exploratory study, sleep focused mind-body intervention (MBB) attenuated Waking sAA levels, suggesting positive influences of a mind-body intervention on sympathetic activity in cancer survivors with sleep disturbance.

ObjectiveTo develop a resource of systematically collected, longitudinal clinical data and biospecimens for assisting in the investigation into neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) epidemiology, pathogenesis, and treatment.MethodsTo illustrate its research-enabling purpose, epidemiologic patterns and disease phenotypes were assessed among enrolled subjects, including age at disease onset, annualized relapse rate (ARR), and time between the first and second attacks.ResultsAs of December 2017, the Collaborative International Research in Clinical and Longitudinal Experience Study (CIRCLES) had enrolled more than 1,000 participants, of whom 77.5% of the NMOSD cases and 71.7% of the controls continue in active follow-up. Consanguineous relatives of patients with NMOSD represented 43.6% of the control cohort. Of the 599 active cases with complete data, 84% were female, and 76% were anti-AQP4 seropositive. The majority were white/Caucasian (52.6%), whereas blacks/African Americans accounted for 23.5%, Hispanics/Latinos 12.4%, and Asians accounted for 9.0%. The median age at disease onset was 38.4 years, with a median ARR of 0.5. Seropositive cases were older at disease onset, more likely to be black/African American or Hispanic/Latino, and more likely to be female.ConclusionsCollectively, the CIRCLES experience to date demonstrates this study to be a useful and readily accessible resource to facilitate accelerating solutions for patients with NMOSD.