No abstract

The high rate of major depressive episodes that occur after the onset of cognitive impairment among patients with Alzheimer's disease (the majority of whom had no premorbid history of major depression), common emergence in the early stages of dementia when symptoms of cognitive impairment are least likely to contribute to the syndromal diagnosis of major depression, and differences in the clinical presentations of the major depressive episodes of Alzheimer's disease patients and nondemented elderly comparison subjects, all support the validity of the major depressive syndrome of Alzheimer's disease. Our findings suggest that the major depressive syndrome of Alzheimer's disease may be among the most common mood disorders of older adults.

Participants' positive perceptions of self-compassion offer encouragement to clinicians as it appears people can connect with the concept meaningfully as well as seeing it as being useful. Clinicians focusing on self-compassion may gain greater efficacy when they incorporate both aspects within interventions. Findings about the difficulties associated with self-compassion provide valuable information as to why people find it difficult to adopt which can be used in the development of future clinical interventions.

This pragmatic randomized controlled trial tested the effectiveness of long-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy (LTPP) as an adjunct to treatmentas-usual according to UK national guidelines (TAU), compared to TAU alone, in patients with long-standing major depression who had failed at least two different treatments and were considered to have treatment-resistant depression. Patients (N5129) were recruited from primary care and randomly allocated to the two treatment conditions. They were assessed at 6-monthly intervals during the 18 months of treatment and at 24, 30 and 42 months during follow-up. The primary outcome measure was the 17-item version of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS-17), with complete remission defined as a HDRS-17 score 8, and partial remission defined as a HDRS-17 score 12. Secondary outcome measures included self-reported depression as assessed by the Beck Depression Inventory -II, social functioning as evaluated by the Global Assessment of Functioning, subjective wellbeing as rated by the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation -Outcome Measure, and satisfaction with general activities as assessed by the Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire. Complete remission was infrequent in both groups at the end of treatment (9.4% in the LTPP group vs. 6.5% in the control group) as well as at 42-month follow-up (14.9% vs. 4.4%). Partial remission was not significantly more likely in the LTPP than in the control group at the end of treatment (32.1% vs. 23.9%, p50.37), but significant differences emerged during follow-up (24 months: 38.8% vs. 19.2%, p50.03; 30 months: 34.7% vs. 12.2%, p50.008; 42 months: 30.0% vs. 4.4%, p50.001). Both observer-based and self-reported depression scores showed steeper declines in the LTPP group, alongside greater improvements on measures of social adjustment. These data suggest that LTPP can be useful in improving the long-term outcome of treatment-resistant depression. End-oftreatment evaluations or short follow-ups may miss the emergence of delayed therapeutic benefit.

Apathy is a common behavioral disturbance in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Recent studies have linked the presence of apathy to alterations in frontal lobe functions, but few studies have explored the relationship using standard neuropsychological measures in patients with AD. We administered a comprehensive battery of neuropsychological tests and a behavior rating scale to 80 patients with AD. We explored the relationship of apathy to executive dysfunction. AD patients with apathy performed significantly worse on tests of executive function (WAIS-R Digit Symbol, Trail-Making, Stroop Color Interference Test) than AD patients without apathy. The presence of dysphoria did not modify these results and no significant relationships were found between tests of executive functions and dysphoria. Performance on executive measures as a group were effective in correctly classifying patients as apathetic or nonapathetic with 75% accuracy. Neuropsychological measures not dependent on executive functions were unrelated to apathy. Apathy is associated with executive dysfunction and not with other neuropsychological deficits. Apathy is distinct from dysphoria. (JINS, 2002, 8, 373-381.)

In this study, ascorbate (Asc) and glutathione (GSH) concentrations were quantified noninvasively using double-edited 1H MRS at 4 T in the occipital cortex of healthy young [age (mean ± standard deviation) = 20.4 ± 1.4 years] and elderly (age = 76.6 ± 6.1 years) human subjects. Elderly subjects had a lower GSH concentration than younger subjects (p < 0.05). The Asc concentration was not significantly associated with age. Furthermore, the lactate (Lac) concentration was higher in elderly than young subjects. Lower GSH and higher Lac concentrations are indications of defective protection against oxidative damage and impaired mitochondrial respiration. The extent to which the observed concentration differences could be associated with physiological differences and methodological artifacts is discussed. In conclusion, GSH and Asc concentrations were compared noninvasively for the first time in young vs elderly subjects.

We report on a test to assess the dynamic brain function at high temporal resolution using magnetoencephalography (MEG) for 45-60 s. After fitting an autoregressive integrative moving average (ARIMA) model and taking the stationary residuals, all pairwise, zero-lag, partial cross-correlations P CC 0 ij and their z-transforms z 0 ij between i and j sensors were calculated, providing estimates of the strength and sign (positive, negative) of direct synchronous coupling at 1 ms temporal resolution. We found that subsets of z 0 ij successfully classified individual subjects to their respective groups (multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, Sjögren's syndrome, chronic alcoholism, facial pain, healthy controls) and gave excellent external cross-validation results..

Past studies indicate that patients with incentive to fake neuropsychological symptoms are likely to have lower finger tapping scores than credible patients. The present study builds upon past research by investigating finger tapping performance for seven groups: (a) noncredible patients (as determined by failed psychometric and behavioral criteria), and patients with (b) closed head injury, (c) dementia, (d) mental retardation, (e) psychosis, or (f) depression, and (g) healthy older controls. Results showed that men tapped faster than women, requiring that groups be divided by gender. Noncredible male and female patients tapped slower than their comparison group counterparts. Dominant hand score proved to be more sensitive to noncredible performance than other scores (nondominant, sum of both hands, difference between dominant and nondominant), especially for women. Sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive value tables are presented. With specificity set at 90% for the comparison groups combined, a dominant hand cutoff score of