Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ADHD) has been emerging as a world-wide psychiatric disorder. There appears to be an increasing rate of stimulant drug abuse, specifically methylphenidate (MPH) which is the most common treatment for ADHD, among individuals who do not meet the criteria for ADHD and particularly for cognitive enhancement among university students. However, the long term effects of exposure to MPH are unknown. Thus, in light of a developmental approach in humans, we aimed to test the effects of adolescence exposure to enriched environment (EE) followed by MPH administration during early adulthood, on reactions to stress in adulthood. Specifically, at approximate adolescence [post natal days (PND) 30–60] rats were reared in EE and were treated with MPH during early adulthood (PND 60–90). Adult (PND 90–92) rats were exposed to mild stress and starting at PND 110, the behavioral and endocrine effects of the combined drug and environmental conditions were assessed. Following adolescence EE, long term exposure to MPH led to decreased locomotor activity and increased sucrose preference. EE had a beneficial effect on PPI (attentive abilities), which was impaired by long term exposure to MPH. Finally, the interaction between EE and, exposure to MPH led to long-term elevated corticosterone and testosterone levels. In view of the marked increase in MPH consumption over the past decade, vigilance is crucial in order to prevent potential drug abuse and its long term detrimental consequences.
Lack of established knowledge and treatment strategies, and change in work environment, may altogether critically affect the mental health and functioning of physicians treating COVID-19 patients. Thus, we examined whether treating COVID-19 patients affect the physicians’ mental health differently compared with physicians treating non-COVID-19 patients. In this cohort study, an association was blindly computed between physiologically measured anxiety and attention vigilance (collected from 1 May 2014 to 31 May 31 2016) and self-reports of anxiety, mental health aspects, and sleep quality (collected from 20 April to 30 June 2020, and analyzed from 1 July to 1 September 2020), of 91 physicians treating COVID-19 or non-COVID-19 patients. As a priori hypothesized, physicians treating COVID-19 patients showed a relative elevation in both physiological measures of anxiety (95% CI: 2317.69–2453.44 versus 1982.32–2068.46; P < 0.001) and attention vigilance (95% CI: 29.85–34.97 versus 22.84–26.61; P < 0.001), compared with their colleagues treating non-COVID-19 patients. At least 3 months into the pandemic, physicians treating COVID-19 patients reported high anxiety and low quality of sleep. Machine learning showed clustering to the COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 subgroups with a high correlation mainly between physiological and self-reported anxiety, and between physiologically measured anxiety and sleep duration. To conclude, the pattern of attention vigilance, heightened anxiety, and reduced sleep quality findings point the need for mental intervention aimed at those physicians susceptible to develop post-traumatic stress symptoms, owing to the consequences of fighting at the forefront of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Introduction: Breast cancer patients and survivors frequently report fatigue, emotional, and cognitive disturbances, which reduce performance at all levels of occupation and make life quality issues a considerable clinical concern. The aim of this study is to evaluate attention and emotion regulation across radiotherapy period and the possible effects of complementary alternative medicine (CAM). Methods: Fifty-seven patients with unilateral breast cancer underwent surgery and systemic chemotherapy before participating in this double-blind randomized study. Two thirds were given CAM (n = 38) while the rest received placebo (carrier only, n = 19). Patients’ attention and anxiety were physiologically tested at baseline, 2 and 4 weeks during the radiation period as well as 1-month after the end of radiation session. Results: Both groups showed similar levels of anxiety with no significant differences at baseline nor post-radiotherapy. Long-term significant recovery of attention performance was observed in the CAM patients, accompanied by a similar tendency in anxiety level, measured by the eye-blink probability. Conclusions: This study physiologically validates the attention impairment reported among breast cancer survivors; also, it depicted a beneficial late-effect of a routine CAM on attention dysregulation. The suggested non-invasive physiological measures can physiologically monitor patients’ psychological and cognitive well-being as well as evaluate the beneficial effect of CAM in breast cancer patients by assessing their coping ability to support the treatment plan. Thus, the results have potential clinical implications on patients’ and survivors’ quality of life. Trial Registration: NIH, NCT02890316. Registered July 2016, http://www.ClinicalTrials.gov
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