Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic strongly affected every aspect of the modern society, from health to socioeconomics, leading people to experience high levels of stress.
Methods: A double-blind, cross-over, placebo-controlled clinical study was performed to investigate the ability of a food supplement containing two probiotic strains, Limosilactobacillus reuteri PBS072 and Bifidobacterium breve BB077, in supporting 33 healthy adults, working at a university, in stress management. The efficacy of the tested strains in influencing the stress response, in terms of mood and sleep behavior, was assessed using the following validated questionnaires: Profile of Mood State (POMS) and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI).
Results: Outcomes of the POMS and the PSQI demonstrated a significant reduction of the questionnaire's scores both versus baseline and placebo after 30 days of probiotic intake.
Conclusions: According to the results, the probiotic food supplement investigated showed a remarkable effect on stress management by improving the quality of sleep and the mood.
Introduction: Research in humans has identified a link between hypoglycemia and anxiety. The present study examined anxiety-like behaviors in rats that were subjected to hypoglycemia that was produced by an acute injection of insulin. Healthy female Wistar rats were subjected to a battery of tests to explore anxiety (elevated plus maze) and locomotion (open field test).
Methods: The control (CT) group received 0.9% saline (3 mL/kg, p.o.). Three other groups received 50% glucose (3 mL/kg, p.o.), insulin (0.1 UI, s.c.), or insulin + glucose (normalized glycemia [NG] group).
Results: Normal glycemic values were found in the CT and NG groups. Therefore, a single control (CT-NG) group was formed for statistical comparisons. The highest glycemic value was found in the glucose-induced hyperglycemia group. The lowest glycemic value was found in the insulin-induced hypoglycemia group. In the open field test, the most significant change was a higher number of rearings in the hypoglycemia group. In the elevated plus maze test, the CT-NG group and hyperglycemia groups exhibited similar behavior, whereas the hypoglycemia group spent a shorter time on the open arms and a longer time on the closed arms and had the highest Anxiety Index. Hyperglycemia is a typical characteristic of diabetes. Insulin normalizes glycemia. In the present study, insulin produced anxiety only when it produced hypoglycemia.
Conclusion: The main effect of acute hypoglycemia is anxiety, which may be considered an early sign of hypoglycemia in an allostatic process.
Introduction: The associations between psychological stress and gut microbiota composition are not fully understood. This study investigated associations between psychological stress and gut microbiota composition and examined the potential modifying effects of age, sex, and ethnicity on such associations.
Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted using PubMed, Web of Science, PsycINFO, and Embase databases for studies published until November 2021 which examined associations between psychological stress and gut microbiota composition.
Results: During the search process, 10,790 studies were identified, and after screening, 13 met the eligibility criteria and were included. The median sample size was 70, and the median age of participants was 28.0 years. Most of the included studies did not report associations between measures of alpha- and beta diversity of the gut microbiota composition and psychological stress. A few studies reported that the Shannon index, Chao 1, Simpson index, and weighted UniFrac were negatively associated with psychological stress. Significant reductions in several taxa at the phyla-, family-, and genus-levels were observed in participants with higher psychological stress. At the phylum level, the abundance of Proteobacteria and Verrucomicrobia were negatively associated with psychological stress. At the family-level, no more than two studies reported associations of the same microbiota with psychological stress. At the genus level, the following results were found in more than two studies; psychological stress was negatively associated with the abundance of Lachnospira, Lachnospiraceae, Phascolarctobacterium, Sutterella, and Veillonella, and positively associated with the abundance of Methanobrevibacter, Rhodococcus, and Roseburia. However, it was not possible to determine the influence of age, sex, or ethnicity due to the limited studies included.
Conclusion: Our findings provide evidence that psychological stress is associated with changes in the abundance of the gut microbiota. Larger sample longitudinal studies are needed to determine the causal relationship between psychological stress and the gut microbiota.
Introduction: Sleep disturbances are highly prevalent across most major psychiatric disorders. Alterations in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, neuroimmune mechanisms, and circadian rhythm disturbances partially explain this connection. The gut microbiome is also suspected to play a role in sleep regulation, and recent studies suggest that certain probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics, and fecal microbiome transplantation can improve sleep quality.
Methods: We aimed to assess the relationship between gut-microbiota composition, psychiatric disorders, and sleep quality in this cross-sectional, cross-disorder study. We recruited 103 participants, 63 patients with psychiatric disorders (major depressive disorder [n = 31], bipolar disorder [n = 13], psychotic disorder [n = 19]) along with 40 healthy controls. Sleep quality was assessed with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). The fecal microbiome was analyzed using 16S rRNA sequencing, and groups were compared based on alpha and beta diversity metrics, as well as differentially abundant species and genera.
Results: A transdiagnostic decrease in alpha diversity and differences in beta diversity indices were observed in psychiatric patients, compared to controls. Correlation analysis of diversity metrics and PSQI score showed no significance in the patient and control groups. However, three species, Ellagibacter isourolithinifaciens, Senegalimassilia faecalis, and uncultured Blautia sp., and two genera, Senegalimassilia and uncultured Muribaculaceae genus, were differentially abundant in psychiatric patients with good sleep quality (PSQI >8), compared to poor-sleep quality patients (PSQI ≤8).
Conclusion: In conclusion, this study raises important questions about the interconnection of the gut microbiome and sleep disturbances.
Introduction: Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterized by abnormal processing of performance-related social stimuli. Previous studies have shown altered emotional experiences and activations of different sub-regions of the striatum during processing of social stimuli in patients with SAD. However, whether and to what extent social comparisons affect behavioural and neural responses to feedback stimuli in patients with SAD is unknown.
Materials and methods: To address this issue, emotional ratings and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) responses were assessed while patients suffering from SAD and healthy controls (HC) were required to perform a choice task and received performance feedback (correct, incorrect, non-informative) that varied in relation to the performance of fictitious other participants (a few, half, or most of others had the same outcome).
Results: Across all performance feedback conditions, fMRI analyses revealed reduced activations in bilateral putamen when feedback was assumed to be received by only a few compared to half of the other participants in patients with SAD. Nevertheless, analysis of rating data showed a similar modulation of valence and arousal ratings in patients with SAD and HC depending on social comparison-related feedback.
Conclusions: This suggests altered neural processing of performance feedback depending on social comparisons in patients with SAD.
3q29 deletion syndrome is characterized by various developmental abnormalities, medical issues, and neuropsychiatric symptoms, including psychosis. Although this syndrome may confer the greatest risk for schizophrenia of any copy number variation, response to antipsychotic medication has infrequently been described in the literature, and no reviews on the topic currently exist. As such, the purpose of this article was to review treatment response in 3q29 deletion syndrome-associated psychosis. A review of the literature was completed in December 2022 for English language articles that described treatment response to antipsychotic medications in affected individuals with schizophrenia-like presentations. Five articles that collectively described eight individuals were included. Four individuals had a poor treatment response to non-clozapine antipsychotic medications, three had a partial response, and one individual's response to treatment was not described, despite having taken psychotropic medications of some kind. Additionally, three individuals received clozapine; one of whom partially responded, while two exhibited a good response. Treatment response did not clearly differ according to developmental history. 3q29 deletion syndrome may be associated with treatment-resistant psychotic symptoms. As such, clozapine therapy should be considered in such individuals, provided they meet criteria for treatment-resistant schizophrenia and no contraindications exist. However, this mini-review also highlights the need for more published case reports/series before more specific treatment recommendations can be made.
Introduction: Psychodynamic psychotherapy is an effective and widely used treatment for major depressive disorder (MDD); however, little is known about neurobiological changes associated with induced symptom improvement.
Methods: Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy with a two-dimensional J-resolved sequence served to test the relationship between glutamate (Glu) and glutamine (Gln) levels, measured separately in pregenual anterior cingulate cortex (pgACC) and the anterior midcingulate cortex (aMCC) as a control region, with change in depression symptoms after 6 months of weekly psychodynamic psychotherapy sessions in MDD patients. Depressed (N = 45) and healthy (N = 30) subjects participated in a baseline proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy measurement and a subgroup of MDD subjects (N = 21) then received once-a-week psychodynamic psychotherapy and participated in a second proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy measurement after 6 months. Change in depression symptoms was assessed using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD).
Results: Higher pretreatment pgACC Gln concentrations in MDD patients compared to healthy controls were associated with symptom severity. Patients and controls did not differ regarding Gln levels in aMCC nor regarding Glu levels in both regions. The association of pgACC Gln concentration and severity of depressive symptoms was reversed after 6 months of psychotherapy in MDD subjects. Regarding Gln in aMCC as well as Glu in both regions, there were no significant associations with improvement of depressive symptoms in the course of psychotherapy.
Discussion: Findings indicate specific regional effects of psychodynamic psychotherapy on glutamatergic neurotransmission and thereby highlight the key role of the pgACC in both depression pathophysiology and recovery.
Introduction: Little is known regarding genetic factors associated with treatment outcome of psychotic depression. We explored genomic associations of remission and relapse of psychotic depression treated with pharmacotherapy.
Methods: Genomic analyses were performed in 171 men and women aged 18-85 years with an episode of psychotic depression who participated in the Study of the Pharmacotherapy of Psychotic Depression II (STOP-PD II). Participants were treated with open-label sertraline plus olanzapine for up to 12 weeks; those who achieved remission or near-remission and maintained it following 8 weeks of stabilization were eligible to participate in a 36-week randomized controlled trial that compared sertraline plus olanzapine with sertraline plus placebo in preventing relapse.
Results: There were no genome-wide significant associations with either remission or relapse. However, at a suggestive threshold, SNP rs1026501 (31 kb from SYNPO2) in the whole sample and rs6844137 (within the intronic region of SYNPO2) in the European ancestry subsample were associated with a decreased likelihood of remission. In polygenic risk analyses, participants who had greater improvement after antidepressant treatments showed a higher likelihood of reaching remission. Those who achieved remission and had a higher polygenic risk for Alzheimer's disease had a significantly decreased likelihood of relapse.
Conclusion: Our analyses provide preliminary insights into the genetic architecture of remission and relapse in a well-characterized group of patients with psychotic depression.
Introduction: In our previous study, we successfully constructed the recombinant brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)-adeno-associated virus (AAV) modified by the influenza virus hemagglutinin-2 (HA2) and trans-transcriptional activator (TAT). BDNF-HA2TAT/AAV has been confirmed to have antidepression effects. BDNF-HA2TAT/AAV seems a promising therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as the BDNF plays an important role in the function of the nervous system. However, the effects of BDNF-HA2TAT/AAV on PTSD caused by the single prolonged stress (SPS) model are unknown.
Methods: After the SPS model was established, BDNF-HA2TAT/AAV was administered (1 × 1011 vg per rat) through inhalation in the SPS + BDNF group for 2 weeks. Next, the rats underwent behavioral tests including an open-field test (OFT), elevated plus maze (EPM), and a forced swimming test (FST). Sera and hippocampi were obtained from the rats, and an enzyme-linked immune sorbent assay was performed to determine corticosterone concentration. Western blotting was conducted to determine BDNF, tyrosine kinase receptor B (TrkB), cAMP-response element-binding protein, and protein kinase B levels.
Results: BDNF-HA2TAT/AAV released anxiety-like and depression-like behaviors in OFT, EPM, and FST. BDNF-HA2TAT/AAV also results in high plasma concentrations of corticosterone, BDNF, and TrkB in the hippocampus.
Conclusions: SPS is an excellent animal model to assess PTSD. BDNF-HA2TAT/AAV therapeutically effects PTSD caused by SPS, with changes seen in plasma corticosterone and BDNF-TrkB pathways within the hippocampus; therefore, BDNF-HA2TAT/AAV may be a promising treatment for patients with PTSD.
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