Analysis of efficacy and tolerability of vortioxetine 20 mg/day, and optimal timing of dose adjustment, in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD).

Pooled analysis of six randomized, fixed-dose studies of vortioxetine 5 to 20 mg/day. Mean change from baseline in Montgomery–Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) total score was analyzed by vortioxetine dose using a mixed model for repeated measures. Tolerability was assessed over the 8-week treatment period and from day 8 (ie, following dose increase to 20 mg/day). Data from three randomized, flexible-dose studies were examined for frequency and timing of dose adjustment.

A clear dose–response relationship for vortioxetine was confirmed in terms of improvement in MADRS total score. Significant differences vs placebo were seen for vortioxetine 20 mg/day from week 2 onwards; vortioxetine 10 mg did not separate from placebo until week 4. At week 8, mean change in MADRS total score from baseline was significantly greater for vortioxetine 20 mg/day vs 10 mg/day (difference, −1.03 points; P < .05). Incidence of adverse events was not increased in patients who received vortioxetine 20 mg/day vs 10 mg/day. In flexible-dose studies, dosage was increased to 20 mg/day after 1 week in 48.0% of patients; final dosage was 20 mg/day in 64.3% of patients.

Vortioxetine 20 mg is significantly more effective than vortioxetine 10 mg in patients with MDD, with a similar tolerability profile. In flexible-dose studies, almost half of all patients received 20 mg/day after 1 week and two-thirds received 20 mg/day as their final dosage.

Compulsive buying behavior or pathological buying is increasingly being recognized as a psychiatric disorder, and various psychosocial factors have been proposed to contribute to this problem. This study aimed to identify the association between compulsive buying behavior, stress, anxiety, depression, and impulsivity.

This cross-sectional, online survey used Google Forms to collect sociodemographic and clinical details of the participants between June 2021 and August 2021. In addition, they were evaluated on Pathological Buying Screener, Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale – 21 (DASS-21), and Barratt Impulsiveness Scale – Brief (BIS-Brief).

Out of 426 participants with valid responses, 169 (39.7%) qualified for pathological buying. The participant groups “with” and “without” pathological buying were comparable on sociodemographic characteristics, the preferred mode of shopping, and daily Internet use duration. Those “with” pathological buying scored significantly higher on DASS-21 and BIS-Brief. Both DASS-21 and BIS-Brief scores were predictors of pathological buying scores.

There is a significant association between pathological buying, psychological distress, and impulsivity.

To better understand current practices of U.S.-based physicians in the management of Tourette syndrome (TS) and identify gaps that may be addressed by future education.

Two survey instruments were developed to gather data on management of TS and perceptions from physicians and caregivers of children with TS. The clinician survey was developed in consultation with a TS physician expert and utilized clinical vignettes to assess and quantify practice patterns. The caregiver survey was adapted from the clinician survey and other published studies and gathered details on diagnosis, treatment, and perceptions regarding management.

Data included responses from 138 neurologists (including 57 pediatric neurologists), 162 psychiatrists (including 42 pediatric psychiatrists), and 67 caregivers. Most (65%) pediatric neurologists rely solely on clinical findings to make a diagnosis, whereas the majority of other specialists utilize additional testing (eg, neuroimaging, lab testing, and genetics). Most psychiatrists (96%) utilize standardized criteria to make a diagnosis, whereas 22% of neurologists do not. Many physicians (44% of psychiatrists and 20% of neurologists) use pharmacotherapy to treat a patient with “slightly bothersome” tics and no functional impairment, whereas caregivers favored behavioral therapy. Most (76%) caregivers preferred to make the final treatment decision, whereas 80% of physicians preferred equal or physician-directed decision-making.

This study provides insight into practice patterns and perceptions of U.S.-based neurologists and psychiatrists in managing TS. Results highlight the potential value of physician education, including diagnostic approach, tic management and monitoring, involvement of caregivers in decision-making, and updates on TS management.

There has been increased interest in repurposing anti-inflammatories for the treatment of bipolar depression. Evidence from high-income countries suggests that these agents may work best for specific depressive symptoms in a subset of patients with biochemical evidence of inflammation but data from lower-middle income countries (LMICs) is scarce. This secondary analysis explored the relationship between pretreatment inflammatory markers and specific depressive symptoms, clinical measures, and demographic variables in participants with bipolar depression in Pakistan.

The current study is a cross-sectional secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial of two anti-inflammatory medications (minocycline and celecoxib) for bipolar depression (n = 266). A series of logistic and linear regression models were completed to assess the relationship between C-reactive protein (CRP) (CRP > or < 3 mg/L and log10CRP) and clinical and demographic features of interest and symptoms of depression. Baseline clinical trial data was used to extract clinical and demographic features and symptoms of depression were assessed using the 24-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale.

The prevalence of low-grade inflammation (CRP > 3 mg/L) in the sample was 70.9%. After adjusting for baseline body mass index, socioeconomic status, age, gender, symptoms related to anhedonia, fatigue, and motor retardation were most associated with low-grade inflammation.

Bipolar disorder (BD) patients from LMICs may experience higher rates of peripheral inflammation than have been reported in Western populations with BD. Future trials of repurposed anti-inflammatory agents that enrich for participants with these symptom profiles may inform the development of personalized treatment for bipolar depression in LMICs.

Recently, a novel approach to obsessive-compulsive disorder has emerged, implicating altered reward functioning in the disorder. Yet, no study to date has directly examined the attentional aspect of reward functioning in participants with obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms, with past research mostly relying on reaction-time-based tasks.

A reward-based value-modulated attentional capture task was completed by a sample of nonclinical student participants—44 with high (HOC) and 48 with low (LOC) levels of OC symptoms. We measured the extent to which high and low reward-signaling distractors captured attention and impaired performance on the task, resulting in a lower possibility of obtaining a monetary reward. Attentional capture was indexed via fixation data, and further explored using saccade data.

Both groups performed more poorly when a high-reward signaling distractor was present, compared to when a low-reward signaling distractor was present. Importantly, this difference was significantly greater in the HOC group, and was found to be driven by the specific effects of reward-signaling distractors. Similar results emerged when exploring saccade data, and remained significant after controlling for both addiction-related compulsivity and depressive symptoms.

Current findings suggest that attentional reward-related functioning may be associated with OC symptoms. Different aspects of reward functioning, including attention, should be further explored and incorporated into future research and clinical endeavors.

Trichotillomania (TTM) and skin picking disorder (SPD) are common and often debilitating mental health conditions, grouped under the umbrella term of body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRBs). Recent clinical subtyping found that there were three distinct subtypes of TTM and two of SPD. Whether these clinical subtypes map on to any unique neurobiological underpinnings, however, remains unknown.

Two hundred and fifty one adults [193 with a BFRB (85.5% [n = 165] female) and 58 healthy controls (77.6% [n = 45] female)] were recruited from the community for a multicenter between-group comparison using structural neuroimaging. Differences in whole brain structure were compared across the subtypes of BFRBs, controlling for age, sex, scanning site, and intracranial volume.

When the subtypes of TTM were compared, low awareness hair pullers demonstrated increased cortical volume in the lateral occipital lobe relative to controls and sensory sensitive pullers. In addition, impulsive/perfectionist hair pullers showed relative decreased volume near the lingual gyrus of the inferior occipital–parietal lobe compared with controls.

These data indicate that the anatomical substrates of particular forms of BFRBs are dissociable, which may have implications for understanding clinical presentations and treatment response.

With the continuous development of globalization, the internationalization of tourism has become an important trend in today’s society. More and more people are choosing to travel abroad to experience the diversity of different countries and cultures. However, when most tourists travel, they will inevitably have anxiety due to a variety of factors such as worrying about the quality of the tour, whether the plane is delayed, whether the diet is customary, and so on.

This paper is to further understand and study the influence of cross-cultural tourism on tourists’ generalized anxiety disorder, and improve tourists’ travel experience and mental health. In this study, 50 tourists with generalized anxiety disorder were selected as experimental subjects. Among them, 25 tourists were in the experimental group who received cross-cultural tourism treatment, and 25 tourists were in the control group that received traditional psychological treatment. The treatment period was 3 months for both groups.

The results were measured using anxiety items from the Stanford Acute Stress Response Questionnaire (SASRQ). The higher the score, the more severe the anxiety. The experimental results showed that the anxiety symptoms of tourists in the experimental group were generally reduced, and their mental health was greatly improved, with a comprehensive evaluation score of 9 points, while some tourists in the control group had poor treatment effects, with a comprehensive score of 15 points.

Cross-cultural tourism in the context of internationalization has a positive therapeutic effect on tourists’ generalized anxiety disorder.

Despite the growing body of research on individuals convicted of child sexual exploitation material (CSEM), relatively little is known about the prevalence of mental disorders in this population. The aim of the present study was to describe the prevalence of mental disorders among individuals convicted of CSEM offenses.

This cross-sectional study examined data from 66 individuals serving a sentence for CSEM offenses in the Austrian prison system who underwent a clinical assessment between 2002 and 2020. Diagnoses were based on the German version of the Structured Clinical Interview for Axis I and Axis II disorders.

In the total sample, n = 53 individuals (80.3%) were diagnosed with a mental disorder. Twenty-seven individuals (40.9%) had an Axis I disorder and n = 47 (71.2%) had an Axis II disorder. More than two-thirds of the sample, n = 47 (71.2%), had a personality disorder diagnosis, with cluster B personality disorders being the most frequent mental disorders. More than half of the sample, n = 43 (65.2%), had a diagnosis of pedophilic disorder, of which n = 9 (13.6%) were of the exclusive type. Twenty-eight persons (42.4%) showed evidence of a hypersexual disorder.

In line with previous research, the present sample of convicted CSEM offenders showed a comparatively high prevalence of personality disorders and paraphilic disorders, particularly pedophilic disorders. Additionally, the rate of hypersexual disorder symptoms was considerably high. These findings should be considered for the development of successful risk management strategies for this population.

To assess the likelihood of attaining response/remission of depressive symptoms with esketamine nasal spray (ESK) plus standard of care (SoC) vs placebo nasal spray (PBO) plus SoC at 4 weeks in patients with major depressive disorder and active suicidal ideation with intent (MDSI) without early response.

A post hoc analysis of pooled data from ASPIRE I and ASPIRE II evaluated ESK plus SoC vs PBO plus SoC in adults with MDSI without response (≥50% improvement from baseline in Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale [MADRS] score) at 24 hours after the first dose or at week 1 after the first two doses (ie, 24-hour and week 1 nonresponders). Response and remission (MADRS score ≤ 12) rates were assessed on day 25.

The analysis included 362 patients (n = 182, ESK plus SoC; n = 180, PBO plus SoC). Among 24-hour nonresponders, more patients receiving ESK plus SoC vs PBO plus SoC achieved response (63.9% vs 48.0%, P = .010) and remission (35.1% vs 24.4%, P = .074) at day 25. Odds of response/remission were higher with ESK plus SoC vs PBO plus SoC (response: 1.89, 95% CI, 1.17-3.05; remission: 1.48, 95% CI, 0.93-2.35). Similar findings were observed among week 1 nonresponders for response (48.4% vs 34.5%, P = .075), remission (25.0% vs 13.1%, P = .060), and odds of response/remission (response: 2.03, 95% CI, 1.22-3.40; remission: 1.63, 95% CI, 1.01-2.62).

Patients with MDSI not responding within the first week of treatment with ESK plus SoC may still benefit from a full 4-week treatment course.

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a mental disorder accompanied by mania and depression. Patient’s mood is sometimes high and sometimes low, and its presentation is complex and irregular. Olanzapine is a commonly used antipsychotic drug, which can improve the condition of patients with BD. However, simple drug treatment cannot achieve the desired effect. In recent years, the means of art intervention in psychological diseases has attracted much attention by enabling the patient’s body and mind in a relaxed and comfortable state through artistic activities. Therefore, it can improve the patient’s cognitive function and promote the patient’s self-harmony. Therefore, this experiment used olanzapine combined with art therapy to treat patients with BD, and observed the improvement of self-harmony and cognitive function of the patients.

56 patients with BD admitted to our hospital from September 2021 to April 2022 were randomly selected and divided into experimental group (28 cases) and control group (28 cases). The patients in the control group were treated with olanzapine and basic drugs. The experimental group added the activity of appreciating famous paintings on this basis, aiming to improve the patients’ cognitive and memory abilities. After 2 months of the experiment, the self-harmonious psychological state of the patients was analyzed by observing the Self Consistency and Congruence Scale (SCCS) scores of the two groups of patients; The cognitive function of patients was analyzed by Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-RC), and Trail Making Test-A (TMT-A).

Table 1 shows the changes of SCCS scores of the two groups of patients before and after the intervention. After the intervention, the total scores, and scores of each factor of the experimental group decreased significantly, and the scores of self-disharmony factors were significantly lower than those of the control group. For the improvement of cognitive function of the two groups of patients before and after the intervention, the scale score results showed that the WCST index values and TMT-A index values of the experimental group were significantly reduced after the intervention; All indicators of WAIS-RC increased significantly. The test results of the three types of scales in the experimental group were better than those in the control group.Table 1.

Comparison of SCCS scores between the two groups before and after intervention ($ \overline{x}\pm s $)

This experiment intervened patients with BD through olanzapine combined with art therapy. The results show that olanzapine combined with art therapy can effectively improve the cognitive function of patients with BD and promote their self-harmony, which is conducive to improving the prognosis of patients.

The research is supported by: National social science fund project “Research on the Protection and Inheritance of Yao’s’ Ancient Legal Drum ‘Traditional Skills” (No. 21BMZ037).

Evidence has demonstrated associations of bipolar disorder (BD) with cognitive impairment, dysregulated proinflammatory cytokines, and appetite hormones.

To compare executive dysfunction, proinflammatory cytokines, and appetite hormones between patients with first-episode and multiple-episode BDs.

This cross-sectional study included young adults aged 18 to 39 years who were diagnosed as having type 1 BD in the first or recurrent episode and a group of age-/sex-matched healthy controls. Data regarding patient characteristics, clinical symptoms, cytokines (C-reactive protein [CRP], interleukin-6, and tumor necrosis factor [TNF]-α), appetite hormones (leptin, adiponectin, ghrelin, and insulin), and executive function evaluated using the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) were collected.

A total of 112 participants (38 patients in the multiple-episode BD group, 31 patients in the first-episode BD group, and 43 in the control group) were included. Multivariate analysis revealed that patients in the multiple-episode BD group performed significantly worse in the WCST (P < .05) and had higher levels of ghrelin (P = .002), and lower levels of CRP (P = .040) than those in the first-episode BD group. Patients with BD had significantly higher TNF-α and ghrelin levels compared with the healthy controls. No significant associations of CRP, TNF-α, and ghrelin levels with executive function were observed.

Profiles in proinflammatory cytokines and appetite hormones as well as executive function significantly differed between patients with first-episode and multiple-episode BDs and controls, which may suggest their potential roles in the clinical stages and pathophysiology of type 1 BD.

Prior literature and epidemiological data suggests that the age of diagnosis of schizophrenia (AOD) follows a bimodal and trimodal distribution for males and females, respectively. The studies used to generate these findings were often small and relied on self-reported patient data from a single geographic region in addition to other methodological limitations. We replicated these studies using a modern big data approach by combining raw data from large randomized controlled clinical trials.

Patient-level data from 15 similarly designed, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover studies with patients using paliperidone extended-release tablets, paliperidone palmitate 1-month, and paliperidone palmitate 3-month, were obtained through the Yale Open Data Access Initiative (YODA). Descriptive statistics and histograms were calculated for continuous variables. A multivariable linear regression was performed with AOD as the outcome variable. Race and sex were used as predictor variables.

Our final analysis included 7881 patients consisting of male (n=4962) and female (n=2919) patients among different racial demographics. Race was consolidated into the following groups: Asian (n=949), Black (n=1692), Hispanic (n=3), Southeast Asian (n=17), White (n=4769), and other (n=343) based on patient self-identification on the YODA datasets. A chi-square test revealed that there is a statistically significant association between patient sex and AOD (x2=295.61, df=68, p < 0.0001). By proxy, this likely means that sex affects age of onset (AOS) as well. Our linear regression output with sex as a predictor of AOD revealed that only the male variable was found to have a statistically significant relationship (p<0.0001) with AOD and resulted in a lower AOD. Histograms generated with the frequency of occurrences against AOD for both male and female patients appeared to be unimodally distributed and skewed right. However, the AOD for female and male patients were found to be 28.79 and 25.44 years old, respectively. This demonstrates that while both male and female AOD are distributed unimodally, there are slight differences in their distributions.

Our analysis differs from previous studies and finds that AOD for male and female patients are seen in a unimodal distribution as compared to previous literature that shows a bimodal and trimodal distribution. Our findings not only call for a re-evaluation of previous epidemiological understandings of AOD but may support future efforts in understanding the origins and typical clinical presentations of patients with newly developed symptomatology of schizophrenia as well as support clinicians’ perspectives as part of clarifying differential diagnoses. Further studies can also continue to evaluate possible correlations among different races.

No Funding

Mental anxiety disorder, also known as anxiety disorder, can be basically divided into acute anxiety and chronic generalized anxiety. With the development of society and economy, the number of patients with anxiety disorder is also gradually increasing. The entertainment of video blog (vlog) news dissemination can reduce the seriousness of news.

In order to investigate the therapeutic effect of vlog news dissemination entertainment on mental anxiety disorder, 80 patients with mental anxiety were selected and randomly divided into a research group and a control group, with 40 patients in each group. The control group only received medication with paroxetine, while the research group received psychological intervention using vlog news dissemination and entertainment based on medication. The treatment period for both groups was 4 weeks. In addition, the analysis tools used in the study include the Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAM-A), and SPSS23.0.

The results showed that the scores on the Self-Rating Anxiety Scale and Hamilton Anxiety Scale of the two groups of patients were lower than the pre-treatment levels (P<0.05), and the difference was statistically significant. The scores on the Self-Rating Anxiety Scale and Hamilton Anxiety Scale in the research group were significantly lower than those in the control group (P<0.05), and the difference was also statistically significant.

In summary, psychological intervention through the entertainment of vlog news dissemination has a certain alleviating effect on excessive mental anxiety.

Attentional problems are common and have been associated with multiple psychiatric disorders. This study examined problems of sustained attention across a range of psychiatric disorders using a validated computerized trans-diagnostic attentional paradigm (a continuous performance task). We hypothesized that multiple psychiatric disorders, particularly attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), would be associated with pronounced attentional problems.

Totally, 576 non-treatment seeking participants (aged 18–29 years) were enrolled from general community settings, provided demographic variables, and underwent clinical assessments to detect mental health disorders. Each participant underwent the rapid visual information processing task, a validated computerized test measuring sustained attention. The two measures of sustained attention were the sensitivity index and target detection (proportion of targets detected). The profile of attentional deficits was examined across different disorders using z-scores relative to controls.

Participants with social phobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), bulimia nervosa, and intermittent explosive disorder showed the greater impairment in target sensitivity, all with effect sizes of at least 0.8. Target detection was impaired across multiple disorders, with OCD and binge eating disorder exhibiting the most pronounced impairment. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and compulsive sexual behavior were associated with particularly spared performance on both measures.

These data indicate that impaired attention is non-specific for ADHD and in fact several other disorders are associated with markedly larger deficits. Instead of clinicians assuming sustained attention problems are due to ADHD, a variety of disorders should be screened for when people report attentional problems. Future work should examine the contribution of comorbidities and psychoactive substances (prescribed or illicit) to the profiles identified.

Although the association between chronotype and mood disorders has been consistently reported, conversely, attempts to measure the association between chronotype and anxiety symptoms have generated inconsistent results. We aimed at evaluating whether chronotype (assessed through subjective and objective measures) is associated with lifetime mood and panic-agoraphobic spectrum symptoms in healthy controls (HCs) and in patients with bipolar disorder (BD).

Overall, 173 subjects, patients with BD in euthymic phase (n = 76) and HC (n = 97), were evaluated through the reduced Morningness–Eveningness Questionnaire (rMEQ), actigraphy monitoring and mood and panic-agoraphobic spectrum self-report (MOODS-SR and PAS-SR). The discrepancy between objective (actigraphic-based) versus subjective (rMEQ-based) circadian typology was estimated through the Circadian Classification Discrepancy Index (CCDI).

rMEQ-based evening chronotype (ET) was associated with higher scores in MOODS-SR depressive and rhythmicity and vegetative functions domains in HC and BD.Both ET and morning chronotypes (MT) were associated with higher PAS-SR scores in BD only. Actigraphic-based MT was associated with higher MOODS-SR depressive scores in HC. Likewise, the discrepancy between actigraphic-based and rMEQ-based circadian typology was associated with depressive symptoms in HC only.

Self-reported ET was consistently associated with mood symptoms, while associations with panic-agoraphobic symptoms only emerged in BD and involved both extreme chronotypes. The discrepancy between the preferred circadian typology (rMEQ-based) and the actual one (actigraphic-based) could contribute to depressive symptoms in HC. These results pave the way for interventional studies targeting circadian typology in an attempt to prevent or treat mental health disorders.

Several studies showed that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) enhances cognition in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), however, whether tDCS leads to additional gains when combined with cognitive training remains unclear. This study aims to compare the effects of a concurrent tDCS-cognitive training intervention with either tDCS or cognitive training alone on a group of patients with MCI.

The study was a 3-parallel-arm study. The intervention consisted of 20 daily sessions of 20 minutes each. Patients (n = 62) received anodal tDCS to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, cognitive training on 5 cognitive domains (orientation, attention, memory, language, and executive functions), or both. To examine intervention gains, we examined global cognitive functioning, verbal short-term memory, visuospatial memory, and verbal fluency pre- and post-intervention.

All outcome measures improved after the intervention in the 3 groups. The improvement in global cognitive functioning and verbal fluency was significantly larger in patients who received the combined intervention. Instead, the intervention gain in verbal short-term memory and visuospatial memory was similar across the 3 groups.

tDCS, regardless of the practicalities, could be an efficacious treatment in combination with cognitive training given the increased effectiveness of the combined treatment.

Future studies will need to consider individual differences at baseline, including genetic factors and anatomical differences that impact the electric field generated by tDCS and should also consider the feasibility of at-home treatments consisting of the application of tDCS with cognitive training.

The aim of the post hoc analysis was to better understand the efficacy and safety of cariprazine in patients with schizophrenia for less than 5 years (early stage) and for more than 15 years (late stage).

Data from three phase II/III randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials with similar design in patients with acute exacerbation of schizophrenia were pooled and patients with early and late stage of schizophrenia were determined. A mixed-effects model for repeated measures approach was applied and least square (LS) mean changes from baseline to week 6 on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) total and factor scores were reported. Descriptive statistics were used for safety analyses including treatment emergent adverse events (TEAEs) and discontinuation rates.

Overall, 460 patients were identified as being in the early and 414 in the late stage of schizophrenia. The pooled analysis evaluating mean change from baseline to week 6 in the PANSS total score indicated statistically significant difference between cariprazine and placebo in favor of cariprazine in both the early (LS mean difference [LSMD] −7.5 P < .001) and late stage (LSMD −6.7, P < .01) subpopulation. Early stage patients experienced similar amount of TEAEs (CAR 67.3%, PBO 54.1%) as patients in the late stage (CAR 69.6%, PBO 65.6%).

In conclusion, cariprazine, a potent D3-D2 partial agonist has been found to be safe and effective in the treatment of early and late stage schizophrenia.

Ekbom’s delusion as a prelude to Cotard’s syndrome, has not heretofore been described.

Case study: A 45-year-old woman with a past diagnosis of bipolar disorder with psychotic features was admitted, having been up all night conversing with spirits, proclaiming that she had made a deal with Satan. Convinced that her grandmother was possessed by the devil, she smashed her grandmother’s head with a two-by-four. Results: Mental Status Examination: self conversing with her eyes darting around the room. Poor hygiene. Behavior: guarded and withdrawn. Oriented x2. Speech: hyperverbal. Insight and judgment: poor. Mood: hostile, aggressive, and angry. Thought process disorganized, incongruent, and tangentiality. She was convinced she was infested with little black bugs crawling around her insides which had been placed there by the devil. After two days of olanzapine she reported the bugs were no longer present, but rather that she herself was dead and that her organs were decomposing, which persisted through the remainder of the hospitalization.

Neuroimaging abnormalities in Ekbom’s syndrome involve the striatum, basal ganglia (putamen and caudate nucleus), insular and cingulate cortices, cortex (prefrontal, right parietal, and temporal lobes), right lingual and orbitofrontal gyri, and thalamus. In Cotard’s syndrome, abnormalities have been identified in the striatum, frontal and temporal lobes, and right-sided and bilateral hemispheres. An overlap between the delusions exists in the striatum, inferior parietal, and temporal lobes. A single lesion in the nondominant inferior parietal lobe may cause both syndromes, due to its substantial interconnection with the temporo-limbic areas. Since the parietal lobe is also involved in somatosensory processing, peradventure distorted sensory perception with associated sensation of formication may have been the nidus for the delusional infestation as well as a nidus for the perception of thanatos habitus. Such misperception may have then been amplified into a delusion because of a hyperconnection between the parietal lobe and the limbic system. This may represent a variant of the two-factor hypothesis of delusions whereby a distorted sensory perception is then misrepresented in a delusion. Dysfunction of the right hemisphere, which normally acts to censor the left, allows the delusion to manifest. A single lesion of the inferior parietal lobule may be sufficient for both sensory distortions and loss of inhibition of delusional interpretation of distorted sensation by the frontal lobe, yclept the sensorialist hypothesis.

In those with monothematic delusions, the search for transient fluctuation in delusional states may be revealing.

No Funding

The present paper compared vitamin D levels in adult patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and explored possible correlations with patients’ characteristics.

Fifty outpatients with OCD, according to DSM-5 criteria, were included and assessed with the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) and the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRDS).

All the patients except one showed lower vitamin D levels than normative values (>30 nm/L). Vitamin D values of the whole sample were negatively correlated with Y-BOCS total, compulsion subscale, and some items’ scores, specifically “interference from obsessions,” “distress associated with obsessions,” and “time spent on compulsions”. The same relationships were detected in men, while women showed negative correlations between vitamin D levels and Y-BOCS compulsion subscale and “resistance to compulsions,” “degree of control of compulsions,” “insight” item scores.

Our findings would indicate that vitamin D might be involved in the pathophysiology of OCD, and that it is possibly related to the severity of the disorder and to typical symptoms, with some sex-related peculiarities. Further studies are necessary to support or not our findings and to ascertain the effectiveness of vitamin D supplementation in patients with OCD.

Women tend to evaluate and define themselves from people’s judgments about their appearance, which leads to depression symptoms of women in the workplace, specifically manifested as anxiety about their appearance, anxiety about safety, social disorder, cognitive disorder, emotional disorder, etc. The intervention principle of curative clothing is that women’s self-emotion is interpreted in the visual and tactile aspects of clothing, and depressed women are always aware of their existence and free will, and have a sense of spiritual satisfaction, so as to achieve the effect of intervention in depressive symptoms. The intervention mechanism of healing clothing is to induce the desire for self-protection, self-respect emotion and body image satisfaction of women in the workplace.

The subjects of this study are 120 female patients with depression aged from 16 to 60 years old. The research method is mainly to carry out group intervention treatment. The patients were divided into two groups on average. The first group was conventional psychiatric care for depression and was set as the control group. The second group was set as the experimental group. On the basis of conventional treatment, the dressing of patients was standardized, and healing clothes were introduced into the intervention. The intervention last 4 weeks, and then the patients were observed by OBCS (The Objectified Body Consciousness Scale) and EMA (Ecological Momentary Assessment) dynamic test. Finally, the scale scores and EMA dynamic test results of the two groups of patients were analyzed through SPSS25.0. The experimental data is shown in Figure 1.Table 1.

OBCS score of two groups of patients

The experimental results showed that the average OBCS score of patients in the control group was 40.1±4.6 points, and the average OBCS score of patients in the experimental group was 37±5.9 points. In the EMA assessment, the level of self-objectification of the patients in the experimental group and the control group decreased during the intervention period, but compared with the control group, the decline trend of the experimental group was more obvious.

According to the data comparison of the intervention results, the treatment measures of the aty group reduced the objectification level of female patients with depression. At the same time, the EMA evaluation results showed that the curative clothing intervention made female patients pay more attention to their own state, and the healing material texture of the clothing provided positive psychological hints for patients, effectively reducing the non-suicidal self-injury behavior of patients.

The research is supported by: Heilongjiang Higher Education Teaching Reform Project, Project Name: Innovation Research on the integration of red culture resources into art design curriculum model in the big data era. Project Code: SJGY20210960.