bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Attitudes towards vaccination of persons with mental disorders
Authors: Djordjevic S. , Maodus L. , Kijac S. 
Published: August 2023

IntroductionThe effects of the COVID 19 pandemic manifests in all segments of society, and they have special impact on the vulnerable population of persons with mental disorders. After two years of pandemic, the vaccines against COVID 19 are still the most important strategy against infection, disease, transmission and reinfection.ObjectivesThe aim of our research was to compare the attitudes of different subcategories of people with mental disorders towards vaccination and to discover potential factors that could participate in the decision-making process.MethodsThe research was conducted in the outpatients population, from January to March 2022, in Special Hospital for Psychiatric Disease Kovin, Serbia. All patients included in the research signed a voluntary consent to participate in the research. The data was collected from a self-assessment questionnaire, consisted of 4 segments: sociodemographic characteristics, a set of questions related to the COVID pandemic, history of influenza vaccination and attitudes towards vaccination.ResultsThe questionnaire included 147 people, 50 of whom were the control group of health professionals employed in SBPB “Kovin”, while in the subgroup of 97 respondents there were 49 people with a diagnosis of one of the non-psychotic disorders and 48 people with a diagnosis of one of the psychotic disorders. In the total population examined, the percentage of vaccinated was 53.97. In the population of persons with mental disorders, this percentage was lower compared to the control group. The results indicated that there is no statistically significant difference in attitudes towards vaccination in relation to the level of education. People who have been vaccinated are also people who would accept vaccination if another pandemic were to occur. In the unvaccinated subgroup, the greatest concern is vaccine safety. This group of respondents did not significantly differ from the vaccinated when it comes to fear of COVID 19 infection and concern about possible illness of family members.ConclusionsThe research showed that slightly more than half of the examined population of persons with mental disorders who use the services of the psychiatric dispensary SBPB “Kovin” were vaccinated.There is no statistically significant difference in the vaccination status against COVID 19 infection in the subcategories of persons with non-psychotic and psychotic symptoms. In the unvaccinated category, concerns about vaccine safety are a significant cause of vaccine refusal. Such preliminary results indicate the need to raise awareness and provide contoured, timely information and education regarding the pandemic of persons with mental disorders. Promotion of mental health and finding appropriate strategies in the provision of services to persons with mental disorders is one of the key tasks of the psychiatric service.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared
Change in urgent psychiatric consultations during the first lockdown in Venezia: a multicenter, retrospective study
Authors: Rosson S. , Sanseverino A. , Baggio F. , Zanuttigh G. , Tubini J. , Bianco M. , De Rossi M. , Gallo E. 
Published: August 2023

IntroductionThe COVID-19 pandemic has affected the mental health of the global population (Dragioti et al. J Med Virol 2022;94(5):1935-49). The first lockdown brought the hardest and most sudden impact on work, educational, social, and recreational activities. Moreover, the fruition of mental health services was restricted, and non-urgent appointments were delayed or converted into telepsychiatry. Thus, it was reasonable to hypothesize different trends of urgent consultations regarding mental health.ObjectivesTo detect quantitative and qualitative changes in patients presenting to our Emergency Departments (ED) during the early phase of the pandemic compared to the previous year.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective, multicenter study in Venezia (historical center, mainland) through systematically reviewing the psychiatric consultations in our ED, during the first 16 weeks since 8-Mar-2020 and the same period of 2019. The protocol was approved by the local Ethics Committee as UPSI-19 (Urgent PSychiatric consultations In COVID-19). The statistical analysis was conducted with the software R; Interval Risk Ratio (IRR) with 95% CI was calculated for absolute frequency, primary diagnosis, leading symptoms, and outcomes of these consultations.ResultsIn the early phase of the pandemic, in our ED we assisted to a significant decrease in psychiatric consultations: 372 vs 441, IRR=0.84(0.73-0.96). Data revealed a reduction of referral for suicidal behavior (IRR=0.52(0.33-0.80)) and anxiety symptoms (IRR=0.60(0.42-0.87)). Primary diagnoses of patients were not different between the two periods explored. There was a slight increase in admissions (150 vs 121), and a significant decrease in less severe clinical pictures.ConclusionsIn the timeframe considered, we assisted to a significant decrease in referrals from the ED, possibly related both to fewer non-locals and to less frequent non-severe presentations. Despite the type of patients (for underlying diagnoses) remained unmodified, an interesting reduction of anxiety symptoms and suicidal behavior was noticed. Literature from ED studies during the first wave are consistent with our finding regarding the number of visits; suicide attempts seemed unmodified or decreased elsewhere (Giner et al. Curr Psychiatry Rep 2022;24(1):1-10). Limitations of our study include peculiarities of the Venetian territory, limited sample and time of observation. Future directions encompass the integration with data from the community setting and later developments.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared
Mental health challenges in health care workers during COVID pandemic
Authors: Bilichodu Rangappa S. , Avula S. 
Published: August 2023

IntroductionMental health issues of the health care workers (HCW) are often overlooked. It’s often presumed that situations like COVID are handled well by this group of population and hence their own mental wellbeing is ignored and neglected.ObjectivesThe objective of this study was to evaluate the depression and anxiety levels in healthcare workers who were on COVID duty.MethodsThis study was performed over telephonic interview of all the healthcare workers who were performing COVID duty from March 2021 to December 2021. Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was administered. Various factors influencing the presentation were then analyzed.ResultsOver 534 healthcare workers were screened for psychiatric symptoms. About 76 fulfilled HADS criteria. 7.86% (42) scored above the anxiety cut off point and 6.36% (34) scored above the depression cut off point. About 373 (69.85%) expressed concerns about their safety and security as they were staying away from their families and about 469 (87.8%) expressed concerns about uncertainties about duty patterns.ConclusionsHealth care workers should be screened for psychiatric illness if they are in constant stress. They should be well trained to carry out COVID duties which will reduce the anxiety about the duty patterns. Better awareness about COVID 19 may lead to decreased levels of anxiety and depression.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared
Basal and LPS-stimulated inflammatory markers and the course of depression and anxiety symptoms
Authors: Van Eeden W. A. 
Published: August 2023

IntroductionMultiple studies show an association between inflammation –characterized by increased blood levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) and pro-inflammatory cytokines– and major depressive disorder (MDD). People with chronic low-grade inflammation may be at an increased risk of MDD, often in the form of sickness behaviors. A cross-sectional relationship between low-grade inflammation and anxiety has also been reported, but the potential longitudinal relationship has been less well studied.ObjectivesWe aimed to examine whether basal and lipopolysaccharide (LPS-)induced levels of inflammatory markers are associated with depressive and anxiety symptom severity over the course of nine years. We hypothesized that inflammation is predictive of the severity and the course of a subset of symptoms, especially symptoms that overlap with sickness behavior, such as anhedonia, anorexia, low concentration, low energy, loss of libido, psychomotor slowness, irritability, and malaise.MethodsWe tested the association between basal and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammatory markers with individual depressive symptoms (measured using the Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology Self-Report) and anxiety symptoms (measured with the Beck’s Anxiety Inventory; BAI, Fear Questionnaire;FQ and Penn’s State Worry Questionnaire; PSWQ) over a period of up to 9 years using multivariate-adjusted mixed models in 1147 to 2872 Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA) participants.ResultsAt baseline, participants were on average 42.2 years old, 66.5% were women, and 53.9% had a current mood or anxiety disorder. We found that basal and LPS-stimulated inflammatory markers were more strongly associated with sickness behavior symptoms at up to 9-year follow up compared to non-sickness behavior symptoms of depression. However, we also found significant associations with some symptoms that are not typical of sickness behavior (e.g., sympathetic arousal among others). The associations between inflammation and anxiety symptoms were attenuated by 25%-30% after adjusting for the presence of (comorbid) major depressive disorder (MDD), but remained statistically significant.ConclusionsInflammation was not related to depression as a unified syndrome but rather to the presence and the course of specific MDD symptoms, of which the majority were related to sickness behavior. With regard to anxiety symptoms, we found that participants with high levels of inflammatory markers have on average high levels of anxiety consisting of physical arousal and agoraphobia, which tended to persist over a period of nine years, albeit with small effect sizes. These associations were partly driven by co-morbid depression. Anti-inflammatory strategies should be tested in the subgroup of MDD patients who report depressive symptoms related to sickness behavior.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared
Brain functional connectivity and local coherence in non-converters with clinical high
risk for psychosis
Authors: Panikratova Y. , Abdullina E. , Lebedeva I. , Omelchenko M. , Tikhonov D. , Kaleda V. 
Published: August 2023

Introduction
Investigation of resilience mechanisms in patients with clinical high risk for
psychosis (CHR) may inform clinical practice for the development of early intervention
programs. Resilience mechanisms in CHR who did not transit to psychosis for a long period of
observation may be more pronounced than in CHR converters.

Objectives
We aimed to compare CHR who did not convert to psychosis for 7.3 ± 1.7 years, patients
with first-episode psychosis (FEP), and healthy controls (HC) in terms of brain functional
connectivity and local coherence.

Methods
Twenty-seven CHR (mean age 27.5 ± 3.1), 24 FEP (mean age 20.6 ± 3.6), and 27 HC (mean
age 27.3 ± 4) underwent resting-state fMRI (3T). All participants were males. Functional
connectivity between 32 regions of interest (components of default mode, sensorimotor,
visual, salience, dorsal attention, frontoparietal, language, and cerebellar networks; CONN
functional network atlas www.nitrc.org/projects/conn) and whole-brain local coherence (LCOR;
Deshpande et al. HBM 2009; 30(1) 13-23) were compared between 3 groups of participants
(one-way ANCOVA) with post hoc analyses.

Results
CHR and HC demonstrated higher functional connectivity between the occipital cortex
(visual network) and right rostral prefrontal cortex (salience network) compared to FEP. CHR
also showed higher local coherence in the right calcarine and cuneal cortex than FEP (the
following differences did not survive the correction for multiple comparisons: CHR>HC and
HC>FEP).

Conclusions
Our findings on brain functional connectivity and local coherence may be considered as
the markers of resilience mechanisms in patients with CHR as these parameters were different
between CHR and FEP and were similar in CHR and HC.
The research was supported by RFBR grant project
20-013-00748.

Disclosure of Interest
None Declared
Different patterns of frontal and temporoparietal activities related to distinct inhibitory functions in adhd
Authors: Carreiro L. R. R. , Afonso Junior A. A. D. S. , Machado-Pinheiro W. 
Published: August 2023

IntroductionInhibition is a core component of executive functions but is not a unitary construct. Instead, different inhibitory processes have specific behavioral effects and neural bases. Three important inhibitory functions explored by the literature are 1) interference control (i.e., inhibition of distractive information); 2) inhibition of prepotent responses and 3) inhibition of ongoing responses. These functions were described in the self-regulation theory as the possible main impairment in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and since then they have shown an association with several psychiatric disorders.ObjectivesThe current study investigated the neural bases of interference control, inhibition of prepotent responses, and inhibition of ongoing responses as they were assessed by a Stroop-matching/stop-signal task developed by our group.MethodsThe Stroop-matching/stop-signal employs different conditions to create the demands for each inhibition which allows the assessment of these functions using a single protocol. Brain activations were acquired using fNRIS in a block-design method. The concentration of oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO). The first level analysis of HbO signals used a general linear model (GLM) to estimate individual brain activations. The second level analysis was performed using a linear mixed model to generate brain activations at the group level. Alpha level = 0.05 and the false discovery rate was applied when necessary. The sample was composed of 25 young adults (mean age = 21.8, SD = 4.39).Resultstask Interference control showed activation in the left and right temporoparietal junction (TPJ), the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DPLFC), and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG); inhibition of prepotent responses showed increased activity in the right IFG and left DLPFC; the suppression of ongoing responses showed a deactivation of the IFG and DLPFC bilaterally.ConclusionsThese results indicate that the three inhibitory functions assessed present distinct brain patterns of function. The lateralization role was evident in DLPFC and IFG activities and recruitment of parietal areas seems to be limited to interference control in this protocol. Also, the stop-signal demand led to the deactivation of areas associated with the resolution of the primary Stroop-matching task. This study elucidates the role of brain mechanisms associated with specific inhibitory processes that are impaired in psychiatric disorders such as ADHD.Financial support: FAPESP [grant 2019/20757-5, 2019/21773-4, 2020/14800-2]; CAPES Proex [grant 0426/2021, 23038.006837/2021-73]; Mackpesquisa; CNPq [grant 307443/2019-1]Disclosure of InterestNone Declared
Alteration of plasma phospholipids distinguish schizophrenic patients from controls: A targeted metabolomics study
Authors: Naifar M. , Tebani A. , Ducatez F. , Pilon C. , Plichet T. , Maalej M. , Guidara W. , Maalej M. , AYADI F. , Bekri S. 
Published: August 2023

IntroductionSchizophrenia (SCZ) is one of the most severe mental disorders. Several elements involved in pathogenesis have been characterized recently. However, tools for diagnosis and risk prediction are limited. Elucidation of the underlying genomic and molecular mechanisms of SCA remains a challenge.ObjectivesIn this study, we aimed to identify plasma biomarkers for SCZ using targeted metabolomics.MethodsAll enrolled patients were drug-free for at least 3 months prior to admission. Plasma from 31 SCZ patients and 70 matched controls were analyzed using the LC/MS- Api 4000 QTrap Sciex. A total of 188 targeted metabolites, including 21 amino acids, 21 biogenic amines and 145 lipids or lipid-related metabolites were analyzed. All data modeling and analysis is done using MetaboAnalyst 5.0ResultsThere was no significant difference in the studied groups regarding BMI. Plasma Triglycerides, LDL-C, total proteins levels were significantly decreased in SCZ compared to controls. Heatmap identified 2 clusters with 25 significantly differentially expressed metabolites (FDR <0.05) between the drug-naïve group and the matched controls. The OPLS-DA score plot showed that the groups are clearly separated according to plasma phospholipids concentrations. Among these differential metabolites, the expression level of very long chain Phosphatidylcholines (PC 36 – PC p42) and acylcarnitines were significantly decreased in SCZ compared to controls, whereas sphingomyelin (SM) and lysoPC were significantly lower in drug-naive patients.ConclusionsIn this study, we found that plasma phospholipids were significantly dysregulated in the SCZ patients and could be a promising pathway to explore SCZ.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared
The vineyard as a therapeutic landscape of the mind: preliminary results of a pilot study
Authors: Rossero E. , Barbieri A. 
Published: August 2023

IntroductionYoung people represent a vulnerable population, with 75% of mental disorders first emerging before 25 years of age. This pilot stems from the acknowledged need to design and test non-stigmatizing programs that are appealing to young people and suited for the protean mental health problems that they experience.ObjectivesThe study involves a group of youths (aged 16-25) with different forms of mental ill-health in a locally and culturally meaningful activity, namely hand-harvesting grape in the renowned area of Langhe (Italy). The aim is to investigate viticultural practices as possibly effective in supporting recovery by promoting social interaction and fostering a sense of belonging in the broader process of winemaking.MethodsThe project is multidisciplinary in its design and implementation, involving psychiatrists, psychologists, rehabilitation specialists and sociologists. Research methods include clinical assessment, participant observation, and semi-structured interviews with the participants.ResultsDuring the harvest season, a stable group of participants has been involved in a one-to-one relationship with professional vine growers. This relational geometry was built around the performance of a practical task: that of filling in a box with manually harvested grape and moving it along the rows of vines. Within each dyad, which represents the most fragile and intimate of all social forms, practical knowledge has been conveyed from the experienced worker to the youth. Most importantly, the repeated encounters provided an opportunity for human interaction and exchange that went beyond the activity being performed, involving the gradual disclosure of self, the ability to listen, connect and empathize with personal stories from diverse backgrounds. Participants’ narratives collected during and after the pilot describe the vineyard as a psychic more than a physical place – a landscape of the mind, structured around the emotional and sensorial contents of the experience. The study’s core finding emerging from fieldwork and youths’ accounts is the beneficial effects of the intervention on transdiagnostic factors such as social anxiety symptoms, low self-efficacy and poor social skills.ConclusionsThe pilot provides suggestions to orient meaningful and non-stigmatising programs for vulnerable young people, hosted in landscapes that can become therapeutic not by virtue of their aesthetic features, but because of the access they provide to social (i.e. opportunities for new relationships), material (occasions to create and share something tangible) and affective (promotion of positive emotions, containment of loneliness and feelings of inadequacy) resources.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared
Rituximab for treatment-resistant schizophrenia and/or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD): functional connectivity and cytokines associated with symptomatic improvements
Authors: Humble M. B. , Eklund D. , Fresnais D. , Hylén U. , Sigra S. , Thunberg P. , Bejerot S. 
Published: August 2023

IntroductionImmunological mechanisms may contribute to the causation of mental illness. Autoimmunity is most convincingly shown for anti-NMDA-R encephalitis and Pediatric Acute-Onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS); disorders that overlap clinically with schizophrenia and OCD. Altered inflammatory cytokine production, glial activation and auto-antibodies have also been associated with schizophrenia and OCD. In these disorders, however, the treatment results with anti-inflammatory or immunomodulating drugs have hitherto been limited and inconsistent. Yet other targets within the immune system may still be effective and new options are warranted for treatment-resistant patients. Rituximab targets B-lymphocytes and is often used in autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and anti-NMDA-R encephalitis.ObjectivesWe aimed to investigate whether rituximab is clinically effective, safe and tolerable as add-on therapy in markedly ill, treatment-resistant adult psychiatric patients with schizophrenia or OCD. We also wanted to identify putative mediating mechanisms in treatment responders, such as cytokine changes and functional connectivity (FC).MethodsIn an open pilot study, adults (18-39 years) with treatment-resistant schizophrenia and/or OCD were included. They received an intravenous infusion of rituximab 1000 mg, once at baseline, in addition to their regular psychiatric medication and were followed for 1 year. The main outcome measures were the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) or Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS), the Clinical Global Impression-Improvement scale (CGI-I) and the Personal and Social Performance scale (PSP). Treatment response was defined as ≥ 40 % decrease in PANSS or ≥ 35 % decrease in Y-BOCS, and much improved according to CGI-I. Resting-state fMRI was applied at baseline and after 5 months. Plasma cytokines were measured at 0, 3 and 5 months. Cognitive tests and the recently developed PsychoNeuroinflammatory Related Signs and Symptoms Inventory (PNISSI) were used to identify and measure symptoms related to neuro-inflammation and cognitive function.ResultsNineteen patients were treated with rituximab. 3-5 months after treatment, 6/9 patients with schizophrenia and 1/10 with OCD responded. One schizophrenia patient continues with rituximab every 6 months and has reportedly done well for almost 3 years. No severe side effects were reported apart from recurrent abdominal pain in a schizophrenia patient and one case of post-COVID-19 syndrome. Significant changes of FC were detected in responders only and correlated with PSP changes.ConclusionsAberrant B-cell activities may contribute to treatment-resistant schizophrenia and be amenable to treatment with rituximab. However, the results of this pilot study need confirmation in placebo-controlled trials.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared