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Psychological Medicine Sep 2023The impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on mental health is still being unravelled. It is important to identify which individuals are at greatest...
BACKGROUND
The impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on mental health is still being unravelled. It is important to identify which individuals are at greatest risk of worsening symptoms. This study aimed to examine changes in depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms using prospective and retrospective symptom change assessments, and to find and examine the effect of key risk factors.
METHOD
Online questionnaires were administered to 34 465 individuals (aged 16 years or above) in April/May 2020 in the UK, recruited from existing cohorts or via social media. Around one-third ( = 12 718) of included participants had prior diagnoses of depression or anxiety and had completed pre-pandemic mental health assessments (between September 2018 and February 2020), allowing prospective investigation of symptom change.
RESULTS
Prospective symptom analyses showed small decreases in depression (PHQ-9: -0.43 points) and anxiety [generalised anxiety disorder scale - 7 items (GAD)-7: -0.33 points] and increases in PTSD (PCL-6: 0.22 points). Conversely, retrospective symptom analyses demonstrated significant large increases (PHQ-9: 2.40; GAD-7 = 1.97), with 55% reported worsening mental health since the beginning of the pandemic on a global change rating. Across both prospective and retrospective measures of symptom change, worsening depression, anxiety and PTSD symptoms were associated with prior mental health diagnoses, female gender, young age and unemployed/student status.
CONCLUSIONS
We highlight the effect of prior mental health diagnoses on worsening mental health during the pandemic and confirm previously reported sociodemographic risk factors. Discrepancies between prospective and retrospective measures of changes in mental health may be related to recall bias-related underestimation of prior symptom severity.
Topics: Female; Humans; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic; COVID-19; Pandemics; Depression; Retrospective Studies; Prospective Studies; SARS-CoV-2; Anxiety; United Kingdom
PubMed: 35879886
DOI: 10.1017/S0033291722002501 -
Nutrients Nov 2023Development of an accurate and efficient dietary method is required for national nutrition surveys. Some countries conduct dietary surveys and combine 24-h dietary... (Review)
Review
Development of an accurate and efficient dietary method is required for national nutrition surveys. Some countries conduct dietary surveys and combine 24-h dietary records or 24-h dietary recalls with dietary questionnaires. This scoping review aimed to summarize studies that used results from national surveys that combined detailed dietary surveys (dietary records or 24-h dietary recall) and dietary questionnaires and identify the purpose of combining the two methods. The PubMed database and manual searches were used for the literature review. We extracted 58 articles from 16 national nutrition surveys from 14 countries. Most studies used 24-h dietary recall for detailed dietary surveys and the food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) or food propensity questionnaire (FPQ) for questionnaire surveys. Among 37 studies from eight countries, the purpose of combining the two dietary survey methods was to estimate energy and nutrient intakes from detailed dietary surveys and habitual food intake from questionnaires. These findings are useful as a reference when introducing new dietary survey methods in future national nutrition surveys.
Topics: Diet Records; Diet; Surveys and Questionnaires; Eating; Nutrition Surveys; Mental Recall; Reproducibility of Results; Diet Surveys; Energy Intake
PubMed: 38004132
DOI: 10.3390/nu15224739 -
Journal of Neurology Aug 2023Previous studies have yielded inconsistent results about hippocampal involvement in non-demented patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). We hypothesized that...
BACKGROUND
Previous studies have yielded inconsistent results about hippocampal involvement in non-demented patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). We hypothesized that testing of memory-guided spatial navigation i.e., a highly hippocampus-dependent behaviour, might reveal behavioural correlates of hippocampal dysfunction in non-demented ALS patients.
METHODS
We conducted a prospective study of spatial cognition in 43 non-demented ALS outpatients (11f, 32 m, mean age 60.0 years, mean disease duration 27.0 months, mean ALSFRS-R score 40.0) and 43 healthy controls (14f, 29 m, mean age 57.0 years). Participants were tested with a virtual memory-guided navigation task derived from animal research ("starmaze") that has previously been used in studies of hippocampal function. Participants were further tested with neuropsychological tests of visuospatial memory (SPART, 10/36 Spatial Recall Test), fluency (5PT, five-point test) and orientation (PTSOT, Perspective Taking/Spatial Orientation Test).
RESULTS
Patients successfully learned and navigated the starmaze from memory, both in conditions that forced memory of landmarks (success: patients 50.7%, controls 47.7%, p = 0.786) and memory of path sequences (success: patients 96.5%, controls 94.0%, p = 0.937). Measures of navigational efficacy (latency, path error and navigational uncertainty) did not differ between groups (p ≥ 0.546). Likewise, SPART, 5PT and PTSOT scores did not differ between groups (p ≥ 0.238).
CONCLUSIONS
This study found no behavioural correlate for hippocampal dysfunction in non-demented ALS patients. These findings support the view that the individual cognitive phenotype of ALS may relate to distinct disease subtypes rather than being a variable expression of the same underlying condition.
Topics: Humans; Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis; Prospective Studies; Cognition; Neuropsychological Tests; Mental Recall
PubMed: 37154895
DOI: 10.1007/s00415-023-11753-8 -
Nutrients Aug 2023Eating is considered one of the activities of daily living most affected by autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children and adolescents and, therefore, needs to be... (Review)
Review
Eating is considered one of the activities of daily living most affected by autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children and adolescents and, therefore, needs to be thoroughly assessed using specific tools. The aim of this scoping review was to describe the most widely used tool to assess diet in children and adolescents with ASD. A search was conducted on PubMed, Scopus, EMBASE, Web of Science and PsycINFO databases. Two authors screened the articles and included all randomized or non-randomized studies published in English or Spanish in the last five years in which the diet of children and adolescents with ASD was assessed. Fifteen studies were included in this review. Mealtime behaviour was the most assessed variable in the included studies ( = 7). Thirteen different assessment tools were identified to evaluate the diet of children and adolescents with ASD, mainly at ages 2-12 ( = 11). The Brief Assessment scale for Mealtime Behavior in Children (BAMBI) and 24-h recalls were the most commonly used dietary assessment tools in the included studies. Our results can help professionals in the selection of an optimal scale to assess diet in children and adolescents with ASD.
Topics: Adolescent; Child; Humans; Activities of Daily Living; Autism Spectrum Disorder; Diet; Databases, Factual; Mental Recall
PubMed: 37686780
DOI: 10.3390/nu15173748 -
Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety Aug 2023Essential trace elements (ETEs) are essential nutrients for keeping the nervous system functioning. Associations between ETEs and cognitive function are still...
BACKGROUND
Essential trace elements (ETEs) are essential nutrients for keeping the nervous system functioning. Associations between ETEs and cognitive function are still inconclusive and limited.
OBJECTIVES
We aimed to investigate the individual and joint associations between ETEs and cognitive function among older adults.
METHODS
A population (N = 2181) at an average age≥ 65 from Yiwu cohort in China was available for this study. Whole blood chromium (Cr), selenium (Se), manganese (Mn), and copper (Cu) concentrations were measured by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Cognitive function was assessed using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), consisting of five specific cognitive domains: orientation, registry, attention and calculation, recall, and language and praxis. Linear regression, restricted cubic spline (RCS) analysis, and Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) were used to analyze the individual and joint associations between ETEs and cognitive function.
RESULTS
The association between Cr and MMSE score presented an inverted-U shape (Q3 versus Q1: β = 0.774, 95 % CI: 0.297, 1.250; Q4 versus Q1: β = 0.481, 95 % CI: 0.006, 0.956); and Cr was especially associated with the registry, recall, and language and praxis. Per IQR (36.32 μg/L) increase of Se was positively associated with the MMSE score (β = 0.497, 95 % CI: 0.277, 0.717) and all five cognitive domains. The BKMR showed that the dose-response association between Se and cognitive function increased initially and then decreased with increasing Se concentration when fixed the other ETEs in median. ETEs mixture was positively associated with cognitive function, and Se (posterior inclusion probabilities, PIPs = 0.915) was the most important contributor within the ETEs mixture.
CONCLUSIONS
The nonlinear association between Cr and cognitive function suggested further exploration of an appropriate concentration range for ETEs. A positive association between mixed ETEs and cognitive function is a reminder that their joint association should be considered. Further prospective studies or intervention studies are warranted to validate our findings in the future.
Topics: Humans; Aged; Trace Elements; Prospective Studies; Bayes Theorem; Selenium; Chromium; Cognition
PubMed: 37311392
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2023.115114 -
Nature Communications Apr 2024Encoding- and retrieval-related neural activity jointly determine mnemonic success. We ask whether electroencephalographic activity can reliably predict encoding and...
Encoding- and retrieval-related neural activity jointly determine mnemonic success. We ask whether electroencephalographic activity can reliably predict encoding and retrieval success on individual trials. Each of 98 participants performed a delayed recall task on 576 lists across 24 experimental sessions. Logistic regression classifiers trained on spectral features measured immediately preceding spoken recall of individual words successfully predict whether or not those words belonged to the target list. Classifiers trained on features measured during word encoding also reliably predict whether those words will be subsequently recalled and further predict the temporal and semantic organization of the recalled items. These findings link neural variability predictive of successful memory with item-to-context binding, a key cognitive process thought to underlie episodic memory function.
Topics: Humans; Electroencephalography; Mental Recall; Semantics; Memory, Episodic
PubMed: 38582783
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-46926-0 -
PloS One 2023The article introduces an original VR-based experiment which explores context-dependent memory recall in humans. It specifically examines the recall of correct and...
The article introduces an original VR-based experiment which explores context-dependent memory recall in humans. It specifically examines the recall of correct and falsely induced semantic memories. With the aid of VR head-mounted displays, 92 students of psychology were placed in a computer-generated indoor virtual environment and asked to memorize the presented lists of words. Afterwards, the participants were placed in the same indoor virtual environment or an alternative outdoor virtual environment and asked to recall the words. The number of correct and falsely induced words was then measured. On average, women recalled significantly more correct words from the list than men, regardless of the environmental context. Despite the assumptions, we did not observe a separate effect of exposure to different environments during learning and recall of material on memory performance. Likewise, we did not detect any effects of the learning context or biological sex in the case of the production of false memories. These results provide a novel insight into previous knowledge regarding the memory processes that occur in virtual environments. Although we failed to confirm the role of context in recalling learned material in general, we found a hint that this context might interact with specific memory processes of biological sexes. However, the design of this study only captured the effect of changing the environment during memory recall and did not address the role of specific context in remembering learning material. Further research is therefore needed to better investigate these phenomena and examine the role of biological sex in context-dependent memory processes.
Topics: Male; Humans; Female; Memory; Learning; Mental Recall; Cognition; Repression, Psychology
PubMed: 37540668
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0289079 -
Scientific Reports Dec 2023As people age, they learn and store new knowledge in their semantic memory. Despite learning a tremendous amount of information, people can still recall information...
As people age, they learn and store new knowledge in their semantic memory. Despite learning a tremendous amount of information, people can still recall information relevant to the current situation with ease. To accomplish this, the mind must efficiently organize and search a vast store of information. It also must continue to retrieve information effectively despite changes in cognitive mechanisms due to healthy aging, including a general slowing in information processing and a decline in executive functioning. How effectively does the mind of an individual adjust its search to account for changes due to aging? We tested 746 people ages 25 through 69 on a semantic fluency task (free listing animals) and found that, on average, retrieval follows an optimal path through semantic memory. Participants tended to list a sequence of semantically related animals (e.g., lion, tiger, puma) before switching to a semantically unrelated animal (e.g., whale). We found that the timing of these transitions to semantically unrelated animals was remarkably consistent with an optimal strategy for maximizing the overall rate of retrieval (i.e., the number of animals listed per unit time). Age did not affect an individual's deviation from the optimal strategy given their general performance, suggesting that people adapt and continue to search memory optimally throughout their lives. We argue that this result is more likely due to compensating for a general slowing than a decline in executive functioning.
Topics: Animals; Humans; Adult; Semantics; Mental Recall; Memory; Cognition; Aging
PubMed: 38110643
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-49858-9 -
Multiple Sclerosis (Houndmills,... Nov 2023Fatigue can be a disabling multiple sclerosis (MS) symptom with no effective treatment options. (Randomized Controlled Trial)
Randomized Controlled Trial
BACKGROUND
Fatigue can be a disabling multiple sclerosis (MS) symptom with no effective treatment options.
OBJECTIVE
Determine whether a low-fat diet improves fatigue in people with MS (PwMS).
METHODS
We conducted a 16-week randomized controlled trial (RCT) and allocated PwMS to a low-fat diet (active, total daily fat calories not exceeding 20%) or wait-list (control) group. Subjects underwent 2 weeks of baseline diet data collection (24-hour diet recalls (24HDRs)), followed by randomization. The active group received 2 weeks of nutrition counseling and underwent a 12-week low-fat diet intervention. One set of three 24HDRs at baseline and week 16 were collected. We administered a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and Modified Fatigue Impact Scale (MFIS) every 4 weeks. The control group continued their pre-study diet and received diet training during the study completion.
RESULTS
We recruited 39 PwMS (20-active; 19-control). The active group decreased their daily caloric intake by 11% (95% confidence interval (CI): -18.5%, -3.0%) and the mean MFIS by 4.0 (95% CI: -12.0, 4.0) compared to the control (intent-to-treat). Sensitivity analysis strengthened the association with a mean MFIS difference of -13.9 (95% CI: -20.7, -7.2).
CONCLUSIONS
We demonstrated a significant reduction in fatigue with a low-fat dietary intervention in PwMS.
Topics: Humans; Diet, Fat-Restricted; Multiple Sclerosis; Treatment Outcome; Mental Recall; Fatigue
PubMed: 37941305
DOI: 10.1177/13524585231208330 -
Digital Biomarkers 2023We studied the accuracy of the automatic speech recognition (ASR) software by comparing ASR scores with manual scores from a verbal learning test (VLT) and a semantic...
INTRODUCTION
We studied the accuracy of the automatic speech recognition (ASR) software by comparing ASR scores with manual scores from a verbal learning test (VLT) and a semantic verbal fluency (SVF) task in a semiautomated phone assessment in a memory clinic population. Furthermore, we examined the differentiating value of these tests between participants with subjective cognitive decline (SCD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). We also investigated whether the automatically calculated speech and linguistic features had an additional value compared to the commonly used total scores in a semiautomated phone assessment.
METHODS
We included 94 participants from the memory clinic of the Maastricht University Medical Center+ (SCD = 56 and MCI = 38). The test leader guided the participant through a semiautomated phone assessment. The VLT and SVF were audio recorded and processed via a mobile application. The recall count and speech and linguistic features were automatically extracted. The diagnostic groups were classified by training machine learning classifiers to differentiate SCD and MCI participants.
RESULTS
The intraclass correlation for inter-rater reliability between the manual and the ASR total word count was 0.89 (95% CI 0.09-0.97) for the VLT immediate recall, 0.94 (95% CI 0.68-0.98) for the VLT delayed recall, and 0.93 (95% CI 0.56-0.97) for the SVF. The full model including the total word count and speech and linguistic features had an area under the curve of 0.81 and 0.77 for the VLT immediate and delayed recall, respectively, and 0.61 for the SVF.
CONCLUSION
There was a high agreement between the ASR and manual scores, keeping the broad confidence intervals in mind. The phone-based VLT was able to differentiate between SCD and MCI and can have opportunities for clinical trial screening.
PubMed: 37901366
DOI: 10.1159/000533188