Validity of LupusQoL-China for the Assessment of Health Related Quality of Life in Chinese Patients With Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

Validity of LupusQoL-China for the Assessment of Health Related Quality of Life in Chinese Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

PLoS One. 2013; 8(5): e63795
Wang SL, Wu B, Leng L, Bucala R, Lu LJ

To adapt and assess the validity and reliability of LupusQoL for use in Chinese patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).Debriefing interviews of subjects with SLE guided the language modifications of the tool. The process of adaptation proceeded according to the guideline and pre-testing results of LupusQoL-China. 220 SLE patients completed LupusQoL-China and a generic preference-based measurement of health EuroQoL scale (EQ-5D), and 20 patients repeated them after 2 weeks. Internal consistency (ICR) and test-retest (TRT) reliability, convergent and discriminant validity were examined. Factor analysis and Rasch analysis were performed.The mean (SD) age of the 208 subjects with SLE was 33.93 (±9.19) years. ICR and TRT of the eight domains ranged from 0.811 to 0.965 and 0.836 to 0.974, respectively. The LupusQoL-China domains demonstrated substantial evidence of construct validity when compared with equivalent domains on the EQ-5D (physical health and usual activities r?=?-0.63, pain and pain/discomfort r?=?-0.778, emotional health and anxiety/depression r?=?-0.761, planning and usual activities r?=?-0.560). Most LupusQoL-China domains could discriminate patients with varied disease activities and end-organ damage (according to SELENA-SLEDAI and SLICC-DI). The principal component analysis revealed six factors, and confirmatory factor analysis result of which is similar to eight factors model.These results provide evidence that the LupusQoL-China is valid as a disease-specific HRQoL assessment tool for Chinese patients with SLE. HubMed – depression

Personality Traits as Risk Factors for Treatment-Resistant Depression.

PLoS One. 2013; 8(5): e63756
Takahashi M, Shirayama Y, Muneoka K, Suzuki M, Sato K, Hashimoto K

The clinical outcome of antidepressant treatment in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) is thought to be associated with personality traits. A number of studies suggest that depressed patients show high harm avoidance, low self-directedness and cooperativeness, as measured on the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI). However, the psychology of these patients is not well documented.Psychological evaluation using Cloninger’s TCI, was performed on treatment-resistant MDD patients (n?=?35), remission MDD patients (n?=?31), and age- and gender-matched healthy controls (n?=?174).Treatment-resistant patients demonstrated high scores for harm avoidance, and low scores for reward dependence, self-directedness, and cooperativeness using the TCI, compared with healthy controls and remission patients. Interestingly, patients in remission continued to show significantly high scores for harm avoidance, but not other traits in the TCI compared with controls. Moreover, there was a significant negative correlation between reward dependence and harm avoidance in the treatment-resistant depression cohort, which was absent in the control and remitted depression groups.This study suggests that low reward dependence and to a lesser extent, low cooperativeness in the TCI may be risk factors for treatment-resistant depression. HubMed – depression

Abnormal Baseline Brain Activity in Non-Depressed Parkinson’s Disease and Depressed Parkinson’s Disease: A Resting-State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study.

PLoS One. 2013; 8(5): e63691
Wen X, Wu X, Liu J, Li K, Yao L

Depression is the most common psychiatric disorder observed in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients, however the neural contribution to the high rate of depression in the PD group is still unclear. In this study, we used resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the underlying neural mechanisms of depression in PD patients. Twenty-one healthy individuals and thirty-three patients with idiopathic PD, seventeen of whom were diagnosed with major depressive disorder, were recruited. An analysis of amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) was performed on the whole brain of all subjects. Our results showed that depressed PD patients had significantly decreased ALFF in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC) and the rostral anterior cingulated cortex (rACC) compared with non-depressed PD patients. A significant positive correlation was found between Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and ALFF in the DLPFC. The findings of changed ALFF in these brain regions implied depression in PD patients may be associated with abnormal activities of prefrontal-limbic network. HubMed – depression