Search

Objective: This study aims to examine the effect of giving probiotic adjuvant therapy on improving clinical symptoms & IL-6 levels in patients with schizophrenia., Methods: This research was a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial conducted at Dadi Psychiatric Hospital, South Sulawesi Province, Indonesia in November-December 2021. The sample of the research was patients with schizophrenia undergoing hospitalization who received therapeutic doses of risperidone with a total of 21 samples in each treatment and control group. Research subjects were measured with Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) at baseline, 2nd, 4th, and 6th weeks. The treatment group received one capsule/12 hours/oral of probiotics for six weeks and the control group received 1 capsule/12 hours/oral placebo for 6 weeks. In addition, two measurements of IL-6 using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay were performed in both groups, namely at the beginning of week 0 and the end of the 6th week., Results: We found the decrease in the PANSS value which described the improvement in clinical symptoms of the schizophrenic group after receiving therapeutic doses of antipsychotics and probiotic capsules or the treatment group as well as the schizophrenia group receiving therapeutic doses of antipsychotics and placebo capsules or the control group., Conclusion: Improvements in clinical symptoms and decreased levels of IL-6 in the group of patients with schizophrenia who received risperidone with probiotic adjuvant therapy were better than in the group of patients with schizophrenia who received risperidone without probiotics as adjuvant therapy.

Objective: This study aimed to analyze the effectiveness of gentle prenatal yoga toward depression and abnormal serotonin hormone levels in pregnant women aged <20 and >35 years old., Method: This study was conducted at Bara Baraya Health Center, Antang Health Center, Kapasa Health Center, and Mamajang Health Center. The applied research design in this study was a quasi-experiment with a non-equivalent control group design approach. Samples were selected using a purposive sample technique. The instrument used was the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) questionnaire. The number of samples in this study was 24 respondents divided into 2, 12 in the intervention group and 12 in the control group. Sample criteria in this study were pregnant women aged <20 and >35 years old, having been in trimester II-III with the gestational age of ≥20 to <31 weeks, and not having complications in pregnancy., Results: The mean values for the intervention group were 6.50 in the pre-test to the mid-test and 6.50 in the mid-test to the post-test. Meanwhile, the mean values for the control group were 5.61 in the pre-test to the mid-test and 4.50 in the mid-test to the post-test. This indicated that the intervention group experienced a significantly reduced level of depression based on the BD-II (Beck Depression Inventory-II) scores when compared to the control group. Furthermore, based on the comparison of the post-test data between the intervention group and the control group, it was obtained the p-value of 0.005 (α<0.05)., Conclusion: There were differences in BDI-II (Beck Depression Inventory-II) scores between the intervention group and the control group after receiving prenatal gentle yoga treatment., (Copyright © 2021 SESPAS. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

Objective: This study aimed to analyze the effectiveness of gentle prenatal yoga on the anxiety problem in primigravida and multigravida pregnant women., Method: This study was conducted at Bara-Baraya Health Center, Antang Health Center, Kapasa Health Center, and Mamajang Health Center. The applied research design in this study was a quasi-experiment with a non-equivalent control group design approach. Samples were selected using a purposive sample technique. Furthermore, the instrument used was the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HARS) questionnaire. The number of samples in this study was 24 respondents divided into two groups, 12 in the intervention group and 12 in the control group. Meanwhile, the criteria of samples in this study were pregnant women in the first to fifth pregnancy, having been in trimester II-III with the gestational age of ≥20-30 weeks, and not having complications in pregnancy., Results: the HARS scores in the intervention group showed that the mean rank of the pre-test was 23.75, In the mid-test, it was 20.00, and in the post-test, it was 16.00. Meanwhile, in the control group, its mean rank was 23.50, mid-test it was 21.58, and the post-test it was 20.41 showed that the intervention group experienced a significant decrease in anxiety levels. From the results of the Mann Whitney test, the intervention group p=0.001<(α 0.05) showed that there were significant changes., Conclusion: There were differences in HARS (Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale) scores between the intervention and control groups before and after a gentle prenatal yoga treatment., (Copyright © 2021 SESPAS. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

Background: Although growing evidence indicates that ECT affects astrocytes, the exact mechanisms of the therapeutic effect of ECT are still unknown. Astrocytic endfeet express the water channel aquaporin (AQP) 4 abundantly and ensheath brain blood vessels to form gliovascular units. It has been shown that the coverage of blood vessels by AQP4-immunostained endfeet is decreased in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) of patients with major depression. This study was made to determine whether ECT restores the astrocytic coverage of blood vessels with amelioration of depressive symptoms., Methods: After electroconvulsive shock (ECS) administration to rats, the forced swimming test (FST) and Y-maze test were performed. Subsequently, immunofluorescence analysis was conducted to measure the coverage of blood vessels by astrocytic endfeet in the PFC and hippocampus by using the endothelial cell marker lectin and anti-AQP4 antibody. We also performed Western blot to examine the effects of ECS on the hippocampal expression of AQP4 and the tight junction molecule claudin-5., Results: Gunn rats showed learned helplessness and impaired spatial working memory, compared to normal control Wistar rats. ECS significantly improved the depressive-like behavior. Gunn rats showed a decrease in astrocytic coverage of blood vessels, that was significantly increased by ECS. ECS significantly increased expression of AQP4 and claudin-5 in Gunn rats., Conclusions: ECS increased the reduced coverage of blood vessels by astrocytic endfeet in the mPFC and hippocampus with amelioration of depressive-like behavior. Therefore, therapeutic mechanism of ECT may involve restoration of the impaired gliovascular units by increasing the astrocytic-endfoot coverage of blood vessels., (Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Introduction: Recent studies imply that glial activation plays a role in the pathogenesis of psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia and major depression. We previously demonstrated that Gunn rats with hyperbilirubinemia show congenital gliosis and schizophrenia-like behavior., Methods: As it has been suggested that major depression involves glial activation associated with neuroinflammation, we examined whether Gunn rats show depression-like behavior using the forced swimming test (FST) and the tail suspension test (TST). In addition, we quantitatively evaluated both microgliosis and astrogliosis in the hippocampus of Gunn rats using immunohistochemistry analysis of the microglial marker ionized calcium-binding adaptor molecule (Iba) 1 and the astrocytic marker S100B., Results: Both the FST and TST showed that immobility time of Gunn rats was significantly longer than that of normal control Wistar rats, indicating that Gunn rats are somewhat helpless, a sign of depression-like behavior. In the quantification of immunohistochemical analysis, Iba1immunoreactivity in the dentate gyrus (DG), cornu ammonis (CA) 1, and CA3 and the number of Iba1-positive cells in the CA1 and CA3 were significantly increased in Gunn rats compared to Wistar rats. S100B immunoreactivity in the DG, CA1, and CA3 and the number of S100B-positive cells in the DG and CA3 were significantly increased in Gunn rats compared to Wistar rats., Conclusion: Our findings suggest that both microglia and astrocyte are activated in Gunn rats and their learned helplessness could be related to glial activation., (© 2018 The Authors. Brain and Behavior published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Background: Although electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is regarded as one of the efficient treatments for intractable psychiatric disorders, the mechanism of therapeutic action remains unclear. Recently, many studies indicate that ECT affects the immune-related cells, such as microglia, astrocytes, and lymphocytes. Moreover, microglial activation and astrocytic activation have been implicated in the postmortem brains of schizophrenia patients. We previously demonstrated that Gunn rats showed schizophrenia-like behavior and microglial activation in their brains. The present study examined the effects of electroconvulsive shock (ECS), an animal counterpart of ECT, on schizophrenia-like behavior, microgliosis, and astrogliosis in the brain of Gunn rats., Methods: The rats were divided into four groups, i.e., Wistar sham, Wistar ECS, Gunn sham, and Gunn ECS. ECS groups received ECS once daily for six consecutive days. Subsequently, prepulse inhibition (PPI) test was performed, and immunohistochemistry analysis was carried out to determine the activation degree of microglia and astrocytes in the hippocampus by using anti-CD11b and anti-glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) antibody, respectively., Results: We found PPI deficit in Gunn rats compared to Wistar rats, and it was significantly improved by ECS. Immunohistochemistry analysis revealed that immunoreactivity of CD11b and GFAP was significantly increased in Gunn rats compared to Wistar rats. ECS significantly attenuated the immunoreactivity of both CD11b and GFAP in Gunn rats., Conclusions: ECS ameliorated schizophrenia-like behavior of Gunn rats and attenuated microgliosis and astrogliosis in the hippocampus of Gunn rats. Accordingly, therapeutic effects of ECT may be exerted, at least in part, by inhibition of glial activation. These results may provide crucial information to elucidate the role of activated glia in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia and to determine whether future therapeutic interventions should attempt to up-regulate or down-regulate glial functions.

Progressive disability in schizophrenia has been considered to be associated with onset-age. The objective of this study was to evaluate age onset-related degeneration in rCBF in patients with schizophrenia. We evaluated characteristic changes in brain perfusion by age, gender, medication and clinical symptoms in medicated patients with early-onset (EOS: developed at younger than 40 years old: n = 44) and late-onset (LOS: developed at older than 40 years old: n = 19) schizophrenia and control subjects matched for age and gender (n = 37) using statistical parametric mapping (SPM8) applied to 99mTc-ECD SPECT. We performed SPECT with 99mTc-ECD on the brains of subjects. A voxel-by-voxel group analysis was performed using SPM 8 and ANOVA. rCBF in EOS was found to be reduced in the precentral and inferior frontal gyri; on the other hand, rCBF was reduced in the bilateral postcentral gyrus in LOS. This study revealed a significant difference in brain perfusion between EOS and LOS. The present study might suggest that the characteristic changes in rCBF are related to onset-age in schizophrenia.

Background: In this study, we evaluated the effect on cognitive function of memantine, behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia, and the care burden, in patients with moderate-to-severe Alzheimer's disease (AD). Furthermore, with near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), we examined the association between effect of memantine and brain blood flow., Methods: We evaluated the effect of memantine administration from baseline on Clinical Global Impression-Improvement scale, mini mental state examination (MMSE), Clock Drawing Test (CDT), Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI), Japanese version of the Zarit Burden Interview (J-ZBI) and NIRS in two groups, donepezil administration memantine combination group (combination group, n = 19) donepezil administration memantine non-administration group (control group, n = 18) were assessed at weeks 0, 4, 12, and 24., Results: Significant difference was found between the combination group and the control group in the score variation of Clinical Global Impression-Improvement scale, MMSE, CDT, NPI, and J-ZBI. In the NIRS measurements, trend oxyhemoglobin reduced suppression was observed in some channels centered on the superior frontal gyrus. A significant correlation was observed in the scores of MMSE, CDT, NPI, and J-ZBI. In addition, a significant positive correlation was also observed between the number of words in NIRS and scores of MMSE and CDT., Conclusions: In this study, by administering memantine in AD patients that inhibit the reduction of cerebral blood flow in the prefrontal area and improve clinical symptoms overall cognitive function, behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia, thereby reducing the care burden of caregivers was suggested., (Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Background: Accumulating evidence indicates that neuroinflammation plays a significant role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. We previously reported evidence of schizophrenia-like behaviors and microglial activation in Gunn rats. We concluded that the Gunn rat, which exhibits a high concentration of unconjugated bilirubin, may be useful as an animal model of schizophrenia. On the other hand, there have been numerous reports that minocycline is effective in treating schizophrenia., Methods: In the present study, we investigated the effects of minocycline on performance of behavioral tests (prepulse inhibition (PPI) and novel object recognition test (NORT)) after animals received either 40mg/kg/d of minocycline or vehicle by intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection for 14 consecutive days. Furthermore, we examined the effects of minocycline on microglial activation in the hippocampal dentate gyrus of Gunn rats and Wistar rats., Results: We found that administration of minocycline for 14days significantly increased the exploratory preference in retention sessions and tended to improve the PPI deficits in Gunn rats. Immunohistochemistry analysis revealed that microglial cells in the minocycline-treated Gunn rat group showed less expression of CD11b compared to vehicle-treated Gunn and Wistar groups., Conclusions: Our findings suggest that minocycline improves recognition memory and attenuates microglial activation in the hippocampal dentate gyrus of Gunn rats. Therefore, minocycline may be a potential therapeutic drug for schizophrenia., (Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Inc.)