Blood-Brain barrier disruption in long COVID and cognitive correlates: A cross-sectional MRI study.

Disruption of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) may contribute to neuropsychiatric symptoms observed in Long COVID (LC). Using a non-contrast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique, we investigated BBB permeability in individuals with LC and its relationship to cognitive function. We hypothesized that LC individuals would show greater BBB permeability than recovered individuals, and that higher permeability would correlate with poorer cognition.

Cognitive dysfunction, psychiatric distress, and functional decline after liver transplantation.

Impaired cognition in liver recipients has been studied in the immediate posttransplant period but is poorly understood in the long term, despite its importance to quality of life. In a single-center cohort of liver recipients transplanted in 2010-2022 and >1 year after transplant, we assessed cognitive performance using a telephone-based battery. We compared depression, anxiety, and self-reported function by cognitive performance using descriptive statistics.

Cognitive and mental health outcomes in long covid.

Roughly one in five adults who meet criteria for long covid present with objective or subjective cognitive dysfunction or elevated symptoms of depression or anxiety lasting ≥12 weeks from an acute covid illness. These neuropsychiatric sequelae have considerable functional consequences at the level of the individual, society, and the broader economy. Neuropsychiatric long covid symptoms are thought to be causally diverse, and a range of risk factors as well as biological, psychological, and environmental mechanisms have been hypothesized to contribute to symptom development and persistence.

Socioeconomic Status Explains Sex Differences on the Trail Making Test: The Case of the Epirus Health Study Cohort Normative Data.

Objectives: Socioeconomic (SES) and health status (HS) are rarely considered when normative data are calculated. In the present study, normative data for the Trail Making Test (TMT) were developed from a large cohort and the association of sex, age and education, as well as HS and SES, with direct and derived TMT scores was explored.

Methods: Two thousand three hundred sixteen participants [1412 (61%) women; mean age: 47.

Rates and Predictors of Performance Validity Test Failure in Adults Treated for Post-COVID-19 Condition: a Brief Report.

>objective: Cognitive dysfunction is a common symptom of post-COVID-19 condition (PCC). Few studies have examined rates and predictors of cognitive performance validity test (PVT) failure in patients seeking treatment for PCC.

>methods: We report the rates of PVT failure in 323 patients who received care in a long-COVID-19 clinic for any post-COVID-19 health concern and underwent routine telephone cognitive testing that included two embedded PVTs.

International study of the Complex Stress Reaction Syndrome: Implications for transdiagnostic clinical practice.

Background: The debate regarding diagnostic classification systems in psychiatry (categorial dimensional systems) has essential implications for the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of stress reactions. We previously found a unique pattern of stress reaction in a study executed during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic using large representative samples in two countries, and termed it the Complex Stress Reaction Syndrome (CSRS).

Aim: To investigate CSRS, Type A (psychiatric symptoms, spanning anxiety, depression, stress symptoms, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)), with or without long-coronavirus disease (COVID) residuals (CSRS, Type B, neuropsychiatric symptoms spanning cognitive deficits and fatigue, excluding systemic symptoms).

Characterizing Symptoms and Identifying Biomarkers of Long COVID in People With and Without HIV: Protocol for a Remotely Conducted Prospective Observational Cohort Study.

Background: Living with HIV is a risk factor for severe acute COVID-19, but it is unknown whether it is a risk factor for long COVID.

Objective: This study aims to characterize symptoms, sequelae, and cognition formally and prospectively 12 months following SARS-CoV-2 infection in people living with HIV compared with people without HIV. People with no history of SARS-CoV-2 infection, both with and without HIV, are enrolled as controls.

Crossword Puzzles for Brain Training in Mild Cognitive Impairment.

Given the increasing prevalence and public health impact of dementia, it is imperative that we identify prevention strategies. One approach, broadly termed brain training, can be defined as guided drill-and-practice mental exercises targeting cognitive domains. We have evidence suggesting that brain training may prevent dementia in cognitively intact adults, including the well-validated protective effect of education early in life and the results of the ACTIVE (Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly) trial, which showed not only a long-term cognitive benefit of training in processing speed, but also a possible decrease in dementia incidence and transfer of cognitive benefits to performance in everyday functioning (as measured by performance on instrumental activities of daily living).

Depressive Symptoms at Kidney Transplant Evaluation and Access to the Kidney Transplant Waitlist.

Introduction: Depressive symptoms, even without a clinical diagnosis of depression, are common in kidney failure patients and may be a barrier to completing the complex process of kidney transplant (KT) evaluation. We assessed depressive symptom burden and association between depressive symptoms and access to KT waitlist by age.

Methods: In a prospective cohort of 3728 KT patients (aged 18-88 years), the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression (CES-D) scale was used to measure depressive symptoms at evaluation.

Cognitive Dysfunction, Psychiatric Distress, and Functional Decline After COVID-19.

Background: There is a limited understanding of the cognitive and psychiatric sequelae of COVID-19 during the post-acute phase, particularly among racially and ethnically diverse patients.

Objective: We sought to prospectively characterize cognition, mental health symptoms, and functioning approximately four months after an initial diagnosis of COVID-19 in a racially and ethnically diverse group of patients.

Methods: Approximately four months after COVID-19 diagnosis, patients in the Johns Hopkins Post-Acute COVID-19 Team Pulmonary Clinic underwent a clinical telephone-based assessment of cognition, depression, anxiety, trauma, and function.

Microstructural white matter abnormalities in Lesch-Nyhan disease.

Lesch-Nyhan disease is a rare, sex-linked, genetic neurodevelopmental disorder that is characterized by hyperuricemia, dystonia, cognitive impairment and recurrent self-injury. We previously found reduced brain white matter volume in patients with Lesch-Nyhan disease compared with healthy adults using voxel-based morphometry. Here, we address the structural integrity of white matter via diffusion tensor imaging.

Interventions for multidimensional aspects of breast cancer-related fatigue: a meta-analytic review.

Purpose: This meta-analysis sought to determine whether exercise, psychological, or alternative forms of interventions differentially improve cognitive, physical, and general dimensions of cancer-related fatigue (CRF) in women with a history of breast cancer.

Methods: Databases (PubMed, PsychINFO, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library) were systematically reviewed from inception through March 2019, with data extracted from randomized controlled trials of fatigue interventions using multidimensional CRF outcome measures. Two authors independently assessed methodological quality using the Cochrane Collaboration's risk of bias tool.

A Prospective Cohort Study of Neural Progenitor Cell-Sparing Radiation Therapy Plus Temozolomide for Newly Diagnosed Patients With Glioblastoma.

Background: In treating glioblastoma, irradiation of the neural progenitor cell (NPC) niches is controversial. Lower hippocampal doses may limit neurocognitive toxicity, but higher doses to the subventricular zones (SVZ) may improve survival.

Objective: To prospectively evaluate the impact of limiting radiation dose to the NPC niches on tumor progression, survival, and cognition in patients with glioblastoma.

A prospective evaluation of whole brain volume loss and neurocognitive decline following hippocampal-sparing prophylactic cranial irradiation for limited-stage small-cell lung cancer.

Introduction: This study evaluated an association between whole brain volume loss and neurocognitive decline following prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI) for limited-stage small-cell lung cancer (SCLC).

Methods: This was a secondary analysis of a prospective clinical trial that accrued patients at a single institution from 2013 to 2016. Patients with limited-stage SCLC treated with standard chemo-radiation received PCI 25 Gy/10 fractions, with mean hippocampal dose limited to < 8 Gy.

Cognitive Changes Related to Cancer Therapy.

A growing population of cancer survivors is at risk for acute and long-term consequences resulting from cancer and its treatment. Cancer-related cognitive impairment (CRCI) typically manifests as modest deficits in attention, processing speed, executive functioning, and memory, which may persist for decades after treatment. Although some risk factors for CRCI are largely immutable (eg, genetics and demographic factors), there are many other contributors to CRCI that when appropriately addressed can result in improved cognitive functioning and quality of life.

Balanced bifrontal transcranial direct current stimulation enhances working memory in adults with high-functioning autism: a sham-controlled crossover study.

Background: Working memory (WM) often is impaired in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Such impairment may underlie core deficits in cognition and social functioning. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been shown to enhance WM in both healthy adults and clinical populations, but its efficacy in ASD is unknown.

The link between childhood adversity and late-life mental health: evidence for the influence of early-life experiences or illusory correlations?

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) reflect stressful or traumatic early life events such as abuse, neglect, and significant household challenges. These experiences are increasingly appreciated as factors that exert influence on physical and mental functioning throughout the lifespan. Numerous studies have demonstrated dose-response relationships between the number of ACEs reported and negative health outcomes in adulthood (Anda et al.

Reproducibility of tDCS Results in a Randomized Trial: Failure to Replicate Findings of tDCS-Induced Enhancement of Verbal Fluency.

Background: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been shown to enhance verbal productivity, but the finding and extent of enhancement vary across studies. Few attempts to replicate positive tDCS findings have been reported, suggesting the possibility of publication bias.

Objective: We aimed to replicate the tDCS methodology and findings of Cattaneo, Pisoni, and Papagno (2011, Neuroscience 183:64-70) in a new population sample.

Brain white matter volume abnormalities in Lesch-Nyhan disease and its variants.

Objective: We sought to examine brain white matter abnormalities based on MRI in adults with Lesch-Nyhan disease (LND) or an attenuated variant (LNV) of this rare, X-linked neurodevelopmental disorder of purine metabolism.

Methods: In this observational study, we compared 21 adults with LND, 17 with LNV, and 33 age-, sex-, and race-matched healthy controls using voxel-based morphometry and analysis of covariance to identify white matter volume abnormalities in both patient groups.

Results: Patients with classic LND showed larger reductions of white (26%) than gray (17%) matter volume relative to healthy controls.

Higher baseline serum uric acid is associated with poorer cognition but not rates of cognitive decline in women.

Serum uric acid is a powerful antioxidant that may have neuroprotective properties. While some studies have found that greater serum uric acid is associated with better cognition in older adults, it is also associated with numerous vascular risk factors that increase risk for dementia. Women may also be particularly vulnerable to the vascular effects of elevated uric acid.