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3 Two Dominant Post-COVID Subtypes in Patients Seeking Treatment for “Brain Fog” Through a Post-COVID Treatment Clinic
- Kristine Lokken, Jamie Hansel Robinson, Richard Kennedy, David E Vance, Ronald M Lazar, Roy C Martin, Melissa J Greenfield, Pariya F Wheeler, Adam Gerstenecker
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- Journal:
- Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society / Volume 29 / Issue s1 / November 2023
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 21 December 2023, pp. 876-877
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Objective:
To examine patterns of cognitive function among a clinical sample of patients seeking treatment for Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC).
Participants and Methods:One hundred nineteen patients each completed a baseline neuropsychological evaluation, including clinical diagnostic interview, cognitive assessments, and a comprehensive battery of self-report questionnaires. Patients had a mean age of 50 years (range:18 to 74, SD=10.1) and a mean of 15.5 years (SD=2.54) of formal education. Patients were primarily female (74%) and of White/Caucasian race (75%). Hierarchical agglomerative clustering was used to partition the data into groups based on cognitive performance. Euclidean distance was used as the similarity measure for the continuous variables and within-cluster variance was minimized using Ward’s method. The optimal number of clusters was determined empirically by fitting models with 1 to 15 clusters, with the best number of clusters selected using the silhouette index. All analyses were conducted using the NbClust package, an R package for determining the relevant number of clusters in a data set.
Results:Clustering yielded two distinct clusters of cognitive performance. Group 1 (n=57) performed worse than Group 2 (n=62) on most cognitive variables (including a brief cognitive screener and tests of attention/working memory, executive function, processing speed, learning and delayed recall). Of note, there were no significant differences between groups on an infection severity scale, hospitalizations/ICU admissions, initial or current COVID-19 symptoms, or prior comorbidities. Groups did not differ in age or gender, but Group 1 had a lower education level than Group 2 (M=14.7, SD=2.45 vs. M=16.2, SD=2.42; p=.001). Group 1 also had significantly more minorities than Group 2 (40% vs. 8%; p<.001). No other demographic differences (income, living arrangement, or marital status) were observed. In comparison to Group 2 patients, Group 1 patients self-reported significantly higher levels of anxiety and depression and functional impairment (Functional Activities Questionnaire: M=11.3, SD=8.33 vs. M=7.65, SD=7.97), perceived stress (Perceived Stress Scale: M=24.7, SD=7.90 vs. M=20.3, SD=7.89), insomnia (Insomnia Severity Index: M=16.0, SD=6.50 vs. M=13.1, SD=6.76), and subjective cognitive functioning (Cognitive Failures Questionnaire: M=58.8, SD=16.9 vs. M=50.3, SD=18.6; p’s<.05).
Conclusions:Findings indicate two predominant subtypes of patients seeking treatment for PASC, with one group presenting as more cognitively impaired and reporting greater levels of anxiety, depression, insomnia, perceived stress, functional limitations, and subjective cognitive impairment. Future directions include follow-up assessments with these patients to determine cognitive trajectories over time and tailoring treatment adjuncts to address mood symptoms, insomnia, functional ability, and lifestyle variables. Understanding mechanisms of differences in cognitive and affective symptoms is needed in future work. Limitations to the study were that patients were referred for evaluation based on the complaint of “brain fog” and the sample was a homogenous, highly educated, younger group of individuals who experienced generally mild COVID-19 course.
Collective Bargaining as a Minimum Employment Standard
- Roy J. Adams
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- Journal:
- The Economic and Labour Relations Review / Volume 22 / Issue 2 / July 2011
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 01 January 2023, pp. 153-164
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Throughout the English-speaking world, collective bargaining has commonly been considered to be an option for workers discontent with the default system of management-determined conditions of work. In this article it is argued that, as a universally acclaimed human right, collective bargaining should be considered a minimum condition for everyone employed under standardised conditions of work. The government policy of offering workers a choice to bargain or to refrain from bargaining, in effect in countries such as the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, does not meet that standard. Just as the equity goal of governments is the absence of inequality based on traits such as sex and colour, the government bargaining policy goal should be universal collective bargaining. Anything short of universality should be considered a social problem in search of a more effective policy solution.
Ten new insights in climate science 2020 – a horizon scan
- Erik Pihl, Eva Alfredsson, Magnus Bengtsson, Kathryn J. Bowen, Vanesa Cástan Broto, Kuei Tien Chou, Helen Cleugh, Kristie Ebi, Clea M. Edwards, Eleanor Fisher, Pierre Friedlingstein, Alex Godoy-Faúndez, Mukesh Gupta, Alexandra R. Harrington, Katie Hayes, Bronwyn M. Hayward, Sophie R. Hebden, Thomas Hickmann, Gustaf Hugelius, Tatiana Ilyina, Robert B. Jackson, Trevor F. Keenan, Ria A. Lambino, Sebastian Leuzinger, Mikael Malmaeus, Robert I. McDonald, Celia McMichael, Clark A. Miller, Matteo Muratori, Nidhi Nagabhatla, Harini Nagendra, Cristian Passarello, Josep Penuelas, Julia Pongratz, Johan Rockström, Patricia Romero-Lankao, Joyashree Roy, Adam A. Scaife, Peter Schlosser, Edward Schuur, Michelle Scobie, Steven C. Sherwood, Giles B. Sioen, Jakob Skovgaard, Edgardo A. Sobenes Obregon, Sebastian Sonntag, Joachim H. Spangenberg, Otto Spijkers, Leena Srivastava, Detlef B. Stammer, Pedro H. C. Torres, Merritt R. Turetsky, Anna M. Ukkola, Detlef P. van Vuuren, Christina Voigt, Chadia Wannous, Mark D. Zelinka
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- Journal:
- Global Sustainability / Volume 4 / 2021
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 27 January 2021, e5
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Non-technical summary
We summarize some of the past year's most important findings within climate change-related research. New research has improved our understanding of Earth's sensitivity to carbon dioxide, finds that permafrost thaw could release more carbon emissions than expected and that the uptake of carbon in tropical ecosystems is weakening. Adverse impacts on human society include increasing water shortages and impacts on mental health. Options for solutions emerge from rethinking economic models, rights-based litigation, strengthened governance systems and a new social contract. The disruption caused by COVID-19 could be seized as an opportunity for positive change, directing economic stimulus towards sustainable investments.
Technical summaryA synthesis is made of ten fields within climate science where there have been significant advances since mid-2019, through an expert elicitation process with broad disciplinary scope. Findings include: (1) a better understanding of equilibrium climate sensitivity; (2) abrupt thaw as an accelerator of carbon release from permafrost; (3) changes to global and regional land carbon sinks; (4) impacts of climate change on water crises, including equity perspectives; (5) adverse effects on mental health from climate change; (6) immediate effects on climate of the COVID-19 pandemic and requirements for recovery packages to deliver on the Paris Agreement; (7) suggested long-term changes to governance and a social contract to address climate change, learning from the current pandemic, (8) updated positive cost–benefit ratio and new perspectives on the potential for green growth in the short- and long-term perspective; (9) urban electrification as a strategy to move towards low-carbon energy systems and (10) rights-based litigation as an increasingly important method to address climate change, with recent clarifications on the legal standing and representation of future generations.
Social media summaryStronger permafrost thaw, COVID-19 effects and growing mental health impacts among highlights of latest climate science.
Equivalency of the diagnostic accuracy of the PHQ-8 and PHQ-9: a systematic review and individual participant data meta-analysis – ERRATUM
- Yin Wu, Brooke Levis, Kira E. Riehm, Nazanin Saadat, Alexander W. Levis, Marleine Azar, Danielle B. Rice, Jill Boruff, Pim Cuijpers, Simon Gilbody, John P.A. Ioannidis, Lorie A. Kloda, Dean McMillan, Scott B. Patten, Ian Shrier, Roy C. Ziegelstein, Dickens H. Akena, Bruce Arroll, Liat Ayalon, Hamid R. Baradaran, Murray Baron, Charles H. Bombardier, Peter Butterworth, Gregory Carter, Marcos H. Chagas, Juliana C. N. Chan, Rushina Cholera, Yeates Conwell, Janneke M. de Manvan Ginkel, Jesse R. Fann, Felix H. Fischer, Daniel Fung, Bizu Gelaye, Felicity Goodyear-Smith, Catherine G. Greeno, Brian J. Hall, Patricia A. Harrison, Martin Härter, Ulrich Hegerl, Leanne Hides, Stevan E. Hobfoll, Marie Hudson, Thomas Hyphantis, Masatoshi Inagaki, Nathalie Jetté, Mohammad E. Khamseh, Kim M. Kiely, Yunxin Kwan, Femke Lamers, Shen-Ing Liu, Manote Lotrakul, Sonia R. Loureiro, Bernd Löwe, Anthony McGuire, Sherina Mohd-Sidik, Tiago N. Munhoz, Kumiko Muramatsu, Flávia L. Osório, Vikram Patel, Brian W. Pence, Philippe Persoons, Angelo Picardi, Katrin Reuter, Alasdair G. Rooney, Iná S. Santos, Juwita Shaaban, Abbey Sidebottom, Adam Simning, Lesley Stafford, Sharon Sung, Pei Lin Lynnette Tan, Alyna Turner, Henk C. van Weert, Jennifer White, Mary A. Whooley, Kirsty Winkley, Mitsuhiko Yamada, Andrea Benedetti, Brett D. Thombs
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- Journal:
- Psychological Medicine / Volume 50 / Issue 16 / December 2020
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 19 August 2019, p. 2816
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Equivalency of the diagnostic accuracy of the PHQ-8 and PHQ-9: a systematic review and individual participant data meta-analysis
- Yin Wu, Brooke Levis, Kira E. Riehm, Nazanin Saadat, Alexander W. Levis, Marleine Azar, Danielle B. Rice, Jill Boruff, Pim Cuijpers, Simon Gilbody, John P.A. Ioannidis, Lorie A. Kloda, Dean McMillan, Scott B. Patten, Ian Shrier, Roy C. Ziegelstein, Dickens H. Akena, Bruce Arroll, Liat Ayalon, Hamid R. Baradaran, Murray Baron, Charles H. Bombardier, Peter Butterworth, Gregory Carter, Marcos H. Chagas, Juliana C. N. Chan, Rushina Cholera, Yeates Conwell, Janneke M. de Man-van Ginkel, Jesse R. Fann, Felix H. Fischer, Daniel Fung, Bizu Gelaye, Felicity Goodyear-Smith, Catherine G. Greeno, Brian J. Hall, Patricia A. Harrison, Martin Härter, Ulrich Hegerl, Leanne Hides, Stevan E. Hobfoll, Marie Hudson, Thomas Hyphantis, Masatoshi Inagaki, Nathalie Jetté, Mohammad E. Khamseh, Kim M. Kiely, Yunxin Kwan, Femke Lamers, Shen-Ing Liu, Manote Lotrakul, Sonia R. Loureiro, Bernd Löwe, Anthony McGuire, Sherina Mohd-Sidik, Tiago N. Munhoz, Kumiko Muramatsu, Flávia L. Osório, Vikram Patel, Brian W. Pence, Philippe Persoons, Angelo Picardi, Katrin Reuter, Alasdair G. Rooney, Iná S. Santos, Juwita Shaaban, Abbey Sidebottom, Adam Simning, Lesley Stafford, Sharon Sung, Pei Lin Lynnette Tan, Alyna Turner, Henk C. van Weert, Jennifer White, Mary A. Whooley, Kirsty Winkley, Mitsuhiko Yamada, Andrea Benedetti, Brett D. Thombs
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- Journal:
- Psychological Medicine / Volume 50 / Issue 8 / June 2020
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 12 July 2019, pp. 1368-1380
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Background
Item 9 of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) queries about thoughts of death and self-harm, but not suicidality. Although it is sometimes used to assess suicide risk, most positive responses are not associated with suicidality. The PHQ-8, which omits Item 9, is thus increasingly used in research. We assessed equivalency of total score correlations and the diagnostic accuracy to detect major depression of the PHQ-8 and PHQ-9.
MethodsWe conducted an individual patient data meta-analysis. We fit bivariate random-effects models to assess diagnostic accuracy.
Results16 742 participants (2097 major depression cases) from 54 studies were included. The correlation between PHQ-8 and PHQ-9 scores was 0.996 (95% confidence interval 0.996 to 0.996). The standard cutoff score of 10 for the PHQ-9 maximized sensitivity + specificity for the PHQ-8 among studies that used a semi-structured diagnostic interview reference standard (N = 27). At cutoff 10, the PHQ-8 was less sensitive by 0.02 (−0.06 to 0.00) and more specific by 0.01 (0.00 to 0.01) among those studies (N = 27), with similar results for studies that used other types of interviews (N = 27). For all 54 primary studies combined, across all cutoffs, the PHQ-8 was less sensitive than the PHQ-9 by 0.00 to 0.05 (0.03 at cutoff 10), and specificity was within 0.01 for all cutoffs (0.00 to 0.01).
ConclusionsPHQ-8 and PHQ-9 total scores were similar. Sensitivity may be minimally reduced with the PHQ-8, but specificity is similar.
Probability of major depression diagnostic classification using semi-structured versus fully structured diagnostic interviews
- Brooke Levis, Andrea Benedetti, Kira E. Riehm, Nazanin Saadat, Alexander W. Levis, Marleine Azar, Danielle B. Rice, Matthew J. Chiovitti, Tatiana A. Sanchez, Pim Cuijpers, Simon Gilbody, John P. A. Ioannidis, Lorie A. Kloda, Dean McMillan, Scott B. Patten, Ian Shrier, Russell J. Steele, Roy C. Ziegelstein, Dickens H. Akena, Bruce Arroll, Liat Ayalon, Hamid R. Baradaran, Murray Baron, Anna Beraldi, Charles H. Bombardier, Peter Butterworth, Gregory Carter, Marcos H. Chagas, Juliana C. N. Chan, Rushina Cholera, Neerja Chowdhary, Kerrie Clover, Yeates Conwell, Janneke M. de Man-van Ginkel, Jaime Delgadillo, Jesse R. Fann, Felix H. Fischer, Benjamin Fischler, Daniel Fung, Bizu Gelaye, Felicity Goodyear-Smith, Catherine G. Greeno, Brian J. Hall, John Hambridge, Patricia A. Harrison, Ulrich Hegerl, Leanne Hides, Stevan E. Hobfoll, Marie Hudson, Thomas Hyphantis, Masatoshi Inagaki, Khalida Ismail, Nathalie Jetté, Mohammad E. Khamseh, Kim M. Kiely, Femke Lamers, Shen-Ing Liu, Manote Lotrakul, Sonia R. Loureiro, Bernd Löwe, Laura Marsh, Anthony McGuire, Sherina Mohd Sidik, Tiago N. Munhoz, Kumiko Muramatsu, Flávia L. Osório, Vikram Patel, Brian W. Pence, Philippe Persoons, Angelo Picardi, Alasdair G. Rooney, Iná S. Santos, Juwita Shaaban, Abbey Sidebottom, Adam Simning, Lesley Stafford, Sharon Sung, Pei Lin Lynnette Tan, Alyna Turner, Christina M. van der Feltz-Cornelis, Henk C. van Weert, Paul A. Vöhringer, Jennifer White, Mary A. Whooley, Kirsty Winkley, Mitsuhiko Yamada, Yuying Zhang, Brett D. Thombs
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- Journal:
- The British Journal of Psychiatry / Volume 212 / Issue 6 / June 2018
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 02 May 2018, pp. 377-385
- Print publication:
- June 2018
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Background
Different diagnostic interviews are used as reference standards for major depression classification in research. Semi-structured interviews involve clinical judgement, whereas fully structured interviews are completely scripted. The Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI), a brief fully structured interview, is also sometimes used. It is not known whether interview method is associated with probability of major depression classification.
AimsTo evaluate the association between interview method and odds of major depression classification, controlling for depressive symptom scores and participant characteristics.
MethodData collected for an individual participant data meta-analysis of Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) diagnostic accuracy were analysed and binomial generalised linear mixed models were fit.
ResultsA total of 17 158 participants (2287 with major depression) from 57 primary studies were analysed. Among fully structured interviews, odds of major depression were higher for the MINI compared with the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) (odds ratio (OR) = 2.10; 95% CI = 1.15–3.87). Compared with semi-structured interviews, fully structured interviews (MINI excluded) were non-significantly more likely to classify participants with low-level depressive symptoms (PHQ-9 scores ≤6) as having major depression (OR = 3.13; 95% CI = 0.98–10.00), similarly likely for moderate-level symptoms (PHQ-9 scores 7–15) (OR = 0.96; 95% CI = 0.56–1.66) and significantly less likely for high-level symptoms (PHQ-9 scores ≥16) (OR = 0.50; 95% CI = 0.26–0.97).
ConclusionsThe MINI may identify more people as depressed than the CIDI, and semi-structured and fully structured interviews may not be interchangeable methods, but these results should be replicated.
Declaration of interestDrs Jetté and Patten declare that they received a grant, outside the submitted work, from the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, which was jointly funded by the Institute and Pfizer. Pfizer was the original sponsor of the development of the PHQ-9, which is now in the public domain. Dr Chan is a steering committee member or consultant of Astra Zeneca, Bayer, Lilly, MSD and Pfizer. She has received sponsorships and honorarium for giving lectures and providing consultancy and her affiliated institution has received research grants from these companies. Dr Hegerl declares that within the past 3 years, he was an advisory board member for Lundbeck, Servier and Otsuka Pharma; a consultant for Bayer Pharma; and a speaker for Medice Arzneimittel, Novartis, and Roche Pharma, all outside the submitted work. Dr Inagaki declares that he has received grants from Novartis Pharma, lecture fees from Pfizer, Mochida, Shionogi, Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma, Daiichi-Sankyo, Meiji Seika and Takeda, and royalties from Nippon Hyoron Sha, Nanzando, Seiwa Shoten, Igaku-shoin and Technomics, all outside of the submitted work. Dr Yamada reports personal fees from Meiji Seika Pharma Co., Ltd., MSD K.K., Asahi Kasei Pharma Corporation, Seishin Shobo, Seiwa Shoten Co., Ltd., Igaku-shoin Ltd., Chugai Igakusha and Sentan Igakusha, all outside the submitted work. All other authors declare no competing interests. No funder had any role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis and interpretation of the data; preparation, review or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication.
Contributors
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- By Michael Alkire, Michael S. Avidan, Helen A. Baghdoyan, Andrew J. Davidson, Karen B. Domino, Roy K. Esaki, Paul S. García, Mohamed Ghoneim, Rachel Hutchens, Christopher D. Kent, Chantal Kerssens, Christof Koch, Eric LaRock, Claes Lennmarken, Kate Leslie, Ralph Lydic, George A. Mashour, Florian Mormann, Benjamin J. Palanca, Gerhard Schneider, Adam Searleman, Peter Sebel, Gunilla Sydsjo, Giancarlo Vanini
- Edited by George A. Mashour
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- Book:
- Consciousness, Awareness, and Anesthesia
- Published online:
- 03 May 2010
- Print publication:
- 25 January 2010, pp vii-viii
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Some aspects of interrelations between fungi and other biota in forest soil
- Vladimir KRIVTSOV, Bryan S. GRIFFITHS, Ross SALMOND, Keith LIDDELL, Adam GARSIDE, Tanya BEZGINOVA, Jacqueline A. THOMPSON, Harry J. STAINES, Roy WATLING, John W. PALFREYMAN
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- Journal:
- Mycological Research / Volume 108 / Issue 8 / August 2004
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 13 August 2004, pp. 933-946
- Print publication:
- August 2004
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Interrelations of fungal mycelium with other soil biota are of paramount importance in forestry and soil ecology. Here we present the results of statistical analysis of a comprehensive data set collected in the first (and the only) British fungus sanctuary over a period of four months. The variables studied included a number of soil properties, bacteria, protozoan flagellates, ciliates and amoebae, microbial and plant feeding nematodes, various microarthropods, and two fungal biomarkers – glomalin and ergosterol. One way ANOVA showed that the dynamics of the microbiota studied was influenced by seasonal changes. Superimposed on these changes, however, was variability due to biological interactions and habitat characteristics. Two fungal biomarkers, ergosterol and glomalin, were differently influenced by other biota and abiotic variables. The results indicate that the dynamics of soil fungi is influenced not only by soil microarthropods, but also by those found in forest litter. The overall outcome, therefore, is likely to be very complex and will depend upon specific conditions of any particular ecosystem.