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Substance use disorders and addictions are mental disorders deeply interconnected with other psychiatric conditions – and this connection is of fundamental importance. Although addictions are formally recognized as mental health disorders, they are often not addressed as such in research or clinical practice. Psychiatric research, clinical care, and treatment development remain largely organized along traditional diagnostic boundaries. While diagnostic classifications provide structure and clinical utility, it is increasingly evident that psychiatric diagnoses are neither fully separable nor independent entities. Despite extensive discussion on comorbidity, addictions are frequently excluded from broader conceptualizations of the intertwined nature of mental disorders. Yet, they share substantial commonalities with other psychiatric conditions across clinical presentation, psychopathology, genetic vulnerability, neurobiological mechanisms, socioenvironmental risk factors, and treatment strategies. Maintaining a conceptual divide between addictions and other psychiatric disorders reinforces diagnostic “tunnel vision,” constraining our understanding of neuropsychopathology and contributing to persistent gaps in care and treatment accessibility. This narrative review examines the overlapping risk factors, clinical features, and therapeutic approaches that link addictions with other mental disorders. We argue that advancing psychiatric research and nosology requires a deliberate acknowledgement of these transdiagnostic overlaps and shared mechanisms. The challenge is particularly evident in the understanding and treatment of dual disorders. Progress will depend on integrative, collaborative frameworks that bridge scientific and clinical perspectives and foster dynamic feedback between empirical research and clinical practice. Recognizing mental disorders as interdependent systems may offer a more coherent and effective foundation for understanding and treatment.
Due to the high prevalence of depression among young adults, identifying prevention strategies during young adulthood is crucial. Dietary polyphenols have been associated with depression in older cohorts; however, the association remains unclear, particularly in young adults. This study aimed to assess the prospective association between the intake of total polyphenols, polyphenol classes and polyphenol subclasses with depressive symptoms in young adults. Data from 1484 Raine Study Generation 2 participants (52·7 % female; baseline mean age (sd): 20 (0·5)) at the −20, −22, and −27 year follow-ups (n 964, 979 and 1094, respectively), with overlap across follow-ups, were used. Energy-adjusted polyphenol intake was estimated from FFQ data using our expansion of the AUSNUT 2011–13 and Phenol-Explorer to include polyphenol content data and categorised into quartiles. The primary outcome was self-reported depressive symptoms assessed via the twenty-one-item Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale averaged across the three time points. Linear mixed-effects models were used to assess the association between the polyphenol intake exposures and depressive symptoms. Sociodemographic characteristics and lifestyle- and health-related behaviours were adjusted for. Participants in the highest quartiles for flavonol and hydroxybenzoic acid intake had lower depressive symptoms across time than participants in the lowest quartiles (flavonols (Q4 v. Q1 mean difference: −1.38; 95% CI −2.48, −0.28); hydroxybenzoic acids (Q4 v. Q1: −1.40; 95% CI −2.53, −0.27). We found no evidence of a highest v. lowest association for all other polyphenol categories. Future studies are required to investigate whether increasing polyphenol intake could protect against depression in young adults.
Being literate likely has consequences for learning a second language, but surprisingly little research has been devoted to how emergent literacy affects second-language acquisition processes. Using a word learning experiment, we aimed to tease apart two possible ways through which literacy could impact second-language acquisition: through literacy-induced restructuring and through using written input in addition to spoken input. Totally, 166 (L1 Arabic and L2 Dutch) participants of varying literacy levels (emergent readers and more experienced readers) had to acquire eight words as names of people and pet animals, of which some only varied in one phoneme. Half of the participants received only auditory input to learn these names, and the other half also received written input. Bayesian mixed-effects models indicate that experienced readers are better able to acquire words and a phonological contrast than emergent readers, pointing toward a benefit from literacy-induced restructured linguistic representations. We also obtained anecdotal evidence that, although experienced readers seemingly benefit more from written input than emergent readers, the latter group could still use written input to a small extent. Possibly, written input might be beneficial, even though it cannot be properly decoded yet—at the very least it does not harm providing such input.
Refugees in Germany often do not receive the necessary mental healthcare. Understanding refugees’ healthcare needs, that is factors that support or hinder their health, can foster the development of effective, culturally appropriate and accessible health services. The present exploratory study investigated these needs using cognitive-affective maps (CAM), a recently developed mind map-like measurement technique enabling participants to visualise their thoughts and emotions as networks. Thirty refugees from diverse regions of origin (West Africa, Middle East and Ukraine) were asked to indicate factors supporting and hindering their health by drawing a CAM using a digital tool. We analysed the drawn CAM concepts qualitatively according to a five-step procedure, including deductive and inductive category formation. Drawn CAM concepts concerning supporting factors were grouped along the categories ‘resources’ and ‘possibilities for explicit treatments of healthcare needs’, suggesting an openness to promote well-being among refugees. Yet, various concepts were grouped along the categories ‘psychological challenges’, ‘specific living conditions in Germany’ and ‘access to healthcare’, focusing on factors hindering well-being. Frequency analyses of these categories suggested differences between the subsamples, which should be further investigated in future studies in order to integrate a possible heterogeneity within refugee populations in offered healthcare.
Many older adults living in a seniors’ residence (SR), especially those living with dementia, will have to be relocated in long-term care (LTC) despite the negative impact of these care transitions on physical and psychological well-being. Using a living lab methodology and focus group methods, a care approach was co-developed in collaboration with a SR and public home care services, to promote aging-in-place and delay relocations in LTC. Outcomes were assessed using Interrupted Time Series Analysis. Integrating best practices like staff training, care reorganization, personalized care based on the residents’ life stories, and stronger collaborations with the home care services, this approach allowed older adults with higher assistance needs to remain within their home. Relocations to LTC were delayed by approximately 3 months. Ultimately, aging-in-place was found to be relevant in providing evolving care to older adults living in a SR, though further studies are needed to document its financial impact.
The digital age, while promising tools to advance health care, has simultaneously ushered in new forms of power asymmetry, with extractive data practices risking the perpetuation of historical injustices and structural inequities. Achieving epistemic justice in health data governance initiatives demands a fundamental shift in how knowledge is produced, legitimised and applied. It requires a concerted effort to delink from colonial epistemic hierarchies and to embrace the rich plurality of ways of knowing, ensuring that health data genuinely serves the well-being and prioritises the self-determination of those from all walks of life. This article critically examines Transform Health’s equity- and human rights-based ‘Health Data Governance Principles’ through a decolonial lens, interrogating their potential to foster equity in the rapidly expanding field of digital health. Grounded in a decolonial imperative, the article challenges dominant epistemologies that underpin current global health frameworks. The conceptual foundations and practical applications of the Health Data Governance Principles are then explored in light of the findings of an empirical study undertaken by the author which examined the Principles themselves, organisational perceptions thereof, and efforts towards their operationalisation. In particular, it interrogates whether these principles align with and address the needs and values of historically marginalised communities. Central to this analysis is the introduction of a decolonial nexus that brings into relation the decolonial concepts of ‘health data justice’, ‘epistemological delinking’ and the ‘vernacularisation of human rights’. This approach is intended to not only to expose epistemic injustice within prevailing health data governance models but also to centre emancipatory praxis in reclaiming knowledge, rights and representation in digital health agendas.
Based on new archival material, mainly police and judicial records and court sentences from the late 1940s, this article examines the legal and political background of the trials against homosexuals in post-revolutionary and early socialist Yugoslavia. During those years, at least two hundred men were convicted on prison terms for ‘unnatural fornication’ and some four hundred more were arrested and detained in police stations with their names entered into police registries. The year 1949 was particularly harsh for homosexuals in Yugoslavia. Two major anti-homosexual trials were held in Dubrovnik and Zagreb, when groups of homosexual men were accused of creating hotbeds of vice and debauchery. Perceived as a threat to the youth and their socialist upbringing, homosexuals were condemned as not only criminals but also renegades of the new socialist order and in some cases even as its saboteurs. Verdicts expressed a glaring ideological prejudice rooted in the notion that homosexuality was an expression of class exploitation, petty-bourgeois individualism and a visible sign of degeneration inherited from the old regime. The proper moral and sexual development of the youth, the first generation of the new socialist men and women, was consistently at the forefront of the reasoning behind guilty verdicts. This paper offers new insights into the legal history of homosexuality in Yugoslavia and contributes to the historiographical interpretation of ideological and political underpinnings surrounding homosexuality in early socialist regimes across Central and Eastern Europe.
Recently, the WHO published a Target Product Profile for a diagnostic test for cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) and a Roadmap to 2030 for Neglected Tropical Diseases. The documents highlight that existing diagnostic tools for CL are insufficient, whilst setting clear goals for improved sensitivity and reduced cost. The need for species typing in diagnostics is also becoming more pressing with the emergence of drug-resistance, especially of Leishmania tropica. Serological tests are unable to do this, while techniques that can, like PCR, require complex and expensive machinery. Isothermal assays like LAMP offer a promising solution, but more work also remains, as few species-specific LAMP assays have been developed thus far and CL in Ethiopia is particularly neglected. Additionally, since the COVID-19 pandemic, many cheap isothermal diagnostic devices have been produced, which have yet to be tested in the diagnosis of CL. Finally, artificial intelligence presents another avenue for rapid diagnosis by image analysis. In this comprehensive review, we examine the opportunities and challenges inherent to diagnostic development for CL, a priority undertaking that still faces many developmental hurdles.
The Experiment to Detect the Global Epoch of reionisation 21 cm Signal (EDGES) has reported evidence for an absorption feature in the sky-averaged radio background near 78 MHz. A cosmological interpretation of this signal corresponds to absorption of 21 cm photons by neutral hydrogen at $z \sim 17$. The large depth of the signal has been shown to require an excess radio background above the CMB and/or non-standard cooling processes in the IGM. Here, we explore the plausibility of a scenario in which the EDGES signal is back-lit by an excess radio background sourced from a population of radio-loud AGN at high redshift. These AGN could also explain the unexpected abundance of UV-bright objects observed at $z \gt 10$ by JWST. We find that producing enough radio photons to explain the EDGES depth requires that nearly all high-z UV-bright objects down to $M_\mathrm{ UV} \gtrsim -15$ are radio-loud AGN and that the UV density of such objects declines by at most $1.5$ orders of magnitude between $z = 10$ and 20. In addition, the fraction of X-ray photons escaping these objects must be $\lesssim$1% of their expected intrinsic production rate to prevent the absorption signal being washed out by early IGM pre-heating. Re-producing the sharp boundaries of the absorption trough and its flat bottom require that the UV luminosity function, the fraction of UV light produced by AGN, and the X-ray escape fraction have fine-tuned redshift dependence. We conclude that radio-loud AGN are an unlikely (although physically possible) candidate to explain EDGES because of the extreme physical properties required for them to do so.
A Body Shape Index (ABSI) is a validated anthropometric measure describing body shape independently of BMI and height. This study aimed to evaluate the association between ABSI and dietary quality and eating behaviours in a Mediterranean clinical population.
Design:
We conducted a cross-sectional study analysing associations between ABSI and diet/behaviour using Pearson correlations and multivariable linear regressions adjusted for age, sex and BMI.
Setting:
The study took place at a Mediterranean diet-based nutrition clinic in Rome, Italy.
Participants:
The sample included 1640 adult patients attending follow-up visits at the clinic. ABSI z-scores were calculated and standardised by age and sex. Weekly food intake was assessed using 7-day food diaries, and behavioural preferences were collected via structured questionnaires.
Results:
The Pearson correlation between BMI and internal z-scored ABSI (zABSI) was weak but statistically significant (r = 0·113, P < 0·0001), confirming that ABSI captures body shape independently from BMI. As expected, ABSI strongly correlated with WC (r = 0·78, P < 0·001). Playing a sport was inversely associated with zABSI (β = –0·365, P < 0·001). Nighttime eating (β = 0·237, P = 0·001), snacking between meals (β = 0·133, P = 0·014) and preference for sweet over salty foods (β = 0·025, P = 0·010) were positively associated with higher ABSI values.
Conclusions:
In this Mediterranean clinical sample, ABSI identified behavioural and dietary correlates of body shape-related risk. Promoting physical activity and addressing nighttime eating may help improve anthropometric profiles linked to abdominal fat distribution.
This article is an attempt to reconstruct the history of the first Nigerien psychiatric service, and diverse aspects of the ordinary functioning of Pavillon E in Niamey (Niger): the organisation of daily life, the position occupied by coopérant doctors, the precise perimeter and development of practices taken from social and community psychiatry, and relationships with the outside world (families, police, legal system, the public health office).
This research allows us to rehistoricise and refine the details of a period from 1950 to 1980 which, up until now, was viewed as fixed and anachronistic. We draw on precious sources of empirical data – medical and administrative archives, students’ dissertations, oral sources – which invite us to reconsider both colonial/post-colonial (dis)continuities and the temporal caesuras in the literature or in reports from the time.
This landscape of mental healthcare appears to be more or less deeply affected by regional and international dynamics, such as the French coopération system, the networks of ethnopsychiatry and transcultural psychiatry, or the network of pharmaceutical groups and their subsidiaries.
Studying this service also raises the issues of the chronology and daily life of post-independence psychiatric care in francophone West Africa. Finally, our research interrogates the intellectual partitions between reforming disalienist movements and day-to-day psychiatry, and addresses fundamental epistemological questions on how historiography can restore the balance of knowledge between them.
Although prior research has identified common attributes of a Good Death across cultures, few studies have simultaneously incorporated the views of patients, family caregivers, and physicians – particularly in Latin America, where structural barriers to palliative care persist. This study examines how these stakeholders in Mexico perceive and designate what constitutes a Good Death, aiming to identify its core components and cultural particularities.
Methods
Qualitative interviews were conducted with 14 advanced-stage oncologic and nononcologic patients receiving home-based palliative care, 12 family caregivers, and 21 physicians. Data were analyzed using principles of generic purposive sampling and thematic analysis.
Results
The most frequent designation for a Good Death was “Dignified and Peaceful Death,” perceived as a multidimensional and multitemporal process. Five core domains emerged: physical, psychological, interpersonal, spiritual, and structural. These dimensions manifested across distinct phases – before death (as preparation), during death, and after death.
Significance of results
A Dignified and Peaceful Death begins when individuals become aware of their mortality and encompasses cultural, emotional, and structural elements that transcend physical death. This perspective suggests that end-of-life care should respond not only to biomedical needs but also to broader existential and relational dimensions that shape patient and family experiences in resource-limited settings.
The Oregon Cascades had 35 named glaciers on seven volcanoes in the 1980s, with 34 of those glaciers remaining by 2000. Here, we document the glaciers that fall into the Global Glacier Casualty List categories based on five years of field observations of these 34 glaciers. Five glaciers have disappeared, four have almost disappeared and eight are critically endangered. Thus, half of the Oregon Cascades named glaciers have disappeared, almost disappeared, or reached critically endangered status in the 21st century. Between 1980 and 2024, the May–October ablation season of the Oregon Cascades region warmed at ∼0.3°C per decade, with a 2020–24 mean temperature ∼1.7°C warmer than the 1975–84 mean. In contrast, there was no significant trend in November–April accumulation season precipitation. Given the significant rise in melt-season temperature, we attribute ongoing glacier disappearance in the Oregon Cascades to the warming climate.
We introduce a novel experimental approach for measuring Onsager coefficients in steady-state multiphase flow through porous media, leveraging the fluctuation–dissipation theorem to analyse saturation fluctuations. This method provides a new tool for probing transport properties in porous media, which could aid in the characterisation of key macroscopic coefficients such as relative permeability. The experimental set-up consists of a steady-state flow system in which two incompressible fluids are simultaneously injected into a modified Hele-Shaw cell, allowing direct visualisation of the dynamics through optical imaging. By computing the temporal correlations of saturation fluctuations, we extract Onsager coefficients that govern the coupling between phase fluxes. Additionally, we have performed a statistical analysis of the fluctuations in the derivative of saturation under different flow conditions. This analysis reveals that while the fluctuations follow Gaussian statistics up to 2–3 standard deviations, they exhibit heavy tails beyond this range. This work provides an experimental foundation for recent theoretical developments in the extention of non-equilibrium thermodynamics to multiphase porous media flows. By linking microscopic fluctuations to macroscopic transport behaviour, our approach offers a new perspective that may complement existing techniques in the study of multiphase flow, making it relevant to both statistical physics and the broader fluid mechanics community.
The crystal structure of valganciclovir hydrochloride has been solved and refined using synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction data, and optimized using density functional theory techniques. Valganciclovir hydrochloride crystallizes in space group P212121 (#19) with a = 7.07758(23), b = 11.34599(27), c = 49.3041(22) Å, V = 3,959.22(22) Å3, and Z = 8. Solution and refinement of the structure were made difficult by the limited data range, the relatively large size of the structure, the broad diffraction peaks, the relatively low crystallinity, and the significant preferred orientation. The two independent cations are protonated at the N atoms of the valine side chains. The crystal structure is dominated by alternating layers of ring systems and protonated side chains/anions along the c-axis. In addition to the ammonium–Cl hydrogen bonds, the ring systems and side chains are linked into a three-dimensional network by hydrogen bonds. The two independent cations have very different conformations. N–H···Cl, N–H···O, O–H···N, O–H···O, and O–H···Cl, as well as C–H···Cl, C–H···N, and C–H···O hydrogen bonds, are prominent in the structure. The powder pattern is included in the Powder Diffraction File™ (PDF®) as entry 00-071-1641.
Frank Jackson’s Knowledge Argument claims that Mary—a neuroscientist who knows all the physical facts about color perception but has never seen color—learns something new when she sees red, posing a challenge to physicalism. While physicalists deny that Mary acquires knowledge of new facts, they must still explain her apparent epistemic progress. I argue that the intuition that Mary gains new knowledge upon seeing red stems from the alleged opacity of propositional attitude ascriptions—the same phenomenon underlying Frege puzzles.
Mortality trends among Indigenous peoples in Brazil remain poorly characterised. An ecological time-series study (2010–2022) was conducted, comparing Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations using nationwide open-access demographic and mortality data. Mortality was stratified by sex, age, and ICD-10 groups, populations were compared using Pearson’s chi-square test (p < 0.05), and trends were evaluated with joinpoint regression (JR) to estimate Average Annual Percentage Changes (AAPCs). Between 2010 and 2022, mortality among Indigenous peoples increased by 82.5% (from 2,927 to 5,343), compared with a 42.3% increase in the non-Indigenous population. Over 40% of deaths among Indigenous peoples occurred outside health facilities in both years, versus fewer than 30% among non-Indigenous populations. Crude mortality rates remained lower in Indigenous peoples (2010: 35.8 versus 55.9; 2022: 43.5 versus 74.8 per 10,000 population). However, age-specific differences were marked: mortality among Indigenous children and adolescents (0–19 years) was 3.3 times higher in 2010 and 3.8 times higher in 2022, while mortality among adults aged ≥40 years was approximately 2.5 times lower in both years compared with non-Indigenous populations (all p < 0.05). Mortality rates among Indigenous peoples were consistently higher for maternal, perinatal, and congenital conditions in both 2010 and 2022. JR revealed heterogeneous proportional mortality trends: significant increases in perinatal, congenital, and external causes (AAPC approximately 5.0–6.4%), as well as neoplasms, circulatory, haematological, digestive, respiratory, and endocrine/metabolic diseases (AAPC approximately 1.6–4.4%); a significant decline in infectious and parasitic diseases (AAPC −6.6%); and stability in other groups. Indigenous peoples in Brazil continued to face unfavourable mortality, particularly among children, adolescents, and maternal conditions. Many leading causes of death are preventable. Strengthening primary healthcare, expanding prenatal and perinatal services, improving vaccination and mental-health support, and adopting culturally safe, community-driven strategies to address chronic diseases are critical to reducing inequities and preventable deaths.
This paper explores the mathematical connections between the algebraic and relational semantics of Lewis’s logics for counterfactual conditionals. Specifically, we introduce topological variants of Lewis’s well-known possible-worlds semantics—based on spheres, selection functions, and orders—and establish duality results with respect to varieties of Boolean algebras equipped with a counterfactual operator, which serve as the equivalent algebraic semantics of Lewis’s main systems. These results aim to provide a solid mathematical foundation for the study of Lewis’s logics, and offer a new perspective on the most well-known possible worlds-based models. In particular, we write explicit proofs for several results that are often assumed without proof in the literature. Leveraging these duality results, we also derive alternative proofs of strong completeness for Lewis’s variably strict conditional logics with respect to their intended models, and clarify the role of the limit assumption in sphere semantics.