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In the review of recent literature, we found very few presentations of case reports in which the presumed association between psychiatric disorders and arachnoid cysts is discussed. Arachnoid cysts are rare brain tumors with little apparent symptomatic impact and in most cases, they are diagnosed incidentally. We present the case of a 15-year-old adolescent with a personal history of a previous severe depressive episode, as well as suspicion of serious mental pathology in the family. It presents a subacute onset episode, in the context of regular cannabis consumption, consisting of intense emotional lability and psychomotor restlessness, a tendency toward irritability, decreased sleep needs, and the appearance of delusional ideas of harm and self-referential interruption. During the study of the case, and incidentally, the cranial magnetic resonance imaging revealed the presence of an arachnoid cyst located in the left frontotemporal location, approximately 4 cm in diameter.
Objectives
(1) To describe the clinical particularities of this case, focusing on the diagnostic difficulties we faced. (2) To review current scientific evidence regarding the possible association between neuropsychiatric symptoms and arachnoid cysts.
Methods
A review of the patient’s clinical history was carried out and complementary tests were performed. Likewise, a review of the available scientific literature was also performed in relation to the appearance of neuropsychiatric symptoms associated with the presence of arachnoid cysts.
Results
The literature regarding the possible association between psychosis and arachnoid cysts is scarce. However, it is proposed that arachnoid cysts may be associated with various neuropsychiatric alterations, such as affective alterations, schizophrenia-like psychosis or amnestic symptoms. The atypicality in the symptoms sometimes leads us to suspect an organic origin of the condition, with some features such as associated memory deficits, emotional incontinence, movement disorders or neurological focal data; some of which are present in the case at hand.
Conclusions
There is controversy among different sources regarding the role of the cyst in the development of symptoms or, on the contrary, its presentation only as a chance finding. Further investigation focusing on clinical observations and neuroimaging is needed.
Statius’ Thebaid inverts the traditional positive reading of agricultural work. In the account of the founding moments of Thebes, the poet remains faithful to what is documented in the extant Greek and Roman literary material. However, as this article argues, Statius introduces two significant innovations with respect to his thematic precedents. First, Cadmus the founder is explicitly and emphatically pointed out as guilty of the internecine struggle that results from his farming. Second, he does not limit himself to sowing the soil but, previously, he plows it. The ploughing motif, although pivotal in the myth of Jason's trials in Cholchis, only appears referred to Cadmus in Ovid's Metamorphoses (3.104–5), albeit in a very succinct form. As will be examined, Statius amplifies the Ovidian suggestion, programmatically conferring negative connotations to this motif (tillage, bull, yoke, furrow, etc.) throughout his epic. Cadmus’ ill-fated tillage is unambiguously presented as the origin of the curse of Thebes and as the root cause of the present fratricidal war between Eteocles and Polynices. The dire fruits which agricultural labour invariably produces in the Cadmean farmlands echo Lucanean Thessalian fields from whose furrows, contaminated by the blood of Roman combatants, grow polluted crops. The blame that Statius places on the shoulders of Cadmus the farmer, the relationship he establishes between farming and fratricidal war, and his insistence on the perverse effects of agricultural work transform mythic Thebes into an exemplar of fratricidal Rome as apt as Lucan's historical Thessaly.
America's first urban centers may have been located in the Supe Valley, Peru. After investigating the location and the orientation of the main built structures, we show that it is not only the presence of the Supe River that determines their orientation but also that astronomical relationships within the orientation of the buildings dictate their setting within the valley. The southernmost position of moonrise on the horizon seems to be the most important astronomical target. There is the possibility of a trend toward attributing greater importance to the June solstice sunrise and the rising of certain stars or asterisms. These orientations could relate to specific moments throughout the year, in particular to seasonal rains, subsequent river flooding, and agricultural cycles. This is one of the earliest examples of the interaction of land- and skyscapes in human cultures and indeed the first in the Americas.
The vacuum-exhausted isolation locker (VEIL) provides a safety barrier during the care of COVID-19 patients. The VEIL is a 175-L enclosure with exhaust ports to continuously extract air through viral particle filters connected to hospital suction. Our experiments show that the VEIL contains and exhausts exhaled aerosols and droplets.
Due to the higher costs and selection bias of directly measuring weight, the majority of body weight data are based on survey responses. However, these statements are subject to systematic biases of social desirability; therefore, it is important to evaluate the magnitude of bias through indirect indicators such as rounding of weights. Data from seven rounds of the Spanish National Health Survey from 1995 to 2017 were included in the study, with 113,284 subjects. A general rounding index of weights terminating in 0 and 5, and a partial rounding index that estimated the bias direction, were used to estimate the bias distribution in the self-reporting of body weight. All body weights were systematically rounded, although more strongly in the lower weights and even more so in the higher weights. Lower weights were rounded up, and the higher weights rounded down. Regarding gender, men had higher rounding indices than women. The subjects generally reported a weight closer to the socially desirable weight. Rounding allows estimating the historical evolution of this bias in health and nutrition surveys, having more accurate information by population segments and designing public policies against obesity aimed at the more affected social segments.
Endocannabinoid system has been highlighted as one of the most relevant research topics by neurobiologists, pharmacists, basic scientists and clinicians. The association between endocannabinoids and its congeners and mood disorders is relatively recent. However, evidence from both clinical and preclinical studies is increasing and many researchers point out endocannabinoid system and particularly endocannabinoids and congeners as promising pharmacological targets.
Aims and objectives
The main objective of this study is to compare the plasma concentrations of endocannabinoids and congeners between a sample of patients with depression and a sample of control subjects, and the influence of variables such as age, body mass index, gender, severity of symptoms, and antidepressant medication.
Method
Plasma concentrations of endocannabinoids and congeners will be analyzed in 69 patients with depression from primary care and 47 controls using mass spectrometry analysis.
Results
Statistically significant differences in 2-arachidonoylglycerol and monoacylglycerols were found between both samples. Somatic symptoms of depression seems to be more related to these compounds that to cognitive-affective symptoms. In addition, differences between mildly and moderately depressed patients were found in concentrations of AEA, LEA, DGLEA and POEA. Patients with antidepressant medication showed higher levels of 2-AG, DGLEA and OEA.
Conclusions
The results of this study provide evidence supporting the hypothesis that in depression there is a dysregulation of the inflammatory signaling and, consequently the immune system. The results of this study could also support the realization of translational research to better understand the mechanisms of this widely distributed system.
Disclosure of interest
The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.
To review the current knowledge about Diogenes symptoms and organic personality disorder through systematic review of the literature and the analysis of a case.
Methods
Case report. Review. Literature sources were obtained through electronic search in PubMed.gov database of 10 last years.
Results
Background: Diogenes syndrome is a behavioral disorder characterized by severe self-neglect, hoarding, domestic dirt, and lack of shame regarding one's living state. Patients may present due to a range of reasons, few studies has been described hoarding symptoms secondary to brain injury. Early management could reduce their high-mortality condition.
Case presentation
We present a case of a 67-year-old Caucasian female known with a organic personality disorder secondary to a head trauma with obsessive hoarding symptoms. After being hospitalizated, we were authorized to explore her personal items trough photographs. Her handbag and her house were filled with rubbish and rotting food. Our patient had no insight into any self-hygiene or public health problems.
Conclusions
Information of the characteristics of Diogenes syndrome can help in earlier recognition of such persons, in order to decrease their morbidity and mortality.
Disclosure of interest
The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.
Endocannabinoid System (ECS) has been highlighted as one of the most relevant research topics by neurobiologists, pharmacists, basic scientists and clinicians (Skaper and Di Marzo, 2012). Recent work has associated major depressive disorder with the ECS (Ashton and Moore, 2011). Despite the close relationship between depression and bipolar disorders, as far as we know, there is no characterization of ECS and congeners in a sample of patients with bipolar disorders.
Aims and objectives
The objective of this work is to characterize the plasma levels of endocannabinoids and congeners in a sample of patients with bipolar disorders.
Method
The clinical group was composed by 19 patients with a diagnosis of bipolar disorders using SCID-IV (First et al., 1999). The control group was formed by 18 relatives of first- or second-degree of the patients.
The following endocannabinoids and congeners were quantified: N-palmitoleoylethanolamide (POEA), N-palmitolylethanolamide (PEA), N-oleoylethanolamide (OEA), N-stearoylethanolamide (SEA), N-arachidonoylethanolamide (AEA), N-dihomo-γ-linolenoylethanolamide (DGLEA), N-docosatetraenoylethanolamide (DEA), N-linoleoylethanolamide (LEA), N-docosahexaenoylethanolamide (DHEA), 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG), 2-linoleoylglycerol (2-LG), and 2-oleoylglycerol (2-OG).
Results
The result showed statistically significant lower levels of AEA, DEA and DHEA in clinical sample. Previous research also identified lower levels of AEA in depressed women (Hill et al., 2008, 2009). Until date, it is unknown if DEA and DHEA have some effect on EC receptors, and whether they have some direct effects on endocannabinoids.
Conclusions
It would be necessary to carry our other research with a larger sample, which could allow the control of potential confounding variables.
Disclosure of interest
The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.
Insomnia is the most frequent sleep disorder in late life. Forty-two percent of elderly people in the United States often complain about difficulties to get or maintain sleep, or awakening too early. Insomnia is frequent in old people greatly due to frequency of concomitant medical illnesses and polypharmacy, rather than because of age.
Objectives
The objective of our research was to revise the current state of knowledge about management of insomnia in people above 65 years of age.
Methodology
For that, a bibliographical search through PubMed.gov has been made. From the obtained results, the 14 which best suited for our goals were selected, 10 of them dealing with people above 65 years and the rest with people above 75 or 80 years of age.
Results
Based on the literature reviewed, the current options of management of late-life insomnia are based on behavioral or pharmacological therapy. The combination of behavioral therapies shows results and is currently considered as an option, especially given the possibility of medicine interaction and the secondary effects hypnotic and sedative medicines might produce. There is a paucity of long-term safety and efficacy data for the use of non-benzodiazepine sedative-hypnotics. There are no criteria for the use of antidepressant sedatives in elderly people without diagnosed depression, although they are still used in practice.
Conclusion
Possibility of using behavioral therapy as first option. In case of polymedicated or multi-pathological patients, pay special attention when starting a pharmacological treatment, choose the most suitable one and supervise it closely.
Disclosure of interest
The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.
Anorexia nervosa is a disorder of eating behavior that is a major health problem on our society. It is characterized by three main criteria: self-induced starvation, desire for thinness or fear of obesity, and the presence of medical signs and symptoms due to improper feeding. This work is focused on its treatment. The biopsychosocial approach allows the design and application of effective therapeutic strategies and a multidisciplinary team collaboration is essential.
Objectives
Research of current pharmacological and psychotherapy treatments options of the disease.
Material and methods
Literature review based on articles and publications on this topic.
Results
In anorexia nervosa, it is necessary to establish a therapeutic alliance between doctor and patient. Patient usually feels no motivation to improve. The different treatments options to combine, in terms of the patient status, are: nutritional rehabilitation, cognitive-behavioral, family and interpersonal psychotherapies and pharmacological treatment. It can be carried out at the ambulatory, at the day-hospital or by medical stay, even beyond patient will.
Conclusions
Nowadays, the nutritional rehabilitation is the best treatment established and it is the core treatment. About the psychotherapies, the cognitive-behavioral is the most used because it has exposed better results in all different studies proved and in clinical practices, followed by the family therapy which is the responsible of the patient family's treatment. Pharmacological treatment should not be used systematically and its exclusive use is not enough to resolve anorexia nervosa as there are needed also other treatments combined.
Disclosure of interest
The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.
Schizophrenia has traditionally been considered to strictly be an early-onset disorder. Current nosologies, including DSMV, are not restrictive with age of onset in schizophrenia and all patients that satisfy diagnostic criteria fall into the same category. Since 1998, International Late-Onset Schizophrenia Group consensus, patients after 60 are classified as very-late onset schizophrenia-like psychosis. Female overrepresentation, low prevalence of formal thought disorder, and a higher prevalence of visual hallucinations are associated with later age at onset. Atypical antipsychotics represent the election treatment because of the reduced likelihood of EPS and tardive dyskinesias, and should be started at very low doses, with slow increases.
Objective
To review the current knowledge about very late-onset schizophrenia through systematic review of the literature and the analysis of a case.
Methods
Case Report. Review. Literature sources were obtained through electronic search in PubMed database of last fifteen years.
Results
We present a case of a 86-year-old woman suffering from delusions and hallucinations, diagnosed with very late-onset schizophrenia-like psychosis, after differential diagnosis with other disorders. We analyze ethiology, epidemiology, clinical features and treatment in geriatric patients with schizophrenia.
Conclusions
Reluctance to diagnose schizophrenia in old people is still present today, probably in relation with the inconsistency in diagnostic systems and nomenclature, and consideration of medical conditions in the diagnosis. Identification of these patients is really important in order to start an appropriate treatment, which can lead to patient clinical stability.
Disclosure of interest
The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.
Conversion disorder (CD) is an uncommon but highly disabling condition. Affected children and adolescents are often severely impaired and at risk of serious long-term physical and psychosocial complications. Despite the enormous personal suffering and health resource implications of CD, little research has been done.
Objectives
To update our knowledge about CD in adolescents, with a comprehensive review of the literature with special focus in prevalence, psychosocial factors, diagnosis, treatment and outcome.
Aims
To present the most relevant data of our review with a clinical illustration that provides a practical vision of this disorder.
Methods
A systematic literature review was performed in MEDLINE, with particular interest in papers published in the last 10 years. Clinical illustration is provided by a case selected from an outpatient child and adolescent mental health service.
Results
Few reliable prevalence data are available; the range goes from 0.2 in a German study to 31% in non-western clinical settings. Diagnosis is based on a constellation of features and treatment should involve several heath care professionals. CD has a favourable outcome in children and adolescents. However, mood and/or anxiety disorders are encountered at a considerable rate even after recovery from conversion symptoms. Long clinical follow-up seems appropriate.
Conclusions
The expression of emotional distress in the form of physical complaints is common in children. Nevertheless, the most severe presentation of physical symptoms is not a common topic in literature. More research should be done to improve our understanding of this disabling disorder.
Disclosure of interest
The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.
Psychological distress appears in the majority of people infected with HIV. Depression is the most important affection, the prevalence in comparison with general population arises to 37%. Psychotic symptoms in patients with HIV are a very frequent entity, in some cases, these symptoms are pre-existent in others the evolution of the infection or a medical cause related with the infection can cause its apparition. Psychosis and depression in patients with HIV have some clinical and therapeutical considerations. Antidepressants and antipsychotics have many pharmacological interactions with antiretroviral therapy.
Objectives
Review the efficacy and safety of antidepressants and antipsychotics in patients with HIV infection.
Methods
PubMed was searched for articles published between 1966 and January 1, 2015, using the search terms HIV, AIDS, depression, phycosis, antipsychotics, antidepressants, antiretrovirals. We selected randomized placebo controlled or active comparator control trials.
Results
Twelve studies for depression treatment and 2 studies for psychosis treatment in patients with HIV infection. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) especially fluoxetine and tryciclic antidepressants are effective in treating depressive symptoms in patients with HIV infection. Testosterone and stimulants have been used in patients with mild depressive symptoms, however studies with these agents had a small sample size. Haloperidol and chlorpromazine were effective for AIDS delirium, there are not controlled trials with other antipsychotics.
Conclusions
Psychiatrists must be concern about the clinical particularities of patients with HIV and depression or psychotic symptoms. The election of antidepressant or antipsychotic has to be made very carefully because of their side effects and interactions.
Disclosure of interest
The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.
This paper evaluates the complexities of radiocarbon (14C) dates from soil organic matter (SOM) in archaeological scenarios. The aqueous NaOH-insoluble residual SOM from Neolithic to medieval sites in NW Spain produced consistently older calibrated 14C ages than NaOH-extractable SOM. Using pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (Py-GC-MS) and thermally assisted hydrolysis and methylation (THM-GC-MS), we analyzed the molecular composition of these SOM fractions, aiming to understand the differences in 14C ages and to gain insight on SOM dynamics in relation to age fractionation. The molecular composition of the NaOH-extractable SOM, which accounts for roughly two-thirds of total SOM, has a larger proportion of microbial detritus than the NaOH-insoluble SOM. This might suggest that the discrepancies between the two fractions is due to microbial rejuvenation in the extractable fraction, leading to 14C results that are younger than the activity that is to be dated. However, archaeological evidence presented here unambiguously shows that the 14C age of the extractable SOM provides the more accurate age for the targeted activity, and that the insoluble fraction contains inherited old carbon. After statistical data evaluation using Partial Least Squares-Regression (PLS-R), it is concluded that this inherited SOM is a mixture of Black Carbon from wild and/or domestic fires and recalcitrant aliphatic SOM.
The results obtained from this study of kaolinite dehydroxylation explain why different investigators have ascribed both first-order kinetics and a diffusion mechanism to this reaction. The fact that activation energies reported by these workers agree well, in spite of the different kinetics assumed when performing the calculations, is also explained. From a comparison of the results obtained by isothermal and non-isothermal methods it is concluded that, for reacted fractions, α, <0·6, kaolinite dehydroxylation is controlled by a diffusion process. A reaction mechanism explaining this behaviour is proposed.
From Brazil to the United Kingdom, 2016 was a critical year in global politics. Heritage, ethics and the way that archaeologists relate to the public were and will all be affected, and it is time to reflect critically on the phenomenon of ‘reactionary populism’ and how it affects the practice and theory of archaeology. ‘Reactionary populism’ can be defined as a political form that is anti-liberal in terms of identity politics (e.g. multiculturalism, abortion rights, minority rights, religious freedom), but liberal in economic policies. It is characterised by nationalism, racism and anti-intellectualism, and as Judith Butler states in a recent interview, it wants “to restore an earlier state of society, driven by nostalgia or a perceived loss of privilege” (Soloveitchik 2016). Our intention here is to argue that the liberal, multi-vocal model of the social sciences and the humanities is no longer a viable option. Instead, we ask our colleagues to embrace an archaeology that is ready to intervene in wider public debates not limited to issues of heritage or of local relevance, is not afraid of defending its expert knowledge in the public arena, and is committed to reflective, critical teaching.
We thank all of the commentators for raising crucial points that provide us with the opportunity to make important clarifications. Bernbeck and Pollock point out that in our work, only the people of the present matter, rather than those in the past. Although our discussion centres on living people, we also believe that the past is unfinished and that working with it allows us to build a different future. We also believe that archaeology has a responsibility towards the dead. We are, in a Derridean spirit, committed to “those others who are no longer or [. . .] not yet there, presently living, whether they are already dead or not yet born” (Derrida 2012: 18). There is, however, more than an ethical dimension to this; our plea for a new objectivity means that we are interested in the past qua past, not just in representations of the past in the present.
Radionuclide scanning images published in Nature by Di Chiro in 1964 showed a downward migration along the spinal canal of particle tracers injected in the brain ventricles while also showing an upward flow of tracers injected in the lumbar region of the canal. These observations, since then corroborated by many radiological measurements, have been the basis for the hypothesis that there must be an active circulation mechanism associated with the transport of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) deep down into the spinal canal and subsequently returning a portion back to the cranial vault. However, to date, there has been no physical explanation for the mechanism responsible for the establishment of such a bulk recirculating motion. To investigate the origin and characteristics of this recirculating flow, we have analyzed the motion of the CSF in the subarachnoid space of the spinal canal. Our analysis accounts for the slender geometry of the spinal canal, the small compliance of the dura membrane enclosing the CSF in the canal, and the fact that the CSF is confined to a thin annular subarachnoid space surrounding the spinal cord. We apply this general formulation to study the characteristics of the flow generated in a simplified model of the spinal canal consisting of a slender compliant cylindrical pipe with a coaxial cylindrical inclusion, closed at its distal end, and subjected to small periodic pressure pulsations at its open entrance. We show that the balance between the local acceleration and viscous forces produces a leading-order flow consisting of pure oscillatory motion with axial velocities on the order of a few centimetres per second and amplitudes monotonically decreasing along the length of the canal. We then demonstrate that the nonlinear term associated with the convective acceleration contributes to a second-order correction consisting of a steady streaming that generates a bulk recirculating motion of the CSF along the length of the canal with characteristic velocities two orders of magnitude smaller than the leading-order oscillatory flow. The results of the analysis of this idealized geometry of the spinal canal are shown to be in good agreement not only with experimental measurements in an in-vitro model but also with radiological measurements conducted in human adults.
This article presents the key results of a major survey carried out by the NEARCH project on the public perception of archaeology and heritage across Europe. The analysis focuses on three main points of significance for contemporary archaeological practice. The first is the image of archaeology and its definition in the perception of the general public. The second concerns the values that archaeology represents for the public. The third focuses on the social expectations placed on archaeologists and archaeology. The NEARCH survey clearly indicates that there is a significant public expectation by Europeans that archaeology should work comprehensively across a broad range of areas, and that cultural heritage management in general needs to engage more with different archaeological and heritage groups.