Examining the links between burnout and suicidal ideation in diverse occupations

IntroductionIt is uncertain whether burnout is associated with suicidal ideation among workers not in health care services. The aim of this study was to identify how burnout and suicidal ideation are linked among employees in various occupations and whether depression affects this link.MethodsThis cross-sectional study collected data from 12,083 participants aged 19–65 years from 25 companies and public institutions who underwent workplace mental health screening. Burnout and depression were assessed using both the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Suicidal ideation was assessed by a self-rated questionnaire from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.ResultsExhaustion but not the cynicism dimension of burnout was associated with increased odds of suicidal ideation after adjustment for depression and other covariates (odds ratio [OR] = 1.47, 95% CI = 1.26–1.72). The association of exhaustion with suicidal ideation was significant in both depressed (OR = 1.36, 95% CI = 1.14–1.61) and not depressed (OR = 1.77, 95% CI = 1.13–2.76) participants. In exhausted participants, insufficient job control, an unfavorable occupational climate, low educational level, and depression were associated with increased odds of suicidal ideation.ConclusionExhaustion is linked with risk of suicidal ideation in employees not in health care service, regardless of depression status. Exhausted employees, particularly those having poor job resources, should be recognized as an at-risk group

Efficacy and Tolerability of Aripiprazole: A 26-Week Switching Study from Oral Antipsychotics

Objective To determine if the maintenance effectiveness and tolerability of aripiprazole demonstrated in a 12-week study were maintained in an extension phase (up to 26 weeks). Methods This study was the extension of our switching study from other antipsychotics to aripiprazole in symptomatically stable patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. All the patients were randomly assigned to the aripiprazole group or the non-aripiprazole group. The effectiveness analysis consisted of the comparison of the upper bound of the 95% confidence interval (CI) of the mean Clinical Global Impression-Improvement (CGI-I) score to 4 (no change) at the end of the study. Results At the baseline, the aripiprazole group (n=135) and the non-aripiprazole group (n=31) were comparable with respect to their mean ages, gender distribution, baseline Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale scores, and Clinical Global Impression-Severity (CGI-S) scores. The study showed that the mean CGI-I score was 2.92 (95% CI: 2.72-3.12) in the aripiprazole group and 2.81 (95% CI: 2.35-3.26) in the non-aripiprazole group at 26 weeks. In the aripiprazole group, the remission rates at 12 and 26 weeks were 74.8% and 72.6%, respectively, and 80.2% of the patients with remission at 12 weeks maintained their remission state until the end of the study. About one-fourth of the patients in the aripiprazole group reported one or more spontaneous treatment-emergent adverse events, such as insomnia, headache, and nausea. Conclusion This study suggested that most clinically stable outpatients with schizophrenia maintain their remission states after being switched to aripiprazole, without serious symptom aggravation and adverse events over a course of 26 weeks. Psychiatry Investig 2010;7:189-195This study was supported by Korea Otsuka Pharmaceuticals (KOP 010402).Kim CY, 2009, INT CLIN PSYCHOPHARM, V24, P181, DOI 10.1097/YIC.0b013e32832c25d7Kolotkin RL, 2008, EUR PSYCHIAT, V23, P561, DOI 10.1016/j.eurpsy.2008.01.1421Findling RL, 2008, AM J PSYCHIAT, V165, P1432, DOI 10.1176/appi.ajp.2008.07061035Tandon R, 2008, SCHIZOPHR RES, V100, P20, DOI 10.1016/j.schres.2007.11.033Wolf J, 2007, CURR MED RES OPIN, V23, P2313, DOI 10.1185/030079907X225448Moeller KE, 2006, J CLIN PSYCHIAT, V67, P1942Chrzanowski WK, 2006, PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY, V189, P259, DOI 10.1007/s00213-006-0564-3Tandon R, 2006, SCHIZOPHR RES, V84, P77, DOI 10.1016/j.schres.2005.12.857Lieberman JA, 2005, NEW ENGL J MED, V353, P1209Kim CY, 2005, J CLIN PSYCHIAT, V66, P887Kasper S, 2003, INT J NEUROPSYCHOPH, V6, P325, DOI 10.1017/S1461145703003651Pigott TA, 2003, J CLIN PSYCHIAT, V64, P1048Potkin SG, 2003, ARCH GEN PSYCHIAT, V60, P681Marder SR, 2003, SCHIZOPHR RES, V61, P123, DOI 10.1016/S0920-9964(03)00050-1Kane JM, 2002, J CLIN PSYCHIAT, V63, P763WEIDEN PJ, 1995, SCHIZOPHRENIA BULL, V21, P419

Anti-Allergic Activity of a Platycodon Root Ethanol Extract

Platycodon grandiflorum (Campanulaceae) is used as traditional medicine in Asian countries. In Korean traditional medicine, Platycodon root has been widely used since ancient times as a traditional drug to treat cold, cough and asthma. However, its effects on bone marrow-derived mast cell (BMMC)-mediated allergy and inflammation mechanisms remain unknown. In this study, the biological effect of Platycodon root ethanol extract (PE) was evaluated in BMMC after induction of allergic mediators by phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) plus calcium ionophore A23187 (A23187) stimulation. The effect of PE on the production of several allergic mediators, such as interleukin-6 (IL-6), prostaglandin D2 (PGD2), leukotriene C4 (LTC4), β-Hexosaminidase (β-Hex) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) protein, was investigated. The results demonstrate that PE inhibits PMA + A23187 induced production of IL-6, PGD2, LTC4, β-Hexosaminidase and COX-2 protein. Taken together, these results indicate that PE has the potential for use in the treatment of allergy

YH29407 with anti-PD-1 ameliorates anti-tumor effects via increased T cell functionality and antigen presenting machinery in the tumor microenvironment

Among cancer cells, indoleamine 2, 3-dioxygenase1 (IDO1) activity has been implicated in improving the proliferation and growth of cancer cells and suppressing immune cell activity. IDO1 is also responsible for the catabolism of tryptophan to kynurenine. Depletion of tryptophan and an increase in kynurenine exert important immunosuppressive functions by activating regulatory T cells and suppressing CD8+ T and natural killer (NK) cells. In this study, we compared the anti-tumor effects of YH29407, the best-in-class IDO1 inhibitor with improved pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics, with first and second-generation IDO1 inhibitors (epacadostat and BMS-986205, respectively). YH29407 treatment alone and anti-PD-1 (aPD-1) combination treatment induced significant tumor suppression compared with competing drugs. In particular, combination treatment showed the best anti-tumor effects, with most tumors reduced and complete responses. Our observations suggest that improved anti-tumor effects were caused by an increase in T cell infiltration and activity after YH29407 treatment. Notably, an immune depletion assay confirmed that YH29407 is closely related to CD8+ T cells. RNA-seq results showed that treatment with YH29407 increased the expression of genes involved in T cell function and antigen presentation in tumors expressing ZAP70, LCK, NFATC2, B2M, and MYD88 genes. Our results suggest that an IDO1 inhibitor, YH29407, has enhanced PK/PD compared to previous IDO1 inhibitors by causing a change in the population of CD8+ T cells including infiltrating T cells into the tumor. Ultimately, YH29407 overcame the limitations of the competing drugs and displayed potential as an immunotherapy strategy in combination with aPD-1

25th annual computational neuroscience meeting: CNS-2016

The same neuron may play different functional roles in the neural circuits to which it belongs. For example, neurons in the Tritonia pedal ganglia may participate in variable phases of the swim motor rhythms [1]. While such neuronal functional variability is likely to play a major role the delivery of the functionality of neural systems, it is difficult to study it in most nervous systems. We work on the pyloric rhythm network of the crustacean stomatogastric ganglion (STG) [2]. Typically network models of the STG treat neurons of the same functional type as a single model neuron (e.g. PD neurons), assuming the same conductance parameters for these neurons and implying their synchronous firing [3, 4]. However, simultaneous recording of PD neurons shows differences between the timings of spikes of these neurons. This may indicate functional variability of these neurons. Here we modelled separately the two PD neurons of the STG in a multi-neuron model of the pyloric network. Our neuron models comply with known correlations between conductance parameters of ionic currents. Our results reproduce the experimental finding of increasing spike time distance between spikes originating from the two model PD neurons during their synchronised burst phase. The PD neuron with the larger calcium conductance generates its spikes before the other PD neuron. Larger potassium conductance values in the follower neuron imply longer delays between spikes, see Fig. 17.Neuromodulators change the conductance parameters of neurons and maintain the ratios of these parameters [5]. Our results show that such changes may shift the individual contribution of two PD neurons to the PD-phase of the pyloric rhythm altering their functionality within this rhythm. Our work paves the way towards an accessible experimental and computational framework for the analysis of the mechanisms and impact of functional variability of neurons within the neural circuits to which they belong

Measurement of seismometer misorientation based on P-wave polarization: application to dense temporary broadband seismic array in the epicentral region of 2016 Gyeongju earthquake, South Korea

© 2022, The Association of Korean Geoscience Societies and Springer.In this study, we probe the misalignment of 200 temporary broadband seismometers based on the polarization of P waves from regional and teleseismic earthquakes. The seismometers were deployed in the epicentral region of 2016 ML 5.8 Gyeongju earthquake, South Korea, and this unprecedented dense array provided a unique opportunity for investigating fault structures from microseismicity. For the full use of three-component seismic records, we estimate and provide time-dependent misorientation angles of the 200 seismometers from June 2018 to March 2021 with uncertainty assessments. Two methods based on the principal component analysis and the minimization of transverse P-wave energy are applied. Our estimates are characterized by small uncertainty (average median absolute deviation of 3.14°). Moreover, periods of suspected temporal changes in misorientation angles mostly coincide with periods of reported technical operations, which demonstrates reliability of our methods to precisely detect the temporal variation of misorientation angles. We expect our misorientation angles to serve as an essential metadata for further seismological researches utilizing the dense array data.N