Functional connectivity underlying hedonic response to food in female adolescents with atypical AN: the role of somatosensory and salience networks.

Atypical anorexia nervosa (AN) usually occurs during adolescence. Patients are often in the normal-weight range at diagnosis; however, they often present with signs of medical complications and severe restraint over eating, body dissatisfaction, and low self-esteem. We investigated functional circuitry underlying the hedonic response in 28 female adolescent patients diagnosed with atypical AN and 33 healthy controls. Participants were shown images of food with high (HC) or low (LC) caloric content in alternating blocks during functional MRI. The HC > LC contrast was calculated. Based on the previous literature on full-threshold AN, we hypothesized that patients would exhibit increased connectivity in areas involved in sensory processing and bottom-up responses, coupled to increased connectivity from areas related to top-down inhibitory control, compared with controls. Patients showed increased connectivity in pathways related to multimodal somatosensory processing and memory retrieval. The connectivity was on the other hand decreased in patients in salience and attentional networks, and in a wide cerebello-occipital network. Our study was the first investigation of food-related neural response in atypical AN. Our findings support higher somatosensory processing in patients in response to HC food images compared with controls, however HC food was less efficient than LC food in engaging patients' bottom-up salient responses, and was not associated with connectivity increases in inhibitory control regions. These findings suggest that the psychopathological mechanisms underlying food restriction in atypical AN differ from full-threshold AN. Elucidating the mechanisms underlying the development and maintenance of eating behavior in atypical AN might help designing specific treatment strategies

Severe affective and behavioral Dysregulation in youths is associated with a proinflammatory state

Objective: A heritable behavioral phenotype, the so-called Dysregulation Profile (DP), characterized by extreme scores on the syndrome scales Anxious/Depressed (A/D), Attention Problems (AP), and Aggressive Behavior (AGG), has been identified on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). It characterizes children with severe affective and behavioral dysregulation. The present study examined possible alterations of the inflammatory system in CBCL-DP using a clinical sample of n = 133 children and adolescents. Method: Participants with the CBCL-DP scoring = 2.5 SDs above average constituted the CBCL-DP subgroup (n = 51). Those with CBCL-DP scores of 1 SD or less above average were regarded as controls (n = 82). Groups were compared in terms of serum levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) and albumin. Results: Participants showing the CBCL-DP exhibited increased CRP and decreased albumin levels compared to controls. CRP was correlated with AGG, AP, and the CBCL-DP total score. A negative correlation was observed between albumin and AGG, AP, the CBCL-DP score, and A/D. These associations could not be attributed to differences in age, sex, weight, socioeconomic status, global functioning, or duration of illness. Conclusions: This is the first study to demonstrate associations between the CBCL-DP and a proinflammatory state. Limitations include the lack of a healthy control group, the use of a single measurement of inflammatory markers, and the lack of follow-up data. Future research should address whether inflammatory diathesis in these children confers increased susceptibility to later development of cardiovascular disease and other medical morbidities. © 2013 Verlag Hans Huber, Hogrefe AG, Bern

Hinweise für eine erhöhte Komorbidität von Aufmerksamkeitsdefizit- und Hyperaktivitätsstörung bei Bulimia nervosa

In dem vorliegenden Artikel wird eine vollständig automatisierte Produktionseinheit zur Generierung, Kultivierung und Differenzierung induziert pluripotenter Stammzellen vorgestellt. Das Kultivieren von Zellen außerhalb ihres Organismus, die sogenannte Zellkultur, ist ein sehr individuell ablaufender Prozess. Ihn zu automatisieren erfordert hochspezialisierte Messtechnik in Verbindung mit einer adaptiven Prozesssteuerung. Ein Hauptziel der automatisierten im Gegensatz zur manuell assistierten Zellproduktion liegt in der Steigerung des Durchsatzes sowie der Qualität der produzierten Zellen. Dementsprechend müssen alle Geräte und vor allem die Messtechnik, die in einer solchen Produktionseinheit zum Einsatz kommt, hochdurchsatzfähig und sehr zuverlässig sein. Insbesondere dank eines eigens entwickelten Hochdurchsatz-Mikroskopieverfahrens konnte eine messtechnikbasierte Qualitätskontrolle und Prozesssteuerung für die Produktion von iPS-Zellen in industriellem Maßstab realisiert werden

Adolescent depression: Study protocol for a randomized, controlled, double-blind multicenter parallel group trial of Bright Light Therapy in a naturalistic inpatient setting (DeLight)

Abstract Background Depressive disorders are among the most prominent health problems in youth. Even with the best available pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments, remission rates are low. Without early treatment, depression in youth is associated with a high risk of symptom progression, chronicity, co-morbidity, and suicidal behavior. Thus, adolescent depression is a prime candidate for innovation in treatment. In depressive adults, meta-analytic evidence has proven that bright light therapy (BLT) is a potent low-threshold intervention, promising due to easy application, low side effects, and optimized compliance. In adolescents, studies with small samples show promising effects. This randomized controlled trial will examine the effectiveness of BLT in youth inpatients. Methods/design In this randomized, controlled, double-blind multicenter parallel group trial, morning BLT is applied for four weeks in addition to treatment as usual (TAU) for depressed youth inpatients (daily morning exposure to bright light via light-emitting glasses, 10,000 lx, for 30 min) and will be compared to a control condition (placebo light treatment, red light, identical light glasses). The primary objective is to assess whether BLT reduces symptoms of depression in youth with greater effect compared to placebo light therapy. Secondary objectives are to examine the impact of BLT on responder status, application of antidepressant medication, and further depression-related symptoms (sleep, activity, quality of life, satisfaction with health, general psychopathology, alertness, and circadian function). N = 224 patients will be recruited in a naturalistic inpatient setting. A follow-up will be carried out after three and six months. Discussion The study aims to discuss and evaluate BLT as an additive method supporting standardized clinical procedures dealing with severe to moderate depressive symptoms in youth. Trial registration German Clinical Trials Register, DRKS00013188. Registered on November 30, 2017

Greater short-term weight loss in women 20-45 versus 55-65 years of age following bariatric surgery

BACKGROUND: Whether and how sex and age affect bariatric-surgery outcome is poorly understood. Estrogens regulate body composition in women and animals, and increase weight loss in a rodent model of gastric bypass, suggesting that premenopausal women may lose more weight following bariatric surgery. METHODS: One thousand three hundred fifty-six female gastric-bypass or gastric-banding patients were retrospectively grouped as 20-45 years old (presumptively premenopausal; n = 1,199) and 55-65 years old (presumptively postmenopausal; n = 157). Mixed-model ANCOVA followed by Bonferroni-corrected t tests were used to categorically test the effect of age on percent excess body weight loss (%EBWL) at 1 and 2 years post-surgery, controlling for preoperative EBW and surgery type. Age effects were also tested dimensionally in all women and in 289 male patients. RESULTS: Twenty- to forty-five-year-old women showed greater %EBWL 1 and 2 years post-surgery than 55-65-year-old women (p's  0.2) This age effect was detected only after gastric banding, with 20-45-year-old women losing ∼7 kg more than 55-65-year-old women after 2 years. Dimensional analysis confirmed a significant inverse effect of age on bariatric surgery outcome in women, but did not detect any effect in men. CONCLUSIONS: Results indicate that 55-65-year-old women lose less weight than 20-45-year-old women in the initial 2 years after bariatric surgery, especially gastric banding; this may be mediated by age- or menopause-associated changes in physical activity, energy expenditure, or energy intake