Neurcognitive and psychosocial outcomes of obstructive sleep apnea in Hong Kong Chinese

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Psychological predictors of Chinese Christians’ church attendance and religious steadfastness: A three-wave prospective study

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Rapid-eye-movement-sleep (REM) associated enhancement of working memory performance after a daytime nap

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Predictors and outcomes of experiences deemed religious: A longitudinal investigation

Experiences deemed religious (EDRs) are events that a person regards as religious and/or supernatural. This study considered four such experiences—miraculous healing, glossolalia, unusual joy and peace during meditation or prayer, and prayer answered. We proposed a process model and conducted a longitudinal study to address three main research questions: (a) Who are more likely to have EDRs? (b) What effects would the experiences have on the person's subsequent spiritual and psychological conditions? (c) Are all EDRs alike? Findings suggest that EDRs can be predicted through certain common individual characteristics, such as vertical faith maturity (i.e., intimacy with the divine). However, there are also individual predictors that are EDR-specific. Regarding outcomes, the experience of unusual joy and peace during prayer and meditation heightens vertical faith maturity, motivates more religious practices, predicts better sleep quality at a later time, and perhaps improves quality of life. However, tongue speaking results in no change in any measured outcome variables. Neither does having prayers answered. Surprisingly, being healed from serious physical illness can have negative consequences. Results demonstrate that the EDRs should not be treated as the same when it comes to their antecedents and consequences.postprin

Cognitive function in systemic lupus erythematosus patients with a history of neuropsychiatric manifestations: a longitudinal study

Poster PresentationBACKGROUND: Cognitive impairment is commonly reported in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and its associations with neuropsychiatric involvement (NPSLE) and psychiatric factors have been inconsistently reported in the literature. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate full neurocognitive function in relation to psychiatric factors including anxiety and depression in NPSLE patients longitudinally compared to …published_or_final_versio

The role of religion in moderating the impact of life events on material life goals: Some evidence in support of terror management theory.

How would religion and a life event carrying an existential threat (LEET) jointly impact a person's life goals of becoming wealthy and successful in one's career? Goal reprioritisation, socioemotional selectivity, and gerotranscendence theories predict a shift away from material goals following a LEET, independent of the effect of religion. However, terror management theory (TMT) predicts that the effect of death thoughts depends on one's prevailing cultural values. As religion can be regarded as a culture, it is possible that Christians' and non-believers' material life goals would be differentially altered by LEET. Data from 1259 young Chinese adults reveal no main effect of LEET, but a strong effect of religion. Moreover, there was an interaction effect between LEET and religion on material life goals: LEET weakened material goals for Christians but not for non-believers. These findings suggest that TMT is more suitable than the other theories for predicting life goal changes.postprin

Executive function in patients with obstructive sleep apnea treated with continuous positive airway pressure

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is characterized by disrupted breathing and hypoxemia during sleep, daytime sleepiness, and changes in cognition and mood. One important question is regarding the reversibility of cognitive deficits after treatment with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). Here, we report the outcomes of CPAP treatment as measured by tests of attention and executive function. Thirty-seven individuals with moderate to severe OSA and compliant on CPAP treatment were studied with working memory tasks, neuropsychological testing, and overnight polysomnographic sleep study and compared to 27 healthy controls. CPAP improved the respiratory disturbance index, minimum and mean oxygen saturation (SpO2), subjective sleep quality, and daytime sleepiness ratings compared to pre-treatment values. In terms of current neurocognitive function, treated individuals with OSA performed at a comparable level to controls on basic working memory storage functions but still showed a significant reduction on tests of working memory requiring the central executive. The OSA group also performed worse on neuropsychological measures of complex attention, executive function, and psychomotor speed. While CPAP is an effective treatment for OSA in terms of ameliorating breathing disruption and oxygen desaturation during sleep, as well as daytime sleepiness, some cognitive deficits may be more resistant to treatment. (JINS, 2010, 16, 1077-1088.) Copyright © The International Neuropsychological Society 2010.published_or_final_versio

Working memory impairment and its associated sleep-related respiratory parameters in children with obstructive sleep apnea

Study Objective: Working memory deficits in children with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) have been reported in previous studies, but the results were inconclusive. This study tried to address this issue by delineating working memory functions into executive processes and storage/maintenance components based on Baddeley’s working memory model. Methods: Working memory and basic attention tasks were administered on 23 OSA children aged 8–12 years and 22 age-, education-, and general cognitive functioning-matched controls. Data on overnight polysomnographic sleep study and working memory functions were compared between the two groups. Associations between respiratory-related parameters and cognitive performance were explored in the OSA group. Results: Compared with controls, children with OSA had poorer performance on both tasks of basic storage and central executive components in the verbal domain of working memory, above and beyond basic attention and processing speed impairments; such differences were not significant in the visuo-spatial domain. Moreover, correlational analyses and hierarchical regression analyses further suggested that obstructive apnea–hypopnea index (OAHI) and oxygen saturation (SpO2) nadir were associated with verbal working memory performance, highlighting the potential pathophysiological mechanisms of OSA induced cognitive deficits. Conclusions: Verbal working memory impairments associated with OSA may compromise children’s learning potentials and neurocognitive development. Early identification of OSA and assessment of the associated neurocognitive deficits are of paramount importance. Reversibility of cognitive deficits after treatment would be a critical outcome indicatorpostprin

The Role of Daytime Sleepiness in Psychosocial Outcomes after Treatment for Obstructive Sleep Apnea

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Purpose-driven life: Life goals as a predictor of quality of life and psychological health

On the basis of self-determination theory, we predicted that the pursuit of material goals might negatively affect quality of life and psychological outcomes including sleep quality and mood states. We further hypothesized that the link between religious affiliation and these outcome variables could be explained, at least partially, by life goals. Longitudinal data collected from 700 Chinese adults demonstrated that for both Christians and non-believers, material goals had a detrimental effect on outcome variables measured 6 months later. More importantly, material goals partially mediated the effects of religious affiliation. That is, Christians were different from non-believers on the outcome variables partly because the former did not go after material goals. For these believers, moreover, the pursuit of religion-based goals brought psychological benefits. Not only can certain life goals explain why people with religious faiths have better psychological health and quality of life, they can also explain why not every religious person feels good and is content about their lives.postprin