Explaining job satisfaction and job control: a survey among finnish psychiatrists

Background: Job satisfaction has a major impact on mental health and job performance. Additionally, expected work satisfaction may influence choice of specialization within medicine. Methods: A postal survey was conducted in 2009 among the members (N=1398) of Finnish Psychiatric Association. Out of the members 1132 were still working-aged. All in all 64.8% (N=738) of the working-aged members returned the survey. Only psychiatrists and residents were included in the final cohort of the study (N=665). Factors associated to work satisfaction were studied and a principal component analysis was conducted on factors reported to disturb working. The correlations of factors scores with job satisfaction and job-control were analyzed. Spearman correlation coefficients were calculated between factor scores and work satisfaction. Results: Most respondents (73.8%) were satisfied with their work. Job satisfaction showed a negative correlation with increase in pace of work (rho=-0.24, p&lt;0.001). Job control correlated positively with job satisfaction (rho=0.46, p&lt;0.001). &quot;Working conditions&quot; factor explained 28.6%, &quot;leadership&quot; 8.8%, &quot;failure without support&quot; 7.8%, fear at work 6.5% and &quot;patient records&quot; factors 5.9% of the variation of perceived harmful factors at work. &quot;Working conditions&quot; and &quot;leadership&quot; factors showed the strongest and most significant negative correlations with job satisfaction (rho= -0.45, p&lt;0.001, rho=-0.32, p&lt;0.001, respectively. &quot;Working conditions&quot; associated strongly and significantly with job control (rho=-0.57, p&lt;0.001). Conclusion: Job satisfaction may be better than expected among psychiatrists considering the findings of prevalence estimates of burnout in various other studies. However, employers should put emphasis on matching employers and type of work to promote well-being of their employees.</p

Functional effects of schizophrenia-linked genetic variants on intrinsic single-neuron excitability: A modeling study

Background: Recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified a large number of genetic risk factors for schizophrenia (SCZ) featuring ion channels and calcium transporters. For some of these risk factors, independent prior investigations have examined the effects of genetic alterations on the cellular electrical excitability and calcium homeostasis. In the present proof-of-concept study, we harnessed these experimental results for modeling of computational properties on layer V cortical pyramidal cell and identify possible common alterations in behavior across SCZ-related genes. Methods: We applied a biophysically detailed multi-compartmental model to study the excitability of a layer V pyramidal cell. We reviewed the literature on functional genomics for variants of genes associated with SCZ, and used changes in neuron model parameters to represent the effects of these variants. Results: We present and apply a framework for examining the effects of subtle single nucleotide polymorphisms in ion channel and Ca2+ transporter-encoding genes on neuron excitability. Our analysis indicates that most of the considered SCZ- related genetic variants affect the spiking behavior and intracellular calcium dynamics resulting from summation of inputs across the dendritic tree. Conclusions: Our results suggest that alteration in the ability of a single neuron to integrate the inputs and scale its excitability may constitute a fundamental mechanistic contributor to mental disease, alongside with the previously proposed deficits in synaptic communication and network behavior

Risk of donor-site lymphatic vessel dysfunction after microvascular lymph node transfer

BACKGROUND: Microvascular lymph node transfer has been used to improve lymphatic function in patients with lymphoedema. We previously reported changes in the lymphatic function of the donor limb after lymph node transfer. For this reason, we modified our surgical method to be more conservative. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Microvascular lymph node transfer was performed in 13 patients using the previously reported original method. Sixteen patients were operated upon using the more conservative modified method. Lymphatic function in the donor limb was evaluated using volumetry, lymphoscintigraphy and tissue water percentage. RESULTS: In the original method group, the donor-limb volume was on average greater (199 ± 540 ml) than in the non-operated control limb. The volume difference between the limbs was smaller (151 ± 463 ml) in the modified method group. Two patients in the original method group had abnormal transport index (Ti) values in lymphoscintigraphy indicating decreased lymphatic function of the donor limb. In the modified method group, the Ti-values remained normal. The tissue water percentage of the donor limb was on average 40% ± 4% in the original method group and 40% ± 3% in the modified method group. Importantly, none of the patients in either group developed clinical lymphoedema in the donor limb during the 11-84-month follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Even with the more conservative lymph node transfer method, we can observe slight, subclinical signs of lymphatic dysfunction in the donor limb. These results highlight the importance of minimizing the surgical exploration in the inguinal area and avoiding damage to the lymphatic vessels or sentinel nodes draining the lower limb.</p

Modeling of Neuronal Growth In Vitro: Comparison of Simulation Tools NETMORPH and CX3D

We simulate the growth of neuronal networks using the two recently published tools, NETMORPH and CX3D. The goals of the work are (1) to examine and compare the simulation tools, (2) to construct a model of growth of neocortical cultures, and (3) to characterize the changes in network connectivity during growth, using standard graph theoretic methods. Parameters for the neocortical culture are chosen after consulting both the experimental and the computational work presented in the literature. The first (three) weeks in culture are known to be a time of development of extensive dendritic and axonal arbors and establishment of synaptic connections between the neurons. We simulate the growth of networks from day 1 to day 21. It is shown that for the properly selected parameters, the simulators can reproduce the experimentally obtained connectivity. The selected graph theoretic methods can capture the structural changes during growth.Peer reviewe

Smoking in pregnancy, adolescent mental health and cognitive performance in young adult offspring: results from a matched sample within a Finnish cohort

$\textbf{Background:}$ The association between prenatal exposure to maternal cigarette smoking (PEMCS) and adult cognition is debated, including if there are differences according to sex. We aimed to determine if there are associations between PEMCS and cognition in early adulthood in men and women and examine if observed associations were mediated by adolescent mental health factors that are associated with cognition, namely psychotic-like experiences (PLEs), inattention and hyperactivity, and other externalizing behaviors. $\textbf{Methods:}$ Participants were 471 individuals drawn from the general population-based Northern Finland 1986 Birth Cohort (NFBC 1986) followed up from pregnancy and birth to early adulthood; individuals with PEMCS were matched with those without PEMCS by socioeconomic and demographic factors. Cognitive performance in adulthood was assessed with a range of tests and their association with PEMCS was measured by sex using hierarchical linear regression, unadjusted and then controlling for potential confounders, mediators and moderators, including adolescent mental health factors. $\textbf{Results:}$ There were no associations between PEMCS and cognitive scores in females. In males, there were associations with vocabulary (beta = -0.444, 95% CI: -0.783, -0.104) and matrix reasoning (beta = -0.379, 95% CI: -0.711, -0.047). $\textbf{Conclusions:}$ While associations between PEMCS and cognition were limited, observed findings with measures of general intelligence in males contribute to suggestions of differences in response to PEMCS by sex. Furthermore, observed associations may be partly mediated by earlier inattention and hyperactivity. Findings add support to efforts aimed to eliminate smoking in pregnancy.The Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1986 is funded by the University of Oulu, University Hospital of Oulu, Academy of Finland, Sigrid Juselius Foundation, European Commission (EURO-BLCS, Framework 5 award QLG1-CT-2000- 01643), and NIH/NIMH (5R01MH63706:02). Cambridge Cognition Ltd. provided support in the form of salaries for author Jennifer H. Barnett

Sequencing of Lynch syndrome tumors reveals the importance of epigenetic alterations

Genomic instability and epigenetic aberrations are important classifiers of human tumors, yet, their interrelations are poorly understood. We used Lynch syndrome (LS) to address such relationships. Forty-five tumors (11 colorectal adenomas, 18 colorectal carcinomas, and 16 ovarian carcinomas) were profiled for CpG Island Methylator Phenotype (CIMP) and somatic mutations. All tumors showed high-degree microsatellite instability. Panel sequencing of 578 cancer-relevant genes revealed the average number of 1433, 1124, and 657 non-synonymous somatic mutations per colorectal adenoma, colorectal carcinoma, and ovarian carcinoma, respectively. Genes harboring mutations with allele frequency 25 % or higher in at least 31 % of tumors were regarded to be possible drivers. Among 72 and 10 such genes identified in colorectal and ovarian tumors, respectively, the most frequently mutated genes BRD4 and MLL2 (62 % of colorectal tumors) and ARID1A (50 % of ovarian carcinomas) are involved in epigenetic regulation. The total number of somatic mutations or mutant genes per tumor were significantly associated with CIMP. Our results suggest that even in an inherited disease, tumor type-specific epigenetic changes are significant and may result from regulatory changes (CIMP) or structural events (mutations of epigenetic regulatory genes). The findings are clinically relevant since many of the affected pathways can be therapeutically targeted.Peer reviewe

The Role of Parvalbumin-positive Interneurons in Auditory Steady-State Response Deficits in Schizophrenia

© The Author(s) 2019. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.Despite an increasing body of evidence demonstrating subcellular alterations in parvalbumin-positive (PV+) interneurons in schizophrenia, their functional consequences remain elusive. Since PV+ interneurons are involved in the generation of fast cortical rhythms, these changes have been hypothesized to contribute to well-established alterations of beta and gamma range oscillations in patients suffering from schizophrenia. However, the precise role of these alterations and the role of different subtypes of PV+ interneurons is still unclear. Here we used a computational model of auditory steady-state response (ASSR) deficits in schizophrenia. We investigated the differential effects of decelerated synaptic dynamics, caused by subcellular alterations at two subtypes of PV+ interneurons: basket cells and chandelier cells. Our simulations suggest that subcellular alterations at basket cell synapses rather than chandelier cell synapses are the main contributor to these deficits. Particularly, basket cells might serve as target for innovative therapeutic interventions aiming at reversing the oscillatory deficits.Peer reviewe