Pituitary volume reduction in schizophrenia following cognitive behavioural therapy

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for psychosis (CBTp) aims to lower the stress of psychotic symptoms. Given that the pituitary is involved in stress regulation, CBT-led stress reduction may be accompanied by a change in pituitary volume. This study aimed to determine whether CBTp reduces pituitary volume in schizophrenia. The relation between pre-therapy memory and CBTp-led pituitary volume change was also examined given that poor memory relates to a blunted cortisol awakening response, denoting impaired stress response, in schizophre- nia. Pituitary volume was measured at baseline in 40 schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder patients and 30 healthy participants before therapy. Pituitary volume was measured again 6–9 months after patients had either received CBTp in addition to standard care (CBTp + SC, n = 24), or continued with standard care alone (SC, n = 16). CBTp + SC and SC groups were compared on pituitary volume change from baseline to follow-up. Pre-ther- apy memory performance (Hopkins Verbal Learning and Wechsler Memory Scale – Logical memory) was corre- lated with baseline-to-follow-up pituitary volume change. Pituitary volume reduced over time in CBTp + SC patients. Additionally, pre-therapy verbal learning correlated more strongly with longitudinal pituitary volume reduction in the CBTp + SC group than the SC group. To conclude, CBTp reduces pituitary volume in schizophre- nia most likely by enhancing stress regulation and lowering the distress due to psychotic symptoms

Neural changes following cognitive behaviour therapy for psychosis: A longitudinal study

A growing body of evidence demonstrates that persistent positive symptoms, particularly delusions, can be improved by cognitive behaviour therapy for psychosis. Heightened perception and processing of threat are believed to constitute the genesis of delusions. The present study aimed to examine functional brain changes following cognitive behaviour therapy for psychosis. The study involved 56 outpatients with one or more persistent positive distressing symptoms of schizophrenia. Twenty-eight patients receiving cognitive behaviour therapy for psychosis for 6–8 months in addition to their usual treatment were matched with 28 patients receiving treatment as usual. Patients’ symptoms were assessed by a rater blind to treatment group, and they underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging during an affect processing task at baseline and end of treatment follow-up. The two groups were comparable at baseline in terms of clinical and demographic parameters and neural and behavioural responses to facial and control stimuli. The cognitive behaviour therapy for psychosis with treatment-as-usual group (22 subjects) showed significant clinical improvement compared with the treatment-as-usual group (16 subjects), which showed no change at follow-up. The cognitive behaviour therapy for psychosis with treatment-as-usual group, but not the treatment-as-usual group, showed decreased activation of the inferior frontal, insula, thalamus, putamen and occipital areas to fearful and angry expressions at treatment follow-up compared with baseline. Reduction of functional magnetic resonance imaging response during angry expressions correlated directly with symptom improvement. This study provides the first evidence that cognitive behaviour therapy for psychosis attenuates brain responses to threatening stimuli and suggests that cognitive behaviour therapy for psychosis may mediate symptom reduction by promoting processing of threats in a less distressing way

Photoproduction of iodine with nanoparticulate semiconductors and insulators

The crystal structures of different forms of TiO2 and those of BaTiO3, ZnO, SnO2, WO3, CuO, Fe2O3, Fe3O4, ZrO2 and Al2O3 nanoparticles have been deduced by powder X-ray diffraction. Their optical edges have been obtained by UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectra. The photocatalytic activities of these oxides and also those of SiO2 and SiO2 porous to oxidize iodide ion have been determined and compared. The relationships between the photocatalytic activities of the studied oxides and the illumination time, wavelength of illumination, concentration of iodide ion, airflow rate, photon flux, pH, etc., have been obtained. Use of acetonitrile as medium favors the photogeneration of iodine

Neural changes following cognitive behaviour therapy for psychosis: A longitudinal study

A growing body of evidence demonstrates that persistent positive symptoms, particularly delusions, can be improved by cognitive behaviour therapy for psychosis. Heightened perception and processing of threat are believed to constitute the genesis of delusions. The present study aimed to examine functional brain changes following cognitive behaviour therapy for psychosis. The study involved 56 outpatients with one or more persistent positive distressing symptoms of schizophrenia. Twenty-eight patients receiving cognitive behaviour therapy for psychosis for 6-8 months in addition to their usual treatment were matched with 28 patients receiving treatment as usual. Patients' symptoms were assessed by a rater blind to treatment group, and they underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging during an affect processing task at baseline and end of treatment follow-up. The two groups were comparable at baseline in terms of clinical and demographic parameters and neural and behavioural responses to facial and control stimuli. The cognitive behaviour therapy for psychosis with treatment-as-usual group (22 subjects) showed significant clinical improvement compared with the treatment-as-usual group (16 subjects), which showed no change at follow-up. The cognitive behaviour therapy for psychosis with treatment-as-usual group, but not the treatment-as-usual group, showed decreased activation of the inferior frontal, insula, thalamus, putamen and occipital areas to fearful and angry expressions at treatment follow-up compared with baseline. Reduction of functional magnetic resonance imaging response during angry expressions correlated directly with symptom improvement. This study provides the first evidence that cognitive behaviour therapy for psychosis attenuates brain responses to threatening stimuli and suggests that cognitive behaviour therapy for psychosis may mediate symptom reduction by promoting processing of threats in a less distressing way. © 2011 The Author.Wellcome Trus

Requirement of argininosuccinate lyase for systemic nitric oxide production

Nitric oxide (NO) is crucial in diverse physiological and pathological processes. We show that a hypomorphic mouse model of argininosuccinate lyase (encoded by Asl) deficiency has a distinct phenotype of multiorgan dysfunction and NO deficiency. Loss of Asl in both humans and mice leads to reduced NO synthesis, owing to both decreased endogenous arginine synthesis and an impaired ability to use extracellular arginine for NO production. Administration of nitrite, which can be converted into NO in vivo, rescued the manifestations of NO deficiency in hypomorphic Asl mice, and a nitric oxide synthase (NOS)-independent NO donor restored NO-dependent vascular reactivity in humans with ASL deficiency. Mechanistic studies showed that ASL has a structural function in addition to its catalytic activity, by which it contributes to the formation of a multiprotein complex required for NO production. Our data demonstrate a previously unappreciated role for ASL in NOS function and NO homeostasis. Hence, ASL may serve as a target for manipulating NO production in experimental models, as well as for the treatment of NO-related diseases

Solar-driven electrochemically assisted semiconductor-catalyzed iodide ion oxidation. Enhanced efficiency by oxide mixtures

AbstractOxidation of iodide ion from an air-saturated solution under natural sunlight (900±50 W m−2) on the surfaces of TiO2, ZnO, Fe2O3, MoO3 and CeO2 enhances by 6 to 12-fold on application of a cathodic bias of −0.2 to −0.3 V (vs NHE) to the semiconductors; light, the semiconductor and dissolved oxygen are essential for iodine generation. The semiconductors under an anodic bias of +0.2 to +0.3 V (vs NHE) fail to oxidize iodide ion from air-saturated solution under sunlight. Under cathodic bias, semiconductor mixtures like TiO2-ZnO, TiO2-Fe2O3 and ZnO-Fe2O3 show enhanced photocatalytic activity, indicating improved charge separation in oxide mixtures. The mechanism of photocatalysis under cathodic bias is discussed. </jats:p

A longer duration of schizophrenic illness has sex-specific associations within the working memory neural network in schizophrenia

An association has previously been demonstrated between prefrontal cortex (PFC) volume decreases and illness progression in schizophrenia. The impact of illness duration on the fronto-parietal working memory neural network, however, remains unexplored. We investigated the effect of ageing and duration of illness, and explored possible sex-specific effects of duration of illness, in working memory-related brain activity in schizophrenia. Fifty individuals (25 stable schizophrenia outpatients, 25 healthy controls) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging during performance of an 'n-back'task. Patients performed significantly worse than controls. Duration of illness correlated with reduced dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activity in males and reduced cerebellum activity in females, regardless of performance and age. Sex-specific effects of illness duration were also evident in the inferior frontal and superior temporal gyri (females) and the inferior parietal cortex (males) which generally show sexually dimorphic activation in healthy people. We detected no significant effect of ageing on neural activation of the working memory network in patients though such an effect was present in healthy controls. In conclusion, our findings demonstrate that a longer duration of schizophrenic illness has sex-specific associations within the working memory neural network, with expected association between illness duration and impaired PFC activation apparent in mate, but not in female patients. Additionally, brain regions that exhibit sexually dimorphic activation in healthy people may become compromised in the corresponding sex with illness progression. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved