Sensitization of catastrophic cognition in cognitive-behavioral therapy for panic disorder

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cognitive model of panic disorder have proposed that panic attacks result from the catastrophic misinterpretation of certain bodily sensations. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for panic disorder aims to change these catastrophic cognitions. CBT intervention successfully caused reduction of catastrophic cognitions and symptomatic improvement in the majority of cases. However there are some patients who fail to modify their catastrophic cognitions or rather experience an increase in them during CBT treatment. It is clinically and theoretically important to understand about cognitive sensitization of panic disorder during CBT sessions. The purpose of the present study is 1) to clarify the baseline characteristics of panic patients who would experience sensitization of their catastrophic cognitions through the CBT treatment, and 2) to examine the course of symptomatic changes for them.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Of ninety-five outpatients with panic disorder started the group CBT program for treatment of panic disorder, seventy-nine completer were classified as "cognitively sensitized (CS)" or "cognitive responding (CR)" or "no-responder" according to the difference of the Agoraphobic Cognitions Questionnaire score across treatment. We compared the CS and CR patients in terms of their baseline clinical characteristics. Then we assessed the symptomatic and functional changes for both groups.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>At the start of the CBT program, despite of the same degree of panic disorder severity, CS scored significantly lower on ACQ score than CR. CS also showed significantly lower score on anticipatory anxiety compared to CR. At the end of treatment CS showed significant improvement in severity of panic disorder, although the degree of improvement was smaller than that for CR. Then CS would progressively reduce their agoraphobic fear and avoidance, and would improve their functional impairment up to three month of follow-up.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Panic patients who would experience sensitization of their catastrophic cognitions through the CBT treatment could nonetheless gradually improve. They showed a relatively low level of catastrophic cognition and anticipatory anxiety before starting the CBT program. We might conclude that temporary sensitization of catastrophic cognition may be necessary before improvement especially among those with initially low catastrophic body sensation fears and that we need not be concerned too much with temporary increase in catastrophic cognition in the process of CBT for panic disorder.</p

PCNA ubiquitylation ensures timely completion of unperturbed DNA replication in fission yeast

PCNA ubiquitylation on lysine 164 is required for DNA damage tolerance. In many organisms PCNA is also ubiquitylated in unchallenged S phase but the significance of this has not been established. Using Schizosaccharomyces pombe, we demonstrate that lysine 164 ubiquitylation of PCNA contributes to efficient DNA replication in the absence of DNA damage. Loss of PCNA ubiquitylation manifests most strongly at late replicating regions and increases the frequency of replication gaps. We show that PCNA ubiquitylation increases the proportion of chromatin associated PCNA and the co-immunoprecipitation of Polymerase δ with PCNA during unperturbed replication and propose that ubiquitylation acts to prolong the chromatin association of these replication proteins to allow the efficient completion of Okazaki fragment synthesis by mediating gap filling

Pre-post changes in psychosocial functioning among relatives of patients with depressive disorders after Brief Multifamily Psychoeducation: A pilot study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Depressive disorder is often chronic and recurrent, and results in a heavy psychosocial burden on the families of patients with this disorder. This study aims to examine the effectiveness of brief multifamily psychoeducation designed to alleviate their psychosocial burden.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Thirty-two relatives of patients with major depressive disorder participated in an open study testing the effectiveness of brief multifamily psychoeducation. The intervention consisted of four sessions over the course of 6 weeks. Outcome measures focused on emotional distress, care burden and Expressed Emotion (EE).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The emotional distress, care burden and EE of the family all showed statistically significant improvements from baseline to after the family intervention. The proportion of relatives scoring 9 or more on K6, which indicates possible depressive or anxiety disorder, decreased from sixteen relatives (50.0%) at baseline, to only 3 relatives (9.3%) after the intervention.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study suggests that brief multifamily psychoeducation is a useful intervention to reduce the psychosocial burden of the relatives of patients with depressive disorder. Further evaluation of family psychoeducation for relatives of patients with depressive disorder is warranted.</p

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Περιέχει την περίληψηΜέσα στα πλαίσια της Κοινωνίας της Πληροφορίας οι βιβλιοθηκονόμοι διεκδικούν, άλλοτε πετυχημένα, άλλοτε όχι και τόσο, ένα πιο ενεργό και απαιτητικό ρόλο, προβάλλοντας το επιχείρημα πώς όσο μεγαλύτερη είναι η παραγωγή πληροφορίας και γνώσης και η παροχή πληροφόρησης τόσο mo απαιτητική είναι και η διαδικασία που αναγκάζεται να ακολουθήσει ο χρήστης ώστε να ικανοποιήσει τις ανάγκες του. Αλλά, η αναγκαιότητα του βιβλιοθηκονόμου (ως επιστήμονα της πληροφόρησης πλέον), του διαμεσολαβητή, δηλαδή, ανάμεσα στην πληροφορία και στον χρήστη, δικαιολογεί απαραιτήτως και την αναγκαιότητα για την ίδια τη Βιβλιοθήκη; Τεκμηριώνεται, δηλαδή, η ύπαρξη αυτού του οργανισμού ως μη κερδοσκοπικού, πολιτιστικού ιδρύματος που εξυπηρετεί όχι μόνο πληροφοριακές αλλά και ψυχαγωγικές, εκπαιδευτικές, κοινωνικοοικονομικές ανάγκες των επισκεπτών του; Και τότε, το έργο του βιβλιοθηκονόμου πώς προδιαγράφεται; Ποιο το περιεχόμενο και ο τρόπος της διαμεσολάβησης; Πρόκειται για σύνθεση ή μηχανιστική διάδοση της πληροφορίας; Αν η Πληροφορία διακινείται, στις μέρες μας κυρίως και πρωτίστως, με ηλεκτρονικά μέσα, τότε το αυτονόητο της ύπαρξης ενός απτού οικοδομήματος που στεγάζει την πληροφορία παύει να ισχύει και είτε πρέπει να καταλυθεί, είτε να εφευρεθεί από την αρχή, προσδίδοντας νέα επίκαιρα χαρακτηριστικά σε ένα αρχαιότατο κατασκεύασμα

Search for eccentric black hole coalescences during the third observing run of LIGO and Virgo

Despite the growing number of confident binary black hole coalescences observed through gravitational waves so far, the astrophysical origin of these binaries remains uncertain. Orbital eccentricity is one of the clearest tracers of binary formation channels. Identifying binary eccentricity, however, remains challenging due to the limited availability of gravitational waveforms that include effects of eccentricity. Here, we present observational results for a waveform-independent search sensitive to eccentric black hole coalescences, covering the third observing run (O3) of the LIGO and Virgo detectors. We identified no new high-significance candidates beyond those that were already identified with searches focusing on quasi-circular binaries. We determine the sensitivity of our search to high-mass (total mass M&gt;70 M⊙) binaries covering eccentricities up to 0.3 at 15 Hz orbital frequency, and use this to compare model predictions to search results. Assuming all detections are indeed quasi-circular, for our fiducial population model, we place an upper limit for the merger rate density of high-mass binaries with eccentricities 0&lt;e≤0.3 at 0.33 Gpc−3 yr−1 at 90\% confidence level

Ultralight vector dark matter search using data from the KAGRA O3GK run

Among the various candidates for dark matter (DM), ultralight vector DM can be probed by laser interferometric gravitational wave detectors through the measurement of oscillating length changes in the arm cavities. In this context, KAGRA has a unique feature due to differing compositions of its mirrors, enhancing the signal of vector DM in the length change in the auxiliary channels. Here we present the result of a search for U(1)B−L gauge boson DM using the KAGRA data from auxiliary length channels during the first joint observation run together with GEO600. By applying our search pipeline, which takes into account the stochastic nature of ultralight DM, upper bounds on the coupling strength between the U(1)B−L gauge boson and ordinary matter are obtained for a range of DM masses. While our constraints are less stringent than those derived from previous experiments, this study demonstrates the applicability of our method to the lower-mass vector DM search, which is made difficult in this measurement by the short observation time compared to the auto-correlation time scale of DM