Placebo-controlled pharmacological trials in child and adolescents with bipolar disorder manic episode (BPD-ME): Systematic review, meta-analysis and a meta-regression on placebo response

Randomized placebo controlled trials (RCT) are very important for testing efficacy and safety of a medical treatment. There is no too much RCT's in childhood bipolar disorder manic episode. In these trials, high placebo response poses a problem for the definition of real drug responses in practice. Therefore, analysis of predictors of drug and placebo response are important for conducting more reliable RCT's in the future. Comprehensive search conducted in PubMed, Clinical Trials.gov, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) and some other electronic databases. Studies including participants with Bipolar Disorder manic episode and associated symptoms (e.g ADHD, irritability) included. There was no restriction in terms of sex, ethnicity or initial severity. Participants over age 18 were excluded. Random effect size model was used for calculate effect sizes for placebo and drugs

ADHD and Risk of Childhood Adiposity: a Review of Recent Research

Purpose of Review Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is considered as a risk factor for childhood adiposity and obesity. Studies on ADHD have provided limited data concerning the connections between eating habits, body mass index, and obesity. The purpose of this review was to examine the current literature regarding recent cohort and cross-sectional studies to determine the links between ADHD and childhood adiposity. Recent Findings Studies in this review were classified into dietary features, nutritional status, neuroimaging findings, genetic overlapping, behavioral, cognitive, and neurocognitive aspects that play a role in mediating and moderating the relationship between ADHD and obesity. While ADHD, childhood adiposity, and overweight/obesity co-occur in children and adolescents, this relationship is largely explained by a variety of multidirectional factors

The association between pragmatic language impairment, social cognition and emotion regulation skills in adolescents with ADHD.

Objective Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is associated with significant pragmatic language impairment and theory of mind deficits, but there are only a handful of studies have investigated the relationship between them in these conditions. This study aimed that investigate two different aspects of Theory of Mind (ToM) (ToM decoding and reasoning), pragmatic language impairment, and emotion regulation in patients with ADHD. Method Seventy adolescents with ADHD were compared to matched 64 healthy controls. We administered Social Responsiveness Scale-2 (SRS-2), Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), Kiddie-SADS, Conners Parent Rating Scale, Children's Communication Checklist-2 (CCC-2), Faux Pas, Comprehension Test, and Reading Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) to all study participants. Results The CCC-2 scores were found to be statistically significantly higher in the ADHD group than in healthy controls. ADHD group had lower performance in the Faces Test and RMET compared to healthy controls, which did not survive from false discovery rate correction. We also found that CCC-2 performance and Conners scores were significant predictors of social responsiveness. Conclusion Our results point to widespread impairment in pragmatic language use and communication from many perspectives. These results might be important to understand the difficulties in social functioning and interpersonal relationship in adolescents with ADHD

Social Information Processing and Executive Functions in Male Children and Adolescents with Internet Gaming Disorder

In recent years, in addition to its clinical importance, interest in the social-cognitive aspect of internet gaming disorder (IGD) has increased. This study aimed to investigate autistic traits, executive functions, and self-regulation abilities of patients with IGD. Eighty-seven male patients with IGD and eighty-three male healthy controls (HC) were included in the study. All patients were diagnosed with IGD as per the diagnostic criteria of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5. Healthy controls without any comorbid psychiatric diagnosis were recruited from the community. The Brief Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) and the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) were implemented to evaluate autistic traits, executive functions, and self-regulation skills. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Screen for Child Anxiety and Related Disorders and Internet Gaming Disorder Scale-Short-Form were used to evaluate psychopathology. The effect size of the impairments in executive functions and self-regulation skills was large (Cohen's d = 1.0-2.0). IGD groups had higher levels of autistic traits compared to healthy controls (d = 1.0-1.4). The differences in BDI and BRIEF scores remained significant in logistic regression analysis. Age at illness-onset, total severity of anxiety, and autistic traits were found as significant correlates of deficits in executive functions among patients with IGD. The results of this study supported the higher autistic traits and poorer executive function skills of patients with IGD. Deficits in executive functions were associated with autistic traits and younger age-onset of the illness

The effects of catechol-O-methyltransferase single nucleotide polymorphisms on positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia: A systematic review and meta-analysis

The catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene is thought to have an important role in the etiopathogenesis of schizophrenia, but there are conflicting results regarding its role in clinical presentation. We aimed to elucidate the relationship between the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the COMT gene and the severity of positive and negative symptoms. In order to investigate the relationship, the PubMed, PubMed Central, Scopus, and Cochrane CENTRAL databases were screened for eligible articles. Thirty-eight studies, including 4443 adult patients with schizophrenia, were included in the quantitative analyses, and four studies were qualitatively assessed. Quantitative analyses were performed for acutely ill and clinically stable patient subgroups regarding the different genotypes of rs4680 SNP. Our results showed that the severity of negative symptoms was higher in patients who were rs4680 Met homozygous compared to Val/Met heterozygotes only in acutely ill samples. There was no other significant difference between genotypes. Meta-regression did not reveal any significant moderator effect on the difference in negative symptoms. General psychopathology, positive, negative, and total psychotic symptom levels also were similar between Val homozygotes and Met carriers. Nonetheless, there are some limitations in the study. First, SNPs except for rs4680 were under-researched because of the limited number of studies. Second, high heterogeneity across studies was the main concern. Our results suggested that the COMT rs4680 Met allele was associated with higher levels of negative symptoms within acutely ill patients. Future studies should focus on specific patient subgroups to reveal the moderating effects of SNPs

Impaired theory of mind and emotion recognition in pediatric bipolar disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Social cognition is impaired in patients with severe mental disorders. We aimed to investigate impairments in social cognition in youth with pediatric bipolar disorder (PBD) through a systematic review of the literature and the meta-analysis

Psychometric properties of The Clinician Affective Reactivity Index for Assessment of Irritability in a clinical sample of Turkish children and adolescents

Background: No clinician-oriented scale exists to assess irritability in Turkey. This pilot study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Turkish version of The Clinician Affective Reactivity Index (CL-ARI)

Psychomotor agitation and irritability in adolescents with manic episode: Clinical data from three inpatient units

Objectives We aimed to investigate the characteristics of adolescents with Bipolar disorder-I with irritability and agitation (Mania+IA) compared to those without irritability and agitation (Mania-IA) in a multi-center representative sample. Methods Data of 145 patients from three tertiary-care inpatient units between 2016 and 2021 were obtained. Psychomotor agitation was defined as a score of >= 3 on the YMRS "Increased Motor Activity--Energy" item, irritability as a score of >= 4 on the YMRS 'irritability' item, and severity anchors of speech and thought disturbance on the YMRS '6 and 7' items. Results Previous manic episodes (p = 0.013), involuntary hospitalization (p = 0.006), psychotic features (p = 0.001), formal thought disorder (p = 0.010) and aggressive/disruptive behavior (p = 0.021) were more frequent in the Mania+IA group. Conversely, depressive episodes (p = 0.006) and family history of depression (p = 0.024) were more frequent in the Mania-IA group. The Mania+IA had poorer functioning at the time of discharge. Conclusions Irritability and agitation were closely related to complications, psychotic symptoms and thought disorder. Assessment and monitoring of psychomotor agitation and irritability may help child and adolescent psychiatrists to predict clinical difficulties and appropriate interventions