Category: Statistics

J Parasit Dis. 2024 Sep;48(3):514-524. doi: 10.1007/s12639-024-01690-2. Epub 2024 Jun 12.

ABSTRACT

Iron deficiency anemia (IDA), which causes greater morbidity and mortality in children, has multifactorial causes, including many helminthic and protozoal infections. Herein, the study aimed to find out the frequency and associated risk of Blastocystis sp. infection among children with IDA, together with the estimation of the serum levels of iron, zinc, copper, and vitamin A. Both stool and blood samples were obtained from 90 children with a confirmed diagnosis of IDA and 90 non-anemic children. Blastocystis sp. was diagnosed by direct stool examination and Invitro cultivation methods. Different hematological parameters were recorded, and the serum level of iron, zinc, copper, and vitamin A was measured in serum samples. The overall predominance of Blastocystis in children was 36.7%, significantly higher (P < 0.001) in children with IDA (55.6%) compared to non-anemic controls (17.8%). Furthermore, Blastocystis infected children were 5.781 times more prone to be anemic (OR = 5.781). All IDA cases with positive Blastocystis infection had a mean hemoglobin level of 9.55 g/dl (moderate anemia). While in other non-infected IDA cases, it was 9.56 g/dl, showing no statistical difference (P = 0.845). Serum levels of zinc, iron, and vitamin A considerably decreased, whereas serum copper levels significantly increased in IDA children infected with Blastocystis. The current research is the first in Egypt to indicate that Blastocystis infection in children is a high-risk factor for developing IDA. Blastocystis infection significantly alters the metabolic and biochemical processes and interferes with the absorption of micronutrients and vitamin A in IDA children.

PMID:39145364 | PMC:PMC11319569 | DOI:10.1007/s12639-024-01690-2

J Parasit Dis. 2024 Sep;48(3):439-449. doi: 10.1007/s12639-024-01668-0. Epub 2024 Apr 28.

ABSTRACT

Three stations along the Ase River, Delta State Nigeria provided water and 85 fish samples which were analyzed. The fish were measured and examined for endoparasites according to established protocol. All water quality parameters investigated were within the WHO-acceptable values for surface waters. Station variation of physicochemical parameters was not statistically significant (p > 0.05). Fish body conformation indices positively correlated with the prevalence of parasites in Clarias gariepinus, Heterobranchus longifilis, Parachana africana, Chromidotilapia guntheri guntherii, and Denticeps clupeodes. The overall parasite prevalence of 63.53% was established with the most abundant parasite being Trichodina mutabillis. The parasites had a predilection for the gastrointestinal tract with a high occurrence of 307 individuals. Stations 1, 2, and 3 had 326, 213, and 259 parasites, respectively, out of a total of 798 parasites detected. P. laevis was absent in station 1. All parasites were found in stations 2 and 3. Statistically, there was a significant difference (p < 0.05) in the prevalence in all stations. The correlation index of T. mutabillis and R. congolensis in stations 1 and 3 was positively strong (p < 0.05) with the concentrations of water quality. However, water conditions in stations 1 and 3 had a deleterious impact on P. laevis. T. mutabillis maintained a high positive correlation with physicochemical water quality in all three stations. Shannon-Weiner’s index in station 3 (H = 1.337) shows that the parasites were more diverse. PCA and biodiversity indices have enabled us to comprehend how parasite-host-environment systems interact.

PMID:39145361 | PMC:PMC11319677 | DOI:10.1007/s12639-024-01668-0

Schizophr Bull Open. 2023 Jan 3;4(1):sgac076. doi: 10.1093/schizbullopen/sgac076. eCollection 2023 Jan.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: This study attempts to replicate in a Chinese population an earlier UK report that eye movement abnormalities can accurately distinguish schizophrenia (SCZ) cases from healthy controls (HCs). It also seeks to determine whether first-episode SCZ differ from chronic SCZ and whether these eye movement abnormalities are enriched in psychosis risk syndrome (PRS).

METHODS: The training set included 104 Chinese HC and 60 Chinese patients with SCZ, and the testing set included 20 SCZ patients and 20 HC from a UK cohort. An additional 16 individuals with PRS were also enrolled. Eye movements of all participants were recorded during free-viewing, smooth pursuit, and fixation stability tasks. Group differences in 55 performance measures were compared and a gradient-boosted decision tree model was built for predictive analyses.

RESULTS: Extensive eye-movement abnormalities were observed in patients with SCZ on almost all eye-movement tests. On almost all individual variables, first-episode patients showed no statistically significant differences compared with chronic patients. The classification model was able to discriminate patients from controls with an area under the curve of 0.87; the model also classified 88% of PRS individuals as SCZ-like.

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings replicate and extend the UK results. The overall accuracy of the Chinese study is virtually identical to the UK findings. We conclude that eye-movement abnormalities appear early in the natural history of the disorder and can be considered as potential trait markers for SCZ diathesis.

PMID:39145342 | PMC:PMC11207660 | DOI:10.1093/schizbullopen/sgac076

Schizophr Bull Open. 2023 Nov 14;4(1):sgad032. doi: 10.1093/schizbullopen/sgad032. eCollection 2023 Jan.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESIS: Based on the need-adapted approach, delaying antipsychotics could help identify first-episode psychosis (FEP) adolescents who might not require them. However, some individuals might need antipsychotics, and postponing could harm their prognosis. This nationwide register-based follow-up aimed to test these two hypotheses.

STUDY DESIGN: All adolescents aged 13-20 with a psychotic disorder (ICD-10 codes: F20-F29) in Finland between 2003 and 2013 were identified (n = 6354) from national registers. For each case, a fixed 1825-day follow-up period was established from the onset of psychosis or until death. The outcome was considered “good” if adolescents did not die and had not received psychiatric treatment and/or disability allowances during the final year of follow-up. Testing the first hypothesis involved all antipsychotic treatment-naïve adolescents with FEP (n = 3714). The second hypothesis was tested with a sub-sample of only those who had received antipsychotics during follow-up (n = 3258). To account for baseline confounders, hypotheses were tested via a stabilized inverse probability of treatment weighted generalized linear models with logit link function.

STUDY RESULTS: Immediate antipsychotic treatment after the onset of psychosis was associated with poor 5-year outcome (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: 1.8, 95% CI: 1.6-2.1). There was no statistically significant association between antipsychotic postponement and treatment outcome in those who eventually received antipsychotic treatment (aOR: 1.02, 95% CI: 0.7-1.2, P: .8), thus not providing support for second hypothesis.

CONCLUSIONS: There is a significant subgroup of adolescent with psychosis who do not require immediate antipsychotic treatment. A more robust design is needed to evaluate the causality of the observed association.

PMID:39145341 | PMC:PMC11207772 | DOI:10.1093/schizbullopen/sgad032

Schizophr Bull Open. 2023 Feb 16;4(1):sgad005. doi: 10.1093/schizbullopen/sgad005. eCollection 2023 Jan.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)-IV diagnostic category “Psychotic disorder not otherwise specified” (PNOS) is seldom investigated, and we lack knowledge about long-term outcomes. We examined long-term symptom severity, global functioning, remission/recovery rates, and diagnostic stability after the first treatment for PNOS.

METHODS: Participants with first-treatment PNOS (n = 32) were reassessed with structured interviews after 7 to 10 years. The sample also included narrow schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD, n = 94) and psychotic bipolar disorders (PBD, n = 54). Symptomatic remission was defined based on the Remission in Schizophrenia Working Group criteria. Clinical recovery was defined as meeting the criteria for symptomatic remission and having adequate functioning for the last 12 months.

RESULTS: Participants with baseline PNOS or PBD had lower symptom severity and better global functioning at follow-up than those with SSD. More participants with PNOS and PBD were in symptomatic remission and clinical recovery compared to participants with SSD. Seventeen (53%) PNOS participants retained the diagnosis, while 15 participants were diagnosed with either SSD (22%), affective disorders (19%), or substance-induced psychotic disorders (6%). Those rediagnosed with SSD did not differ from the other PNOS participants regarding baseline clinical characteristics.

CONCLUSIONS: Long-term outcomes are more favorable in PNOS and PBD than in SSD. Our findings confirm diagnostic instability but also stability for a subgroup of participants with PNOS. However, it is challenging to predict diagnostic outcomes of PNOS based on clinical characteristics at first treatment.

PMID:39145337 | PMC:PMC11207683 | DOI:10.1093/schizbullopen/sgad005

Schizophr Bull Open. 2023 Mar 10;4(1):sgad008. doi: 10.1093/schizbullopen/sgad008. eCollection 2023 Jan.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESIS: It is argued that availability of diagnostic models will facilitate a more rapid identification of individuals who are at a higher risk of first episode psychosis (FEP). Therefore, we developed, evaluated, and validated a diagnostic risk estimation model to classify individual with FEP and controls across six countries.

STUDY DESIGN: We used data from a large multi-center study encompassing 2627 phenotypically well-defined participants (aged 18-64 years) recruited from six countries spanning 17 research sites, as part of the European Network of National Schizophrenia Networks Studying Gene-Environment Interactions study. To build the diagnostic model and identify which of important factors for estimating an individual risk of FEP, we applied a binary logistic model with regularization by the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator. The model was validated employing the internal-external cross-validation approach. The model performance was assessed with the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC), calibration, sensitivity, and specificity.

STUDY RESULTS: Having included preselected 22 predictor variables, the model was able to discriminate adults with FEP and controls with high accuracy across all six countries (ranges_AUROC = 0.84-0.86). Specificity (range = 73.9-78.0%) and sensitivity (range = 75.6-79.3%) were equally good, cumulatively indicating an excellent model accuracy; though, calibration slope for the diagnostic model showed a presence of some overfitting when applied specifically to participants from France, the UK, and The Netherlands.

CONCLUSIONS: The new FEP model achieved a good discrimination and good calibration across six countries with different ethnic contributions supporting its robustness and good generalizability.

PMID:39145333 | PMC:PMC11207766 | DOI:10.1093/schizbullopen/sgad008

Schizophr Bull Open. 2023 Jun 30;4(1):sgad018. doi: 10.1093/schizbullopen/sgad018. eCollection 2023 Jan.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Negative portrayals of schizophrenia in media can prompt the condition’s stigmatization. However, because research on language stigmatizing schizophrenia has focused on paper-based media, its results have limited generalizability to contemporary media. Also, research on interventions to guide media professionals in accurately depicting schizophrenia has been scarce. The present study had two aims: (1) to assess how print, web, and radio/TV news media in Sweden portray schizophrenia and (2) to evaluate a campaign targeting media professionals’ responses to information about schizophrenia and the consequences of stigmatizing language.

STUDY DESIGN: Using data from Retriever’s database, considering media types and topics, the terms “schizophrenia” and “schizophrenic” were examined in the past 20 years, whereas analyses of stigmatizing reporting of these terms used media from the past 10 years. Media professionals’ responses and actions in the anti-stigma information campaign StigmaWatch were also evaluated.

STUDY RESULTS: Between 2002 and 2022, “schizophrenia” was mentioned 34 141 times in the dataset and “schizophrenic” 10 058 times. However, no trends were statistically significant. All media topics and most types of media contained stigmatizing reporting. Of the 230 media professionals who received informative emails from StigmaWatch, 77 (33%) responded. Most responses were supportive, and 14% of the professionals reported taking corrective measures (eg, revising erroneous descriptions of schizophrenia) following the email.

CONCLUSIONS: No media topic was free of language stigmatizing schizophrenia. The anti-stigma information campaign seemed to have been effective, for most media professionals who responded were supportive, and a sizable proportion reported taking corrective measures.

PMID:39145329 | PMC:PMC11207655 | DOI:10.1093/schizbullopen/sgad018

Schizophr Bull Open. 2023 Nov 17;4(1):sgad026. doi: 10.1093/schizbullopen/sgad026. eCollection 2023 Jan.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The Salience Hypothesis posits that aberrations in the assignment of salience culminate in hallucinations and unusual beliefs, the “positive symptoms” of schizophrenia. Evidence for this comes from studies on latent inhibition (LI), referring to the phenomenon that prior exposure to a stimulus impedes learning about the relationship between that stimulus and an outcome.

DESIGN: This article reviewed all published studies examining the relationship between LI and both schizophrenia and schizotypy.

RESULTS: Contemporary literature suggests that LI is attenuated in both people with schizophrenia and those loading highly on measures of schizotypy, the multidimensional derivative of schizophrenia. This suggests that these individuals assign greater salience to stimuli than healthy controls and people scoring low on measures of schizotypy, respectively. However, several confounds limit these conclusions. Studies on people with schizophrenia are limited by the confounding effects of psychotropic medications, idiosyncratic parsing of samples, variation in dependent variables, and lack of statistical power. Moreover, LI paradigms are limited by the confounding effects of learned irrelevance, conditioned inhibition, negative priming, and novel pop-out effects.

CONCLUSIONS: This review concludes with the recommendation that researchers develop novel paradigms that overcome these limitations to evaluate the predictions of the Salience Hypothesis.

PMID:39145328 | PMC:PMC11207691 | DOI:10.1093/schizbullopen/sgad026

Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2024 Jul 31;15:1373101. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2024.1373101. eCollection 2024.

ABSTRACT

CONTEXT: Few studies have directly compared the cognitive characteristics of patients with mild autonomous cortisol secretion (MACS) and Cushing’s syndrome (CS). The effect of surgical or conservative treatment on cognitive function in patients with MACS is still unclear.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the differences in cognitive function between patients with MACS and CS and evaluate the effect of surgery or conservative treatment on cognitive function.

METHODS: We prospectively recruited 59 patients with nonfunctional adrenal adenoma (NFA), 36 patients with MACS, and 20 patients with adrenal CS who completed the global cognition and cognitive subdomains assessments. Seventeen MACS patients were re-evaluated for cognitive function after a 12-month follow-up period; of these, eleven underwent laparoscopic adrenalectomy and six received conservative treatment.

RESULTS: Patients with MACS and CS performed worse in the global cognition and multiple cognitive domains than those with NFA (all P<0.05). No statistical difference was found in cognitive functions between patients with MACS and CS. Logistic regression analysis showed that patients with MACS (odds ratio [OR]=3.738, 95% confidence intervals [CI]: 1.329-10.515, P=0.012) and CS (OR=6.026, 95% CI: 1.411-25.730, P=0.015) were associated with an increased risk of immediate memory impairment. Visuospatial/constructional, immediate and delayed memory scores of MACS patients were significantly improved at 12 months compared with pre-operation in the surgical treatment group (all P<0.05), whereas there was no improvement in the conservative treatment group.

CONCLUSION: Patients with MACS have comparable cognitive impairment as patients with CS. Cognitive function was partially improved in patients with MACS after adrenalectomy. The current data support the inclusion of cognitive function assessment in the clinical management of patients with MACS.

PMID:39145316 | PMC:PMC11322108 | DOI:10.3389/fendo.2024.1373101

Front Neurosci. 2024 Jul 31;18:1462078. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2024.1462078. eCollection 2024.

NO ABSTRACT

PMID:39145300 | PMC:PMC11323685 | DOI:10.3389/fnins.2024.1462078