OBJECTIVE To investigate the loudness dependence of the auditory evoked potential (LDAEP) in predicting response to treatment for major depression. METHODS One hundred patients of Chinese ethnicity with major depression were divided into 2 groups, having strong or weak pretreatment LDAEP; the cutoff was the median of the LDAEP slope (for amplitude as a function of intensity). There were no be...

BACKGROUND Cryotherapy has a long tradition in somatic medicine. Yet we know very little about its impact on psyche and mood disturbances in particular. Therefore there is a real need for scientific investigations into this problem. OBJECTIVE The study reported here was an initial approach to whole-body cryotherapy (WBCT) as a potential treatment modality for depression and was expected to pr...

BACKGROUND A significant number of patients with major depressive disorder are unresponsive to conventional therapies. For these patients, neuromodulation approaches are being investigated. OBJECTIVE To determine whether epidural cortical stimulation at the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is safe and efficacious for major depressive disorder through a safety and feasibility study. METHO...

We report on GATA3 analysis and the phenotypic spectrum in nine Japanese families with the HDR syndrome (hypoparathyroidism, sensorineural deafness, and renal dysplasia) (MIM 146255). Fluorescence in situ hybridisation and microsatellite analyses showed heterozygous gross deletions including GATA3 in four families. Sequence analysis showed heterozygous novel mutations in three families: a misse...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether there is any difference in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) and serum cytokine levels and association between clinical parameters and rCBF and serum cytokine levels in young females with fibromyalgia (FM). The other aim was to search whether the depression state has any effect on these two parameters. METHODS Nineteen women with FM and 20 healthy women had 99...

BACKGROUND/AIM In recent years mental health of patients including those with chronic liver disease (CLD), has become interesting because its disturbance leads to reduced quality of life, that is associated with worsening of clinical outcome, reduced compliance and increased mortality. The aim of the study was to determinate the frequency and severity of depression and frequency of anxiety in p...

Objective This study compared the symptomatic emotional traits of elderly South Korean patients with hwa-byung and those with depression. Methods We enrolled 58 patients with hwa-byung, 180 patients with depression, and 181 healthy control subjects. All participants completed the Hwa-byung Scale, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Geriatric Depression Sc...

Objective The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy and safety of escitalopram, paroxetine and venlafaxine in Korean patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Methods A total of 449 Korean MDD patients were recruited in a six-week, randomized, rater-blinded, active-controlled trial and were evenly randomized to paroxetine, venlafaxine, or escitalopram treatment. Results Whe...

OBJECTIVE Efficacy and cognitive outcome of ECT is depending on electrode placement, pulse width and electrical dosage. Several studies showed that high-dosage right unilateral ECT (RULECT) had a better antidepressant effects than low-dosage RULECT and less cognitive side effect than bilateral stimulation. In this prospective, randomized, double-blind trial, we examined the efficacy and cogniti...

BACKGROUND clinicians have long noticed a correlation between physiological markers of inflammation and depression. The best-known example is the activation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis and cortisol secretion; however more recent studies have demonstrated increased salivary prostaglandins and plasma acute phase proteins in depressed patients. To date four randomised controlled tri...