scholarly journals Application of a Pharmacogenetics-Based Precision Medicine Model (5SPM) to Psychotic Patients That Presented Poor Response to Neuroleptic Therapy

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 289
Author(s):  
Lorena Carrascal-Laso ◽  
Manuel Ángel Franco-Martín ◽  
María Belén García-Berrocal ◽  
Elena Marcos-Vadillo ◽  
Santiago Sánchez-Iglesias ◽  
...  

Antipsychotics are the keystone of the treatment of severe and prolonged mental disorders. However, there are many risks associated with these drugs and not all patients undergo full therapeutic profit from them. The application of the 5 Step Precision Medicine model(5SPM), based on the analysis of the pharmacogenetic profile of each patient, could be a helpful tool to solve many of the problematics traditionally associated with the neuroleptic treatment. In order to solve this question, a cohort of psychotic patients that showed poor clinical evolution was analyzed. After evaluating the relationship between the prescribed treatment and pharmacogenetic profile of each patient, a great number of pharmacological interactions and pharmacogenetical conflicts were found. After reconsidering the treatment of the conflictive cases, patients showed a substantial reduction on mean daily doses and polytherapy cases, which may cause less risk of adverse effects, greater adherence, and a reduction on economic costs.

Author(s):  
Ruha Benjamin

In this response to Terence Keel and John Hartigan’s debate over the social construction of race, I aim to push the discussion beyond the terrain of epistemology and ideology to examine the contested value of racial science in a broader political economy. I build upon Keel’s concern that even science motivated by progressive aims may reproduce racist thinking and Hartigan’s proposition that a critique of racial science cannot rest on the beliefs and intentions of scientists. In examining the value of racial-ethnic classifications in pharmacogenomics and precision medicine, I propose that analysts should attend to the relationship between prophets of racial science (those who produce forecasts about inherent group differences) and profits of racial science (the material-semiotic benefits of such forecasts). Throughout, I draw upon the idiom of speculation—as a narrative, predictive, and financial practice—to explain how the fiction of race is made factual, again and again. 


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Mewton ◽  
Briana Lees ◽  
Lindsay Squeglia ◽  
Miriam K. Forbes ◽  
Matthew Sunderland ◽  
...  

Categorical mental disorders are being recognized as suboptimal targets in clinical neuroscience due to poor reliability as well as high rates of heterogeneity within, and comorbidity between, mental disorders. As an alternative to the case-control approach, recent studies have focused on the relationship between neurobiology and latent dimensions of psychopathology. The current study aimed to investigate the relationship between brain structure and psychopathology in the critical preadolescent period when psychopathology is emerging. This study included baseline data from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study® (n = 11,721; age range = 9-10 years; male = 52.2%). General psychopathology, externalizing, internalizing, and thought disorder dimensions were based on a higher-order model of psychopathology and estimated using Bayesian plausible values. Outcome variables included global and regional cortical volume, thickness, and surface area. Higher levels of psychopathology across all dimensions were associated with lower volume and surface area globally, as well as widespread and pervasive alterations across the majority of cortical and subcortical regions studied, after adjusting for sex, race/ethnicity, and parental education. The relationships between general psychopathology and brain structure were attenuated when adjusting for cognitive functioning. There was evidence of a relationship between externalizing psychopathology and frontal regions of the cortex that was independent of general psychopathology. The current study identified lower cortical volume and surface area as transdiagnostic biomarkers for general psychopathology in preadolescence. The widespread and pervasive relationships between general psychopathology and brain structure may reflect cognitive dysfunction that is a feature across a range of mental illnesses.


Author(s):  
Nicolas Bommarito

After a brief overview of the nature of attention, I argue that attention (and inattention) can be morally virtuous or vicious independently of associated overt actions. This is not, as others have claimed, because attention itself has moral value, but because attention can manifest underlying moral concern. After discussing the relationship between attention and concern, I discuss problematic cases related to mental disorders, in particular attention-deficit disorder and scrupulosity. I then apply the account to particular virtues associated with attention: modesty and gratitude. Gratitude, I argue, involves attention to our benefits and their sources, while modesty involves special patterns of attention away from our own good qualities. This account best explains how attention can be relevant to moral character.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (11) ◽  
pp. 5804
Author(s):  
Kamila Buzun ◽  
Agnieszka Gornowicz ◽  
Roman Lesyk ◽  
Krzysztof Bielawski ◽  
Anna Bielawska

Autophagy is a process of self-degradation that plays an important role in removing damaged proteins, organelles or cellular fragments from the cell. Under stressful conditions such as hypoxia, nutrient deficiency or chemotherapy, this process can also become the strategy for cell survival. Autophagy can be nonselective or selective in removing specific organelles, ribosomes, and protein aggregates, although the complete mechanisms that regulate aspects of selective autophagy are not fully understood. This review summarizes the most recent research into understanding the different types and mechanisms of autophagy. The relationship between apoptosis and autophagy on the level of molecular regulation of the expression of selected proteins such as p53, Bcl-2/Beclin 1, p62, Atg proteins, and caspases was discussed. Intensive studies have revealed a whole range of novel compounds with an anticancer activity that inhibit or activate regulatory pathways involved in autophagy. We focused on the presentation of compounds strongly affecting the autophagy process, with particular emphasis on those that are undergoing clinical and preclinical cancer research. Moreover, the target points, adverse effects and therapeutic schemes of autophagy inhibitors and activators are presented.


BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. e040480
Author(s):  
Amaya Ayala-Garcia ◽  
Laura Serra ◽  
Monica Ubalde-Lopez

ObjectivesTo assess the relationship between early working life patterns, at privately and publicly held companies, and the course of sickness absence (SA) due to mental disorders.MethodsCohort study of workers aged 18–28 years, affiliated with the Spanish social security system, living in Catalonia, who had at least one episode of SA due to mental disorders between 2012 and 2014. Individual prior working life trajectories were reconstructed through sequence analysis. Optimal matching analysis was performed to identify early working life patterns by clustering similar individual trajectories. SA trajectories were identified using latent class growth modelling analysis. Finally, the relationship between early working life patterns and subsequent SA trajectories was assessed via multinomial logistic regression models.ResultsAmong both men and women, four labour market participation (LMP) patterns were identified: stable permanent employment (reference group), increasing permanent employment, fluctuating employment and delayed employment. Among women, an increasing permanent employment pattern in early working life was related to a decrease of accumulated SA days over time (adjusted OR (aOR) 2.08; 95% CI 1.18 to 3.66). In men, we observed a trend towards a middle stable accumulation of SA days in those with fluctuating employment (aOR 1.25, 95% CI 0.57 to 2.74) or delayed employment (aOR 1.79; 95% CI 0.59 to 5.41). In both men and women, an early working life in big companies was related to a more favourable SA trajectory.ConclusionsEarly LMP patterns characterised by an increasing stability—decreased number of transitions between temporary contracts and lack of social security coverage towards permanent contracts—were related to a better future SA course due to mental diagnosis.


2005 ◽  
Vol 17 (s1) ◽  
pp. S195-S206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulo Caramelli ◽  
Luiz Henrique Martins Castro

In this review, we explore the relationship between epilepsy and cognition and between epilepsy and dementia. Chronic epilepsy, particularly mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) with hippocampal sclerosis, may be associated with impaired cognition, which can be secondary to uncontrolled seizures, to adverse effects of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) or to the underlying biological abnormality. The choice of an adequate AED with an appropriate dose regimen may lead to a favorable outcome. This feature is especially relevant in elderly patients with dementia and associated epilepsy, a vulnerable population in which the diagnosis of seizures can be difficult and for whom treatment guidelines are not yet available. Based on available information and on data derived from studies with other populations, recommendations for the management of these patients are presented.


2017 ◽  
Vol 82 (5) ◽  
pp. 779
Author(s):  
Nisha Fahey ◽  
Apurv Soni ◽  
Jeroan Allison ◽  
Jagdish Vankar ◽  
Anusha Prabhakaran ◽  
...  

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