1,720,972 research outputs found
Transcranial direct current stimulation(TDCS) for severe drug resistent major depression : a ten days treatment protocol
No full textVisual perception during mirror gazing at one’s own face in schizophrenia
Full text linkBackground: In normal observers gazing at one’s own face in the mirror for some minutes, at a low illumination level, triggers the perception of strange faces, a new perceptual illusion that has been named 'strange-face in the mirror'. Subjects see distortions of their own faces, but often they see monsters, archetypical faces, faces of dead relatives, and of animals.
Methods: We designed this study to primarily compare strange-face apparitions in response to mirror gazing in patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls. The study included 16 patients with schizophrenia and 21 healthy controls. In this paper we administered a 7 minute mirror gazing test (MGT). Before the mirror gazing session, all subjects underwent assessment with the Cardiff Anomalous Perception Scale (CAPS). When the 7 minutes MGT ended, the experimenter assessed patients and controls with a specifically designed questionnaire and interviewed them, asking them to describe strange-face perceptions.
Results: Apparitions of strange-faces in the mirror were significantly more intense in schizophrenic patients than in controls. All the following variables were higher in patients than in healthy controls: frequency (p < .005) and cumulative duration of apparitions (p < .009), number and types of strange-faces (p < .002), self-evaluation scores on Likert-type scales of apparition strength (p < .03) and of reality of apparitions (p < .001). In schizophrenic patients, these Likert-type scales showed correlations (p < .05) with CAPS total scores.
Conclusions: These results suggest that the increase of strange-face apparitions in schizophrenia can be produced by ego dysfunction, by body dysmorphic disorder and by misattribution of self-agency. MGT may help in completing the standard assessment of patients with schizophrenia, independently of hallucinatory psychopathology
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Transcranial direct current stimulation in severe, drug-resistant major depression
No full textBackground: Though antidepressant drugs are the treatment of choice for severe major depression, a number of patients do not improve with pharmacologic treatment. This study aimed to assess the effects of transcranial direct current Stimulation (tDCS) in patients with severe, drug-resistant depression. Methods: Fourteen hospitalized patients aged 37-68, with severe major depressive disorder according to DSM-IV.TR criteria, drug resistant, with high risk of suicide and referred for ECT were included. Mood was evaluated using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). We also administered cognitive tasks to evaluate the possible cognitive effects on memory and attention. tDCS was delivered over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPC) (2 mA, 20 min, anode left, cathode right) twice a day. Results: After five days of treatment although cognitive performances remained unchanged, the BDI and HDRS scores improved more than 30% (BDI p = 0.001; HDRS p = 0.017). The mood improvement persisted and even increased at four (T2) weeks after treatment ended. The feeling of sadness and mood as evaluated by VAS improved after tDCS (Sadness p = 0.007: Mood p = 0.036). Conclusions: We conclude that frontal tDCS is a simple, promising technique that can be considered in clinical practice as adjuvant treatment for hospitalized patients with severe, drug-resistant major depression. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
Comparative benefits of transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCS) treatment in patients with mild/moderate vs. severe depression
No full textObjective: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a psychiatric condition with high prevalence and poor treatment outcomes. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation method with pilot trials showing promising results; however, it is still unclear the profile of patients in which tDCS is better indicated. Therefore, the aim of this study is to compare tDCS efficacy according to depression severity. Method: Thirty-two hospitalized patients (24 women) aged 30-70; with MDD according to DSM-IV.TR criteria were included. Drug treatment was not changed during the study. Mood was evaluated using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Patients were divided into two groups according to MDD severity, as measured by BDI (mild/moderate vs. severe). Anodal tDCS was bilaterally delivered to the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC), using a stimulating current of 2 mA intensity for 20 minutes, twice a day, for 5 days consecutively. Depression was measured at baseline and after 5 (Tl), 12 (T2) and 35 (T3) days from the start of tDCS treatment. Results: Treatment was well tolerated without side effects. tDCS was effective in ameliorating depressive symptoms, with a significant mean BDI reduction of 11.1 (p<0.01) and HDRS of 7.1 (p<0.01) after one month of treatment (T3). Our mixed ANOVA model also showed significant time, depression severity, and time vs. depression severity effects for BDI (F 1203 = 11.0, p<0.01) and HDRS (F 1193= 8.1, p<.01) scales, indicating a greater tDCS effect for severe MDD. Similar results were found when depression severity was managed as a continuous variable. We observed no gender differences in tDCS effects. Conclusions: tDCS is especially effective in patients with severe MDD, providing sustained antidepressant effects after one month of intervention. These initial findings suggest tDCS could target this subgroup of patients to maximize clinical efficacy
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