Dear colleagues,
It is my great pleasure to introduce to you the seventh issue of 2019, featuring original research on brain-derived neurotrophic factor BDNF.
Rickels and Möller review the usefulness and safety of benzodiazepines (BZs) in anxiety disorders. Treatment guidelines have been found to favour antidepressants (ADs) over BZs for the treatment of anxiety disorders. BZs are claimed to be less efficient and to cause more safety issues than ADs, and treatment longer than 4 weeks should only be offered to patients maximally improved at 4 weeks. ADs cause less disturbing adverse events as well as discontinuation symptoms and have to be prescribed for 3–6 months to obtain maximal benefits. However, better guidance for the proper use of BZs and ADs is needed for clinicians.
Wagner et al., assessed plasma brain-derived neurotrophic factor (pBDNF) and executive dysfunctions in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) to see whether normalisation of executive dysfunctions during antidepressant treatment correlates with or can be predicted by clinical parameters or levels of BDNF. A concomitant amelioration of executive dysfunctions with successful antidepressant therapy and the role of BDNF in the normalisation of executive dysfunctions in MDD have been found.
Caffino and associates showed that repeated cocaine exposure dysregulates BDNF expression and signalling in the mesocorticolimbic pathway of the adolescent rat. Cocaine exposure has been found to modulate the BDNF system early after treatment and a complex but specific set of changes has been identified which could provide clues for treatment.
Heitz and colleagues investigated plasma and serum BDNF levels and their association with neurocognition in at-risk mental state (ARMS) in first-episode psychosis (FEP) and chronic schizophrenia (CS) patients. Both plasma and serum BDNF levels were highest in CS, intermediate in FEP and lowest in ARMS. Multiple regression analysis revealed a significant positive association of plasma BDNF levels with planning ability across all groups.
Mallei et al. showed that chronic social defeat stress differentially regulates the expression of BDNF transcripts and epigenetic modifying enzymes in susceptible and resilient mice. This study shows a different expression of BDNF transcripts and epigenetic modifying enzymes in susceptible and resilient mice, suggesting that stress resilience is not simply a lack of activation of stress-related pathways, but is related to the activation of additional different specific mechanisms.
Aas and associates assessed the relationship between physical activity, clinical and cognitive characteristics and BDNF mRNA levels in patients with severe mental disorders. Patients doing physical activity had fewer depressive symptoms and performed better on working memory and executive function tasks. BDNF mRNA has been found to be positively associated with physical activity and cognitive functioning.
Greebaum et al. report that the CADM2 gene is associated with processing speed performance among elderly with type 2 Diabetes. An association of the rs17518584 SNP with the Digit-Symbol Substitution Task (DSST) performance has been found. Furthermore this SNP was also associated with performance in the cognitive domains of language/semantic categorisation and executive function, as well as overall cognition.
Yours sincerely,