Dear Colleagues,
It is my pleasure to welcome you to the second issue of the year 2010.
I am pleased to present to you the WFSBP Treatment Guidelines for the Biological Treatment of Bipolar Disorders: Update 2010 on the Treatment of Acute Bipolar Depression. With this comprehensive manual which includes numerous recommendations, the WFSBP aims to provide up-to-date treatment options and thus to further improve treatment for patients worldwide and to spread knowledge also in countries with limited continuing education possibilities. I wish to thank Heinz Grunze, Secretary of the WFSBP Task Force on Bipolar Affective Disorders, and the entire taskforce for their superb work.
Proteome analysis has emerged as a promising strategy to the identification of potential biomarkers and to further confirm the importance of certain pathways in the schizophrenia pathophyshiology. Daniel Martins-de-Souza and colleagues from Brazil and Germany have reviewed the results of 13 proteome studies in schizophrenia brain tissue and provide interesting information regarding potential proteins biomarkers as well as information about the pathophysiology of the disease.
Atsuko Ikenouchi-Sugita and colleagues present a study with 54 Japanese neuropsychiatiry systematic lupus erythematosus (NPSLE) inpatients and 28 healthy volunteers. The presumption of the Japanese colleagues was that biological markers such as IgG index or IL-6 do not always reflect the severity of the psychotic symptoms of NPSLE and thus serum BDNF levels may be a biological marker for reflecting the severity of the psychiatric symptoms of NPSLE. Evidence of this hypothesis could be provided through the study.
There is evidence that strenuous exercising of adolescent elite athletes leads to favorable sleep patterns. However, research on this topic in non-elite athletes is limited. Thus, Serge Brand and colleagues from Switzerland compared sleep-EEG patterns of higher leisure time exercisers and controls and present their study with 38 adolescents in an original investigation. Interestingly, high exercisers had more slow wave sleep, less light and REM-sleep, higher scores for positive coping and curiostiy, and lower scores for depressive symptoms and somatosensory amplification compared to low exercisers. Thus, regular physical activity should be promoted especially also for psychiatric patients, as regular, though not necessarily vigorous exercise is related to improvement in objective sleep patterns and better psychological funtioning.
Roland von Känel and colleagues studied the levels of blood lipids in patients with a DSM-IV diagnosis of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Dyslipidemia and present their findings in a brief report. Indeed, chronic PTSD caused by myocardial infarction was associated with lower plasma levels of HDL-C.
Raffaella Molteni and Italian colleagues investigated the acute modulation of the neurotrophin Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) by the novel antidepressant agomelatine and the relative contribution of its melatonergic and serotonergic receptor component. In the brief report evidence is provided that acute agomelatine treatement modulates the expression of BDNF through a functional interaction between melatonergic MT1/MT2 and serotonergic 5-HT2C receptors, supporting the notion that intracellular events can be regulated via a synergistic activity of different neuromodulatory systems.
At the end of the issue, there are three letters to the editors: Himmerich and colleagues, and Grover and colleague comment on articles published in the World Journal of Biological Psychiatry in the past year, and thus enhance the discussion. Ferentinos and colleagues inform us of various side effects of isotretinoin (depression, violent behaviour, suicidality and psychotic symptoms) which possibly relate to genetic vulnerability in psychiatric patiens.
Yours sincerely,
Siegfried Kasper, MD
Chief Editor