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Background: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is often resistant to treatment and may be complicated by tardive dystonia (TDt) with the use of neuroleptics. Furthermore, patients with TDt often have an inadequate response to pharmacotherapy. Although electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is considered a common treatment option for both TDt and OCD, its efficacy has not been well established for either condition., Case Presentation: Our case was a 37-year-old Japanese woman who showed improvement in both refractory TDt and severe OCD following ECT. A total of 12 ECT sessions resulted in an improvement in both diseases. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a case in which ECT was effective for both TDt and OCD., Conclusion: Our report highlights the following two points: when TDt is associated with severe OCD, and the effect of pharmacotherapy is inadequate, ECT may be considered as a treatment option; given the common mechanism of frontal cortex-basal dysfunction reported in both dystonia and OCD, ECT may have an effect on this pathway., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (© 2022 The Authors. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences Reports published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology.)

Background: It is unclear whether individuals who have serious psychological distress (SPD) are less likely to participate in screening tests for gastric cancer, lung cancer, and other types of cancer. Of the few studies that have examined the association between SPD and participation in cancer screening, none have reported modifying effects of educational, marital, or employment status., Methods: The authors analyzed a national representative data set from the 2010 Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions of Japan., including individuals aged <69 years who met the national program criteria for each type of cancer screening (colorectal, gastric, and lung cancers, n = 29,926; breast cancer, n = 15,423; and cervical cancer, n = 24,735). SPD was defined as a score of 13 or greater on the Kessler 6 scale. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the association between SPD and participation in cancer screening, and multivariate analyses stratified by socioeconomic status also were conducted., Results: SPD was significantly associated with a lower odds ratio (OR) for participation in screening for colorectal cancer (OR, 0.743; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.638-0.866), gastric cancer (OR, 0.823; 95% CI, 0.717-0.946), and lung cancer (OR, 0.691; 95% CI, 0.592-0.807). Only educational status significantly modified the effect of SPD on participation in these 3 types of cancer screening (P < .05)., Conclusions: Individuals with SPD, especially those with lower education levels, were less likely to participate in screening for colorectal, gastric, and lung cancers. Individuals with SPD should be encouraged and supported to participate in cancer screening tests. Cancer 2018;124:555-62. © 2017 American Cancer Society., (© 2017 American Cancer Society.)

Objective: There have been very few population-based prospective studies that have investigated the risks of deaths by suicide and other externally caused injuries (ECIs) among cancer patients in an Asian population. This study investigated whether the risk of death by both suicide and ECIs increases during the first year following the initial diagnosis of cancer., Methods: Data were analyzed from a population-based cohort of Japanese residents between 1990 and 2010, collected during the Japan Public Health Center-based Prospective Study. Poisson regression models were used to calculate adjusted risk ratios (RRs) for both suicide and ECI deaths. To adjust for unmeasured confounding factors, case-crossover analyses were conducted for all patients with cancer who died by suicide and ECIs., Results: A population-based cohort of 102,843 Japanese residents was established. During the follow-up period, there were 34 suicides and 48 ECI deaths among patients with cancer, as compared with 527 suicides and 707 ECI deaths among those who did not have cancer. Analyses revealed that those who were newly diagnosed with cancer were at a greatly increased risk of death by suicide and ECIs within the first year after their diagnosis (suicide RR = 23.9, 95% CI: 13.8-41.6; ECI RR = 18.8, 95% CI: 11.4-31.0). Furthermore, the case-crossover analyses generally confirmed the results of the Poisson regressions., Conclusions: The risks of suicide and ECI deaths within the first year after a cancer diagnosis were higher than those among cancer-free populations. A diagnosis of cancer is a critical experience that may increase the risk of fatal outcomes., (Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

We conducted a prospective cohort study in Japan to investigate associations between negative psychological aspects and cancer survival. Between July 1999 and July 2004, a total of 1178 lung cancer patients were enrolled. The questionnaire asked about socioeconomic variables, smoking status, clinical symptoms, and psychological aspects after diagnosis. Negative psychological aspects were assessed for the subscales of helplessness/hopelessness and depression. Clinical stage, performance status (PS), and histologic type were obtained from medical charts. The subjects were followed up until December 2004, and 686 had died. A Cox regression model was used to estimate the hazards ratio (HR) of all-cause mortality. After adjustment for socioeconomic variables and smoking status in addition to sex, age, and histologic type, both helplessness/hopelessness and depression subscales showed significant linear positive associations with the risk of mortality (p for trend<0.001 for both). However, after adjustment for clinical state variables in addition to sex, age, and histologic type, these significant linear positive associations were no longer observed (p for trend=0.41 and 0.26, respectively). Our data supported the hypothesis that the association between helplessness/hopelessness and depression and the risk of mortality among lung cancer patients was largely confounded by clinical state variables including clinical stage, PS, and clinical symptoms., ((c) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

To understand patients' preferences regarding the disclosure of bad news is important in the clinical oncology setting. The aim of this study was to clarify descriptively the preferences of cancer patients. Five hundred and twenty-nine Japanese cancer outpatients were surveyed regarding their preferences regarding the disclosure of bad news, and several psychosocial and medical demographic variables were analyzed. In a descriptive analysis, more than 90% of the patients strongly preferred to discuss their current medical condition and treatment options with their physician and to have their physicians take the feelings of their family into consideration as well. While half of the patients preferred to receive information regarding their life expectancy, 30% preferred not to receive it. Multiple regression analyses indicated the preferences showing interindividual variations were associated with the level of education and the mental adjustment to cancer scores. A factor analysis revealed four preferences factors: method of disclosure of the bad news, provision of emotional support, provision of additional information, and setting. These four factors had good internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha = 0.93-0.77). Providing emotional support, including the desire for the physician to show consideration for the patient's family, and understanding an individual's communication preferences may be useful for promoting patient-physician communication., (Copyright 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Background: Previous studies have shown cognitive impairment in breast cancer survivors who were exposed to adjuvant chemotherapy. Neural damage by chemotherapy might have played some part in these findings. The current study explored the regional brain volume difference between breast cancer survivors exposed to adjuvant chemotherapy (C+) and those unexposed (C-)., Methods: High-resolution 1.5-tesla brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) databases of breast cancer survivors and healthy controls were used. Brain images were preprocessed for optimal voxel-based morphometry. Comparisons of gray matter and white matter were performed between the C+ and the C- groups, by using MRI scans from within 1 year (the 1-year study, n = 51 and n = 55, respectively) or 3 years after their cancer surgery (the 3-year study, n = 73 and n = 59, respectively). As exploratory analyses, correlation analyses were performed between indices of the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised and regional brain volume where the volume were significantly smaller. As a reference, MRI scans of cancer survivors were compared with those of healthy controls (n = 55 for the 1-year study and n = 37 for the 3-year study)., Results: The C+ patients had smaller gray matter and white matter including prefrontal, parahippocampal, and cingulate gyrus, and precuneus in the 1-year study. However, no difference was observed in the 3-year study. The volumes of the prefrontal, parahippocampal gyrus, and precuneus were significantly correlated with indices of attention/concentration and/or visual memory. Comparisons with healthy controls did not show any significant differences., Conclusions: Adjuvant chemotherapy might have an influence on brain structure, which may account for previously observed cognitive impairments., ((c) 2006 American Cancer Society.)