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The presence of artificial light at night has emerged as an anthropogenic stressor in recent years. Various sources of light pollution have been shown to affect circadian physiology with serious consequences for metabolic pathways, possibly disrupting pineal melatonin production with multiple adverse health effects. The suppression of melatonin at night may also affect human mental health and contribute to the development or exacerbation of psychiatric disorders in vulnerable individuals. Due to the high burden of circadian disruption in affective disorders, it has been hypothesized that light pollution impacts mental health, mainly affecting mood regulation. Hence, the aim of this review was to critically summarize the evidence on the effects of light pollution on mood symptoms, with a particular focus on the role of circadian rhythms in mediating this relationship. We conducted a narrative review of the literature in the PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science datasets. After the screening process, eighteen papers were eligible for inclusion. The results clearly indicate a link between light pollution and the development of affective symptoms, with a central role of sleep disturbances in the emergence of mood alterations. Risk perception also represents a crucial topic, possibly modulating the development of affective symptoms in response to light pollution. The results of this review should encourage a multidisciplinary approach to the design of healthier environments, including lighting conditions among the key determinants of human mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Older people are not traditionally expected to become caregivers. For this reason, the experience of caregiving in older persons has not been explored adequately in the research on gender differences. The objective of this study was to assess the caregiver burden among older family members who care for cancer patients facing the end of their lives, in order to compare their differences according to gender (male vs. female).Methods: This is a cross-sectional study. A total of 102 older caregivers (aged ≥65 years) of hospice patients were interviewed through the Caregiver Burden Inventory (CBI). The sample group was divided into two gender subgroups.Results: Compared with male caregivers, the older female group reported significantly higher scores in the CBI-physical subscale (P = 0.028), and in the CBI, the overall score (P = 0.0399) confirmed by the generalized linear model (multivariate) evaluation that included possible predictors in the model. There were no significant differences in the other CBI subscale scores (time-dependent, developmental, social, and emotional).Significance Of Results: Older female caregivers are at higher risk of experiencing burden and worse physical health compared with men. Further research is needed in modern palliative care to assess the role of gender differences in the experience of caregiving when the caregiver is an older person. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a complex musculoskeletal pain disorder characterized by widespread pain, fatigue, and other functional symptoms. Patients with FM are frequently affected by psychiatric disorders. Clinicians typically observe certain personality characteristics or traits associated with FM, but there is still a lack of studies about personality disorders (PDs) in patients with FM. Aim of our brief review is to summarize the literature to date on prevalence of PDs in FM. We searched the PubMed electronic database for all articles up to 1 February 2017, and identified a number of reports about prevalence of PDs in patients with FM. Most of studies show that the proportion of PDs diagnosed in patients with FM appears far greater than that found in the general population. We suggest that is very useful to evaluate PDs in patients with FM systematically, in order to improve the understanding, assessment, and treatment of this clinical condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Environmental pollution is a well-known cause of disease worldwide. According to the World Health Organization, air pollution kills an estimated seven million people worldwide every year. Over the past decade, increasing attention has been drawn to the impact of environmental pollution on mental health. In 2016, our research team (Attademo et al., 2016) performed a literature review focusing on the association with psychotic disorders. The aim of this presentation is to give an update of the science, given the marked increase in the body of literature on this topic. Methods: We repeated a search using the Pubmed electronic database for all articles from February 20, 2016 (date of out last search for the previous review) to November 20, 2019, using the same terms that we used in the first review. The search included all languages. Thirty-eight articles were identified. We selected 9 studies related to pollution’s effects on human subjects: seven were research reports and two were review articles. We excluded 29 articles, on the basis of the following exclusion criteria: a) studies unrelated to the topic, and b) letters or commentaries not reporting research findings. For this update, we focus only on research reports. Results: Six of the seven research reports (Bai et al., 2019; Duan et al., 2018; Eguchi et al., 2018; Liang et al., 2019; Ma et al., 2018; Newbury et al., 2019; Qiu et al., 2019) focused on air pollution. Only one (Ma et al., 2018) explored the association between serum concentration of six typical toxic metals and risk of schizophrenia in a earth mining area in China and found higher serum levels of antimony, uranium, and lanthanum in patients with schizophrenia. All studies focusing on air pollution considered the following pollutants: particulate matter (PM) 10, PM2.5, and nitrogen dioxide. Some of them also included carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitric oxide, and carbon dioxide. All the studies found significant associations between pollutant concentrations and psychosis-associated outcomes (adolescent psychotic experience, hospital admissions, and higher Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale scores). Five of the six studies investigating air pollutants also looked into the lag effect between pollutant concentrations and the outcome of the study, supporting the hypothesis of short-term effects (same day or within the first 2–3 days after high concentrations of pollutants). Discussion: During our previous review, we found 13 research reports from 1964 to 2016, while in this update in the past 2.5 years, there has been a marked increase in publications on the topic. The association between air pollutants and different aspects of psychotic disorders presentation and manifestation is gaining support and the approaches of looking into this phenomenon are becoming more sophisticated. Nevertheless, further research is needed both at the molecular level to determine the mechanisms that mediate the effects of these pollutants, and at clinical and environmental levels to improve health and well-being of patient with psychotic disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Air pollution is a major environmental risk to health. Exposure to xenobiotic heavy metals such as lead and cadmium—constituents of air pollution such as particulate matter and nitrogen and sulfur oxides, organic solvents, and other environmental pollutants—could be component causes for schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. Long-term exposure to ambient air pollution could be an independent risk factor for mental health disorders. Recent studies analysing the association between daily levels of air pollutants and hospital admissions for mental disorders showed significant results for different pollutants considered both for admissions for generic mental disorders and for specific diagnoses such as schizophrenia, depression and substance abuse. Aim of the present study is to investigate the associations between daily levels of air pollutants (particulate matter, ozone, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide) and daily admissions for mental disorders to the emergency department of two general hospitals in Umbria region (Italy) Methods: We collected data about daily admissions to psychiatric emergency services of two general hospitals, daily levels of respirable particular matter (PM10 and PM2.5), ozone (O3), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and meteorological data (daily average temperature, pressure, humidity, and maximum and average wind speed) for the time period 1 January 2015 until 31 December 2016 (731 days). We used air monitoring data for the different types of air pollutants which were averaged across up to 16 monitor stations dispersed in the region. We assessed the impact of an increase in air pollutants on the number of daily admissions using a timeseries econometric framework. Results: A total of 1860 cases of emergency department admissions for mental disorders were recorded over the study period. We observe a statistically significant impact of O3 levels on daily admissions. The estimated coefficient of O3 is statistically significant at the 1 percent level. According to our results, an increase of one μg/ m3 of O3 concentration (relative to the average concentration of the last 20 days) results in 0.013 more admissions to the hospitals. All other pollutants are not significantly associated with the number of daily admissions. Discussion: We observed a statistically significant association of daily ozone levels and daily number of admissions to psychiatric emergency services. Ozone is a component of photochemical smog and a powerful oxidant, and is considered as one of the most important air pollutants. Ozone may have a relevant interference with CNS physiology, and its exposure may be linked to brain disease and contribute to inflammation and oxidative stress. Ozone exposure may be considered a potential environmental risk factor for impaired mental health. Epidemiological studies found evidence that ozone exposure may affect autism spectrum disorders, lead to motor disorders and cognitive impairment, and have an influence on the incidence of depression and suicide. In recent studies ozone air levels showed an association with increased risk of an emergency department visit for depression. This is one of the first studies worldwide investigating the association between daily concentration of air pollutants and the daily number of visits to a psychiatric emergency unit. Our results add to previous literature on existing evidence for air pollution to have a role in the cause or worsening of mental distress and psychiatric disorders. Contrary to our hypothesis, we did not find a positive association between most of the air pollutants considered in our study. This is in contrast with previous literature on this subject. This could be explained by the methodological limitations of our study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) is a cluster A personality disorder affecting 1.0% of general population, characterised by disturbances in cognition and reality testing dimensions, affect regulation, and interpersonal function. SPD shares similar but attenuated phenomenological, genetic, and neurobiological abnormalities with schizophrenia (SCZ) and is described as part of the continuum of schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Neuroimaging and neurophysiology are the main non-invasive techniques for the investigation of brain structure and function, so they play a crucial role in psychiatric research and for their applications into clinical practice. The present review aims to systematically identify the major neuroimaging and neurophysiology biomarkers of SPD. Methods: The present review has been conducted according to PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) statement. The protocol was prospectively registered in PROSPERO - International prospective register of systematic reviews. The systematic review was performed to summarise the most comprehensive and updated evidence on functional neuroimaging and neurophysiology findings obtained through different techniques (DW-MRI, DTI, PET, SPECT, fMRI, MRS, EEG) in subjects with SPD. Results: The search initially yielded 218 records. After study selection and reference screening, the final set comprised 52 studies. Of the 52 studies included in this review, 9 were on DW-MRI and DTI, 11 were on PET and SPECT, 11 were on fMRI and MRS, and 21 were on EEG. Although it was complex to synthesise all the functional abnormalities found in the included studies into a single, unified, pathogenetic pathway, a common theme that emerged was the dysfunction of brain circuits including striatal, frontal, temporal, limbic regions, and their networks. This dysfunction may be the result of a dysregulation along the dopaminergic pathways and lead to deficits or defects in processes that organise a person’s cognitive-perceptual evaluation of the environment and the relatedness to him/herself. As for the limitations, a quantitative data synthesis was not planned for this work, therefore no meta-analytical integrations are presented in this review. The results of individual neuroimaging studies, in fact, are not comparable due to small and heterogeneous samples, analytical flexibility, or differences in imaging modalities and behavioral tasks. Discussion: Brain abnormalities in SPD are similar, but less marked, than those found in SCZ, and they do not mirror each other. In fact, different patterns of functional abnormalities in SPD and SCZ have been found in this systematic review, suggesting the ‘presence’ of possible compensatory factors, protecting subjects with SPD from frank psychosis and providing diagnostic specificity. Specifically, SPD differentiates from SCZ by showing: (a) milder frontal-striatal-temporal white matter dysconnectivity in DTI studies, (b) lesser frontal and striatal dysfunction and a decreased striatal dopaminergic activity in PET and SPECT studies, respectively, (c) different patterns of dysfunctional activation of frontal-striatal-thalamic circuitry during attentional processing in fMRI studies, and (d) milder alterations in EEG sensory gating and no evidence of alterations in EEG auditory or visual processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]