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Given the high mortality of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), having severe COVID-19 may be a life-threatening event, especially for individuals at high risk of complications. Therefore, in the article we try to answer two questions that are relevant to public mental health: Can we define groups who are at higher risk of developing pandemic-related PTSD? How can health specialists prepare for it? Given the results of previous research on PTSD in epidemic (e.g., SARS) survivors, we suggest that mental health professionals in countries touched by the pandemic should prepare for an increase in the PTSD prevalence, specifically in: individuals who have had severe COVID-19; family members of these patients and of patients who have died; and frontline healthcare workers witnessing COVID-19 patients' sudden deaths, or numerous life-threatening situations. We postulate that these groups at risk should be routinely screened for PTSD in primary medical and pediatric care. Mental health services should prepare for providing therapeutic interventions for individuals with PTSD in the vulnerable groups, and support to their families, especially children.

It is yet unclear if people infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV+) on stable, combined antiretroviral therapies (cARTs) decline with age at the same or greater rate than healthy people. In this study, we examined independent and interactive effects of HIV, age, and HIV-related clinical parameters on neuropsychological functioning and brain regional volume in a sizable group of Polish HIV+ men receiving cART. We also estimated the impact of nadir CD4 cell count, CD4 cell count during participation in the study, duration of HIV infection, or duration of cART along with age. Ninety-one HIV+ and 95 control (HIV−) volunteers ages 23–75 completed a battery of neuropsychological tests, and 54 HIV+ and 62 HIV− of these volunteers participated in a brain imaging assessment. Regional brain volume in the cortical and subcortical regions was measured using voxel-based morphometry. We have found that HIV and older age were independently related to lower attention, working memory, nonverbal fluency, and visuomotor dexterity. Older age but not HIV was associated with less volume in several cortical and subcortical brain regions. In the oldest HIV+ participants, age had a moderating effect on the relationship between the duration of cART and visuomotor performance, such as that older age decreased speed of visuomotor performance along with every year on cART. Such results may reflect the efficacy of cART in preventing HIV-associated brain damage. They also highlight the importance of monitoring neuropsychological functioning and brain structure in HIV+ patients. This is particularly important in older patients with long adherence to cART. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s13365-018-0679-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The aim of this study was to further elucidate the relationship between the olfactory system and psychosocial functioning. Previous studies have shown that olfactory sensitivity is related to traits such as extraversion, agreeableness, and emotionality. In this study, the model of agency and communion as well as additional measures of social activity were used. The possible influence of HIV infection, believed to affect both chemosensory functions and social behaviors, was examined. 103 male participants were analyzed, of whom 45 were infected with HIV. Olfactory sensitivity was significantly related to the level of communion (p = .01), trait defined as interpersonal warmth, devotion to others, and morality. The effect was independent of the presence of HIV. Eagerness to engage in social activities, a construct indicating how actively one takes part in social life, was positively associated with olfactory sensitivity only in HIV+ individuals (p = .003). This result may imply that active participation in social life can buffer olfactory impairments in HIV patients.

Objective Theory of mind (ToM) is a complex, high-level cognitive function that allows people to infer the cognitive and affective mental states of others. Previous studies have produced limited and frequently contradictory findings on the neuropsychological underpinnings of ToM performance in patients with stroke. The aim of the present study is to investigate neuropsychological mechanisms of cognitive and affective theory of mind dysfunctions in patients with stroke. Method Fifty-eight patients with stroke and 22 healthy controls matched in age, gender, and education level underwent robust neuropsychological examination of their pragmatic abilities, executive functions, attention, memory, psychomotor speed, and visuospatial abilities as well as a cognitive and affective ToM assessment. Results Patients with stroke demonstrated impaired performance in all ToM tasks. While pragmatic competence and, to a lesser degree, executive functions had the strongest contribution to ToM impairments, attention and general cognitive functioning did not directly affect mentalizing abilities, as demonstrated by a path analysis. Our study reveals the different roles of cognitive functions in cognitive and affective components of ToM. Executive functions contributed only to the cognitive components of ToM. Conclusion Deficits in cognitive aspects of ToM are best explained by impairment of pragmatic competence and executive functions. In contrast, executive dysfunction does not affect the ability to understand the affective mental states of others. (PsycINFO Database Record

Objective Findings on the influence of age and HIV on brain and cognition remain equivocal, particularly in aviremic subjects without other age or HIV-related comorbidities. We aimed to (a) examine the effect of HIV status and age on structural brain measurements and cognition, and (b) apply the machine learning technique to identify brain morphometric and cognitive features that are most discriminative between aviremic subjects with HIV on stable combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) and healthy controls. Method Fifty-three HIV-seropositive patients and 62 healthy controls underwent neuropsychological testing (executive functions, attention, memory, learning, psychomotor speed, fluency) and volumetric MRI scans. Voxel-based morphometry, ANCOVAs, machine learning, and multivariate regression were conducted to determine the between group differences in terms of relationship of HIV status, age, and their interaction on neurocognitive and structural brain measures. Results Volume and gray matter (GM) thickness of the caudate, parahippocampus, insula, and inferior frontal gyrus were smaller in seropositive subjects in comparison with healthy controls (HC). They also performed worse in complex attention and cognitive fluency tasks. Support vector machine (SVM) analysis revealed that the best between-groups classification accuracy was obtained based on cognitive scores encompassing complex attention and psychomotor speed, as well as volumetric measures of white matter and total gray matter; third, fourth, and lateral ventricles; amygdala; caudate; and putamen. Both voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and regression analysis yielded that HIV and aging independently increase brain vulnerability and cognitive worsening. Conclusion Patients with HIV on effective cART demonstrate smaller volumetric measures and worse cognitive functioning relative to seronegative individuals. There is no interaction between HIV infection and aging. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

The objective of the study was to examine additive and synergistic effects of age and HIV infection on resting state (RS) intra- and inter-network functional connectivity (FC) of the brain. We also aimed to assess relationships with neurocognition and determine clinical-, treatment-, and health-related factors moderating intrinsic brain activity in aging HIV-positive (HIV+) individuals. The current report presents data on 54 HIV+ individuals (age M = 41, SD = 12 years) stabilized on cART and 54 socio-demographically matched healthy (HIV−) comparators (age M = 43, SD = 12 years), with cohort education mean of 16 years (SD = 12). Age at seroconversion ranged 20–55 years old. ANOVA assessed additive and synergistic effects of age and HIV in 133 ROIs. Bivariate statistics examined relationships of FC indices vulnerable to age-HIV interactions and neurocognitive domains T-scores (attention, executive, memory, psychomotor, semantic skills). Multivariate logistic models determined covariates of FC. This study found no statistically significant age-HIV effects on RS-FC after correcting for multiple comparisons except for synergistic effects on connectivity within cingulo-opercular network (CON) at the trending level. However, for uncorrected RS connectivity analyses, we observed HIV-related strengthening between regions of fronto-parietal network (FPN) and default mode network (DMN), and particular DMN regions and sensorimotor network (SMN). Simultaneously, FC weakening was observed within FPN and between other regions of DMN-SMN, in HIV+ vs. HIV- individuals. Ten ROI pairs revealed age-HIV interactions, with FC decreasing with age in HIV+, while increasing in controls. FC correlated with particular cognitive domains positively in HIV+ vs. negatively in HIV- group. Proportion of life prior-to-after HIV-seroconversion, post-infection years, and treatment determined within-FPN and SMN-DMN FC. In sum, highly functioning HIV+/cART+ patients do not reveal significantly altered RS-FC from healthy comparators. Nonetheless, the current findings uncorrected for multiple comparisons suggest that HIV infection may lead to simultaneous increases and decreases in FC in distinct brain regions even in patients successfully stabilized on cART. Moreover, RS-fMRI ROI-based analysis can be sensitive to age-HIV interactions, which are especially pronounced for inter-network FC in relation to neurocognition. Aging and treatment-related factors partially explain RS-FC in aging HIV+ patients.

This study examined the effects of age and HIV infection on the resting state (RS) functional connectivity (FC) of the brain and cognitive functioning. The objective was to evaluate the moderating role of age and HIV on the relationship between RS-FC and cognition. To examine RS-FC we implemented the Independent Component Analysis (ICA) and Regional Homogeneity (ReHo). Neurocognition was evaluated with comprehensive battery of standardized neuropsychological tests. Age and HIV were entered as the independent variables. The independent effects of age, HIV, and interaction effects of age-HIV on RS-fMRI measures (ICA, ReHo) were tested in 108 participants (age M = 42). RS-FC indices that exhibited age-HIV interactions were entered into further analysis. Bivariate correlation analysis was performed between the retained RS-FC indices and T-scores of neurocognitive domains (Attention, Executive, Memory, Psychomotor, Semantic Skills). Multivariate regression modeling determined the impact of age and HIV on these relationships. We found that in the ICA measures, HIV-seropositivity was decreasing RS-FC in the left middle occipital gyrus (p < .001). Age-HIV interaction was observed in the left superior frontal gyrus (LSupFrontG), where FC was decreasing with age in HIV+ (p < .001) and increasing in HIV- (p = .031). ReHo indices did not reveal significant effects. HIV strengthened the relationship between RS-FC in LSupFrontG, Memory and Psychomotor Factor scores. Aging weakened those relationships only in control group. In sum, age-HIV interaction effects are prominent rather in remote than local RS-FC. Seroconversion strengthens relationships between intrinsic brain activity and neurocognition, but no acceleration with years of age was noted in HIV+ individuals.

The present study aims at elucidating the impact of stroke on psychosocial functioning of stroke survivors.Data were investigated using interpretative thematic analysis of illness stories produced by 29 patients.Eight themes emerged from the data: Medical Information; Interpersonal Changes; Cognitive, Physical and Emotional Functioning; Strategies of Coping; Social Support; and Information Irrelevant to the Question. The most frequent organization of the themes followed the course of medical intervention and rehabilitation. Narrations of individual patients varied in terms of the presence of particular themes, the amount of information on each topic and organization.The results suggest that the analysis of non-guided illness narratives can be effectively used to identify the thematic areas important to individual stroke patients. The thematic content analysis of stroke stories can allow health professionals to better understand the patient's state of knowledge related to illness as well as his or her socio-psychological functioning which may be useful in the course of planning further assessment and rehabilitation of patients with stroke. Implications for Rehabilitation Experience of illness and life changes following stroke should be recognized as central to the provision of targeted rehabilitation. To understand the subjective perspective a content analysis of the content narrative is recommended. Our study highlights seven general thematic categories that may be regarded as key. The categories may be useful for clinicians to help individuals to clarify their main concerns following a stroke.

Three neuropsychological theories have been developed according to a possible existence of a similar pattern of cognitive decline in elderly individuals and patients with brain damage. The respective neuropsychological theories attribute age-related deficits to: (a) dysfunction of the frontal lobes, (b) temporo-parietal dysfunction, or (c) decline of right-hemisphere functions. In the present study, we examined which of these theories best explains the cognitive patterns of normal elderly subjects older than 80 years of age (old elderly). Thirty normal old elderly subjects, 14 patients with subcortical vascular dementia, 14 with mild Alzheimer's disease, 15 with damage of the right hemisphere of the brain, and 20 young elderly controls participated. A test battery covering the main cognitive domains was administered to all participants. A hierarchical cluster analysis revealed five groups of individuals with different cognitive patterns across the whole sample. Old elderly subjects were assigned to four groups according to: (a) preserved overall cognitive performance, (b) processing speed decline, (c) attention decline, or (d) executive impairment. The results of the study are most congruent with models emphasizing frontal-lobe cortical-subcortical and fronto-parietal changes in old age. The results also indicate considerable heterogeneity in the cognitive patterns of normal old elderly adults.