Clinical and demographic predictors of improvement during duloxetine treatment in patients with major depression: an open-label study.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Currently evidence about clinical and demographic predictors of response to newer antidepressants such as duloxetine is limited. This study aimed to investigate whether a number of predictors, particularly co-morbid anxiety disorders and anxious depression, are associated with clinical improvement. METHODS: One hundred and one outpatients suffering from major depression (MD) were treated with duloxetine and assessed at baseline and at weeks 2, 4 and 8 on the 21-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and at weeks 4 and 8 on the Clinical Global Impression-Severity (CGI-S) scale. RESULTS: Patients with co-morbid panic disorder or obsessive-compulsive disorder showed slowed improvements at 2 and 4 weeks compared with patients without such co-morbidities; however, they showed slightly higher or similar improvements, respectively, at 8 weeks. Also, anxious MD patients showed higher improvements compared with non-anxious MD patients at all time points, with the difference between groups increasing over time. Several other predictors, such as co-morbid premenstrual dysphoric disorder and lifetime generalized anxiety disorder, were also identified. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that co-morbidity with an anxiety disorder could negatively influence improvement following duloxetine treatment in the short term but that such a difference could be reversed by 8 weeks. However, given that the study had several limitations, including the lack of a comparison group and a flexible dosage design, further research is needed to replicate and extend these findings

Association between polarity of first episode and solar insolation in bipolar I disorder

Objective: Circadian rhythm disruption is commonly observed in bipolar disorder (BD). Daylight is the most powerful signal to entrain the human circadian clock system. This exploratory study investigated if solar insolation at the onset location was associated with the polarity of the first episode of BD I. Solar insolation is the amount of electromagnetic energy from the Sun striking a surface area of the Earth. Methods: Data from 7488 patients with BD I were collected at 75 sites in 42 countries. The first episode occurred at 591 onset locations in 67 countries at a wide range of latitudes in both hemispheres. Solar insolation values were obtained for every onset location, and the ratio of the minimum mean monthly insolation to the maximum mean monthly insolation was calculated. This ratio is largest near the equator (with little change in solar insolation over the year), and smallest near the poles (where winter insolation is very small compared to summer insolation). This ratio also applies to tropical locations which may have a cloudy wet and clear dry season, rather than winter and summer. Results: The larger the change in solar insolation throughout the year (smaller the ratio between the minimum monthly and maximum monthly values), the greater the likelihood the first episode polarity was depression. Other associated variables were being female and increasing percentage of gross domestic product spent on country health expenditures. (All coefficients: P ≤ 0.001). Conclusion: Increased awareness and research into circadian dysfunction throughout the course of BD is warranted. © 2022 Elsevier Inc

Sensitivity of the CUPID experiment to 0νββ0\nu\beta\beta decay of 100^{100}Mo

International audienceCUPID is a next-generation bolometric experiment to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay ($0\nu\beta\beta$) of $^{100}$Mo using Li$_2$MoO$_4$ scintillating crystals. It will operate 1596 crystals at $\sim$10 mK in the CUORE cryostat at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy. Each crystal will be facing two Ge-based bolometric light detectors for $\alpha$ rejection. We compute the discovery and the exclusion sensitivity of CUPID to $0\nu\beta\beta$ in a Frequentist and a Bayesian framework. This computation is done numerically based on pseudo-experiments. For the CUPID baseline scenario, with a background and an energy resolution of $1.0 \times 10^{-4}$ counts/keV/kg/yr and 5 keV FWHM at the Q-value, respectively, this results in a Bayesian exclusion sensitivity (90% c.i.) of $\hat{T}_{1/2} > 1.6^{+0.6}_{-0.5} \times 10^{27} \ \mathrm{yr}$, corresponding to the effective Majorana neutrino mass of $\hat{m}_{\beta\beta} < \ 9.6$ -- $16.3 \ \mathrm{meV}$. The Frequentist discovery sensitivity (3$\sigma$) is $\hat{T}_{1/2}= 1.0 \times 10^{27} \ \mathrm{yr}$, corresponding to $\hat{m}_{\beta\beta}= \ 12.2$ -- $20.6 \ \mathrm{meV}$

A gravity-based mounting approach for large-scale cryogenic calorimeter arrays

International audienceCryogenic calorimeters are among the leading technologies for searching for rare events. The CUPID experiment is exploiting this technology to deploy a tonne-scale detector to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay of $^{100}$Mo. The CUPID collaboration proposed an innovative approach to assembling cryogenic calorimeters in a stacked configuration, held in position solely by gravity. This gravity-based assembly method is unprecedented in the field of cryogenic calorimeters and offers several advantages, including relaxed mechanical tolerances and simplified construction. To assess and optimize its performance, we constructed a medium-scale prototype hosting 28  Li$_2$MoO$_4$ crystals and 30 Ge light detectors, both operated as cryogenic calorimeters at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (Italy). Despite an unexpected excess of noise in the light detectors, the results of this test proved (i) a thermal stability better than ±0.5 mK at 10 mK, (ii) a good energy resolution of Li$_2$MoO$_4$ cryogenic calorimeters, (6.6 ± 2.2) keV FWHM at 2615 keV, and (iii) a Li$_2$MoO$_4$ light yield measured by the closest light detector of 0.36 keV/MeV, sufficient to guarantee the particle identification requested by CUPID