{"title":"GLP-1 receptor agonists and weight loss in schizophrenia - past, present, and future.","authors":"Mike Trott, Urska Arnautovska, Dan Siskind","doi":"10.1097/YCO.0000000000000952","DOIUrl":"10.1097/YCO.0000000000000952","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose of review: </strong>People with schizophrenia experience three to five times higher prevalence of diabetes and obesity than the general population, contributing to a 20-year reduced lifespan. The impacts of weight gain extend beyond physical health, affecting people's self-esteem, quality of life, and triggering treatment nonadherence, leading to relapse and deteriorations in health. Clinical guidelines recommend patients with antipsychotic-induced weight gain are treated with cognitive behaviour therapy and lifestyle changes; however, effective treatments for obesity in schizophrenia are critically lacking. Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-RAs) have shown large effects in weight loss in the general population; however, effects are less clear in people with schizophrenia. This review aims to assess the clinical trials that have been completed, are in progress, and directions for future trials.</p><p><strong>Recent findings: </strong>To date, six clinical trials have been completed, four of which have published their findings. Three further trials are currently in progress.</p><p><strong>Summary: </strong>Results from completed trials suggest that GLP-1RAs decrease weight in people with schizophrenia, however effect sizes are mostly smaller than studies based on the general population. Future trials could focus on dual or triple agonist agents, and/or explore the effects of GLP-1 s at antipsychotic medication commencement, to potentially prevent antipsychotic weight gain.</p>","PeriodicalId":11022,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Psychiatry","volume":" ","pages":"363-369"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2024-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141283284","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"End of life care for people with dementia and comorbid cancer: recent studies and research gaps.","authors":"Claire Surr, Laura Ashley","doi":"10.1097/YCO.0000000000000951","DOIUrl":"10.1097/YCO.0000000000000951","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose of review: </strong>This narrative review examines recent research on end of life (EOL) care for people with dementia and comorbid cancer, highlighting the complexity and challenge of providing effective EOL care for this group and areas of interest for future research.</p><p><strong>Recent findings: </strong>People with cancer and dementia and their family/supporters have more complex care and support needs at EOL that are less well met than those of older adults with cancer alone, including questionable use of aggressive EOL care interventions, poorer access to specialist palliative care teams and poor pain management. Those diagnosed with dementia at the same time as, or after their cancer diagnosis, are at greater risk of aggressive EOL care and EOL cancer treatment and care plans that are not able to meet their care needs as dementia progresses.</p><p><strong>Summary: </strong>There is a lack of research on EOL care for people with cancer and dementia. There is little understanding of what good care for this population looks like and if and how EOL care can best meet the needs of people with cancer and dementia or their carers/supporters. More research is needed to inform improved care for this population.</p>","PeriodicalId":11022,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Psychiatry","volume":" ","pages":"376-380"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2024-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141260961","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
John B Saunders, Gary Chan, Janni Leung, Daniel Stjepanović, Jason P Connor
{"title":"The nature and characteristics of problem gaming, with a focus on ICD-11 diagnoses.","authors":"John B Saunders, Gary Chan, Janni Leung, Daniel Stjepanović, Jason P Connor","doi":"10.1097/YCO.0000000000000949","DOIUrl":"10.1097/YCO.0000000000000949","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose of review: </strong>This review describes the diagnoses related to problem gaming that are included in ICD-11, published by the WHO in 2022. It summarizes the recent literature on the prevalence of Gaming Disorder, its structure, antecedents and comorbidities, and explores whether the range of diagnoses currently available adequately covers the range of experiences seen with problem gaming.</p><p><strong>Recent findings: </strong>Overall, between 3 and 6% of the population worldwide are reported to have a gaming disorder as defined by ICD-11 or DSM-5. However, most studies are constrained by methodological issues such as nonrepresentative samples and the use of brief questionnaires to determine prevalence. ICD-11 Gaming Disorder is a psychometrically sound diagnosis. There is no diagnosis that currently captures the experience of harm from gaming, where the requirements for the diagnosis of Gaming Disorder are not reached.</p><p><strong>Summary: </strong>There is evidence in support of the proposed new entity of 'Harmful Gaming', which encompasses mental and physical harm/impairment due to a repeated pattern of gaming, but where requirements for the diagnosis of Gaming Disorder are not met. Such a diagnosis would complete the spectrum of diagnoses available for problem or unhealthy gaming, similar to those for unhealthy substance use, and would provide a framework for a public health approach to reducing the overall harm from unhealthy gaming.</p>","PeriodicalId":11022,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Psychiatry","volume":" ","pages":"292-300"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140897602","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Balasingam Vicknasingam, Thiruventhan Karunakaran, Marek C Chawarski
{"title":"Research and publication gaps on kratom and kratom products: a scoping review of current literature.","authors":"Balasingam Vicknasingam, Thiruventhan Karunakaran, Marek C Chawarski","doi":"10.1097/YCO.0000000000000950","DOIUrl":"10.1097/YCO.0000000000000950","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose of review: </strong>Kratom plant, products derived from the plant, and plant phytochemicals are of great interest among researchers, clinicians, and consumers. However, there is a paucity of rigorously collected scientific data on their risk/safety profile and public health impact. This scoping review discusses original research articles published between 2022 and 2023. It focuses on identifying publication gaps on topics related to epidemiology, public health, and risk/safety profiles comparing evidence collected by researchers from Southeast Asia and the West.</p><p><strong>Recent findings: </strong>Our review of the Scopus database identified a total of 55 publications, including clinical case reports and case series reports, surveys, studies enrolling human participants, and publications based on large-scale national surveys or large-scale national or international health system database records.</p><p><strong>Summary: </strong>Overall, there is dearth of reliable data on key epidemiological factors, including the prevalence rates, and on objective and reliable indices of the risk/safety profiles. Rigorous and systematic studies including improved epidemiological surveillance, human laboratory, and controlled clinical studies are urgently needed to advance our understanding of public health consequences of consuming kratom and kratom-derived products and to improve our understanding of their risk/safety profile and additional analytical studies to better inform development of needed regulatory oversight.</p>","PeriodicalId":11022,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Psychiatry","volume":"37 4","pages":"282-291"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141179187","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Pharmacist-prescriber collaborative models of care for opioid use disorder: an overview of recent research.","authors":"Ali Cheetham, Elizabeth Grist, Suzanne Nielsen","doi":"10.1097/YCO.0000000000000943","DOIUrl":"10.1097/YCO.0000000000000943","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose of review: </strong>Collaborative models of care where pharmacists work alongside physicians have been developed for a range of physical health conditions, with benefits including improved patient outcomes and increased access to ongoing care. Opioid agonist treatment (methadone and buprenorphine) is a clinically effective and cost-effective treatment for opioid use disorder that is under-utilized in many countries due to a shortage of prescribers. In recent years, there has been increased interest in the development of collaborative models that utilize pharmacists to overcome barriers to treatment. In this article, we present a narrative review to synthesise recent work in this rapidly developing area.</p><p><strong>Recent findings: </strong>Two key aspects of opioid agonist treatment were identified: Collaborative models have utilized pharmacists to facilitate buprenorphine induction, and collaborative models provide increased capacity for delivering ongoing care in a variety of settings and patient groups where prescriber access is limited. Pharmacists have undertaken direct patient care responsibilities with varying degrees of autonomy, with benefits including a reduction in prescriber workload, and improvements in treatment retention and continuity of care.</p><p><strong>Summary: </strong>Collaborative models in which pharmacists are responsible for buprenorphine induction and ongoing management with methadone and buprenorphine have been shown to reduce demands on prescribers while improving or maintaining patient outcomes, and appear feasible and acceptable in a wide range of outpatient settings.</p>","PeriodicalId":11022,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Psychiatry","volume":" ","pages":"251-257"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140897589","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Gradually tapering off antipsychotics: lessons for practice from case studies and neurobiological principles.","authors":"Mark A Horowitz, Joanna Moncrieff","doi":"10.1097/YCO.0000000000000940","DOIUrl":"10.1097/YCO.0000000000000940","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose of review: </strong>There has been an increasing focus on deprescribing in psychiatry recently, particularly of antipsychotic medication, with recognition that not all patients with psychotic disorders require lifelong medication. We summarize some empirical and theoretical papers, and examine case studies to provide instruction on this topic.</p><p><strong>Recent findings: </strong>Recent studies have found that slower tapering (over months or longer) of antipsychotics is associated with a lower relapse rate than quicker tapering (weeks). Case studies presented suggest that the process of reduction is associated with the precipitation or exacerbation of psychotic symptoms and that a slower process of reduction may minimize this effect. This may be because faster reductions cause greater disruption of homeostatic equilibria, provoking psychotic symptoms either as direct withdrawal symptoms or consequences of nonpsychotic withdrawal symptoms (e.g. insomnia) - although not all patients will experience withdrawal symptoms. This suggests that smaller dose reductions, especially at lower doses, made very gradually, may minimize the risk of psychotic symptoms.</p><p><strong>Summary: </strong>Slower tapering of antipsychotics may provide time for adaptations made to the presence of the medications to resolve, thus reducing the disruption to homeostatic equilibrium caused by dose reduction, potentially reducing the risk of relapse. Exacerbation of psychotic symptoms on antipsychotic reduction may not represent evidence of the need for a higher dose of antipsychotic on a long-term basis but may indicate the need for more gradual reduction. Gradual reduction of antipsychotics, especially after long-term use in clinical practice is prudent.</p>","PeriodicalId":11022,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Psychiatry","volume":" ","pages":"320-330"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11139239/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140897517","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Detecting novel psychoactive substances around the world.","authors":"Alberto Salomone, Marco Vincenti","doi":"10.1097/YCO.0000000000000939","DOIUrl":"10.1097/YCO.0000000000000939","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose of review: </strong>The worldwide spread of novel psychoactive substances (NPS) in the illicit drug market and their continuous increase in number and type, for the purpose of bypassing controlled substance legislation, represents a continuing challenge for forensic scientists, clinicians and enforcement authorities. We aim to provide information regarding the most urgent harms related to NPS consumption in different world regions and the current state of the art for NPS analysis.</p><p><strong>Recent findings: </strong>Unfortunately, the identification of NPS in biological samples is controversial, especially when samples are limited, or the drug is promptly and extensively metabolized. This causes a lack of information on their real diffusion in different parts of the world and in different populations. New technologies and instrumental detection of NPS in alternative samples are offering comprehensive information about NPS use.</p><p><strong>Summary: </strong>The lack of detection and underreporting of NPS in biological samples makes it difficult to obtain complete qualitative and quantitative information about NPS prevalence. The most innovative strategies that have been proposed in the last 2 years to assist NPS analysis and possibly facilitate the understanding of the NPS diffusion around the world are presented.</p>","PeriodicalId":11022,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Psychiatry","volume":"37 4","pages":"258-263"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141179169","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Opioid vaccine clinical testing: lessons learned.","authors":"Rachel Luba, Sandra D Comer","doi":"10.1097/YCO.0000000000000945","DOIUrl":"10.1097/YCO.0000000000000945","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose of review: </strong>Opioid use disorder (OUD) presents a serious public health concern, with dramatic increases in opioid-overdose mortality in recent years and a small percentage of those with OUD accessing or remaining engaged with available treatments. Efforts are currently underway to identify vaccines targeting opioids, which could provide a novel and complimentary approach. The current review provides an overview of existing literature, practical considerations for designing and conducting clinical trials with vaccines for opioids, and future directions.</p><p><strong>Recent findings: </strong>This review covers the following themes: clinical trial design and selection of endpoints, timepoint selection, practical considerations and lessons learned from the first (ongoing) trial of a vaccine targeting opioids, and future directions.</p><p><strong>Summary: </strong>Efforts to develop and test vaccines targeting OUD are based on a foundation of preclinical work and close collaboration between preclinical and clinical researchers. Efforts to learn from shortcomings of prior clinical trials of vaccines for other substances are essential in designing and testing effective vaccines for OUD. Design and implementation of clinical trials for a vaccine for OUD requires careful balance of participant safety and strategies for retention and efforts to gather viable data to inform future work.</p>","PeriodicalId":11022,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Psychiatry","volume":" ","pages":"264-269"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140897564","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Stephan Lehmler, Sebastian Siehl, Rikka Kjelkenes, Jannik Heukamp, Lars Tjelta Westlye, Nathalie Holz, Frauke Nees
{"title":"Closing the loop between environment, brain and mental health: how far we might go in real-life assessments?","authors":"Stephan Lehmler, Sebastian Siehl, Rikka Kjelkenes, Jannik Heukamp, Lars Tjelta Westlye, Nathalie Holz, Frauke Nees","doi":"10.1097/YCO.0000000000000941","DOIUrl":"10.1097/YCO.0000000000000941","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose of review: </strong>Environmental factors such as climate, urbanicity, and exposure to nature are becoming increasingly important influencers of mental health. Incorporating data gathered from real-life contexts holds promise to substantially enhance laboratory experiments by providing a more comprehensive understanding of everyday behaviors in natural environments. We provide an up-to-date review of current technological and methodological developments in mental health assessments, neuroimaging and environmental sensing.</p><p><strong>Recent findings: </strong>Mental health research progressed in recent years towards integrating tools, such as smartphone based mental health assessments or mobile neuroimaging, allowing just-in-time daily assessments. Moreover, they are increasingly enriched by dynamic measurements of the environment, which are already being integrated with mental health assessments. To ensure ecological validity and accuracy it is crucial to capture environmental data with a high spatio-temporal granularity. Simultaneously, as a supplement to experimentally controlled conditions, there is a need for a better understanding of cognition in daily life, particularly regarding our brain's responses in natural settings.</p><p><strong>Summary: </strong>The presented overview on the developments and feasibility of \"real-life\" approaches for mental health and brain research and their potential to identify relationships along the mental health-environment-brain axis informs strategies for real-life individual and dynamic assessments.</p>","PeriodicalId":11022,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Psychiatry","volume":" ","pages":"301-308"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141070275","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Maciej Stolarski, Katarzyna Czajkowska-Łukasiewicz, Rafał Styła, Anna Zajenkowska
{"title":"Time matters for mental health: a systematic review of quantitative studies on time perspective in psychiatric populations.","authors":"Maciej Stolarski, Katarzyna Czajkowska-Łukasiewicz, Rafał Styła, Anna Zajenkowska","doi":"10.1097/YCO.0000000000000942","DOIUrl":"10.1097/YCO.0000000000000942","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose of review: </strong>The ability to perform mental time travels and to develop representations of the past, the present, and the future is one of the distinctive capacities of the human mind. Despite its pronounced consequences for motivation, cognition, affect, and subjective well being, time perspective (TP) has been outside mainstream psychiatry and clinical psychology. We highlight the role of psychological-temporal phenomena in various disorders and summarize the current research on TP and psychopathology.</p><p><strong>Recent findings: </strong>Our review ultimately comprised 21 articles, including 18 unique datasets. It revealed that persons with different psychiatric diagnoses (attention defict hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), alcohol dependence, anxiety disorders, depression, bipolar disorder, personality disorders, posttraumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia) display different temporal profiles than control groups. We also found marked associations between temporal features and psychiatric symptom severity. The effects of specific TPs vary across different psychiatric diagnoses and to some extent between various age groups, with a consistent, widespread, and nonspecific effect of past-negative and less balanced, inflexible TP profile.</p><p><strong>Summary: </strong>Based on the review, TP biases are crucial factors in symptom development, while adaptive temporal profiles can serve as protective features against mental disorders. Understanding cognitive-temporal processes can enhance comprehension of psychopathological conditions and facilitate the development of temporality-focused clinical interventions.</p>","PeriodicalId":11022,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Psychiatry","volume":" ","pages":"309-319"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141070277","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}