The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry vol. 12, issue 5

Dear Colleagues, It is my pleasure to welcome you to the fi fth issue of 2011. Fabrice Jollant and colleagues present a review article on studies exploring dysfunctional cognitive processes and their neuroanatomical basis in suicidal behaviour in order to develop a neurocognitive working model. The concept of alterations in suicidal behaviour distinct from those of comorbid disorders is support. The authors come to the conclusion that several neurocognitive dysfunctions, some with trait-like characteristics, may facilitate the development of a suicidal crisis during stressful circumstances: an altered modulation of value attribution, an inadequate regulation of emotional and cognitive responses, and a facilitation of acts in an emotional context. This preliminary model may represent a framework for the design of future studies on the pathophysiology, prediction and prevention of these complex human behaviours. Lithium continues to be a cornerstone for the prophylaxis and treatment of bipolar disorder and is helpful for other related mental disorders, such as schizoaffective disorder and cyclic major depression. Lithium was introduced to modern psychiatry more than 60 years ago. On the occasion of this anniversary, Janusz Rybakowski presents an update on the most important original papers and reviews on lithium published in the recent years. The pro-cognitive and antisuicidal properties of lithium have been confi rmed as an augmentation of antidepressants in treatment-resistant depression. The neuroprotective effects of lithium have been evidenced in both experimental research and in clinical studies using brain imaging. The possible use of lithium in the prophylaxis of dementia and in neurodegenerative disorders, such as Huntington ' s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is discussed. Narc í s Cardoner and colleagues from Spain assessed 21 patients diagnosed with ObsessiveCompulsive Disorder (OCD) and 21 healthy controls with fMRI during an emotional face-processing paradigm involving active response generation to test for alterations in both brain activation and task-induced functional connectivity of the frontal cortex, the amygdala and the fusiform face area. The starting point of this study was that patients with anxiety symptoms generally overreact to emotional cues. The results clearly show that patients with OCD showed signifi cantly greater activation of “ face-processing ” regions including the amygdala, fusiform gyrus and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The reciprocal connectivity between face-processing regions was enhanced in OCD. Importantly it was detected that there are signifi cant correlations between patients ’ clinical symptom severity and both task-related region activation and network functional connectivity. Treatment Resistent Depression is a major challenge in everyday clinical practice. A few studies have suggested that switching between selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) and tricyclic (TCA) antidepressants may have positive effects on the treatment outcome. Thus Daniel Souery and colleagues have undertaken a prospective study to evaluate the impact of switching strategies. A total of 189 patients who failed to respond to previous antidepressant treatment were included for this study. The results support the thesis that switching from an SSRI to a TCA (and vice versa) in non-responders to a 4-week trial of an SSRI/ TCA is not associated with improved response. Recent studies have evidenced that patients with Bipolar Disorder (BD) show a sensory gating defi cit (P50). Among the neural systems that could be infl uencing this electrophysiological phenotype, dopamine seems to play an important role. In é s Anc í n and Spanish colleagues assume that catecholO -methyltransferase (COMT), the main metabolizer of dopamine in prefrontal cortex, is related to this defi cit. A case – control study was performed in 784 controls and 238 BD patients. Besides, 122 euthymic bipolar subjects and 95 healthy subjects carried out a sensory gating task (P50). The results support the association of the COMT gene with BD and with one of its potential endophenotypes, auditory sensory gating defi cit, measured by the P50 paradigm. Sheng-Yu Lee and colleages from Taiwan present a study on the dopaminergic polymorphims as risk factors for Bipolar Disorders (BD). The authors examined the association between the The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry, 2011; 12: 317–318