This study examined biological sex differences in the development of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and probable Alzheimer's disease (AD) development as predicted by changes in the hippocampus or white matter hyperintensities. A secondary data analysis of the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center Uniform Data Set was conducted. We selected samples of participants with normal cognition at baseline who progressed to MCI (n = 483) and those who progressed to probable AD (n = 211) to determine if hippocampal volume or white matter hyperintensities (WMH) at baseline predicted progression to probable AD or MCI and whether the rate of progression differed between men and women. The survival analyses indicated that changes in hippocampal volumes affected the progression to probable AD (HR = 0.535, 95% CI [0.300-0.953]) only among women. White men had an increased rate of progression to AD (HR = 4.396, CI [1.012-19.08]; HR = 4.665, 95% CI [1.072-20.29]) compared to men in other race and ethnic groups. Among women, increases in hippocampal volume ratio led to decreased rates of progressing to MCI (HR = 0.386, 95% CI [0.166-0.901]). Increased WMH among men led to faster progression to MCI (HR = 1.048. 95% CI [1.011-1.086]). Women and men who were older at baseline were more likely to progress to MCI. In addition, results from longitudinal analyses showed that women with a higher CDR global score, older age at baseline, or more disinhibition symptoms experienced higher odds of MCI development. Changes in hippocampal volumes affect the progression to or odds of probable AD (and MCI) more so among women than men, while changes in WMH affected the progression to MCI only among men.

The dissociative subtype of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD-DS) was introduced in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), and is characterised by symptoms of either depersonalisation or derealisation, in addition to a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This systematic review and meta-analysis sought to estimate the point prevalence of current PTSD-DS, and the extent to which method of assessment, demographic and trauma variables moderate this estimate, across different methods of prevalence estimation. Studies included were identified by searching MEDLINE (EBSCO), PsycInfo, CINAHL, Academic Search Complete and PTSDpubs, yielding 49 studies that met the inclusion criteria (N = 8214 participants). A random-effects meta-analysis estimated the prevalence of PTSD-DS as 38.1% (95% CI 31.5–45.0%) across all samples, 45.5% (95% CI 37.7–53.4%) across all diagnosis-based and clinical cut-off samples, 22.8% (95% CI 14.8–32.0%) across all latent class analysis (LCA) and latent profile analysis (LPA) samples and 48.1% (95% CI 35.0–61.3%) across samples which strictly used the DSM-5 PTSD criteria; all as a proportion of those already with a diagnosis of PTSD. All results were characterised by high levels of heterogeneity, limiting generalisability. Moderator analyses mostly failed to identify sources of heterogeneity. PTSD-DS was more prevalent in children compared to adults, and in diagnosis-based and clinical cut-off samples compared to LCA and LPA samples. Risk of bias was not significantly related to prevalence estimates. The implications of these results are discussed further.

Objective: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is associated with increased memory problems although the ability to complete daily life activities remains relatively intact. This study examined: (1) if sleep disturbance increased the hazard of MCI; (2) if APOE e4 carriers with sleep disturbance experience an increased risk of MCI; and, (3) if prescription sleep medications provide a protective effect against MCI. We hypothesized that sleep disturbance increases the hazard of MCI, this relationship is stronger among APOE e4 carriers reporting a sleep disturbance. Furthermore, we hypothesized that sleep medications decrease the hazard of MCI. Methods: To determine whether sleep medication mediates the risk of developing MCI for individuals with sleep disturbance and/or APOE e4, we analyzed the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center Uniform Data Set. We selected participants with normal cognition at baseline (n = 6798), and conduced survival analyses. Results: Our main findings indicated that the hazard of MCI was significantly associated with sleep disturbance. The hazard remained among those who did not use sleep medication. Trazodone and zolpidem users did not have a significant hazard of MCI, but the significant hazard remained for those who did not use these medications. APOE e4 carriers had a significantly higher hazard of MCI. Among e4 carriers who used trazodone or zolpidem, there was not a statistically significant risk of MCI. Conclusion: This study demonstrated the potential utilization of trazodone and zolpidem in the treatment of sleep disturbance while potentially mitigating the risk of MCI. While trazodone and zolpidem have been shown to positively impact sleep disturbance in individuals with normal cognition, further research should explore these findings given that these medications are potentially inappropriate for older adults.

The hypothesis that aspects of current mother-infant interactions predict an infant's response to maternal infant-directed speech (IDS) was tested. Relative to infants of non-depressed mothers, those of depressed mothers acquired weaker voice-face associations in response to their own mothers' IDS in a conditioned-attention paradigm, although this was partially attributable to demographic differences between the two groups. The extent of fundamental frequency modulation (ΔF 0 ) in maternal IDS was smaller for infants of depressed than non-depressed mothers, but did not predict infant learning. However, Emotional Availability Scale ratings of maternal sensitivity, coded from videotapes of mothers and infants engaged in a brief play interaction, were significant predictors of infant learning, even after maternal depression, its demographic correlates, and antidepressant medication use had been taken into account. These findings are consistent with a role for experience-dependent processes in determining IDS's effects on infant learning. KeywordsMaternal sensitivity; postpartum depression; infant learning; IDS; conditioned-attention paradigm Postpartum depression occurs in about 13% of new mothers (O'Hara, Neunaber & Zekoski, 1984) and is associated reduced sensitivity, synchrony, and reciprocity during interactions with infants (Cohn, Campbell, Matias, & Hopkins, 1990;Field, Healy, Goldstein, & Guthertz, 1990), as well as elevated risk for later problems in cognitive and socio-emotional development (Cicchetti, Rogosch, & Toth, 2002;Murray, Fiori-Cowley, Hooper, & Cooper, 1996, Teti, Gelfand, Messinger, & Isabella, 1995. Indeed, many of the effects of caregiver depression on child development appear to be mediated by maternal insensitivity and relatively lower quality infant-directed stimulation (Murray, 1992;Teti et al., 1995). One type of maternal stimulation affected by depression is infant-directed speech (IDS).Caregivers normally exaggerate prosodic cues and otherwise simplify their speech towards infants (Jacobsen, Boersma, Fields, & Olson, 1983; Snow, 1972), but depressed mothers' IDS has relatively lower pitch modulation (Bettes, 1988;Kaplan, Bachorowski, Smoski, & Zinser, 2001;Zlochower & Cohn, 1996). A series of experiments using a conditionedattention paradigm (reviewed below) has shown that, although IDS normally serves as a "priming" stimulus to facilitate infant associative learning (Kaplan, Jung, Ryther, & Kirk, 1996), IDS produced by depressed mothers is relatively ineffective (Kaplan, Bachorowski, & Zarlengo-Strouse, 1999). Moreover, although 4-month-old infants of depressed mothers learn well in response to IDS produced by unfamiliar non-depressed mothers, older infants of more chronically depressed mothers show poor learning in response to IDS produced by non-depressed as well as depressed mothers (Kaplan, Dungan, & Zinser, 2004), suggesting an experience-based change in responsiveness to maternal IDS. The purpose of the current study was to test the hypothesis that one aspect mother-inf...

Infant-directed (ID) speech produced by fathers who varied in their number of self-reported symptoms of depressed was analyzed for differences its ability to promote infant voice-face associative learning. Infants of fathers with elevated scores on the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) showed significantly poorer learning than did infants of fathers with non-elevated BDI-II scores when their fathers' ID speech served as a conditioned stimulus for a face reinforcer in a conditioned-attention paradigm. Fathers with elevated BDI-II scores produced ID speech with marginally significantly lower F 0 variability than fathers with non-elevated BDI-II scores. However, F 0 -related cues were uncorrelated with infant learning. Overall, fathers' ID speech contained significantly less F 0 modulation than did mothers' ID speech. These findings show that paternal depression, like maternal depression, adversely affects infant learning in a conditioned-attention paradigm.