No abstract

Bipolar disorder (BD) is known for impairments in neurotrophic and neuroprotective processes, which translate into emotional and cognitive deficits affecting various brain regions. Using its neuroplastic properties, lithium, thus far, is the mood stabilizer used to amend the pathophysiological imbalance in BD. Neuroplasticity has gained massive popularity in the research department in the past decade, yet it lacks direct effort in changing the protocol through which physicians treat BD. Physical activity alongside cognitive therapy is theorized to produce long-term changes in the executive control network due to the assimilation of new neurons, amendment of emotional lability through hippocampal neurogenesis, and strengthening the stability of frontosubcortical and prefrontolimbic brain regions via neurogenesis. This review aims to provide an incentive for utilizing neuroplastic mechanisms concerning impairments dispensed by BD.

Banerjee et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License CC-BY 4.0., which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

It is established that normal calcium and vitamin D concentrations are maintained in the body through parathyroid hormone (PTH), a signaling molecule secreted from parathyroid glands. A massive role is played by PTH in increasing calcium levels when they are extremely low in the body through different mechanisms. The dysregulation of this hormone is due to either over functioning of the gland (hyperparathyroidism) or compromised functioning in hypoparathyroidism. A detailed review was done to identify if any changes are happening in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) due to any pathology causing the parathormone to be dysregulated enough to, in turn, cause any further pathology in the nervous system. This may then lead to various disabling neuropsychiatric features. The calcium and vitamin D abnormalities are both directly and indirectly connected to psychiatric features like delusions, schizophrenia, disabled cognition, psychosis, coma, mania, and depression of all kinds. Moreover, their irregularities are also linked to Alzheimer's. During these manifestations, the CSF is altered concentration-wise, where elevated calcium levels inside are observed during different studies. Despite PTH's indirect connection to the CSF modifications, their association hasn't been potently proven yet, considering more observational studies should be conducted in humans and for a more extended period, along with bigger and greater numbers of CSF samples. Suppose there is a possibility of the link of CSF alterations to PTH. In that case, we can consider a pronounced increase of CSF calcium or PTH as a risk factor for debilitating neuropsychiatric diseases. In this review, the possible correlation of CSF and PTH has been discussed.

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is primarily a disease of non-smokers or ex-smokers. Since there have been previous claims of the beneficial effects of transdermal nicotine, researchers studied its efficacy to include it in the treatment regimen: to prevent remissions and as maintenance therapy. This review aims to evaluate the efficacy of transdermal nicotine as a treatment option for mild to moderately active ulcerative colitis. We shortlisted 22 articles after a careful analysis and elimination process. These articles were reviewed and analyzed, and it was found that transdermal nicotine in combination with conventional therapy was more beneficial than individual treatment with either. Further controlled studies evaluating the appropriate dosage for remission and maintenance treatment needs to be done.