Mood disorders and prospective suicidality in young adults: a population‐based cohort study

Objective

To assess the prospective associations of mood disorders and suicidality in a community sample of young adults from south Brazil.

Method

Prospective population‐based cohort study. Young adults (18–24 years old) were recruited and followed up on 5 years later; people were interviewed at their homes. Suicidality, as well as mood and anxiety disorders, was assessed using the Mini‐International Neuropsychiatric Interview. The impact of mood episodes on suicidality was both evaluated when they occurred in the same wave (a current episode) and when suicidality occurred prospectively, with suicidality measured at follow‐up (a past episode).

Results

The sample included 1560 young adults at baseline, with 1244 reassessed at follow‐up (80.6%). Depressive episodes, both current and past, had a significant impact on suicidality in the final multivariable model. Manic episodes, however, were less consistently associated with suicidality.

Conclusion

Depressive episodes have a strong, independent, and robust association with prospective suicidality. The association between manic episodes and suicidality, on the other hand, was dependent on the analysis and deserves further exploration.     

Tonsillectomy and risk of Parkinson's disease: A danish nationwide population‐based cohort study

Background : We hypothesized that tonsillectomy modifies the risk of PD. Objectives: To test the hypothesis in a nationwide population‐based cohort study. Methods: We used Danish medical registries to construct a cohort of all patients in Denmark with an operation code of tonsillectomy 1980‐2010 (n = 195,169) and a matched age and sex general population comparison cohort (n = 975,845). Patients were followed until PD diagnosis, death, censoring, or end of follow‐up 30 November 2013. Using Cox regression, we computed hazard ratios for PD and corresponding 95% confidence intervals, adjusting for age and sex by study design, and potential confounders. Results: We identified 100 and 568 patients diagnosed with PD among the tonsillectomy and general population comparison cohort, respectively, finding similar risks of PD (adjusted hazard ratio = 0.95 [95% confidence interval: 0.76‐1.19]; for > 20 years' follow‐up (adjusted hazard ratio = 0.96 [95% confidence interval: 0.64‐1.41]). Conclusion: Tonsillectomy is not associated with risk of PD, especially early‐onset PD. © 2017 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society     

Medial temporal lobe is vulnerable to vascular risk factors in men: a population‐based study

Background and purpose: Vascular risk factors (VRFs) are known to cause cerebral microvascular disease, but evidence supporting an effect of VRFs on regional brain atrophy is mixed. We investigate whether an aggregation of VRFs is associated with volume of hippocampus and entorhinal cortex in elderly people living in the community. Methods: This cross‐sectional study consists of 523 participants (age ≥60 years, 59.3% women) of the SNAC‐K Study in central Stockholm, Sweden, who were free of clinical stroke and cognitive impairment. We collected data on VRFs through interviews, clinical examination and inpatient register system. Hippocampal and entorhinal cortex volume was manually measured on magnetic resonance images. Data were analysed with general linear regression models controlling for demographics and total intracranial volume. Results: In men, high total cholesterol and diabetes were significantly or marginally associated with smaller hippocampus and entorhinal cortex; when current smoking, binge alcohol drinking, high cholesterol and diabetes were aggregated, an increasing number of VRFs were significantly associated with decreasing volume of hippocampus and entorhinal cortex (P for linear trend <0.01). In women, none of individual VRFs or their aggregation was significantly associated with the volume of these brain regions, except former smoking that was significantly associated with a larger volume of these regions. Conclusions: Aggregation of VRFs is associated with reduced hippocampal and entorhinal cortex volume in apparently healthy elderly men, but not in women. This implies that in men, the medial temporal lobe is vulnerable to cardiovascular risk factors.