Background: Chronic periodontitis and gingivitis are associated with various diseases; however, their impact on dementia is yet to be elucidated. This study is aimed at investigating the association between chronic periodontitis and gingivitis, and the risk of developing dementia. Methods: A total of 2,207 patients, with newly diagnosed chronic periodontitis and gingivitis between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2000, were selected from the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan, along with 6,621 controls matched for sex and age. After adjusting for confounding factors, Cox proportional hazards analysis was used to compare the risk of developing dementia during the 10-year follow-up period. Results: Of the study subjects, 25 (1.13%) developed dementia compared to 61 (0.92%) in the control group. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis revealed that the study subjects were more likely to develop dementia (hazard ratio (HR) 2.085, 95% CI 1.552-4.156, p < 0.001). After adjusting for sex, age, monthly income, urbanization level, geographic region, and comorbidities, the HR for dementia was 2.54 (95% CI 1.297-3.352, p = 0.002). Conclusions: Patients with chronic periodontitis and gingivitis have a higher risk of developing dementia. However, further studies on other large or national data sets are required to support the current findings.

Background/objective: Allergic diseases, such as bronchial asthma, allergic rhinitis, atopic dermatitis, and psychiatric disorders, are major health issues. There have been reports that allergic diseases were associated with depression or anxiety disorders. This study aimed to investigate the association between these allergic diseases and the risk of developing overall psychiatric disorders in patients from Taiwan. Methods: This cohort study used the database of the Taiwan National Health Insurance Program. A total of 186,588 enrolled patients, with 46,647 study subjects who had suffered from allergic diseases, and 139,941 controls matched for sex and age, from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Dataset of 2000–2015, were selected from a sub-dataset of the National Health Insurance Research Database. Fine and Gray’s competing risk model analysis was used to explore the hazard ratio (HR), and 95% confidence interval, for the risk of allergic diseases being associated with the risk of developing psychiatric disorders during the 15 years of follow-up. Results: Of the study subjects, 5,038 (10.8%) developed psychiatric disorders when compared to 9,376 (6.7%) in the control group, with significant difference (p < 0.001). Fine and Gray’s competing risk model analysis revealed that the adjusted HR was 1.659 (95% CI = 1.602–1.717, p < 0.001). In this study, we found that the groups of atopic dermatitis alone and the allergic rhinitis + atopic dermatitis were associated with a lower risk of psychiatric disorders, but all the other four groups, such as bronchial asthma alone, allergic rhinitis alone, bronchial asthma + allergic rhinitis, bronchial asthma + atopic dermatitis, and the combination of all these three allergic diseases, were associated with a higher risk of psychiatric disorders. Conclusion: Allergic diseases are therefore associated with a 1.66-fold increased hazard of psychiatric disorders in Taiwan.

The efficacy of fronto-temporal transcranial direct current stimulation in treating auditory verbal hallucinations and other psychopathological symptoms of schizophrenia patients has been examined in a small number of clinical trials with limited sample sizes, but the results are mixed. Fronto-temporal transcranial direct current stimulation has also been demonstrated to enhance patients’ insight into their mental illness in an open-label pilot study. The current investigation aimed to investigate the therapeutic effects of fronto-temporal transcranial direct current stimulation on the severity of auditory verbal hallucinations, other schizophrenia symptoms, and insight in a large double blind, randomized, sham-controlled trial. Sixty patients with medication-refractory auditory verbal hallucinations were randomized over 2 conditions: transcranial direct current stimulation with 2-mA, twice-daily sessions for 5 consecutive days, with anodal stimulation to the left prefrontal cortex and cathodal stimulation to the left temporo-parietal junction, and sham treatment. Fronto-temporal transcranial direct current stimulation failed to cause significant changes in the severity of auditory verbal hallucinations and other schizophrenia symptoms. The levels of insight into illness (effect size=0.511, P<.001) and positive symptoms (effect size=0.781, P<.001) were largely promoted by 5 days of transcranial direct current stimulation relative to sham treatment. The beneficial effects on the 2 insight dimensions remained 1 month after transcranial direct current stimulation. Fronto-temporal transcranial direct current stimulation is not more effective for auditory verbal hallucinations and other schizophrenia symptoms than sham treatment. But the results of transcranial direct current stimulation-associated improvement in awareness of illness and positive symptoms show promise and provide a new direction for future research into insight promotion interventions in schizophrenia.

Aims.: Poor insight is prevalent in patients with schizophrenia and has been associated with acute illness severity, medication non-adherence and poor treatment outcomes. Paradoxically, high insight has been associated with various undesirable outcomes, including low self-esteem, depression and low subjective quality of life (QoL) in patients with schizophrenia. Despite the growing body of studies conducted in Western countries supporting the pernicious effects of improved insight in psychosis, which bases on the level of self-stigma, the effects are unclear in non-Western societies. The current study examined the role of self-stigma in the relationship between insight and psychosocial outcomes in a Chinese population.Methods.: A total of 170 outpatients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders were recruited from two general university hospitals. Sociodemographic data and clinical variables were recorded and self-report scales were employed to measure self-stigma, depression, insight, self-esteem and subjective QoL. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to analyse the cross-sectional data.Results.: High levels of self-stigma were reported by 39% of the participants (n = 67). The influences of insight, self-stigma, self-esteem and depression on subjective QoL were confirmed by the SEM results. Our model with the closest fit to the data (χ² = 33.28; df = 20; p = 0.03; χ²/df = 1.66; CFI = 0.98; TLI = 0.97; RMSEA = 0.06) demonstrated that self-stigma might fully mediate the association of insight with low self-esteem, depression and poor subjective QoL. High insight into illness contributed to self-stigma, which caused low self-esteem and depression and, consequently, low QoL. Notably, insight did not directly affect self-esteem, depression or QoL. Furthermore, the association of insight with poor psychosocial outcomes was not moderated by self-stigma.Conclusions.: Our findings support the mediating model of insight relevant to the poor psychosocial outcomes of individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia in non-Western societies, in which self-stigma plays a pivotal role. These findings elucidate the direct and indirect effects of insight on psychosocial outcomes and imply that identifying and correcting self-stigma in people with schizophrenia could be beneficial. Additional studies are required to identify whether several other neurocognitive or psychosocial variables mediate or moderate the association of insight with self-esteem, depression and QoL in patients with schizophrenia. Studies with detailed longitudinal assessments are necessary to confirm our findings.