Special consideration on a diagnostic shift to bipolar disorder is required in patients exhibiting the predictive factors identified in the current study. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“Preterm birth is a significant public health concern,

as it is associated with high risk of infant mortality, various morbidities in both the neonatal period and later in life, and a significant societal economic burden. As many cases are of unknown etiology, identification of the contribution of environmental contaminant VEGFR inhibitor exposures is a priority in the study of preterm birth. This is a comprehensive review of all known studies published from 1992 through August 2012 linking maternal exposure to environmental chemicals during

pregnancy with preterm birth. Using PubMed searches, studies were identified that examined associations between preterm birth and exposure to five categories of environmental toxicants, including persistent organic pollutants, drinking-water contaminants, atmospheric pollutants, metals and metalloids, and other environmental contaminants. Individual studies were summarized and specific suggestions were made for future work in regard to exposure and outcome assessment methods as well as study design, with the recommendation of focusing on potential mediating toxicological mechanisms. In conclusion, no consistent evidence was found for positive associations between individual chemical exposures and preterm birth. By identifying limitations and addressing the gaps that may have impeded the ability to identify true associations thus far, this OSI-744 chemical structure review can guide future epidemiologic studies of environmental exposures and preterm birth.”
“The interaction between polarity at onset (PAO) and age at onset (AAO) appears to be important for Diflunisal interpreting results of previous analyses of AAO in bipolar disorder (BD). Using an admixture analysis, we examined independently the distributions of age at first depressive and hypomanic/manic episodes in 379 BD I and II patients. Subsequently, we

examined the association of PAO and AAO with specific clinical variables, using parametric and nonparametric analyses. Both depressive and manic onsets showed bimodal distributions. For depressive episodes, the means were: 18.5 +/- 4.1 (early onset) and 33.6 +/- 10.4 (late onset) years; and for manic episodes 18.9 +/- 3.3 (early onset) and 34.8 +/- 10.9 (late onset) years. For the overall AAO the best fit was for a mixture of three lognormal distributions (mean S.D.): 15.5 +/- 2.0, 22.8 +/- 4.6, and 36.1 +/- 10.1 years. Overall, an early onset was significantly associated with a chronic course of the disorder, a stronger family history of affective disorder, higher rates of rapid cycling, suicidal behavior, psychotic symptoms, and co-morbid anxiety disorders.