Prevalence and associated factors of comorbid skin diseases in patients with schizophrenia: a clinical survey and national health database study

Comorbidities in Androgenetic Alopecia: A Comprehensive Review

Androgenetic alopecia is the most common form of hair loss, affecting 85% of men and 40% of women. Androgenetic alopecia is a disease caused by multiple factors, such as genetics, hormones, and systemic diseases; however, the exact cause remains undetermined. Recent studies have found that it is associated with a high incidence of endocrine diseases and other comorbidities. It may not only be a skin disease but also an early signal of underlying systemic diseases. Effective management requires timely diagnosis and treatment initiation. However, in current clinical practice, androgenetic alopecia is still not fully understood or treated. Recognizing the true physical, social, and emotional burden of androgenic alopecia, as well as its associated comorbidities, is the first step in improving the prognosis of affected patients. This review aimed to gather the known pathological factors and provide a reference for clinical physicians to understand androgenetic alopecia and its comorbidities in depth, thereby enabling early recognition of the underlying systemic diseases and providing timely treatment.

A Review of Skin Disease in Schizophrenia

BACKGROUND

Schizophrenia is a debilitating neuropsychiatric condition that affects 0.5% of the North American population. Skin disease in schizophrenia has not been well described. Identifying skin diseases that are commonly comorbid with schizophrenia may help clinicians address the burden of skin disease in patients with schizophrenia.

SUMMARY

We conducted a nonsystematic review of the literature to identify skin diseases that may be associated with schizophrenia. We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PsycINFO for articles published in English from December 2000 through April 2020 using the key words "skin disease" or "dermatological" or "dermatology" and "schizophrenia." Based on our results, we further refined the search terms to include more specific skin diseases. Schizophrenia appears to be associated with a number of skin diseases, including inflammatory dermatoses, autoimmune diseases, and certain genodermatoses. Limitations include being a nonsystematic review and the relative paucity of more rigorous clinical research using longitudinal study designs.

Skin Diseases in Patients with Primary Psychiatric Disorders

OBJECTIVE

The few psychodermatological studies of primary psychiatric populations so far suggest that parasitic-infectious skin diseases are the most common dermatological comorbidity in more than 70% of psychiatric patients, which should be studied here in a large data bank outside dermatological treatment facilities.

METHODS

In a descriptive-explorative and retrospective study, more than 17,000 patients with primary psychiatric disorders were examined to investigate dermatological comorbidities.

RESULTS

The proportion of patients with primary mental disorders and additional dermatological disease was 1.24% (n=212). Here, psoriasis (35.4%) and atopic dermatitis (22.6%) were the most frequent dermatological diseases among these 212 patients. Infectious-parasitic skin diseases were present in 13.2% of comorbid patients. The most common mental disorder was a depressive illness, seen in 42.5% (n=90) of patients.

CONCLUSION

Our results confirmed the frequent association of depression with psoriasis and atopic dermatitis, indicating the need for the early detection and treatment of such comorbid patients. In contrast, psychiatric inpatients do not appear to suffer from predominantly infectious-parasitic dermatoses.

The Impact of Antidepressants on the Risk of Developing Obstructive Sleep Apnea in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Nationwide Cohort Study in Taiwan

STUDY OBJECTIVES

The association between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) has been reported inconsistently, and the association between antidepressant use and the risk of developing OSA in patients with PTSD has not been previously studied. Therefore, we used the Longitudinal National Health Insurance Database (LHID) to investigate the impact of PTSD and antidepressant use on the risk of OSA development.

METHODS

Identified from the LHID, 2,316 individuals aged ≥ 18 years with PTSD, but with no history of OSA, and 23,160 control individuals matched for age, sex, obesity and index date were enrolled between 2000 and 2015 and followed up until the end of 2015 to identify the development of OSA. A two-tailed Bonferroni-corrected P < .00038 (.05/13) was considered statistically significant as we examined 13 antidepressants.

RESULTS

Individuals with PTSD had increased risk of developing OSA (adjusted hazard ratio 4.672, 95% confidence interval 2.246-9.787, P < .001) after adjusting for demographic data, medical comorbidities, and medication. Treatment with antidepressants was not significantly associated with an increased risk of developing OSA compared to no antidepressant treatment.

CONCLUSIONS

Asian patients with PTSD had increased risk of developing OSA, and treatment with antidepressants did not play a key role in increasing the risk of OSA development. Further studies are required to investigate the underlying mechanisms of PTSD and the roles of antidepressants on the risk of developing OSA.

CITATION

Lin C-E, Chung C-H, Chen L-F, Chien W-C, Chou P-H. The impact of antidepressants on the risk of developing obstructive sleep apnea in posttraumatic stress disorder: a nationwide cohort study in taiwan. J Clin Sleep Med. 2019;15(9):1233-1241.

Fluphenazine antagonizes with fluconazole but synergizes with amphotericin B in the treatment of candidiasis

Candida albicans causes a high mortality rate in immunocompromised individuals, but the increased drug resistance challenges the current antifungal therapeutics. Fluphenazine (FPZ), a commonly used antipsychotic medication, can induce the expression of drug efflux pumps in C. albicans and, thus, may interfere with the therapeutic efficacy of antifungals, such as fluconazole (FLC) and amphotericin B (AmB). Here, we investigated the combined effects of FLC/FPZ and AmB/FPZ against C. albicans in vitro and in a systemic candidiasis mouse model. The antifungal activity of FLC was significantly reduced when supplemented with FPZ. The inhibitory effects of FLC on the expression of the Candida virulence-related genes ALS3 and HWP1 were antagonized by FPZ. However, FPZ enhanced the susceptibility of C. albicans to AmB and further downregulated the expression of ALS3 and HWP1 in a synergistic manner with AmB. FPZ also enhanced the gene expression of ERG11, a key gene of the ergosterol biosynthesis pathway that has been associated with the activities of both FLC and AmB. In our mammalian infection model, mice treated with FLC/FPZ showed notably poor living status and increased fungal burden in their kidneys and brains compared with those treated with FLC alone. Conversely, the combined application of AmB/FPZ significantly improved the survival rate, attenuated the weight loss and reduced the organ fungal burdens of the infected mice. These data suggest that FPZ antagonized the therapeutic efficacy of FLC but enhanced the antifungal activity of AmB in the treatment of candidiasis.