Is every psychiatrist an oncology psychiatrist?-Special needs for special populations: a scoping review

BACKGROUND

The evolution of psychiatric care for patients with cancer has played out over the last century. The first collaboration of psychiatry, oncology surgery, and radiation-oncology occurred in the mid-1950s and represented the early seeds of psycho-oncology. The role of a psychiatrist specializing in treating patients with cancer, a psychosocial oncologist or psycho-oncologist, spans the care continuum from prevention to end of life. The specific needs of patients with gastrointestinal (GI) malignancies range from management of anxiety and depression to focused management for adjustment to an ostomy to sexual dysfunction to treatment in the face of a neuroendocrine tumor (NET).

METHODS

This is a scoping review; we compiled and summarized psychiatric illnesses commonly encountered in care of patients with cancer in addition to unique GI oncology-related issues. We conducted an electronic PubMed search between 1990-2022. We are presenting the data and providing our insight into psychosocial oncology care for this special population.

RESULTS

The field of psycho-oncology is relatively new. We failed to identify any randomized prospective studies, the majority of the studies were retrospective or longitudinal. The majority of the publications were in the form of review. We reviewed the GI literature to identify the psychological impact of ostomies, sexual impairment and metabolically active NETs. We provide suggested treatment interventions targeting the biological, psychological, and social aspects of patient and family lives.

CONCLUSIONS

The role of a psychosocial oncologist as part of the collaborative multidisciplinary treatment team provides nuanced care with attention to unique cancer-related issues that arise during the disease course. The psycho-oncologist brings expertise in combining targeted therapeutic strategies with pharmacologic interventions to address the multi-dimensional symptomatology patients experience. Using a layered approach, patients with mild symptoms can be supported by the general team, while those with moderate to severe symptoms require specialty psychiatric consultation.

Development of AC2 for the simulation of advanced reactor design of Generation 3/3+ and light water cooled SMRs

The transition from Generation 2 to Generation 3/3+ and 4 reactors, as well as the development of small modular reactors (SMR), place new demands on computational programs designed to simulate conditions of normal operation, operational occurrences, design basis accidents and severe accidents. On the one hand, most passive safety systems of advanced and innovative plants operate at low pressures even down to vacuum conditions and the driving forces are low compared to active systems. On the other hand, the containment is no longer just a barrier to retain radioactive material in the event of leakage of the cooling system, but it is an important link in the passive cooling chain. This requires an expansion and improvement of the existing simulation programs for the cooling circuit and containment, as well as the realization of a coupling between these simulation programs. The new AC2 program package combines the proven simulation codes ATHLET/ATHLET-CD and COCOSYS in one software suite to hit this target. The individual components of the suite are continuously extended and validated for their application to novel safety systems. This makes it possible to simulate the entire spectrum of accidents for Generation 3/3+, 4 and light water cooled SMR systems with just one program package. This publication gives an overview of the current state of development of AC2 and its individual modules.

Brief report: consistency of search engine rankings for autism websites

The World Wide Web is one of the most common methods used by parents to find information on autism spectrum disorders and most consumers find information through search engines such as Google or Bing. However, little is known about how the search engines operate or the consistency of the results that are returned over time. This study presents the results of analyses of searches from 2009, 2010, and 2011 for information on autism. We found that over time, consumers are likely to have different search experiences yielding different results, and we urge consumers to use caution when using the World Wide Web to obtain information on autism.

Increased cystatin C in astrocytes of transgenic mice expressing the K670N-M671L mutation of the amyloid precursor protein and deposition in brain amyloid plaques

Cystatin C is an essential secretory cofactor for neurogenesis with potent protease inhibitor activities. Polymorphisms of cystatin C are genetically associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD), and the L68Q mutation causes hereditary cerebral hemorrhage with amyloidosis of the Icelandic type, in which cystatin C and beta-amyloid are colocalized in cortical blood vessels. To determine whether cystatin C and beta-amyloid also colocalize in brain amyloid plaques, we analyzed transgenic mice expressing the Swedish APP (SweAPP) mutation. We found high levels of cystatin C in astrocytes surrounding beta-amyloid plaques, and discrete layers of cystatin C attached to amyloid plaque cores covered by a layer of beta-amyloid. In addition, cystatin C accumulated in reactive astrocytes throughout the brain, independently of, and before the onset of, amyloid plaque formation. These results show that expression of SweAPP is associated with increased cystatin C in reactive astrocytes, and they suggest an early role of cystatin C in appositional amyloid plaque growth.