Katie Moraes de Almondes

Padrão do ciclo sono-vigília e sua relação com a ansiedade em estudantes universitários

Sleep/wake cycle pattern and its relationship with anxiety in college students. This paper examines the relationship between the sleep/wake cycle and anxiety in medical students. The sleep/wake cycle and anxiety were evaluated in 37 second year medical school students. The volunteers answered a morningness-eveningness questionnaire, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index – PSQI and state and trait of anxiety inventory – STAI; all kept a sleep/wake diary for two weeks. The results showed that the students had high anxiety trait and state. Students who had high anxiety trait had an earlier sleep offset on weekdays and weekend, and students who displayed irregularity in the sleep/wake cycle had high anxiety state. These results suggest a relationship between the sleep/wake cycle and anxiety.

Evaluation of trait and state anxiety in first year students

The purpose of this study is to evaluate trait anxiety and state anxiety in first year students from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, verifying differences between three great areas of knowledge - Biomedical, Humanistic and Technological. The entrance to a University can be perceived as a threatening situation that seems to suffer influence from the different characteristics of each of these areas. 158 students, 71 females and 87 males aged 20.04 +/- 3,37 years, answered an Identification Form and the State and Trait of Anxiety Inventory (STAI). The means of trait anxiety and state anxiety observed in these students were as expected for this population although the Biomedical area is perceived as the most anxiogenic for having a dense curriculum with intense academic demands, what seems to increase the scores of the students of this area, especially of the men.

Insomnia and risk of dementia in older adults: Systematic review and meta-analysis

There are cross-sectional evidences of an association between sleep disorders and cognitive impairment on older adults. However, there are no consensus by means of longitudinal studies data on the increased risk of developing dementia related to insomnia. We conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the risk of incident all-cause dementia in individuals with insomnia in population-based prospective cohort studies. Five studies of 5.242 retrieved references were included in the meta-analysis. We used the generic inverse variance method with a random effects model to calculate the pooled risk of dementia in older adults with insomnia. We assessed heterogeneity in the meta-analysis by means of the Q-test and I2 index. Study quality was assessed with the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale The results showed that Insomnia was associated with a significant risk of all-cause dementia (RR = 1.53 CI95% (1.07-2.18), z = 2.36, p = 0.02). There was evidence for significant heterogeneity in the analysis (q-value = 2.4, p < 0.001 I2 = 82%). Insomnia is associated with an increased risk for dementia. This results provide evidences that future studies should investigate dementia prevention among elderly individuals through screening and proper management of insomnia.

Normative data of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale 11 (BIS-11) for Brazilian adults

OBJECTIVE The Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11) is a valid and reliable instrument, and one of the most often used tools to assess impulsivity. This study assesses the performance of a large sample of adults by using a version of BIS-11 adapted to Brazilian Portuguese. METHODS We assessed 3,053 adults from eight Brazilian states. Internal consistencies and performance data were presented for two correction criteria of BIS-11: original and the two-factor score. RESULTS The associations between age, sex, region, and education and the BIS-11 scores present very small effect sizes. Therefore, we provided a percentile rank parameter for the different BIS-11 subscores considering the whole sample. Given the internal consistency of the two correction systems, we found that only the two-factor system fulfills the psychometric criteria of Cronbachs alpha (cutoff value of at least 0.6). CONCLUSION Our results support the use of the Brazilian adaptation of BIS-11 in different regions of the country as a measure of impulsivity. Since high impulsiveness is a characteristic of several dysfunctional behaviors, the establishment of normative parameters is of utmost relevance and should be extended to other age ranges and populations in future studies.

Sleep and cognitive performance in children and pre-adolescents: a review

Sleep is an active brain process that contributes to an efficient execution of everyday tasks. The biological features of sleep start to undergo intense changes during childhood and adolescence. These biological features may conflict with schedules and environmental changes, and lead to sleep-phase delays that may influence the performance of cognitive processes essential for learning during school years, visuo-spatial perception, working memory, and attention, for example. This study examines the literature discussing the relation between sleep and cognitive processes in children and pre-adolescents. The papers indicate an association between sleep and cognitive performance, sleep changes compromising intelligence, as well as visuo-spatial skills and other cognitive processes; but, there might be other factors involved, such as socioeconomic status. This review discusses the findings, drawing attention to areas of disagreement as well as agreement.

The impact of different shift work schedules on the levels of anxiety and stress in workers in a petrochemicals company

This study evaluated anxiety and stress in workers under different shift work conditions. The sample comprised 239 workers, with an average age of 42.6, standard deviation = 5.7 years, divided into fixed daytime working (n=52) and different working shifts (n=187). Documentation: Free and informed consent form; IDs; State-Trait Anxiety Inventory; Lipps Stress Symptom Inventory for Adults. We used the t-test for independent samples, ANOVA, Pearsons correlation and the two-sample Comparison of proportions Test. Results showed that shift workers had higher State-Trait Anxiety scores than fixed daytime workers (t=-4.994; p=0.0001; t=-2.816; p=0.005, respectively). Both samples exhibited stress, but there were no statistically significant differences between the groups (t=-1.052; p=0.294). Shift work schedules caused more situational and dispositional anxiety, but did not significantly increase stress levels when compared to fixed daytime working.

Exercise-dependent BDNF as a Modulatory Factor for the Executive Processing of Individuals in Course of Cognitive Decline. A Systematic Review

Background: Aging naturally triggers a decline in cognition as result of deterioration in cerebral circuits, thus the executive functions (EFs) suffer changes that progress from mild to severe states of impairment. Exercise instead, works as a strategy for cognitive enhancement by modulating neuronal plasticity through the regulation of BDNF. However, whether the exercise-dependent BDNF may improve higher complexity processes such as the EFs is still in a studying process. Results: Current data on exercise-dependent BDNF changes for aging individuals in a course of cognitive impairment was summarized to investigate whether the exercise regulation of BDNF is effective to pronounce long term changes on executive controls. While the exercise-dependent regulation of BDNF is currently undeniable, the role of exercise dependent BDNF as a tool for the improvement of EFs in individuals with dementia is still less clear and seldom discussed. The summary of findings indicate a limited number of studies addressing exercise in order to discuss parameters related to either BDNF or executive functioning in such population conditions (n = 215), further narrowing to a total of 5 studies presenting analysis of both parameters. Nonetheless, positive outcomes from BDNF and EF variables were displayed by all the populations exposed to exercise across studies. Aerobic exercise was shown to be a major source for the enhancement of the BDNF-dependent executive functioning, when compared to cognitive stimulation. Moreover, the effect of exercise-dependent BDNF on domains of executive functioning appears to occur in a dose-dependent manner for the aging individuals, independently of cognitive condition.

Relation between sleep and visuospatial skills in students from a public school

The relation between the sleep and the visuospatial skills was evaluated in 31 students from a public school. For the analysis of sleep, the parents of volunteers answered a sleep evaluation questionnaire and the sleep diary. The visuospatial performance was evaluated by Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III), through the subtest Picture Completion, the Perceptual Organization Index and the Performance IQ Scale. In accordance with the results, 72% of the students presented regular sleep and good sleep length. The visuospatial performance was deficient in subtest Picture Completion for 56% of the students, and on the Performance IQ Scale for 60% of the students. Significant correlations were verified between early sleep onset (rho = -0.40, p < 0.05) and regular sleep (rho = -0.39, p < 0.05) with the visuospatial performance. It was concluded that sleeping early and having a regular sleep may contribute to a better visuospatial performance.

The Relationship between Sleep Complaints, Depression, and Executive Functions on Older Adults

Aim: In this manuscript, we report data on the association between executive functions screened by Frontal Assessment Battery, Five Digit Test and Digit Span with self-reported depressive symptoms and sleep complaints in non-demented older adults. Methods: A total sample of 95 non-demented older adults performed Geriatric Depression Scale short version, Frontal Assessment Battery, Five Digit Test, Digit Span, and clinical interview. We split participants in groups stratified by age according to: young-old (60–69 years of age), old-old (70–79 years), and oldest-old (>80 years) and compared these three groups on the sociodemographic characteristics and executive functions performance. We carried out Poisson regression with robust error variance to verify sleep complaints and depression effects on executive functions performance. Gender, age, years of formal education, use of antidepressants and of benzodiazepines were considered as confounding variables, taking into account executive functions as dependent and sleep complaints and depression as independent variables. Results: Controlling the effect of age, gender, years of formal education, use of benzodiazepines and of antidepressants there was a significant influence of depression in motor programming, inhibitory control, and working memory. Individuals without depression show motor programming scores 68.4% higher, inhibitory control scores 3 times greater and working memory scores also 3 times greater than individuals without depression. There was a significant influence of sleep complaints in phonemic fluency, motor programming, inhibitory control, and working memory. Individuals without sleep complaints show phonemic fluency scores 2 times greater than, motor programming scores 85.9% higher, inhibitory control scores 3 times greater and working memory scores also 3 times greater than individuals without sleep complaints. Conclusions: Sleep complaints are associated with phonemic fluency, motor programming, inhibitory control, and working memory impairment. Depression symptoms presence are associated with motor programming and working memory performances. Depression and sleep complaints interaction would determine worse phonemic fluency, inhibitory control and working memory cognitive performance than these two conditions alone.

Sleep quality and daily lifestyle regularity in workers with different working hours

The objective of this study was to assess subjective sleep quality and lifestyle regularity in daytime workers and shift workers. Studies concluding that sleep quality improved with greater regularity. However, there are no data in the literature related to workers. The sample was composed of 141 male workers (42 daytime workers and 99 shift workers) with 42.56 ± 5.66 years of age. Protocols: informed consent form; identification record; Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and a shortened 5-item version of the Social Rhythm Metric (SRM-5). Students t-test for independent samples and Spearmans nonparametric correlation test were used. There was bad sleep quality (6.23 ± 3.3) and daily lifestyle irregularity (2.36 ± 0.8) for 141 workers. There was good sleep quality for daytime workers (4.74 ± 2.68) and bad sleep quality for shift workers (6.86 ± 3.31). There are daily lifestyle irregularities for both groups (for daytime workers 2.23 ± 0.55 and for shift workers 2.41 ± 0.94). There was no significant correlation between the SRM-5 and overall PSQI scores. In shift work, the regularity of daily activities does not seem to be the main factor in determining sleep quality.