Background and objectives: Emerging evidences indicate an invariable relationship between gut dysbiosis and neurobehavioral symptoms of autism spectrum disorder. In India, Ayurveda is widely accepted among the complementary and alternative medicine. This study aimed to assess the efficacy of an Ayurveda gut therapy protocol in autism spectrum disorder. Subjects and methods: In this randomized controlled trial, 60 children with autism spectrum disorder admitted to Vaidyaratnam P S Varier Ayurveda College, India will be randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. The intervention group will undergo Ayurveda gut therapy protocol for 30 days and interdisciplinary interventions for 2 months, whereas the control group will undergo only interdisciplinary interventions for 2 months. A final assessment will be done on the 60 ^th day. Patient recruitment began in July 2018. The primary and secondary outcome measure will be completed in January 2021 and the study will be completed in September 2022. The study was approved by the Institutional Ethical Committee of Vaidyaratnam P S Varier Ayurveda College, India (Proceedings No: IEC/CI/24/17) on May 4, 2017. Protocol version: 1.0. Outcome measures: The expected primary outcome is to assess the quality and quantity of the gut microbes through 16s rRNA sequencing. The secondary outcome expected is the changes in the neurobehavioral symptoms assessed through the Childhood Autism Rating Scale and also changes in the gastrointestinal symptoms assessed through Ayurveda Gut Health Assessment Questionnaire. Discussion: The current protocol discusses the relationship between Autism and gut dysbiosis and its management through Ayurveda, and provides evidence for the rationality of using Ayurveda gut therapy as an alternative therapy for autism spectrum disorder in clinical practice. Trial registration: The study was registered with Clinical Trial Registry of India (registration No. CTRI/2018/05/014017, registered on May 21, 2018).

Background and objectives: Despite the effective role of monosodium glutamate as a food additive, there are claims indicating that monosodium glutamate consumption increases the level of glutamate an excitatory neurotransmitter which can be toxic to the brain in accumulated level. The present study attempted to understand the differential effect of monosodium glutamate on key enzymes of glutamate metabolisms in rat brain exposed either as neonate or adult to monosodium glutamate. Methods: The rat neonates were divided into six groups with seven animals per group and exposed to different concentrations of monosodium glutamate as neonates only (normal saline or monosodium glutamate 4 mg/g), neonate plus adults (monosodium glutamate 5 or 10 mg/g) and adult only (monosodium glutamate 5 or 10 mg/g). Key enzymes of glutamate metabolisms were measured in whole brain homogenates. All experiments were approved by the Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences University of Calabar and ethics committee-04/11/2018. Results: Except neonate plus adult 5 mg/g group, glutamate dehydrogenase and glutamate synthetase activities were significantly higher in administered groups than in the control group (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in glutamate synthetase activity among monosodium glutamate administered groups (P > 0.05). The glutamate carboxylase activity was significantly higher in all monosodium glutamate administered groups than in the control group (P < 0.05). The brain alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase activities of rats in each monosodium glutamate administered group increased in a dose-dependent manner (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Exposure to monosodium glutamate can increase the activities of key enzymes of glutamate metabolism in the brain of neonate and adult rats similarly, which is not determined by age difference.

Background and objectives: Worry as a main symptom of generalized anxiety disorder is a chain of repetitive and uncontrollable thoughts about possible negative events in the future. The Penn State Worry Questionnaire is one of the most widely used measures for assessing pathological worry. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the abbreviated version of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire-Abbreviated (PSWQ-A) and to compare it with the original version of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) in a nonclinical sample. Participants and methods: The present study is a cross-sectional psychometric study. The statistical population of this study consisted of all students studying at Zanjan University of Medical Sciences (n = 3500) from January to October 2018. A sample of 350 people was selected for the study. Research measures were the PSWQ-A, PSWQ, and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item (GAD-7) Scale. The present study was carried out after approval of Social Determinants of Health Research Center of Zanjan University of Medical Science with the project code of A-12-924-5 on October 7, 2017. The project was also approved by the Ethics Committee of Zanjan University of Medical Sciences on October 17, 2017 and the approval ID was IR.ZUMS.REC.1396.187. Results: Exploratory factor analysis, scree plot, and parallel analysis supported the single factor structure PSWQ-A. The total variance explained by the single-factor model of PSWQ-A was higher (53.1% versus 49.1%). Generally, fit indices for the PSWQ-A was better fitted than the PSWQ. Both measures had acceptable convergent validity (r=0.52 for both questionnaires) and satisfactory internal consistency (α=0.87 for both questionnaires). Conclusion: PSWQ-A has better psychometric properties compared to PSWQ, and it can be used for faster and more accurate assessment of worry in psychological studies and therapeutic settings.

Anxiety sensitivity means fear of anxiety-related sensations which is one of the important factors in the development and maintenance of substance-related disorders. Studies support the underlying, mediating, and moderating role of this construct in the etiology of substancerelated disorders. This review suggests that anxiety sensitivity can play a role in this group of disorders in different ways, such as fear of body sensations, fear of cognitive dyscontrol, and fear of socially observable anxiety symptoms. Finally, high anxiety sensitivity can interfere with the treatment of substance-related disorders as an underlying vulnerability and increase the likelihood of relapse in this group of people.

Background and objective: Epilepsy is a refractory disease of the nervous system. This article aimed to analyze the global trend of epilepsy research and the contribution of China to this research. Methods: This paper used “epilepsy, seizure, status epilepticus, SUDEP” to retrieve epilepsy-related articles indexed in the Web of Science from 2011 to 2020, classified and analyzed the global epilepsy-related articles. Results: This paper analyzed 65,270 articles on epilepsy research, showing that Epilepsy Behavior and Epilepsy Research were journals with the largest number of articles concerning epilepsy research in the world and China, respectively. The number of published epilepsy-related articles accounts for 5.43% of the global published articles and 3.29% of the published articles in China. The United States Department of Health Human Services and the National Institutes of Health jointly sponsored 15,713 of these articles, ranking first worldwide in the published epilepsy-related articles. Among 5206 articles published in China, 2696 articles (46.42%) were supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. Conclusion: This study has reference significance for researchers in this field to understand the 10-year overview of epilepsy researches and formulate future research directions.

Background and objective: Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a non-invasive nerve stimulation technique that has the potential to improve cognitive function. However, there have been few randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that evaluated the effectiveness of rTMS on cognitive function and the relapse in patients with bipolar disorder. Participants and methods: This double-blind parallel RCT will be conducted at The Affiliated Brain Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University (Guangzhou Huiai Hospital), China. A total of 74 bipolar disorder patients will be recruited and randomly assigned to a trial group (n = 37) and control group (n = 37). Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation and sham repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation will be applied over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in the trial group and control group, respectively. This trial was designed on March 2, 2017 and was approved by the Ethics Committee of The Affiliated Brain Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University (Guangzhou Huiai Hospital), China on April 25, 2017 (approval No. 2017022). Patient recruitment began on July 10, 2017 and will be finished in December 2020. The trial will be completed in December 2021. The protocol version is 1.0. Outcome measures: The primary outcome measure will be the difference between MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery scores at post-intervention and at baseline. The secondary outcome measures will be relapse of depressive and/or hypo/mania episode at a one-year follow-up. Discussion: This clinical trial will provide data regarding effectiveness in long-term cognitive function and relapse of mood episode following repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in patients with bipolar disorder. Trial registration: This trial had been registered in the ClinicalTrials.gov (identifier: NCT03207048) on July 2, 2017.