bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Total sleep deprivation in patients with obsessive‐compulsive disorder
Authors: Joffe R. T. , Swinson R. P.
Published: August 2007

ABSTRACT— Total sleep deprivation was performed in 16 patients with obsessive‐compulsive disorder. Overall, no effect was observed on either mood or obsessive‐compulsive behaviour. However, individual patients showed worsening, improvement or no change in obsessive‐compulsive symptoms, independent of mood response, across the 3 days of sleep deprivation.
Synaesthesia and major affective disorder
Authors: McKane J. P. , Hughes A. M.
Published: August 2007

ABSTRACT— Two patients with major affective disorder are described. In both cases synaesthesia was a prominent and integral feature of the disorder. The discussion considers the relationship of perceptual upset and affective disorders.
Fatal outcome in drug addiction
Authors: Tunving K.
Published: August 2007

ABSTRACT— A sample of 524 young drug addicts consecutively treated at a special hospital ward has been followed by registers for an average of 10 years. A total of 62 were found to have died drug‐related deaths at an average age of 28 years; 19 of them had committed suicide. Representativeness of the sample is investigated. Sex and choice of drugs were predictive factors behind fatal outcome: male opiate addicts died 5.4 times and male amphetamine abusers 2.5 times as often as expected. The males were exposed to greater risk than the females. Those who committed suicide had an hereditary disposition for mental disturbances, especially affective disorders. Lethal substances proved to be opiates, barbiturates and alcohol and/or other psychotropic preparations. Signs of heart disease were often found in the overdose cases. Most of the addicts who died were in a compulsive stage of the drug career, but some were abstaining or trying to abstain from drugs. A critical period seems to be at 26‐28 years of age, a period when the abuse seems to be most intense and compulsive, the suicide risk is high and the efforts to abstain from drugs most serious and hazardous.
Mortality in a psychiatric population: A Nigerian psychiatric hospital experience
Authors: Abiodun O. A.
Published: August 2007

ABSTRACT— Out of a total of 10,661 patients admitted over a 10‐year period in a Nigerian psychiatric hospital, 138 deaths were recorded. A decreasing trend in the mortality figures was demonstrated despite a marked increase in the number of admissions. There were more male deaths (60%) than female deaths (40%). The majority of the patients who died (64%) were under the age of 40 years. Infection was the single most important cause of death. There was one case of suicide and one other death resulted from ECT. Sudden unexplained deaths occurred in 19% of the cases. Possible ways of further reducing the mortality figures are suggested.
Mental health in young people in relation to child welfare and institutional care in childhood
Authors: Almqvist F.
Published: August 2007

This study shows that children with experience of child welfare and institutional care are clearly more disturbed than their peers who lived without external intervention and with their original families. The results indicate that child welfare intervention has only been of limited help to disadvantaged children especially for children with psychiatric and educational problems. Preventive measures have to be extended and psychotherapeutic interventions intensified before child welfare can compensate the handicaps and drawbacks of seriously disadvantaged children and secure the quality of life for them.
Factorial structure and factor reliability of the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression
Authors: O'Brien K. P. , Glaudin V.
Published: August 2007

Identical principal components factor analyses of total Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression scores were conducted for two separate sub‐samples (N = 183 and N = 182) drawn from the same clinic population of moderately depressed outpatients. A comparison of the two factor analyses revealed substantial agreement for four factors across the two sub‐samples (i.e., four factors from the first sub‐sample correlated at least 0.80 with a homologous dimension in the second sub‐sample). The four factors were labelled Somatic Complaints, Anorexia, Sleep Disturbance, and Agitation/Retardation. Some additional factors emerged in the analysis of one sub‐sample but failed to appear in the other. Overall, these results suggest that the HRS exhibited a relatively stable factorial structure based on a large sample of outpatients with unipolar depressive disorders. Methodological problems with earlier research are discussed in light of the current findings.
Urinary phenylacetic acid excretion in depressive patients
Authors: González‐Sastre F. , Mora J. , Guillamat R. , Queraltó J. M. , Álvarez E. , Udina C. , Massana J.
Published: August 2007

Phenylacetic acid (PAA), a metabolite of phenylethylamine, has been found in the urine of depressed patients at lower levels than in control subjects. It has been suggested that the determination of PAA in urine could be used as a biological marker of the depressive condition. In this study the levels of PAA in urine were investigated by gas‐liquid chromatography in 39 patients diagnosed as having major depression according to DSM‐III criteria, and in 32 healthy subjects. The values found in the patients were markedly lower than in controls. No relationship was found between the decrease of PAA excretion and weight loss. Using a discriminant equation, a value of 69% was obtained for both sensitivity and specificity. The results suggest that the determination of urine PAA could be a biological parameter comparable to the dexamethasone suppression test.
PET determination of regional cerebral glucose metabolism in alcohol‐dependent men and healthy controls using 11C‐glucose
Authors: Wik G. , Borg S. , Sjögren I. , Wiesel F.‐A. , Blomqvist G. , Borg J. , Greitz T. , Nybäck H. , Sedvall G. , Stone‐Elander S. , Widen L.
Published: August 2007

Regional brain glucose metabolism was determined in 9 male alcohol‐dependent inpatients and 12 male healthy controls. All the patients were socially impaired by the alcohol abuse. All the subjects had abstained from alcohol and drugs for more than four weeks before entering the study. Brain glucose metabolism was determined by positron emission tomography (PET) with 11C‐glucose as the tracer. Regions of interest were drawn on displayed computed tomographic (CT) images of the brain. Regions were transferred to corresponding PET slices, allowing the determination of regional glucose metabolism. In the healthy volunteers there was a reduction in glucose metabolism with age. In 11 of the 19 brain regions examined, the alcoholics had a 20% to 30% lower glucose metabolism than the controls. This was true for both cortical and subcortical structures. The distribution of relative regional metabolic rates indicated that parietal cortical areas were most affected. Atrophic changes as shown by CT were not correlated to the reduced metabolism in the alcohol‐dependent patients.
Pattern reversal visual evoked potential among men at risk for alcoholism
Authors: Pollock V. E. , Volavka J. , Gabrielli W. F. , Mednick S. A. , Knop J. , Goodwin D. W.
Published: August 2007

The biological sons of male alcoholics, deemed to be at high risk (HR) for the development of alcoholism, were compared to control males, aged 18 to 21, using measures of the visual evoked potential elicited by checkerboard pattern reversal. Overall, the HR and control groups were not distinguished on the basis of visual evoked potential measures acquired from the occipital scalp region; however, when comparisons were restricted to right‐handed subjects, the HR subjects showed more symmetry in a positive component with approximate latency of 242 ms compared with control subjects. The results are discussed in relation to hemispheric differences and alcoholism.
Relationship of age to TSH response to TRH in depressed men
Authors: Wahby V. S. , Ibrahim G. A. , Giller E. L. , Martin R. P. , Saddik F. W. , Singh S. P. , Mason J. W.
Published: August 2007

The relationship between age and TSH response to TRH was studied in 40 men with unipolar major depressive disorder (range 24–65 years, mean 44.7 years) and 36 healthy male volunteers of similar ages. Both groups were subdivided into younger and older than 40 years of age. “Blunted” TSH response to TRH was observed in 58% of depressed men and in 28% of controls, using a dTSH maximum of ≤ 6 μU/ml as a cut‐off criterion. Older healthy men had a higher blunting rate (40%) than the younger group (19%). In depressed patients, by contrast, the blunting rate was 50% in the older group and 65% in the younger group. Higher mean maximum dTSH, higher basal TSH and lower mean circulating FT4 levels were also noted in older depressed men, suggestive of a subtle thyroid subsensitivity to TSH stimulation and subclinical primary hypothyroidism that may have contributed to the depression. Age is known to be a confounder of TRH test results. There may be a subset of depressed patients over 40 where the confounding effect of age is associated with an exaggerated, rather than decreased TSH response to TRH.
An ethological description of depression
Authors: Pedersen J. , Schelde J. T. M. , Hannibal E. , Behnke K. , Nielsen B. M. , Hertz M.
Published: August 2007

During the last 20 years ethological psychiatric research has developed a working method for the systematic and quantitative recording and analysis of the nonverbal behaviour of psychiatric patients in their actual hospital environment. In this study this method was used to follow changes in the behaviour pattern of 5 depressed, hospitalized patients during their entire hospital stay. Parallel to ethological recording, patients were rated according to Hamilton twice a week. The patients who were most depressed at admission showed the greatest behavioural changes; the changes were most conspicuous in the behavioural elements representing social contact and communication. One patient who obviously developed a new depression during the observation period without this being recognized by the Hamilton rating or the clinical control, seemed to have been better described by the behaviour recording. This study shows that ethological psychiatric methods are very suitable for obtaining a better basis for the observations of the staff in the ward environment.
Psychiatric aspects of Down's syndrome
Authors: Lund J.
Published: August 2007

In a survey study of psychiatric morbidity, based on a representative sample from the Danish mental retardation register, 44 adults with Down's syndrome (DS) were compared with 258 other mentally retarded adults. Assessed by the parameters psychiatric disorder, behaviour problems, neurotic triats, and deviant social interaction, the DS group functioned better on all parameters. However, male and female DS patients were very different, the females constituting a superior well‐functioning group while the males had major problems in every area. High prevalence rates of dementia and infantile autism were found in the DS group. General function rapidly decreased with age in DS patients.
Offspring of women with nonorganic psychosis: mother‐infant interaction and fear of strangers during the first year of life
Authors: Persson‐Blennow I. , Binett B. , McNeil T. F.
Published: August 2007

Mother‐infant interaction characteristics at six ages during the first year of life were studied in relationship to the development of the infant's fear of strangers (FOS) during the first year. Among 46 offspring of women with psychosis history, a failure to develop the expected FOS was associated with antecedent negative qualitative aspects of interaction such as increased maternal tension, reduced harmony in feeding and increased infant crying. Among 80 low‐risk control infants, a failure to develop FOS was associated with an antecedent quantitative reduction in social contact within the mother‐infant pair. At a case level, an absence of FOS overlapped little with anxious attachment to the mother, and these two developmental phenomena bear partially different relationships to the mother‐infant interaction characteristics.
Prospective studies on a lithium cohort
Authors: Vestergaard P. , Poulstrup I. , Schou M.
Published: August 2007

A cohort of manic‐depressive patients given prophylactic lithium treatment were examined before treatment started and at intervals during treatment for up to 7 years. The mean lithium dosage was 23.2 mmol/d and the mean serum lithium concentration 0.68 mmol/1. About 40% of the patients were entirely free of side effects, as compared with 10% among patients treated previously with higher lithium doses and serum lithium concentrations. Tremor complaints were presented by 5% of the patients before and by 15% during lithium treatment. The frequency fell with continued treatment, and after a few years it was not higher than before treatment started. Tremor complaints were positively correlated with age and with the use of neuroleptics and antidepressants. The tremorigenic effects of lithium and antidepressants seemed to potentiate each other. Tremor complaints were more frequent at serum lithium levels over than under 0.7 mmol/1. Body weight increased during the first 1–2 years of lithium treatment and then remained constant. The average gain was 4 kg. Weight gain was positively correlated with the patients’ body weight before treatment and with the concurrent administration of antidepressant drugs. The frequency of diarrhea complaints (loose stools, defecation urge) rose from 1% to 6% during the first 6 months of lithium treatment and then leveled off. The frequency rose steeply at serum lithium values over 0.8 mmol/1.

During lithium administration about one tenth of the patients had psychological complaints, which might or might not have been caused by the treatment: memory impairment and concentrating difficulty, tiredness and “greyness of life”, in a few cases altered taste or lowered libido and potency.
A prospective study of postpartum psychoses in a high‐risk group
Authors: McNeil T. F. , Blennow G.
Published: August 2007

Somatic complications of labor and delivery and offspring abnormality were studied in relationship to the development of 24 postpartum psychotic episodes (PPPs) occurring among index women with a history of nonorganic psychosis. The 24 PPP cases were compared with 60 index cases not developing PPPs. Nonsignificant trends were found towards increased rates of induction of labor, fetal distress, instrumental deliveries and offspring abnormality among cases with PPP onset within 3 weeks of delivery. Instrumental delivery was the only complication that tended to have occurred with increased frequency among cases with PPP onset after 3 weeks.
Intimacy and mental disorder in late middle age Report of the TURVA project
Authors: Salokangas R. K. R. , Mattila V. , Joukamaa M.
Published: August 2007

This study, which was carried out as part of the TURVA project on psychosocial adaptation in old age, is concerned with the significance of social support to people approaching retirement age. The population consisted of 200 urban dwellers and 189 rural dwellers, who were studied at the age of 62. The subjects were either about to retire in the near future or had already retired, and it was assumed that this event causes a certain amount of stress, which may lead to mental disturbance regardless of the amount of social support available to the individual. Intimate relationship and close friendship served as the measures of social support. Mental disturbances were assessed on the basis of the General Health Questionnaire (36‐item version) and the number of psychic and especially depressive symptoms. The prevalence of mental disturbance and depressive symptoms was lowest in those people who lived in a close marital relationship and who also described their spouse as empathic. Psychic symptoms were most common in those people who said their relationship to their spouse was distant and who described them as unempathic. The subjects who were not married fell in‐between these 2 groups regardless of whether they had an intimate relationship with someone of the opposite sex. A positive marital relationship seemed to provide a shield against depression, while a negative marital relationship tended to make the individual more vulnerable to depression. The role of a close non‐marital friendship depended on the respondent's sex. In women, it was associated with a high prevalence of depressive symptoms. The interpretation offered is that women are more inclined than men to share their emotional troubles over a wider network of human relationships. For men, contradictions in a close relationship tended to be more serious and problematic.
Women with nonorganic psychosis: psychiatric and demographic characteristics of cases with versus without postpartum psychotic episodes
Authors: McNeil T. F.
Published: August 2007

Within a sample of 88 reproducing women with nonorganic psychosis, psychiatric and demographic characteristics were compared for women having only postpartum psychotic episodes (PPPs), women never having PPPs, and women having both PPPs and other psychotic episodes. Cases with only PPPs or both PPPs/other episodes most frequently had affective disorders. Cases with no PPPs most frequently had schizophrenia. Even with diagnosis controlled, cases with only PPPs were comparatively high in social class and in age at initial illness onset and were less severely ill than others. Cases with both PPPs/other episodes had the opposite characteristics. Cases never having PPPs had an intermediary position between the other two groups. PPPs in patients having only PPPs bore a special relationship to parity, not seen in other patients. PPPs appear to be associated with two different types of clinical/demographic patterns, depending upon whether the PPPs occur in isolation or as part of another illness pattern.
A prospective study of postpartum psychoses in a high‐risk group
Authors: McNeil T. F. , Persson‐Blennow I. , Binett B. , Harty B. , Karyd U.‐B.
Published: August 2007

Among the offspring of 88 pregnant index women with a history of nonorganic psychosis, offspring whose mothers developed postpartum psychotic episodes (PPPs) following birth (maximum n= 17) were compared with the remaining index offspring on emotional development during the first year of life, temperament characteristics during the first 2 years, and mental characteristics at 6 years of age. The maternal PPPs were not associated with any negative consequences for offspring development, and the offspring of PPP cases evidenced a number of more positive mental developmental characteristics than did other index offspring. Further comparison with offspring of normal‐risk controls also supported the conclusion of no negative effect caused by maternal PPPs. Choice of an appropriate comparison group for PPP cases is discussed.
An attempt to operationalize reactive delusional psychosis
Authors: Jørgensen P. , Jensen J.
Published: August 2007

Reactive psychosis is a diagnostic concept widely used in Scandinavia but it is still a subject of discussion and controversy internationally. Inside Scandinavia the diagnosis is used according to varying criteria, which is one of the reasons for high diagnostic instability and a threat to the validity and reliability of the concept. This article presents an attempt to operationalize reactive delusional psychosis, to test its clinical utility in a pilot study, and to test the reliability of the individual items. More clinical studies based on operationalization, demarcation of the concept, and interrater reliability are needed to convince psychiatrists outside Scandinavia of the existence of reactive psychosis as a useful nosological concept in patients with good prognosis and who mainly need psychotherapy.
Insulin‐like growth factor I in depressed patients and controls
Authors: Lesch K.‐P. , Rupprecht R. , Müller U. , Pfüller H. , Beckmann H.
Published: August 2007

To explore the role of the somatomedin‐mediated long‐loop negative feedback mechanism in altered growth hormone (GH) secretory dynamics associated with depression, plasma IGF‐I concentrations were measured in 34 patients with a major depressive episode and matched healthy subjects. Compared with controls, depressed patients exhibited significantly increased plasma IGF‐I concentrations. In the patient group plasma IGF‐I concentrations were positively correlated with the maximum post‐dexamethasone plasma cortisol concentrations. Our data suggest that increased plasma IGF‐I concentration may reflect diurnal GH hypersecretion, contribute to deficient GH responses to dynamic challenges, and indicate an interrelationship between the hypothalamic‐pituitary‐somatotropic (HPS) and ‐adrenocortical (HPA) system regulation in depression.
Why low‐dose benzodiazepine‐dependent insomniacs can't escape their sleeping pills
Authors: Schneider‐Helmert D.
Published: August 2007

Psychobiological aspects of low‐dose benzodiazepine dependence (LBD) and drug withdrawal were investigated in 76 middle‐aged and elderly chronic insomniacs in a sleep laboratory. Comparison with drug‐free insomniacs showed that LBD leads to a complete loss of hypnotic activity and substantial suppression of delta and REM sleep. Only small differences were found between benzodiazepines with different half‐life time. Upon withdrawal, recovery from this suppression, especially in REM sleep, occurred, while insomnia did not increase. The patients, however, reported sleeping longer while taking the drug compared with withdrawal. This misperception seems to be a specific effect of benzodiazepines, and contrasts with the full awareness of insomnia upon withdrawal. It is concluded that these effects play a leading role in the patients’ inability to escape their sleeping pills. The response of REM sleep to withdrawal should make this a useful measure to objectively confirm low‐dose benzodiazepine dependence.
A clinical study of reactive psychosis
Authors: Chavan B.S. , Kulhara P.
Published: August 2007

Manifest psychopathology, life events, family history and personality traits were studied in a group of 22 patients diagnosed to have reactive psychosis. Individually matched healthy controls were also assessed for life events. The patient group had significantly higher weighted stress scores than the controls. Compared with Scandinavian patients, the study patients had more delusions, hallucinations and emotional syndrome.
Resolution of chlorpromazine‐induced pigmentation with haloperidol substitution
Authors: Thompson T.R. , Lal S. , Yassa R. , Gerstein W.
Published: August 2007

Four patients with chlorpromazine‐induced pigmentation showed resolution of the condition on replacing chlorpromazine with haloperidol.
National differences in psychiatric morbidity: methodological issues, scientific interpretations and social implications
Authors: Westermeyer Joseph
Published: August 2007

ABSTRACT If national differences in psychiatric morbidity could be established, this information could guide us towards greater understanding of psychopathology and perhaps aid in primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention of psychiatric disorders. Obstacles to determining national differences include application of epidemiological concepts in psychiatry, diagnostic criteria and reliability, sampling and data collection problems, and factors affecting rates which are not constant across nations (e.g., mortality associated with psychiatric disorder, migration). Despite these problems, four diagnostic entities are considered from the standpoint of national differences (i.e., schizophrenia, substance abuse, mental retardation, and pathoplastic or “culture bound” disorders). Three examples of social or “supra‐diagnostic” problems relevant to national differences in psychiatric morbidity are also addressed: youth as a high risk group, homeless mentally ill, and adversive migration.
A theoretical framework for linking the experience of dysfunctional parental rearing attitudes with manifest psychopathology (*)
Authors: Perris C.
Published: August 2007

ABSTRACT The results of several investigations suggest a possible relationship between a subject's experience of the rearing attitudes of his parents and the later development of various kinds of psychopathological disorders. Most studies, however, are based on small populations and on dubious assumptions about linear causal relationships between parental rearing practices and poorly defined mental disorders.

This article gives a theoretical background to a comprehensive multinational study of rearing practices and psychopathology, now in progress.

It is suggested that dysfunctional parental rearing practices may contribute to the development of dysfunctional parental rearing practices may contribute to the development of dysfunctional self‐schemata by the offspring and that these dysfunctional self‐schemata represent an important pathogenetic link between rearing practices and psychopathological disorders.
Obsessive‐compulsive neurosis in relation to parental child‐rearing patterns amongst the Greek, Italian, and Anglo‐Australian subjects
Authors: Ehiobuche Iheanyi
Published: August 2007

Obsessive‐compulsive neurosis was found to be manifest within a relatively normal (students) population. Obsessional subjects obtained from a clinical sample were compared with those obtained from normal students population on symptom, trait, resistance and interference scales of the Modified Leyton Obsessional Inventory with no significant differences in scores found. Obsessional subjects across three different ethnic/cultural backgrounds (Greeks, Italians and Anglo‐Australians) consistently rated their parents as more rejecting and overprotecting and less emotionally warm in their child‐rearing practices when compared with normal control subjects. The significant differences found between the obsessionals and the normal control subjects are considered as strongly indicative of the psychopathological conditions of the obsessionals found in a normal population and a differentiating factor between the two groups. Two sub‐classes of obsessive‐compulsive subjects were distinguished and compared in relation to their perceived parental rearing characteristics. But no significant differences were found. Thus, the notion that compulsive checkers as opposed to compulsive cleaners emerge from two different parental rearing patterns was not sustained in this instance.
Psychiatric and social problems among immigrants
Authors: Rack Philip H.
Published: August 2007

ABSTRACT High rates of mental morbidity among migrants are common but not universal. Differences in rates may reflect factors in: (a) the country of origin; (b) the actual move; (c) the country of settlement. About 1.8 million people came to Britain in 1950–1970 from the West Indies and Indian subcontinent. They resembled Gastarbeiters in other European countries, except that as Commonwealth citizens they had the right of permanent residence. With their children (many of whom are now adults) they are 3.5% of Britain's population. Britain does not have a liberal compolitan culture in which newcomers are welcomed, and the situation has deteriorated in response to high unemployment, constrained public expenditure, and widening gulfs between income‐groups. Minority groups are scapegoated, and racial prejudice is more apparent than ever. Black people face obstacles in education and employment. Immigration laws which curtail the right to live in Britain have created insecurity, which is aggravated by insensitive policing and irresponsible press reporting. Institutions and authorities have been slow to respond to the different needs of new cultures. Riots receive more publicity than the daily violence which black people experience, which includes implicit contempt expressed as negative stereotypes, and explicit physical harassment.

In this situation a high incidence of stress‐related disporders might be predicted. There has been insufficient community‐based research but one study of Indian and Pakistani samples showed them to have less mental and emotional disorder than indigenous controls. Research using mental hospital admission data gives conflicting results, but generally seems to show high admission rates among people of Caribbean background: they are more often admitted compulsorily, or detained in high security units. This does not apply to Asians. The difference between Asian and Afrocaribbean groups raises questions, since they arrived at about the same time and for similar reasons. Asians having their own languages, religions and culture, might have expected more adaptational difficulty than the Afro‐Caribbeans who understood English, were Christians, and had an education and culture modelled on an English pattern. Both are victims of racist hostility and discrimination. If the relationship between adaptation and mental illness were simple we might expect Asians to be more vulnerable than Afrocaribbeans: not the reverse. Perhaps variables in the country of settlement (see (c) above) are less important than was supposed, and more attention should be paid to variables (a) and (b).
Hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal and ‐thyroid axis dysfunctions and decrements in the availability of L‐tryptophan as biological markers of suicidal ideation in major depressed females
Authors: Maes M. , Vandewoude M. , Schotte C. , Martin M. , Blockx P. , Scharpe S. , Cosyns P.
Published: August 2007

Several neurochemical correlates of suicide were recently detected. Some authors found increased disorders in the hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal (HPA) and ‐thyroid (HPT) axes and disturbances in serotonergic neurotransmission in suicidal patients. In order to investigate the biological correlates of suicidal ideation, we measured the following: basal thyrotropin‐secreting hormone (TSH), free thyroxine (FT4), pre‐ and postdexamethasone cortisol, adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) levels, the circulating concentrations of total L‐tryptophan (L‐TRP) and the ratio between L‐TRP and competing amino acids (CAA). The subjects were 17 suicidal and 17 nonsuicidal major depressed females matched for age and severity of illness. We found no significant differences in any of the above‐mentioned biological data between patients with suicidal ideation and those without.
Cortisol secretion in adolescents with major depressive disorder
Authors: Dahl R. , Puig‐Antich J. , Ryan N. , Nelson B. , Novacenko H. , Twomey J. , Williamson D. , Goetz R. , Ambrosini P. J.
Published: August 2007

Plasma cortisol concentrations were determined every 20 min for 24 h, in a nonstressful environment, among 48 rigorously assessed, mostly outpatient, drug‐free adolescent subjects during an episode of major depression (MDD) and among 40 normal adolescent subjects. There were no significant differences in the 24‐h mean, peak, or nadir, or the time of the nocturnal rise, in plasma cortisol in the 2 groups. Analyses of different subgroups of MDD adolescents according to suicidality, severity of depression, separation anxiety, psychotic subtype, endogenicity, duration of episode, and sex also revealed no significant group differences. Only one adolescent (with MDD) was identified clearly as a hypersecretor of cortisol. These results indicate that abnormalities of spontaneous cortisol secretion are an unusual finding among adolescents with major depression when studied in a nonstressful environment.
Functional impairment in tardive dyskinesia: medical and psychosocial dimensions*
Authors: Yassa R.
Published: August 2007

The author presents 22 patients with tardive dyskinesia who were referred to him through consultation. Several patients had functional impairment caused by their movement disorder. Impaired gait was noted in 6 patients, speech impediment in 3 and thoughts of suicide in I. Psychosocial difficulties were reported in 12 patients. The author concludes that tardive dyskinesia can lead to difficulties in patients who are suffering from the severe form.
Towards selective and improved performance of the mental status examination
Authors: Rosenthal M. J.
Published: August 2007

Performance of mental status examinations (MSE) is often useful but is not warranted for all new patients, except for training, research, special request, or policy. Reasons for doing MSE must be weighed against possible detrimental effects on patients or on patient‐clinician relationships. Both sides are reviewed. Methods for ameliorating or preventing adverse effects are described. Validity of findings using MSE are frequently doubtful and examiners often misinterpret their significance. A decision tree is presented to help decide whether to use the MSE in particular instances.
Sex difference in prevalence of minor psychiatric morbidity: a social epidemiological study in Taiwan
Authors: Cheng T. A.
Published: August 2007

ABSTRACT— The female excess in prevalence of minor psychiatric morbidity (MPM) evident in a community study in Taiwan (n‐ 1023) was further investigated in terms of demographic variables, socioenvironmental risk factors and psychosocial stresses. It was suggested that a stronger effect of chronic psychosocial stressors accounted for the higher prevalence of MPM in women. Further analysis has revealed a longer mean duration of MPM in women and an incidence ratio close to unity between the sexes. These retrospective findings were further examined in a small one‐year prospective outcome study; a poorer outcome was found among older subjects and female subjects, it is suggested that more females have MPM because chronic psychosocial stressors more adversely affect the course of such morbidity. These results are discussed in a cross‐cultural context.
Patterns of psychiatric care in south Verona and Groningen
Authors: Balestrieri M. , Sytema S. , Gavioli I. , Micciolo R.
Published: August 2007

ABSTRACT— The pattern of utilization of mental health services in south Verona (Italy) and in Groningen (the Netherlands) was studied. The local psychiatric case registers were used to select patients aged 15 years or more who had at least one contact in 1982 and no contacts in the previous 365 days. Each patient was followed for 36 months after the first contact in 1982. The 2 cohorts differed in size (373 in south Verona and 590 in Groningen), age, diagnosis and pattern of care, whereas the sex distribution was similar. The cohort in Groningen was characterized by a higher number of elderly people, suffering from organic psychoses. Drug dependence prevailed in south Verona, while alcohol dependence was predominant in Groningen. The pattern of care was classified according to 2 basic measures, the gross duration of care and the net duration of care. In south Verona single consulters were almost 3 times more common than in Groningen, In general, patients in Groningen tended to depend more on the mental health services. Linear regression analysis was used to determine the extent to which the pattern of care was predicted by the sociode‐mographical and clinical characteristics of the patients. Only the site where the contacts were made (south Verona or Groningen) and the diagnosis were significantly associated with the pattern of care.
Does the act of migration provoke psychiatric breakdown?
Authors: Mavreas V. , Bebbington P.
Published: August 2007

ABSTRACT— This article describes a community psychiatric survey of a random sample (n= 291) of Greek Cypriot immigrants living in London. Over three quarters of the immigrants were first generation. Information from the subject and from hospital case records were used to date previous episodes of psychiatric disorder. Datable episodes had occurred in 52 subjects. There was no evidence that the risk of breakdown was increased in the immediate aftermath of immigration. For 34 subjects who experienced their first illness after migration, the mean interval was 15 years. In only 9% did breakdown occur within 2 years of migration. The age‐specific incidence of psychiatric disorder was the same as that seen in a native British sample. Although there were differences in the age of onset of first‐ and second‐generation subjects, this was in the opposite direction to that expected if immigration appreciably provoked breakdown.
Serum dopamine‐β‐hydroxylase activity in clinical subtypes of depression
Authors: Sapru M. K. , Rao B. S. S. R. , Channabasavanna S. M.
Published: August 2007

ABSTRACT— Serum dopamine‐β‐hydroxylase (DBH) activity was determined in male adult psychiatric patients (n ‐ 280) and age‐matched male healthy controls (n= 100). Patients included in the study had no history of previous or current exposure to psychoactive drugs and were diagnosed according to Research Diagnostic Criteria. A significant decrease in serum DBH activity was noted in patients with psychotic major depressive disorder (n= 50) as compared with controls. In acute schizophrenics (n= 100), nonpsychotic major depressives (n = 45) and patients with manic disorder (n= 85), mean DBH activity did not differ significantly from the control values.
Smooth pursuit eye tracking and neuro‐psychological performance in healthy volunteers
Authors: Bartfai A. , Wirsén A. , Levander S. , Schalling D.
Published: August 2007

ABSTRACT— Eye movement dysfunction (EMD) has been repeatedly found in schizophrenics and their first‐degree relatives. In the present study, smooth pursuit eye tracking was measured in healthy subjects and related to performance on computerized neuropsychological tasks assumed to involve frontal or frontoparietal functions: monitoring perspective fluctuations (Necker cube), finger tapping, trail making, reaction time (RT) and a perceptual maze test. Poor trackers performed worse on tasks requiring parallel processing (trail making with letters and digits and RT with random auditory signals for response inhibition) and made more errors and cancellations on the mazes. Results are in line with our earlier EMD results on schizophrenics, showing poor performance on frontal tasks. However, their deficiency was more pervasive, whereas the present healthy EMD subjects only had difficulties with more complex tasks. The results are of interest in view of the recent evidence that EMD may be a genetic marker for vulnerability to schizophrenia.
A factor analytical study of the Comprehensive Psychopathological Rating Scale among patients with anxiety and depressive disorders
Authors: Martinsen E. W. , Friis S. , Hoflart A.
Published: August 2007

ABSTRACT— A sample of 136 inpatients, meeting the DSM‐III‐R criteria for anxiety and/or unipolar depressive disorders, were rated on the 37 CPRS items designed for nonpsychotic disorders. By factor analysis we identified 2 indices: a 12‐item depression index and a 7‐item anxiety index. The indices proved to have good internal consistency and interrater reliability. They differentiated well between patients with anxiety and those with depressive disorders, and among subgroups of anxiety and depression. Our depression index may represent a slight improvement in specificity compared with previously suggested depression indices. Our main finding is the identification of an anxiety index with good psychometric properties.
Does routine screening for benzodiazepines help to diagnose dependence in psychiatric inpatients?
Authors: Priebe S. , Liesenfeld O. , Müller‐Oerlinghausen B.
Published: August 2007

ABSTRACT— After admission, 899 inpatients of a psychiatric university hospital were routinely screened for benzodiazepines (BDZ) in the urine. BDZ were detected in 134 (15%) patients with various primary diagnoses. Criteria for BDZ abuse or dependence were found in 36 patients, in 35 cases, either intake of BDZ had not been reported in the first psychiatric interview, or such a report had not been documented in the patient's charts. None of these 35 patients was found to have BDZ abuse or dependence. Psychiatric inpatients with BDZ abuse or dependence seem to report their intake of BDZ. These findings suggest that a routine screening for BDZ can hardly help to diagnose dependence within a university hospital setting. Nevertheless, an objective test for intake of BDZ may be useful in special cases.
Sex‐linked differences in cortisol, ACTH and prolactin responses to 5‐hydroxy‐tryptophan in healthy controls and minor and major depressed patients
Authors: Maes M. , Vandewoude M. , Schotte C. , Maes L. , Martin M. , Blockx P.
Published: August 2007

ABSTRACT— Some researchers have found that the administration of 5‐hydroxytryptophan (5‐HTP) results in increased cortisol secretion in major depressives but not in healthy controls. Other authors observed gender‐related differences in cortisol responses to 5‐HTP in major depressives. In order to investigate the pituitary/adrenal responsivity to 5‐HTP, the authors measured cortisol, adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and prolactin (PRL) in 30 healthy controls and in 90 depressed patients; the hormone levels were determined in baseline conditions and 60, 90 and 120 min after 125 ma L‐5‐HTP (orally, non‐enteric coated). We found [hat healthy men had significantly higher cortisol responses to L‐5‐HTP than healthy women. In the major depressives with melancholia and/or psychotic features these differences were reversed: women exhibited significantly higher cortisol and PRL responses than men. In the female group the most severely depressed patients had increased cortisol and PRL responses to L‐5‐HTP. The amplitudes of the cortisol, ACTH and PRL responses to L‐5‐HTP were significantly and positively correlated. It was concluded that the central serotonergic regulation of ACTH and PRL is significantly different between the sexes and between healthy controls, minor depressives and severely depressed patients.
Outcome of panic and depression in a seven‐year follow‐up: results of the Zurich study
Authors: Volirath M. , Angst J.
Published: August 2007

ABSTRACT— In this study, the association and outcome of panic and depression were investigated in an epidemioloeical cohort of young adults interviewed at age 21, 23, and 28. The prevalence rates of sporadic panic, panic disorder, major depression, and recurrent brief depression were very stable. There was a clear preponderance of females in all diagnoses. Panic and depression overlapped to a large extent cross‐sectionally at all 3 interviews, and this overlap increased in a longitudinal perspective. For the analysis of outcome, the subjects were divided into 4 groups according to their diagnosis at the first interview: pure panic, pure depression, mixed panic and depression, and controls. Irrespective of the first diagnosis, the 7‐year outcome showed a strong tendency to develop into pure depression or mixed panic and depression at follow‐up interviews. In a longitudinal perspective, cases that suffered from both panic and depression appeared more severely ill, as expressed in very high treatment rates and a high rate of lifetime suicide attempts.
Inpatient adolescent psychiatry in a teaching hospital in Nigeria
Authors: Oyewumi L. K.
Published: August 2007

ABSTRACT— The sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of 84 adolescents admitted to the psychiatric unit of a teaching hospital in Nigeria were studied. Their ages ranged from 12–20 years (mean 17). The pattern of psychiatric disorders in this population reflected the pattern in the adult population. Major psychoses comprising schizophrenia (44%), organic brain syndrome (23%), and affective disorders (16%) predominated. Infections and drug abuse are preventable causes of organic brain syndrome. Male adolescents were as likely to be hospitalized for a major psychiatric disorder as female adolescents. The peak period for psychopathology is late adolescence. The contributions of such factors as rural‐urban migration, birth order, family size, polygamy and genetics to the etiology of major mental disorders in this population require further investigations. Understanding the prevalence and pattern of presentation of mental disorders in all age groups is essential for effective mental health planning.
Fatal poisonings with antidepressants in Finland 1985–1987
Authors: Vuori Erkki , Klaukka Timo , Lahti Tarja
Published: August 2007

In Finland the majority of the users of antidepressants are women and old age people. In the 80's the number of fatal poisonings has increased. During the years 1985 ‐ 1987 58% of these poisonings were women who belonged to the younger age group of the users.

The older tricyclic drugs are known to be more toxic, at least in overdose, than the newer antidepressants especially when they are compared to mianserin. Of the latter, however, lately more serious side effects have been reported. For this reason the use of the different kinds of antidepressants in Finland had changed: the sales of doxepin and amitriptyline have increased and those of maprotiline and mianserin have decreased.

To study the role of antidepressants in sudden and unexpected deaths the fatality ratio (defined as fatalities divided by defined daily doses per 1000 inhabitant/day) was calculated for four most prescribed antidepressants. As to the sales, amitriptyline has to be considered to be the leading antidepressant followed by doxepin, mianserin and maprotiline. As a detection in the forensic toxicological screening the sales related ratios showed that maprotiline was most commonly found followed by doxepin, amitriptyline and mianserin. When an antidepressant was the cause of death the fatality ratio was highest for doxepin (6.4) followed by maprotiline (4.3). amitriptyline (4.0) and mianserin (1). In cases of established suicides the order was the same again.

As a conclusion it can be said that when the risks of the use of antidepressants are evaluated the performance of a single drug must be considered as a whole: the side effects and its role and properties in intoxication versus the antidepressant benefits of the drug, since they are prescribed to depressed and hence patients with a tendency to suicide.
Norwegian data on death due to overdose of antidepressants
Authors: Retterstøl Professor N.
Published: August 2007

The number of suicides in Norway has doubled during the last two decades, as has also the number of suicides by intoxication. Data are presented which demonstrate that while barbiturates make out a strongly decreasing percentage of the intoxications, the antidepressants make out a definite increasing percentage. The tricyclic antidepressants make out the bulk. There is a strong need for effective antidepressants with less toxicity than the commonly used tricyclic antidepressants.
The stress upon rescures involved in an oil rig disaster. “Alexander L. Kielland” 1980
Authors: Ersland S. , Weisæth L. , Sund A.
Published: August 2007

ABSTRACT Nine months post‐disaster, 134 rescuers involved in an off‐shore oil rig disaster were investigated by using a structured self report questionnaire to chart their experience of coping with disaster impact stressors and their mental and physical health 9 months after the disaster. Of the 134 rescuers, 24 were categorized as professional rescuers, 101 as non‐professionals and 9 could not be classified. Of the 212 victims, all oil rig workers, 89 (42%) were rescued. Seventy‐six percent of the rescuers reported they had been exposed to danger during the rescue operation, and 62% found the experience to be the worst ever. Eighty to ninety percent felt they had coped fairly well with the task, and severely disturbed coping was reported to be below 10% for decision‐making, ability to judge risk, capacity to function as leader, and finally ability to cooperate and act efficiently. For the non‐professionals, severe disturbance in ability to plan before acting was reported by 10% and moderate disturbance was reported by 38%. The frequency of emotional stress reactions during the rescue work can be assessed from the fact that 64% to 52% reported discouragement, restlessness, uncertainty, anxiety and irritation. The stressors inherent in this type of disaster seem to satisfy the DSM III stressor criterion for post‐traumatic stress disorder. Nine months after the disaster 24% reported their mental health to be poor due to the disaster impact, and only the most experienced rescuers had a low health risk compared to the others.