bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Cognitive performance in tests sensitive to frontal lobe dysfunction in the elderly depressed
Authors: Beats B. C. , Sahakian B. J. , Levy R. 
Published: July 2009

SynopsisThe paper reports the profile of impairment across a variety of cognitive functions with special emphasis on tests sensitive to frontal lobe dysfunction, in 24 elderly depressed patients during and on recovery from mood disorder, compared with 15 age- and sex-matched controls. Traditional neuropsychological tests and a recently developed battery of computerized tests (CANTAB) were used. Impairments were found in the depressed group compared to controls and to themselves on recovery across all domains examined. The depressed group showed deficits on visuospatial recognition memory, attentional shifting at the extra-dimensional shift stage and in measures of both processing and motor speed without impaired accuracy in a visual search task. Impairments were also found on a planning task with disproportionately increased numbers of moves needed for more difficult problems and evidence of both slowed motor response and increased processing time once the task was commenced.Performance on recovery improved across all tasks. Comparisons were made with the performance of patients suffering from dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) and Parkinson's disease on similar tests. Response latencies in test performance were found to correlate with the number of episodes of depression suffered and with ventricular size on CT scan, as measured by computerized planimetry. On recovery, residual depression scores correlated with latency of test performance and with ventricular brain ratio. The results, thus, show that depression in the elderly is associated with a significant degree of deficit on tests sensitive to frontostriatal dysfunction. Some of the deficits appear specific to depression and some do not remit following clinical recovery. However, these impairments have to be interpreted in the context of a broad profile of cognitive deficit.
The development and validation of a predictive index for postpartum depression
Authors: Cooper P. J. , Murray L. , Hooper R. , West A. 
Published: July 2009

SynopsisA sample of over 6000 women was recruited in the last trimester of pregnancy and administered a 40-item self-report questionnaire designed to detect the presence of factors that were likely to increase the risk of postpartum depression. The mental state of almost 5000 of these women was determined at around 6 to 8 weeks postpartum. By conducting a series of logistic regressions on two-thirds of this sample the original set of variables was reduced to a predictive index of 17 items with weighted scores calculated for each. This index was then applied to the remaining one-third of the sample as a validating procedure and specificity and sensitivity calculated. The index offers a system for the prediction of postpartum depression that could be of use in both research and clinical practice.
Defence style and behaviour therapy outcome in a specific phobia
Authors: Muris Peter , Merckelbach Harald 
Published: July 2009

SynopsisThe Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ) was administered to patients with a specific phobia (animal type; N = 54) and to control subjects (N = 29). Results indicated that specific phobia patients and non-phobic control subjects exhibit a similar pattern of defences. Also, the study investigated whether specific DSQ defence styles affect behaviour therapy outcome. It was found that an immature defence style, and especially the defence mechanism projection, was related to less favourable treatment results.
A twin study of antisocial and neurotic symptoms in childhood
Authors: Thapar Anita , McGuffin Peter 
Published: July 2009

SynopsisThere is some evidence to suggest that the role of genetic and environmental influences may vary for different types of psychiatric symptoms in childhood. The aim of this study was to examine to what extent genetic and environmental factors influence parent-rated conduct and neurotic symptoms in childhood and adolescence, using data obtained from a systematically ascertained sample of twins (198 same sex pairs) aged between 8 and 16 years. For symptoms of antisocial behaviour, transmission could be explained entirely by shared environmental factors. Social class effects were also found to have a significant influence on antisocial behaviour, although these effects only accounted for a small proportion of the variance explained by shared environmental factors. In contrast, transmission of neurotic symptoms was best explained by additive genetic influences alone with no contribution from shared environment. Non-shared environmental factors accounted for a substantial component of the variation for both antisocial behaviour and neurotic symptoms.
The treated incidence of psychotic and affective illness in twins compared with population expectation: a study in the Swedish Twin and Psychiatric Registries
Authors: Kendler K. S. , Pedersen N. L. , Farahmand B. Y. , Persson P-G. 
Published: July 2009

SynopsisTwin studies of psychiatric illness assume that the genetic and environmental risk factors for psychiatric illness are similar in twins and non-twins and in monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins. To test this assumption, we examine whether the treated incidence of psychiatric illness in twins deviates from population expectations or differs between MZ and DZ twins. Using first admissions to the Swedish Psychiatric Registry for the years 1979–83 for all twins born 1886–1958 from the Swedish Twin Registries, we calculated Standardized Morbidity Ratios (SMRs) using national incidence rates together with individually computed person-years at risk in the twin cohort. The diagnoses examined, for which there was more than 393000 person-years of risk, were schizophrenia, other non-affective psychoses (ONAP), bipolar affective illness (BPAI), unipolar affective illness (UPAI) and neurotic depression (ND). The SMRs (and 95% CIs) for all twins were: schizophrenia 0·86 (0·69–1·06), ONAP 1·05 (0·88–1·24), BPAI 1·09 (0·90–1·32), UPAI 1·05 (0·85–1·29) and ND 0·99 (0·88–1·10). This pattern of results did not differ substantially when examined separately by gender or birth cohort. Relative risks for first admissions for MZ v. same-sex DZ twins or same v. opposite-sex DZ twins did not differ significantly from unity for any of the disorders examined. In Sweden, the treated incidence of psychotic and affective disorders in twins does not differ from that found in the general population and does not differ across zygosity groups. These results support the validity of the twin method for the study of psychotic and affective disorders.
Confirmation of association between expanded CAG/CTG repeats and both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder
Authors: O'Donovan M. C. , Guy C. , Craddock N. , Bowen T. , McKeon P. , Macedo A. , Maier W. , Wildenauer D. , Aschauer H. N. , Sorbi S. , Feldman E. , Mynett-Johnson L. , Claffey E. , Nacmias B. , Valente J. , Dourado A. , Grassi E. , Lenzinger E. , Heiden A. M. , Moorhead S. , Harrison D. , Williams J. , McGuffin P. , Owen M. J. 
Published: July 2009

SynopsisRecent studies have suggested that expanded CAG/CTG repeats contribute to the genetic aetiology of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. However, the nature of this contribution is uncertain and difficult to predict from other known trinucleotide repeat diseases that display much simpler patterns of inheritance. We have sought to replicate and extend earlier findings using Repeat Expansion Detection in an enlarged sample of 152 patients with schizophrenia, 143 patients with bipolar disorder, and 160 controls. We have also examined DNA from the parents of 62 probands with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Our results confirm our earlier, preliminary findings of an association between expanded trinucleotide repeats and both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. However, our data do not support the hypothesis that trinucleotide repeat expansion can alone explain the complex patterns of inheritance of the functional psychoses neither can this mechanism fully explain apparent anticipation.
Moderate dieting causes 5-HT2Creceptor supersensitivity
Authors: Cowen P. J. , Clifford E. M. , Walsh A. E. S. , Williams C. , Fairburn C. G. 
Published: July 2009

SynopsisDieting is a widespread behaviour in developed countries, which in predisposed individuals can lead to the development of clinical eating disorders such as bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa. We studied the effect of moderate dieting in healthy women on the prolactin response to the serotonin (5-HT) receptor agonist, m-chlorophenylpiperazine (mCPP), a measure of the sensitivity of post-synaptic 5-HT2Creceptors. Dieting significantly increased the prolactin response to mCPP and lowered plasma concentrations of the 5-HT precursor, tryptophan. We propose that dieting in women is associated with the development of functional supersensitivity of 5-HT2Creceptors, probably in response to lowered levels of brain 5-HT. Alterations in brain 5-HT neurotransmission could play a part in dieting-induced dysregulation of eating and the development of clinical eating disorders in predisposed individuals.
Reliability and procedural validity of UM-CIDI DSM-III-R phobic disorders
Authors: Wittchen H.-U. , Zhao S. , Abelson J. M. , Abelson J. L. , Kessler R. C. 
Published: July 2009

SynopsisWe evaluate the long-term test–retest reliability and procedural validity of phobia diagnoses in the UM-CIDI, the version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview, used in the US National Co-morbidity Survey (NCS) and a number of other ongoing large-scale epidemiological surveys. Test–retest reliabilities of lifetime diagnoses of simple phobia, social phobia, and agoraphobia over a period between 16 and 34 months were K = 0·46, 0·47, and 0·63, respectively. Concordances with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R (SCID) were K = 0·45, 0·62, and 0·63, respectively. Diagnostic discrepancies with the SCID were due to the UM-CIDI under-diagnosing. Post hoc analysis demonstrated that modification of UM-CIDI coding rules could dramatically improve cross-sectional procedural validity for both simple phobia (K = 0·57) and social phobia (K = 0·95). Based on these results, it seems likely that future modification of CIDI questions and coding rules could lead to substantial improvements in diagnostic validity.
The architecture of psychological management: the Irish asylums (1801–1922)
Authors: Reuber Markus 
Published: July 2009

SynopsisThis analysis examines some of the psychological, philosophical and sociological motives behind the development of pauper lunatic asylum architecture in Ireland during the time of the Anglo–Irish union (1801–1922). Ground plans and structural features are used to define five psycho-architectonic generations. While isolation and classification were the prime objectives in the first public asylum in Ireland (1810–1814), a combination of the ideas of a psychological, ‘moral’, management and ‘panoptic’ architecture led to a radial institutional design during the next phase of construction (1817–1835). The asylums of the third generation (1845–1855) lacked ‘panoptic’ features but they were still intended to allow a proper ‘moral’ management of the inmates, and to create a therapeutic family environment. By the time the institutions of the fourth epoch were erected (1862–1869) the ‘moral’ treatment approach had been given up, and asylums were built to allow a psychological management by ‘association’. The last institutions (1894–1922) built before Ireland's acquisition of Dominion status (1922) were intended to foster the development of a curative society.
Differences in prevalence of dementia based on community survey and general practitioner recognition
Authors: Eefsting J. A. , Boersma F. , Van Den Brink W. , Van Tilburg W. 
Published: July 2009

SynopsisA study was conducted, which simultaneously used GPs and epidemiological assessment procedures (MMSE, CAMDEX), to identify individuals with DSM-III-R dementia in the same population. In addition, a 1-year follow-up assessment was conducted in patients with a CAMDEX-diagnosis of dementia. In the non-institutionalized group, which was assessed both by the GP and with the epidemiological test battery, the prevalence of dementia according to the GP was 2·2%, whereas the prevalence based on the epidemiological approach amounted to 5·2%. In general CAMDEX-diagnoses of dementia were confirmed at 1-year follow-up, and thus the discrepancy between the two prevalence estimates must be attributed to the low sensitivity of the GPs. Sensitivity of the GP was related to help-seeking behaviour, with low sensitivity in patients with a low contact rate. It was also related to the use of less specific diagnostic labels by the GP (cognitive impairment), and to poor recognition of cognitive impairment in patients who visited their GP.
Changes in the prevalence of psychiatric disorder in a community are related to changes in the mean level of psychiatric symptoms
Authors: Whittington Joyce E. , Huppert Felicia A. 
Published: July 2009

SynopsisThe paper of Anderson et al. (1993), based on cross-sectional data, showed that minor psychiatric disorder in a population is linearly related to the mean number of psychiatric symptoms in the population. The present investigation asks whether the same relationship holds longitudinally as well as cross-sectionally. Data from a 7-year follow-up of a general population sample demonstrate, for the first time, that a relationship exists between changes in prevalence of psychiatric disorder and changes in the mean number of psychiatric symptoms in a given population. Moreover, the relationship is linear; a one-point decrease in mean scores on the GHQ-30 is associated with a 6% decrease in prevalence of disorder.
Specific cognitive deficits in tests sensitive to frontal lobe dysfunction in obsessive–compulsive disorder
Authors: Veale D. M. , Sahakian B. J. , Owen A. M. , Marks I. M. 
Published: July 2009

SynopsisForty patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) were compared to matched healthy controls on neuropsychological tests which are sensitive to frontal lobe dysfunction. On a computerized version of the Tower of London test of planning, the patients were no different from healthy controls in the accuracy of their solutions. However, when they made a mistake, they spent more time than the controls in generating alternative solutions or checking that the next move would be correct. The results suggest that OCD patients have a selective deficit in generating alternative strategies when they make a mistake. In a separate attentional set-shifting task, OCD patients were impaired in a simple discrimination learning task and showed a continuous cumulative increase in the number who failed at each stage of the task, including the crucial extra-dimensional set shifting stage. This suggests that OCD patients show deficits in both acquiring and maintaining cognitive sets.The cognitive deficits in OCD may be summarized as: (i) being easily distracted by other competing stimuli; (ii) excessive monitoring and checking of the response to ensure a mistake does not occur; and (iii) when a mistake does occur, being more rigid at setting aside the main goal and planning the necessary subgoals. Both studies support the evidence of fronto-striatal dysfunction in OCD and the results are discussed in terms of an impaired Supervisory Attentional System.
Intrusive memories in depression: an index of schema activation?
Authors: Brewin C. R. , Hunter E. , Carroll F. , Tata P. 
Published: July 2009

SynopsisA sample of 31 male and female depressed patients was interviewed to investigate spontaneous, intrusive memories of immediate and past life events. Previous findings that depressed patients experience high frequency intrusive memories were confirmed, as was an association between intrusive memories of childhood abuse and severity of depression. Patients reported intrusive memories for a variety of other events, particularly involving illness and death. Limited support was obtained for the hypotheses that the course of depression would be related to the activation of negative memories, and that immediate life events would trigger the activation of memories of similar events from the past.
Insight and cognitive deficits in schizophrenia: evidence for a curvilinear relationship
Authors: Startup Mike 
Published: July 2009

SynopsisBoth motivational and defect theories have been offered to explain variations in insight among schizophrenic individuals but the results of tests of these theories have been inconclusive and inconsistent. The present study was designed to test the hypothesis that both motivation and cognitive deficits affect insight, with a trade-off between the two processes, giving rise to quadratic relationships between insight and cognitive deficits. Twenty-six schizophrenic patients completed battery of neuropsychological tests and participated in an interview designed to assess insight. In a multiple regression analysis predicting test results from insight scores, the linear component was non-significant while the quadratic component accounted for a highly significant 56% of the variance. Theoretical and clinical implications of this result are discussed briefly.
Behaviour problems in childhood and stressors in early adult life. I. A 20 year follow-up of London school children
Authors: Champion L. A. , Goodall G. , Rutter M. 
Published: July 2009

SynopsisThe research presented in this paper examined the relationship between the presence of childhood behaviour problems and the rate of life events and difficulties in early adult life. Data are presented from a 20 year follow-up study of a sample of inner London school children first studied when they were aged 10. The key finding was that emotional or behavioural disturbance in childhood was associated with a marked increase in the rate of severely negative events and difficulties some two decades later. This increase was only obtained for stressors with severe negative impact of the type shown in previous investigations to be associated with the onset of psychiatric disorder. Additional results demonstrated that this main finding could not be accounted for by stressors that were a result of adult psychiatric disorder, by the respondent's own behaviour, or by continuing association with the family of origin. The need for a lifespan developmental approach to the well-established stressor-illness link is discussed.
Hysterectomy and psychiatric disorder: are the levels of psychiatric morbidity falling?
Authors: Gath D. , Rose N. , Bond A. , Day A. , Garrod A. , Hodges S. 
Published: July 2009

SynopsisThis paper compares the findings of three studies carried out at intervals over the years 1975–1990. The three studies were concerned with different issues, but each study examined psychiatric morbidity among women undergoing hysterectomy for menorrhagia of benign origin.In all three studies levels of psychiatric morbidity were measured before the operation and 6 months after the operation. Psychiatric morbidity was measured with the Present State Examination (PSE) (Wing et al. 1974), and with established self-report questionnaires. Levels of psychiatric morbidity fell significantly across the three studies. In Study 1, the proportions of psychiatric cases were 58% before hysterectomy and 26% after; in Study 2, 28% before and 7% after; and in Study 3, 9% before and 4% after.The decline in psychiatric morbidity was not associated with demographic and social characteristics, previous psychiatric history, family psychiatric history, the nature of the women's menstrual complaints, or the women's understanding and expectations of the operation.In Study 3 anti-menorrhagic drugs were prescribed twice as frequently as in the two previous studies; while the prescribing of psychotropic medication was significantly higher in Study 1 than in Study 2 or Study 3. The implications of these findings are discussed.
Mortality risk and mental disorders: longitudinal results from the Upper Bavarian Study
Authors: Fichter M. M. , Rehm J. , Elton M. , Dilling H. , Achatz F. 
Published: July 2009

SynopsisThe object of the study was the assessment of the mortality risk for persons with a mental disorder in an unselected representative community sample assessed longitudinally. Subjects from a rural area in Upper Bavaria (Germany) participated in semi-structured interviews conducted by research physicians in the 1970s (first assessment) and death-certificate diagnoses were obtained after an interval up to 13 years later. The sample consisted of 1668 community residents aged 15 years and over.Cox regression estimates resulted in an odds ratio of 1·35 (confidence interval 1·01 to 1·81) for persons with a mental disorder classified as marked to very severe. The odds ratio increased with increasing severity of mental illness from 1·04 for mild disorders, 1·30 for marked disorders, to 1·64 for severe or very severe disorders. The relative risk (odds ratio) for persons with a mental disorder only and no somatic disorder was 1·22, for persons with only a somatic disorder 2·00, and for those with both a mental and a somatic disorder 2·13. The presence of somatic illness was responsible for most of the excess mortality. Somatic disorders associated with excess mortality in mental disorders were diseases of the nervous system or sensory organs, diseases of the circulatory system, diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, and diseases of the skeleton, muscles and connective tissue (ICD-8).Thus, while mental illness alone had a limited effect on excess mortality, comorbidity with certain somatic disorders had a significant effect.
The importance of the social and intellectual contexts in a discussion of the history of the concept of psychosis
Authors: Beer M. Dominic 
Published: July 2009

SynopsisThis paper shows that, throughout its 150 year history, the concept of ‘psychosis’ has not been static, but has reflected the intellectual and social contexts in which it has been employed. Initially the concept reflected the Romantic psychiatrists' emphasis on the whole personality. With the advent of materialism the concept was applied to all mental disorders. Because of the claims for organic cerebral findings in dementia praecox, it was described by Meyer as fitting the disease concept, with characteristic pathology, symptomatology, course and prognosis. However, the different social milieux of patients being treated by psychiatrists such as Kraepelin and Bonhoeffer led to different emphases regarding the aetiology of the psychoses. In the later twentieth century the influence of urbanization in Europe and Africa and also the rise of Nazism led to changes in relation to the use of the concept of psychosis.
Psychotropic drug use and shift work among French nurses (1980–1990)
Authors: Niedhammer I. , Lert F. , Marne M. J. 
Published: July 2009

SynopsisUse of minor tranquillizers and hypnotics and the association with shift work was examined in a sample of French nurses interviewed in 1980, 1985 and 1990. Permanent night schedule was related to a higher use of hypnotics/tranquillizers, the relation being significant in 1990. At each follow-up date, the use of drugs increased with sleep disorders, symptoms of psychological disorders reported by the nurses themselves, an impaired health and fatigue. Age was linked to the use of hypnotics/tranquillizers; the older the nurses were, the more likely they were to take the drugs. Using a logistic analysis, the following variables were significant: time schedules, self-assessment of health, fatigue, age and marital status. Time schedules involving night work, especially permanent night schedule, were related to a higher proportion of drug use. These findings confirmed the general patterns of psychotropic drug use (age, sleep disorders, physical health and marital status) among women and emphasized the relation between time schedules involving night work and the use of hypnotics/tranquillizers.