Search results for " Mental health"

Association analysis of SCN9A gene variants with borderline personality disorder

2008

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a serious psychiatric disorder affecting about 1-2% of the general population. Key features of BPD are emotional instability, strong impulsivity, repeated self-injurious behavior (SIB) and dissociation. In the etiology of BPD and its predominant symptoms, genetic factors have been suggested. The voltage-gated sodium channel Nav1.7 is expressed in sensory neurons and in the hippocampus, a key region of the limbic system probably dysfunctional in BPD and dissociative disorders. The alpha-subunit of Nav1.7 is encoded by the SCN9A gene on chromosome 2 and variations of SCN9A can lead to complete inability to sense pain. The aim of the present study was t…

Wisconsin Card Sorting Test: an indicator of vulnerability to schizophrenia?

1992

The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) is a neuropsychological test, hypothesized to be an indicator of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) functioning. The performance of schizophrenic patients in our sample (off medication) was worse than the performance of healthy controls in all variables of the WCST, including perseverative responses (PR) as well as non-perseverative responses (NPR). The rate of perseverative and non-perseverative responses was neither a function of the severity of the illness (measured by SANS/SAPS scales) nor the duration of the disease. Healthy siblings of schizophrenic probands revealed more perseverative responses than healthy controls, but did not show any dif…

The microcephaly ASPM gene and schizophrenia: A preliminary study

2006

Methylation of the oxytocin receptor gene in clinically depressed patients compared to controls: The role of OXTR rs53576 genotype

2015

The emerging field of epigenetics provides a biological basis for gene-environment interactions relevant to depression. We focus on DNA methylation of exon 1 and 2 of the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) promoter. The research aims of the current study were to compare OXTR DNA methylation of depressed patients with healthy control subjects and to investigate possible influences of the OXTR rs53576 genotype. The sample of the present study consisted of 43 clinically depressed women recruited from a psychosomatic inpatient unit and 42 healthy, female control subjects - mean age 30 years (SD = 9). DNA methylation profiles of the OXTR gene were assessed from leukocyte DNA by means of bisulfite seq…

Living alone and positive mental health: a systematic review

2019

Background Living alone has become more common in today’s societies. Despite the high number of the population living alone, research directed towards the mental wellbeing issues related to living alone has been limited. This systematic literature review aimed to assess the association between living alone and positive mental health. Methods We conducted searches in Medline, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and other complementary databases from January 1998 to May 2019. Randomised trials and observational studies investigating adults over 18 years of age and living alone (defined as living in a single household or a household size of one person) were eligible. The primar…

Medication safety in a psychiatric hospital

2007

Objective: We sought to assess the epidemiology of medication errors (MEs) and adverse drug events (ADEs) in a psychiatric hospital. Methods: We conducted a 6-month prospective observational study in a 172-bed academic psychiatric hospital. Errors and ADEs were found by way of chart review, staff reports and pharmacy intervention reports. Physicians rated incidents as to the presence of injury, preventability and severity of an injury. Serious MEs were nonintercepted MEs with potential for harm (near misses) and preventable ADEs. Results: We studied 1871 admissions with 19,180 patient-days. The rate of ADEs and serious MEs were 10 and 6.3 per 1000 patient-days, respectively. Preventable ADE…

Psychiatric disorders in childhood cancer survivors in Denmark, Finland, and Sweden: a register-based cohort study from the SALiCCS research programm…

2022

BACKGROUND A childhood cancer diagnosis and treatment-induced somatic late effects can affect the long-term mental health of survivors. We aimed to explore whether childhood cancer survivors are at higher risk of psychiatric disorders later in life than their siblings and the general population. METHODS In this register-based cohort study (part of the Socioeconomic Consequences in Adult Life after Childhood Cancer [SALiCCS] research programme), we included 5-year survivors of childhood cancer diagnosed before 20 years of age between Jan 1, 1974 and Dec 31, 2011, in Denmark, Finland, and Sweden. In Denmark and Sweden, 94��7% of individuals were born in a Nordic country (ie, Denmark, Finland,…

Non-adherence to psychotropic medication assessed by plasma level in newly admitted psychiatric patients: Prevalence before acute admission.

2019

Aims Non-adherence or partial adherence to psychotropic medication is found in 18-70% of patients. Many previously used methods for the assessment of adherence (e.g. questionnaires, pill counts, and electronic systems), however, might underreport actual rates of non-adherence to medication. The aim of this study was to quantify adherence using plasma level. Methods We conducted a 6-week prospective study of all consecutive admitted patients at the Paracelsus Medical University of Salzburg, Clinics of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, who had been treated with antipsychotics/antidepressants prior to admission (pre-medication dosage in 161 of 233). Plasma drug levels were determined and compared …

Salivary testosterone is related to both handedness and degree of linguistic lateralization in normal women.

2003

The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that individual differences in testosterone (T) are associated with different patterns of linguistic lateralization and hand preference. Twenty left-handed (LH) and 19 right-handed (RH) women filled in a handedness questionnaire and performed a consonant–vowel dichotic listening test (DL-CV). Salivary T was measured by radioimmunoassay (RIA). LH women showed significantly lower mean salivary T than RH women. T levels were negatively correlated with the absolute value of the DL laterality index. Subjects with right ear advantage (REA) were classified into strongly and weakly lateralized following Wexler et al. method (Brain Lang. 13 (1981) 13)…

Adverse effects associated with the short-term treatment of panic disorder with imipramine, alprazolam or placebo

1994

Summary Side effects play a significant role in the selection of drugs to be used in panic disorder/agoraphobia whose polyphobic symptomatology often includes a suspiciousness about taking drugs and a fear of undesired side effects which may lead to the refusal of treatment. The safety, side effects and patients' acceptance of alprazolam and imipramine versus placebo were evaluated in 1168 subjects with panic disorder/agoraphobia who had been enrolled in the second phase of the Upjohn World Wide Panic Study. Side effects that worsened over baseline to a greater extent with alprazolam than with imipramine and placebo were sedation, fatigue/weakness, memory problems, ataxia and slurred speech…