Search results for "Status"

Occupation, education, and Parkinson's disease: A case-control study in an Italian population

1996

Current epidemiologic data on the association between occupational exposures and Parkinson's disease (PD) are inconsistent. In a case-control study, we investigated the associations between occupation and PD and between education and PD. The cases (n = 62) were those identified in a prevalence survey (door-to-door, two-phase) of three Sicilian municipalities, as a November 1, 1987. We then randomly selected from the general population two controls for each case, matched for age ( +/- year), sex, and municipality (n = 124). Information on current and past occupations and education for cases and controls was obtained during the survey. Subjects who worked for most of their lives as farmers we…

Influence of Personality Disorders on Therapy Outcome in Somatoform Disorders at 2-Year Follow-up

1999

The need for psychosocial support and its determinants in a sample of patients undergoing radiooncological treatment of cancer

2008

Abstract Objective The primary goal of this study was to examine the need for psychosocial support in a consecutive sample of cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy (RT). Out of an initial sample of 250 patients, 239 patients could be assessed at the beginning of their RT. Two hundred eight patients were reassessed at the end of RT 4–8 weeks later. Methods Measures comprised the Hornheide Screening Instrument, the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory, the Resilience Scale, and the Short Form 12 as a measure of health-related quality of life (QoL). Medical and radiological data were continuously registered. Results Within the sample, the need for psychosocial support as reflected in the scree…

Influence of social factors on avoidable mortality: a hospital-based case-control study.

2005

Objective. The effect of socioeconomic factors on avoidable mortality at an individual level is not well known, since most studies showing this association are based on aggregate data. The purpose of this study was to determine socioeconomic differences between those patients who die of avoidable causes and those who do not die. Methods. A matched case-control study was carried out regarding in-hospital avoidable mortality (Holland's medical care indicators) that occurred in a university hospital serving a Spanish-Mediterranean population during a 30-month period. Results. We studied 82 cases of death from avoidable causes and 300 controls matched on medical care indicators and age. The var…

The role of obstetric complications in schizophrenia.

1993

The importance of obstetric complications in sporadic and familial psychoses was analyzed in 43 schizophrenic and 28 chronic schizoaffective patients. Patients and first-degree relatives were diagnosed using Research Diagnostic Criteria and the best-estimate procedure. Mothers of patients were interviewed for histories of pregnancy and obstetric complications in their offspring. Patients had more often suffered perinatal complications (42%) than their siblings (29%). The risk for obstetric complications and secondary cases of psychosis was enhanced in relatives of patients with a history of obstetric complications. Siblings with obstetric complications had a low incidence of psychoses; ther…

Increased prevalence of obesity in narcoleptic patients and relatives

2001

Increased Body Mass Indices (BMIs), increased prevalences of non insulin-dependent diabetes and sleep apnoe syndrome have been reported to be associated with narcolepsy. Our objective was to explore and possibly confirm the association of narcolepsy and increased BMI. In addition, we addressed the question whether increased BMIs also occur in relatives of narcoleptic patients. Together with narcolepsy-related clinical parameters we measured body weight and height of 132 narcoleptic patients who agreed to participate in our narcolepsy research program. In addition, 52 first degree relatives of 22 index patients, mostly from multiplex families, were included in the study. Data were compared t…

Trace elements in scalp hair samples from patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis

2015

Background Epidemiological studies have suggested a possible role of trace elements (TE) in the etiology of several neurological diseases including Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Hair analysis provides an easy tool to quantify TE in human subjects, including patients with neurodegenerative diseases. Objective To compare TE levels in scalp hair from patients with MS and healthy controls from the same geographic area (Sicily). Methods ICP-MS was used to determine the concentrations of 21 elements (Ag, Al, As, Ba, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Li, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Rb, Sb, Se, Sr, U, V and Zn) in scalp hair of 48 patients with relapsing–remitting Multiple Sclerosis compared with 51 healthy controls. Results MS …

Abnormalities in cognitive-emotional information processing in idiopathic environmental intolerance and somatoform disorders

2007

Idiopathic environmental intolerance (IEI) represents a functional somatic syndrome marked by diverse bodily complaints attributed to various substances in the environment. Evidence for abnormalities in affective information processing similar to somatoform disorders (SFD) has recently been found in people with IEI. In order to further investigate these cognitive-emotional abnormalities, we compared people with IEI (n=49), SFD only (n=43), and non-somatoform controls (n=54) with respect to their performance in the extrinsic affective Simon task (EAST). This task allowed us to dissociate indicators of automatic affective associations and emotional intrusion effects of both bodily complaints …

Magnitude of relationship between burnout and absenteeism: a preliminary study.

2008

This study examined the influence of guilt related to a negative attitude toward patients and its relation with burnout and absenteeism. The sample consisted of 717 nursing professionals. Depersonalization was evaluated by the Maslach Burnout Inventory and Guilt was evaluated by one item. To estimate Absenteeism, participants were asked about the number of workdays they had missed in the past year. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses make it possible to conclude that guilt explains work absenteeism, and the interaction between depersonalization and guilt (Incr. R2 = .008, p<.05) indicates significant differences in the number of work days missed in the last year. Conclusions are l…

Treatment of chronic depression with sulpiride: evidence of efficacy in placebo-controlled single case studies

1994

Systematic variation of treatment (alternating active drug and placebo in four treatment periods) in individual patients is proposed to collect preliminary evidence for a therapeutic effect of sulpiride in chronic depression; the ARIMA model is applied to evaluate the intervention effects of the tentatively effective treatment in single subjects. Ten single cases of chronic depression with a diagnosis of major depression or dysthymia were selected and seven of these provided evidence for beneficial effects of sulpiride with regard to treating the symptoms of depression and anxiety. However, the drug effects were intraindividually not always replicable. The results obtained with these single…