Personality Change due to Brain Trauma Caused by Traffic Accidents and Its Assess-ment of Psychiatric Impairment / 法医学杂志

Objective To explore the m ain perform ance of personality change in people w ith m ild psy-chiatric im pairm ents w hich due to the brain traum a caused by traffic accidents and its value in assess-m ent of psychiatric im pairm ent. Methods The condition of personality change of patients w ith traum atic brain injury caused by traffic accident w as evaluated by the Scale of Personality Change Post-traum atic Brain Injury (SPCPTBI). Furtherm ore, the correlation betw een the personality change and the degrees of traum atic brain injury and psychiatric im pairm ent w ere explored. Results In 271 sam ples, 239 (88.2% ) w ith personality changes. A m ong these 239 sam ples, 178 (65.7% ), 46 (17.0% ), 15 (5.5% ) w ith m ild, m oderate and severe personality changes, respectively. The ratio based on the extent of personality changes to the degree of brain traum a w as not significant (P>0.05), but the total score difference betw een the groups w as significant (P<0.05). There w as no statistical significance betw een the m edium and high severity brain traum a groups. The higher degree of personality changes, the higher rank of m ental disabilities. The total score difference of the scale of personality change am ong the different m ild psychiatric im pair-m ent group w as significant (P<0.05). The difference betw een other psychiatric im pairm ent levels had statistical significance (P<0.05) except level 7 and 8. Conclusion The occurrence of personality change due to traum atic brain injury caused by traffic accident w as high. Correlations exist betw een the personality change and the degree of psychiatric im pairm ent. Personality change due to brain traum a caused by traffic accident can be assessed effectively by m eans of SPCPTBI, and the correlation betw een the total score and the extent of traum atic brain injury can be found.

Progress on Association between COMT Gene and Violence Behavior in Patients with Schizophrenia / 法医学杂志

The prevalence of violence behavior in patients with schizophrenia is higher than that in common population. Data suggest that genetic factors may play a substantial role for the etiology of the behavior. Among the particular gene polymorphisms that have been considered to be involved in vio-lence behavior, the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene had been the focus of recent research. This article reviews the association research between COMT gene and violence behavior in patients with schizophrenia in several aspects: SNP polymorphism of COMT Val158Met and COMT Ala72Ser, haplo-type of COMT gene and DNA methylation of promoter region of COMT gene. The genetic research di-rection is presented for patients with schizophrenia.