ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Psychiatric profiles of two at-risk groups [Huntington's disease (HD) gene carriers and non-carriers] were compared by means of a computerized battery and a structured interview. METHOD: To avoid confounding, only subjects who were free from neurological and cognitive deficits (neurologically asymptomatic) were included in the study. To avoid evaluation biases, all subjects were seen before the genetic testing was undertaken. RESULTS: Gene carriers had significantly worse recognition memory and scored higher in measures of irritability than controls. The groups also differed in terms of the factor structure of their psychiatric symptoms. None of the subjects qualified for a psychiatric diagnosis at the time of assessment. CONCLUSION: The groups differed with respect to their profile of psychiatric symptoms. It is hypothesized that these differences are the expression of different mechanisms, i.e. that cognitive deficits relate more to genetic factors and neurotic complaints more to being brought up in a disturbed family background. Issues concerning instrument sensitivity, selection bias and the advantage of seriatim assessments are discussed.
Subject(s)
Genetic Predisposition to Disease/psychology , Huntington Disease/genetics , Huntington Disease/psychology , Adult , Aged , Female , Genetic Markers , Humans , Irritable Mood , Male , Middle Aged , Neuropsychological Tests , Polymerase Chain Reaction , Prospective Studies , Psychiatric Status Rating Scales , Recognition, Psychology , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
The putative relationship between the psychiatric profile of a sample of neurologically asymptomatic Huntington's disease gene carriers and CAG repeats was investigated. The psychiatric assessments (by consultant psychiatrist and computerised battery) were undertaken before the genetic testing was carried out. In this way, the informational distortions caused by neurological and cognitive deficits were avoided. The hypothesis that there is a relationship between psychiatric and CAG repeats was tested by seeking direct correlations between psychiatric systems and CAG repeats, and also by correcting the correlation by the number of years above or below the estimated age of onset in Huntington's disease. Scores for irritability and cognitive failures were high in the sample. There was no correlation between any psychiatric variable and CAG repeats. Possible explanations for this lack of correlations are discussed.
Subject(s)
Cognition , Heterozygote , Huntington Disease/genetics , Huntington Disease/psychology , Trinucleotide Repeat Expansion , Adenine , Adult , Age of Onset , Cytosine , Female , Genetic Predisposition to Disease/psychology , Guanine , Humans , Irritable Mood , Male , Middle Aged , Prospective Studies , Psychiatric Status Rating ScalesABSTRACT
The psychometric properties of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) in subjects with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and depression have not been fully evaluated. Item endorsement patterns may be distorted by the presence of AD. This was tested by applying the BDI to a sample of 129 subjects with probable AD without depression and to 57 subjects with both probable AD and depression. It was found that the BDI under diagnoses depression in the context of AD. ROC curves for total BDI and cognitive and somatic items subsets showed low sensitivity and low areas under the curve indices. The results suggest that the BDI is not an ideal instrument to measure depression in AD. This may not result solely from the swing of the somatic items subset, but from other aspects which require further investigation.
Subject(s)
Alzheimer Disease/complications , Depression/diagnosis , Depression/etiology , Psychiatric Status Rating Scales/standards , Aged , Case-Control Studies , Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic , Female , Humans , Likelihood Functions , Male , Mass Screening/methods , Middle Aged , Psychometrics , Reproducibility of Results , Sensitivity and SpecificityABSTRACT
This is a prospective study of 50 consecutive admissions to the burns unit. The socio-demographic data was collected using special proforma and interviewing the patients and relatives. All patients were administered the presumptive stressful life event scale (PSLES). Depending on the presence or absence of suicidal intent, patients were divided into two groups. The two groups were then compared with regards to their socio-demographic profile using the unrelated t-test and the Fisher's exact test. The two groups did not differ significantly with regards to age, sex, education, marital status, occupation or monthly per capita income. The patients who had suicidal intent came from joint family, had more stressful life events and suffered larger burns injuries compared with those who experienced accidental burn injuries. The majority of the patients were below the age of 35, unemployed and females outnumbered males in both the groups.
