Functional magnetic resonance imaging of schizophrenic patients and comparison subjects during word production.

OBJECTIVE: This study was undertaken to test the feasibility of using functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to examine changes in cortical activation in response to verbal tasks in two brain regions. METHOD: Twelve schizophrenic patients and 11 comparison subjects underwent functional MRI of the frontal and temporal lobes. Stimulus sequences were divided into five 30-second segments by using a task-activation paradigm that alternated between resting and stimulated states. Functional images were collected every 30 seconds by using a gradient echo pulse sequence. RESULTS: Schizophrenic subjects demonstrated significantly less left frontal activation and greater left temporal activation than comparison subjects during a word fluency task. CONCLUSIONS: These preliminary data suggest that functional MRI has the sensitivity to detect differences in activation between comparison subjects and schizophrenic patients during higher cortical functions. These findings are in agreement with PET studies that reported reduced left frontal activation during challenge paradigms for the schizophrenic patients.

Obstetrical complications and trail making deficits discriminate schizophrenics from unaffected siblings and controls.

Numerous studies have reported that both obstetrical complications (OCs) and deficits on the Trail Making Test show elevated prevalences in schizophrenics. Trail Making deficits have also been reported to be more common in schizophrenics' relatives than in controls, suggesting poor Trail Making performance may be a behavioral indicator of a familial risk factor for schizophrenia. Few studies, however, have investigated how these two variables co-vary in samples of schizophrenics and non-schizophrenics. In this study, DSM-III-R diagnoses, OCs noted in birth records, and Trail Making performance were independently assessed in 30 subjects: 9 schizophrenics, 8 of their non-schizophrenic siblings, and 13 comparison subjects with neither a personal nor a family history of schizophrenia. Results supported two key predictions of a two-factor etiologic model of schizophrenia: (a) the combination of perinatal OCs and poor Trail Making performance discriminated schizophrenics extremely well from non-schizophrenics, including their own non-schizophrenic sibs, and (b) perinatal OCs and Trail Making errors manifested a significant inverse association among schizophrenics' non-schizophrenic sibs, but not among other subjects.

Empirical determination of thresholds for case identification: validation of the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-Revised.

The Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-Revised (PDQ-R) was sent to first-degree relatives of major psychotic patients for identification of DSM-III-R personality disorders (PDs). Responses to the PDQ-R were interpreted both literally and empirically, and compared with the Structured Interview for DSM-III PDs (SIDP) as the standard. For literal interpretation, symptoms reported were counted directly for case identification using fixed DSM-III-R thresholds. The empirical approach adjusted the threshold for case identification to maximize concordance with the SIDP. Comparison of the two methods showed that using empirically determined thresholds in some scales gives better concordance with the SIDP. For the dependent and histrionic PD scales, the improvements were statistically significant. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was computed for each PDQ-R scale to summarize its discriminatory capability across all thresholds. Areas under the ROC curve indicated that the schizoid, schizotypal, borderline, dependent, passive-aggressive, and histrionic PD scales in the PDQ-R have better discriminatory qualities than other PDQ-R scales.

A family study of self-reported personality traits and DSM-III-R personality disorders.

Personality traits and DSM-III-R personality disorders of first-degree relatives of patients with psychoses were studied using the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) and the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-Revised (PDQ-R), two self-report instruments. The relatives were compared on their scores for the five personality factors in the NEO-FFI, the prevalence of individual DSM-III-R personality disorders, and their scores for each personality disorder scale in the PDQ-R. The results suggest that there is no difference in personality traits and prevalence of personality disorders, including schizophrenia spectrum disorders, when relatives of patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression are compared to each other. Relatives of patients with "atypical psychosis," psychotic disorders that do not meet DSM-III-R criteria for any specific nonorganic psychotic disorder, may be a distinctive group.

The relationship between DSM-III personality disorders and the five-factor model of personality.

Two hundred twenty-four first-degree relatives of patients with psychotic disorders were administered the Structured Interview for DSM-III Personality Disorders (SIDP) and completed a self-report instrument to assess dimensions of the five-factor model of personality. All of the DSM-III personality disorders were related to one or more dimensions of the five personality factors; however, the correlations were generally low. It seems that the five personality factors describe important features of DSM-III personality disorders, but are not sufficient to completely explain their characteristics. Future use of the five-factor model in conjunction with personality disorder diagnoses may provide useful information for clinical work and research purposes.

Mothers of sexually abused children: trauma and repair in longitudinal perspective.

Mothers whose children had been sexually abused reported experiencing serious psychological symptoms following disclosure of the abuse. Over a one-year period, their emotional status improved. Strong relationships between mothers' reports of their own and their children's symptoms were accompanied by persistent discrepancies between maternal and direct assessments of the children's emotional states. Findings suggest that addressing maternal distress is important to the study and treatment of child sexual abuse.

Good sleep, bad sleep: a meta-analysis of polysomnographic measures in insomnia, depression, and narcolepsy.

Primary insomnia, major depression, and narcolepsy are usually considered to be separate disorders, distinguished by different polysomnographic profiles. But do polysomnographic data provide adequate evidence to segregate the three disorders, or might they display fundamentally the same sleep disturbance, differing only in degree? To test the viability of these two alternate hypotheses, the authors performed a meta-analysis of controlled polysomnographic studies of these disorders. A summary measure of degree of sleep disturbance was constructed from five variables: wakefulness after sleep onset, percentage of stage 1 sleep, percentage of stage 3 + 4 sleep, rapid eye movement (REM) latency, and REM density. The results of available studies for each variable were combined using a weighted average of effect sizes. An overall "sleep disturbance index" was then calculated by combining the estimates for the five above listed variables. On both the individual measures and especially on the summary index, insomnia, depression, and narcolepsy were arrayed on a simple continuum of progressively more severe sleep disturbance--congruent with the clinical observation that these disorders display progressively more disturbed sleep. These findings suggest that sleep can be disturbed in only a limited number of ways: in evaluating sleep architecture, it may not be possible to elaborate much beyond a single axis of good-to-bad sleep. Thus, polysomnographic measures may not provide adequate evidence to classify insomnia, depression, and narcolepsy as separate entities.

Polysomnographic characteristics of young manic patients. Comparison with unipolar depressed patients and normal control subjects.

Although sleep disturbance is a prominent feature of mania, its polysomnographic (PSG) features have received little study. To investigate more systematically the PSG characteristics of sleep in mania, all-night PSG evaluations were performed for two to four consecutive nights in 19 young manic patients (age range, 18 to 36 years), 19 age-matched patients with major depression, and 19 age-matched normal control subjects. Manic and depressed patients displayed nearly identical profiles of PSG abnormalities compared with normal control subjects, including disturbed sleep continuity, increased percentage of stage 1 sleep, shortened rapid eye movement latency, and increased rapid eye movement density. These results are similar to those reported in previous studies of major depression, and they are consistent with the possibility that the sleep disturbance in mania and major depression is caused by the same mechanism.

Outcome in Mania. A 4-year prospective follow-up of 75 patients utilizing survival analysis.

A 4-year follow-up of 75 patients was conducted to investigate outcome after recovery from an episode of mania. Predictors of an unfavorable outcome included poor occupational status prior to index episode, history of previous episodes, history of alcoholism, psychotic features and symptoms of depression during the index manic episode, male gender, and interepisode affective symptoms at 6 months' follow-up. The mortality risk during the follow-up period was 4%. The identification of specific risk factors depended on the definition of outcome and the length of follow-up.

Four-year follow-up of twenty-four first-episode manic patients.

Twenty-four first-episode manic patients were followed to investigate the 4-year outcome after recovery from a manic episode. Patients had no documented previous manic or depressive episodes. The presence of psychotic features during the index episode and a history of alcoholism were statistically significant predictors of a shorter time in remission. Low occupational status at baseline predicted poor global social adjustment at 4 years. Also, a larger correlation among outcome measures was found at 48 than at 6 months. The importance of controlling for presence of multiple episodes in outcome studies is emphasized.

Adrenoceptors and the pharmacology of affective illness: a unifying theory.

Based on recent clinical and preclinical research, it is theorized that antimanic and antidepressant effects of clinically available drugs can be produced through their actions on alpha-1 adrenoreceptor-mediated neurotransmission in the central nervous system. The theory suggests that final effects on alpha-1 mediated neurotransmission may be produced not only by drugs which have direct effects on the alpha-1 receptor or its second messenger, but also by drugs having effects on neurotransmitter systems such as acetylcholine, GABA, and serotonin, among others, which modulate the activity of central norepinephrine neurons or, via feedback mechanisms, by drugs having effects on adrenergic receptors other than the alpha-1 receptor itself.

Prosthetic valve endocarditis. Analysis of factors affecting outcome of therapy.

We analyzed the outcome of 116 patients with prosthetic valve endocarditis treated between 1975 and 1983 and used multivariate analysis to identify risk factors for in-hospital mortality and bad outcome during follow-up. Complicated prosthetic valve endocarditis was defined as the presence of a new or changing heart murmur, new or worsening heart failure, new or progressive cardiac conduction abnormalities, or prolonged fever during therapy. Complicated prosthetic valve endocarditis was present in 64% of patients; factors associated with complicated prosthetic valve endocarditis included aortic valve infection (odds ratio 4.3, p = 0.002) and onset of endocarditis within 12 months of the cardiac operation (odds ratio 5.5, p = 0.0001). The in-hospital mortality rate for prosthetic valve endocarditis was 23%; patients with complicated prosthetic valve endocarditis had a higher mortality than patients with uncomplicated infection (odds ratio 6.4, p = 0.0009). Combined medical-surgical therapy was used in 39% of patients; surgical therapy was more common in patients with complicated prosthetic valve endocarditis (odds ratio 16, p less than 0.0001) and in patients infected with coagulase-negative staphylococci (odds ratio 3.9, p = 0.003). Survival after initially successful therapy for prosthetic valve endocarditis was adversely affected by the presence of moderate or severe congestive heart failure at hospital discharge (p = 0.03). Bad outcome during follow-up (death, relapse of prosthetic valve endocarditis, or subsequent cardiac operation related to sequelae of the original infection) was more common in the medical than the medical-surgical therapy group (p = 0.02). The difference in long-term outcome between patients treated initially with medical or with medical-surgical therapy was particularly evident in those with complicated prosthetic valve endocarditis (p = 0.008). The presence of complicated prosthetic valve endocarditis is a central variable in assessing prognosis and planning therapy; the majority of patients with complicated prosthetic valve endocarditis are best treated with medical-surgical therapy. Those who are not treated surgically during their initial hospitalization are at high risk for progressive prosthesis dysfunction and require careful follow-up.

Risk factors for the development of prosthetic valve endocarditis.

Risk factors for the development of prosthetic valve endocarditis (PVE) were analyzed in 2642 patients undergoing initial valve replacement at the Massachusetts General Hospital from 1975 to 1982. Follow-up was available for 2608 patients (98.7%); the mean length of follow-up was 39.8 months. PVE developed in 116 patients (4.4%). The actuarial risk of PVE was 3.1% at 12 months and 5.7% at 60 months. A Cox model was used to identify risk factors for PVE. Recipients of multiple valves had a higher risk of PVE than single valves (p = .01). There was no difference in the risk of PVE for patients receiving aortic valves vs those receiving mitral valves. Recipients of mechanical valves had a higher risk of PVE than recipients of porcine valves in the first 3 months after surgery (p = .02), but the risk of PVE was higher for porcine valve recipients 12 months or more after surgery (p = .004). Despite this difference in the time course of development of PVE, there was no significant difference in the cumulative risk of PVE by 5 years of follow-up between mechanical and porcine valve recipients. Male sex was a risk factor for PVE within 12 months of aortic valve replacement (p = .008) but not thereafter; sex did not influence the risk of PVE after mitral valve replacement. Older patients had a higher risk of late PVE after multiple (p = .04) or mitral valve replacement (p = .08), but not after aortic valve replacement.

Comparison of Haitian children in a nutrition intervention programme with children in the Haitian national nutrition survey.

PIP: Weight-for-height and height-for-age data were compared for preschool-age Haitian children enrolled in a community health and nutrition intervention program and children measured in the Haiti national nutrition survey of 1978. Cross-sections of the longitudinal data of the intervention program corresponding to the season when the national survey was conducted (May-September) were chosen for the 3 years of available program data (1969-71). Significantly less stunting was found in children in the 1970 and 1971 intervention group than in the children covered by the national survey. Tests of trend also showed that the height (or length) status of the children in the intervention program improved from 1969-71. Wasting, or low weight status, was in general not significantly different in any of the comparisons. Nevertheless, the data were more favorable to children in the intervention groups, even in 1970, a year of food shortages. The results of the comparison are consistent with a positive program effect. (author's)^ieng