Health--mental health--quality of life.

BACKGROUND: Three positive aspects of human life manifestations are most frequently referred to as different, but closely interrelated concepts: health, mental health and quality of life (QoL). OBJECTIVES: Discussion of most frequently presented (WHO) definitions of the above mentioned concepts and of their certain shortcomings. METHODS: Critical review of concepts and definitions. MAIN RESULTS: The definition of health stresses the functional aspects of all life manifestations of man, i.e. biological, psychological, and social. The functional qualities of mental health are characterised by five areas. QoL is discussed as a broad concept pertaining to the set of material, biological, psychological, social and cultural needs and demands related to the well-being and life satisfaction of an individual. CONCLUSIONS: All of the discussed concepts point to the great complexity of factors playing their roles in human health, mental health, and the QoL. They all require an integrating and/or integrated concept as to the optimal character of biological, psychological, social, and cultural manifestations of human life. (Ref. 23.)

[Eradication of contagious diseases]. / Eradikace prenosných nemocí.

Based on analysis of eleven-year intense epidemiological intervention against smallpox, a number of findings and demands ensued which should be met by an infectious disease to be included into the programme of eradication or elimination. The author mentions several episodes from the programme of smallpox eradication in which he participated as a member of a WHO team. Part of the paper is a detailed explanation of the terms eradication and elimination. The main part of the article is a characteristic of infections where the global programme of eradication or elimination is underway. At present the eradication of poliomyelitis and dracunculiasis is completed and elimination of tetanus of neonates as well as leprosy, all by the year 2000. By 2010 measles, possibly German measles and mumps should be eradicated and possibly leprosy and Chagas' disease and onchocerciasis should be eliminated. Also for other infections such as lymphatic filariasis, trachoma and non-veneric treponematoses more remote terms are given or are not yet given. Depending on the decision of WHO on the programme of global eradication, under precisely defined conditions seven other infections may be included: cysticercosis (Taenia solium), diseases caused by Haemophilus influenzae b, viral hepatitis A, rotavirus enteritis, diphtheria, whooping cough and tuberculosis. In the case of viral hepatitis B only elimination is foreseen.

[Psychological and psychosocial factors in sudden cardiac death]. / Psychické a psychosociálne cinitele a náhla srdcová smrt.

BACKGROUND: Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is one of very frequent terminal stages of cardiovascular pathology. Its risk may be increased by various negative psychological and psychosocial factors. OBJECTIVES: Critical discussion of data dealing with the above factors as related to the development of coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction, and SCD, respectively, possible physiological and pathophysiological mechanisms mediating the impact of these factors upon the heart, and the psychophysiological and/or psychosomatic aspects of SCD prevention. METHODS: Review and analysis of publications related to this topic issued over the past 25 years. MAIN RESULTS: Psychological and psychosocial factors playing the most important role in the development of the above cardiovascular disorders and the triggering of SCD include: acute as well as long-term stressful life situations, certain negative behavioural and personality characteristics, and lack of support in the social environment. The effect of these factors upon the heart is mediated by the brain influences contributing to cardiovascular regulations. CONCLUSIONS: Psychological and psychosocial factors may play a part in the development of cardiovascular pathology and may trigger processes resulting in SCD. The effect of positive psychological and psychosocial influences upon cardiovascular and other systems of the human organism should be taken into account in the prevention of cardiovascular disorders including the SCD.

Attention level oscillations during visual perception of moving stimuli.

Optokinetic nystagmus (OKN) pursuit phase velocity oscillations were studied in seven undergraduates during repeated 4 min presentation of optokinetic stimuli. The following variable parameters of the stimuli motion were used with each subject: horizontal direction, angular velocity (AV), and frequency-to-velocity ratio. AV of the OKN pursuit phases was found to decrease markedly within the first 30 sec of stimuli presentation with its successive increase and variously marked oscillations. Gradual decrease of the AV of OKN pursuit phases was observed at the end of the whole examination as compared to its beginning already within 4 min presentation of the moving stimuli. The results are discussed from the point of view of the arousal, and the activation components of visual attention.

[Problems with the limitations of medicine]. / Problémy hraníc medicíny.

BACKGROUND: Dissatisfaction with the exclusively biomedical approach to the etiology, manifestations, treatment and prevention of disease has manifested itself by the broadening of the limits of medicine from the inside in the form of bio-psycho-social model of diseases. From the outside, there has been an effort to enter medicine by various approaches and methods of the so-called alternative medicine. OBJECTIVES: Critical evaluation of positives and negatives of the bio-psycho-social model diseases as well as of the approaches of alternative medicine. Particular attention is paid to the so-called psychotronics and psychotronics-based natural medicine. METHODS: Analysis of the problem under study using world wide publications that are cited in the Current Contents in the part dealing with Life Sciences. MAIN RESULTS: Multi-factorial bio-psycho-social model of diseases has stimulated the complex interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research of the influence of psychological and psychosocial factors upon the human health and diseases respectively. There is, however, a lack of concrete directions for the application of the model in clinical practice. The main disadvantage of alternative medicine is that its methods have no scientifically based conceptions and their effects remain unproved. The main risk of the use of these methods are faulty diagnoses and the neglect of the most effective treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Medicine is not merely a science, it is an art as well. The indispensable part of this are should reside in the most effective use of the non-specific positive effects of the interaction between physicians and patients.

Differences in saccadic eye movement-related potentials under regular and irregular intervals of visual stimulation.

The saccadic eye movement-related potentials (SEMRPs) were recorded over various brain areas in a group of righthanders while they performed saccades to visual stimuli appearing either at regular or at irregular time intervals. The premotion positivity, motion execution component and lambda responses were of shorter latencies and lower amplitudes over the parietal areas as compared to the occipital ones. This finding did not depend on the regularity of intervals. With regular intervals, the positive wave starting before and peaking at the end of a saccade was found over the frontal eye fields. With irregular intervals, the premotion negativity was registered over the motor and frontal cortices. With saccades at regular intervals, the oculomotor components in the SEMRPs were less pronounced as compared to the irregular ones. These results are in accordance with the presumption that visual stimuli, appearing at irregular intervals, require higher attention and readiness to the oculomotor reaction, respectively, and also with the supposed role of the right hemisphere of righthanders in processing visual information.

[The accuracy of saccadic eye movements is associated with their horizontal and vertical direction]. / Presnost' sakadických pohybov ocí závisí od ich horizontálneho a vertikálneho smeru.

Electro-oculagraphic, photo-oculographic, and magnetoelectro-oculographic methods were used to study and to compare the accuracy of 10 degrees saccadic movements of the eyes in dependence on their direction to the right, to the left, upwards and downwards. Leftward saccades in right-handers and rightward saccades in left-handers proved to be more accurate compared to saccades in the opposite direction. This finding may be related to the functional asymmetry of the cerebral hemispheres. Downward saccades are inaccurate in comparison to upward saccades. Their inaccuracy is caused by overshooting the target. In the case of vertical saccades, the existence of different generators in the brain for triggering upward and downward saccades may play a role, along with a potential preprogramming of the change in the downward look into a sequence of two saccades. The obtained results emphasize the requirement of calibrating the electro-oculogram by saccades in that direction in which the analyzed eye movements are recorded.

[Characteristics of evoked potentials related to saccadic eye movements in man]. / Niektoré charakteristiky evokovaných potenciálov viazaných na sakadické pohyby ocí u cloveka.

The exactness of saccadic eye movements to the right and to the left and changes in evoked potentials related to these eye movements were analyzed in 50 university students with marked righthandedness and normal vision, aged from 18 to 24 years (18 males, 32 females). The saccades to the left were found to be more exact than those to the right, which overshot the target in a significantly higher number of instances. In subjects with exact refixations the premotion activity in evoked potentials is of shorter duration, the spike potential has a lower amplitude and the lambda response a shorter latency in saccades to the left. The given changes are more pronounced above the right occipital region. In subjects with a higher number of correction saccades the differences between the two sides disappear in saccade related evoked potentials. The obtained results support the presumed important role of the right hemisphere or the left half of the visual field in organizing eye movements and in the integration mechanisms of eyemotion-visual perception in righthanded subjects.

The eye movement capacity to pursue optokinetic stimuli of increasing frequency and velocity.

Changes in the mean frequency, amplitude and angular velocity of the slow phases of optokinetic nystagmus (OKN) were examined in 72 subjects when the frequency and velocity of optokinetic stimuli were step-wise increased from 1 Hz (17 degrees s-1) up to 12 Hz (204 degrees s-1). The gradual failure of the oculomotor component of visual motion perception was characterized by progressive lagging of the OKN parameters behind the increasing frequency and velocity of moving stimuli and by episodic cessation and reappearance of the OKN pattern at higher frequencies and velocities of stimuli. The frequency and velocity of stimuli at which OKN completely ceased was related to the degree of lagging of the OKN pursuit phases behind the stimuli already at low velocities of their motion.