[Prognosis of cognitive deficit progression in aged patients with mild cognitive impairment under prolonged therapy (a three year observation)].

The aim of the study was to predict treatment efficacy in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and to find the most reliable clinical tests for the prediction of dementia. Patients with amnestic MCI (n=53) were treated with cerebrolysin for three years and underwent regularly neurocognitive and clinical psychiatric tests. The data were analyzed using non-parametric statistics, cluster analysis, and linear discriminate analysis. The combination of statistical methods has enabled to predict the degree of cognitive impairment as well as the development of dementia. A "dementia risk group" with fast cognitive decline (i.e. the low efficacy of the treatment) was identified. The tests are ranked according to their predictive values.

[The complex neurochemical assessment of brain proteins in mentally healthy subjects and schizophrenic patients].

Relative amounts of the glutamate metabolizing enzymes - glutamine synthetase, glutamine synthetase-like protein, three isoenzymes of glutamate dehydrogenase as well as creatine phosphokinase (a main astroglial energy metabolism enzyme) and major proteins of astro- and oligodendroglia - a glial fibrillary acidic protein and a myelin basic protein were determined in postmortem brain extracts from three areas - the prefrontal cortex, caudate nucleus and cerebellum - from mentally healthy subjects (n=21) and patients with chronic schizophrenia (n=23). To single out "metabolic types" the data obtained have been subjected to cluster analysis. It has been demonstrated for the first time that the cluster analysis of the biological parameters (enzymes and proteins) with correction for age, gender, postmortem interval and presence/absence of diagnosis, enables to distinguish "mentally healthy" cases and "schizophrenic patients" with a high degree of significance (mean mixing error <20%, small er, Cyrillic>>0,00004). Thus, we suppose that mentally healthy controls and patients with schizophrenia are objectively divided into different "metabolic types".

[Use of cluster analysis for the study of self-stigmatization phenomenon]. / Primenenie klasternogo analiza dlia opisaniia fenomena samostigmatizatsii.

Cluster analysis was used in the study of self-stigmatization phenomenon measured with the original self-stigmatization questionnaire in 81 patients with schizophrenia, affective and neurotic disorders. The answers presented by digital codes were analyzed statistically. Six factors of self-stigmatization were as follows: "a victim of stigma", "deidentification from the healthy", "predisposition to identification with mentally ill", "avoidance of mentally ill", "excuse by mental illness" and "generalization of stigma".

[Regional indices of alcoholic poisonings and alcoholic psychoses]. / Oblastnye pokazateli alkogol'nykh otravlenii i alkogol'nykh psikhozov.

Interrelations of phenomena preconditioned by alcohol consumption were the starting prerequisite of the case study. The annual lethality rates due the to alcohol poisonings (AP) and alcoholic psychosis (APS) morbidity were investigated in 77 Russia's regions during 1991-1999, when the alcohol consumption used to be dynamic in the country--a sharp growth in 1991-1994, a drop in 1995-1998, and a new increase in 1999. The correlation of studied phenomena was observed only in 33 regions. The ratio of AP level to APS level varied in different regions and during different time periods from 50-fold AP prevalence to 65-fold APS prevalence. The distribution of APS indices was normal, while the distribution of AP deviated from the norm towards a higher dispersion. Two etalons were made use of, i.e. one for AP and the other for APS, to assess the differences between the AP and APS indices. APS differed from the appropriate etalon by far less versus AP. A list of regions with respect for deviations of APS and AP indices was compiled. A conclusion was made to the extent that consciously or unconsciously the postmortem diagnoses of AP were concealed in a majority of Russia's regions; APS were not registered in full either. However, the latter reflect better the alcohol-related situation in regions versus AP.