A mutation in the FOXP2 gene has been the first genetic association with a language disorder. Language disorder is considered as a core symptom of schizophrenia. Therefore, the FOXP2 gene could be ...considered a good candidate gene for the vulnerability to schizophrenia.
A set of single nucleotide polymorphisms mainly located in the 5' regulatory region of the FOXP2 gene was analysed in a sample of 186 DSM-IV schizophrenic patients with auditory hallucinations and in 160 healthy controls.
Statistically significant differences in the genotype (P=0.007) and allele frequencies (P=0.0027) between schizophrenic patients with auditory hallucinations and controls were found in the single nucleotide polymorphism rs2396753. These P values changed to 0.07 and 0.0273, respectively, after Bonferroni sequential correction. The haplotype rs7803667T/rs10447760C/rs923875A/rs1358278A/rs2396753A (TCAAA) also showed a significant difference confirmed with a permutation test (P=0.009).
These results suggested that the FOXP2 gene may confer vulnerability to schizophrenic patients with auditory hallucinations.
Pleasurable auditory hallucinations Sanjuan, J.; Gonzalez, J. C.; Aguilar, E. J. ...
Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica,
October 2004, Letnik:
110, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Objective: The focus in auditory hallucination (AH) research is usually on the negative impact of the experience itself. There are practically no studies on whether voices can be perceived as ...pleasurable. The aim of the present study was to assess the frequency of voices as a pleasurable experience in a psychotic patient population.
Method: A total of 160 patients with AHs (89 schizophrenia and 17 other psychoses) were assessed with the psychotic symptom rating scale (PSYRATS) for AHs, including an added item on whether the experience was pleasurable.
Results: Twenty‐eight patients (26%) reported the voices as a pleasurable experience and 10 of them did so frequently. Pleasurable hallucinations showed negative associations with amount and intensity of distress, degree of negative content and loudness. Positive associations were apparent with chronicity and perceived control over the voices.
Conclusion: Pleasurable hallucinations can be detected in a substantial proportion of patients, and cross validated with existing instruments.
Our objective was to evaluate in a demonstration project whether our T-Care Program, telecare management via an Internet-based home-messaging device, reduces resource utilization by patients with ...congestive heart failure (CHF), diabetes mellitus (DM), and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Study participants were drawn from a group of high resource-utilizing veterans over age 60 and included 19 patients with CHF, 23 with DM, and 17 with COPD. Data were gathered on hospital admissions, bed days of care (BDOC), outpatient admissions, and emergency department visits 6 months before and 6 months after enrollment in the telecare program. Nonparametric tests examined pre- and postintervention effects. For patients with CHF, significant decreases were found with T-Care in total emergency department visits (30 to 10, p = 0.03) and hospital admissions (20 to 8, p = 0.03). The decrease in BDOC (179 to 53) was not significant (p = 0.07). Outpatient visits were unchanged (71 to 83, p = 0.38). There were no significant changes for patients with COPD: the apparent BDOC decrease (115 to 46) was not significant (p = 0.24). The outpatient visits by patients with DM decreased significantly (199 to 143, p = 0.03), but no significance was found for changes in their emergency department visits, hospital admissions, and BDOC. The apparent BDOC increase (38 to 198, p = 0.23) was related to two patients with extended stays for an amputation and mitral valve surgery. We found that telecare models may reduce resource utilization in elderly patients with chronic diseases, especially in patients with CHF. Because of the small sample size and lack of controls, larger and more carefully designed follow-up trials are needed to determine cost efficiency for different chronic diseases, and the relative value of the interpersonal contact versus the technological components of this care coordination model.
Persistent auditory hallucinations González, J C; Aguilar, E J; Berenguer, V ...
Psychopathology,
03/2006, Letnik:
39, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
There is still a significant proportion of psychotic patients who suffer from persistent auditory hallucinations (PAH) in spite of treatment. The objective of our study was to analyze those clinical ...dimensions that characterize persistent hallucinators in comparison with episodic hallucinators.
Ninety-one outpatients with AH were assessed through semistructured interviews. The interviews included the Psychotic Symptom Rating Scales for AH and the Krawiecka scale. They elicited descriptions about the persistence of AH, existence of pleasurable hallucinations and other types of hallucinations.
Forty-five patients fulfilled criteria for reported PAH. Persistent hallucinators showed greater scores in frequency and duration of hallucinations, Krawiecka total score and incoherence of speech. Moreover, pleasurable experiences were more frequent in this group of patients. Logistic regression analysis rendered a model with the following variables: duration of voices, degree of control and pleasurable hallucinations.
Specific dimensions of AH can predict the possibility of treatment resistance.
The objective of this study is to evaluate the subjective perception of cognitive deficit and how it relates to the perception of patients' relatives. Differences between the subjective perception of ...cognitive deficits in 107 DSM-IV-diagnosed psychotic patients and that of their relatives or caregivers were evaluated using the GEOPTE Scale. Fair agreement was observed between patient and family perception of cognitive functions, although there were important differences on those items that correspond to social functioning. A high degree of correlation was detected between the scores on this scale and clinical global impression scores, as well as the physicians' global impression of cognitive impairment. Psychotic patients maintain insight as to their cognitive deficits, but they fail to conserve an awareness of their perception of social functioning.
FOXP2 was described as the first gene involved in our ability to acquire spoken language. The main objective of this study was to compare the distribution of
FOXP2 gene polymorphisms between patients ...with schizophrenia and healthy controls.
Two
FOXP2 polymorphisms, Intron3a and SNP 923875, and the G→A transition in exon 14 were analysed in 149 patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders according to DSM-IV, as well as in 137 controls. All the patients showed a history of auditory hallucinations.
The transition G→A at exon 14, detected in all the affected members in KE family, was not found in any of the analyzed samples from patients or controls. No significant differences were found between individual controls and patients for the two analysed polymorphisms.
This study would not support a possible role of the two
FOXP2 analyzed polymorphisms in the vulnerability to schizophrenia.
Fifty-six schizophrenic patients at the moment of their suicidal attempt were compared to a control group of 60 patients. Schizophrenic suicidal attempters showed an identifiable clinical profile at ...the acute phase. Two main groups could be differentiated in regard to their reasons (depressive or psychotic) for attempting suicide.
The immune system protects the body against health-threatening entities, known as antigens, through very complex interactions involving the antigens and the system's own entities. One remarkable ...feature resulting from such interactions is the immune system's ability to improve its capability to fight antigens commonly found in the individual's environment. This adaptation process is called the evolution of specificity. In this paper, we introduce a new mathematical model for the evolution of specificity in humoral immunity, based on Jerne's functional, or idiotypic, network. The evolution of specificity is modeled as the dynamic updating of connection weights in a dynamic graph whose nodes are related to the network's idiotypes. At the core of this weight-updating mechanism are the increase in specificity caused by clonal selection and the decrease in specificity due to the insertion of uncorrelated idiotypes by the bone marrow. As we demonstrate through numerous computer experiments, for appropriate choices of parameters the new model correctly reproduces, in qualitative terms, several immune functions.
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