Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

B Cornblatt

Publications and source records attributed to B Cornblatt.

12 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1990

Report of a workshop on genetic linkage studies in schizophrenia.

A workshop on genetic linkage studies in schizophrenia was held at Columbia University's Arden House Conference Center in October 1989. This report summarizes the contents of invited talks by Drs. Arno Motulsky and T. Conrad Gilliam and the discussions at the five workshop sessions. Topics of the workshop sessions were (1) diagnostic boundaries and hierarchies in schizophrenia, (2) genetic models and linkage parameters, (3) selection and ascertainment of pedigrees, (4) future extensions of molecular genetics strategies, and (5) possibilities for future collaboration.

Genetic Linkage↗
PubMed1988

Auditory event-related potentials in children at risk for schizophrenia: the complete initial sample.

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from children of schizophrenic parents, children of parents with affective disorders, and children of parents without a history of psychiatric illness. ERPs were elicited during a modification of the "oddball" paradigm, in which two infrequents (a change in pitch and a missing stimulus) were embedded in a series of frequent background events. The data were recorded from electrodes located at midline frontal, central, parietal, and occipital scalp sites. Diagnostic assessments of the parents were performed using the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia-Lifetime Version (SADS-L) and Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC). Behavioral assessments of the children were made with a modified version (BGAS) of the Global Assessment Scale. ERP amplitudes for several electrophysiological events were compared among groups for target and nontarget stimuli using analyses of of variance of both factor score and baseline to peak measures. No systematic differences suggesting waveform abnormalities in the children of schizophrenic parents (high-risk subjects) were found. However, when the results were analyzed using only those children whose parents had a "pure" diagnosis of either schizophrenia or affective disorder, the children of affectively disordered parents (psychiatric control subjects) showed significantly lower N100 amplitudes (to the frequent event only) than either the normal control or high-risk subjects. No consistent behavioral differences among the three groups emerged. Since only a small percentage of children at risk will eventually develop schizophrenia, ERP amplitude frequency distribution analyses were also performed and compared among groups. However, these did not provide evidence of an outlying subgroup in any of the three groups. There were complex relationships between ERP component amplitudes and behavioral adjustment in adolescence but, in general, these did not distinguish high-risk and psychiatric control subjects from each other. There was no evidence of a relationship between deviant attentional functioning as measured in an earlier round of laboratory testing and ERP late component amplitude.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

High-risk research in schizophrenia: a summary of what has been learned.

High-risk research on schizophrenia has been concerned chiefly with two types of issues: (1) description of background factors in the early lives of high-risk subjects; and (2) identification of biological variables that may be markers of the genetic liability to schizophrenic disorders. It is concluded that efforts to describe background factors have led to some conflicting results, have shown little evidence of specificity of the factors under study to risk for schizophrenia, and may not be generalizable to most individuals who develop schizophrenia. Results of research focusing on biological variables are summarized under the headings of attention and information processing (AIP), smooth pursuit eye movement (SPEM), neurological signs, electrodermal responding, event related potentials, and ventricular size. Of these, certain AIP and SPEM dysfunctions show substantial evidence of serving as biological markers, certain other AIP impairments are promising in this regard, electrodermal responsivity is not, and the other three categories present uncertain or conflicting results. Several methodological issues that have hampered the first generation of high-risk research are discussed.

Humans↗
PubMed1987

The New York High-Risk Project: a followup report.

The New York High-Risk Project began in 1971 as a prospective, longitudinal study of (1) children of one or two schizophrenic parents and (2) comparison groups of children whose parents had other or no psychiatric disorders. The former were examined because they were known to be at high risk--some 10-25 percent for children with one affected parent and 35-45 percent with two affected parents--for developing schizophrenia or schizophrenia spectrum disorders during adolescence or adulthood (Erlenmeyer-Kimling 1977; Gottesman and Shields 1982). Children of parents with affective disorders were included because we wished to determine whether variables that might differentiate the children of schizophrenic parents from the children of normal parents also differentiated them from children of parents with other psychiatric disorders. Major goals of the program were (1) identification of biological and behavioral indicators of a genetic liability to develop schizophrenia and (2) longitudinal followup of the subjects to assess the predictive validity and specificity of variables tentatively flagged as early indicators. Other goals have included evaluation of the developmental course of such variables and documentation of the history of the development of schizophrenic disorders.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

Toxocara canis infection of children: epidemiologic and neuropsychologic findings.

Sera from 4,652 children whose blood was submitted to the New York City Department of Health for lead analysis were tested for antibodies to Toxocara canis using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Standardized to the age distribution of the study population, T. canis seropositivity (inverse titers greater than or equal to 16) was 5.7 per cent in males and 5.1 per cent in females. T. canis antibody titers and lead exposures as measured by Centers for Disease Control lead classes were positively correlated. Children who were seropositive to T. canis (cases) were compared to seronegatives (controls) matched on age (+/- 6 months), sex, time-of-screening (+/- 3 months) and CDC lead class. Logistic regression analysis of 155 case-control pairs demonstrated elevated relative risks (RRs) for geophagia (RR = 3.14; 95% CI = 1.75, 5.64) and having had a litter of puppies in the home (RR = 5.22; 95% CI = 1.63, 16.71). Compared to controls, cases had increased eosinophil counts, serum immunoglobulin E concentrations, and anti-hemagglutinin-A titers. Small deficits in cases compared to controls were found in performance on several neuropsychological tests after adjustment for potential confounders including case-control differences in race, socioeconomic status, and current blood lead concentrations. The study thus confirmed that T. canis infection is common in urban children and suggested that infection may be associated with adverse neuropsychological effects.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

Sustained attention in children at risk for schizophrenia: findings with two visual continuous performance tests in a new sample.

In partial replication of an earlier study, 35 children at high risk for schizophrenia, 25 children at high risk for affective disorder, and 53 normal control children from a new sample of 7- to 12-year-old subjects were tested with two new visual continuous performance tests. Response levels and intrasubject variability were analyzed separately. Multivariate analyses on factor scores derived from response levels indicate that "groups" is a significant predictor for a factor reflecting discriminability (or sensitivity) for the more difficult of these tests but not for the less difficult one, and that high risk for schizophrenia is associated with lower performance. Factor scores and multiple regression analyses were used to dichotomize subjects as to whether or not they are low performance outliers. A significantly larger proportion of subjects from the high risk for schizophrenia group than from the control groups were low performance outliers. Among subjects that developed psychopathology in adolescence, subjects at high risk for schizophrenia were more likely to have contributed low performance outliers early during childhood.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

Event-related potentials in children at risk for schizophrenia during two versions of the continuous performance test.

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from children of schizophrenic parents, children of parents with affective disorders, and children of parents without a history of psychiatric illness. ERPs were elicited during two versions of the continuous performance test (CPT), which differed in their level of processing complexity. The data were recorded from electrodes located at midline frontal, central, parietal, and occipital scalp sites. Diagnostic assessments of the parents were performed using the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia-Lifetime Version and Research Diagnostic Criteria. Clinical assessments of the children were made with a modified version of the Global Assessment Scale. ERP amplitudes for six electrophysiological events were compared among groups for target and nontarget stimuli using analyses of variance of both factor score and baseline to peak measures. There was one isolated between-group finding: frontal negative slow wave recorded at FZ was of greater magnitude in the high risk (HR) than in either the psychiatric (PC) or normal control (NC) groups. Since only a small percentage of children at risk will eventually develop schizophrenia, ERP amplitude deviance and frequency distribution analyses were also performed and compared among groups. ERP component amplitudes did not distinguish the groups when each component was considered separately. Deviance analyses, using a combination of the amplitudes of the six ERP components, also did not provide evidence of a deviant subgroup within any of the three groups. There appeared to be no relationship between ERP component amplitudes and behavioral adjustment in adolescence. Some evidence of a relationship between deviant attentional functioning and ERP component amplitude was found, but the pattern of findings within the attentionally deviant HR subgroup was opposite to that found for the HR group as a whole and more consistent with the pattern found for the NC group.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

Electrodermal recovery data on children of schizophrenic parents.

Half-amplitude recovery of electodermal responses is compared in children of schizophrenic parents (high-risk subjects) and children of depressed or normal parents. The results are dissimilar to those reported by Mednick and colleagues on a Danish high-risk sample. No significant differences emerged among the three groups in our study. Recovery did not differ according to sex or severity of illness of the schizophrenic parent. Recoveries of high-risk subjects separated from their homes were not shorter than recoveries of subjects who remained home. Recovery time recorded in childhood was unrelated to global adjustment in adolescence.

Adolescent↗