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D Goldman

Publications and source records attributed to D Goldman.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

A relationship between serotonin transporter genotype and in vivo protein expression and alcohol neurotoxicity.

BACKGROUND: Genetic variation of the promoter for the serotonin transporter (5-HTT) gene has been associated with its functional capacity. In vitro, carriers of a short allele (s-carriers) of the 5-HTT promoter display significant reduction in 5-HTT capacity. Dysfunction of 5-HTT has been observed in alcoholic individuals. We assessed whether the allelic constitution of the 5-HTT gene is associated with reduced serotonin transporter availability among alcoholic individuals. METHODS: We genotyped the 5-HTT promoter region and measured the availability of serotonin transporter protein with [I-123]beta-CIT SPECT in the raphe area in 14 abstinent male alcoholic subjects and 8 age-matched control subjects of European American descent. RESULTS: Among control subjects, the ratio of in vivo 5-HTT availability for ll-homozygous individuals relative to s-carriers was comparable to serotonin uptake ratios measured in vitro. There was a significant interaction of diagnosis and 5-HTT promoter genotype on 5-HTT availability (p <.01). Among controls, ll-homozygous individuals displayed a significant increase as compared with s-carriers. The availability of raphe 5-HTT was significantly reduced in ll-homozygous alcoholic individuals and was negatively correlated with their amount of alcohol consumption. Among s-carriers, 5-HTT availability did not differ significantly between control and alcoholic subjects. CONCLUSIONS: Our preliminary findings suggest an association between 5-HTT allelic constitution and in vivo measurements of human serotonin transporter availability, and a potentially selective susceptibility of ll-homozygous individuals to the neurotoxic effects of chronic excessive alcohol consumption.

Adult

Genotype influences in vivo dopamine transporter availability in human striatum.

In vivo availability of striatal dopamine transporter (DAT) protein has been reported to be reduced among alcoholics, and allelic variation of the DAT gene (SLC6A3) has been associated with severity of alcohol withdrawal. We examined the VNTR polymorphism of the 3' untranslated region of SLC6A3 and DAT protein availability in 14 abstinent alcoholics and 11 control subjects. Single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and plasma levels of the radioligand [I-123]beta-CIT were used to quantify DAT protein availability. Individuals with the 9-repeat/10-repeat genotype had a mean 22% reduction of DAT protein availability in putamen compared with 10-repeat homozygous individuals (t = 2.14, df = 23, p < .05). Consistent with earlier studies, alcoholism, per se, was not significantly associated with either DAT availability or DAT genotype. These findings suggest that the VNTR polymorphism of the DAT gene effects translation of the DAT protein. This effect may explain a variety of clinical associations that have been reported with this polymorphism.

3' Untranslated Regions

Improving the quality of care through routine teleradiology consultation.

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: The hypotheses of this study were as follows: (a) University subspecialty radiologists can provide consultations effectively to general radiologists as part of routine clinical operations; (b) these consultations will improve the quality of the final radiologic report; and (c) the consultations will improve the care process and may save money, as well. MATERIALS AND METHODS: For 2,012 consecutive computed tomographic or magnetic resonance (MR) imaging studies, the initial interpretations provided by radiology generalists were subsequently reviewed by specialists, with a final consensus report available. "Truth" was established by final consensus reports. To control for potential bias, 150 adult MR imaging and 250 pediatric radiologic studies were interpreted initially by specialists and then by generalists. Again, truth was established by final consensus reports. RESULTS: There was disagreement between generalist and specialist radiologist interpretations in 427 (21.2%) of the cases reviewed. These disagreements were stratified further by independent specialists, who graded them as important, very important, or unimportant. Differences were considered important or very important in 99% of the cases reviewed. CONCLUSION: Consultations by subspecialty radiologists improved the quality of the radiology reports studied and, at least in some cases, improved the process of care by eliminating unnecessary procedures or suggesting more specific follow-up examinations. The consultation services can be provided cost-effectively from the payer's perspective and may save additional costs when unnecessary procedures can be eliminated.

Humans

The new drugs (chlorpromazine & reserpine): administrative aspects. 1956.

The article on the new drugs reprinted below appeared in the February 1956 issue of Mental Hospitals. It is based on a discussion held during the Seventh Mental Hospital Institute in October 1955 in Washington, D.C. Chlorpromazine and reserpine had been available in the United States less than two years when the institute participants met to discuss how their hospitals were coping with the demands of the new treatments. In a commentary and analysis beginning on page 333, Robert Cancro, M.D., considers the broader impact of the introduction of neuroleptics and examines the concerns of the 1956 institute participants in the context of today.

Antipsychotic Agents

Association of coping responses with fibromyalgia tender points in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the association between fibromyalgia (FM) tender points (TP) and psychological constructs in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). METHODS: One hundred seventy-three patients with SLE were examined for FM TP, and asked to complete 2 questionnaires at the same visit, the Health-Related Hardiness Scale (HRHS), and the Mishel Uncertainty in Illness Scale (MUIS). RESULTS: The examination of FM TP showed that 38.2% had no TP, 44.5% had 1-10 TP, and 17.3% had > or = 11 TP. The mean +/- SD score of the HRHS was 155.6 +/- 19.7 (range 105.0-198.0; higher scores indicate greater hardiness), and the MUIS was 85.3 +/- 18.7 (range 41.0-132.0; higher scores indicate uncertainty). There were significant associations between FM TP and HRHS (no TP 161.2 +/- 20.2, 1-10 TP 152.5 +/- 19.7, > or = 11 TP 151.0 +/- 15.8; p = 0.0108) and between FM TP and MUIS (no TP 78.2 +/- 20.2, 1-10 TP 86.9 +/- 17.6, > or = 11 TP 95.8 +/- 14.7; p = 0.0001). CONCLUSION: This study shows a strong association between FM TP and uncertainty or lack of "hardiness." We conclude that SLE patients with FM TP are less likely to be good "copers." Prospective studies to determine if "poor coping" predicts FM in SLE are recommended. If the association between coping and FM is causal, it will justify interventions to improve coping and similar constructs, such as self-efficacy.

Adaptation, Psychological

HTR2C Cys23Ser polymorphism in relation to CSF monoamine metabolite concentrations and DSM-III-R psychiatric diagnoses.

BACKGROUND: Heritable variation in brain monoaminergic activity has been suggested to lead to interindividual differences in vulnerability to alcoholism, and many other behavioral disorders. We evaluated if a functional Cys23Ser polymorphism in the 5-HT2C receptor gene, the principal serotonin receptor in the brain, contributes to variation in serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine activity, as indexed by their major metabolite concentrations in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Genotype-monoamine metabolite concentration associations were subsequently correlated to risk for alcoholism. METHODS: The study sample consisted of unrelated Finnish males, including 214 alcoholic, violent offenders and 222 population controls who were interviewed using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R, blind rated for psychiatric diagnoses and typed for the HTR2C Cys23Ser polymorphism. CSF concentrations of 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA), the major metabolite of serotonin, 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylethyleneglycol (MHPG), the major metabolite of norepinephrine, and homovanillic acid (HVA), the major metabolite of dopamine were available from 195 individuals. RESULTS: The major finding in this study was that HTR2C CysSer23 significantly contributed to CSF MHPG concentrations (p = .012). Higher concentrations of CSF MHPG were observed both in alcoholic violent offenders and population controls with HTR2C Ser23 genotype. Despite the association of Cys23Ser to CSF MHPG, HTR2C genotype was not associated with alcoholism, nor with other psychiatric disorders present in this sample. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that a functional HTR2C Cys23Ser polymorphism contributes to the interindividual genetic variation of CSF MHPG explaining 3% of the total variance. This finding suggests that 5-HT2C receptors are involved in the regulation of norepinephrine turnover in humans; however, HTR2C Cys23Ser does not appear to contribute to the risk of alcoholism, or its contribution to this complex and heterogenous disorder is too small to be detected by a sample of this size and structure.

Alcoholism

The importance of local-regional radiotherapy with conventional or high-dose chemotherapy in the management of breast cancer patients with > or = 10 positive axillary nodes.

PURPOSE: To assess the effect of local-regional radiotherapy (RT) on the outcome of breast cancer patients with > or = 10 positive axillary lymph nodes who have received modern conventional or high-dose systemic therapy. METHODS AND MATERIALS: A total of 55 women with local-regionally confined breast cancer involving 10 or more axillary nodes were treated between October 1983 and January 1996. Local-regional therapy consisted of modified radical mastectomy in 39 and breast-conserving surgery in 16. Postoperative radiotherapy was given to 44 of the 55 patients. Radiotherapy consisted of tangential fields to the chest wall or intact breast to a median dose of 50.40 Gy. A total of 86% (38 of 44) received regional nodal irradiation as follows: 35 patients received RT to the supraclavicular (SC) region and axillary midplane to a median dose of 50.40 Gy and 46.20 Gy, respectively; 3 patients received RT to the SC region without inclusion of the axilla to a median dose of 50. 40 Gy. All patients received adjuvant standard-dose systemic chemotherapy, 9 of whom received additional intensification chemotherapy followed by autologous bone-marrow transplant (ABMT) or peripheral blood stem-cell transplant (PBSC). Twenty-five patients received adjuvant tamoxifen. RESULTS: With a median follow-up of 30 months, the crude overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) for the entire group were 67% and 53%, respectively. On univariate analysis of various clinical, pathological, and therapy-related features, radiotherapy emerged as the most important factor influencing the relapse rate. The addition of RT was significantly associated with an improved DFS (p = 0.003), specifically by prolonging the time to disease progression. The median time to failure was 61 months and 12.5 months with and without RT, respectively. Patients receiving RT also appeared to survive longer; however, the groups were not statistically different (p = 0.10). Analysis of the patterns of failure showed local-regional recurrence (LRR) as the first site of failure in 12 (22%) of 55 and distant failure in 20 (36%) of 55. Univariate results revealed both radiotherapy and tamoxifen to be significantly associated with decreased LRR rates (p = 0.0001 and p = 0.03, respectively); only RT remained independently significant on multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION: Local-regional radiotherapy is an essential component of the management of breast cancer patients with extensive nodal involvement, despite the use of contemporary adjuvant chemotherapy including high-dose regimens with autologous rescue. In addition to the expected improvement in LRR, radiotherapy is also associated with significantly prolonged DFS and a trend for improvement in OS.

Analysis of Variance

Cladistic association analysis of Y chromosome effects on alcohol dependence and related personality traits.

Association between Y chromosome haplotype variation and alcohol dependence and related personality traits was investigated in a large sample of psychiatrically diagnosed Finnish males. Haplotypes were constructed for 359 individuals using alleles at eight loci (seven microsatellite loci and a nucleotide substitution in the DYZ3 alphoid satellite locus). A cladogram linking the 102 observed haplotype configurations was constructed by using parsimony with a single-step mutation model. Then, a series of contingency tables nested according to the cladogram hierarchy were used to test for association between Y haplotype and alcohol dependence. Finally, using only alcohol-dependent subjects, we tested for association between Y haplotype and personality variables postulated to define subtypes of alcoholism-antisocial personality disorder, novelty seeking, harm avoidance, and reward dependence. Significant association with alcohol dependence was observed at three Y haplotype clades, with significance levels of P = 0.002, P = 0.020, and P = 0.010. Within alcohol-dependent subjects, no relationship was revealed between Y haplotype and antisocial personality disorder, novelty seeking, harm avoidance, or reward dependence. These results demonstrate, by using a fully objective association design, that differences among Y chromosomes contribute to variation in vulnerability to alcohol dependence. However, they do not demonstrate an association between Y haplotype and the personality variables thought to underlie the subtypes of alcoholism.

Alcoholism

No coding variant of the tryptophan hydroxylase gene detected in seasonal affective disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anorexia nervosa, and alcoholism.

BACKGROUND: The goal of this study was to evaluate the role of genetic variation in the coding sequence of tryptophan hydroxylase (TPH) in the pathogenesis of several psychiatric diseases in which altered serotonin function has been implicated: bipolar affective disorder (BP), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), anorexia nervosa (AN), seasonal affective disorder (SAD), panic disorder (PD), and alcoholism (Alc). METHODS: Ninety-three percent of the TPH coding sequence was screened by polymerase chain reaction single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) for DNA sequence variations in 128 AN, 88 OCD, 72 SAD, 45 PD, and 36 BP patients and 142 normal volunteers. Also included in the screening were 61 Alc randomly selected from a Finnish alcoholic population in which an association of a TPH intron 7 polymorphism with suicidality was previously observed. Polymorphisms detected by SSCP were characterized by DNA sequencing and by allele-specific restriction enzyme digestion. Genotyping was then performed in 34 Finnish alcoholic suicide attempters. RESULTS: A rare silent mutation was identified in exon 10 and is designated T1095C. The C1095 allele was found in 1 OCD and in 2 AN subjects; all 3 individuals were heterozygous (C1095/T1095) for the variant allele. No association was observed between this TPH T1095C variant with either OCD, AN, Alc, or suicidality. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that the coding sequence of the TPH gene does not contain abundant variants, and may not play a major role in vulnerability to several psychopathologies in which reduced serotonin turnover has been implicated.

Alcoholism

Selective genotyping for the role of 5-HT2A, 5-HT2C, and GABA alpha 6 receptors and the serotonin transporter in the level of response to alcohol: a pilot study.

BACKGROUND: The vulnerability to alcohol dependence appears to be genetically influenced through a variety of mechanisms. One potentially genetically mediated channel may be a low level of response (LR) to alcohol, which has been seen in children of alcoholics and noted to predict future alcohol abuse and dependence. This pilot study uses a case and control genetic association approach to evaluate the possible role of five genotypes in both LR and alcoholism in informative subgroups of men with high and low LR scores documented 15 years earlier. METHODS: As part of a larger study, 41 men, about 39 years old, were selected from among the first 113, completed 15-year follow-ups in a prospective study. The 17 subjects whose LRs at age 20 were in the lower third were compared on five polymorphisms of four genes with 24 men whose reactions to alcohol had been above the median. RESULTS: The 14 men with the LL genotype of the serotonin transporter (5-HTT) polymorphism and the seven with the Pro/Ser genotype of the GABAA alpha 6 polymorphism had demonstrated lower LR scores at about age 20, and had significantly higher proportions of alcoholics than the other genotypes for those loci. All four subjects with combined LL and Pro/Ser genotypes had developed alcoholism and demonstrated the lowest LR scores overall. There was no evidence that two polymorphisms of the 5-HT2A receptor gene and one of the 5-HT2C receptor gene were related to LR or alcoholism in this sample. CONCLUSIONS: These results are consistent with animal and human studies suggesting a possible role for genetic variation in the GABAA alpha 6 and the serotonin transporter in the reaction to alcohol and the alcoholism risk.

Adult

Benefits and pitfalls encountered in psychiatric genetic association studies.

The genetic association strategy is currently being applied to a number of psychiatric phenotypes including disease vulnerability, personality variation and clinical response to psychotropic drugs. Association studies offer the prospect of identification of the specific alleles that confer significant effects on clinical phenotype. However, it should be noted that this strategy has additional advantages as well as unique drawbacks. In this paper, we review the basic methodology utilized in each step of a typical psychiatric genetic association study and discuss their potential benefits and pitfalls with particular emphasis on the selection of clinical phenotype, the identification of a candidate gene, the selection of a candidate variant, clinical data set design, and the statistical analysis of association data. With appropriate design and execution, it is hoped that the association strategy will prove to be as successful in psychiatry as it has proven to be in other branches of medicine.

Alleles

Big mountain.

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Biological Psychiatry

Autosomal, mitochondrial, and Y chromosome DNA variation in Finland: evidence for a male-specific bottleneck.

The high prevalence of rare genetic diseases in Finland has been attributed to a founder effect some 2,000 years ago. However, this hypothesis has not been supported from mtDNA sequence and autosomal microsatellite data which indicate high levels of gene diversity. Here we have identified genetic evidence for a population bottleneck by examining variable microsatellite loci on the nonrecombining portion of Y chromosomes from Finland and four populations from Europe and the Americas. Sequence data from segment I of the control region (HVS-1) of mtDNA (360 bases) and 20 autosomal dinucleotide repeat markers were also analyzed. Partitions of genetic variance within and between populations revealed significant levels of Y-chromosome differentiation between populations. Phylogenetic and diversity analyses revealed divergent Finnish Y-haplotype clades and significantly lower Y-haplotype diversity among Finns as compared to other populations. Surprisingly, Finnish Y-haplotype diversity was even lower than the Native American populations. These results provide support for the Finnish bottleneck hypothesis. Evidence for two separate founding Finnish Y-chromosome lineages was also observed from the Y-chromosome phylogeny. A limited number of closely related founding males may have contributed to the low number of paternal lineages in the Finnish population. In contrast, high levels of genetic diversity for mtDNA and autosomal STRs may be the result of sex-biased gene flow and recent immigration to urban areas from established internal isolates within Finland.

Base Sequence

Nucleotide sequence diversity in non-coding regions of ALDH2 as revealed by restriction enzyme and SSCP analysis.

The simultaneous analysis of closely linked nucleotide substitutions has recently become possible. However, it is not known whether the construction of molecular haplotypes will be a generally useful strategy for nuclear genes. Furthermore, whereas mobility-shift methods are widely used for the discovery of nucleotide substitutions, the yield of these methods has rarely been evaluated. This paper investigates these issues in non-coding regions of ALDH2, the gene that encodes aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2). Screening 20 Europeans, 20 native Americans, and 20 Asians by using restriction enzyme and single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis has revealed 16 variable sites. SSCP yields slightly fewer than the number of nucleotide substitutions predicted by the restriction enzyme digests. Estimates of nucleotide diversity are similar to those of other genes, suggesting that the pattern of polymorphism in ALDH2 offers a preview of what can be expected in many human nuclear genes. Eight of the variable sites discovered here and four sites discovered by others have been genotyped in 756 people from 17 populations across five continents. An expectation-maximization method has used to estimate haplotype states and frequencies. Only three haplotypes are common worldwide, and a fourth haplotype is common in, but private to, Asia. Although allele frequencies differ among sites, linkage disequilibrium is almost maximal across ALDH2. This suggests that haplotype construction at ALDH2 is particularly successful. The ALDH2 result, in conjunction with linkage disequilibrium results from other genes, indicates that haplotype construction will be a generally useful genomic strategy.

Aldehyde Dehydrogenase