Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

D S Pine

Publications and source records attributed to D S Pine.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Verbal dichotic listening in boys at risk for behavior disorders.

OBJECTIVE: The association between deficits in verbal processing skills and disruptive psychopathology remains one of the most frequently replicated findings in all of child psychiatry. This study uses a dichotic consonant-vowel listening test to examine the potential neural basis for this association. METHOD: A series of 87 young boys recruited from a sample at risk for disruptive disorders received standardized psychiatric, neuropsychological, and language skills assessments. Approximately 1 year later, these boys received a reassessment of their psychiatric status and a test that assesses the neural basis of language-processing ability, a dichotic consonant-vowel listening test. RESULTS: Disruptive psychopathology predicted reduced right ear accuracy for dichotic syllables, indicative of a deficit in left hemisphere processing ability. Deficits in reading and language ability also correlated with right ear accuracy for dichotic syllables. CONCLUSIONS: Boys with disruptive behavior disorders, relative to at-risk but nondisruptive boys, exhibit a deficit in verbal processing abilities on dichotic listening tasks. This deficit in verbal processing ability is also manifested as low scores on standardized tests of reading achievement and language comprehension.

Brain↗

Childhood anxiety disorders.

Although anxiety is among the most common psychiatric problems faced by children and adolescents, anxiety disorders have been a relatively neglected research topic in comparison to childhood disruptive behavior and depressive disorders. Recent epidemiologic data have brought increasing attention to these impairing disorders. A review of these data is provided, and results from recent studies on the genetics, biology, and treatment of childhood anxiety disorders are integrated with a discussion of directions for future research. The data reviewed here point both to our growing understanding of childhood anxiety and to the need for continued research to address significant shortcomings in our knowledge base.

Adolescent↗

Psychiatric symptoms in adolescence as predictors of obesity in early adulthood: a longitudinal study.

OBJECTIVES: This study examined the longitudinal relationship between psychopathology and obesity in young adulthood. METHODS: More than 700 youth in a population-based sample were psychiatrically assessed in 1983 (mean age = 14 years) and 1992 (mean age = 22 years). Self-reported body mass index (BMI) in 1992 was regressed on measures of depression and conduct disorder as well as a set of covariates including indices of physical health, social class, intelligence, and cigarette and alcohol use. Associations were examined with BMI treated as a continuous variable and with a binary index of obesity derived from the BMI distribution in each gender. RESULTS: BMI in young adults was positively related to a number of covariates. With all covariates controlled, BMI was inversely related to adult depressive symptoms in males but not females. BMI was positively related to adolescent symptoms of conduct disorder in both sexes. Similar associations were found between psychiatric symptoms and obesity. CONCLUSIONS: Conduct disorder symptoms in adolescence predicted BMI and obesity in early adulthood. These associations remained after controlling for factors that can affect the association between psychopathology and obesity.

Adolescent↗

Discriminating depression and anxiety in youth: a role for diagnostic criteria.

OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that anxiety and depression in youth, as in adults, become increasingly discriminable when youth meet criteria for an emotional disorder. METHOD: The study uses cross-sectional data at two points in time from a large (n = 776) community sample of youths, aged eight to twenty. Associations between major depression and five anxiety disorders (overanxious, obsessive compulsive and separation anxiety disorders, and social and simple phobias) are examined by symptom scale and diagnosis. RESULTS: Anxiety and depression are moderately correlated, and substantially comorbid by diagnostic category. Symptoms are more discriminable among youths with diagnoses of at least one emotional disorder than among those without. A single factor accounts for symptoms among the non-diagnosed but multiple factors are required for the diagnosed group. CONCLUSIONS: Anxiety and depression are discriminable among youth who meet criteria for a specific emotional disorder but more highly associated among youths without such a diagnosis. This suggests that in youth, as has been shown in adults, depression and anxiety become increasingly discriminable as emotional psychopathology becomes more severe.

Adolescent↗

The association between major depression and headache: results of a longitudinal epidemiologic study in youth.

Retrospective epidemiologic research in adults suggests that a long-term association between major depression and headache arises during childhood or adolescence. This study uses data from a prospective epidemiologic study to examine the association between major depression and headache from late childhood into early adulthood. An epidemiologically selected sample of 776 youth, aged 9-18, was assessed psychiatrically in 1983 using DISC interviews with both youth and parent informants. Reassessments were conducted in 1985-1986 and 1992. Current and past histories of functionally impairing migraine or chronic headache were elicited in both 1985-1986 and 1992. Regression analyses examined the relationships between major depression and headache status. The prevalence of current functionally impairing headache was approximately 10% in both 1985-1986 and 1992. There were lifetime and cross-sectional associations between headache and major depression. Headache was approximately twice as common in depressed adolescents compared with nondepressed adolescents. Major depression in adolescents, without current or past headache, prospectively predicted the new onset of headaches in young adulthood. Among adolescents who had no history of chronic impairing headache in 1985-1986, those with current major depression faced a nearly tenfold increased risk of developing such headaches at some time during the next 7 years. Consistent with findings of retrospective studies among adults, a longitudinal/ developmental relationship between major depression and functionally impairing headache was found in this prospective epidemiologic study of youth. These findings suggest that (1) neurochemical and pharmacologic commonalities between depression and headache should receive further investigation and that (2) it may be clinically useful to inquire about family history of headache syndromes in adolescents with major depression because such questioning may provide insight about the risk of subsequent functionally impairing headache in a depressed adolescent.

Adolescent↗

Psychometrics of neurological soft signs.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the psychometrics of neurological soft signs in young children. METHOD: In a sample of 42 children from the community, two examiners simultaneously rated soft signs using a standardized examination. A subsample (n = 33) was reexamined twice over the next week to estimate test-retest reliability. RESULTS: Total score exhibited acceptable internal consistency as well as interrater and test-retest reliability. Psychometrics for individual items appeared less satisfactory than for the total score. DISCUSSION: Although examiners can reliably rate a variety of soft signs, more research examining test-retest reliability is needed. A reliable examination might be useful in future efforts to document the neuropsychiatric correlates of soft signs.

Child↗

Platelet serotonin 2A (5-HT2A) receptor characteristics and parenting factors for boys at risk for delinquency: a preliminary report.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the cross-sectional association between platelet membrane serotonin 2A (5-HT2A) receptor variables in children and characteristics of their parents that place these children at risk for antisocial behavior. METHOD: As part of a larger prospective study investigating predictors of antisocial behavior, 38 younger brothers of convicted delinquents provided platelet samples; samples from 34 boys (mean age=8.3 years) were usable. The authors determined the density (Bmax) and affinity (Kd) of platelet membrane 5-HT2A receptors by using [3H]lysergic acid diethylamide. They also measured parental characteristics related to serotonergic dysfunction in prior studies, the quality of parent-child interactions, and psychiatric profiles of the boys who provided platelets. RESULTS: Bmax was significantly lower in boys whose parents had histories of substance abuse or incarceration. Bmax was also inversely related to harsh parenting; boys raised in environments characterized by frequent parental physical punishment and anger had a significantly lower Bmax. Bmax was not related to boys' disruptive behavior. CONCLUSIONS: In boys at risk for antisocial behavior, the density of 5-HT2A receptors on platelets is inversely related to parental factors known to place youth at risk for antisocial behavior.

Antisocial Personality Disorder↗

Emotional problems during youth as predictors of stature during early adulthood: results from a prospective epidemiologic study.

OBJECTIVE: Adults with emotional disorders exhibit abnormalities in growth hormone secretion. If these abnormalities were to occur during childhood, they could affect growth. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between youth emotional disorders and stature in early adulthood. METHODS: Using data from a prospective epidemiologic study of youth psychopathologic status, we used linear regression to examine the prospective relationship between anxiety disorders (separation anxiety and over-anxious disorders) or major depressive disorder in youth and stature in early adulthood. RESULTS: Anxiety disorders during childhood prospectively predicted relatively short stature in early adulthood among females, accounting for more than 5% of the variance in adult height. However, these associations were not found among males. CONCLUSIONS: There may be an association between abnormalities in growth and emotional problems in youth. Further research should examine biological measures related to growth among youth with emotional disorders.

Adolescent↗

Seasonal rhythm of platelet [3H]imipramine binding in adolescents who attempted suicide.

OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to determine the seasonality of serotonin functions among adolescents who attempt suicide. METHOD: Platelet [3H]imipramine binding was assessed over a period of 18 months in 98 adolescents who attempted suicide and a comparison group of 23 never-suicidal youths with conduct disorder. RESULTS: [3H]Imipramine (Bmax) was uncorrelated with age, but showed considerable seasonal variability over time in those who had attempted suicide. CONCLUSIONS: [3H]Imipramine binding density in adolescents who attempted suicide exhibited significant seasonality, reaching a nadir in late winter/early spring.

Adolescent↗

Patients with multiple sclerosis presenting to psychiatric hospitals.

BACKGROUND: Although many neuropsychiatric syndromes are associated with multiple sclerosis, few recent studies have examined the clinical features of psychiatric illness in inpatients with multiple sclerosis. Florid psychopathology can obscure neurologic symptoms in multiple sclerosis. It is therefore important to consider the range of severe psychiatric states that can occur in multiple sclerosis and the frequency with which multiple sclerosis patients are seen in inpatient facilities. METHOD: We examined records for 2720 consecutive admissions to three psychiatric units and conducted a chart review comparing the DSM-III psychiatric diagnoses of patients with multiple sclerosis with those of the inpatient population as a whole. RESULTS: The 10 patients with multiple sclerosis were significantly more likely to present with histories of mania and manic psychosis than the inpatient population as a whole. Further, 7 of the 10 patients had psychiatric hospitalizations before the multiple sclerosis diagnosis. In 4 of these 7 patients, a review of the medical record documented neurologic symptoms that were not recognized as typical of multiple sclerosis. Three of these 4 patients were psychotic and the fourth was catatonic at the time of their admissions. CONCLUSION: While multiple sclerosis patients account for a small proportion of all psychiatric admissions, clinicians should consider the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis in patients exhibiting manic symptoms in tandem with unexplained neurologic findings.

Adult↗

Anxiety and congenital central hypoventilation syndrome.

OBJECTIVE: It has been hypothesized that individuals who cannot perceive elevations of CO2 will be less anxious than individuals with intact CO2 perception. To test this hypothesis, children with congenital central hypoventilation syndrome, who have a potentially lethal chronic illness associated with lack of CO2 perception and thus provide a natural experimental group, were studied. METHOD: Rates of anxiety symptoms and disorders in children with congenital central hypoventilation syndrome (N = 13) were compared with rates in an age-matched, nonreferred group of community subjects (N = 292) that included subgroups of children with asthma (N = 15) and other chronic medical illnesses (N = 66). Anxiety symptoms were assessed with information obtained from structured interviews of the parents, which provided both total symptom scores and DSM-III-R diagnoses. RESULTS: The children with congenital central hypoventilation syndrome exhibited significantly fewer anxiety symptoms than all other comparison subjects. Two of these children (15%) met criteria for anxiety disorders, a rate lower than that of the whole community group (24%) and of the chronically ill comparison subgroups (32%-47%). The largest difference in the prevalence of disorder emerged between the children with congenital central hypoventilation syndrome (15%) and those with asthma (47%). In the comparison of children with congenital central hypoventilation syndrome and children with other chronic illnesses, a priori analysis showed that the former had significantly lower rates of disorders that have been linked to panic in the literature. CONCLUSIONS: This study supports theories of anxiety that implicate CO2 perception in the pathophysiology of panic and related anxiety states.

Adolescent↗

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and comorbid psychosis: a review and two clinical presentations.

BACKGROUND: A review of literature relating attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to adult-onset psychosis suggests that cases of comorbid ADHD and atypical neuroleptic-refractory psychosis may respond to psychostimulants. METHOD: Two patients are described who presented to the authors for clinical care. Data were gathered by reviewing hospital charts from previous admissions and by conducting serial mental status examinations over many weeks. Subjects chosen for presentation herein met DSM-III-R criteria for ADHD and atypical psychosis characterized by delusions or hallucinations. RESULTS: After each subject had suffered multiple neuroleptic-refractory psychotic episodes, both had been treated by adding psychostimulants to ongoing neuroleptic therapy. The patients were then observed by the authors to be free of psychosis for many weeks, both while taking neuroleptics and psychostimulants concurrently, as well as while taking only psychostimulants after neuroleptics had been withdrawn. CONCLUSION: When integrated with reports of five similar cases and a review of the literature, the above results suggest that further attention be given to the evaluation, treatment, and eventual classification of a potentially distinct patient group with ADHD and atypical psychotic episodes.

Adult↗

Mys retrotransposons in Peromyscus leucopus and transgenic Mus musculus.

The mys family of retrotransposons exhibits an interesting phylogenetic distribution with 500-1000 copies per haploid genome in the white-footed mouse Peromyscus leucopus and no copies detectable in the house mouse Mus musculus, even though most other repeated sequences are shared by these two species. Comparison of the DNA sequences from the 3' ends of five mys elements show that insertion occurs just upstream of a well-conserved 11 bp target sequence. Transcription patterns of the elements in brain, liver, heart, kidneys and gonads in Peromyscus leucopus are analyzed. Transcripts are found in all tissues examined, but they are remarkably heterogeneous in size. When four cloned elements are introduced into transgenic Mus musculus, however, discrete patterns of expression are revealed. Furthermore, a study of the structure of the concatemers of mys elements in the transgenic mice demonstrates that recircularization of injected linear molecules is an important event in concatemer generation.

Animals↗