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Biomedical subjects

F Schulsinger

Publications and source records attributed to F Schulsinger.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1991

The national mental health programme in the United Republic of Tanzania. A report from WHO and DANIDA.

This is the terminal report on the pilot implementation phase of the national mental health programme in the United Republic of Tanzania which was carried out as a cooperative venture between the Government of Tanzania, the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), and the World Health Organization (WHO). Although Tanzania had already achieved wide coverage of its population through a decentralized and easily accessible system of primary health care facilities providing the most essential services, its mental health services were poorly staffed and concentrated in a few custodial-type institutions and out-patient departments hardly capable of ensuring even one contact per year to about one-fifth of the estimated 100,000 severely mentally ill adults and 37,000 children in need of care at any given point in time. The programme design, developed jointly by the three parties involved, aimed to take full advantage of Tanzania's existing primary health care infrastructure by integrating mental health into the general health services of the country, including the 'grassroot' level of the services in the village and the district. The objectives guiding the new programme were: (i) to create an infrastructure for mental health care provision which should meet the requirements of both adequate population coverage and quality of service; (ii) to raise the community's awareness of mental health issues (including informing the community on the availability of effective means to deal with specific problems) and thus enlist its support and participation. The essential features of the adopted strategy were as follows. 1. Mental health care provision was conceived as a sub-system within the health care system, extending from rural health posts and dispensaries through rural health centres to district and regional hospitals. While full integration of mental health care within the general functions of the health workers was sought at the village and dispensary level (first echelon of care), relative differentiation and identity of mental health services were considered necessary at the district and regional levels (the second echelon). Tasks appropriate to each level of care were defined in operational terms and referral pathways were designated to enable the unobstructed access of the patient to more specialized diagnostic or therapeutic services if the problem was not within the competence of the more peripheral level. These pathways were also used in reverse when, following assessment or treatment, a patient was discharged back to the rural service with appropriate instructions about maintenance treatment and aftercare.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Genetics of obesity in adult adoptees and their biological siblings.

An adoption study of genetic effects on obesity in adulthood was carried out in which adoptees separated from their natural parents very early in life were compared with their biological full and half siblings reared by their natural parents. The adoptees represented four groups who by sampling from a larger population were categorised as either thin, medium weight, overweight, or obese. Weight and height were obtained for 115 full siblings of 57 adoptees and for 850 half siblings of 341 adoptees. In full siblings body mass index (kg/m2) significantly increased with weight of the adoptees. Body mass index of the half siblings showed a steady but weaker increase across the four weight groups of adoptees. There were no significant interactions with sex of the adoptees, sex of the siblings, or (for the half siblings) sex of the common parent. In contrast with the findings in half siblings and (previously) the natural parents there was a striking, significant increase in body mass index between full siblings of overweight and obese adoptees. The degree of fatness in adults living in the same environment appears to be influenced by genetic factors independent of sex, which may include polygenic as well as major gene effects on obesity.

Adoption↗
PubMed1988

Pattern reversal visual evoked potentials after alcohol administration among men at risk for alcoholism.

The P100 component of the pattern reversal visual evoked potential was used to compare men at high risk for alcoholism and control subjects before and after a low (0.5 g/kg) dose of ethanol. The high risk and control subjects did not differ in age, self-reported ethanol consumption, or estimates of ethanol metabolism rates, but changes in the occipital P100 latency differentiated them following ethanol administration. The P100 latency changes that distinguished high risk from control subjects were lateralized and provide preliminary evidence that perceptual visual stimulus processing is differentially affected in the two groups following ethanol administration.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Heredity-environment interaction and schizophrenia.

The longitudinal prospective study of populations at risk is considered a powerful strategy towards disentangling hereditary and environmental factors. Data from Mednick and Schulsinger's 1962 study in Copenhagen, on children at high-risk for schizophrenia are used as an illustration. Pregnancy and birth complications, as well as institutional rearing in early childhood contributes towards schizophrenia in the risk children, but not in the low-risk controls. Risk children with an outcome of schizotypal personality disorder were hardly exposed to perinatal complications. To some extent, schizophrenia may be considered as a complicated form of schizotypal personality disorder, which again may be a genetically transmitted condition.

Adoption↗
PubMed1987

The Copenhagen High-Risk Project, 1962-86.

Since 1962 we have followed a sample of 207 children at high risk for schizophrenia as well as 104 control children. For these individuals, the following factors and their interaction are related to an increased risk for schizophrenic breakdown: (1) greater schizophrenia family backgrounds, (2) perinatal trauma, and (3) unstable parenting and public institutional child care. The perinatal difficulties are positively related to adult periventricular atrophy. Results of a subsequent study tentatively suggest that part of the neurological deviance in schizophrenia may be produced by disruption occurring in the second trimester of fetal development.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

Seasonality, birth complications and schizophrenia in a high risk sample.

It has been suggested that viral infections, more prevalent in the winter months, might increase pregnancy and birth complications, which might in turn be responsible for the excess of winter-born patients with schizophrenia. In this study it was found that the rate of schizophrenia among high risk winter-urban births who had suffered a perinatal complication was significantly greater than that for those who had not, thus supporting the hypothesis.

Female↗
PubMed1987

The Copenhagen high-risk project. The diagnosis of maternal schizophrenia and its relation to offspring diagnosis.

The Copenhagen longitudinal high-risk study of offspring of 129 schizophrenic mothers commenced in 1962. At that time, the mothers were diagnosed according to contemporary Danish criteria. We have re-examined all of the hospital records of these mothers: 108 (84%) fulfil present-day DSM-III criteria for schizophrenia and 95 (74%) were diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic according to ICD-8 criteria. In a follow-up at mean age 24, the offspring of the paranoid schizophrenic mothers were themselves found to be less frequently schizophrenic (5%) than were the offspring of non-paranoid schizophrenic mothers (29%).

Adult↗
PubMed1986

An adoption study of human obesity.

We examined the contributions of genetic factors and the family environment to human fatness in a sample of 540 adult Danish adoptees who were selected from a population of 3580 and divided into four weight classes: thin, median weight, overweight, and obese. There was a strong relation between the weight class of the adoptees and the body-mass index of their biologic parents - for the mothers, P less than 0.0001; for the fathers, P less than 0.02. There was no relation between the weight class of the adoptees and the body-mass index of their adoptive parents. Cumulative distributions of the body-mass index of parents showed similar results; there was a strong relation between the body-mass index of biologic parents and adoptee weight class and no relation between the index of adoptive parents and adoptee weight class. Furthermore, the relation between biologic parents and adoptees was not confined to the obesity weight class, but was present across the whole range of body fatness - from very thin to very fat. We conclude that genetic influences have an important role in determining human fatness in adults, whereas the family environment alone has no apparent effect.

Adoption↗
PubMed1986

A prospective study of young men at high risk for alcoholism. Social and psychological characteristics.

In a prospective longitudinal study of alcoholism, we applied the high-risk method using a Danish birth cohort (9125 consecutive deliveries, 1959 to 1961). From the cohort, 134 sons of alcoholic fathers (high-risk group) and 70 matched controls without parental alcoholism were selected for study. Extensive data were collected in a multidisciplinary etiologic approach. We report the social and psychological characteristics from a "premorbid" assessment when the subjects were 19 to 20 years old. The high-risk group reported more disrupted familial conditions during childhood than the control group. Both groups had a drinking pattern similar to that of the general Danish population at the same age. No alcoholic subjects were found. The high-risk group was characterized by poor verbal ability and impulsive behavior. We plan a follow-up examination of the sample.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Psychiatric disorders in the biological and adoptive families of adopted individuals with affective disorders.

To investigate the contribution of genetic and environmental factors in the etiology of mood disorders, a study was initiated to examine the frequency of psychiatric disorders in the biological and adoptive relatives of adult adoptees with mood disorders and in matched normal adoptees. Psychiatric evaluations of the relatives were made on the basis of independent blind diagnoses based on mental hospital and other official records. Analysis of the data showed an eightfold increase in unipolar depression among the biological relatives of the index cases and a 15-fold increase in suicide among the biological relatives of the index cases. These data demonstrate a significant genetic contribution to unipolar depression and suicide. They fail to disclose a significant contribution of family-associated transmission in the genesis of the mood disorders.

Adjustment Disorders↗
PubMed1985

Neurological dysfunctioning in offspring of schizophrenics in Israel and Denmark. A replication analysis.

Neurological functioning was compared in children at risk for schizophrenia from samples recruited in Israel and Denmark. In both samples neurological signs were assessed in school-age children with one schizophrenic parent and a matched group of children with no mentally ill parents. Multidimensional Scalogram Analysis of data identified, in both samples, a radex structure of neurological functioning, radiating from motor to sensory-perceptual signs. In both samples, the gradient of neurological functioning differed between the offspring of schizophrenics and controls. For both the offspring of schizophrenics and controls, the largest number of children showed no or few signs of neurological dysfunctioning. A subgroup of the offspring of schizophrenics, but not the controls, showed multiple signs of neurological dysfunctioning that varied in pattern among individuals.

Adolescent↗