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Biomedical subjects

H Prochazka

Publications and source records attributed to H Prochazka.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2002

Psychological impact of torture: a 3-month follow-up of mass-evacuated Kosovan adults in Sweden. Lessons learnt for prevention.

OBJECTIVE: To study the impact of torture on symptomatology among mass displaced adults. METHOD: A sample (total 131; 70 females, 61 males) of mass displaced adults from Kosovo, in Sweden, completed 3 months after a baseline study on trauma experiences and perceived symptoms, self-rated instruments measuring psychiatric symptoms, aggression and coping. RESULTS: Torture is associated with poor coping (manageability); depression, anxiety and aggression are associated with post-traumatic stress disorder. All psychiatric symptoms and poor coping (but not aggression) are associated with being female. Limitations of the study include a relatively small sample. Ongoing trauma and stress before repatriation may also influence the responses. Several lessons learnt for prevention are discussed. CONCLUSION: Anger and hostility are important consequences of torture. Further research is necessary to understand the associations among coping strategies, psychiatric symptoms, aggression, torture experience and gender over time after repatriation or applying for asylum.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2001

Aggression in the general Swedish population, measured with a new self-rating inventory: The Aggression Questionnaire--revised Swedish version (AQ-RSV).

The aim of the present study was to develop a Swedish self-rating instrument for clinical aggression research based on the American Aggression Questionnaire (AQ), which measures physical aggression, verbal aggression, anger, and hostility. To test this adapted Aggression Questionnaire--revised Swedish version (AQ-RSV), it was mailed to 781 randomly selected individuals, aged 20-40 year. A total of 497 (64%) evaluable AQ-RSV inventories were obtained and analyzed statistically. Drop-out analysis showed that non-responders were most often male and significantly older than responders. Among the responders, AQ-RSV showed significant sex differences in all aggression subscales except Hostility. Aggression was found to vary with age, geographical region, and size of home community. The AQ and the AQ-RSV were comparable in correlations between the four aggression subscales and in alpha coefficients, which indicated considerable internal consistency. Development of the aggression-measuring instrument for Swedish conditions is important not only to study subtraits of aggression but to enable analyses of their relationships to neurobiological and psychiatric variables.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

Association and linkage studies of CRH and PENK genes in bipolar disorder: a collaborative IGSLI study.

Corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) and proenkephalin (PENK) are hypothalamic peptides involved in the stress response and hypothalamic-pituitary axis regulation. Previous research has implicated these peptides in the pathogenesis of affective disorders. In this study we investigated two polymorphisms located in the genes that code for CRH and PENK by means of association and linkage analyses. A total of 138 bipolar patients and 108 controls were included in the association study. In addition, 24 families were available for linkage analysis, including six families of probands with documented periodic positivity of dexamethasone suppression tests (DST) during remission. We found no association of bipolar disorder with either gene. Similarly, we did not find any evidence of linkage (P = 0.56 for CRH and 0.52 for PENK) in the entire sample or in the subsample of families of DST positive probands. In conclusion, our study does not support the hypothesis that genes coding for CRH or PENK contribute to the genetic susceptibility to bipolar disorder. Am. J. Med. Genet. (Neuropsychiatr. Genet.) 96:178-181, 2000.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Polyglutamine coding genes in bipolar disorder: lack of association with selected candidate loci.

BACKGROUND: Several studies have suggested that expanded trinucleotide repeats, particularly CAG, may have a role in the etiology of BD. Results obtained with the repeat expansion detection technique (RED) have indicated that bipolar patients have an excess of expanded CAG repeats. However, it is not clear which loci account for this difference. METHODS: Using lithium-responsive bipolar patients in order to reduce heterogeneity, we investigated five loci that are expressed in the brain and contain translated CAG repeats. A sample of 138 cases and 108 controls was studied. Genotypes were coded quantitatively or qualitatively and repeat distributions were compared. RESULTS: No difference was found in allele distribution between cases and controls for any of the loci studied. In one locus - L10378 - patients had a tendency to present shorter alleles (28.1 versus 27.9 repeats; t=2.55, df=205, P=0.011), however, this difference disappeared after correction for multiple testing. LIMITATIONS: The study has limitations common to most candidate gene association studies, that is, limited number of loci investigated and limited power to detect loci that account for a small proportion of the total genetic variability. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that the loci investigated have no major role in the genetic predisposition to bipolar disorder.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

MAOA: association and linkage studies with lithium responsive bipolar disorder.

A number of association studies have investigated the role of the monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) gene in the susceptibility to bipolar disorder. Although some studies have reported positive findings, there remains some controversy, because results from different studies have not been consistent. A common explanation for inconsistencies between studies is genetic heterogeneity. We have focused on lithium responsive bipolar disorder as a way to reduce heterogeneity. In this study, we investigated the role of MAOA in lithium responsive bipolar patients using association and linkage study designs. The investigation used 138 patients and 108 normal controls. In addition, 25 families were also studied. Our results were not supportive of a major role of MAOA in the predisposition to bipolar disorder.

Alleles↗
PubMed1998

Evidence for a role of phospholipase C-gamma1 in the pathogenesis of bipolar disorder.

Several studies have indicated that patients with bipolar disorder (BD) who respond well to lithium prophylaxis constitute a biologically distinct subgroup. Lithium is thought to stabilize mood by acting at the phosphoinositide cycle. We have investigated a polymorphism located in the gene (PLCG1) that codes for a gamma-1 isozyme of phospholipase (PLC), an enzyme that plays an important role in the phosphoinositide second messenger system. A population-based association study and a family-based linkage study were carried out on patients who were considered excellent responders to lithium prophylaxis. Response to lithium was evaluated prospectively with an average follow-up of 14.4 +/- 6.8 years. The PLCG1 polymorphism was investigated in 136 excellent lithium responders and 163 controls. In addition, the segregation of this marker was studied in 32 families ascertained through lithium-responsive bipolar probands. The allele distributions between lithium-responsive bipolar patients and controls were different, with a higher frequency of one of the PLCG1 polymorphisms in patients (chi2 = 8.09; empirical P = 0.033). This polymorphism, however, confers only a small risk (OR = 1.88, CI 1.19-3.00). Linkage studies with the same marker yielded modest support for the involvement of this gene in the pathogenesis of BD when unilineal families were considered (Max LOD = 1.45; empirical P = 0.004), but not in the whole sample. Our results provide preliminary evidence that a PLC isozyme may confer susceptibility to bipolar disorder, probably accounting for a fraction of the total genetic variance. Whether this polymorphism is implicated in the pathogenesis of BD or in the mechanism of lithium response remains to be determined.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Oral d-fenfluramine test in treatment-refractory depression. Plasma prolactin response compared in patients with and without suicide attempts and in a healthy reference group.

BACKGROUND: Fenfluramine (d-FEN) has been used as a serotonin challenge agent to assess central serotonin availability. Blunted serum prolactin (PRL) response to d-FEN has been reported in depressed patients, in suicide-prone patients, and in patients with aggression and personality disorders. We have analyzed suicidality in relation to central serotonergic events by comparing the PRL response to d-FEN in chronically depressed patients with and without suicide attempts and in healthy volunteers. METHODS: In 56 inpatients (10 patients with and 46 without suicide attempts) with at least 2 years of treatment-refractory depression (TRD) (DSM-IV) and a reference group of 30 healthy adults, the PRL response after an oral dose of 30 mg d-FEN was followed for 5 h. RESULTS: Controlling for group differences in age, sex, and weight, the PRL response to d-FEN did not differ significantly between the three groups. Far from confirming the hypothesis of a blunted PRL response in depressed patients, our results suggest: (1) that duration and treatment resistance of depression may affect the PRL secretion, and (2) that TRD and major depression may differ in biological relationship to suicidal behavior. LIMITATIONS: The findings require corroboration in larger and more closely matched study populations. The fenfluramine concentration was not analyzed in blood. CONCLUSIONS: PRL responses to d-FEN challenge did not differ between TRD patients with and without suicidality and the healthy reference group. Chronicity/treatment refractoriness per se may be related to a serotonergic mechanism.

Administration, Oral↗