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Biomedical subjects

H Sass

Publications and source records attributed to H Sass.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
PubMed1993

[Multiple personality disorder: old concepts presented as new].

The rapid increase in numbers of MPD patients in the Anglo-American literature requires discussion of the diagnostic concept. The classification of MPD as Dissociative Disorders by DSM-III-R and ICD-10 follows the traditional conceptualization of hysteria and hypnosis. In the view of the majority of modern authors child abuse appears as a new etiological issue. This theme highly sensitive is critically discussed against the background of older psychopathological concepts of forgetting. A careful analysis of personality traits and motivation in the individual case help to avoid overuse of the new diagnostic label.

Child↗
PubMed1992

Is the DSM-III-R category of mood disorders too broad? Personality findings.

In the DSM-III and DSM-III-R the affective or mood category has been widened and mood-incongruent psychotic affective illness (MICPAI) included. The present study was undertaken to determine whether this broad mood category is still homogeneous. Personality factors were used as parameters. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory findings of 54 patients with MICPAI were compared with those of 21 probands with a DSM-III typical affective disorder and with those of 15 DSM-III schizophrenics. It was shown that MICPAI differed significantly from typical affective disorder, but not from schizophrenia, in particular regarding the subscales "schizophrenia" and "psychopathic deviate". When MICPAI was subdivided into the depressed and manic type, the depressed type was found to be more closely related to schizophrenia (with respect to the subscales "paranoia" and "schizophrenia"), whereas the manic type hardly differed from affective disorder. Whether this result is due to diagnostic inaccuracies is discussed. Our finding that MICPAI differs from typical affective disorder with respect to personality is in accordance with heredity and outcome studies demonstrating that MICPAI is associated with a higher risk for schizophrenia in first-degree relatives and with worse outcomes when compared with typical affective disorder. It can thus be concluded that the decision to include MICPAI in the affective or mood category of the DSM-III or DSM-III-R has rendered this category more heterogeneous.

Depressive Disorder↗
PubMed1991

Dosage compensation of the Drosophila pseudoobscura Hsp82 gene and the Drosophila melanogaster Adh gene at ectopic sites in D. melanogaster.

Measurements were made of the amounts of larval RNA transcribed from the autosomal Adh gene of Drosophila melanogaster and the X chromosomal Hsp82 gene of Drosophila pseudoobscura carried on the same P-element transposon inserted at various sites in the D. melanogaster genome. Both genes were fully compensated at sites in euchromatic regions of the X chromosome but neither was compensated at a site in the centric beta-heterochromatin of the X chromosome. No compensation of the D. pseudoobscura Hsp82 gene was found at any of 10 autosomal insertion sites tested. The compensation behavior of the transposed genes was, therefore, not determined by closely linked sequences but instead was determined in each case by their new chromosomal environment.

Alcohol Dehydrogenase↗
PubMed1991

[Pro and contra: maintaining drug dependent patients on methadone].

Two controversial essays published in this journal referring to methadone-maintenance of drug addicts are reviewed in respect to the medico-legal situation in Germany. Requirements for a broad scope of action for medically justified therapies are discussed. In view of politically or governmentally initiated methadone-programs, the need for medically reasonable and careful decisions on individual cases is pointed out. Instead of conflicting ideologies, empirically proved and scientifically controlled knowledge has to be worked out.

Drug and Narcotic Control↗
PubMed1990

P-transposable vectors expressing a constitutive and thermoinducible hsp82-neo fusion gene for Drosophila germline transformation and tissue-culture transfection.

Three P-transposable vectors (approx. 16, 12, and 9 kb) were constructed containing a hsp82-neo fusion gene encoding a truncated heat-shock protein 82 of Drosophila pseudoobscura and the bacterial neomycin phosphotransferase (NPT). In transgenic Drosophila melanogaster, hsp82-neo exhibits high levels of housekeeping gene promoter and NPT activities in all cells in the absence of heat-shock and is further induced (fivefold) by elevated temperatures (35 degrees-36 degrees C). The hsp82-neo selection of transformants is possible from embryo to adulthood. The hsp82-neo insertion in a P-element plasmid carrying an alcohol-dehydrogenase-encoding gene (Adh) produced plasmids pHS22 (approx. 16 kb) and pHS24 (approx. 12 kb), in which both genes were expressed, as observed in 13 transgenic strains. Cloning of DNA fragments up to at least 16 kb in a third vector, pHS85 (approx. 9 kb), lacking the Adh cointegrate is facilitated by a 104-bp multiple cloning site (MCS) positioned downstream (3') from hsp82-neo. To accept inserts of nonselectable foreign genes, MCS provides 20 restriction sites, eight of them unique. The hsp82-neo-expressing vectors also function in cell-culture transfection assays. The hsp82-neo fusion gene (3.73 kb) may be of wide application as a dominant selection marker in other animal systems and plants.

Alcohol Dehydrogenase↗
PubMed1990

On the validity of the German version of the Comprehensive Psychopathological Rating Scale.

The construct validity of the German Version of the Comprehensive Psychopathological Rating Scale (CPRS) was investigated in a longitudinal study on 60 hospitalised RDC-schizoaffective patients. The validation included tests of hypotheses about means in crosssection and, in therapy, the course of schizoaffective psychoses. Thus, it is assumed that differences in diagnosis (RDC-schizodepressives versus RDC-schizomanics) are reflected by significantly higher scores on the respective subscales of the CPRS. Furthermore, the subscales of the CPRS should be sensitive to therapeutic change. In addition, correlations were tested using instruments of similar or different validity claim (Hamilton Depression Scale, Mania Rating Scale, Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale). All hypotheses about means could be confirmed. The convergent and discriminant validity of the CPRS is discussed on the basis of multiple-indicator matrices computed for each of the three points of measurement.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Genetic and molecular analysis of six tumor suppressor genes in Drosophila melanogaster.

Six Drosophila melanogaster tumor suppressor genes causing malignant or benign tumors in specific cell types are described. The wild-type alleles of these genes are instrumental in the differentiation of particular cell types. In the homozygous state, recessive mutations in the genes interrupt the differentiation of the cells and thus cause their uncontrolled, autonomous, lethal proliferation. The tumors show all major characteristics of malignant and benign neoplastic growth. Genomic sequences of four of the genes have been identified and are currently being characterized.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

The historical evolution of the concept of negative symptoms in schizophrenia.

Table IV schematically summarises the models of some important theoreticians in order to indicate the heterogeneity of the conceptual basis for the distinction between positive and negative forms of schizophrenia. Thus, in different terminologies, positive and negative symptoms by Reynolds and Jackson are related to different mental and somatic disturbances. Bleuler mainly judges associations and their possible alterations, particularly by affect. When Berze, through the insufficiency of mental activity, places a negative element into the centre of his schizophrenia theory, he is interested in the conscious mental acts and intentionality. Gruhle, on the other hand, considers the different activity of hyper- and hypo-phases and, as an additional dimension, the comprehensibility of motives. Janzarik, in his dynamistic conception, first of all analyses the positive and negative conditions from the viewpoint of energy and emotion. This simple review advises caution when composing historical positions to a unitarian concept of positive and negative psychoses. Considering the present discussion, however, we find a similar situation with quite different areas, which serve as support for the division into a positive and negative form of schizophrenia. The logic of these tendencies corresponds with the present trend to a multiaxial or multidimensional registration of clinical, psychopathological and biological data. However, the various levels of explanation have questionable relations to each other. According to the clinical model based on natural sciences, we expect an approach to valid entities by an optimisation of the defining criteria which are derived from psychological, somatological and clinical sources (Sass, 1987).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Europe↗
PubMed1989

[Alcoholic delusion of jealousy--psychopathologic characteristics of 2 types of disease course].

Based on the evaluation of case reports of 15 inpatients treated between 1971 and 1986 who had been suffering from persistent alcoholic jealousy mania for at least three years, the psychopathological characteristics of this disease are outlined to define two types of courses of the disturbance: on the one hand, the more frequent monosymptomatic form with gradual onset and on the other hand the acutely occurring jealousy mania within the frame of an alcoholic hallucinosis with additional signs of delusions and acoustic hallucinations rounding off the clinical pattern. Prognosis especially of the second, schizophreniform type of the course appears unfavourable. Organic brain performance deficits and disturbances of sexual function are seen with both types of alcoholic jealousy mania.

Alcoholism↗
PubMed1987

[The crisis in psychiatric diagnosis].

The validity of psychiatric diagnosis has been in doubt recently, partly because of its unreliability and partly also as a result of sociopolitical and antipsychiatric trends. Psychiatrists rallied to meet this challenge by developing modern systems of classification. However, these were evolved with a purely descriptive intent and thus became part and parcel of "biological psychiatry". At first, the new classification systems offered the great advantage of making scientific communication easier, but they have been the target of renewed criticism because of problems such as different competing classifications, restriction of characteristic parameters to purely empirical observations, and neglect of clinically important criteria. Although diagnoses are now much more easily classified and rechecked, the development of diagnostic tools seems to have reached a limit requiring a revalidation and reconsideration of the psychopathological fundamentals of psychiatric diagnostics.

Humans↗