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Biomedical subjects

J Parnas

Publications and source records attributed to J Parnas.

At least 163 records · Page 9Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

Temporal course of symptoms and social functioning in relapsing schizophrenics: a 6-year follow-up.

As a part of the Copenhagen High Risk project, a 6 year follow-up of relapses after first hospitalisation of 67 schizophrenic women was performed. Four dimensions of psychopathology were examined: positive symptoms, negative symptoms, formal thought disorder and depressive symptoms. Each symptom group was its own best predictor over time. Only depressive symptoms diminished significantly at a relapse 6 years after first hospitalisation. Broadly defined subtyping of schizophrenia into paranoid and non-paranoid, retained stability over a 6 year period. It is concluded that there is a stability of psychopathology across onset episodes and relapses.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Autism in schizophrenia revisited.

The concept of autism is reviewed in its historical evolution. It is suggested that the Bleulerian insistence on the withdrawal component in autism contributed to the decline of its use in adult psychiatry. Phenomenology offers another approach to grasping the nature of autism as a relational (subject-outer world) phenomenon. European phenomenological psychiatry in the field of schizophrenia is introduced and its attempts to reveal the essence of autism are presented. Autism is here considered as a "loss of vital contact with reality" (Minkowski), "inconsistency of natural experience" (Binswanger), or "the global crisis of common sense" (Blankenburg). It is proposed that autism represents dysfunctional perceptual/expressive attunement to the outer world. The usefulness of this concept is briefly examined in relation to the diagnosis and etiopathogenesis of schizophrenia.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Research in psychopathology: epistemologic issues.

Etiologic research in psychiatry relies on an objectivist epistemology positing that human cognition is specified by the "reality" of the outer world, which consists of a totality of mind-independent objects. Truth is considered as some sort of correspondence relation between words and external objects, and mind as a mirror of nature. In our view, this epistemology considerably impedes etiologic research. Objectivist epistemology has been recently confronting a growing critique from diverse scientific fields. Alternative models in neurosciences (neuronal selection), artificial intelligence (connectionism), and developmental psychology (developmental biodynamics) converge in viewing living organisms as self-organizing systems. In this perspective, the organism is not specified by the outer world, but enacts its environment by selecting relevant domains of significance that constitute its world. The distinction between mind and body or organism and environment is a matter of observational perspective. These models from empirical sciences are compatible with fundamental tenets of philosophical phenomenology and hermeneutics. They imply consequences for research in psychopathology: symptoms cannot be viewed as disconnected manifestations of discrete localized brain dysfunctions. Psychopathology should therefore focus on how the person's self-coherence is maintained and on the understanding and empirical investigation of the systemic laws that govern neurodevelopment and the organization of human cognition.

Humans↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Ventricular enlargement and premorbid deficits in school-occupational attainment in a high risk sample.

Using a subsample of subjects from the Copenhagen schizophrenia high-risk project, this study examined the relationship between ventricular enlargement and prospectively assessed deficits in premorbid school/occupational adjustment. Subjects with enlarged ventricles evidenced poorer premorbid school-occupational adjustment across three times of measurement spanning a period of 10 years. This effect was independent of the age and sex of the subjects and remained significant after controlling for psychiatric diagnosis. The results provide prospective evidence for an association between ventricular enlargement and poor premorbid history.

Achievement↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Apolipoprotein D is associated with long-term outcome in patients with schizophrenia.

Accumulating evidence implicates deficiencies in apolipoprotein D (ApoD) function and arachidonic acid signaling in schizophrenic disorders. We addressed two hypotheses in relation to ApoD: first, polymorphisms in the ApoD gene confer susceptibility to or are markers of disease, and, second, genetic variation in the ApoD is associated with long-term clinical outcome to antipsychotic treatment. We genotyped two single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the ApoD gene in 343 chronic patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (ICD-10) and 346 control subjects of Danish origin. We did not find ApoD alleles, genotypes or haplotypes to be associated with disease. However, we did find that long-term clinical outcome was associated with the ApoD polymorphism rs7659 (P = 0.041) following adjustment for lifetime clinical global impression, age at first admission and gender.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Characteristic of endotoxin (and haemolysin) for S-, R- and M-forms of the enteropathogenic "E. coli" (author's transl)].

Endotoxins of E. Coli O 149, IN S-, R- and M-forms, were examined in comparison. Gas chromatography showed only quantitative differences in the amount of volatile fatty acids. Electrophoresis of immunsera and bacteriostatic potency of sera, showed the immunogenicity of those 3 endotoxins, in sequence: S leads to R leads to M. Endotoxin of enteropathogenic E. coli O 149 provokes haemorrhagic effects in bones marrow of mice. Endotoxin influences the reticulo-endothelial system (mobilization of immunocytes). Endotoxin does not provoke any changes in "ligated loop tests'.

Animals↗