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Biomedical subjects

M H de Groot

Publications and source records attributed to M H de Groot.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

[Relief for surviving relatives following a suicide].

After the suicide of a 43-year-old woman with known depression, a 41-year-old paraplegic man who recently developed diarrhoea and a 41-year-old woman with probable depression with symptoms of psychosis, the general practitioners of the surviving relatives offered a sympathetic ear, answered questions and prescribed sedatives and/or follow-up counselling. Completed suicide occurs 1500 times each year in the Netherlands and is strongly associated with psychiatric morbidity as well as psychological features like hopelessness and inability to solve problems. Generally, this irreversible act ofdespair can lead to existential difficulties in surviving relatives. Following a loss, acceptance of reality is essential to initiating effective emotional processing. The general practitioner is often first and foremost involved in providing support and comfort to bereaved families, during which many questions about the cause of death are brought up. The general practitioner helps the family to reconstruct the rationale behind the suicide in order to initiate effective emotional processing. In addition, the general practitioner can assess the risk of psychiatric morbidity, including suicidal behaviour, in surviving relatives.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Grief shortly after suicide and natural death: a comparative study among spouses and first-degree relatives.

Chronic dysfunction after complicated grief is not rare and emphasizes the need to identify bereaved individuals at risk. Three months following bereavement, self-reported psychiatric and general health of 153 relatives of 74 suicides was worse than of 70 relatives of 39 natural deaths. Moreover, the felt need for professional help was higher among the former, even after adjustment for expectedness of death, sociodemographic differences, and relatives'/spouses' neuroticism. This suggests that suicide-bereaved individuals may constitute a high-risk group of mourners in need of targeted postvention.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2000

Responses of the circadian system of rats to conditioned and unconditioned stimuli.

The circadian systems of rodents respond to light pulses presented during the subjective night with phase shifts and altered cellular activity in the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN), including expression of immediate-early genes (IEGs) such as c-fos. A recent study showed that a nonphotic stimulus (an air disturbance generated by a fan) that does not normally induce the expression of c-fos-like immunoreactivity in the SCN of rats can be made to do so after being paired repeatedly with a light pulse in a Pavlovian conditioning paradigm. Furthermore, after conditioning (but not after noncontingent exposure to these stimuli), the fan also induced phase shifts in activity and body temperature rhythms comparable to those produced by light. The authors performed three experiments designed to replicate and extend these findings in rats. In experiment 1, rats were tested for conditioning effects of repeated pairings of a light pulse with a neutral air disturbance under a full photoperiod. In experiment 2, a modified conditioning paradigm was used in which a skeleton photoperiod served as both the entraining zeitgeber and the unconditioned stimulus. Animals in the paired and unpaired training conditions were exposed to both the light pulse and the air disturbance, but the air disturbance signaled the onset of light in the paired condition only. Phase shifts of wheel-running activity rhythms and gene expression in the SCN, intergeniculate leaflet, and paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus were assessed in animals following either of the training conditions or the control procedures. Experiment 3 assessed whether the air disturbance could entrain the circadian activity rhythms of rats with or without previous pairing with light in a classical conditioning paradigm. No evidence for classical conditioning, nor for unconditioned effects of the air disturbance on the circadian system, was found in these studies.

Air↗
PubMed1996

Lateralized neuropsychological functioning in depressive patients before and after drug therapy.

Several decades of research have led to different hypotheses about cognitive functioning in depression; one of the hypotheses states that there is altered functioning of the hemispheres during a depressive episode. Lateralization studies have found diminished neuropsychological functioning in depressive patients; especially right-hemisphere functions seem impaired. In our study we used conventional neuropsychological tests to study shifts in hemispheric functioning. Neuropsychological testing before and after therapy in 52 (for the most part therapy-resistant) depressives showed no substantial effects in lateralized functioning. None of the measures enabled prediction of response to treatment; however 17 different interaction variables were identified, five of which make an unique contribution.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Discrimination of circadian phase in intact and suprachiasmatic nuclei-ablated rats.

This study examined whether the circadian system of rats can serve as a consulted clock for discriminating time of day. Food restricted rats housed in activity wheels were trained to lever press for food in a two-lever T-maze in which the left arm was correct in a morning feeding session, and the right arm in an afternoon session (7 h interval). All six rats learned the task (discrimination ratios > chance on 85-95% of sessions) and exhibited anticipatory wheel running prior to most sessions. Performance was not disrupted by inverting the LD cycle or by omitting 1-3 sessions, indicating that learning was not dependent on light-dark cues, alternation strategies, or physiological states associated with intermeal interval. Five of six additional rats with ablations of the suprachiasmatic nucleus light-entrainable pacemaker acquired the discrimination, indicating that time-of-day cues can be provided by another circadian pacemaker (likely food-entrainable). The results provide the first clear evidence that the circadian system in a mammal can function as a consulted clock that provides discriminative time cues for cognitive processes subserving behavioral plasticity.

Animals↗
PubMed1979

Chlormethiazole dependency--a case report.

Although dependency is reported to be one of the side effects of chlormethiazole, very few cases of such dependency have been reported. A detailed report of a female patient with a previous history of other dependencies, and who subsequently became dependent on chlormethiazole, is offered.

Adult↗