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Biomedical subjects

R Ganguli

Publications and source records attributed to R Ganguli.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1992

The prevalence of autoantibodies among right and left handed schizophrenic patients and control subjects.

Sera from schizophrenic patients (n = 186) and healthy control subjects (n = 346) were tested for the presence of seven common autoantibodies by standard immunological methods. The association between handedness and autoantibodies was tested in a multi-way contingency table using a log-linear model. For men, but not women, nondextrals (patients and controls) were twice as likely to test positive for autoantibodies than dextrals (p = 0.0002). Although more women (33%) than men (24%) tested positive for autoantibodies, handedness was not a distinguishing factor among women. These data suggest that sinistrality and gender are associated with autoantibodies in a subgroup of schizophrenic patients and healthy control subjects.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Non-right sidedness: an association with lower IL-2 production.

Using a laterality questionnaire, 138 normal healthy individuals were classified as right-sided and 25 as non-right sided. Interleukin-2 (IL-2) was generated from whole blood obtained from these subjects using mitogen (PHA) stimulation. IL-2 was quantitated in picograms/ml using an enzyme immunoassay (ELISA). Additionally, sera from these subjects were tested for 7 autoantibodies by standard serological methods. As compared to right sided subjects, non-right sided individuals had significantly lower IL-2 production. Non-right sided individuals with autoantibodies had significantly lower IL-2 production than right sided subjects with or without autoantibodies, but did not differ significantly from their non-right sided counterparts without autoantibodies. These data support the increasing evidence for the differential and lateralized regulation of immune functions by the right and left cerebral regions.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Altered interleukin-2 production in schizophrenia: association between clinical state and autoantibody production.

Mitogen-stimulated interleukin-2 (IL-2) production was measured in 122 patients who met Research Diagnostic Criteria for schizophrenia and 98 normal control subjects. The presence of autoantibodies against seven common antigens was also determined. There was no relationship between the presence of circulating autoantibodies and IL-2 production in control subjects. In patients, however, autoantibody-positive, acutely ill patients had significantly lower IL-2 production as compared with other patients and control subjects. Never-medicated patients showed the same trends for decreased IL-2 production in association with autoantibodies. These data suggest that decreased IL-2 production is associated with acute illness in schizophrenic patients who produce autoantibodies, a trait known to be associated with increased vulnerability to autoimmune disease.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Schizophrenia and porphobilinogen deaminase gene polymorphisms: an association study.

A genetic case-control study was conducted in a group of patients with schizophrenia (n = 67; DSM-III) and psychiatrically normal controls matched for ethnicity (n = 84), living in the same geographical area. Using three different DNA polymorphisms of the gene encoding porphobilinogen deaminase (PBGD), a candidate gene for schizophrenia, an association with schizophrenia could not be detected. No significant associations were detected even after sub-division of the cohort by ethnicity and by gender.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Left-handed first-episode, neuroleptic-naive schizophrenic patients have a higher prevalence of autoantibodies.

Using standard immunological techniques, sera from first-episode, neuroleptic-naive schizophrenic patients (n = 51) and age, race and sex matched healthy controls (n = 51) were screened for seven common autoantibodies. Significantly more left-handed (67%) than right-handed (23%) schizophrenic patients had autoantibodies (p = 0.011). Left-handed schizophrenic patients were six times more likely than right-handed patients or controls and four times more likely than left-handed controls to test positive for autoantibodies (p = 0.012). These data suggest that disease and sinistrality contribute to the excess of autoantibodies in schizophrenia.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Elevated IgG anti-histone antibodies in a subgroup of medicated schizophrenic patients.

A total of 57 schizophrenic patients (of which 17 were first-episode, neuroleptic naive) and 76 healthy controls were screened for anti-histone IgG antibodies using an enzyme immunoassay (ELISA). All patients had significantly higher anti-histone antibody titers than controls (t = 3.1, p less than 0.003). Previously medicated patients had significantly higher titers than neuroleptic-naive first episode patients (t = 2.87, p less than 0.006). This study suggests that neuroleptic medications are associated with anti-histone antibodies.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Generalizability of first-episode studies in schizophrenia.

Over a 5-year period, 77 patients in their first episode of psychosis were recruited into a study of autoimmune factors in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. In this article their demographic and clinical characteristics are compared to those of chronic patients recruited into the same study as well as to the entire outpatient population of a schizophrenia clinic in a Pittsburgh community mental health center. There were no significant demographic differences between the first-episode patients and either of the other groups of schizophrenic patients. There was a significantly higher proportion of black subjects in the clinic population compared to the catchment area from which they were drawn. Clinically, first-episode patients differed from chronic patients in having fewer negative symptoms and more of certain positive symptoms. Age of onset was not significantly different in male and female first-episode cases, although there was a trend of females to be slightly older. We conclude that if diagnosis includes followup and reassessment, findings from research cohorts such as ours can be generalized to populations of outpatient schizophrenic subjects volunteering for treatment.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

Clozapine for the treatment of adolescents with schizophrenia.

Despite recent reports that clozapine is useful for the treatment of chronic schizophrenics resistant to neuroleptics, no studies have been reported in adolescents with schizophrenia. Despite the risk of potentially fatal agranulocytosis, clozapine's use in adolescents may become important because of its lack of extrapyramidal side effects or association with tardive dyskinesia, and reports that suggest that schizophrenic adolescents resemble chronic adult schizophrenics. The authors report three successful trials of clozapine in adolescents with schizophrenia who did not respond to conventional neuroleptic treatment.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

Should chronic treatment-refractory akathisia be an indication for the use of clozapine in schizophrenic patients?

BACKGROUND: Clozapine, an atypical neuroleptic, is an effective medication in a subgroup of schizophrenic patients who have either failed to respond to the typical neuroleptics or experienced intolerable side effects such as neuroleptic malignant syndrome and disabling tardive dyskinesia. Its efficacy for persistent and disabling akathisia is less clear. Akathisia, especially the chronic and disabling form, can be a treatment dilemma for the clinician and the patient. METHOD: We describe three representative case illustrations of schizophrenic patients who had severe, persistent treatment-resistant akathisia. Two of them had refractory psychoses and the third had multiple disabling side effects during treatment with typical neuroleptics. Two had tardive dyskinesia. These patients were treated with clozapine while other neuroleptics were discontinued. RESULTS: During a 2-year follow-up, these patients made impressive social and vocational strides coinciding with a fairly rapid remission of akathisia (under 3 months) and a lesser though notable improvement in the psychoses. Tardive dyskinesia also remitted, though over a period of 6 to 12 months. CONCLUSION: Our experience leads us to suggest a trial of clozapine in a subgroup of schizophrenic patients, who in addition to refractory psychoses have persistent disabling akathisia. However, given the risk of agranulocytosis with clozapine, we suggest that the usual treatment strategies for akathisia be tried before clozapine is initiated in the approved manner. Future controlled trials of clozapine that specifically investigate persistent akathisia may answer this question more conclusively.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Electroencephalographic sleep and cerebral morphology in functional psychoses: a preliminary study with computed tomography.

We investigated the association between cerebral morphology as revealed by computed tomography and sleep polysomnographic findings in patients with functional psychoses. The third ventricle-brain ratios, caudate ratios, and anterior horn ratios were significantly negatively associated with sleep maintenance and were positively correlated with rapid eye movement (REM) latency. When the effects of illness severity were covaried out, the relation between REM latency and anterior horn ratios remained significant. Disturbances in sleep in some patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders may be related to dysfunction of forebrain structures, and may be similar to those seen in dementia.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Use of random-sequence riboflavin as a marker of medication compliance in chronic schizophrenics.

Adherence to prescribed medications is believed to be a major problem in medicine. However, actual medication taking behaviour is rarely measured as no reliable objective measures of adherence are available. 50 mg of riboflavin administered at night could be reliably detected in urine, under UV light, for the next 18-24 h. The ability of 20 schizophrenic outpatients to adhere to a once-a-night dosage was studied by dispensing riboflavin or placebo in a random sequence and testing the urine for UV fluorescence the next day. The majority of patients (80%) had errors between 40-80% of the times tested. Only age and sex predicted the level of adherence. Clinicians were very poor predictors of the error rates in their patients.

Adult↗