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Biomedical subjects

R R Goetz

Publications and source records attributed to R R Goetz.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Premorbid polysomnographic signs in depressed adolescents: a reanalysis of EEG sleep after longitudinal follow-up in adulthood.

BACKGROUND: This is a report of a clinical follow-up study (10-15 years later as young adults) of adolescent major depressives and normal control subjects. Polysomnographic data were obtained during the original study period when the subjects were adolescent (time 1). With clinical follow-up (time 2) assessments in hand, our objective was to ascertain whether there were any premorbid polysomnographic signs associated with depression during adolescence. METHODS: Based upon initial (during adolescence) and follow-up clinical assessments (as adults), new subject groupings were generated: depression-free normal subjects and original normal subjects who experienced a depressive episode during the follow-up period (latent depressives). Suicidality and recurrence of depression were also examined. Multivariate analysis of covariance was used to analyze group differences in sleep measures and logistic regression for predicting three outcomes: lifetime depression, lifetime suicidality, and recurrence. RESULTS: Comparison of the depression-free normal subjects, the latent depressives, and the original major depressives revealed significant differences for sleep latency and sleep period time. Comparing all lifetime depressives (original major depressives and the latent depressives) to depression-free normal subjects revealed significantly more stages 3 and 4 combined (ST34) sleep and greater sleep period times among the depressives. An analysis involving the presence or absence of suicidality revealed no overall significant differences between the groups. Comparison of the lifetime depressives grouped by nonrecurrent and recurrent depressive course to the depression-free normal subjects revealed significant difference for sleep period time. Using logistic regression, we found that a longer sleep latency and sleep period time significantly predicted lifetime depression. Gender, ST34 sleep, and an interaction term for ST34 sleep and REM latency significantly predicted lifetime suicidality. CONCLUSIONS: There was evidence of premorbid sleep abnormalities during adolescence. A general pattern of sleep disruption around sleep onset and during the first 100 min of the sleep period and overall sleep was evident among the major and lifetime depressives, involving sleep latency (initial insomnia), sleep period time (hypersomnia), REM latency, and slow-wave sleep. This adds to the body of literature that highlights the importance of the first 100 min of the sleep period in depression.

Adolescent↗

Traumatic brain injury and schizophrenia in members of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder pedigrees.

OBJECTIVE: Schizophrenia following a traumatic brain injury could be a phenocopy of genetic schizophrenia or the consequence of a gene-environment interaction. Alternatively, traumatic brain injury and schizophrenia could be spuriously associated if those who are predisposed to develop schizophrenia have greater amounts of trauma for other reasons. The authors investigated the relationship between traumatic brain injury and psychiatric diagnoses in a large group of subjects from families with at least two biologically related first-degree relatives with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or bipolar disorder. METHOD: The Diagnostic Interview for Genetic Studies was used to determine history of traumatic brain injury and diagnosis for 1,275 members of multiplex bipolar disorder pedigrees and 565 members of multiplex schizophrenia pedigrees. RESULTS: Rates of traumatic brain injury were significantly higher for those with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression than for those with no mental illness. However, multivariate analysis of within-pedigree data showed that mental illness was related to traumatic brain injury only in the schizophrenia pedigrees. Independent of diagnoses, family members of those with schizophrenia were more likely to have had traumatic brain injury than were members of the bipolar disorder pedigrees. The members of the schizophrenia pedigrees also failed to show the gender difference for traumatic brain injury (more common in men than in women) that was expected and was present in the bipolar disorder pedigrees. Subjects with a schizophrenia diagnosis who were members of the bipolar disorder pedigrees (and thus had less genetic vulnerability to schizophrenia) were less likely to have had traumatic brain injury (4.5%) than were subjects with schizophrenia who were members of the schizophrenia pedigrees (and who had greater genetic vulnerability to schizophrenia) (19.6%). CONCLUSIONS: Members of the schizophrenia pedigrees, even those without a schizophrenia diagnosis, had greater exposure to traumatic brain injury compared to members of the bipolar disorder pedigrees. Within the schizophrenia pedigrees, traumatic brain injury was associated with a greater risk of schizophrenia, consistent with synergistic effects between genetic vulnerability for schizophrenia and traumatic brain injury. Posttraumatic-brain-injury schizophrenia in multiplex schizophrenia pedigrees does not appear to be a phenocopy of the genetic disorder.

Adult↗

Nocturnal growth hormone secretion studies in adolescents with or without major depression re-examined: integration of adult clinical follow-up data.

BACKGROUND: Early sleep is associated with an increased secretion of human growth hormone (GH) through muscarinic inhibition of somatostatin, a GH suppressant. A clinical follow-up was performed approximately 1 decade after depressed and psychiatrically "normal" control adolescents, who were now young adults, had undergone baseline serial GH measurements over a 24-hour period on the third night of sleep polysomnography studies. METHODS: The study population consisted of 77 young adults who had received a diagnosis of adolescent major depressive disorder and had participated in the adolescent sleep and neuroendocrine studies. Alternatively, the young adult subjects were assessed as normal adolescent control subjects free of any psychiatric diagnosis. Blood samples had been collected for GH every 20 min during the 24-hour period coinciding with the third consecutive night of sleep electroencephalography. Subjects, now in young adulthood, were relocated and blindly reinterviewed using the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (lifetime version). The original adolescent nocturnal GH data were analyzed in light of the information obtained regarding clinical course into adulthood. RESULTS: A substantial proportion of the nominally normal control group developed at least one episode of major depression or dysthymia during the follow-up period. "Latent" depressive subjects differed from depression-free control subjects by having exhibited a significantly more rapid increase of adolescent nocturnal GH secretion following sleep onset. Of the subjects who had experienced at least one lifetime major depressive episode during the follow-up, the subgroup who would go on to make suicide attempts secreted significantly greater amounts of GH during the first 4 hours of sleep. Adults with lifetime depression exhibited significantly reduced levels of GH in the 100 min preceding sleep onset during adolescence. CONCLUSIONS: Assignment of subjects based on longitudinal clinical follow-up into adulthood revealed that the sleep-related GH secretion paradigm has predictive value for future depressive episodes and future suicide attempts. Dysfunction of complex sleep-onset mechanisms may be a premorbid marker of depression and suicidal behavior.

Adolescent↗

Lessons learned.

Mental health care reform in the public sector remains a local proposition. Oregon has thus far been able to avoid major failures and has modest successes to report. Although the road to achieving all that was envisioned at the outset remains long, the inclusive process followed gives reason for hope.

Health Care Reform↗

State goals for mental health services.

As Oregon moved its Medicaid services into the managed care plan, mental health goals were similar to those on the physical health side--cost control, expansion of services, and increased flexibility.

Cost Control↗

Relation of familial schizophrenia to negative symptoms but not to the deficit syndrome.

OBJECTIVE: Although a family history of schizophrenia has been associated with negative symptoms, family history is inconsistently related to the presence of the deficit syndrome. METHOD: The authors assessed family history and the deficit syndrome in 99 patients with DSM-III-R-diagnosed schizophrenia who were assessed during clinical treatment. Of these 99 patients, 45 were assessed both while antipsychotic free and during antipsychotic treatment to index their treatment response. RESULTS: Patients with (N=39) and without (N=60) a family history of schizophrenia had similar proportions of the deficit syndrome. Yet family history and deficit syndrome categorizations identified a group with greater negative symptoms on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. Those with a family history had greater emotional withdrawal, poor rapport, and lack of spontaneity. Groups with and without the deficit syndrome similarly differed in these symptoms but also in affective blunting, motor retardation, and passive or apathetic social withdrawal. The study involving antipsychotic-free and antipsychotic treatment phases showed main medication effects explaining positive, psychopathology, depression, and activation symptoms but not negative symptoms. Only patients without a family history had improved negative symptoms with antipsychotic treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with a family history of schizophrenia had greater and more treatment-resistant negative symptoms than those without a family history. They were not more likely to have the deficit syndrome. The group with a family history had more pathology only in negative symptoms related to psychosocial function. The stable negative symptoms specifically related to the genetic vulnerability to inherit schizophrenia might be those associated with psychosocial functioning.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

The primary care-mental health interface.

Although no comprehensive and generally accepted description of the interface exists, understanding of the differing models of care can set the stage for collaboration. It then becomes important to ensure that partners in this discussion share the same language. Only then can misunderstandings be avoided.

Humans↗

Gatekeeping and authorization.

Managed care techniques first used in the private sector are increasingly being applied to control costs in the public sector. When the system places the burden of recognizing, diagnosing, and even treating mental illness on the primary care physician, however, a number of problems can result.

Adult↗

Finding opportunities at the interface.

Integration at the primary care-mental health interface in public systems provides the opportunity to return to values that for several decades have been pushed into the background: preventive (including rehabilitative) and population-based care.

Humans↗

Low levels of transthyretin in the CSF of depressed patients.

OBJECTIVE: Transthyretin plays an important role in the transport and distribution of thyroid hormone in the central nervous system (CNS). This study replicated and extended to patients with nonrefractory depressive illness a pilot study indicating that patients with refractory major depression have significantly lower levels of CSF transthyretin than do healthy comparison subjects. METHOD: Lumbar punctures were performed in drug-free subjects with DSM-III-R major depression (N = 18), DSM-III-R bipolar disorder, depressed phase (N = 1), and healthy comparison subjects (N = 24). CSF concentrations of transthyretin, determined by a quantitative dot-immunobinding assay, of the depressed patients and comparison subjects were compared by analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). The relationship between CSF transthyretin levels and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale scores was determined in a subset of the depressed patients. RESULTS: CSF concentrations of transthyretin were significantly lower in the depressed patients than in the comparison subjects by ANCOVA. Within the depressed group there was no significant overall correlation between CSF transthyretin levels and Hamilton depression scale scores, but there was a significant inverse correlation in male depressed patients (N = 8) between CSF transthyretin concentrations and Hamilton depression scores. CONCLUSIONS: Lower CSF transthyretin concentrations in depressed patients may reflect either a stable trait in this population or a state change secondary to depression or other factors. Lower CSF transthyretin concentrations may result in altered CNS thyroid hormone homeostasis. Such alteration could account for certain mood and neurovegetative symptoms of depression and might contribute to failure of standard antidepressant treatment.

Adult↗

Changes in questions about psychiatric illness asked on medical licensure applications between 1993 and 1996.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the nature of questions about previous mental illness, physical illness, and substance abuse asked on applications for state medical licensure, partly to determine if questions focused more appropriately on any current, rather than past, disability. METHODS: In 1993 and 1996 the 66 members of the Federation of State Medical Boards of the United States, Inc., were asked to provide copies of the forms they used for medical licensure applications and renewal. The forms were reviewed to determine the presence of questions about previous mental illness, physical illness, and substance abuse and whether the questions specifically addressed the effects of the condition on the ability to practice medicine. RESULTS: On initial licensure applications, medical boards commonly asked questions about mental illness. Seventy-five percent of responding boards did so in 1993, and 80 percent did so in 1996. The proportion of boards that inquired about whether the mental illness might affect the applicant's ability to practice medicine increased from 42 percent in 1993 to 75 percent in 1996. Applicants were asked about substance abuse by 83 percent of the boards in 1993 and by 94 percent in 1996. Boards asked about physical conditions less often than mental conditions but were more likely to ask about physical conditions in 1996 (65 percent) than in 1993 (49 percent). Questions about physical illness almost always addressed the effect of the condition on medical practice. On license renewal requests, medical boards were less likely to ask questions about mental conditions, substance abuse, and physical illnesses than on the original applications. Among boards that asked about mental illness on renewal forms, the proportion of boards that asked about the effect of mental conditions on ability to practice medicine increased from 60 percent in 1993 to 90 percent in 1996. CONCLUSIONS: Medical boards commonly ask questions about mental illness on licensure application and renewal forms. In many states, such questions changed between 1993 and 1996 to emphasize impairment resulting from mental illness and to use similar wording for mental disorders and physical conditions.

Data Collection↗

Effect of antipanic treatment on response to carbon dioxide.

BACKGROUND: Disordered breathing among patients with panic disorder, including hyperventilation during attacks and increased anxiogenic response to carbon dioxide (CO2) inhalation, is well established. We wished to assess whether there is a change in the physiological response to CO2 after patients have undergone antipanic therapy with either tricyclic antidepressants or cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). METHODS: Twenty-nine patients with panic disorder underwent baseline CO2 sensitivity testing using the traditional Read rebreathing method and then received either antidepressant treatment (n = 21) or CBT (n = 8). After completing treatment, CO2 testing was repeated. A comparison sample of 14 normal volunteers also had two CO2 sensitivity tests, separated by an average of 21.6 (SD = 8.8) weeks. RESULTS: Using a liberal standard, in which all CO2 sensitivity tests whose correlations between minute ventilation and end-tidal CO2 were at least .75 were used, patients, but not controls, demonstrated a significant reduction in CO2 sensitivity between the first and second test. Using a more conservative .90 correlation standard reduced the sample size available and resulted in trend reduction in patients but no significant change in controls. There was a suggestion that the change was most pronounced in treatment responders, although the number of patient nonresponders is extremely small in this sample. CONCLUSIONS: These data indicate that treatment reduces CO2 sensitivity in patients with panic disorder. We speculate that manipulation of the serotonergic and noradrenergic neurotransmission systems, both known to play a role in the control of respiration, may have a specific effect in reducing respiratory hyperactivity in panic disorder.

Administration, Inhalation↗

Stability and change in personality disorder symptomatology: findings from a longitudinal study of HIV+ and HIV- men.

A longitudinal study was conducted to investigate the stability of personality disorders (PDs) over a 2-year interval, as well as the association between change in PD symptomatology and change in psychological distress. Structured clinical interviews and questionnaires assessing PDs and psychological distress were administered to a community sample of 118 gay men (80 HIV seropositive men and 38 HIV seronegative men) at a baseline session and readministered 2 years later. Results indicated that PD symptom levels tended to be moderately stable, that PD diagnoses had low stability and that changes in PD symptom levels were associated with changing levels of psychological distress but not with progression of HIV infection.

Adult↗

Stability of mood despite HIV illness progression in a group of homosexual men.

OBJECTIVE: The authors investigated the association between mood status and progression of HIV illness. METHOD: In a research clinic at a university medical center, 112 HIV-positive and 52 HIV-negative homosexual men were enrolled in a 4-year prospective study with semi-annual assessments. The main study measures were psychiatric diagnoses according to the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R; level of functioning and psychiatric symptoms according to the Global Assessment of Functioning Scale (axis V, DSM-III-R), the Hamilton depression and anxiety scales, the Brief Symptom Inventory, and the Beck Hopelessness Scale; stage of HIV illness; and CD4 cell count. RESULTS: Among the HIV-positive men, there was no increase in rates of syndromal depression and anxiety over the 4 years despite substantial HIV illness progression. On all occasions, mean psychopathology symptom ratings were within the normal or not depressed range. However, compared to the HIV-negative men, the HIV-positive men had slightly more anxiety and somatic depressive symptoms throughout. The only measure that showed an increase in distress over time was orientation to the future; among the HIV-positive men, hopes for the future waned across assessments. Attrition in the group was largely attributable to the loss of men with lower CD4 cell counts and more advanced HIV illness. However, study dropouts did not differ on any psychiatric measure from subjects who remained during the first 3 years. CONCLUSIONS: In this group no significant increase in syndromal or symptomatic depression or anxiety over nine semiannual assessments was found, despite substantial HIV illness progression and some deaths. Psychopathology did not predict dropout or death.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗

Personality disorders predict onset of Axis I disorders and impaired functioning among homosexual men with and at risk of HIV infection.

BACKGROUND: A longitudinal study was conducted to investigate whether personality disorders (PDs) increase risk for the development of future Axis I disorders and serious functional impairment among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-seropositive and HIV-seronegative homosexual men. METHOD: Baseline assessments of PDs, Axis I disorders and symptoms, and Global Assessments of Functioning were conducted with a community sample of 107 (66 HIV-positive and 41 HIV-negative) homosexual men participating in a longitudinal study with semiannual interviews over 3 years. RESULTS: Logistic regression analysis indicated that PDs predicted onset of subsequent Axis I disorders after controlling for both HIV status and lifetime Axis I history (adjusted odds ratio, 4.31; P=.01; 95% confidence interval, 1.39 to 13.32). Of the 21 participants with PDs, 16 (76%) were subsequently diagnosed with Axis I disorders on at least one occasion. By contrast, only 36 (42%) of the 86 participants without PDs were subsequently diagnosed with Axis I disorders. Further, 33% of the participants with PDs, in comparison with only 8% of those without PDs, were assigned Global Assessments of Functioning scores of 50 or lower, indicating serious impairment during the postbaseline study period (adjusted odds ratio, 5.70; P<.005; 95% confidence interval, 1.66 to 19.53). CONCLUSION: Personality disorders may contribute to increased risk for onset of Axis I disorders and serious impairment among homosexual men regardless of HIV serologic status.

Adult↗