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R Strobl

Publications and source records attributed to R Strobl.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

The age of onset of schizophrenia and the theory of anticipation.

The clinical phenomenon called anticipation is usually defined as a decrease in age at onset and/or an increase in disease severity in successive generations of afflicted families. The purpose of this study was to examine variables that might influence anticipation in schizophrenia. A total of 380 Austrian patients, born between 1935 and 1964, met criteria for schizophrenia with ICD-8 or ICD-9, SADS-L and DSM-III-R criteria. The inclusion criteria also required medical records of patients to contain information about the year of birth, season of birth, age at onset, accidents or meningoencephalitic diseases during childhood, first- and second-degree relatives afflicted with schizophrenia, sibship size, sib order, education of patient, age of parents, occupation of parents, loss of parents, and place of residence. A Cox multiple-regression analysis showed three factors as having a significant influence on the age of disease onset, including year of birth (which had the largest influence), family history (sporadic cases showed an onset 2 years later than familial cases) and residence (urban dwellers showed psychotic symptoms approximately 1 year sooner than rural ones). A Kaplan-Meier Survival Analysis showed that younger cohorts had onset approximately 10 years earlier in sporadic and familial cases. This cohort effect might be a major source of bias in studies of anticipation.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

[Negative delusional identity with schizophrenic psychoses. Case studies of phemonology and pathogenesis].

With schizophrenics negative delusional identities constitute one way of psychotic alteration of self-identification. The main notion is of being a personification of evil. In a cross-cultural comparison study we found in the Austrian sample 13 patients with negative delusional identities. Our present study is based on detailed interviews and evaluations of medical records of this sample. Our aim was to draft a typology of delusional identities as a basic requirement for a phenomenology of the negative manifestations. Further investigative goals were the efforts of self-explanation undertaken by the patients with regard to their altered condition, the search for a pathogenetic transitional series and the functional value of the new identities. According to our estimation the basic mood on which negative delusional identities are founded is timid and dejected. Further basic requirements are a disturbed conscience of the ego and the concurrence of grandeur and guilt ideas. Half of our patients imagined to be reincarnations of negative biblical figures, three regarded themselves as possessed, two attributed their identities to heredity. Despite of diverse situative points of departure a common pathogenetic transitional series emerged for all patients. From a functional point of view a negative delusional identity seems to offer some kind of protection from further structural disintegration as well as relief from feelings of guilt--all that however at the price of structural deformations with dynamic depletion.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Genome scan for susceptibility loci for schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE: Schizophrenia is a relatively common, often chronic and debilitating mental illness. Evidence from various studies has clearly demonstrated that genetic factors contribute substantially to the etiology. The goal of this study was to identify chromosomal regions likely to contain schizophrenia susceptibility genes. METHODS: A genome-wide map of 388 microsatellite DNA markers was genotyped in 5 schizophrenia families. Nonparametric linkage analysis (Genehunter) was used to assess the pattern of allele sharing at each marker locus relative to the presence of disease. RESULTS: Nonparametric linkage scores did not reach a genome-wide level of statistical significance (p < 0.00002) or a p value suggestive of linkage (p < 0.007) for any marker; however, one p value suggested replicated linkage (p < 0.01) at chromosome 6p24 in region D6S309 (p = 0.0047). Furthermore, 11 markers resulted in p < 0.05 at chromosomes 6p, 6q, 10q, 12q and 14q. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the differences in diagnostic schemes, in markers used and methods of analyses between studies published so far, we think that our result supports the notion that there is possibly some consistent evidence for replicated linkage of a schizophrenia susceptibility locus around the region of D6S309 at chromosome 6p24.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Efficiency of continuous positive airway pressure versus theophylline therapy in sleep apnea: comparative sleep laboratory studies on objective and subjective sleep and awakening quality.

Sleep apnea is the most common sleep-related breathing disorder characterized by repetitive episodes of hypoxemia. Therapies include behavioral, surgical, orthodontic, pneumological, and pharmacological interventions. The aim of the present study was to compare the efficiency of pneumological therapy by nasal continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) versus a pharmacological approach with theophylline (Respicur retard(R) 400 mg) on respiratory variables as well as objective and subjective sleep and awakening quality in patients with moderate sleep apnea measured by polysomnography and psychometry. Under CPAP therapy all respiratory variables improved and normalized, while under theophylline only the apnea-hypopnea index and the desaturation index improved but still did not return to normal values. Regarding sleep initiation and maintenance, CPAP therapy prolonged sleep latency and reduced movement time, while patients treated with theophylline showed reduced total sleep period, total sleep time and sleep efficiency. Sleep architecture demonstrated an increase in deep sleep and REM stages under CPAP therapy, and remained unchanged under theophylline. Concerning subjective sleep and awakening quality, both treatments improved well-being in the morning. Regarding objective awakening quality, reaction time performance was improved in both groups. In conclusion, CPAP treatment is more effective than theophylline regarding respiratory variables as well as the normalization of sleep maintenance and sleep architecture in sleep apnea patients.

Bronchodilator Agents↗
PubMed1998

The unified biosocial model of personality in schizophrenia families and controls.

This report describes the application of a unified biosocial model of personality developed by C.R. Cloninger to a sample of families identified through a proband with schizophrenia and a sample of controls. Families of schizophrenic patients were ascertained in USA and Austria. We could detect differences between females and males in their response to positive reinforcement (Reward Dependence) and differences between young and old people with respect to the response to new and/or exciting situations (Novelty Seeking). In general, results obtained for individuals from schizophrenia families and controls were similar. These results are not substantially influenced by psychiatric disorders in individuals. Psychiatric diagnosis may have an influence on the third dimension of Cloninger's model, designated Harm Avoidance. Analysis showed that patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or from the schizophrenia spectrum try harder to avoid punishment or aversive stimuli than family members with another psychiatric disorder or without a psychiatric diagnosis as well as controls. The results are promising and further research is needed to evaluate the structure of the proposed personality model in families and the relationship of personality to psychiatric status.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Renal pyelectasis in fetuses and neonates: diagnostic value of renal pelvis diameter in pre- and postnatal sonographic screening.

OBJECTIVE: Pre- and postnatal pyelectasis detected by sonographic screening is of questionable pathologic importance. Therefore, we defined the natural course and diagnostic value of renal pelvis diameter (RPD) during fetal life and the neonatal period as such dilatation was revealed on routine sonography. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Routine sonography in pregnant women was obtained between gestational weeks 22 and 30. Sonograms were obtained for 1021 fetuses, of which 15 could not be followed up as neonates. The remaining 1006 fetuses also underwent neonatal sonography. All neonates with an RPD larger than 5 mm were followed up sonographically. Neonates with an RPD larger than 9 mm or persistent widening (> 5-9 mm) were examined by voiding cystourethrogram, radionuclide renogram, or both. RESULTS: Thirty fetuses (3%) had an RPD larger than 5 mm. Nine of these fetuses also had an RPD larger than 5 mm as neonates. Of these nine neonates, one had bilateral grade II vesicoureteric reflux (VUR) and two had urinary tract obstructions (one posterior urethral valve and one ureteropelvic junction obstruction). Forty-nine neonates whose results on fetal sonograms had been normal showed an RPD larger than 5 mm on neonatal sonograms. Grade III VUR was found in one boy, and ureteropelvic junction obstruction was found in two boys. The kidneys of 54 neonates who showed an RPD larger than 5 mm without urinary tract obstruction were followed up until an RPD of 0-5 mm was evident. RPD normalized within 1 year of birth, whether VUR was present or not. Symptomatic urinary tract infection was diagnosed in 17 infants who had no renal pelvis dilatation seen on pre-or postnatal screening during the observation period. Seven of the 17 neonates had VUR. Conversely, none of the infants with pre- postnatal dilatation presented with symptomatic urinary tract infection. However, in one neonate an asymptomatic urinary tract infection without VUR was diagnosed by routine urinalysis. CONCLUSION: In our study, we linked renal pelvis dilatation on pre- and postnatal sonograms to obstructive uropathies rather than to vesicoureteric reflux. Prenatal sonography proved less sensitive than postnatal sonography in revealing obstructive uropathies. An RPD smaller than 10 mm on neonatal sonography was of no pathologic significance because renal collecting systems normalized spontaneously in all infants within 1 year of birth. These neonates and infants had no significant risk for urinary tract infection and did not need further evaluation.

Dilatation, Pathologic↗
PubMed1994

Non-concordance by gender for schizophrenia and related disorders in sibships.

We analysed gender-concordance rates among 29 prospectively sampled schizophrenic probands and their 39 affected and 71 unaffected siblings. We did not find any unusual concordance rates. We found no same-gender concordance particularly in siblings affected by schizophrenia and related disorders. We considered unaffected siblings in an additional attempt to make valid and unbiased comparisons between genders, but this reduced the number of informative sibships to 20. We stratified the siblings of probands by sibship and by the proband's gender in order to check gender distribution within families. The data do not support hypotheses that schizophrenia is pseudo-autosomal or male-female chromosomally transmitted.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

No proof of linkage between schizophrenia-related disorders including schizophrenia and chromosome 2q21 region.

We examined linkage between schizophrenia and schizophrenia-related disorders and five genetic markers on chromosome 2 in fourteen families ascertained through affected probands in St. Louis and Vienna. The chromosomal region 2q21 was considered a candidate locus for schizophrenia because of a report of a balanced translocation 2;18 (q21;q23) in a schizophrenia family. Linkage analyses were conducted for three disease models: a narrow model including schizophrenia only; an intermediate model including a spectrum of schizophrenia-related disorders; and a broad model including major affective disorders. Multipoint linkage analyses excluded linkage across the region (about 50 cM) for the intermediate disease model. The same was generally true for the broad affection status model. None of the two-point and multipoint analyses showed definite linkage of schizophrenia to any marker. The most prominent positive association was between D2S44 and a broad affection status model, giving a two-point lod score of 1.71 at 0.20 recombination fraction.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

[The schizophrenic world view--psychopathologic aspects of ontogenetic regression].

If reality is represented in the neuronal structures of mans central nervous system, any disturbance of cognitive functions must necessarily change mans concept of his reality. The hypothesis presented in this study is that an ontogenetic regression of cognitive processes to an "actional-concretistic" level of "representations" is attached to a reduction of the "sphere of action" (by analogy with the territorial zones in ethology) to the immediate "individual area". The main features of the psychopathology of schizophrenic experience and behavior such as the concrete and the overinclusive thinking, the impairment of selective attention, hyper- and hyposensitivity, the ambivalence concerning separatism (minus) and egocentrism (plus), ideas of reference and the disturbance of identity are seen under this new aspect.

Defense Mechanisms↗
PubMed1990

[Developmental psychological aspects of schizophrenic thinking].

Based on a phenomenological analysis of psychotic interpretation of the world concretism is supposed to represent an important mechanism of schizophrenic thinking: Schizophrenic concretism is the result of an ontological regression of cognitive functioning onto the archaic level of actional representation. Following Jean Piaget's theories about the children's constructions of reality a hypothesis about the structure of psychotic interpretations of the world is being proposed: In psychotic thinking the knowledge about the world is structured in an adualistic way which is characterized by an alloy of significance and notion, inner and outer world, physis and psyche. The structural similarity of psychotic thinking and thinking in early developmental stages is illustrated concretely on the basis of examples. Fundamental differences between childish and schizophrenic ways of interpreting the world will be presented, showing the specificity of cognitive representation in schizophrenic thinking.

Defense Mechanisms↗
PubMed1989

[Suicide in schizophrenic patients].

Based on retrospective investigation using hospital records of 44 schizophrenic patients of a rehabilitation department, who committed suicide between 1966 and 1986, the paper discusses demographic and psychological features of schizophrenic suicide in comparison with international literature. Subjects who committed suicide were found to be accumulated within age-range 25 to 30 years and between one or two years of duration of illness. 20% of subjects died in an acute psychotic state, 58% had been found within a depressive episode and 66% had confronted themselves with their social situation and/or future in the light of their illness.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

Neurophysiological aspects of auditory hallucinations. 99mTc-(HMPAO)-SPECT investigations in patients with auditory hallucinations and normal controls--a preliminary report.

In a symptom-oriented study 17 patients suffering from chronic auditory hallucinations were investigated by means of 99mTc-HMPAO-SPECT and compared with healthy controls. The results confirm the relative frontal hypoactivity in junction with a relative hyperactivity in the basal ganglia and mesial limbic structures in both hemispheres found in a previous pilot study in auditorily hallucinating patients. Our results should fortify the symptom-oriented approach in psychiatric research.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Cognitive disturbances in chronic schizophrenia: formal thought disorder and basic symptoms.

We investigated 37 chronic schizophrenic patients with two objective rating scales (AMDP and Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale; BPRS) and compared the questioned symptoms with the Frankfurter Beschwerde Fragebogen (FBF), a questionnaire for subjective complaints which are close to the uncharacteristic 'basic' symptoms of schizophrenic patients. It was pointed out that the questions in the FBF relate mainly to uncharacteristic symptoms like disturbances of perception, concentration, attention, perceiving, and memory. These subjective symptoms of the FBF show a few correlations with the AMDP/BPRS rating. The total score of the FBF gave no further information about social functioning of patients with cognitive disturbances.

Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale↗