PubMed · 1663605
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A Brandenburg, M Müller, K Winkler. [Managing substance dependence in Herne].. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1663605/
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Psychiatric patients are a vulnerable group in society and have been shown to suffer from a wide range of somatic diseases when admitted to the psychiatric department. During a three month period we examined 174 newly admitted psychiatric patients with the purpose of investigating 1) the frequency of somatic illness, 2) the value of routine blood tests as a screening tool for somatic illness and 3) a possible causality between somatic disease and psychiatric illness. Fifty percent of the patients suffered from a somatic disease and 31% of the patients had a previously undiagnosed disease. The somatic disease was found to be the main cause of admission in 16% of the patients. Older patients and patients with alcohol abuse were found to have the highest prevalence of somatic disease. In conclusion, we found no indication for a screening programme of blood tests, but recommend that selected blood tests based on the clinical examination and history of the individual patient should be taken. Psychiatric patients have a high prevalence of somatic disease, and it is important to direct clinical attention towards this when giving care to psychiatric patients.
Serum mitochondrial and total aspartate aminotransferase activity was quantified by a characterized immunochemical method in 126 subjects, 44 healthy controls and 82 chronic alcoholics (51 outpatients and 31 monitored through 15 days). The monitored alcoholics were divided into actual abstinents (n = 21) and drinkers (n = 10) by blood ethanol concentration performed daily. The aims of the present study were: (a) to compare the diagnostic diagnostic usefulness of the mitochondrial isoenzyme and the mitochondrial/total aspartate aminotransferase ratio to detect problematic drinkers; (b) to evaluate the suitability of these indices to monitor abstinence, a difficulty not yet solved in the clinical management of alcoholics. The results demonstrated the mitochondrial isoenzyme to be more suitable to discriminate between controls and alcoholics (Kruskal and Wallis ANOVA, Bonferroni test, P < 10(-5) and mostly between actual drinkers and other alcoholics (P < 0.041). So acute alcohol consumption may be a significant, suggestive and until now inadequately examined factor in evaluating the suitability of mAST as a marker. The results, showing that mAST peaks quickly appear in the presence of a new alcohol intake, should indicate mAST as a possible marker of acute alcohol intake useful in checking self-claimed abstinence.
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