EEG coherence following acute and chronic clozapine in treatment-resistant schizophrenics.

Electroencephalographic (EEG) coherence is an index of brain regional coupling that has been found to be abnormal in people with schizophrenia but has not been systematically examined in response to neuroleptics. EEG coherence in slow (delta and theta) frequencies was assessed in 17 treatment-resistant people with schizophrenia at baseline, 2 hr after their first oral dose (25 mg) and after 6 weeks of clozapine treatment. Compared with EEG norms, participants exhibited significant interhemispheric and intrahemispheric coherence abnormalities prior to treatment. Both acute and chronic treatments altered coherence but differed with respect to their relationship to symptom reduction and their ability to normalize or augment pretreatment abnormalities. Findings are discussed in relation to "disconnection" theories of schizophrenia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Epileptic syndromes which show continuous spike and wake complexes during slow wave sleep

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: The association of cognitive and/or behavioral disturbances, epileptic seizures and continuous discharges spike-waves during slow sleep in the EEG, has been described in three epileptic syndromes: continuous spike-wave during slow sleep syndrome (CSWS), Landau-Kleffner syndrome (LKS) or acquired epileptic aphasia, and atypical benign partial epilepsy of childhood (ABPE). MATERIAL AND METHODS: We report 13 patients; two of these have been diagnosed of CSWS. four of LKS and seven of ABPE, according to the definition criteria. RESULTS: The main clinical features in each patient are presented here. In all patients, continuous spike-wave discharges were observed for more than > 80% of the total sleep period at some time during the course of the illness. There are many similarities at the age of onset, the occurrence of several types of seizures, the evolution and the electroencephalographic findings in awake state and sleep. CONCLUSIONS: It suggests that the CSWS, LKS and ABPE have probably the same pathophysiology and that they are the severe, moderate and benign forms of a single epileptic syndrome, age-related, with continuous spike waves and various neuropsychological and behavioral disturbances. The neuropsychological manifestations depend probably on the localization of the original epileptic focus.     

The long-term course of mastalgia

A pregnancy after Mustard repair for transposition of the great arteries and ventricular septal defect with pulmonary stenosis is reported. The 23-year-old gravida 1 was treated with ACE inhibitors up to 26 weeks of gestation until cardiac medication was changed to dihydralazine. At 28 weeks of gestation the patient developed cardiac decompensation leading to caesarean section for maternal indication at 29 weeks of gestation. The neonate did not show any congenital malformation nor anuria. The patient was moved to a normal ward six days after delivery. A cardiac follow-up examination showed no difference to the condition before pregnancy.     

Vocabulary performance of short-term and long-term schizophrenics.

"The following three measures of vocabulary performance varying in sensitivity were obtained from groups of short-term schizophrenics, long-term schizophrenics, and normals equated for art and education: gesticulation (nonverbal), conventional vocabulary achievement, and level of verbal communication. No differences were found between the short-term schizophrenics and the normals of any of the measures. The long-term schizophrenics were significantly lower than normals and short-term schizophrenics on all of the measures. The decrement on gesticulation for the long-term schizophrenics was significantly less than that for the other measures." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Childhood chronic inflammatory demyelinating neuropathies: clinical course and long-term follow-up

Chronic inflammatory demyelinating neuropathy (CIDP) is a rare disease in childhood. We reviewed the clinical characteristics, response to therapy, and long-term prognosis in 13 children (1.5 to 16 years of age) diagnosed with CIDP at Washington University Medical Center, St. Louis, and the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia, between 1979 and 1994. The most common presenting symptom (in 11/13 [85%]) was lower extremity weakness associated with difficulty in walking. Preceding events within 1 months of onset, mostly intercurrent infections or vaccinations, occurred in seven children (54%). The disease was monophasic in three children (23%). One relapse occurred in four (30%) and multiple relapses in six (46%). All patients had at least short-term response to steroids. Three children (23%) recovered completely during the first year. Ten children (77%) had residual weakness after an average follow-up of 6 years. There seems to be two populations of children with CIDP. One subgroup, with a favorable prognosis, progressed to peak disability over less than 3 months; these children often have a monophasic course with complete resolution of symptoms and signs and withdrawal from all medications by 1 year after onset. A second subgroup progressed for 3 months or longer; these children all required substantial does of prednisone for prolonged periods and had considerable long-term morbidity with persistent weakness.     

Perceptual recognition in chronic and acute schizophrenics.

Compared schizophrenic and normal groups on their speed in recognizing the identity of pictorial stimuli which gradually came into sharper focus from an initially blurred appearance. The chronic schizophrenic group (N = 20) showed slower recognition than the acute schizophrenic (N = 20) or normal groups (N = 40), but the groups did not differ in amount of prerecognition hypotheses or time of 1st response. The differences in perceptual recognition speed seem related to certain clinical differences between the acute and chronic schizophrenic, particularly with regard to the impact of external perceptual stimuli vs. internally generated ideation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The long-term course of carcinoma in situ of the uterine cervix

The malignant potential of carcinoma in situ (CIS) of the uterine cervix has been the subject of great controversy. Despite refinements and additions to knowledge in this area, few reports on the long-term course of the disease have appeared in the past decade. Recent developments in diagnostic and therapeutic techniques coupled with changes in the patient population with this disease have prompted renewed interest in conservative management. Results of long-term observation of a group of patients followed initially without ablative therapy are reported. The data indicate that CIS of the uterine cervix is not the inevitably progressive disease that it has been considered to be. Unequivocal invasive cancer develops in only a small percentage of cases and can be controlled, if not cured, by current therapeutic modalities. The intraepithelial lesion, however, tends to persist despite conization, and eventually requires ablative therapy in most cases. Conservative procedures should be regarded as temporizing, at least until their long-term benefits can be recorded.     

Short-term retention in acute and chronic paranoid schizophrenics.

Administered 4 short-term memory tasks to 10 acute and 10 chronic paranoid schizophrenics (age ranges 17-45 and 21-58, respectively) and 10 18-54 yr old nonprofessional hospital staff members. Each task involved the recall of a different type of material varying in meaningfulness from letter trigrams to real word triads. Recall of the material always followed 15 sec of distracting activity designed to prevent rehearsal. Acute paranoid Ss tended to overinclude intralist and extralist responses especially when the more meaningful material was used, while the chronic Ss tended to omit many more responses (p     

Skin-conductance orienting response in chronic schizophrenics: The role of neuroleptics.

The primary aim of this study was to determine whether there is an association between neuroleptic treatment and skin-conductance orienting response (SCOR) nonresponding in chronic schizophrenics. In a design adapted to this purpose, we were unable to demonstrate a relationship between neuroleptics and nonresponding. Although inability to prove the null hypothesis precludes a claim that neuroleptic treatment and SCOR nonresponding are unrelated, internal evidence and prior studies strongly suggest that such a dissociation exists in most chronic schizophrenic nonresponders. We also found stable nonspecific and tonic skin conductance activity differences between SCOR "responders" and "nonresponders" on three occasions of testing. We interpret our results as bearing on state and trait issues in chronic schizophrenics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Basic dimensions of change in the symptomatology of chronic schizophrenics.

A reanalysis of previously presented data (Shawver et al, 1959) was done to determine what personality factors, as measured by the Lorr Multi-dimensional Scale for Rating Psychiatric Patients (1953), changed over a period of 6 months of hospitalization. Factor analysis of change scores (6-month ratings subtracted from initial) on the 42-item scale resulted in 6 independent factors. Change was reflected in factors of: mental disorganization, thought guilt, depression, and anxiety. Mental disorganization was seen to be the central factor or primary process in schizophrenic. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Investigation of the dynamics underlying periodic complexes in the EEG

Cytogenetic analyses of 85 testicular germ cell tumors, of which 54 were karyotypically abnormal, showed recurrent breakpoints at chromosome bands 1p36, 1p13-1qh, 11q23, 19q13, and the pericentromeric regions of the acrocentric chromosomes. Postchemotherapy tumors had significantly more rearrangements of bands 3p25-p26, 6q16-q21, 8p22-p23 when compared with untreated tumors, while untreated tumors had more rearrangements of 9p22-p24 when compared with postchemotherapy tumors. Frequent breakpoints also were identified at 15q15 and 9qh in untreated tumors. Tumors of different histopathology, clinical stage, and treatment status showed no significant differences in the frequencies of i(12p)-positive and i(12p)-negative tumors.     

The susceptibility of chronic schizophrenics to social influence in the formation of perceptual judgments.

To test the hypothesis that the schizophrenic process may be characterized by a progressive withdrawal from contact with and hence influenced by the social environment, regressed schizophrenics, partially remitted schizophrenics, and a control group of hospitalized TB patients (all VA) were tested in the Asch (1956) conformity-to-group-judgment situation. Schizophrenics were seen to respond to social stimuli, but their responses had little apparent relationship to the physical or social reality of the situation. From Psyc Abstracts 36:02:2JQ48S. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Automatic EEG analysis during long-term monitoring in the ICU

To assist in the reviewing of prolonged EEGs, we have developed an automatic EEG analysis method that can be used to compress the prolonged EEG into two pages. The proposed approach of Automatic Analysis of Segmented-EEG (AAS-EEG) consists of 4 basic steps: (1) segmentation; (2) feature extraction; (3) classification; and (4) presentation. The idea is to break down the EEG into stationary segments and extract features that can be used to classify the segments into groups of like patterns. The final step involves the presentation of the processed data in a compressed form. This is done by providing the EEGer with a representative sample from each group of EEG patterns and a compressed time profile of the complete EEG. To verify the above approach, 41 6 h EEG records were assessed for normality via the AAS-EEG and conventional EEG approaches. The difference between the overall assessment via compressed and conventional EEG was within one abnormality level 100% of the time, and within one-half level for 73.6% of the records. We demonstrated the feasibility and reliability of automatically segmenting and clustering the EEG, thus allowing the reduction of a 6 h tracing to a few representative segments and their time sequence. This should facilitate review of long recordings during monitoring in the ICU.     

Resting EEG in first-episode and chronic schizophrenia

Prostatic acid phosphatase, prostate-specific antigen, and zinc as markers of prostate, and fructose as marker of seminal vesicles were investigated in the seminal plasma of 35 idiopathic asthenozoospermic and 20 normal subjects to evaluate their relationship with sperm motility. Total seminal plasma levels of the three prostatic markers and, to a lesser extent, total fructose levels were lower in asthenozoospermic patients, and in all the pooled subjects, the same levels were directly correlated with the motility of ejaculated spermatozoa. When the levels of the biochemical markers were expressed as concentrations in seminal plasma, only prostatic acid phosphatase levels remained lower in asthenozoospermic patients and they maintained a direct correlation with sperm motility in all the pooled subjects. The PAP/Zn/Fr (representing the ratio between PAP concentration and free Zn available for spermatozoan uptake) was lower in asthenozoospermic patients and it was also directly related to sperm motility in all the pooled subjects. These data suggest that altered sperm motility is associated with a probable impairment of sex accessory gland function in subjects with idiopathic asthenozoospermia, while prostatic acid phosphatase seems mainly related to sperm motility.     

The relationship of leadership technique and anxiety level in group therapy with chronic schizophrenics.

Assessed the level of anxiety experienced by 20 20–59 yr old chronic process schizophrenic patients when 2 methods of leadership were used in group therapy. A structured group in which the leader maintained a directive role was compared with a nonstructured group in which the leader maintained a nondirective role in the group process. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and the Adjective Check List were used as subjective measurements of anxiety. Physiological arousal was measured by blood pressure, pulse, and urine catecholamine recordings. ANCOVA and the Student-Newman-Keuls test of multiple comparison did not support the hypothesis that chronic process schizophrenic patients would experience more anxiety in a nonstructured group process as opposed to structured group therapy. Perhaps the literature is misleading when it suggests that a more structured approach should be utilized for chronic schizophrenic patients. (41 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social participation in homogeneous and heterogeneous groups of chronic schizophrenics.

Responsiveness of socially withdrawn, regressed chronic schizophrenics to changes in the characteristics of their social environment was examined. It was hypothesized that withdrawn, regressed, hospitalized patients would participate more effectively in problem-solving groups that were heterogeneous in the activity level and "mental health" of its members than in homogeneous groups. 16 Ss rated as withdrawn and regressed and 16 active, improved Ss solved group problems in a homogeneous and heterogeneous group context. Ratings by independent judges, employing a scale devised for this purpose, indicated that both withdrawn and active chronic schizophrenics participate significantly more effectively in a heterogeneous group problem-solving situation than in a homogeneous setting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Curative caring: The use of buddy groups with chronic schizophrenics.

Investigated the utility of altruism as a basis for group therapy treatment of long-term schizophrenic patients. 36 chronic male patients (mean age 41.03 yrs) were assigned to 1 of 3 group conditions: an altruistic (buddy-oriented) group, a traditional (self-oriented) group, or a no-treatment control group. Outcome results following 6 wks of therapy suggest that the altruistic group (which focused each member's attention on the facilitation of his buddy's discharge from the hospital) was more effective than the self-oriented or no-treatment groups, as measured by discharge and recidivism rates. (5 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of systemic atropine sulfate administration on the frequency content of the cat sensorimotor EEG during sleep and waking.

Sensorimotor electroencephalogram (EEG) frequencies in cats were evaluated with power spectral analysis before and after 3 doses of atropine sulfate. All doses of atropine tested caused enhanced EEG slow waves (0–7 Hz) and spindles (8–25 Hz) during waking immobility, and postdrug frequency profiles during slow-wave sleep and waking immobility were identical. With 0.75 mg/kg atropine, movement (head movement, locomotion) resulted in EEG desynchronization and reduced power in all frequencies less than 24 Hz. After 1.5 or 3.0 mg/kg atropine, power in low frequencies remained elevated during movement, but power in spindle frequencies was significantly reduced compared with other states. During active REM sleep after 1.5 mg/kg atropine, power in spindle frequencies was significantly lower than that during quiet REM sleep. These results indicate that the sensorimotor cortical EEG in cats is under the control of multiple systems. At least 1 of these systems is active during movement, and its actions are resistant to muscarinic receptor blockade. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)