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Perceived parental rearing in subjects with obsessive-compulsive disorder and their siblings.

Acta Psychiatr Scand. 2010 Apr;121(4):280-8

Authors: Lennertz L, Grabe HJ, Ruhrmann S, Rampacher F, Vogeley A, Schulze-Rauschenbach S, Ettelt S, Meyer K, Kraft S, Reck C, Pukrop R, John U, Freyberger HJ, Klosterkötter J, Maier W, Falkai P, Wagner M

OBJECTIVE: Perceived parenting in patients suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is examined. We attempted to overcome some methodological limitations of prior studies by taking age of onset, parental OCD and comorbid depression into consideration. In addition, we included data from unaffected siblings to corroborate information on parental rearing. METHOD: One hundred and twenty-two cases with OCD and 41 of their siblings as well as 59 healthy controls and 45 of their siblings completed the German short-version of the EMBU (FEE). RESULTS: Obsessive-compulsive disorder cases reported less parental warmth and more parental rejection and control. Further analyses indicated that parenting is also associated with OCD in cases with late onset and cases without parents affected by OCD. OCD cases with comorbid depression described their parents particularly negatively. Data from siblings indicated good validity of perceived parenting in OCD. CONCLUSION: This study provides further evidence for dysfunctional child rearing being relevant to the development of OCD and depression.

PMID: 19694627 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Effects of a yoga breath intervention alone and in combination with an exposure therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder and depression in survivors of the 2004 South-East Asia tsunami.

Acta Psychiatr Scand. 2010 Apr;121(4):289-300

Authors: Descilo T, Vedamurtachar A, Gerbarg PL, Nagaraja D, Gangadhar BN, Damodaran B, Adelson B, Braslow LH, Marcus S, Brown RP

OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated the effect of a yoga breath program alone and followed by a trauma reduction exposure technique on post-traumatic stress disorder and depression in survivors of the 2004 Asian tsunami. METHOD: In this non-randomized study, 183 tsunami survivors who scored 50 or above on the Post-traumatic Checklist-17 (PCL-17) were assigned by camps to one of three groups: yoga breath intervention, yoga breath intervention followed by 3-8 h of trauma reduction exposure technique or 6-week wait list. Measures for post-traumatic stress disorder (PCL-17) and depression (BDI-21) were performed at baseline and at 6, 12 and 24 weeks. Data were analyzed using anova and mixed effects regression. RESULTS: The effect of treatment vs. control was significant at 6 weeks (F(2,178) = 279.616, P < 0.001): mean PCL-17 declined by 42.5 +/- 10.0 SD with yoga breath, 39.2 +/- 17.2 with Yoga breath + exposure and 4.6 +/- 13.2 in the control. CONCLUSION: Yoga breath-based interventions may help relieve psychological distress following mass disasters.

PMID: 19694633 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Measuring weight self-stigma: the weight self-stigma questionnaire.

Obesity (Silver Spring). 2010 May;18(5):971-6

Authors: Lillis J, Luoma JB, Levin ME, Hayes SC

Stigma associated with being overweight or obese is widespread. Given that weight loss is difficult to achieve and maintain, researchers have been calling for interventions that reduce the impact of weight stigma on life functioning. Sound measures that are sensitive to change are needed to help guide and inform intervention studies. This study presents the weight self-stigma questionnaire (WSSQ). The WSSQ has 12 items and is designed for use only with populations of overweight or obese persons. Two samples of participants–one treatment seeking, one nontreatment seeking–were used for validation (N = 169). Results indicate that the WSSQ has good reliability and validity, and contains two distinct subscales-self-devaluation and fear of enacted stigma. The WSSQ could be useful for identifying individuals who may benefit from a stigma reduction intervention and may also help evaluate programs designed to reduce stigma.

PMID: 19834462 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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The restraint bias: how the illusion of self-restraint promotes impulsive behavior.

Psychol Sci. 2009 Dec 1;20(12):1523-8

Authors: Nordgren LF, van Harreveld F, van der Pligt J

Four studies examined how impulse-control beliefs–beliefs regarding one’s ability to regulate visceral impulses, such as hunger, drug craving, and sexual arousal-influence the self-control process. The findings provide evidence for a restraint bias: a tendency for people to overestimate their capacity for impulse control. This biased perception of restraint had important consequences for people’s self-control strategies. Inflated impulse-control beliefs led people to overexpose themselves to temptation, thereby promoting impulsive behavior. In Study 4, for example, the impulse-control beliefs of recovering smokers predicted their exposure to situations in which they would be tempted to smoke. Recovering smokers with more inflated impulse-control beliefs exposed themselves to more temptation, which led to higher rates of relapse 4 months later. The restraint bias offers unique insight into how erroneous beliefs about self-restraint promote impulsive behavior.

PMID: 19883487 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Increased activity of mitochondrial aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) in the putamen of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease: a human postmortem study.

J Alzheimers Dis. 2010 Jan;19(4):1295-301

Authors: Michel TM, Gsell W, Käsbauer L, Tatschner T, Sheldrick AJ, Neuner I, Schneider F, Grünblatt E, Riederer P

For decades, it has been acknowledged that oxidative stress due to free radical species contributes to the pathophysiology of aging and neurodegenerative diseases. Aldehyde dehydrogenases (ALDH) not only transform aldehydes to acids but also act as antioxidant enzymes. However, little is known about the implications of the enzymatic family of ALDH in the context of neurodegenerative processes such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD). We therefore examined the enzymatic activity of the mitochondrial ALDH-isoform in different regions of the postmortem brain tissue isolated from patients with AD and controls. We found that the mitochondrial ALDH activity was significantly increased only in the putamen of patients suffering from AD compared to controls. This is of particular interest since mediators of oxidative stress, such as iron, are increased in the putamen of patients with AD. This study adds to the body of evidence that suggests that oxidative stress as well as aldehyde toxicity play a role in AD.

PMID: 20061610 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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The potential role of physical exercise in the treatment of epilepsy.

Epilepsy Behav. 2010 Apr;17(4):432-5

Authors: Arida RM, Scorza FA, da Silva SG, Schachter SC, Cavalheiro EA

The beneficial effects of exercise for people with epilepsy, including reduction of seizure susceptibility, improvement of quality of life, reduction of anxiety and depression, and better social integration, have increasingly been reported. We present data from human and animal studies supporting the role of exercise as a therapy for epilepsy complementary to standard treatments.

PMID: 20159660 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Event-related potentials associated with Attention Network Test.

Int J Psychophysiol. 2010 May;76(2):72-9

Authors: Neuhaus AH, Urbanek C, Opgen-Rhein C, Hahn E, Ta TM, Koehler S, Gross M, Dettling M

Selective visual attention is thought to be comprised of distinct neuronal networks that serve different attentional functions. The Attention Network Test (ANT) has been introduced to allow for assessment of alerting, orienting, and response inhibition. Information on associated measures of neural processing during ANT is still scarce. We topographically analyzed top-down ANT effects on visual event-related potential morphology in 44 healthy participants. Significant reaction time effects were obtained for all attention networks. Posterior cue-locked target N1 amplitude was significantly increased during both alerting and orienting. P3 amplitude was significantly modulated at frontal and parietal leads as a function of inhibition. Our data suggests that attentional mechanisms of alerting and orienting are employed simultaneously at early stages of the visual processing stream to amplify perceptual discrimination and load onto the same ERP component. Fronto-parietal modulations of P3 amplitude seem to mirror both response inhibition and visual target detection and may be interesting markers for further studies.

PMID: 20184924 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Toxic keratopathy due to abuse of topical anesthetic drugs.

Cutan Ocul Toxicol. 2010 Jun;29(2):105-9

Authors: Yeniad B, Canturk S, Esin Ozdemir F, Alparslan N, Akarcay K

OBJECTIVE: To describe 8 cases of toxic keratopathy due to abuse of topical anesthetic drugs. METHODS: Clinical findings from patients with toxic keratopathy were investigated retrospectively. RESULTS: Two patients had toxic keratopathy bilaterally. Five of 8 patients had an ocular history of a corneal foreign body, 1 had basal membrane dystrophy, 1 had ultraviolet radiation, and 1 had chemical burn. All patients had undergone psychiatric consultation. Four patients had anxiety disorder and 1 had bipolar disease. Clinical signs were improved in all patients with discontinuation of topical anesthetic drug use along with adjunctive psychiatric treatment. Penetrating keratoplasty was performed in 2 patients. CONCLUSION: Toxic keratopathy due to topical anesthetic abuse is a curable disease. Early diagnosis and prevention of topical anesthetic drug use are the most important steps in the treatment of this condition. As these patients commonly exhibit psychiatric disorders, adjunctive psychiatric treatment may help to break the chemical addiction.

PMID: 20236030 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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The effect of a traditional dance training program on the physical fitness of adults with hearing loss.

J Strength Cond Res. 2010 Apr;24(4):1052-8

Authors: Tsimaras VK, Kyriazis DA, Christoulas KI, Fotiadou EG, Kokaridas DG, Angelopoulou NA

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of a traditional dance training program on aerobic capacity and muscle strength of adults with hearing loss. Twenty-three adults with hearing loss were separated into 2 groups. Thirteen subjects (6 men, 7 women, mean age, 25.7 +/- 3.9 years) constituted the intervention group, whereas 10 subjects (5 men, 5 women, mean age, 26.4 +/- 5.9 years) formed the control group. Pretraining and posttraining treadmill tests were performed to determine heart rate (HR peak), peak minute ventilation (VE peak), peak oxygen consumption (VO2 peak, absolute and relative), and time to exhaustion (min). Peak torque of hamstring and quadriceps muscles at angular velocities of 60 degrees /s, 180 degrees /s, and 300 degrees /s was also measured. The intervention group followed a 12-week traditional dance training program, whereas the control group received no training during this period. Repeated measures of multiple analyses of variance were used to test mean differences between the values of both groups. A paired t-test was used to compare the values within each group prior and after program participation. A significance level of 0.05 was used for all tests. Following the 12-week training program, significant improvements in peak physiological parameters were seen for the intervention group for peak minute ventilation, peak oxygen consumption (both absolute and relative), time to exhaustion, and peak torque values between the 2 measurements (initial and final). No significant improvements in peak physiological parameters and peak torque were noticed in the control group. In conclusion, adults with hearing loss can improve their physical fitness levels with the application of a systematic and well-designed traditional dance training program.

PMID: 20300019 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Intrathecal IgG synthesis in patients with alterations in the neurochemical dementia diagnostics.

J Alzheimers Dis. 2010 Jan;19(4):1199-203

Authors: Zimmermann R, Beck G, Knispel S, Maler JM, Weih M, Wiltfang J, Kornhuber J, Lewczuk P

Neurochemical Dementia Diagnostics (NDD), i.e., analysis of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) concentrations of amyloid-beta peptides and tau/phospho-tau proteins plays important role in the diagnosis of neurodegeneration and dementias. Several studies show alterations of these biomarkers in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), however, only a few reports address alterations of other CSF biomarkers (albumin and immunoglobulins’ quotients, cell count, lactate concentration, etc.) in the pathophysiology and diagnostic procedures of dementias. Therefore, we analyzed these biomarkers in patients diagnosed for dementia syndromes and carefully characterized with the state-of-the-art NDD analysis: Abeta1-42, Abetax-42, Abetax-42/x-40 ratio, tau, and ptau181. We found intrathecal IgG synthesis in 5 out of 112 patients showing alterations of the NDD biomarkers, and in four out of these five subjects, we could not find any satisfying reason for the intrathecal humoral response. In 25.9% of the patients with altered NDD biomarkers, we found an increased albumin quotient indicating a dysfunction of the blood-CSF barrier; however a similar figure of 25.2% was found in the group of patients without alterations in the NDD. Our findings suggest that at least some patients with increased CSF concentrations of tau/ptau proteins and decreased concentrations of Abeta{42} peptides show simultaneously CSF alterations found otherwise in neuroinflammatory processes. This, in turn, suggests that extended diagnosis should be performed in patients with “isolated” alterations of NDD biomarkers or intrathecal immunoglobulin synthesis.

PMID: 20308786 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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