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Journal Article 2008; 29(3): 351-358 PubMed PMID: 18580849 Citation  Keywords:  Adult, Aged, Choice Behavior:physiology, Data Interpretation, Statistical, Depressive Disorder:psychology, Economics, Female, Humans, Impulsive Behavior:psychology, Male, Middle Aged, Neuropsychological Tests, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Reward, Ser.   

OBJECTIVES: Depression has been associated with impaired neural processing of reward and punishment. However, to date, little is known regarding the relationship between depression and intertemporal choice (delay discounting) for gain and loss. This examination is potentially important for advances in neuroeconomics of intertemporal choice, because depression is associated with reduced serotonergic activities in the brain.

DESIGN AND SETTING: We compared impulsivity and inconsistency in intertemporal choice for monetary gain and loss between depressive patients and healthy control subjects.

METHODS: We conducted delay discounting tasks for gain and loss in depressed and healthy control subjects. We then quantified impulsivity and inconsistency in the delay discounting with parameters in the q-exponential discount function based on Tsallis' statistics.

RESULTS: We observed that depressive patients were more impulsive and time-inconsistent in intertemporal choice action for gain and loss, in comparison to healthy controls.

MAIN FINDINGS: Depressed patients were more irrational in temporal discounting.

CONCLUSIONS: The usefulness of the q-exponential discount function for assessing the impaired decision-making by depressive patients was demonstrated. Furthermore, biophysical mechanisms underlying the altered intertemporal choice by depressive patients are discussed in relation to impaired serotonergic neural systems....

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Journal Article 2007; 28(Suppl 4): 10-11 PubMed PMID: 18030257 Citation  Keywords:  Aged:psychology, Alcohol Drinking:psychology, Cardiovascular System:drug effects, Central Nervous System Depressants:pharmacology, Cognition:drug effects, Ethanol:pharmacology, Humans, Neuropsychological Tests,.   

: The studies on the effect of moderate alcohol consumption on mental capacity in elderly and inflammatory markers in coronary heart disease are reviewed....

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Evaluation Studies 2007; 28(2): 191-198 PubMed PMID: 17435681 Citation  Keywords:  Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Depression:diagnosis, Dissociative Disorders:diagnosis, Epilepsy:diagnosis, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Models, Theoretical, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Psychological Tests, Reproducibility of Results, Surveys and Que.   

OBJECTIVE: Dissociation is often defined as partial or total disconnection between memories of the past, awareness of identity and of immediate sensations, and control of bodily movements, often resulting from traumatic experiences, intolerable problems, or disturbed relationships. This type of reaction to a psychological and/or physical trauma has often various neurobiological consequences and its clinical assessment has received enormous interest in recent psychological and neuroscience research.

METHODS: Psychometric parameters of the Czech version of the Dissociative Experiences Scale were tested from the viewpoints of internal consistency, validity and factor structure, using data from a sample of n=783 adults, divided into three groups (epilepsy n=243, depression n=357, norm n=183), average age 39 years, SD=13.5.

RESULTS: Findings of this study demonstrated that reliability, validity and factor structure of the Czech version of the Dissociative Experiences Scale correspond to those of the original English version.

CONCLUSIONS: The Czech version of the questionnaire may be considered a suitable tool for estimating subjectively experienced dissociative symptoms....

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Clinical Trial 2007; 28(2): 106-109 PubMed PMID: 17435679 Citation  Keywords:  Adult, Cognition:physiology, Depressive Disorder:blood, Electrocardiography, Female, Gyrus Cinguli:physiopathology, Heart Rate, Humans, Hydrocortisone:blood, Male, Middle Aged, Neuropsychological Tests, Task Performance and Analysis,.   

OBJECTIVE: According to recent findings detecting a cognitive conflict is related to activation of anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and central autonomic network. Several recent findings also suggest the hypothesis that the cognitive conflict is related to specific nonlinear chaotic changes of the neural signal. This conflict related activation elicits autonomic responses which can be assessed by psychophysiological measures such as heart rate variability calculated as beat to beat R-R intervals (RRI).

METHOD: The present study used Stroop word-colour test as an experimental approach to psychophysiological study of cognitive conflict in connection with RRI measurement, assessment of serum cortisol and calculation of largest Lyapunov exponents in nonlinear data analysis of RRI time series in 30 patients with unipolar depression.

RESULTS: Significant correlation -0.45 (p<0.01) between largest Lyapunov exponents during conflicting Stroop task and serum cortisol levels has been found.

CONCLUSIONS: The study indicates that a defect of neural inhibition during conflicting Stroop task is closely related to decreased serum cortisol levels which probably reflect defense psychological mechanisms....

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Comparative Study 2006; 27(5): 651-657 PubMed PMID: 17159815 Citation  Keywords:  Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alcoholic Beverages:statistics & numerical data, Alcoholism:epidemiology, Biomarkers:analysis, Comorbidity, Female, Health Status, Humans, Male, Mental Disorders:epidemiology, Middle Aged, Psychological Tests, Social Class,.   

OBJECTIVES: To test the hypothesis that early-onset alcoholism can be differentiated from alcoholism in the elderly by more severe substance related problems, more frequent family history, higher mortality rate, and antisocial behaviour.

METHODS: 73 elderly (E) alcoholics (mean age 70.2 yrs) were compared with 90 young (Y) alcoholics (mean age 43.9 yrs) and 70 elderly non alcoholics (mean age 76 yrs). We focused on, family history (FH), co morbidity, mortality, biological markers (AST, GGT, MCV), and demographics. Geriatric Scale of Depression, Standardized Mini-Mental State Examination and Munich Alkoholism Test were also used. All results analysed by the SPSS.

RESULTS: FH was significantly (p<0.001) more often positive in Y (52%) than in E (15%) and C (10%). Significantly (p<0.001) more E (57.5%) are married than Y (37.8%) and C (21.4%), significantly (p<0.001) more E (72. 6%) has elementary education compared with Y (44.4%). E alcoholics abstain significantly (p<0.001) more (>27 months) than Y ones (approximately 11 months). Significantly (p<0.001) more Y (43%) had forensic history than E (8.2%). Significantly (p<0.01) more death rate was found in E (19.2%) than in Y (5.6%) and C (1.4%). Significantly (p<0.01) more E (61%) prefer spirits than Y (21%), but significantly more Y (>63%) combine spirits with beer and wine than E (>32%). Significantly (p<0.001) more alcoholics (E and Y) had elated levels of MCV (>70%), AST and GGT (>60%) than C. We have found significantly (p<0.001) higher rate of comorbidity of CNS diseases, GIT, injuries, haematological and infectious diseases in the groups of elderly and young alcoholics than in C subjects. On the other hand, prevalence of cardiovascular, ORL, ophtalmological, endocrine and orthopedic diseases were significantly (p<0.01) higher in C. To compare elderly patients with young ones, we found significantly (p<0.01) higher rate of respiratory, endocrine, cardiovascular and CNS diseases, and dementia in E alcoholics (p<0.001). Depression and abuse of prescribed medication was significantly (p<0.01) more often in the C, but suicide attempts, neurotic spectrum disorders and personality disorders were significantly (p<0.01) often in group of Y.

CONCLUSION: Young alcoholics have significantly more often positive FH, drink significantly bigger amounts of alcohol, have more forensic history, and personality disorders in comparison to elderly ones. On the other hand elderly alcoholics tend to have more somatic complication due to alcohol abuse, but drink less alcohol, tend to abstain longer, and have less psychopathic traits. In contrast to literature, the majority of elderly alcoholics are married, have low education and do not belong to high social classes....

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Journal Article 2006; 27(3): 327-332 PubMed PMID: 16816829 Citation  Keywords:  Adult, Antidepressive Agents, Second-Generation:therapeutic use, Combined Modality Therapy, Double-Blind Method, Drug Resistance, Electric Stimulation Therapy:methods, Female, Humans, Male, Neuropsychological Tests, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder:therapy, .   

BACKGROUND: The goal of our study is to assess whether transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) would facilitate the effect of antidepressant in OCD patients.

METHOD: The aim of the randomized, double-blind, sham controlled study was to compare the 2 and 4 week efficacy of the 10 sessions rTMS with sham rTMS in serotonin reuptake inhibitor resistant OCD patient. Thirty three right-handed patients were randomly assigned to either active rTMS or to sham rTMS. Active rTMS with the frequency of 1 Hz at 110% of motor threshold (MT) was administered over the left dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex. The same time schedule was used for sham administration. Thirty patients finished the study, three patients' dropped out at the beginning. Psychopathology was assessed by CGI, HAMA, Y-BOCS and BAI before the treatment, immediately after the experimental treatment, and 2 weeks after the experimental treatment by an independent reviewer.

RESULTS: Both groups improved during the study period but the treatment effect did not differ between them in any of the instruments.

CONCLUSION: Low frequency rTMS administered over the left dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex during 10 daily sessions did not differ from sham rTMS in facilitating the effect of serotonin reuptake inhibitors in OCD patients....

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Journal Article 2006; 27(1-2): 209-213 PubMed PMID: 16648775 Citation  Keywords:  Adult, Double-Blind Method, Female, Humans, Male, Neuropsychological Tests, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Schizophrenia:therapy, Schizophrenic Psychology, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation,.   

: The high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (HF-rTMS) over the prefrontal cortex is a promising method for the treatment of negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Using double-blind sham-controlled parallel design, we evaluated the effect of HF-rTMS over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) on negative symptoms in patients with schizophrenia. Sixteen schizophrenia patients with predominantly negative symptoms on stable antipsychotic medication were treated with 20 Hz rTMS (90% of motor threshold, 2000 stimuli per session) over ten days within 2 weeks with six weeks follow-up. The effect was assessed using PANSS, CGI, MADRS and neuropsychological tests. We failed to find any significant effect of active rTMS. Sham rTMS showed a trend for improvement over time on positive and negative subscales of PANSS and MADRS. Between-group comparisons failed to reveal any significant differences on any rating scales except a positive subscale of PANSS after 8 weeks. Results from our study did not confirm that HF-rTMS over the left DLPCF affects the negative symptoms of schizophrenia and alternative rTMS approaches are discussed....

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Clinical Trial 2004; 25(5): 340-348 PubMed PMID: 15580167 Citation  Keywords:  Adult, Antidepressive Agents:therapeutic use, Brain Mapping, Cerebral Cortex:diagnostic imaging, Cognitive Therapy, Female, Fluorodeoxyglucose F18, Functional Laterality, Humans, Male, Neuropsychological Tests, Panic Disorder:diagnostic imaging, Positron-.   

BACKGROUND: The goal of our study was to identify brain structures in patients with panic disorder (PD) that show changes in 18FDG PET during the treatment with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) or antidepressants.

METHOD: Twelve patients suffering from panic disorder were studied with [18F]-2-fluoro-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography (18FDG PET) scanning during resting state (condition of random episodic silent thinking, REST). After PET examination patients were randomly assigned to either cognitive behavioral treatment group (6 patients) or antidepressants treatment group (6 patients). After a 3 month period 18FDG PET examination was repeated in both groups. Psychopathology was assessed using the rating scales HAMA, CGI and Panic Disorder Severity Scale (PDSS). Data were analysed using software for statistical parametric mapping (SPM99).

RESULTS: The scores of psychopathology rating scales (CGI, HAMA, PDSS) decreased in both groups. Changes of 18FDG uptake in the pharmacotherapy group: decreases were found in the a priori hypothesized regions in the right hemisphere, in the superior, middle, medial and inferior frontal gyrus, superior and middle temporal gyrus, and increases were detected in the a priori hypothesized regions, mainly in the left hemisphere in medial and middle frontal gyrus, superior, middle and transverse temporal gyrus. Changes of 18FDG uptake in the CBT group: decreases were found in the a priori hypothesized regions of the right hemisphere in the inferior temporal gyrus, superior and inferior frontal gyrus, and increases were detected in the a priori hypothesized region, mostly in the left hemisphere: inferior frontal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus and insula. We did not detect changes in 18FDG uptake in the limbic region (hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus and amygdala).

CONCLUSIONS: Changes in brain metabolism (18FDG uptake) after the treatment either with CBT or with antidepressants were similar in number of brain areas, with prominent right-left difference. This is in concordance with the asymmetry of brain activity noted in patients with PD according to previous PET (and SPECT) studies....

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