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Biomedical subjects

A Spirito

Publications and source records attributed to A Spirito.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2002

Synthesis and biological evaluation of a novel pyroglutamyl-modified TRH analogue.

The TRH analogue 3, incorporating the (S)-isothiazolidine-1,1-dioxide-3-carboxylic acid (1) moiety in place of the native L-pyroglutamic acid (pGlu) residue, has been synthesized and fully characterized by 1H and 13C NMR. The effects of replacing pGlu with its sulphonamido counterpart on biological activity have been investigated. This peptide, which is significantly stabilized towards hydrolysis by pyroglutamyl peptidase type I (PP I, EC 3.4.19.3), has shown to maintain in vitro prolactin-releasing activity.

Animals↗
PubMed2001

Risks associated with alcohol-positive status among adolescents in the emergency department: a matched case-control study.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to examine alcohol use, alcohol-related problems, other risk-taking behaviors, and parental monitoring in adolescents who tested positive for alcohol in an emergency department. STUDY DESIGN: A matched case-control design was implemented for adolescents presenting to a pediatric emergency department who were screened for alcohol use. An alcohol-positive sample (N = 150) was compared with a matched alcohol-negative sample (N = 150) for alcohol use, alcohol problems, depression, smoking, risk-taking behavior, and parental monitoring. RESULTS: The alcohol-positive group reported significantly higher drinking frequency, drinking problems, prior alcohol-related injuries, and episodes of driving after drinking and riding with a drinking driver than the alcohol-negative adolescents. The same pattern was true for depressed mood, reckless behaviors, poor grades in school, and daily smoking. The parents of alcohol-positive teens reported their teens had come home intoxicated more often than parents of alcohol-negative teens. There were no differences between parent groups in monitoring of teens. CONCLUSION: Adolescents who test positive for alcohol in an emergency department are a high-risk group who meet the criteria for indicated prevention. Screening for alcohol abuse is recommended.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

Multimethod assessment of suicidality in adolescent psychiatric inpatients: preliminary results.

OBJECTIVE: To examine agreement among multiple assessments of adolescent suicidal ideation and suicidal behavior for adolescent psychiatric inpatients, including pencil/paper checklists; structured and unstructured interviews; and adolescent, clinician, and parent reports, and to provide suggestions for the accurate and reliable assessment of suicidality in adolescence. METHOD: Participants included 153 adolescent psychiatric inpatients (54 boys, 99 girls) between the ages of 12 and 17 years. Measurement of suicidal ideation and behavior included common assessment instruments and standard clinical practices, including the Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire, NIMH Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children, clinician interview, and parent report (Behavior Assessment Scale for Children). RESULTS: Results revealed significantly different rates of suicidality across each instrument and poor to moderate agreement between similar measures of adolescent suicidal ideation and suicidal behavior. Agreement between measures was generally best for boys, for older adolescents, and for assessments relying on a single informant. Reporters were most likely to agree on the presence of suicidality for more severely suicidal adolescents; this finding suggests that agreement in itself may be a useful marker for adolescent suicide. CONCLUSIONS: Results of this preliminary study supported the use of multiple measurement approaches when examining adolescent suicidality, particularly those that rely on clinician judgment and adolescents' own reports. Implications for future research and for clinical practice are also discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

Self-mutilative behavior in adolescents who attempt suicide by overdose.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the cognitive/affective and behavioral symptoms of adolescent suicide attempters with self-mutilative behavior (SMB). METHOD: Adolescents evaluated after a suicide attempt that occurred between 1996 and 2000 were divided into two groups: suicide attempters with a history of SMB (n = 52) and suicide attempters without SMB (n = 43). The groups were then compared on psychiatric diagnosis, suicide intent, depression, hopelessness, loneliness, anger, reckless behavior, substance use, and family functioning. RESULTS: Carving on the skin and picking at a wound were the most commonly reported SMBs, occurring in about one third of the sample. The SMB group was significantly more likely to be diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder, major depression, and dysthymia and had higher scores on measures of hopelessness, loneliness, anger, risk taking, reckless behavior, and alcohol use than did the non-SMB group. Loneliness increased the odds of SMB almost 6-fold. CONCLUSIONS: Adolescent suicide attempts with SMB are associated with greater cognitive/affective and behavioral symptoms. Adolescent suicide attempters should be routinely screened for SMB.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

The Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ): psychometric properties of a survey instrument for school-aged children.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To present psychometric data on a comprehensive, parent-report sleep screening instrument designed for school-aged children, the Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ). The CSHQ yields both a total score and eight subscale scores, reflecting key sleep domains that encompass the major medical and behavioral sleep disorders in this age group. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. SETTING: Three elementary schools in New England, a pediatric sleep disorders clinic in a children's teaching hospital. PARTICIPANTS: Parents of 469 school-aged children, aged 4 through 10 years (community sample), and parents of 154 patients diagnosed with sleep disorders in a pediatric sleep clinic completed the CSHQ. INTERVENTIONS: N/A. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: The CSHQ showed adequate internal consistency for both the community sample (p=0.68) and the clinical sample (p=0.78); alpha coefficients for the various subscales of the CSHQ ranged from 0.36 (Parasomnias) to 0.70 (Bedtime Resistance) for the community sample, and from 0.56 (Parasomnias) to 0.93 (Sleep-Disordered Breathing) for the sleep clinic group. Test-retest reliability was acceptable (range 0.62 to 0.79). CSHQ individual items, as well as the subscale and total scores were able to consistently differentiate the community group from the sleep-disordered group, demonstrating validity. A cut-off total CSHQ score of 41 generated by analysis of the Receiver Operator Characteristic Curve (ROC) correctly yielded a sensitivity of 0.80 and specificity of 0.72. CONCLUSIONS: The CSHQ appears to be a useful sleep screening instrument to identify both behaviorally based and medically-based sleep problems in school-aged children.

Child↗
PubMed2000

The clinical presentation of childhood partial arousal parasomnias.

Objectives: The goal of the current study was to compare the sleep characteristics of children diagnosed with a partial arousal parasomnia to a community sample and further, to compare children diagnosed with sleep terrors to those diagnosed with sleepwalking.Background: Many children experience frightened awakenings, with up to 15% meeting criteria for a parasomnia. Despite this, very little empirical data exists examining parasomnias in childhood.Method: The parents of children (between 2 and 12 years of age) referred to a pediatric sleep disorders clinic completed the Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSH) on their child. The group meeting criteria for partial parasomnia was then matched with a community sample to identify differences in sleep characteristics between children with parasomnias and a normative sample.Results: Children with parasomnias had higher rates of bedtime resistance, sleep onset delay, night waking, and reduced sleep duration than a matched community sample. Sleepwalkers had more sleep onset problems than children with sleep terrors. Almost one quarter of sleepwalkers between 3 and 12 years of age reported nocturnal enuresis.Conclusions: Children with partial arousal parasomnias do have slightly more disturbed sleep than community controls.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2000

Hypotaurine protection on cell damage by singlet oxygen.

Singlet oxygen (1O2), generated by irradiating methylene blue, is toxic to melanoma cell cultures. Hypotaurine is known to scavenge efficiently singlet oxygen; the addition of hypotaurine (800 microM) to the medium during irradiation of the dye produces a greater protective effect on cells than taurine added at the same concentration. The assay of some detoxifying enzymatic activities indicate a different mechanism of protection of the two molecules: taurine induces an efficient detoxifying enzymatic action with respect to the control; hypotaurine exerts its effect greatly by specifically scavenging singlet oxygen.

Antioxidants↗
PubMed2000

Adolescent motor vehicle crashes: the relationship between behavioral factors and self-reported injury.

PURPOSE: To examine the relative importance of demographic and behavioral factors, as well as alcohol use, in motor vehicle crash (MVC)-related injuries in an adolescent sample. METHODS: Data were collected from two samples of adolescents. In Study 1, a total of 1576 9th through 12th graders from three different high schools provided information on risk-taking behavior and injuries experienced during the previous six months. Study 2 involved a more fine-grained analysis of behavioral factors related to MVC-related injuries. A sample of 573 adolescent males from an all-boys parochial high school completed questionnaires assessing risk-taking, attention and behavior problems, alcohol use, driving behavior, and self-reported injury. RESULTS: Rates of self-reported MVC-related injuries for a 6-month period were consistent across the two studies, ranging from 10% in the mixed-gender sample to 16% in the all-male sample. Consistent with previous findings, males reported more frequent MVC-related injuries and higher rates of risk-taking behavior. In Study 1, age and risk-taking behaviors were predictive of injuries while riding or driving in a car. In the all-male sample, risk-taking behavior and conduct problems were significant predictors of MVC-related injuries. CONCLUSIONS: Risk-taking is a consistent predictor of both general and MVC-related injuries. Intervention efforts with adolescents may be targeted at increasing safe driving strategies as well as decreasing risk-taking behaviors.

Accidents, Traffic↗
PubMed2000

The role of perfectionism and depressive cognitions in understanding the hopelessness experienced by adolescent suicide attempters.

This study examined the relation of two cognitive variables, depressive cognitions and perfectionism, to the hopelessness experienced by adolescent suicide attempters. Adolescent suicide attempters (N = 68) were administered three measures assessing cognitive characteristics commonly associated with adolescent suicidal behavior: the Child and Adolescent Perfectionism Scale (CAPS), the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire for Adolescents (DEQ-A), and the Hopelessness Scale for Children (HSC). Socially prescribed perfectionism on the CAPS and self-criticism on the DEQ-A were both highly correlated with HSC. Regression analyses indicated that perfectionism was significantly related to hopelessness, but this relationship was attenuated after the effects of depressive cognitions on hopelessness were controlled. Self-criticism was the cognitive variable most strongly associated with hopelessness suggesting that it is a more important focus for cognitive interventions in adolescent suicide attempters than perfectionism.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

Personality characteristics of adolescent suicide attempters.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to explore both the personality characteristics and the symptoms of personality disorder of adolescent suicide attempters, as well as the relationship between personality variables and hopelessness in this population. METHOD: Two sample populations were used in this study. First, 102 adolescent suicide attempters between 13 and 18 years of age completed the Millon Adolescent Personality Inventory (MAPI) and the Hopelessness Scale for Children (HSC). A second group of 35 adolescent suicide attempters were administered the HSC and the revised Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines (DIB). RESULTS: No distinctive personality characteristics or symptoms of personality disorders were found. However, affective distress seemed to be the most prominent feature in the presentation of these adolescents. Additionally, high scores on the HSC were associated with elevated scores on the Personality Style scales of the MAPI and higher (more dysfunctional) scores on Affect Regulation on the DIB. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that clinicians should focus most on the personality characteristic of sensitivity and on affect regulation when assessing adolescent suicide attempters. In addition, hopelessness is important to systematically assess because it appears to be related to a variety of dysfunctional personality characteristics that may affect follow-up outcome.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

Patterns of children's coping with life stress: implications for clinicians.

In a study of children's patterns of coping with daily stressors, boys and girls 9-17 years old were asked to complete a coping checklist in response to one of four types of stressors--school, parents/family, siblings, or peer/interpersonal. Patterns of coping-strategy use were found to be similar across the various stressors, with wishful thinking, problem-solving, and emotional regulation being among those most frequently used. Older adolescents, compared to younger children, tended to use a broader range of coping strategies, regardless of stressor. Implications for clinical practice are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2000

Adolescent risk taking and self-reported injuries associated with substance use.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the incidence of adolescent substance use at the time of injury and its relation to risk-taking behavior. METHOD: A total of 643 male and 782 female 9th through 12th grade students at three high schools anonymously completed surveys on any injuries that had occurred in the prior 6 months associated with substance use and risk-taking behavior. RESULTS: Males reported a higher incidence of injuries related to alcohol or other drugs than females (17.3% vs. 13%). The 17 year olds reported more injuries related to substance use than 14 or 15 year olds (20.2% vs. 14.4% and 15%, respectively). A logistic regression analysis revealed that the odds of a substance use-related injury increased approximately sixfold when adolescents reported engaging in risk-taking behavior. CONCLUSION: A significant portion of adolescents (approximately 15%) reported injuries associated with substance use. Adolescents who reported a history of risk-taking behaviors were much more likely to report substance use-related injuries.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

Sleep habits and sleep disturbance in elementary school-aged children.

Relatively little is known about sleep habits, sleep disturbances, and the consequences of disordered sleep in school-aged children. This descriptive study examined a variety of common sleep behaviors in a group of 494 elementary school children, grades kindergarten through fourth, using a battery of sleep questionnaires that included parent, teacher, and self-report surveys. The prevalence of parent-defined sleep problems ranged from 3.7% (Sleep-Disordered Breathing) to 15.1% (Bedtime Resistance), with 37% of the overall sample described as having significant sleep problems in at least one sleep domain. Younger children were more likely than older children to have sleep problems noted by parents (particularly bedtime struggles and night wakings), as well as by teacher and self-report. Children tended to identify more sleep problems by self-report, particularly sleep-onset delay and night wakings, than did their parents. Overall, approximately 10% of the sample was identified by all three measures as having significant problems with daytime sleepiness. The results of this study emphasize the importance of screening for sleep disorders in this age group in the clinical setting. The need for consensus regarding the use of sleep screening instruments and the definition of "problem" sleep in school-aged children is also discussed.

Child↗
PubMed2000

Peer functioning, family dysfunction, and psychological symptoms in a risk factor model for adolescent inpatients' suicidal ideation severity.

Examined models of suicidal ideation severity that include two psychosocial risk factors (i.e., peer and family functioning) and four domains of psychological symptoms (i.e., generalized anxiety, depression, conduct problems, and substance abuse/dependence). Participants were 96 psychiatric inpatients (32 boys, 64 girls), ages 12 to 17, who were hospitalized because of concerns of suicidality. Adolescents completed a structured diagnostic interview, measures of suicidal ideation, and several dimensions of family and peer functioning. Results supported a model in which greater levels of perceived peer rejection and lower levels of close friendship support were associated directly with more severe suicidal ideation. In addition, indirect pathways included deviant peer affiliation and global family dysfunction related to suicidal ideation via substance use and depression symptoms. The results are among the first to demonstrate relations between suicidal ideation and several areas of adolescent peer functioning, as well as divergent processes for peer and family predictors of suicidal ideation.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

Screening adolescents for problem drinking: performance of brief screens against DSM-IV alcohol diagnoses.

OBJECTIVE: The performance of three brief screens, the CAGE, TWEAK and Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), was evaluated against a DSM-IV diagnosis of alcohol abuse or dependence in an adolescent sample. METHOD: Adolescents (13-19 years old) who presented to an emergency department for treatment of an injury, and who tested negative for blood alcohol concentration at time of admission, were administered a structured diagnostic interview and modified versions of the CAGE, TWEAK and AUDIT. RESULTS: Of the 415 adolescents for whom complete data were available, 18% met criteria for a DSM-IV alcohol use disorder according to the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (version 2.3). Teens who reported alcohol use in the last year (n = 261, 58% male, 71% white) were included in analyses that compared the performance of the three screening instruments. Receiver Operating Characteristic analysis indicated that the AUDIT demonstrated the best performance across the range of its cut-scores, with optimal performance at a cut-score of 4. The TWEAK performed optimally at a cut-score of 2 and the CAGE at a cut-score of 1. CONCLUSIONS: Routine alcohol screening among adolescents seen in a hospital setting is indicated. Two important directions for future research include the identification of adolescent-specific alcohol screening items, and the validation of an adolescent-specific definition of problem drinking that addresses limitations of DSM-IV alcohol diagnoses when applied to adolescents.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

psi(SO2NH) transition state isosteres of peptides. Synthesis and bioactivity of sulfonamido pseudopeptides related to carnosine.

This paper reports the synthesis of tauryl dipeptides related to carnosine. In particular H-Tau-His-OH (5), H-Tau-His(pi-Me)-OH (6) and H-Tau-His(tau-Me)-OH (9) are described. The enzyme carnosinase has been isolated from pig kidney and after purification has been used to test the stability and the inhibitory activity of the three new analogues. H-Tau-His-OH (5) and H-Tau-His(tau-Me)-OH (9) were found to possess weak inhibitory properties towards carnosinase, while H-Tau-His(pi-Me)-OH (6) proved to be devoid of any significant activity. All the three sulfonamido pseudopeptides 5, 6 and 9 show stability to carnosinase activity.

Carnosine↗
PubMed1999

D-cystathionine ketimine and L-cystathionine ketimine enhance superoxide generation by human neutrophils in a different manner.

The effects of d-cystathionine ketimine (D-CK) and l-cystathionine ketimine (L-CK) on the stimulus-induced superoxide generation by human neutrophils were compared. When the cells were preincubated with D-CK, the superoxide generation induced by arachidonic acid (AA), phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA), and N-formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (fMLP) were enhanced, showing a dependence on D-CK concentration. The rate of enhancement by D-CK was AA > PMA > fMLP. On the contrary, L-CK largely enhanced the fMLP-induced superoxide generation, whereas it showed no effect on those induced by AA and PMA. The superoxide generations induced by AA and PMA in the D-CK-treated cells were suppressed by staurosporine, while those in the L-CK-treated cells were not affected. Genistein suppressed the fMLP-induced superoxide generation in the L-CK-treated cells more efficiently than that in the D-CK-treated cells. D-CK enhanced seryl phosphorylation of 16. 5-kDa protein in human neutrophils, while L-CK enhanced tyrosyl phosphorylation of 45-kDa protein.

1-(5-Isoquinolinesulfonyl)-2-Methylpiperazine↗