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Biomedical subjects

B Blanz

Publications and source records attributed to B Blanz.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

["If Berger had survived the second world war - he certainly would have been a candidate for the Nobel Prize". Hans Berger and the legend of the Nobel Prize].

The public opinion pays much attention to the Nobel Prize as an indicator for the scientific efficiency of a university or a country in connection with foundation of so-called elite universities. The former holder of the psychiatric chair in Jena and discoverer of the electroencephalogram Hans Berger (1873 - 1941) came into discussion as candidate for the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. The current medical-historical publications maintain the view that Berger should have received the Nobel Prize in 1936 as well as in 1949. This was prevented in 1936 by an enactment from Hitler, which forbid him to accept the prize, and later in 1949 by Berger's own death. According to documents of the Nobel archives these statements can be disproved. Berger was only nominated three times out of 65 nominations in 1940. Because of his death the other two recommendations in 1942 and 1947 were never evaluated.

Electroencephalography↗
PubMed2004

[Anxiety disorders in children and adolescents].

Anxiety disorders are among the most common psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents with estimated prevalence rates of between five and ten percent. Comorbidity rates are high--in particular for further anxiety and depressive disorders. The etiology is considered to be multifactorial, with genetic, biological and temperamental factors as well as stressful life events, parental role models and parenting all playing a part. Therapeutic programs combine psychological counseling--including the family--psychotherapy and psychopharmacotherapy, as required. As psychotherapy, cognitive-behavioral interventions have proven highly effective. In severe disorders that prevent the overcoming of complex anxiety/phobias (e.g. going to school impossible), psychopharmacotherapeutic measures can be helpful, and may support, or, in individual cases even make possible, successful psychotherapy.

Abdominal Pain↗
PubMed2004

Dyslexia: the possible benefit of multimodal integration of fMRI- and EEG-data.

Biological research about dyslexia has been conducted using various neuroimaging methods like functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) or Electroencephalography (EEG). Since language functions are characterized by both distributed network activities and speed of processing within milliseconds, high temporal as well as high spatial resolution of activation profiles are of interest: "where" can dyslexia specific activations be detected and "when" do language processes start to diverge between dyslexics and controls? Due to the network character of language processing, fMRI-constrained distributed source models based on EEG-data were computed for multimodal data integration. First single-case results show that this method could be a promising approach for the understanding of a repeatedly described experimental finding for dyslexia like that of an overactivation in inferior frontal language areas. Multimodal data analysis for the subjects presented here could probably demonstrate that inferior frontal overactivations are the consequence of a phonological deficit and could represent ongoing articulation processes used to solve phonologically challenging tasks.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

[31P-MR spectroscopy of the brain in patients with anorexia nervosa: characteristic differences in the spectra between patients and healthy control subjects].

PURPOSE: To investigate whether 31 P-MR spectroscopy can detect reduced concentrations of high-energy phosphates, like PCr and NTP, caused by decreased metabolic activity in the brain of patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) and, furthermore, whether any impairment of the cerebral membrane metabolism can be derived from the spectra. MATERIAL AND METHODS: 10 female patients, age range 12 - 20 years and mean BMI (body mass index) of 14.8 +/- 1.6 kg/m 2, with clinically diagnosed AN (ICD-10, F50.0) and 10 healthy control subjects, age range 12 - 21 years and mean BMI 19.0 +/- 2.1 kg/m 2, without nutritional disturbances: were investigated. 31P-MR spectroscopy was performed with a 1.5 T MRI unit using single volume selection in the frontal/prefrontal region of brain. Relative metabolic concentrations were quantified by normalizing the peak areas of the metabolites with the total area of the complete phosphorous spectrum, P tot, as well as with the peak area of beta-NTP. RESULTS: Significant differences between the two groups were observed for the metabolic ratios PDE/P tot, PDE/beta-NTP and alpha-NTP/P tot which were lower in the patient group except for alpha-NTP/P tot. These ratios also revealed a statistically significant correlation with the BMI (r PDE/Ptot = 0.747, r PDE/beta-NTP = 0.57, r alpha-NTP/Ptot = -0.56; p </= 0.1). Reduced relative concentrations of PCr/P tot, beta-NTP/P tot or Pi/P tot were not encountered. CONCLUSION: The lowered PDE/P tot ratio for patients with AN and its correlation with BMI suggests that decreased BMI induces compositional changes of the phospholipids in the brain, which decrease the fraction of mobile phospholipids.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

31P-MR spectroscopy in children and adolescents with a familial risk of schizophrenia.

Based on a previous report [9] on alterations of membrane phosphorus metabolism in asymptomatic family members of schizophrenic patients, the aim of the present study was to extend and improve the evaluation and data processing of (31)P spectroscopic data obtained from a larger study population by including an analysis of the broad spectral component (BC) of membrane phospholipids (PL). Eighteen children and siblings of patients with schizophrenia and a gender- and age-matched control group of 18 healthy subjects without familial schizophrenia were investigated with phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopy ((31)P-MRS) by using image selected in vivo spectroscopy (ISIS) in the dorsolateral prefrontal regions (DLPFR) of the brain. Spectral analysis was performed by using both the full and truncated FID to estimate metabolic peak ratios of different (31)P metabolites and the intensity and linewidth of the broad component. A significantly higher PDE level (p<0.01) and increased linewidth of the PDE components were observed for the high-risk group compared with the control group (p=0.02). No significant differences were observed for PME as well as for other (31)P-metabolites. No differences were observed between the left and right hemispheres for different normalised (31)P-metabolic levels. Decreased intensities (p=0.03) and smaller linewidths (p=0.01) were obtained for the broad component in the high-risk group. Impairments of membrane metabolism that are typical for schizophrenic patients are partially observed in adolescent asymptomatic family members of schizophrenics, including increased levels of low molecular PDE compounds indicating increased membrane degradation processes, no changes for PME, and decreased intensities and linewidths of the BC indicating changes in the composition and fluidity of membrane phospholipids. Despite limitations to completely suppress fast-relaxing components by dismissing initial FID data points, the spectroscopic results indicate additional changes in the membrane metabolism of high-risk subjects beyond changes of synthesis and degradation.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

[Theodor Ziehen as child and adolescent psychiatrist. A belated commemoration on the 50th anniversary of his death].

OBJECTIVE: The 50th anniversary of the death of Theodor Ziehen was on December 29, 2000. As this occasion passed without fanfare, it is the authors' intent to recollect his importance in the field of child and adolescent psychiatry. METHODS: A short description of his life and an evaluation of his scientific work is presented based on earlier publications. RESULTS: Ziehen (1862-1950) was an extraordinarily versatile scholar. He is regarded as a great psychiatrist, psychologist and philosopher, as well as one of the founding fathers of child psychiatry. He began work on developmental psychiatry in Jena, publishing his first article "Association Psychology in Childhood" in 1898. He worked in close collaboration with the educators Rein and Trüper. In 1902 the first part of his book "Mental Diseases in Childhood" was published, followed by further publications in 1904 and 1906. These volumes are regarded as the second most important in child psychiatry in Germany. His work is the first systematic and almost complete compendium in this field. Ziehen introduced the medical terms "affective psychosis" and "psychopathic constitution" to psychiatric literature. He also worked in the fields of medical education and education.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

[Thrombocytic serotonin concentration in depressed children and adolescents].

OBJECTIVES: This study pursued the question to what extent a correlation exists between the platelet serotonin concentration and depressive and/or suicidal behaviour in children and adolescents. METHODS: Within a 16-month period, the platelet serotonin concentration was determined in all admitted inpatients (n = 145, age: 4 to 19 years) by means of fluorescent spectroscopy according to a standardised protocol. The severity of depressive symptoms was assessed by administration of the DIKJ to a subset of patients. The different diagnostic groups were formed according to the criteria of the ICD-10. RESULTS: A decrease in the platelet serotonin concentration was found with increasing age. While platelet serotonin concentrations were higher in male patients than in females, the girls showed higher depression scores on the DIKJ. A negative correlation existed between the platelet serotonin concentration and the degree of depression measured on the DIKJ in all diagnostic groups. Independent of the clinical diagnosis significantly lower concentrations of platelet serotonin were found in children and adolescents who had attempted suicide immediately before admission to hospital. The same is true for the group of depressive disorders, with a subgroup of patients who had attempted suicide shortly before also showing significantly lower concentrations of platelet serotonin. CONCLUSIONS: The present investigation supports the contention that depression in childhood and adolescence is related to a lack of serotonin in platelets, respectively, analogous to the platelet model, to a lack of serotonin in central structures, and that a relative serotonin deficiency could thus be an indicator of suicidal ideation.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

Pitfalls in the clustering of neuroimage data and improvements by global optimization strategies.

In this paper, we examined three vector quantization (VQ) methods used for the unsupervised classification (clustering) of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. Classification means that each brain volume element (voxel), according to a given scanning raster, was assigned to one group of voxels based on similarity of the fMRI signal patterns. It was investigated how the VQ methods can isolate a cluster that describes the region involved in a particular brain function. As an example, word processing was stimulated by a word comparison task. VQ analysis methodology was verified using simulated fMRI response patterns. It was demonstrated in detail that VQ based on global rather than local optimization of the objective function yielded a higher performance. Performance was measured in statistically relevant series of VQ attempts using several indices for goodness, reliability and efficiency of VQ solutions. Furthermore, it was shown that a poor local optimization caused either an underestimation or an overestimation of the stimulus-induced brain activation. However, this was not observed if the cluster analysis was based upon a global optimization strategy.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Effectiveness of home treatment in children and adolescents with externalizing psychiatric disorders.

OBJECTIVE: The study examines effectiveness of home treatment in children and adolescents with severe externalizing behavior disorders. METHODS: Fifty patients with ICD-10 diagnosis F90, F91, or F92 aged 5-16 years were treated in a home treatment setting for 3.5 months. Assessments were made using multiple informants (patients, parents, therapists, supervisors, and clinicians not involved in the treatment) to evaluate psychiatric symptoms, various aspects of psychosocial functioning, and global treatment outcome. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Findings showed a significant decrease in psychiatric symptoms and improvement in psychosocial adjustment. Positive treatment effects were seen in almost every area of social functioning. The child's compliance and the therapist's professionalism were found to be the most important predictors of treatment outcome. Findings suggest that extent of achieved home treatment effects in externalizing disorders is similar to that in internalizing disorders.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

[Risk for schizophrenia and diagnostic image of cerebral membrane metabolism].

In recent years neurobiological research on the etiology of schizophrenia has became increasingly important. In terms of a vulnerability-stress model, structural and functional cerebral alterations in schizophrenics and subjects with a genetic risk for schizophrenia are presented together with hypotheses for disturbances of neurodevelopment or neurodegeneration developed from these implications. A detailed description follows of a neurobiochemical paradigm on the disturbance of metabolism of membrane-phospholipids. 31Phosphorous Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy allows the detection of indicators of this possible endo-phenotype. The possibilities and limitations of this method are explained, as are findings up to the present. Finally, it is discussed that specific pre-, peri- and postnatal influences on the cerebral metabolism of lipids, and thus on cerebral development, may be related to structural and functional cerebral changes in schizophrenia.

Biomarkers↗
PubMed2001

Cerebral phosphate metabolism in first-degree relatives of patients with schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE: Most phosphorus-31 magnetic resonance spectroscopy ((31)P-MRS) studies have described measures of lower membrane anabolism or greater catabolism in the frontal lobes of patients with schizophrenia. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate whether these findings can also be detected in young subjects at genetic risk for schizophrenia. METHOD: Fourteen children and siblings of patients with schizophrenia (mean age=16.7 years) and 14 comparison subjects (mean age=16.9 years) were included in a (31)P-MRS study of the frontal lobe. RESULTS: The high-risk subjects had significantly lower mean ratios of phosphomonoesters to phosphodiesters (0.25 versus 0.31) and higher mean phosphodiester values (37.59% versus 34.87%) than comparison subjects. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest greater phospholipid breakdown even in young first-degree relatives of patients with schizophrenia. This suggestion is discussed with respect to the membrane phospholipid hypothesis of schizophrenia.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

The psychosocial outcome of adolescent-onset schizophrenia: a 12-year followup.

This study examines the educational/occupational outcome and social situation of patients treated for schizophrenia in adolescence (age at admission 11.5-17.9 years; mean 16.0 years). Out of 96 consecutively admitted patients between 1976 and 1987, 85 (89%) could be traced and 65 (68%) were reassessed more than 10 years after the first episode. At followup, 54 of the 65 (83%) had had at least one further inpatient-treated episode and 48 (74%) were receiving psychiatric treatment. Thirty-seven (57%) of the subjects were at least moderately impaired with respect to vocational functions (i.e., did not achieve their premorbid educational/occupational goals). Serious social disability was found in 42 (66%) of the 64 subjects for whom social disability data were available. Regarding means of maintenance, 49 (75%) were financially dependent, supported by parents or public assistance. Impairments were comparable for males and females. History of treatment (longer duration of inpatient stay; more than two inpatient episodes) was found to be predictive of lower vocational functioning at followup. Severity of positive symptoms and more than two inpatient episodes in the early course of illness predicted social disabilities in young adulthood. Findings support the view that, because of early onset, the long-term perspective for many adolescent-onset schizophrenia patients is that of poor social adjustment, severe functional impairment, and high socioeconomic dependence and suggest that consequences are more severe than in adult-onset schizophrenia.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed2000

Clinical and medico-legal aspects of home-based care by nurses as an alternative for inpatient treatment in child and adolescent psychiatry.

Increasing economic restrictions in the supply of inpatient care require the establishment of alternative treatment modalities also in the field of child and adolescent psychiatry. Therefore, home-treatment offers the possibility of effective interventions in the natural environment of the severely disturbed child and its family. In our study practical implementation of therapy was in the hands of nurses specializing in child and adolescent psychiatry. Various aspects of their therapeutic work with disordered children are focussed. Specific characteristics and problems of home-treatment-including interventions in the patient's psychosocial surroundings--are illuminated from the nurse's point of view.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

Preconditions and outcome of inpatient treatment in child and adolescent psychiatry.

Inpatient care is expensive and should ideally be provided for children and adolescents with the most serious psychiatric disorders. However, only little is known about inpatient treatment, e.g. the factors influencing hospital admission, the content of care in the hospital, the appropriate norms for the duration of inpatient stays, the inpatient arrangements that result in the best outcomes, or connection with necessary aftercare services. There are many methodological problems with existing research. However, it can cautiously be concluded that psychiatric hospitalisation of children and adolescents is often beneficial, particularly if special aspects of treatment are fulfilled (e.g. good therapeutic alliance, treatment with a cognitive-based problem-solving skills training package, or planned discharge) and aftercare services are available. The continuum-of-care model is promising because it provides opportunities to achieve better integration between inpatient interventions and aftercare services.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

fMRI during word processing in dyslexic and normal reading children.

The present study addresses phonological processing in children with developmental dyslexia. Following the hypothesis of a core deficit of assembled phonology in dyslexia a set of hierarchically structured tasks was applied that specifically control for different kinds of phonological coding (assembled versus addressed phonological strategies). Seventeen developmental dyslexics and 17 normal reading children were scanned during four different tasks: (1) passive viewing of letter strings (control condition), (2) passive reading of non-words, (3) passive reading of legal words, and (4) a task requiring phonological transformation. Statistical analysis of the data was performed using statistical parametric mapping (SPM96). Comparison of patterns of activation in dyslexic and normal reading children revealed significant differences in Broca's area and the left inferior temporal region for both, non-word reading and the phonological transformation task. The present data provide new evidence for alteration of the phonological system in dyslexic children, and in particular, the system that mediates assembled phonological coding.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

[The hyperkinetic child in ambulatory care. Therapeutic strategies for long-term care].

Children with a hyperkinetic disorder (attention deficit, hyperactivity, impulsiveness) should be diagnosed early in order to avoid difficulties in the family and with friends, and, in particular at school, and thus to positively influence the child's development. The present article discusses the definition, course, accompanying disorders and appropriate forms of treatment. Most important for outpatient treatment is the multimodal approach, in which various forms of therapy for the children and their families are integrated. Adequate outpatient treatment facilities must be made available in order to induce the children and their families to undergo long-term treatment.

Adolescent↗