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C L Cazzullo

Publications and source records attributed to C L Cazzullo.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

The brain damage hypothesis of the seasonality of births in schizophrenia and major affective disorders: evidence from computerised tomography.

Although the excess of schizophrenic births in the winter and early spring has been replicated and some non-conclusive work supports the same seasonal birth trend in patients with major affective disorders, the aetiopathogenetic foundations of this phenomenon remain uncertain. The primary role of perinatal seasonal factors that predispose to the development of schizophrenia via induction of brain damage has been invoked, as has a tendency for patients to conceive during the spring and early summer. In order to test these two hypotheses, cerebral ventricular size and cortical atrophy in 206 schizophrenics and 107 patients with major affective disorders were assessed by CT and analysed in relation to month of birth. Compared with schizophrenics born during the remainder of the year, those born between December and April, particularly in cases lacking a family history of schizophrenia, showed increased chances for ventricular enlargement, but not for cortical atrophy. No association between season of birth and central or cortical atrophy was found for patients with major affective disorders. This suggests that the brain-damaging effect played by perinatal seasonal factors has both a disease and an anatomical specificity.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Expressed emotion and schizophrenia in Italy. A study of an urban population.

Forty-two schizophrenic patients and their close relatives took part in an Italian replication study of expressed emotion (EE). The patients were selected from the psychiatric ward of a general hospital in Milan and were subsequently followed up for nine months. All patients attended a community service clinic as out-patients, and all but one were prescribed neuroleptics for the duration of the study. Relatives were assigned to the high-EE group if they scored 4 or 5 on the emotional overinvolvement (EOI) scale, or showed hostility, or made six or more critical comments. On this basis, 18 (42%) families were rated as low EE and 24 (57%) as high EE. At follow-up, the admission rate for the 9-month period was significantly higher for the high-EE group (P less than 0.05). Furthermore, significantly fewer patients were readmitted from families showing high warmth (P less than 0.05). The presence of high warmth appeared to be associated with a lower admission rate, even in high-EE families.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

CD4+ lymphocyte subsets in the cerebrospinal fluid of multiple sclerosis and non-inflammatory neurological diseases.

We studied paired cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and peripheral blood (PB) samples from 18 inactive multiple sclerosis (MS) patients and 10 with non-inflammatory neurological diseases. By means of a dual-colour cytofluorimetric micromethod we were able to count 1500 cells on average in each CSF sample. We found a significant reduction of CD45RA+ and CD4+CD45RA+ cells in the CSF of MS patients. Similarly, CD45RA+ and CD4+CD45RA+ CSF/PB ratios were lower compared with controls. The reduction of suppressor-inducer T-cells did not correlate with CD8+ cell levels in the CSF. The CD4+ subset ratio (CD4+CD45RA-/CD4+CD45RA+) was significantly increased in the CSF of MS patients. Our data suggest that the reduction of CD4+CD45RA+ cells in the PB is not due to a segregation of such cells in the CSF. Conversely, CSF changes reflect changes in the PB similar to these found for other T-cell subsets.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Emotional profiles of families with a heart-operated patient: a pilot study.

Family interaction is a basic factor in determining the quality of life of patients undergoing heart surgery. The present study investigates the emotional attitudes in the relatives of 10 heart-operated patients. The results indicate that a high amount of relatives' emotional overinvolvement and warmth tends toward a correlation with lower anxiety and depression scores, and with a better 12-month outcome of the illness.

Anxiety↗
PubMed1991

CT scan abnormalities and outcome of chronic schizophrenia.

The authors evaluated the relationship between brain morphological characteristics assessed by means of computerized tomography and the 2-year clinical and social outcomes of 18 patients with chronic schizophrenia. Cerebral structural abnormalities, especially cortical atrophy, were associated with a poorer outcome in several areas of clinical and social functioning.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Decrease of CD4+CD45+ T-cells in chronic-progressive multiple sclerosis.

Circulating lymphocyte subpopulations defined by anti-CD45 and other more common T-cell-specific monoclonal antibodies were analysed in 77 patients with multiple sclerosis and 38 healthy controls. A selective decrease of CD4+CD45+ cell percentages and absolute numbers in chronic-progressive patients was found; in 13 out of 26 patients this subpopulation was less than 11% CD4+CD45+ cells. Similarly, the whole CD45+ cell subset, as well as CD45+ cells expressed as percentages of CD4+ cells, were significantly reduced in chronic-progressive multiple sclerosis. CD4+CD45+ cells, commonly termed "inducer of suppression" T-lymphocytes, did not correlate with percentages or numbers of CD8+ cells. It is concluded that suppressor inducer T-cells act on the CD8+ subset function rather than reducing CD8+ cell numbers. Since CD4+CD45+ cells represent an early stage of lymphocyte maturation (naive T-cells), an under-representation of this subpopulation in active multiple sclerosis might reflect an increased conversion of naive cells into memory cells. This concept may be relevant for a better understanding of the disease pathogenesis.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Multimodality evoked potentials in HIV infected subjects: a longitudinal study.

18 subjects with symptomless HIV infection were investigated with multimodal evoked potentials for possible CNS involvement and again after an 8-12 month interval. 13 subjects showed neuropsychological changes, which were confirmed at the second examination. The 5 subjects found normal remained so at the second examination. On WAIS assessment the only patient to earn pathological scores was the one with the greatest evoked potentials changes. Thus the evoked potentials procedure proved capable of identifying early CNS involvement by HIV infection.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Epilepsy in multiple sclerosis.

In a series of 2,353 multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, 40 subjects presented seizures, with an overall prevalence of 1.70%. The prevalence was 2.33% (34/1,459) in definite MS cases, 0.58 in probable cases (3/518), 0.79 in possible cases (3/376). Twenty-six patients were females, 14 were males. In 13 cases, epilepsy had begun before MS onset; in 4 patients, the two diseases started contemporarily; in 23 patients, epilepsy followed MS onset. No relationship was found between frequency of seizures and course of MS nor between frequency of seizures and MS severity. In 12 patients, magnetic resonance imaging was performed: plaques adjacent to the cerebral cortex were found in 3 cases. The electroencephalogram showed paroxysmal discharges in 11 patients (focal in 2, diffuse in 9). Slow theta and/or delta activity was found in 15 patients (focal in 7, diffuse in 6, both focal and diffuse in 2). The EEG was normal in 14 patients. Possible etiological factors other than MS were recognized in 4 patients only: cranial trauma in 3, meningitis in 1. Our study on a large MS population confirms that MS is associated to a risk for epilepsy higher than that of the general population.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Psychopathologic features among drug addicts and homosexuals with HIV infection.

Personal and familial psychopathological histories and information about early losses were collected and the results of the locus of control test and tests for psychological responses were determined for a series of ninety-two HIV-infected subjects (58 drug addicts; 26 homosexuals; 8 heterosexuals, partners of drug addicts). A higher percentage of drug addicts reported past histories of attempted suicide than the homosexuals. Early loss events were more frequent for homosexuals than for drug addicts. There was a higher psychopathological risk for asymptomatic HIV seropositivity in homosexuals, drug addicts who had attempted suicide, subjects that acknowledged that they have serious illness and subjects with external coping mechanisms rather than internal.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

HTLVI antibodies in multiple sclerosis and other neurological diseases.

The sera and the CSFs from 157 Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients and 43 other neurological diseases (OND) cases have been evaluated for the presence of HTLVI antibodies. A commercial passive agglutination assay (PPA), an indirect fluorescence assay (IFA), and a Western Immunoblotting (WIB) performed in our laboratories have been employed. No OND samples showed HTLVI antibodies, while 14 sera and 1 CSF from MS patients resulted positive by PPA and 4 sera were positive with the IFA. When tested with WIB 6 MS sera showed a reactivity against one or more HTLVI proteins. Our results lead us to affirm that in a small number of MS patients, when sensitive tests are employed, it is possible to observe an antibody response toward proteins that share one or more epitope with HTLVI antigens.

HTLV-I Antibodies↗
PubMed1989

Two familial cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in Italy.

Two familial Italian cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease are reported. Clinical picture and life history are presented and compared: 1) with the findings in familial cases reported in other countries, 2) with the findings (age at onset, disease duration) in sporadic Italian cases.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Substance abuse and psychopathology. A diagnostic screening of Italian narcotic addicts.

This report evaluates, using DSM III, the psychopathological profile of 226 heroin users taken in at the clinical centre of "Cascina Verde" Therapeutic Community (Milan, Italy) and admitted to a psychotherapeutic, retraining, integrated, both out-and-in-patient treatment. The outcome shows that 30% of subjects are to be diagnosed according to Axis I while 61% are to be considered among Axis II personality disorders. A portion of 16% is to be referred to the "schizophrenic spectrum", 25% has histrionic, narcissistic, antisocial and borderline personality disorders and the remaining are to be referred to an extremely heterogeneous category. The report shows also data concerning Axes IV and V, always according DSM III.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Family assessment and linguistic interaction: analysis of the Camberwell Family Interview.

Expressed Emotion (EE) is a form of assessment of the family environment: it is highly reliable and has proved to be predictive for symptomatologic relapse with schizophrenic subjects. Rating is obtained by offering to relatives living with the schizophrenic patient a structured interview, the Camberwell Family Interview (CFI). In the present study we will undertake a linguistic analysis (with quantitative and semantic evaluation) of 16 CFI, in order to detect communication parameters likely to be correlated with basic EE categories (high and low EE). The results obtained demonstrate that high EE relatives show a more immediate response style and a greater amount of speech. Moreover, these subjects tend to neglect their task during the interview, starting in most cases a self-referred communication.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1989

The efficacy of an information group intervention on relatives of schizophrenics.

Socio-therapy of schizophrenia cannot fail to consider such an important element as assistance to relatives. This report will review the main treatment methods used today and presents an intervention model which acts on the family of the schizophrenic at different levels. While the schizophrenic patient receives an individual treatment (pharmacological and psychotherapeutic), his/her relatives undergo a two-step group intervention. The first phase concerns an information group. This paper gives an early assessment as to the efficacy of the information groups for relatives. Particularly, it focuses on the actual ability of the group in conveying information to relatives. Such transfer of information is measured by means of a structured interview (Knowledge Interview). Results demonstrate that after an information group family members had a significant statistical increase of their information level (p less than 0.001). Some areas recorded a considerable increase in the knowledge levels, as far as the legitimacy of the illness and the management of symptoms are concerned.

Adult↗