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Biomedical subjects

D Hell

Publications and source records attributed to D Hell.

84 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
PubMed1976

[Vitamin B 1 deficiency in chronic alcoholics and its clinical correlation].

50 chronic alcoholics reporting to the medical emergency ward of Basle University Hospital with alcohol-related illness were examined with respect to thiamine nutritional status by means of the transketolase activation test of erythrocytes (ETK). 46% of the chronic alcoholics, compared to only 2% of the control population (1152 healthy adults), had transketolase activation quotients indicating a strong probability of thiamine deficiency (alphaETK greater than 1.25). The most important symptoms associated with the biochemical parameters of thiamine deficiency were: anemia, pathologic liver functions (bilirubin, gamma-globulins), low diastolic blood pressure and Wernicke's encephalopathy. There was a statistically significant correlation (p less than 0.05) between these symptoms and the biochemical parameters for thiamine deficiency. Therefore, when treating chronic alcoholics, these symptoms should direct attention to a possible vitamin B1 deficiency. Since the enzymatic vitamin B1 parameters correlate with the patients' hemoglobin, our results would be consistent with anemia influenced by provision of thiamine.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

[How alcohol and drug consumers see themselves: a personal and social self-assessment (author's transl)].

In a representative inquiry we found significant differences in the self-assessment of 4082 20-year-old Swiss men, as to whether their consumption of alcohol and drugs is high, low, or zero. The heavy users of alcohol and drugs describe themselves as men with frequent personal difficulties and psychosomatic disturbances. They tend to separate earlier from their family and prefer a less conventional, more consume-orientated, and passive way of life than the remainder.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Sick behavior of patients with rheumatic diseases].

The illness behavior of 119 patients with rheumatic disorders (predominantly nonarticular rheumatism) has been studied. The behavior differed in relation to the rheumatological diagnosis, the personality and the previous stress situations.

Acupuncture Therapy↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Speaking behavior and speech sound characteristics in acute schizophrenia.

Based on a sample of 45 hospitalized, acute-schizophrenic patients and 45 carefully matched controls, we investigated the non-verbal characteristics of schizophrenic speech by means of an 'acoustic' speech analysis and determined the extent to which speaking behavior and speech sound characteristics had adjusted toward normal values at the time of hospital release. Using a multivariate discriminant function derived from a previous study of chronic schizophrenics, totally 77 (85.6%) individuals of our patient and control sample could be correctly classified by a set of 12 acoustic variables at entry into study. At hospital release, the majority of patients (64.4%) still exhibited speech impairment although acute psychopathology had significantly improved. A configuration of 6 acoustic variables, assessed at the time point of entry into study, predicted at high reliability the severity of the negative syndrome at hospital release. Acute medication effects did not explain these findings, thus underlining the potential diagnostic relevance of the speech analysis method. With respect to the relationship between speech characteristics and acute psychopathology throughout the time course of recovery, our results suggest that changes in speaking behavior and speech sound characteristics may be distinct aspects of schizophrenia that can persist in a subgroup of patients over a long period, mostly beyond the time point of hospital release. Accordingly, the speech analysis method might become very useful in detailing the nature and severity of deficits in patients after remission of positive symptoms.

Acute Disease↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Effects of (S)-ketamine on striatal dopamine: a [11C]raclopride PET study of a model psychosis in humans.

Administration of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) antagonist S-ketamine in normals produces a psychosis-like syndrome including several positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenic disorders (Abi-Saab WM, D'Souza DC, Moghaddam B, Krystal JH. The NMDA antagonist model for schizophrenia: promise and pitfalls. Pharmacopsychiatry 1998;31:104-109). Given the clinical efficacy of dopamine (DA) D2 receptor antagonists in the treatment of positive symptoms, it is conceivable that S-ketamine-induced psychotic symptoms are partially due to a secondary activation of dopaminergic systems. To date, animal and human studies of the effects of NMDA antagonists on striatal DA levels have been inconsistent. The present study used positron emission tomography (PET) to determine whether a psychotomimetic dose of S-ketamine decreases the in vivo binding of [11C]raclopride to striatal DA D2 receptors in humans (n = 8). S-ketamine elicited a psychosis-like syndrome, including alterations in mood, cognitive disturbances, hallucinations and ego-disorders. S-ketamine decreased [11C]raclopride binding potential (BP) significantly in the ventral striatum (-17.5%) followed by the caudate nucleus (-14.3%) and putamen (-13.6%), indicating an increase in striatal DA concentration. The change in raclopride BP in the ventral striatum correlated with heightened mood ranging from euphoria to grandiosity. These results provide evidence that the glutamatergic NMDA receptor may contribute to psychotic symptom formation via modulation of the DA system.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Psychic disturbances in students].

43 of 80 students, who came to the student psychiatry service in Basle, had mainly specific problems concerning their studies. Those are divided into three typical syndromes: 1st: a syndrome of examination-anxiety (in 52% of the patients), 2nd: a syndrome of ambivalency with current changes of faculties, with many cessations of study and with long-term study (in 30%), and 3rd: a syndrome of chronic learning disability (in 18%). A conflict of authority is found psychodynamically with examination-anxiety, because these students often had an authoritarian father, who never acknowledged them. An unsolved dependence on their parents (especially on their mother) is the main reason for a syndrome of ambivalency and of learning disability. Therefore, the step from the university to professional independency is impossible or the gradual, "modest" learning is prevented by the continuing infantile illusions of omnipotency. A provisional one-year catamnesis shows a good prognosis for examination-anxieties. Long-term students and students with chronic learning disabilities need a longer therapy because of their deeper anal and narcissistic problems.

Adolescent↗