PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

J Lehtonen

Publications and source records attributed to J Lehtonen.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Nightmares as predictors of suicide.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To examine the relationship between the frequency of nightmares and the risk of suicide. DESIGN AND SETTING: A prospective follow-up study in a general population of Finland starting in 1972. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 36,211 subjects (17,700 men and 18,511 women) aged 25-64 years at baseline. INTERVENTIONS: N/A. MEASUREMENTS: The study included self-administered questionnaires (mainly questions on socio-economic factors, medical history, health behavior, and psychosocial factors) and health examination at the local primary healthcare center. The frequency of nightmares was estimated. The subjects were followed until Dec. 31, 1995, or death. Information on deaths caused by suicide (n=159) or other self-inflicted injury was obtained from the National Death Register by computerized record linkage using the national personal identification code assigned to every Finnish resident. Using the Cox proportional hazards regression model we controlled for several potential confounding factors. RESULTS: The frequency of nightmares was directly related to the risk of suicide. Among subjects having nightmares occasionally the adjusted relative risk of suicide was 57% higher, and among those reporting frequent nightmares 105% higher compared with subjects reporting no nightmares at all. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to report a direct and graded association between the frequency of nightmares and death from suicide in a general population.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Effects of maternity on auditory event-related potentials to human sound.

Auditory event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded in response to an emotional (a baby's cry) and a neutral (a word) stimulus in a group of mothers 2-5 days after childbirth (n = 20) and in control women (n = 18) who were not in the state of early motherhood. For each mother, her own infant's cry was recorded and used as the cry stimulus, whereas a strange baby's cry was used for control women. The word stimulus was identical for both groups. Stimuli were presented in intermittent trains in order to study the arousal responses to the first stimuli of the trains, and refractoriness of ERPs during stimulus repetition. The N100 responses were significantly larger in amplitude in mothers than in control women, not only to the emotional cry stimuli but also to the neutral word stimuli. The finding suggests a general increase in alertness and arousal in mothers, which may be necessary in enabling the mother to be continuously alert to her infant's needs. This allows good care of the infant and may be essential in building an emotional tie between the mother and her child.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2001

Suicidal ideation in the Finnish general population. A 12-month follow-up study.

BACKGROUND: The epidemiology of suicidal ideation has remained a relatively unstudied area. The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence, prevalence and persistence of and recovery from suicidal ideation in a sample of the Finnish general population. METHODS: Postal questionnaires including the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were mailed to the study subjects (n = 1,593) at baseline and on follow-up after 12 months. The suicidality item of BDI was used to screen suicidal ideation. RESULTS: The 12-month incidence (4.6%) and prevalence of suicidal ideation (14.7%) were higher in men than in women (3.1% and 9.2%, respectively). Sixty-nine per cent of those men and 59% of those women who had suicidal ideation at baseline continued to have suicidal thoughts on follow-up. Suicidal ideation and the severity of depression associated strongly. Over half of the men and women who had persistent suicidal ideation had not visited any health services for help with psychological distress during the 12-month follow-up period. Daily smoking associated with a decreased probability of recovery from suicidal ideation. CONCLUSIONS: Suicidal ideation is common and persistent at the population level. Seeking professional help for depression with suicidal tendencies is disproportionately low in relation to the high prevalence of suicidal ideation.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

SPECT and neuropsychological performance in severe depression treated with ECT.

BACKGROUND: In severe depression, studies of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) by SPECT have not produced uniform results. The association between changes in SPECT and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has shown somewhat conflicting data. No data are available on benzodiazepine receptor function SPECT studies in ECT. METHODS: Twenty drug-resistant adult inpatients fulfilling the DSM-IIIR criteria for major depression were studied by SPECT (rCBF by relative ECD uptake in all, and benzodiazepine receptor function by iomazenil uptake in five subjects) before and 1 week after clinically successful bitemporal ECT. Clinical and neuropsychological test scores were used as references for the possible changes in SPECT. RESULTS: An increased perfusion after ECT was observed in right temporal and bilateral parietal cortices, whereas no reductions in relative ECD uptake were seen after ECT. Iomazenil-SPECT revealed a highly significant increase in the benzodiazepine receptor uptake in all studied cortical regions except temporal cortices. CONCLUSIONS: Clinically successful ECT was associated with changes in vascular perfusion and GABAergic neurotransmission, providing new evidence for the mechanism of action of ECT and for the neurobiology of severe drug-resistant depression.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Dynamic behavior of the auditory N100 elicited by a baby's cry.

We compared auditory N100 responses in female adults to two non-attended human sound stimuli. An infant's cry represented an unfamiliar, emotionally colored sound and the Finnish word "hei" (meaning "hi") a familiar and emotionally neutral sound. Both sounds elicited clear N100 responses over auditory areas in both hemispheres. However, the dynamic behavior of the N100 response following the first few repetitions of the sounds was significantly different. We observed faster habituation and longer response latencies, particularly over the ipsilateral hemisphere, during the first and second repetitions of the cry stimulus. This pattern may reflect an altered arousal level and slower, bilateral processing during the unfamiliar emotionally loaded cry as compared to the emotionally neutral word "hei" .

Acoustics↗
PubMed2001

Loss of time-organized sympathetic skin responses in acute psychosis.

The aim of this study was to differentiate the response pattern characteristics of sympathetic skin responses (SSR) between unmedicated first psychotic subjects and healthy controls. We recorded SSR to novel auditory stimuli in 13 psychotic subjects and in 19 controls. There was no constant delay between a sudden change in the acoustic surroundings and SSR in psychotic subjects, whereas regularly this delay was 1.3 to 1.8 seconds in controls. The validity of the test was evaluated by blind rating responses to two categories. The lack of a regular time delay between a novel auditory stimulus and SSR suggests a timing disturbance in the neural networks regulating the autonomic nervous system responses in acute psychosis. Our finding and method may have future implications in evaluation of subtle autonomic nervous system alterations related, e.g., to drug effects.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2001

Fish consumption and depressive symptoms in the general population in Finland.

Fish contains high concentrations of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Several studies have reported depletions of omega-3 fats among depressed patients, and a cross-national comparison has revealed a significant inverse correlation between annual prevalence of major depression and fish consumption. In a sample of 3,204 Finnish adults, depressive symptoms were estimated with the Beck Depression Inventory. A frequency question was used to measure fish consumption. Multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted to assess the association between depression and fish consumption. After the analysis adjusted for potential confounders, the likelihood of having depressive symptoms was significantly higher among infrequent fish consumers than among frequent consumers.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Alexithymia in patients with major depressive disorder and comorbid cluster C personality disorders: a 6-month follow-up study.

The authors examined the association between alexithymia, cluster C personality disorders (CPD), and severity of depression among 121 outpatients with major depressive disorder (MDD) in a 6-month, follow-up study. Diagnosis of depression and CPD was confirmed by means of the Structured Clinical Interviews for DSM-III-R (SCID I and SCID II). Alexithymia was screened using the 20-item version of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale and severity of depression was assessed using the 21-item Beck Depression Inventory. Results indicated that alexithymic features are common in patients with MDD but often alleviated during recovery from depression. Moreover, comorbid CPD and severity of depression seemed to be associated with poorer recovery from alexithymia. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Male suicide mortality in eastern Finland--urban-rural changes during a 10-year period between 1988 and 1997.

AIMS: To investigate urban-rural differences in male suicide mortality between 1988 and 1997 in the province of Kuopio in eastern Finland. METHODS: Male suicide mortality between 1988 and 1997 was studied in eastern Finland. The data were collected from official autopsy reports. Age, marital status, household type, place of death, method of suicide and the region within the county were analysed. RESULTS: The age-adjusted male suicide mortality remained quite constant at 67 and 65/100,000 (> 15 years of age) in 1988 and 1997, respectively. In urban areas, a decline in suicide rates was noted in all age groups of men, whereas in rural areas, after an initial decline, a marked increase took place during the last years of the study period, especially among middle-aged and elderly men. This coincided with the time of recovery from an economic recession in Finland that particularly affected rural areas. CONCLUSION: Male suicide mortality may be regionally diverging in Finland.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

Metabolism of [123I]epidepride may affect brain dopamine D2 receptor imaging with single-photon emission tomography.

Iodine-123 labelled epidepride is a novel radiopharmaceutical for the study of cerebral dopamine D2 receptors using single-photon emission tomography (SPET). A lipophilic labelled metabolite of [123I]epidepride which may enter the brain and hamper the quantitation of receptors has been observed in human plasma. In the present study, gradient high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to investigate the plasma concentration of the lipophilic labelled metabolite and its correlation to SPET imaging of striatal dopamine D2 receptors. A linear regression fit showed a negative correlation between the amount of the lipophilic labelled metabolite and the striatum to cerebellum ratio (n=16, R=-0.58, P<0.02), suggesting that plasma metabolite analysis is essential when imaging dopamine D2 receptors with SPET using [123I]epidepride.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Depression is strongly associated with alexithymia in the general population.

OBJECTIVE: This study examines how alexithymia and depression are related to each other in men and women in a sample of Finnish general population (n = 2018). METHODS: Alexithymia was screened using the 20-item version of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale. Level of depression was assessed using the 21-item Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Life satisfaction was estimated with a structured scale. RESULTS: The prevalence of alexithymia was 12.8% in men and 8.2% in women. However, the prevalence of alexithymia was 32.1% among those having BDI scores of > or = 9, but only 4.3% among the nondepressed subjects (p < 0.001). The BDI scores explained 29.2% of the variation in TAS-20 scores. Alexithymia was associated with several sociodemographic factors if depression was not taken into account. However, after including depression in the logistic regression models, only depression and low life satisfaction were associated with alexithymia, both in men and women. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that alexithymia has a close relationship to depression in the general population. The impact of social factors on alexithymia may be primarily explained by depression. Depression must be taken into account as a confounding factor when studying alexithymia in general populations due to the strong association between alexithymia and depression.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Quantitative MRI of the hippocampus and amygdala in severe depression.

BACKGROUND: There is little evidence to support possible structural changes in the amygdala and hippocampus of patients with severe depression. METHODS: Quantitative MRI of the amygdala and hippocampus, as well as proton spectroscopy (MRS) of mesial temporal structures were studied in 34 drug-resistant in-patients with major depression and compared with 17 age-matched controls. Volumetric MRI data were normalized for brain size. RESULTS: The volume of the left hippocampus was significantly smaller in the patients compared with the controls. Both groups exhibited similar significant hippocampal asymmetry (left smaller than right). The patients, but not the controls, had significant asymmetry of the amygdalar volumes (right smaller than left). No differences were observed between the patients and controls in the T2 relaxation times for the hippocampus and amygdala. Mesial temporal lobe MRS revealed a significantly elevated choline/creatine ratio in the patients compared with the controls. CONCLUSIONS: This quantitative MRI study provides support for a possible association between structural and biochemical substrates and severe drug-resistant major depression.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Heavy coffee drinking and the risk of suicide.

Earlier research has implicated coffee drinking as a possible protective factor for suicide. We followed-up 43,166 subjects for the mean 14.6 years, and 213 suicides were committed. Daily coffee drinking had a J-shaped association with the risk of suicide. Using the Cox model we controlled for potential covariates, and found that among heavy coffee drinkers (> or = 8 cups/day) the risk of suicide was 58% higher compared with more moderate drinkers.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Joint heavy use of alcohol, cigarettes and coffee and the risk of suicide.

AIMS: To estimate the relationship between joint heavy use of alcohol, cigarettes and coffee, and the risk of suicide in a general population with high rate of suicide. DESIGN: Prospective cohort analyses. SETTING: Finland. PARTICIPANTS: Data from 36,689 adult (age range 25-64 years) men and women who participated in the population surveys between 1972 and 1992. MEASUREMENTS: The mortality of the cohort was monitored for a mean of 14.4 years, which yielded 169 suicides. Criteria for heavy use of each psychoactive substance were defined as follows: alcohol (> 120 g/week), cigarettes (> or = 21/day) and coffee (> or = seven cups/day). FINDINGS: About half the men and 80% of the women did not use any of the psychoactive substances heavily. Every third man and every fifth woman used one substance heavily, and the prevalence for those who exceeded criteria for joint heavy use of two substances was 9% for men and 1% for women. Joint heavy use of all three substances was rare. The adjusted relative risk of suicide increased linearly with increasing level of joint heavy use of alcohol, cigarettes and coffee. Among subjects with heavy use of one substance the risk was 1.55 (95% CI = 1.10, 2.18), with joint heavy use of two substances 2.22 (95% CI = 1.37, 3.61), and with joint heavy use of all three substances 3.99 (95% CI = 1.80, 8.84) compared with no heavy use. CONCLUSIONS: Clustering of the heavy use of alcohol, cigarettes and coffee could serve as a new marker for increased risk of suicide.

Adult↗