Biomedical subjects

M Solmaz

Publications and source records attributed to M Solmaz.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2003

Psychological factors in the irritable bowel syndrome.

OBJECTIVE: The role of psychological factors in the irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a matter of debate. The prevalence of psychiatric disorders is high in IBS patients. Positive response to antidepressant therapy and presence of family history of depression in IBS patients have led speculations whether this syndrome might be regarded as an affective spectrum disorder. In this study we tried to examine the possible association of IBS with affective spectrum disorders. METHOD: Forty IBS patients from gastroenterology outpatient clinics of a university hospital and state hospital, 32 controls with inflammatory bowel disease and 34 healthy hospital workers were included in the study. Psychiatric interviews were done using SCID-NP (Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-Non-patients) and psychological factors were assessed by the SCL-90-R (Symptom Checklist-90-Revised), the Beck Depression Inventory, the Beck Anxiety Scale and the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression. Family histories were obtained by FH-RDC (Family History Research Diagnostic Criteria). All groups were matched for sociodemographic variables. RESULTS: The prevalence of psychiatric disorders and mood disorders was higher in the IBS group than the control groups. Also IBS group rated higher on anxiety and depression scales than the other groups, where the differences were statistically significant. Presence of positive family history for mood disorders was higher in the IBS group. CONCLUSION: These results support the hypothesis that IBS might be linked to affective spectrum disorder. Psychiatric assessment and therapy might be useful in the course of irritable bowel syndrome.

Adult↗

PubMed2001

How does a DNA interacting enzyme change its specificity during molecular evolution? A site-directed mutagenesis study at the DNA binding site of the DNA-(adenine-N6)-methyltransferase EcoRV.

The EcoRV DNA-(adenine-N6)-methyltransferase (MTase) recognizes GATATC sequences and modifies the first adenine residue within this site. Parts of its DNA interface show high sequence homology to DNA MTases of the dam family which recognize and modify GATC sequences. A phylogenetic analysis of M.EcoRV and dam-MTases suggests that EcoRV arose in evolution from a primordial dam-MTase in agreement to the finding that M.EcoRV also methylates GATC sites albeit at a strongly reduced rate. GATCTC sites that deviate in only one position from the EcoRV sequence are preferred over general dam sites. We have investigated by site-directed mutagenesis the function of 17 conserved and nonconserved residues within three loops flanking the DNA binding cleft of M.EcoRV. M.EcoRV contacts the GATATC sequence with two highly cooperative recognition modules. The contacts to the GAT-part of the recognition sequence are formed by residues conserved between dam MTases and M.EcoRV. Mutations at these positions lead to an increase in the discrimination between GATATC and GATC substrates. Our data show that the change in sequence specificity from dam (GATC) to EcoRV (GATATC) was accompanied by the generation of a second recognition module that contacts the second half of the target sequence. The new DNA contacts are formed by residues from all three loops that are not conserved between M.EcoRV and dam MTases. Mutagenesis at important residues within this module leads to variants that show a decreased ability to recognize the TC-part of the GATATC sequence.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed2000

Anger attacks in depressed Turkish outpatients.

Anger attacks have been described as sudden spells of anger accompanied by symptoms of autonomic activation and have been experienced by patients as uncharacteristic of them and inappropriate to the situations in which they had occurred. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of anger attacks in a non-Western depressed population. We also wanted to see whether depression in patients with anger attacks was qualitatively different from depression without anger attacks. The Anger Attacks Questionnaire, designed by Fava et al. to assess these attacks, was administered to 88 medication-free consecutive outpatients diagnosed as major depression according to DSM-IV criteria by two psychiatrists. The patients also were assessed by the Beck Depression Inventory, the Beck Anxiety Inventory, the Beck Hopelessness Scale, and the Spielberger's State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory. Forty-three (49%) of these patients had reported having anger attacks. The patients with anger attacks were significantly more depressed and anxious than patients without anger attacks. Anger-out and trait anger measures were significantly higher in depressed patients with anger attacks than patients without anger attacks. Patients with anger attacks also scored higher in hopelessness measure and there was a trend toward statistical significance. Our results are in line with previous literature which show, that anger attacks are prevalent in depressed patients. We also conclude that patients with anger attacks constitute a more depressed population than those without anger attacks. Severity of depression emerges as the strongest predictor of the presence of anger attacks in our study.

Adult↗

PubMed1997

Sleep disturbances and suicidal behavior in patients with major depression.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to examine the association between sleep disturbances and suicidal behavior in patients with major depression (N = 113). METHOD: The sleep symptomatology of each patient was ascertained from the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (SADS) questions concerning sleep in the section on major depression. The patients were retrospectively classified as having hypersomnia (N = 20), insomnia (N = 69), and no sleep disturbance (N = 24). The SADS suicide subscale was used to rate the severity of active suicidality. RESULTS: The patients with hypersomnia and insomnia had significantly (p < .05) higher scores on the SADS suicide subscale than those without sleep disturbance. We also found that the patients with insomnia and hypersomnia were significantly (p < .001) more likely to become suicidal than the others. CONCLUSION: These data demonstrate that both insomnia and hypersomnia are associated with suicidal behavior in patients with major depression.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Subjective sleep quality and suicidality in patients with major depression.

The purpose of this study was to examine the association between sleep quality and suicidality in major depressive disorder. We evaluated 41 patients with major depression by using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (SADS) suicide subscale. We found that suicidal depressive patients had significantly higher scores of subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep duration, habitual sleep efficiency and PSQI global scores than nonsuicidal patients. We also found significant correlations between the SADS suicide subscale scores and most measures of the PSQI. These data suggest that there is an association between poor subjective sleep quality and suicidal behavior in patients with major depressive disorder.

Adult↗