Biomedical subjects

Marco Battaglia

Publications and source records attributed to Marco Battaglia.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Genetic and environmental influences on anxiety dimensions in Italian twins evaluated with the SCARED questionnaire.

This study explored the factorial structure of the Italian version of the Screen for Child Anxiety-Related Emotional Disorders questionnaire (SCARED), and investigated the contributions of genetic and environmental influences of individual variation of anxiety dimensions as reported in the SCARED. Three hundred and seventy-eight twin pairs aged 8-17 from the Italian Twin Registry filled in the SCARED through a mail survey. Four, distinct empirical factors, that corresponded closely to the original SCARED subscales of Generalized Anxiety (GAD), Panic (PD), Social Phobia (SP), and Separation Anxiety (SAD) disorder emerged from Exploratory Factor Analysis. The empirically derived scores were analyzed by structural equation modeling; moderate-to-high heritability, without age or sex differences, emerged for all dimensions with the exception of GAD, for which an age effect was found. The DSM-IV anxiety dimensions identified by the SCARED have a psychometric structure that can be replicated in the Italian culture, and are influenced at different extents by genetic and nonshared environmental determinants.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Taxonic structure of schizotypal personality disorder: a multiple-instrument, multi-sample study based on mixture models.

This study used a multi-sample, multiple-instrument strategy to evaluate the hypothesis that schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) is taxonic. In Study 1, 721 consecutively admitted inpatients and outpatients were evaluated with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II Personality Disorders (SCID-II) and the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4+ (PDQ-4+). The data from both questionnaire types were submitted to multivariate normal mixture analysis, which was carried out on factor scores obtained from a three-factor model of SPD criteria; these results supported the hypothesis that SPD is taxonic. The same was true of Study 2, which administered the Semi-structured Interview for DSM-III-R Personality Disorders (SIDP-R) to an independent sample of 537 consecutively admitted outpatients. Similar findings were observed in Study 3, in which the SIDP-R was administered to 225 non-clinical subjects. The results show that the typology of DSM III-R and -IV SPD diagnosis is consistent with the latent structure of SPD features.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Impulsivity in depressed children and adolescents: a comparison between behavioral and neuropsychological data.

Impulsivity at the neuropsychological and behavioral levels was investigated in a sample of drug-naive depressed children and adolescents. The performance of 21 patients with a current diagnosis of mood disorder was compared with that of 21 normal controls on tests of executive functions related to impulsivity (Matching Familiar Figures Test, Continuous Performance Test, Verbal Fluency, Stroop Test, and Walk-Don't Walk) and on impulsive/restless behavior on the Conners' Parent Rating Scale. Depressed children and adolescents showed a pattern of conservative response style, with slow reaction times and attentional problems, similar to that observed in adults, and a general delay/difficulty in response initiation on the Fluency Test. Depressed participants were rated by their parents as being significantly more impulsive/restless than controls. However, there was no evidence of an impulsive cognitive response style in more impulsive/restless patients. Symptom severity (Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression) and subjective mood state (Children's Depression Inventory) were also taken into account.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Influence of the serotonin transporter promoter gene and shyness on children's cerebral responses to facial expressions.

BACKGROUND: Childhood shyness can predate social anxiety disorder and may be associated with biased discrimination of facial expressions of emotions. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether childhood shyness, or the serotonin transporter promoter polymorphism genotype, can predict participants' visual event-related potentials in response to expressions of children of similar ages. DESIGN: Study group drawn from an inception cohort of 149 subjects characterized 1 year before the present study by their degree of shyness. SETTING: Third- and fourth-grade schoolchildren. PARTICIPANTS: Forty-nine of the inception cohort children, randomly selected. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Latencies and amplitudes of the N400 waveform in response to happy, neutral, and angry expressions. RESULTS: Shyness predicted significantly smaller N400 amplitudes in response to anger (at Pz: P < or = .04) and to a neutral expression (at Pz: P < or = .047). Shyness was significantly different across the 3 genotypes, the SS genotype being associated with higher shyness levels (analysis of variance: F(2,42) = 4.47, P < or = .02; Tukey honestly significant difference, SS vs LL, P < or = .01). An analysis of covariance showed that neither the type of expression nor the genotype per se influenced the N400 amplitudes, but a significant expression X genotype interaction was found (F(4,72) = 3.57, P < or = .01), sustained by the difference in amplitude of the SS and S carrier subjects compared with the LL subjects when exposed to the anger expression (Tukey honestly significant difference, P < or = .02). CONCLUSION: Children who manifest higher levels of shyness or have 1 or 2 copies of the short allele of the serotonin transporter promoter gene appear to have a different pattern of processing affective stimuli of interpersonal hostility.

Affect↗

PubMed2005

A family-based association study does not support DYX1C1 on 15q21.3 as a candidate gene in developmental dyslexia.

We applied a family-based association approach to investigate the role of the DYX1C1 gene on chromosome 15q as a candidate gene for developmental dyslexia (DD) to 158 families containing at least one dyslexic child. We directly sequenced exons 2 and 10 of the DYX1C1 gene and found eight single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs), three of which (-3G>A, 1249 G>T, 1259 C>G) were suitable for the genetic analyses. We performed single- and multimarker association analyses with DD as a categorical trait by FBAT version 1.4 and TRANSMIT version 2.5.4 programs. Our sample had a power of at least 80% to detect an association between the selected phenotypes and the informative polymorphisms at a significance level of 5%. The results of the categorical analyses did not support the involvement of the DYX1C1 gene variants in this sample of dyslexics and their relatives. Quantitative and multimarker analyses, which provide greater power to detect loci with a minor effect, consistently yielded nonsignificant results. While D1X1C1 is a good candidate gene for DD, we were unable to replicate the original findings between DYX1C1 gene and DD, perhaps due to genetic heterogeneity.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

Anxiety and panic: from human studies to animal research and back.

The role of learning and conditioning varies across human anxiety disorders, and distinguishing between fear and panic is important to guide investigation in panic disorder. By reminding that some psychological and psychobiological theories view panic attacks as false alarms of unconditioned biological origin, we suggest that employing endophenotypes of biological and evolutionary relevance--such as the respiratory responses to suffocative stimuli--can be fruitful for both human research and animal models of panic, and can help keeping unconditioned components of the clinical picture separate from the conditioned components in the experimental setting. We present a review of a model of panic disorder by which idiosyncratic environmental adverse events can promote unconditioned and unexpected spells of physical alarm. Along the proposed causal pathway the alternative splicing expression of polymorphic genes of the cholinergic system play an important role. The overproduction of the Acetylcholinesterase readthrough splice variant after minor stress can promote passive avoidance and learning through action at the level of the corticolimbic circuitries, as well as heightened sensitivity to suffocative stimuli by action upon the cholinergic components of chemoception. When a component of anticipatory anxiety complicates the clinical picture of recurrent panic attacks, and the HPA becomes activated, the glucocorticoid response element 17 kb upstream of the Acetylcholinesterase gene transcription initiation site may sustain sensitivity to suffocative stimuli for prolonged time. Finally, we review how animal models of human panic based on unconditioned provocation of alarm reactions by the same respiratory panicogens that are employed in man are viable and promising.

Acetylcholinesterase↗

PubMed2004

A case-control and family-based association study of the 5-HTTLPR in pediatric-onset depressive disorders.

BACKGROUND: Pediatric depression can be particularly informative for clarification of the causes of mood disorders. The aim of this work was to explore the possible association between childhood- and early-adolescent-onset DSM-IV depressive disorders (DD; including major depression and dysthymia) and the serotonin transporter-linked promoter polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) locus. METHODS: The case-control sample consisted of 68 unrelated patients with DD, and 68 unrelated age- and gender-matched healthy control subjects. The same patients were included in the family-based study, which consisted of 41 triads and 11 dyads. RESULTS: An excess of the SS-genotype (p =.025) and of the S-allele (p =.021) was found among DD children (odds ratio = 1.81; 95% confidence interval = 1.12-2.94). The family-based results suggested that the S-allele was preferentially transmitted to depressed children (haplotype-based haplotype relative risk: chi(2) = 7.231 df = 1, p =.007; transmission disequilibrium test: chi(2) = 5.233, df = 1, p =.022). CONCLUSIONS: A role for the 5-HTTLPR locus that needs replication in larger samples is suggested in childhood DD.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

An assessment of transmission disequilibrium between quantitative measures of childhood problem behaviors and DRD2/Taql and DRD4/48bp-repeat polymorphisms.

In a pilot study of 120 children with reading disabilities, we assessed the presence of linkage and association between the DRD2/Taql and the DRD4/48bp-repeat polymorphisms and quantitative measures of behavioral problems derived from parental rated Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) [Achenbach, T. M. (1991). TM Manual for the CBCL 14-18. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont]. Analyses included measures of between-family association, and a test of the presence of linkage and association by a logistic regression-based extension of the Transmission Disequilibrium Test (i.e., the logistic regression quantitative TDT). In between-family association analyses the "Social Problem" scale was weakly associated with the number of risk alleles of DRD2 and DRD4, while the "Withdrawn" scale was related to the number of risk alleles of DRD4 (the 7-repeat and the A1 allele respectively were considered the risk alleles). Logistic regression quantitative TDTs yielded statistically significant evidence in favor of linkage and association between DRD2 and "Social Problems" (Wald chi2 = 4.13, df = 1, p = 0.042, odds ratio = 1.97). A statistical trend in favor of linkage and association was found for "Withdrawn" and DRD4 (Wald chi2 = 2.65, df = 1, p = 0.104, odds ratio =1.44). Although preliminary, these findings are consistent with previous data that suggest a role of the same polymorphism in influencing individual sensitivity to reward and response to social cues and reinforcements in man and animal.

Child↗

PubMed2004

Children's discrimination of expressions of emotions: relationship with indices of social anxiety and shyness.

OBJECTIVE: To conduct an exploratory investigation of possible relationships between individual levels of social anxiety and the ability to classify emotional expressions in a group of schoolchildren observing pictures of children of similar age. METHOD: One hundred forty-nine second- and third-grade schoolchildren underwent a facial expression discrimination trial. Children were characterized on the basis of the number of spontaneous comments they made during a pause in the trial, and on their scores on the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, the Stevenson-Hinde and Glover Shyness-to-the-Unfamiliar Scale, and the Cloninger Harm Avoidance scale. The scales were filled in by appropriately trained teachers. RESULTS: The overall rate of correct identification was 72%, without gender-associated differences. Regression analyses showed that higher rates of misidentifications were significantly associated with higher scores on the Liebowitz scale and fewer spontaneous comments. Misidentifications of the "anger" expressions (most often misclassified as "disgust") were associated with higher ratings on the Liebowitz scale when children were exposed to a boy's picture and by fewer spontaneous comments when children were exposed to a girl's picture. Misidentification of a neutral expression of a girl's picture (most often misclassified as "sadness") was significantly associated with fewer spontaneous comments. CONCLUSIONS: These pilot results suggest that a child's ability to correctly identify other children's basic emotions is partially associated with his or her level of observed social shyness.

Child↗

PubMed2002

Beyond the usual suspects: a cholinergic route for panic attacks.

For unknown reasons and through poorly understood mechanisms, people at risk of panic attacks are hypersensitive to suffocative stimuli and experience hyperventilation and anxiety after exposure to heightened concentrations of carbon dioxide. Similarly to the physiological reflex response to hypercapnia in animals and man, the anxious response to carbon dioxide in people with panic disorder is at least partially controlled by the central muscarinic receptors. It is suggested here that some modifications of the cholinergic functions could underlie human individual differences in carbon dioxide sensitivity and proneness to experience panic attacks. The hypothesis is based upon experimental evidence that stressful and potentially harmful stimuli prime relatively long-lasting changes in cholinergic genes expression and cholinergic receptors' regulation. The adaptive sequels of these modifications include protection of the brain from overstimulation, and, at the level of the corticolimbic circuitries, promotion of passive avoidance and learning after stress. The extension of the same modifications to the cholinergic receptors involved in chemoception, however, could lower the threshold for reaction to suffocative stimuli, including carbon dioxide. The exaggerated sensitivity to carbon dioxide observed in humans suffering from panic attacks could then be thought of as an evolutionary cost of the involvement of the cholinergic system in shaping otherwise adaptive responses to stress and threatening stimuli.

Chemoreceptor Cells↗