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Biomedical subjects

P Smail

Publications and source records attributed to P Smail.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2004

Seasonality of type 1 diabetes mellitus in children and its modification by weekends and holidays: retrospective observational study.

BACKGROUND: Diagnoses of type 1 insulin dependent diabetes mellitus are generally more common in winter, although this seasonal pattern has not been observed in children of preschool age (0-4 years) or in all countries. AIMS: To confirm the persistence of seasonality and the influence of age, holidays, and weekends. METHODS: We extracted data on date of birth, date of presentation, age, and sex of children diagnosed with diabetes and registered with the Scottish Study Group for the Care of Diabetes in the Young. Cosinor analysis was applied to monthly and mid-monthly data. Two sample Z tests were used to compare the epochs 1984-1992 and 1993-2001. RESULTS: Some 4517 children between 0 and 14 years of age (2407 male and 2110 female) presented with IDDM between 1 January 1984 and 31 December 2001. Seasonality was evident in children above 4 years of age with amplitudes of 19.5-25.7% and peaks between mid December and mid January. Presentation was strongly influenced by weekends and holiday periods, with reduced presentations in December compared with November and January, and with the lowest presentations in July (the main Scottish holiday month). Using mid-month to mid-month data did not change the overall seasonality but did improve the fits for cosinor analysis. Mondays and Fridays were the most common days for presentation. CONCLUSION: Initial presentation of IDDM in Scotland follows a stable seasonal pattern in all but the youngest children with lower rates of presentation in holiday periods and at weekends for all age groups.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

Seasonality of presentation of type I diabetes mellitus in children. Scottish Study Group for the Care of Young Diabetics.

Environmental influences are thought to have an aetiological role in onset of diabetes in children. Month of onset in over 2000 children in Scotland was established and there was an excess in colder/darker months than in warmer/lighter months. A meta-analysis of 21 previous studies with over 13,000 patients gave the same result at a much higher level of significance. A mechanism is postulated based on previous viral induced islet cell damage with ongoing progressive auto-immune destruction. There may be physiological seasonal changes with winter stress on carbohydrate and lipid metabolism. The raised winter levels of pituitary, adrenal and thyroid hormones fail to be antagonised by falling level of insulin. A role for seasonal variation in exercise and nutrition is considered.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

Vulvovaginitis.

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Estrogens↗
PubMed1984

Short stature.

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Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Alcohol dependence and phobic anxiety states. I. A prevalence study.

Sixty alcoholics (40 males) were assessed for agoraphobia and social phobia, and over half the sample were rated as having either or both these disorders when last drinking. Twenty one subjects had mild phobias and eleven had severe phobias. The more severely phobic males were also found to be the most alcohol dependent and those with no phobias were least alcohol dependent but this effect was not found among the females. All phobic alcoholics reported that alcohol had helped them to cope in feared situations, and almost all had deliberately used it for this purpose. A small sample of out-patients referred for phobias alone were also asked about their use of alcohol. The majority had found it helpful in coping with fears, although more men than women had deliberately used it for this purpose.

Agoraphobia↗
PubMed1984

Alcohol dependence and phobic anxiety states. II. A retrospective study.

Twenty-four hospitalised problem drinkers who were currently suffering from a phobic anxiety state served as subjects for this study. Each was given a detailed retrospective interview concerned with the development over time of both their alcohol dependence and phobic problems. The test-retest and inter-rater reliabilities of the data collected were found to be high. In accordance with previous experimental work, periods of heavy drinking and dependence upon alcohol were associated with an exacerbation of agoraphobia and social phobias. Subsequent periods of abstinence were associated with substantial improvements in these phobic anxiety states. It is suggested that both learning and psychobiological processes underly these observed relationships and that the implications of this finding for treatment of both disorders should be explored.

Agoraphobia↗
PubMed1978

An XYY boy with short stature and a case of Klinefelter's syndrome (XXY) in a family with inversion 9.

A patient with Klinefelter's syndrome and a boy with XYY sex chromosomes were both found to have a pericentric inversion of chromosome 9. An unusual feature of the XYY patient was that he presented because of short stature and disturbed behaviour. A family study showed that the patients were related and that there was an excess of males in the pedigree. Another member of the family was found to have some XYY cells in the blood.

Adolescent↗