Biomedical subjects

Petr Bob

Publications and source records attributed to Petr Bob.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Traumatic dissociation, epileptic-like phenomena, and schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVES: According to recent evidence, trauma and stress are important etiological factors in pathogenesis of schizophrenia. However, the hypothetical influence of traumatic stress on epileptic-like (or kindling) phenomena in schizophrenia is at this time unclear. METHODS: In order to discover the influence of trauma, 82 patients with a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia and 50 healthy controls were assessed for symptoms of dissociation, traumatic stress and psycho-sensory symptoms of epileptic origin. RESULTS: We have found significant traumatization and dissociation in patients who met the cut-off score for psychosensory epileptic-like symptoms and also significant correlations among these measures have been found. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest a certain role of epileptic-like phenomena in dissociative states in schizophrenia and are in accordance with rare intracranial EEG findings which suggest a certain role of epileptiform events in schizophrenia.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Depression, traumatic dissociation and epileptic-like phenomena.

OBJECTIVES: According to recent findings trauma and stress are important etiological factors in pathogenesis of depression. As characteristic features of depressive cognition have been reported intrusive thoughts and memory disturbances similar to posttraumatic symptoms known in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder or dissociative disorders. Hypothetically is also suggested a close relationship of traumatic dissociation and epileptic-like phenomena. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: In the clinical study were assessed 70 adult people with a diagnosis of depression and 50 healthy controls. In the assessment were used 6 measures for symptoms of dissociation, depression, traumatic stress and psychosenzoric symptoms of epileptic origin (the so-called complex partial seizure-like symptoms). RESULTS: Reported data show that a great number of depressive patients who met the cut-off score for dissociative disorders (34.2%, N=24) had significantly higher traumatization, depression, subjectively experienced stress and complex partial seizure-like symptoms than the whole group of patients and the controls. Most significant traumatization has been found in patients who met the cut-off score of psychosenzoric epileptic-like symptoms which is characteristic for the epilepsy spectrum disorder (5.7%, N=4). MAIN FINDINGS: Significant correlations of these assessed symptoms suggest close relationship between traumatic stress and dissociation in depression. This close relationship of dissociative symptomatology and traumatic stress also implicates an important role of dissociative processes in depression as a typical manifestation of depressive cognition. Assessed relationship between traumatic distress and complex partial seizure-like symptoms suggests a possible role of epileptic-like phenomena in dissociative states related to depression. CONCLUSIONS: Assessed relationship between traumatization, depression and epileptic-like phenomena in the patients who met cut-off score for epilepsy spectrum disorder can contribute to the problem of indication of several depressive patients to anticonvulsant therapy because of reported evidence that a clear majority of patients with epilepsy spectrum disorder respond well to anticonvulsant treatment. Careful assessment of this test battery thus may be useful also for anticonvulsant treatment strategy.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Dissociative processes, multiple personality, and dream functions.

From ancient times on, our dream processes were thought to be the uncovering of unknown connections. It may be that there is some basis to this belief and that dreams truly represent a mirror of our unconscious and not only random processes moving along according to some brain "computation." These ideas are supported by some findings that involve connections among dissociative processes, hypnosis, and multiple personality disorder (MPD). From this point of view, MPD represents a very interesting theoretical problem, which may be understood as an extreme example of the dissociative nature of the human psyche. This in turn leads to an understanding of the complex structure of the human psyche and corresponds perfectly to our experience, which says that the pathological often sheds new light on the normal and physiological.

Dissociative Disorders↗

PubMed2003

Dissociation and neuroscience: history and new perspectives.

History of the study of dissociation begins in the second half of the nineteenth century. It begins in the works of Hughlings Jackson and Pierre Janet, and markedly influences development of psychoanalysis and other psychological trends. According to the modern definition, dissociation represents a disturbance or alteration in the normally integrative functions of identity, memory, or consciousness. Dissociative symptoms occur mainly due to some traumatic events and probably cannot be generally explained on the basis of neurological focal lesion. However, from recent findings, it may be inferred that temporal lobe epileptic activity is important in the generation of dissociative symptoms. Recent findings show that neural networks provide an attractive framework for modeling dissociative mental processes and dissociative mechanisms. In the article we propose a new theoretical connection among neural network models of dissociation, Freeman's model of chaos in the brain and electrophysiological findings regarding dissociative states. Concluding remarks are concerned with connections of dissociation and inter-hemispheric communication.

Dissociative Disorders↗

PubMed2003

Subliminal processes, dissociation and the 'I'.

The study of unconscious processes leads to the hypothesis of the limit of consciousness, which involves two main kinds of psychic activity. The first represents psychic contents which are subliminal for their low energy, the second subliminal contents which are inaccessible to consciousness because they are dissociated in the subliminal region. Dissociation is a concept introduced by Pierre Janet for splitting consciousness due to traumatic events or during hypnosis. It takes a more general form in Hilgard's neo-dissociation theory of hypnotic phenomena and also in Jung's theory of the collective unconscious. Further generalization links it to the modern findings of explicit and implicit perception, leading to a shift in dissociation from hypothesis to clinical, experimental and theoretical reality. Studies in hypnosis also point to the existence of an integrative psychic entity, that comprises the conscious 'I'. Hilgard called this the hidden observer, and his findings represent empirical confirmation of Jung's term for the Self as mirror 'I', which leads to many important consequences for self-discovery and the meaning of life.

Dissociative Disorders↗