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Biomedical subjects

Raimo K R Salokangas

Publications and source records attributed to Raimo K R Salokangas.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Body mass index and functioning in long-term schizophrenia. Results of the DSP project.

OBJECTIVE: The study evaluates the association of body mass index (BMI) with functioning in male and female patients with long-term schizophrenia. METHOD: 722 long-term schizophrenia patients were interviewed three years after discharge from hospital. Their weight and height were recorded and data on their background, illness history, psychosocial functioning (Global Assessment Scale; GAS), health behaviour, daily doses of neuroleptics, and psychiatric symptoms were collected. RESULTS: BMI correlated significantly with GAS scores in male (r=0.202, p=0.000) but not in female patients. In male patients, BMI associated significantly (p=0.005) with GAS scores even when the effects of psychiatric symptoms and other confounding variables were taken into account. CONCLUSIONS: In male but not in female long-term patients with schizophrenia, low BMI associates with poor functioning. It is suggested that among male schizophrenia patients, low BMI may be an indicator of poor functioning.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

MRI findings and Axis I and II psychiatric disorders after traumatic brain injury: a 30-year retrospective follow-up study.

We studied the association between psychiatric disorders and the presence and location of traumatic lesions on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in 58 patients, on average, 30 years after traumatic brain injury. Axis I psychiatric disorders that had begun after the injury were assessed with the Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry (version 2.1), and Axis II disorders with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R Personality Disorders. A 1.5-Tesla MRI scanner was used. One-third of the subjects had traumatic lesions visible on MRI. Only three psychiatric disorders, that is, delusional disorder, dementia, and the disinhibited type of organic personality syndrome, were significantly more common in subjects with contusions. Concerning the location of contusions, organic personality syndrome and its disinhibited subtype were associated with frontal lesions, and major depression was, surprisingly, inversely associated with temporal lesions. These results, which should be interpreted with caution due to the limited size of the study group, suggest that the majority of psychiatric disorders after traumatic brain injury are not closely related to the specific location or even the presence of contusions detectable with post-acute MRI.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Psychotism and its dimensions in primary care. Associations with patient's background and manic and depressive symptoms. Results of the RADEP study.

Dimensions of psychotism have mainly been studied in clinical samples. We studied psychotism, its dimensions and their associations, in a primary care sample. In all, 1199 primary care patients over 18 years of age filled in a questionnaire including lists of psychotic (the Composite International Diagnostic Interview, CIDI), depressive (the Depression Scale, DEPS) and manic (the Mood Disorder Questionnaire, MDQ) symptoms. Psychotic symptoms were factored, and variance in factor scores was explained by patients' background and by depressive and manic symptoms. In the principal component solution, the first factor explained 22% of the total variance in psychotic (CIDI) symptoms and was named global psychotism. Varimax rotation produced seven interpretable dimensions: Schneiderian (9.7% of variance), passivity (8.9%), hallucinatory (8.5%), paranoid (7.7%), infidelity (7.6%), somatic (7.6%) and reference experiences (5.9%). Together they explained 52% of the total variance of CIDI symptoms. Global psychotism (P=0.000), as well as hallucinatory (P=0.003), paranoid (P=0.000) and infidelity (P=0.000) experiences associated inversely with age. Otherwise, patients' background associated differently with global psychotism and with factor dimensions in CIDI symptoms. Manic symptoms associated with global psychotism and with all CIDI dimensions, whereas depressive symptoms associated with global psychotism, passivity, paranoid and infidelity experiences. Psychotism is composed of a global factor and of independent dimensions, and is more prevalent in young people. Independently of patients' background, manic widely and depressive symptoms less widely associate with occurrence of psychotism.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Subjective life satisfaction and living situations of persons in Finland with long-term schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE: This study measured subjective life satisfaction among patients with long-term schizophrenia who were living in the community. METHODS: A representative national sample of 2,221 persons with schizophrenia who were discharged from psychiatric hospitals in Finland in 1986, 1990, and 1994 were interviewed three years after discharge. Subjective life satisfaction was measured; patients were asked about their current level of satisfaction and the level of satisfaction they recalled having at the time of discharge. RESULTS: Patients tended to report more satisfaction at follow-up if they were female, had good psychosocial functioning, had several confidants, or were living in group homes or dormitories. Patients tended to be less satisfied at follow-up if they were divorced or had mental and physical symptoms. Patients with depressive symptoms or with low psychosocial functioning and those who were currently hospitalized reported the smallest changes in levels of satisfaction between the two time points. Patients with low psychosocial functioning who were living with their parents, in group homes or dormitories, or in institutions were relatively satisfied, whereas patients with good psychosocial functioning were more satisfied if they lived with their spouse or partner. CONCLUSIONS: Being female and having good psychosocial functioning, confidants, good physical health, and living arrangements in the community that offer support corresponding to the patient's psychosocial state are important factors of life satisfaction among patients with long-term schizophrenia.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2005

Vulnerability to psychosis in patients attending primary and psychiatric care. Results of the RADEP study.

We studied occurrence of psychotic symptoms and their associations with occurrence of depressive and manic symptoms; 563 patients attending primary care (PrC) and 163 patients attending psychiatric outpatient care (PsC) completed a questionnaire including lists of psychotic, manic and depressive symptoms, and patients with depressive symptoms were interviewed using the same questionnaire 6 months after baseline examination. Of PrC patients, 8.5% and of PsC patients, 36.2% reported at least seven lifetime psychotic symptoms. During the 6-month follow-up, the corresponding figures were 0.22% for PrC and 2.84% for PsC patients. Among PrC patients, men, young, never-married, students and unemployed reported more psychotic symptoms than others. In multivariate analyses, occurrence of psychotic symptoms was associated with young age, never being married, poor functioning and former psychiatric treatment, as well as with occurrence of manic and depressive symptoms. Psychotic symptoms are rather prevalent in primary care and very common in psychiatric care. In primary care, vulnerability to psychosis is associated with the patient's background more strongly than in psychiatric care. Concurrent occurrence of psychotic symptoms with manic and depressive symptoms is common.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

The European Prediction of Psychosis Study (EPOS): integrating early recognition and intervention in Europe.

This paper provides the rationale and design of the European Prediction of Psychosis Study (EPOS), the first European prospective transnational field study of the prodrome and moderating risk/resilience factors of psychosis. As different health systems provide different structures of care, prevention programmes will only be successfully implemented and sustained system-wide, if they can be adapted to the system's special opportunities and needs. EPOS will provide a sound data base for a future evidence-based prevention of psychosis. Data on the recruitment of subjects and on the distribution of the four clinical criteria for an at-risk mental state for psychosis are given.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2004

Neuropsychological subtyping of schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia tends to be associated with a general decline in cognitive functioning. However, some studies have found neuropsychologically normal schizophrenia patients. To address this contradiction, we screened first-episode schizophrenic patients according to degree of neuropsychological dysfunction. At least three different neuropsychological subtypes of schizophrenia were found. Memory, specifically delayed recall, was the most important factor that discriminated the groups. Neuropsychological assessment, covering a range of functional domains of the major dimensions of behavior, has an important role in identifying preserved and impaired capacities, in predicting outcome, and in planning treatment.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Axis-I disorders and vulnerability to psychosis.

BACKGROUND: The psychopathology that manifests during the prodromal phase of first-episode psychosis is varied. Little is known about the clinical diagnoses of subjects with so-called prodromal or psychotic-like symptoms. METHOD: Samples of psychotic patients, first-degree relatives (FDRs) of psychotic, or severely ill patients, treatment-seeking patients, and a random community sample (in all 157 subjects) were assessed by the Structured Interview for Prodromal Symptoms (SIPS) and the SCID-I. Vulnerability to psychosis (VTP) was defined by severity of positive symptoms reported in the SIPS interview and associated with lifetime SCID-I diagnoses. RESULTS: The number of lifetime diagnoses received increased linearly as the SIPS symptoms approached more psychotic-like phenomena. All VTP subjects received on average 2.5, and currently prodromal subjects 2.9 lifetime SCID-I diagnoses, while the corresponding figure for non-VTP subjects was 0.7 (p<0.0001). Mood disorders and comorbid anxiety disorders were particularly common. CONCLUSION: Vulnerability to psychosis seems to be associated with a high number of lifetime Axis-I diagnoses. Occurrence of anxiety disorders is remarkable, and most VTP subjects can be diagnosed with a lifetime mood disorder. VTP subjects require careful assessment of mood and anxiety symptoms and adequate treatment for their multiple disorders.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Gender and the use of neuroleptics in schizophrenia.

INTRODUCTION: The oestrogen hypothesis proposes that the lower need for neuroleptic drugs in female schizophrenia patients is caused by the antidopaminergic effect of oestrogens, and that when oestrogen production decreases at menopause, the need for neuroleptic drugs increases in female schizophrenia patients. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: The oestrogen hypothesis was tested in a sample of 4338 schizophrenia patients (DSM III R), who were discharged from hospital and followed up for 3 years. Prescribed daily doses of neuroleptics (DDN) were recorded and converted to chlorpromazine equivalents. RESULTS: Males had higher DDN than females. When the age at first admission (AFA) was controlled, DDNs were higher in males than in females in all age groups. In addition to AFA, DDNs were associated with duration of illness (DUI), education, smoking and clinical status as well as with concurrently prescribed antidepressants, anti-manics, sedatives and hypnotics, but these factors did not explain the gender differences in DDN. CONCLUSIONS: The results did not support the original oestrogen hypothesis. It is proposed that testosterone secretion may explain why male schizophrenia patients are prescribed higher DDNs than female patients. Ageing processes in the central nervous system (CNS) may explain why DDNs decrease after middle age in both genders.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Violent victimization in schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: We investigated the 3-year prevalence, and the sociodemographic and clinical correlates of violent victimization in a large and unselected nationwide sample of deinstitutionalized patients with schizophrenia. METHODS: The sample comprised 670 schizophrenic patients aged 15-64 years, who had been discharged from psychiatric hospitals in Finland in 1994. Comprehensive data were collected from psychiatric case records on the patients' sociodemographic factors and psychiatric history, as well as the patients' overall level of functioning. The patients were interviewed 3 years after discharge by each district's psychiatric professionals using a structured interview schedule specifically designed for the purposes of the present study project. RESULTS: The prevalence of self-reported violent victimization during the 3-year follow-up was 5.6%. In the multivariate analysis, a poor financial situation, alcohol abuse and being a perpetrator of a violent or some other crime were associated with violent victimization. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of violent victimization among schizophrenic patients in Finland was markedly lower than that reported on patients in the United States or Great Britain, but correlates were similar. Patients with a poor financial situation and a history of alcohol misuse, as well as of violent behaviour, seem to have an increased risk for violent victimization, and constitute a vulnerable subgroup in this respect. This subgroup of deinstitutionalized patients with schizophrenia may need additional care and protection from the danger posed to them from other members of the society.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Elderly patients with major depressive disorder and delusional disorder are at increased risk of subsequent dementia.

All the patients (n=150) admitted to psychogeriatric clinic during a 1-year period were followed up until their death or for 10 years. Fifteen of these were lost during the 10-year follow-up. Thus, follow-up data were available for 135 patients. Twenty-four of these fulfilled at baseline the DSM-III-R diagnostic criteria of major depressive disorder and 18 of delusional disorder after careful medical examination and neuropsychological tests to eliminate organic causes. In the follow-up, the diagnoses were gathered from the death certificates of those patients who died during the 10-year period and all of the patients alive at the end of the study were interviewed to assess their mental state. Six out of the 24 (25%) patients with major depressive and five out of 18 (28%) patients with delusional disorder developed clear organic dementia before death or within 10 years (mean follow-up time 6.7 years). This is approximately double the expected incidence in the general population of that age. The gender, age at index admission, the baseline Mini Mental State Examination scores or findings in computer tomography did not contribute to the risk of dementia. Psychogeriatric patients admitted due to major mental disorder may have an increased risk of organic dementia in the near future.

Aged↗
PubMed2003

The amygdala and schizophrenia: a volumetric magnetic resonance imaging study in first-episode, neuroleptic-naive patients.

BACKGROUND: The attempts to evaluate amygdaloid volumes using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in patients with schizophrenia have yielded highly divergent results. METHODS: Volumes of the amygdala were measured in 22 healthy participants and 18 neuroleptic-naive patients with first-episode schizophrenia, while controlling for intracranial area, gender, age, and handedness. RESULTS: Persons with schizophrenia presented significantly lower amygdaloid volumes bilaterally. No significant correlations were found between the amygdaloid volumes and either the duration of the disease or the symptom severity. CONCLUSIONS: Amygdaloid volume anomalies are already present in the early phases of schizophrenia.

Adult↗