Biomedical subjects

S A Jönsson

Publications and source records attributed to S A Jönsson.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2000

Cerebellar abnormalities in mental illness. A study on Purkinje cell density in schizophrenic men.

The linear Purkinje cell density in the cerebellar vermis was investigated in a small cohort of adult onset schizophrenic men with well-documented hippocampal abnormalities. There were no differences in comparison with age-matched controls. This negative finding indicates that vermian abnormalities undoubtedly seen in some schizophrenic patients may constitute a subsyndrome, possibly related to autistic disorders in which cerebellar abnormalities are well corroborated.

Adult↗

PubMed1999

Pyramidal neuron size in the hippocampus of schizophrenics correlates with total cell count and degree of cell disarray.

Hippocampal pyramidal neuron size was determined in all Cornu Ammonis subregions - CA1-CA4 - in five chronic schizophrenic men and compared with eight controls matched with respect to age and sex. Four out of five probands and the same eight controls had been examined in a previous study showing a significantly lower cell count and disorientation of pyramidal cells in the CA1- CA3 subregions of the schizophrenics. There was also a negative correlation between the total number of cells and the number of disoriented cells. In this study it was shown that the schizophrenic probands also had significantly smaller neurons in all subregions. There was a significant negative correlation between pyramidal neuron size and the number of disarrayed neurons in each subregion, and there was a significant positive correlation between neuron size and the total number of pyramidal cells in CA1 and CA2, but not in CA3 and CA4. The consistency of hippocampal anomalies in these schizophrenics is, thus, demonstrated by the statistical relations between the different parameters examined.

Age Factors↗

PubMed1998

The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), but not the Defence Mechanism Test (DMTm), separates schizophrenics and normal controls in a factorial cluster analysis.

Ten schizophrenic patients and ten healthy control subjects matched with respect to sex, age and education were tested by a psychological test battery including WAIS, WCST, FAS and a modified version of the tachistoscopic Defence Mechanism Test (DMTm). In a Q-factor analysis two factors were derived in the analysis of DMTm test scores. The distribution of cases among these factors was wholly at random. On the other hand, when analysing WAIS scores, five factors were derived and schizophrenic cases as well as control subjects were almost unequivocally clustered by different factors. It is argued that also if an unequivocal categorisation of cases had been achieved in the analysis of DMTm data, such a finding might well have been interpreted as an effect of anomalies in cerebral structures assumed to be of critical importance in the filtering of signals in the stream of visual perception. The existence of such anomalies in schizophrenics is now well established by neuroimaging as well as postmortem studies, and findings are also well in accordance with phenomenological and physiological data. The failure of DMTm to separate schizophrenic and control subjects does thus make the second and important step in a discussion on validity entirely superfluous, namely whether signs recorded really measure what they are assumed to measure, in this case defence mechanisms in a psychoanalytic sense.

Adult↗

PubMed1998

Uniform abnormalities in the hippocampus of five chronic schizophrenic men compared with age-matched controls.

In a post-mortem study five chronic schizophrenic men were matched with respect to age and sex to five control subjects without a known history of psychiatric illness, and were compared in pairs with regard to neurone number and pyramidal cell orientation in the left hippocampus. All five schizophrenics had significantly more disoriented pyramidal cells in the Cornu Ammonis subregions CA1-CA3 than their matched controls. They also had significantly fewer pyramidal cells in the observed areas of CA1 and CA3, but not in CA2 and CA4. There was no difference in the number of granular cells of the dentate gyrus. In pairwise comparisons the pattern was never reversed with respect to these two parameters, except in a single case where one schizophrenic proband had more cells in subregion CA2. In the absence of gliosis the findings were interpreted as sequelae of an early, presumably prenatal, injury.

Aged↗

PubMed1997

Hippocampal pyramidal cell disarray correlates negatively to cell number: implications for the pathogenesis of schizophrenia.

Brains from patients with therapy-refractory schizophrenia were examined with respect to pyramidal cell disarray in the hippocampus, a finding reported in some studies, but not confirmed in others. A significantly higher number of disarrayed cells was seen in the brains of the schizophrenic patients in all subfields of the Cornu Ammonis (CA) investigated. Compared with controls the schizophrenic patients also had significantly fewer pyramidal cells in the observed areas of CA1-CA3, but not in CA4. There were no signs of gliosis. Finally, there was a significant negative correlation between the number of disarrayed cells and the total number of pyramidal cells in CA1-3 in the group of probands and controls taken together, a finding interpreted as lending support to the idea of a prenatal migratory disturbance in the pathogenesis of schizophrenic syndromes.

Aged↗

PubMed1992

Outcome in untreated schizophrenia: a search for symptoms and traits with prognostic meaning in patients admitted to a mental hospital in the preneuroleptic era.

A cohort of schizophrenic patients consecutively admitted to a mental hospital for the first time in 1925 was investigated in search of symptoms and traits with prognostic meaning. Since Leonhard's diagnostic system was applied, cases with mixed symptoms and a favourable outcome were excluded as being neither schizophrenic nor manic-depressive. Owing to the admission policy then prevailing, cases with clinically less striking and socially less deleterious features were underrepresented. The sample (n = 70), so demarcated, was still considered fairly appropriate for the purpose of a differential study of outcome in nuclear schizophrenia with a life-long follow-up. The best outcome group consisted of 33% of the sample; 24% formed an intermediate group, and 43% profoundly deteriorated with continuous psychotic symptoms and a total loss of social function. Marriage before index admission was the only characteristic related to a favourable outcome. Nuclear schizophrenic symptoms, thought disturbance, blunted affect and all catatonic symptoms listed in DSM-III were related to an unfavourable outcome. When prognostic subgroups were compared pairwise, no favourable trait was detectable, and there were no decisive differences between the group with the best outcome and the intermediate group. When these 2 groups were compared with the group with worst outcome, however, significant differences arose with respect to unfavourable characteristics. Predictions using a discriminant analytic procedure yielded the same results. The hypothesis that affective and atypical signs would also have prognostic meaning in nuclear schizophrenia was disproved.

Aged↗

PubMed1992

Clusters in a cohort of untreated schizophrenia: prognostic importance, atypical cases and the familial versus sporadic distinction.

In search of features of prognostic importance, a cohort of patients admitted to a mental hospital in 1925 was investigated by means of multivariate clustering techniques. Using K-means cluster analysis or Q-factor analysis, a group containing cases with unfavourable prognosis was isolated. Other groups derived were prognostically heterogeneous. One group of patients, in early phases similar to good prognosis schizoaffective psychoses, could be distinguished and characterized by non-symptom items. There was initial periodicity and onset was acute. They were, on average, younger than the other subjects and there was no personality deviation or emotional disturbance before onset of disease. A family history of mental illness was rare. Two of the factors were positively and negatively characterized by items covering familial history of mental illness, thus seemingly confirming the familial vs sporadic distinction in the subclassification of schizophrenia. Though the clinical pictures were distinctively different at the time when the ratings underlying the analysis were made, approximately the same proportion of cases in the two groups had independently been diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenia--also taking the course of illness into account. It could furthermore be shown that the population at risk--siblings and children of subjects--as well as the observed number of years at risk in these groups were significantly smaller in the sporadic group than in the familial group. This was a combined effect of a lower fertility in subjects and parents in the sporadic group and a higher rate of drop out due to mortality and other reasons among siblings of these subjects. The same tendency was indicated when subjects with and without family history irrespective of factor belongingness were compared. It cannot be concluded that the familial vs sporadic distinction is without relevance in the research on schizophrenia, but its essence may easily be obscured, if the population at risk is not taken into account.

Adult↗

PubMed1992

Cycloid psychosis and affective disorder: borderland cases.

A subsample of untreated cycloid psychoses satisfying the requirements for major affective disorder according to DSM-III was compared with a subsample of cycloid psychoses getting other DSM-III diagnoses. The concept of cycloid psychosis applied thus was wider than permitted by the criteria stipulated by Perris and Brockington with respect to the prominence of the mood component. Since it could be demonstrated that no decisive differences prevailed with respect to frequencies of single features tested, a modified discriminant analytic procedure was applied. In this analysis, 76% of cases were correctly assigned. On average affective cases were more similar to the score profile derived from the nonaffective group than nonaffective cases were to the same profile, i.e. to themselves. Symptomatologically the affective cases had their main point in a distinctive confusion syndrome.

Cohort Studies↗

PubMed1991

Marriage rate and fertility in cycloid psychosis: comparison with affective disorder, schizophrenia and the general population.

A cohort of patients with cycloid psychosis (n = 34) admitted to hospital for the first time in 1925 was compared with affective patients (n = 30) and schizophrenic patients (n = 81) admitted at the same time as well as with the general population in the catchment area. The marriage rate in cycloid probands was in accordance with that of the general population at index admission. Five years later it was significantly lower than expected, but after 10 years the marriage rate was statistically in accordance with expected figures. Fertility was significantly higher than in schizophrenic probands (P less than 0.001). Fertility in cycloid women was in accordance with expected figures based on the mean fertility of birth cohorts of women. It was, however, significantly lower than expected, both in affective women (P less than 0.05) and in schizophrenic women (P less than 0.0001). Prepsychotic fertility (before the index episode) did not significantly diverge from expected figures in cycloid women. It was, however, significantly lower both in affectively ill (P less than 0.05) and schizophrenic women (P less than 0.001). Postpsychotic fertility in cycloid women was in accordance with expected figures. In affective women it also approximated normality, but in schizophrenic women it was significantly lower than expected. Marital fertility was within the expected interval in cycloid probands. The observations are in support of the opinion that neither prepsychotic nor postpsychotic conditions constitute an unsurmountable obstacle to normal social adaptation in cycloid patients. The differences are also interpreted as an argument in favour of nosological autonomy of the category of cycloid psychosis.

Adult↗

PubMed1991

The concept of cycloid psychosis: the discriminatory power of symptoms.

Records of all 154 psychotic patients first admitted to a psychiatric hospital in 1925 were rated according to a checklist of 33 dichotomous items expected to characterize cycloid and schizoaffective psychosis; 64 cases satisfied 5 or more items. Among them, 34 were globally judged as cycloid and showed a favourable outcome when followed up. The remaining 30 cases were used as a contrast sample, consisting of schizoaffective psychotics with an unfavourable outcome and schizophrenics and affective patients who shared some symptoms with the experiment group. Six symptoms significantly more frequent in the cycloid group were all characteristic for confusional and anxiety or happiness psychoses in the sense of Leonhard. Happiness-ecstacy and global altruism were exclusively recorded in cycloid psychosis. A discriminant analysis yielded a significant proportion of correct predictions. The result was thought to be relevant for differential therapeutic strategies.

Adult↗

PubMed1991

The concept of cycloid psychosis: sensitivity and specificity of syndromes derived by multivariate clustering techniques.

A total of 154 patients admitted for the first time to hospital for a psychotic or affective disorder in 1925 were rediagnosed in accordance with DSM-III and Leonhard's diagnostic system. Symptoms were rated in accordance with a rating protocol containing 33 items based on Leonhard's descriptions of cycloid psychoses. The patients were followed up through parish registers and hospital records. Of 42 cases considered to be cycloid psychosis at index admission, 34 were prognostically verified. The symptom ratings of the 154 patients were analysed by K-means cluster analysis to test whether the patients with cycloid psychoses would separate from the rest of the material. With a 2-cluster solution, 30 of 34 cases (88%) were contained in the same cluster. The sensitivity of the ratings was therefore judged to be acceptable. Specificity was low, however, since 19 cases in the cluster were differently diagnosed. A subcohort of 64 patients, satisfying at least 5 items of the rating protocol, was then analysed by Q-factor analysis to test whether nuclear cases of cycloid psychosis differ from symptomatically related syndromes. No such differences could be statistically verified; no symptom profile specifically indicating cycloid psychosis could be found. Prominent confusion symptoms appear, however, to be prognostically favourable, whereas motility symptoms without confusion seem to indicate an unfavourable course.

Affective Disorders, Psychotic↗