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Biomedical subjects

V Lehtinen

Publications and source records attributed to V Lehtinen.

72 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1985

Prevalence of severe dementia in Finland.

A sample of 8,000 subjects to represent the population of Finland aged 30 years and over was used to identify patients with severe dementia; 141 cases were found. The prevalence of all types of severe dementia was 1.8% in the whole study population and 6.7% in the population aged 65 years and over. The prevalence increased with advancing age to 17.3% in the age group 85 years and over. Primary degenerative dementia constituted 50% of all cases; multi-infarct and combined dementia, 39%; and secondary dementia, 11%. Fifty-seven percent of the patients lived in institutions.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Unemployment and mental disturbance.

Most of the investigations on unemployment and mental disorder tend to indicate that these two issues have a clear, but not very strong, association. The data from these studies seem further to indicate that this association is not a linear cause-effect relationship in either direction, but a circular or interactional relationship. Unemployment may affect mental health by acting as a precipitating factor. But, on the other hand, it is evident that the risk for the mentally disturbed to become unemployed is clearly greater than for other people. Many other factors besides unemployment and mental disorder act in this complex interaction network too. All unemployed are not similar, but such factors as age, education, domicile, family, other social ties, and personality have a great effect on the whole. Work is an important resource for mental health. Unemployment can be regarded as a risk factor because it means that the individual loses the positive and supporting elements which work has. The negative factors are (i) the lack of emotional and economic security, (ii) the perplexity of the time perspective, (iii) isolation, (iv) identity diffusion, and (v) a general sense of frustration.

Attitude↗
PubMed1982

A double-blind comparison of zimelidine and amitriptyline in depressive out-patients.

A double-blind, randomized clinical study was conducted in thirty-four out-patients suffering from major depressive disorders comparing zimelidine with amitriptyline. The dosage was flexible, maintenance doses varying between 50-150 mg in the amitriptyline group and 50-300 mg in the zimelidine group. After a wash-out period of at least a week the mean score in Hamilton Rating Scale for depression (HRS) was 22.2 for zimelidine and 21.9 for amitriptyline. During the treatment period of 6 weeks, zimelidine and amitriptyline appeared to be equally effective as antidepressants in HRS and Global Ratings. The zimelidine group showed significantly less somnolence and dry mouth. No clinically important changes were seen in the laboratory parameters during the study.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

Psychosomatic disorder: a treatment problem more difficult than neurosis? A comparative clinical study of psychosomatic and neurotic patients of the psychiatric policlinic of a general hospital.

Two patient groups from the psychiatric policlinic of a general hospital were compared, the first comprised 93 patients with severe psychosomatic disorders who were not diagnosed as neurotic, and the second, 133 neurotic patients without psychosomatic symptoms. The aim of the study was to clarify anamnestic and personality differences between the groups and investigate their treatment motivation. The psychosomatic patients showed less motivation for psychiatric treatment, even though their psychiatric impairment was more severe than that of the neurotics and although the extent of their psychological symptoms was equally great. Compared with the neurotic patients, the ability to tolerate stress was poorer and the attitude toward the interview and the interviewer was more defensive in the psychosomatic patients. Compared with the neurotics, medical services were utilized to a greater extent by the psychosomatic patients, and their childhood environment and background development were characterized by somewhat more psychological disturbance.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1980

Treatment prevalence in psychiatric outpatient care in Finland. A comparative study of two areas.

Psychiatric outpatients are surveyed in two separate areas, one (the city of Turku) with clearly above-average provision of mental-health services and the other (predominantly rural Eastern Satakunta) with services corresponding to the average for the country as a whole. The results show that in Turku 3.25% and in Eastern Satakunta 1.98% of the population aged 15 years or more had visited an outpatient treatment unit during the 4-month observation period. Compared with Eastern Satakunta, the patients in turku were relatively more often young persons, men (nearly as often as women), persons in the higher social classes and patients with psychiatric disorders other then psychosis. Treatment received by the patients in Turku was more intensive and included more psychotherapeutic elements. Particularly family-type and group-type therapies were more common in Turku than in Eastern satakunta. The results are considered from the viewpoint for both epidermiologic research and health care policy.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

Long-term nitrazepam treatment in psychiatric out-patients with insomnia.

Psychiatric patients (N = 26) were treated chronically (from 1 week to 12 years) with nitrazepam, because of insomnia. The patients gave their subjective estimations of the effects and side effects of nitrazepam. The concentrations of nitrazepam in the plasma were measured by 63Ni-EC-gas-liquid chromatography. The pharmacokinetics of nitrazepam were compared between the psychiatric patients and healthy volunteers (N = 11). The steady-state concentrations and the half-life of nitrazepam in the psychiatric patients were comparable to those of the healthy volunteers. The subjective hypnotic effect of nitrazepam was mostly good or satisfactory and remained unchanged during long-term treatment. Only a few, mild side effects were reported. Nitrazepam does not seem to cause enzyme induction with lowered plasma levels and may therefore be of special value in the treatment of chronic insomnia.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

Human pharmacokinetics of nitrazepam: effect of age and diseases.

Plasma concentrations of nitrazepam were measured by gas-liquid chromatography in: young healthy volunteers, in geriatric and psychiatric patients and in epileptic children. The disposition of nitrazepam was described in terms of a two-compartment open model. After a single oral dose of nitrazepam 5 mg the most prominent differences between the experimental groups were in the beta-phase half-life mean 29 h in the young volunteers and 40 h in geriatric patients , and in the apparent volume of distribution during the beta-phase of 2.4 vs 4.8 1/kg. Total plasma clearance and the average steady state concentration in both groups were equal. The plasma level rose at a rate proportional to the beta-phase half-life, and so, they were achieved more rapidly in the young than in the old subjects (3.5 vs 7.5 d). No change in steady-state level or in the half-life of nitrazepam were found during long term treatment, which indicates lack of enzyme induction or inhibition. In 95% of the epileptic children with a good to fair clinical response, the plasma concentration of nitrazepam was 40-180 ng/ml (mean 114 ng/ml). As all of the patients were on combined antiepileptic therapy, no attempt was made to correlate plasma level with therapeutic response.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

Social-demographic aspects in the attitudes towards mental illness in a Finnish population.

Attitudes towards mental illness were studied in a random population of 1,000 subjects from southern and northern Finland using a Likert-type attitude scale. Correlations between attitudes and social-demographic variables were studied with one-way variance analysis and with specific multivariable techniques (AID and MCA). The best correlations were established between educational standard and attitudes, and between age and attitudes; higher education and younger age correlated with positive attitudes. Even social group and attitudes seemed to be distinctly correlated: the higher the social status, the more positive the attitudes. No difference could be demonstrated between residents from southern and northern Finland; rural subjects, however, possessed distinctly more negative attitudes than urban residents. According to the authors the most striking result was the observation that females show somewhat (statistically very significantly) more negative attitudes than males. It could also be established that the attitudes of female subjects varied greatly in various groups of variables.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1976

Globus hystericus-a psychosomatic disease?

Twenty patients with a chief complaint of a lump in the throat, were examined otolacyngologically, radiographically, and psychiatrically with special attention directed to psychosomatic aspects. The control material consisted of matched sample persons of the general population, and of the total patient material treated at a general hospital.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

A psychosomatic approach to the globus hystericus syndrome.

Twenty patients with lump in the throat as their main subjective symptom, were examined otorhinolaryngologically, radiographically, and psychiatrically with special attention to psychosomatic aspects. The control materials consisted of matched sample subjects of the total population, and of the total patient material treated at a general hospital. A considerably greater number of psychic disturbances were found in globus patients than in the matching control material. The personality picture of the patients was markedly obsessive possibly suggesting a psychosomatic syndrome rather than a pure hysterical conversion syndrome, at least in part of the patients. The globus patients could be divided into two groups, equal in size, according to the presence or absence of psychic disturbances. The group with manifest psychic disturbances had often experienced some significant life incident prior to the appearance of the globus syndrome; they also displayed few somatic findings, which, on the other hand, were abundant in psychically healthy patients.

Adult↗