15 research outputs found
Family 4 - Both siblings affected with severe functioning impairment.
<p>Father probably affected but with no definite diagnosis and with no contact to the family.</p
Family 3 - Two individuals affected enrolled, but clear evidence of other cases in previous generations.
<p>Both cases are paranoid schizophrenia, but with mild functional impairment and good response to antipsychotic treatment.</p
Genomewide linkage results for the BEOS study.
<p>Genomewide linkage results for the BEOS study.</p
Family 1 - Three individuals affected with paranoid, treatment-resistant schizophrenia were enrolled.
<p>Father probably affected as reported by other family members but had no lifetime diagnosis. Another sibling, with a clear history of psychotic symptoms, committed suicide.</p
Family 2 - Five individuals affected enrolled: 2 paranoid, 1 hebephrenic, 1 schizoaffective and 1 with a DSM-IV diagnosis of psychosis not otherwise specified, probably an schyzotypal personality disorder.
<p>Both sides present history of schizophrenia over generations with no relation between them. In both sides there is also high incidence of cancers (retinoblastoma and brain tumors).</p
The economic impact of subthreshold and clinical childhood mental disorders
<p><i>Background</i>: Mental disorders are common health problems associated with serious impairment and economic impact.</p> <p><i>Aims</i>: To estimate the costs of clinical and subthreshold mental disorders in a sample of Brazilian children.</p> <p><i>Method</i>: The High Risk Cohort Study is a community study conducted in two major Brazilian cities. Subjects were 6-14 years old children being registered at school. From an initial pool of 9937 children, two subgroups were further investigated using a random-selection (<i>n</i> = 958) and high-risk group selection procedure (<i>n</i> = 1554), resulting in a sample of 2512 subjects. Mental disorder assessment was made using the Development and Well-Being Assessment. Costs for each child were estimated from the following components: mental health and social services use, school problems and parental loss of productivity.</p> <p><i>Results:</i> Child subthreshold and clinical mental disorders showed lifetime mean total cost of 3141.2, respectively. National lifetime cost estimate was 11.6 billion for clinical mental disorders (values in US$ purchasing power parity).</p> <p><i>Conclusions</i>: This study provides evidence that child mental disorders have a great economic impact on society. There is an urgent need to plan an effective system of care with cost-effective programs of treatment and prevention to reduce economic burden.</p
The Economic Impact of Subthreshold and Clinical Childhoo Mental Disorders: Supplemental Material
<p>Supplemental online material for the Journal of Mental Health article "The Economic
Impact of Subthreshold and Clinical Childhood Mental Disorders". </p><p><br></p>
<p>Background: Mental
disorders are common health problems associated with serious impairment and
economic impact. Aims: To estimate the costs of clinical and
subthreshold mental disorders in a sample of Brazilian children. Method: The
High Risk Cohort Study is a community study conducted in two major Brazilian
cities. Subjects were 6-14 years old children being registered at school. From
an initial pool of 9,937 children, two subgroups were further investigated
using a random-selection (n=958) and high-risk group selection procedure
(n=1,554), resulting in a sample of 2,512 subjects. Mental disorder
assessment was made using the Development and Well-Being Assessment. Costs for
each child were estimated from the following components: mental health and
social services use, school problems and parental loss of productivity. Results: Child subthreshold
and clinical mental disorders showed lifetime mean total cost of 3,141.2, respectively. National lifetime cost estimate was 12.8 billion for clinical mental disorders
(values in US$ purchasing power parity). Conclusions: This study
provides evidence that child mental disorders have a great economic impact on
society. There is an urgent need to plan an effective system of care with
cost-effective programs of treatment and prevention to reduce economic burden.</p
Gene expression analysis in blood of ultra-high risk subjects compared to first-episode of psychosis patients and controls
<div><p></p><p><i>Objectives.</i> This study aimed to investigate peripheral blood gene expression in ultra-high-risk subjects (UHR) compared to first-episode psychosis individuals (FEP) and healthy controls (HC). <i>Methods.</i> We enrolled 22 UHR, 66 FEP and 67 HC and investigated the expression of 12 genes using Taqman assays. We used the Univariate General Linear Model, as well as Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons. <i>Results.</i> We found that <i>UFD1L</i> (ubiquitin fusion degradation 1 like (yeast)) gene was upregulated in UHR group compared to HC and FEP (<i>P = </i>3.44 × 10<sup>–6</sup> ; <i>P = </i>9.41 × 10<sup>–6</sup>). <i>MBP</i> (myelin basic protein) was downregulated in UHR compared to FEP (<i>P = </i>6.07 × 10<sup>–6</sup>). <i>DISC1</i> (disrupted in schizophrenia 1) was also upregulated in UHR compared to FEP but lost statistical significance when corrected for age. <i>Conclusions.</i> These genes are directly related to neurodevelopmental processes and have been associated to schizophrenia. Recent findings described that <i>DISC1</i> overexpression can disrupt <i>MBP</i> expression, thus, we think that these alterations in UHR individuals could be associated with a common process. <i>UFD1L</i> showed a different pattern of expression only for UHR group, suggesting that they can be under an acute endoplasmatic reticulum stress, demanding elevated levels of Ufd1. Further studies can improve knowledge on disease progression and putative targets to preventive strategies.</p></div
Descriptive characteristics of the study population.
<p>TR: Treatment resistant; NTR: Non-treatment resistant; GAF: Global Assessment of Functioning; CGI: Clinical Global Impression; PANSS: Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale; N: sample size; SCZ: schizophrenia.</p
Socioeconomic Disadvantage Moderates the Association between Peripheral Biomarkers and Childhood Psychopathology
<div><p>Background</p><p>Socioeconomic disadvantage (SED) has been consistently associated with early life mental health problems. SED has been shown to impact multiple biological systems, including the regulation of neurotrophic proteins, immune-inflammatory and oxidative stress markers, which, conversely, have been reported to be relevant to physiological and pathological neurodevelopment This study investigated the relationship between SED, different domains of psychopathology, serum levels of interleukin-6 (IL6), thiobarbituric acid-reactive substance (TBARS) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). We hypothesized that a composite of socioeconomic risk would be associated with psychopathology and altered levels of peripheral biomarkers. In addition, we hypothesized that SED would moderate the associations between mental health problems, IL6, TBARS and BDNF.</p><p>Methods and Findings</p><p>Using a cross-sectional design, we measured the serum levels of IL6, TBARS and BDNF in 495 children aged 6 to 12. We also investigated socio-demographic characteristics and mental health problems using the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) DSM-oriented scales. SED was evaluated using a cumulative risk model. Generalized linear models were used to assess associations between SED, biomarkers levels and psychopathology. SED was significantly associated with serum levels of IL6 (RR = 1.026, 95% CI 1.004; 1.049, p = 0.020) and TBARS (RR = 1.077, 95% CI 1.028; 1.127, p = 0.002). The association between SED and BDNF was not statistically significant (RR = 1.031, 95% CI 0.997; 1.066, p = 0.077). SED was also significantly associated with all CBCL DSM-oriented scales (all p < 0.05), whereas serum biomarkers (i.e. IL6, TBARS, BDNF) were associated with specific subscales. Moreover, the associations between serum biomarkers and domains of psychopathology were moderated by SED, with stronger correlations between mental health problems, IL6, TBARS, and BDNF being observed in children with high SED.</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>In children, SED is highly associated with mental health problems. Our findings suggest that this association may be moderated via effects on multiple interacting neurobiological systems.</p></div