Amplitudes and Resonances from an Energy-Dependent Analysis of pbar+p -> pi+pi

The amplitudes at a series of discrete energies obtained from a previuos analysis of pbar+p -> pi+pi have been used as input to a global energy- dependent analysis of data in the momentum range 360 - 1550 MeV/c. The results confirm the previous analysis and yield refined values for meson resonance parameters in this energy region.Comment: 8 pages, LaTex, 2 postscript figures, a reference is correcte

The problems of inattention: methods and interpretations. (Editorial)

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Monoamine activity reflected in urine of young patients with obsessive compulsive disorder, psychosis with and without reality distortion and healthy subjects: an explorative analysis

Introduction: Positive psychotic symptoms are reported to be associated with high dopamine (DA), negative symptoms with low DA activity and serotonin (5-HT) activity may be altered in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Method: We analysed 24h urine samples in groups of patients with OCD, paranoid and non-paranoid schizophrenia and in healthy controls for supportive evidence. Results: Young unmedicated OCD subjects excreted more adrenaline (AD) and homovanillic acid (HVA) and showed a higher HVA/MHPG metabolite ratio and metabolic rate than healthy controls. Independent of general metabolic rate OCD patients showed higher HVA concentrations which suggests that the relative activity of catecholamine systems in OCD (HVA/MHPG) is due more to high DA than to low noradrenergic (NA) activity. Concentrations of 5-HT were also high in OCD patients. In psychotic patients low levels of DA, HVA, NA and MHPG probably resulted from neuroleptic medication. Conclusions: 1. Patients diagnosed with paranoid psychosis showed higher DA utilization than controls and those with few paranoid symptoms showed high 5-HT utilization. 2. These results support studies suggesting that paranoid psychosis is associated more with increased DA activity (discussed in the context of neuroleptic reactivity), that non-paranoid forms are associated more with increased 5-HT activity and that OCD patients are unusually aroused with high levels of Adrenaline, 5-HT and HVA

Plasma neuropeptide-Y levels, monoamine metabolism, electrolyte excretion and drinking behavior in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder

Introduction: This study was conducted against a background of the following four points: a) increased drinking behavior in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), b) the parallel between some behaviours associated with ADHD and with hypertension, c) the use of the spontaneously hypertensive rat as a model for ADHD, and d) similarities in the changes of neuropeptide-Y (NPY) and catecholamine in the studies of hypertension and drinking, Methods: Measures of NPY, catecholamines and electrolyte balance were compared in the plasma and urine of healthy children and those with ADHD. Drinking was monitored during three hours of neuropsychological tests over two days in 14 ADHD (mean 9.8 years-of-age) and 9 healthy children (10.6 years-of-age). Results: Patients drank 4 times more water and showed twice the levels of NPY in controls. In controls there were positive and in patients there were negative relationships for NPY with drinking and restless behavior. Patients' plasma levels of norepinephrine (NE) and epinephrine were slightly elevated, but urinary levels of NE and the serotonin metabolite were markedly increased. Urinary excretion rates for sodium (not potassium), phosphate and, especially calcium were decreased in patients. NPY levels were inversely related to calcium excretion and drinking inversely to sodium circulating (but positively with potassium and phosphate excretion). Conclusions: Increases of drinking and increased levels of circulating NPY in ADHD children and decreased electrolyte excretion may reflect a common disturbance in the homeostatic control of metabolism.This may contribute to the impairments of attentional and behavioural control typical of ADHD children

Attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity (ADDH): the contribution of catecholaminergic activity

Introduction: An attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity in children (ADDH, later known as ADHD) is now recognized in most countries, although diagnostic practices differ. Evidence is presented to show that the two cardinal symptoms of poor attentional performance and a high degree of motor activity may be functionally and causally separate. Psychobiology: Both attentional and motor-activity alterations are temporarily relieved in a proportion of subjects that respond to psychostimulants. Beneficial treatment decreases noradrenergic (NA) metabolism and normalizes variable levels of dopaminergic (DA) metabolism. Clinical and animal models: Parallels are drawn with other clinical syndromes arising from changed catecholaminergic activity (cf. Phenylketonuria, Tourette's syndrome, Lesch-Nyhan syndrome) and with behavioral interpretations of the result of damage to the dorsal noradrenergic bundle and dopaminergic VTA A10 nucleus (an animal model). Biopsychological research directions: Prognosis of ADDH subjects after treatment remains relatively poor. There may be a further defect of neurotransmitter metabolism in the ADDH syndrome. Research strategies are suggested based on the neurobiological correlates of the cognitive style of ADDH subjects and limbic/septal function in the animal model of the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) Topics: 1 . Psychostimulant response ... Catecholamines / Serotonin, 2 . Electrophysiological and behavioral indices 3 . Responses to monoaminergic agents ... Precursors, L-DOPA, amino acids, monoamine oxidase and others: 4 . Clinical comparisons ... Phenylketonuria, Tourette's syndrome, Lesch-Nyhan syndrome: 5 . Models ... spontaneously hypertensive rat, neurobiology of hypertension Noradrenaline (NA), Glutamate (Glu), Neuropeptide Y (NPY) & Angiotensin, Serotonin (5-HT), Dopamine (DA): 6 . Link between behavior and cognition ... the septum and conditioned blocking measures of selective attention

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and glial integrity: an exploration of associations of cytokines and kynurenine metabolites with symptoms and attention

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In contrast to studies of depression and psychosis, the first part of this study showed no major differences in serum levels of cytokines and tryptophan metabolites between healthy children and those with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder of the combined type (ADHD). Yet, small decreases of potentially toxic kynurenine metabolites and increases of cytokines were evident in subgroups. Therefore we examined predictions of biochemical associations with the major symptom clusters, measures of attention and response variability.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We explored systematically associations of 8 cytokines (indicators of pro/anti-inflammatory function) and 5 tryptophan metabolites with symptom ratings (e.g. anxiety, opposition, inattention) and continuous performance test (CPT) measures (e.g. movement, response time (RT), variability) in 35 ADHD (14 on medication) and 21 control children. Predictions from linear regressions (controlled by the false discovery rate) confirmed or disconfirmed partial correlations accounting for age, body mass and socio-economic status.</p> <p>Results</p> <p><b>(1) </b>Total symptom ratings were associated with increases of the interleukins IL-16 and IL-13, where relations of IL-16 (along with decreased S100B) with hyperactivity, and IL-13 with inattention were notable. Opposition ratings were predicted by increased IL-2 in ADHD and IL-6 in control children. <b>(2) </b>In the CPT, IL-16 related to motor measures and errors of commission, while IL-13 was associated with errors of omission. Increased RT variability related to lower TNF-α, but to higher IFN-γ levels. <b>(3) </b>Tryptophan metabolites were not significantly related to symptoms. But increased tryptophan predicted errors of omission, its breakdown predicted errors of commission and kynurenine levels related to faster RTs.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Many associations were found across diagnostic groups even though they were more marked in one group. This confirms the quantitative trait nature of these features. Conceptually the relationships of the pro- and antiinflammatory cytokines distinguished between behaviours associated more with cognitive or more with motor control respectively. Further study should extend the number of immunological and metabolic markers to confirm or refute the trends reported here and examine their stability from childhood to adolescence in a longitudinal design.</p

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and glial integrity: S100B, cytokines and kynurenine metabolism--effects of medication

Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) show a marked temporal variability in their display of symptoms and neuropsychological performance. This could be explained in terms of an impaired glial supply of energy to support neuronal activity

Conditioned blocking in patients with paranoid, non-paranoid psychosis or obsessive compulsive disorder: associations with symptoms, personality and monoamine metabolism

Introduction: Conditioned blocking (CB) refers to a delay in learning that a new stimulus, added during learning, has the same consequences as the conditioned stimulus already present. In animals such "learned inattention" depends on monoaminergic and limbic function and, thus, CB performance should be informative on selective information processing impairments found in subgroups of psychotic patients. Attenuated CB in acute schizophrenia has been reported to normalize rapidly. Method: This study examines in young patients the specificity of CB performance to illness, and its associations with symptoms, personality traits and monoaminergic metabolic status. Results: Performance: CB was attenuated in psychotic patients with nonparanoid symptoms (NP: n=12, mean age 17 years) with respect to obsessive compulsive (OCD: n=13, mean age 16 years) and healthy subjects (CON; n=29, mean age 18 years), but only a transient attenuation was observed in paranoid hallucinatory patients (PH: n=14, mean age 19 years). The severity of negative symptoms in psychosis and specific negative/positive symptoms in the NP/PH groups were associated with reduced CB. Outgoing personality traits in CON and OCD subjects correlated with CB. In NP patients attenuated CB was associated with increasing neurotic lability. In PH patients CB correlated positively with "manic" but negatively with psychotic or neurotic scores. Monoamines: Increased dopamine activity (24h urine samples) correlated positively with CB, but relative increases of noradrenaline metabolism in NP and serotonin metabolism in OCD patients interfered. Conclusions: Marked psychotic or neurotic traits and some negative symptom states were associated with reduced CB. The particular selective processing problems of NP patients may reflect inappropriate NA activity

Cycles of construing in radicalization and deradicalization: a study of Salafist Muslims.

© Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.This article explores radicalization and deradicalization by considering the experiences of six young Tunisian people who had become Salafist Muslims. Their responses to narrative interviews and repertory grid technique are considered from a personal construct perspective, revealing processes of construing and reconstruing, as well as relevant aspects of the structure and content of their construct systems. In two cases, their journeys involved not only radicalization but self-deradicalization, and their experiences are drawn on to consider implications for deradicalization.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio