Controlled clinical and psychometric studies on the relation between periodontitis and depressive mood.

BACKGROUND: Depressive mood is considered a risk factor for the development of periodontitis. OBJECTIVES: Investigation of the relationship between periodontitis and psychopathology utilizing psychometry (both observer- and self-rating scales). METHODS: Forty periodontitis patients were compared with 41 age- and sex-matched controls. The percentage of smokers was similar in both groups (30% versus 24.4%). Dental variables included probing depth, clinical attachment loss (CAL), radiographic loss of attachment, papillary bleeding index (PBI) and approximal plaque index (API). Psychometry comprised the Hamilton Depression Scale, the Zung Self-Rating Depression and Anxiety Scales, the von Zerssen Well-being and Complaint Scales, the Epworth Sleepiness Scale, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, the Quality-of-Life Index, crystallized intelligence and the Freiburg Personality Inventory (FPI). RESULTS: Multifactorial analysis of variance demonstrated increased depression and anxiety scores, reduced well-being, increased somatic complaints, deteriorated quality of life and introversion in periodontitis. Partial correlation analyses between psychometric measures and dental variables revealed positive correlations of periodontal disease severity/CAL with the depression/anxiety, subjective well-being and complaints scores, and a negative correlation with quality of life. The API was negatively correlated with social orientation, and the CAL was positively correlated with somatic complaints and introversion in the FPI. CONCLUSION: Our clinical-psychometric studies confirm depressive mood as a relevant pathogenetic factor for periodontitis.

Age-related cognitive decline in the menopause: effects of hormone replacement therapy on cognitive event-related potentials.

OBJECTIVE: Although epidemiological and clinical studies suggest that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) may protect against cognitive disorders and neurodegenerative diseases, the relation between estrogen and cognition in postmenopausal women remains controversial. METHODS: In a double-blind placebo-controlled, parallel group design study the effects of HRT with the estrogen-progestogen combination Presomen 1.25 compositum((R)) (1.25mg equine conjugated estrogens administered for 21 days plus the progestogen 5mg medrogeston given for 11 days) on event-related potentials (ERPs) in postmenopausal patients with age-related cognitive decline (DSM-IV code 780.9, ICD-10 code R 41.8) were investigated. After a pre-drug comparison with age-matched normal postmenopausal controls, 48 psychotropic drug-free patients aged 60 +/- 6 years were randomized to receive either placebo or verum for 4 months. ERPs were recorded before as well as on the 91-92 days of the study, which thus fell into the estrogen phase of the treatment during the fourth cycle. RESULTS: At baseline, patients showed a lengthening of P300 latency and an attenuation of P300 amplitudes as compared with normal controls. After HRT with Presomen, a significant shortening of P300 latency as compared with placebo was observed. CONCLUSIONS: The baseline P300 differences suggest that in the patient group the aging process was advanced, while after HRT with Presomen a significant improvement and normalization of information processing as indexed by P300 was observed.

[Electrodermal activity in heroin addicts and patients with methadone and morphine substitution]. / Elektrodermale Aktivität bei Heroinabhängigen sowie bei Patienten mit Methadon-bzw. Morphinsubstitution.

In the present investigation we tried to answer the question whether differences between heroin-dependent patients (n = 26, age: M = 24.96, SD = 6.30 years), a methadone substitution group (n = 20, age: M = 30.92, SD = 8.21 years) and a morphine substitution group (n = 20, age: M = 33.25, SD = 4.59 years) and healthy normals (n = 31, age: M = 25.07, SD = 4.62 years) could be found by means of measurement of electrodermal activity (SC, SCR, habituation of the SCR). Concerning "basal" skin conductance reflecting sympathetic activity, no significant differences were obtained. The methadone substitution group showed slight shortened onset latencies (information processing). In the morphine substitution group as compared to the other groups a small increase of the amplitude was observed indicating a slight increase in cognitive emotional intensity of appraisal after presentation of an acoustic stimulus. This small changes could be mediated by adaptation processes of the vegetative nervous system to the opioid, which occur "below" of those neuronal networks connected directly with the emotional stimuli processing. Concerning the speed of habituation no significant differences between the groups could be obtained. This indicates that no psychovegetative attenuation could be observed. The morphine substitution group as compared to the other groups was characterized by a longer persistence and a small increase of the intensity of excitement. However these variables ranged within normal limits and did not reach the level of statistical significance. This could be mediated by the effects of the opioid on the vegetative nervous system.

Visualizing central effects of S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAMe), a natural molecule with antidepressant properties, by pharmaco-EEG mapping.

In a double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over study, the central effects of the natural molecule S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAMe), or ademetionine (ADE), used in low doses as a nutraceutical and in higher doses as a pharmaceutical, were investigated by means of EEG mapping and psychometry. Ten young, normal healthy volunteers of both sexes, with a mean age of 25.2+3.9 yr received, in random order, infusions of 800 mg ADE in 250 ml of isotonic solution, and placebo consisting of 250 ml of isotonic solution administered over 30 min for 7 d, with a wash-out period of 3 wk in between. EEG recordings and psychometric tests were carried out 0, 1, 3 and 6 h after drug administration on days 1 and 7. While there were no significant changes in psychometric findings, multivariate analyses of the EEG results based on MANOVA/Hotelling T 2 tests demonstrated significant encephalotropic effects of ADE compared to placebo. ADE-induced changes were characterized by a decrease in total power, an increase in absolute delta power and a decrease in absolute alpha and beta power, further by an increase in relative delta and beta power and a decrease in relative alpha power, a slowing of the delta/theta centroid, an acceleration of the alpha centroid as well as a slowing of the centroid of the total power spectrum. These changes are typical of classical antidepressants of the thymoleptic type such as imipramine and amitriptyline. Time-efficacy calculations demonstrated a significant central effect of ADE in the first hour after the first infusion, declining slowly until the third hour and thereafter steeply until the sixth hour; a further significant effect was after 1 wk of daily infusions and in the third hour after one superimposed infusion on day 7 of subacute treatment. Our pharmaco-EEG findings suggest both inhibitory and excitatory drug effects at the neurophysiological level, underlying the antidepressant properties well-documented in clinical trials.

Nicergolina na demência senil do tipo Alzheimer e na demeência multi-infarto: um estudo clínico duplo-cego, controlado com placebo e de mapeamento do EEG/PRE / Nicergoline in senile dementia of Alzheimer type and multi-infarct dementia: a double-blind, placebo-controlled, clinical and EEG/ERP mapping study

Num estudo duplo-cego controlado com placebo sobre a eficácia terapêutica e os efeitos centrais da nicergolina, um alcalóide do Ergot com açäo metabólica, antitrombótica e vasoativa, foram incluídos 112 pacientes com demência leve e moderada, diagnosticada de acordo com os critérios do DSM III-R (MMS 13-25), que viviam em lares para aposentados. Cinqüenta e seis deles foram subdiagnosticados como demência senil do tipo Alzheimer (DSTA), 56 como demência multi-infarto (DMI), com base em tomogafia computadorizada e em avaliaçöes de Hachinski (menor ou igual 49 DSTA, maior ou igual 7 DMI). Eles receberam, após um período de tratamento de duas semanas (placebo), randomizados por oitos semanas, 2 x 30 mg de nicergolina (NIC) ou 2 x 1 de placebo (PLAC) via oral...