Linked Life Data

8278011

Source:http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/id/8278011

Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
11
pubmed:dateCreated
1994-2-10
pubmed:abstractText
With the aim of detecting causal processes contributing to the onset of schizophrenic symptoms a systematic search strategy was worked out. One of the few epidemiological findings on schizophrenia consistently diverging from expected values, the sex difference in age at first admission, was taken as a basis and replicated on data from the Danish and the Mannheim case registers by controlling for selection and diagnostic artefacts. Danish psychiatrists turned out to have underdiagnosed schizophrenia to a considerable extent at least in 1976, the year from which the analysed case-register data dated. After the exclusion of alternative explanations, the time when symptoms appeared for the first time and the first acute episode occurred was determined for a representative sample of 267 first-admitted cases with a diagnosis of non-affective functional disorder by using the IRAOS interview designed for this purpose. At any of the definitions of first onset applied the mean age of females was significantly higher than that of males, the difference ranging from 3.2 to 4.1 years. The distribution of onsets across the female life cycle showed a clearly delayed increase at young age and a second, lower peak of onsets at the age of 45-54, whereas the cumulative incidence up to the age of 60 years was equal for males and females. On assessing the plausibility of psychosocial versus biological explanations it was hypothesized that due to the effect of estrogens the vulnerability threshold for schizophrenia is raised in females until the menopause. Animal experiments and postmortem analysis showed that chronic estrogen applications significantly shortened dopamine-induced behaviour and reduced D2 receptor sensitivity in the brain. The applicability of this pathophysiological mechanism on human schizophrenia was tested on acutely schizophrenic females with normal menstrual cycles. A significant negative correlation was found between measures of symptomatology and plasma estrogen levels. Apparently, the manifestation of schizophrenic symptoms is influenced by a sufficiently sensitive D2 receptor system in the brain, blocked by neuroleptics and modulated by estrogens.
pubmed:language
ger
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
Nov
pubmed:issn
0028-2804
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Print
pubmed:volume
64
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
706-16
pubmed:dateRevised
2006-11-15
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
1993
pubmed:articleTitle
[A chapter in systematic schizophrenia research--the search for causal explanations for sex differences in age of onset].
pubmed:affiliation
Zentralinstitut für Seelische Gesundheit, Mannheim.
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, English Abstract, Review