| 1. |
- Westius, Anders, et al.
(författare)
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Views of life and sense of identity in people with Alzheimer's disease
- 2010
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Ingår i: Ageing & Society. - Cambridge, United Kingdom : Cambridge university press. - 0144-686X .- 1469-1779. ; 30:7, s. 1257-1278
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Making it possible for people with Alzheimer's disease to retain a sense of identity during the process of the disease poses a great challenge to care-givers, professionals and family carers. The aim of this study is to elucidate the role of the view of life of people with Alzheimer's in framing their sense of identity. Is their view of life a vital aspect of their sense of identity? ‘View of life’ was interpreted as a vital aspect of sense of identity, understood as the individual's beliefs about their life history and about the attributes that characterised them. Twenty-one people with mild to moderate stages of Alzheimer's disease were interviewed about their life story. The narratives were interpreted using a phenomenological hermeneutic method. By telling their life story, the participants also narrated their view of life, i.e. their conception of reality, their central system of values and their basic emotional attitudes. By their own accounts, the origins of the narrators' central values and basic emotional attitudes were established in early life. They also expressed a sense of meaningfulness and continuity when looking back on their lives. The findings suggest that for a care-giver or confidant, having knowledge of a person with dementia's view of life is valuable when seeking to confirm that person's sense of identity.
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| 2. |
- Palmqvist, Sebastian, et al.
(författare)
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Detailed comparison of amyloid PET and CSF biomarkers for identifying early Alzheimer disease
- 2015
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Ingår i: Neurology. - : Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. - 1526-632X .- 0028-3878. ; 85:14, s. 1240-1249
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objective:To compare the diagnostic accuracy of CSF biomarkers and amyloid PET for diagnosing early-stage Alzheimer disease (AD).Methods:From the prospective, longitudinal BioFINDER study, we included 122 healthy elderly and 34 patients with mild cognitive impairment who developed AD dementia within 3 years (MCI-AD). -Amyloid (A) deposition in 9 brain regions was examined with [F-18]-flutemetamol PET. CSF was analyzed with INNOTEST and EUROIMMUN ELISAs. The results were replicated in 146 controls and 64 patients with MCI-AD from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative study.Results:The best CSF measures for identifying MCI-AD were A42/total tau (t-tau) and A42/hyperphosphorylated tau (p-tau) (area under the curve [AUC] 0.93-0.94). The best PET measures performed similarly (AUC 0.92-0.93; anterior cingulate, posterior cingulate/precuneus, and global neocortical uptake). CSF A42/t-tau and A42/p-tau performed better than CSF A42 and A42/40 (AUC difference 0.03-0.12, p < 0.05). Using nonoptimized cutoffs, CSF A42/t-tau had the highest accuracy of all CSF/PET biomarkers (sensitivity 97%, specificity 83%). The combination of CSF and PET was not better than using either biomarker separately.Conclusions:Amyloid PET and CSF biomarkers can identify early AD with high accuracy. There were no differences between the best CSF and PET measures and no improvement when combining them. Regional PET measures were not better than assessing the global A deposition. The results were replicated in an independent cohort using another CSF assay and PET tracer. The choice between CSF and amyloid PET biomarkers for identifying early AD can be based on availability, costs, and doctor/patient preferences since both have equally high diagnostic accuracy.Classification of evidence:This study provides Class III evidence that amyloid PET and CSF biomarkers identify early-stage AD equally accurately.
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| 3. |
- Munthe, Christian, 1962, et al.
(författare)
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The Return of Lombroso? Ethical Aspects of (Visions of) Preventive Forensic Screening
- 2015
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Ingår i: Public Health Ethics. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1754-9973 .- 1754-9981. ; 8:3, s. 270-283
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The vision of legendary criminologist Cesare Lombroso to use scientific theories of individual causes of crime as a basis for screening and prevention programmes targeting individuals at risk for future criminal behaviour has resurfaced, following advances in genetics, neuroscience and psychiatric epidemiology. This article analyses this idea and maps its ethical implications from a public health ethical standpoint. Twenty-seven variants of the new Lombrosian vision of forensic screening and prevention are distinguished, and some scientific and technical limitations are noted. Some lures, biases and structural factors, making the application of the Lombrosian idea likely in spite of weak evidence are pointed out and noted as a specific type of ethical aspect. Many classic and complex ethical challenges for health screening programmes are shown to apply to the identified variants and the choice between them, albeit with peculiar and often provoking variations. These variations are shown to actualize an underlying theoretical conundrum in need of further study, pertaining to the relationship between public health ethics and the ethics and values of criminal law policy.
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| 4. |
- Johansson, Per, 1966, et al.
(författare)
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Reduced cerebrospinal fluid concentration of interleukin-12/23 subunit p40 in patients with cognitive impairment.
- 2017
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Ingår i: PloS one. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 12:5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The role of inflammation in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other cognitive disorders is unclear. In a well-defined mono-center population, we measured cytokines and chemokines in paired serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples.Consecutive patients with AD (n = 30), stable mild cognitive impairment (SMCI, n = 11), other dementias (n = 11), and healthy controls (n = 18) were included. None of the subjects was treated with glucocorticoids, cholinesterase inhibitors, or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Serum and CSF concentrations of interleukin-6 (IL-6), IL-8, IL-12/23 p40, IL-15, IL-16, vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A), and three chemokines were measured using a multiplex panel.After correction for multiple comparisons, only CSF IL-12/23 p40 concentration differed significantly between the total patient group (n = 52) and controls (n = 18; p = 0.002). Further analyses showed that CSF IL-12/23 p40 concentration was decreased in all patient subgroups (AD, other dementias, and SMCI) compared to healthy controls (p < 0.01, p < 0.05, and p < 0.05, respectively). In the total study population (n = 70), CSF IL-12/23 p40 concentrations correlated positively with CSF concentrations of β-amyloid1-42 (Aβ1-42) and phosphorylated tau protein (P-tau) whereas in AD patients (n = 30), CSF IL-12/23 p40 only correlated positively with CSF P-Tau (r = 0.46, p = 0.01).Most cytokines and chemokines were similar in patients and controls, but CSF IL-12/23 subunit p40 concentration was decreased in patients with cognitive impairment, and correlated with markers of AD disease status. Further studies are needed to evaluate the role of CSF IL-12/23 p40 in other dementias and SMCI.
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| 5. |
- Paterson, R W, et al.
(författare)
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A targeted proteomic multiplex CSF assay identifies increased malate dehydrogenase and other neurodegenerative biomarkers in individuals with Alzheimer's disease pathology.
- 2016
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Ingår i: Translational psychiatry. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2158-3188. ; 6:11
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia. Biomarkers are required to identify individuals in the preclinical phase, explain phenotypic diversity, measure progression and estimate prognosis. The development of assays to validate candidate biomarkers is costly and time-consuming. Targeted proteomics is an attractive means of quantifying novel proteins in cerebrospinal and other fluids, and has potential to help overcome this bottleneck in biomarker development. We used a previously validated multiplexed 10-min, targeted proteomic assay to assess 54 candidate cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers in two independent cohorts comprising individuals with neurodegenerative dementias and healthy controls. Individuals were classified as 'AD' or 'non-AD' on the basis of their CSF T-tau and amyloid Aβ1-42 profile measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; biomarkers of interest were compared using univariate and multivariate analyses. In all, 35/31 individuals in Cohort 1 and 46/36 in Cohort 2 fulfilled criteria for AD/non-AD profile CSF, respectively. After adjustment for multiple comparisons, five proteins were elevated significantly in AD CSF compared with non-AD CSF in both cohorts: malate dehydrogenase; total APOE; chitinase-3-like protein 1 (YKL-40); osteopontin and cystatin C. In an independent multivariate orthogonal projection to latent structures discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA), these proteins were also identified as major contributors to the separation between AD and non-AD in both cohorts. Independent of CSF Aβ1-42 and tau, a combination of these biomarkers differentiated AD and non-AD with an area under curve (AUC)=0.88. This targeted proteomic multiple reaction monitoring (MRM)-based assay can simultaneously and rapidly measure multiple candidate CSF biomarkers. Applying this technique to AD we demonstrate differences in proteins involved in glucose metabolism and neuroinflammation that collectively have potential clinical diagnostic utility.
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| 6. |
- Kassberg, Ann-Charlotte, et al.
(författare)
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Ability to manage everyday technology after acquired brain injury
- 2013
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Ingår i: Brain Injury. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0269-9052 .- 1362-301X. ; 27:13-14, s. 1583-1588
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose: To investigate and describe how persons with an acquired brain injury (ABI) manage everyday technology (ET) in their daily activities and to explore whether the ability to manage ET was related to the severity of the disability. Method: Eighty-one persons with ABI were observed while managing ET by using the Management of Everyday Technology Assessment (META). The Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended (GOSE) was used to assess the severity of disability after the ABI. A computer application of a Rasch measurement model was used to generate measures of the participants’ ability to manage ET and the measures were compared groupwise with analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Results: The degree of severity of disability had a significant main effect on the ability to manage ET. The groups with severe and moderate disability exhibited a significantly lower ability to manage ET compared to the group with good recovery. Conclusion: The result indicates that the ability to manage ET in daily activities can be related to the global severity of disability after ABI. This demonstrates the importance of considering the ability to manage ET to support the performance of activities at home, at work and in society in persons with ABI.
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| 7. |
- Schöll, Michael, 1980, et al.
(författare)
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Biomarkers for tau pathology.
- 2019
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Ingår i: Molecular and cellular neurosciences. - : Elsevier BV. - 1095-9327 .- 1044-7431. ; 97, s. 18-33
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aggregation of fibrils of hyperphosphorylated and C-terminally truncated microtubule-associated tau protein characterizes 80% of all dementia disorders, the most common neurodegenerative disorders. These so-called tauopathies are hitherto not curable and their diagnosis, especially at early disease stages, has traditionally proven difficult. A keystone in the diagnosis of tauopathies was the development of methods to assess levels of tau protein in vivo in cerebrospinal fluid, which has significantly improved our knowledge about these conditions. Tau proteins have also been measured in blood, but the importance of tau-related changes in blood is still unclear. The recent addition of positron emission tomography ligands to visualize, map and quantify tau pathology has further contributed with information about the temporal and spatial characteristics of tau accumulation in the living brain. Together, the measurement of tau with fluid biomarkers and positron emission tomography constitutes the basis for a highly active field of research. This review describes the current state of biomarkers for tau biomarkers derived from neuroimaging and from the analysis of bodily fluids and their roles in the detection, diagnosis and prognosis of tau-associated neurodegenerative disorders, as well as their associations with neuropathological findings, and aims to provide a perspective on how these biomarkers might be employed prospectively in research and clinical settings.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Söderquist, Fanny
(författare)
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Melatonin in the gastrointestinal tract
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Melatonin is recognised as the pineal hormone regulating sleep and circadian rhythm. It has also been identified in peripheral tissues (mainly in animals) and thought to display a variety of actions, including anti-inflammatory properties, regulation of gastrointestinal (GI) functions, glucose homeostasis and beneficial effects in different tumour types. Patients with irritable bowel disorder commonly exhibit psychiatric co-morbidity and disturbances of the gut-brain axis have been proposed to play a role in these disorders. The focus of this thesis was to study melatonin and melatonin receptors in the normal human GI tract, the pancreas and small intestinal neuroendocrine tumours. The thesis also explores the complex relationship between GI symptoms and underlying psychiatric traits in the context of elevated levels of peripheral melatonin during waking hours.In paper I-II, tissue samples from the normal human GI tract and pancreas and tumour tissue from small intestinal neuroendocrine tumours were analysed for expression of melatonin and melatonin receptors using immunohistochemistry. For tumour patients, melatonin was also analysed in plasma and set in relation to symptoms and outcome. In paper III-IV, a cohort of young adults (18-25 years) seeking psychiatric care was examined for GI symptoms, melatonin levels in saliva, depressive symptoms and anxiety traits. Psychiatric assessments were performed using structured or semi structured interviews. Depressive symptoms were measured using the self-rating version of the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale; GI symptoms were measured using the Gastrointestinal Symptoms Rating Scale for Irritable Bowel Syndrome; and personality traits were evaluated using the Swedish Universities Scales of Personality.Melatonin and melatonin receptors were widely expressed in the normal human gut and pancreas (paper I) but even in small intestinal neuroendocrine tumours known to produce serotonin (paper II). The intensity of the melatonin immunoreactivity in tumour tissue was found to correlate with lower proliferation index. After treatment, plasma levels of melatonin were reduced in tumour patients. Young adult patients seeking psychiatric care reported more GI symptoms than healthy controls, regardless of the currently active psychotropic medication. The level of GI symptoms was associated with severity of depressive symptoms and trait anxiety (paper III). Higher postprandial levels of melatonin were associated with the GI symptoms of bloating and pain (paper IV).In summary, these findings demonstrate the widespread presence of melatonin in the human gut and confirm a link between melatonin, psychiatric health and GI symptoms.
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| 10. |
- Trägårdh, Karin, et al.
(författare)
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Risk Profiles of Female Perpetrators of Severe Violence
- 2019
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Ingår i: 13th Nordic Symposium on Forensic Psychiatry. August 20-22, Gothenburg, Sweden.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Female offenders without a severe mental disorder show more criminogenic factors than those with. Both groups are characterized by mental health problems. We need to further characterize female offenders. Background Offenders of lethal/severe violence are in a majority of cases male, about 90% (Falk et al., 2014), and research has to a considerable extent focused on male violent offenders. Although less is known about female violent offenders than male offenders, previous research has indicated significant differences between male and female offenders of lethal/severe violence (Trägårdh et al., 2016; Yourstone et al., 2008). Since a majority of female perpetrators of lethal violence undergo a forensic psychiatric investigation (RPU/FPI), these documents contains important information about this group. Purpose The aim of this ongoing study is to characterize female perpetrators of severe violent crimes, and to compare female perpetrators sentenced to forensic psychiatric compulsory care with those sentenced to correctional treatment. Method This is an exploratory and descriptive study with a cross-sectional design. All forensic evaluations (FPI) made in Sweden between 2000-2014 (from The National Board of Forensic Medicine/RMV), and the subsequent court verdicts, in cases where women had used lethal/severe violence (n≈180) where used as the basis for data collection in this study. The present preliminary analyses (2-tests and ANOVA) contains approx. 26% (n=47) of the total group. Group differences were investigated regarding: Mental health (FPI) Risk factors (HCR-20 and PCL-R) Victim relation (FPI) Criminal behavior (FPI) Results Female offenders with and without a Severe mental disorder (SMD) seems to differ in some respects. For female offenders with a SMD, the crime was more likely to have been conducted in a less criminal context (see Table). For female offenders without a SMD, the following characteristics were more frequently present: Victim gender – male Substance abuse + Under the influence of substance (offender and victim) Previous violence between victim and offender Previous registered criminality Also, several common features between the SMD and non-SMD group of female offenders were found. The majority of all female offenders had: Previous psychiatric contact and diagnoses Previously attempted suicide No previously registered criminality Conclusions Preliminary results of the female perpetrators who had underwent a FPI seems to identify both substantial differences and similarities between those with versus without a SMD, where those without show more criminogenic factors. Both groups were also characterized by a high amount of mental illness. Also, these results supports previous research that female and male offenders of severe violence differ in important ways. Since a majority of female perpetrators of lethal violence undergo a forensic psychiatric investigation, these results should be generalizable to this group as a whole in Sweden. Based on these results, a great need to further characterize female offenders of severe/lethal violence remain.
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