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| 2. |
- Björnsson Hallgren, Hanna Cecilia, 1976-
(författare)
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Treatment of subacromial pain and rotator cuff tears
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Shoulder pain is very common, affecting 14-21 % of the population at some time during their lifetime. The aims of this thesis were to improve the understanding of various aspects concerning the pathogenesis and treatment of subacromial pain and rotator cuff tears. Patients and healthy individuals were examined and compared in five studies:Study I) Seventy patients were retrospectively examined, clinically and with ultrasound, 15 years after arthroscopic subacromial decompression. All patients had an intact rotator cuff at surgery. Ultrasound showed significantly fewer rotator cuff tears compared to the prevalence of asymptomatic tears reported in the literature for the same age group. This indicates that arthroscopic subacromial decompression might protect the rotator cuff.Study II) Forty-two patients were retrospectively examined, clinically and with ultrasound, 39 months (mean) after an acute rotator cuff repair. All patients had pseudoparalysis after trauma, a full thickness tear and no previous history of shoulder symptoms. A delay in surgical treatment of three months and the number of tendons injured did not affect the outcome. Age affected outcome negatively.Study III) Plasma samples from 17 patients with cuff tears and 16 plasma samples from healthy age- and gender-matched controls were collected and analysed regarding the levels of matrix metalloproteinases and their inhibitors, TIMP1-4. Elevated levels of TIMP-1 were found in the patients with cuff tears compared to controls. Higher levels of TIMP-1, TIMP-3 and MMP-9 were found in patients with full-thickness tears compared to patients with partial-thickness tears.Study IV) Ninety-seven patients with longstanding subacromial pain, on the waiting-list for arthroscopic subacromial decompression, were prospectively randomised to specific shoulder exercises or control exercises for three months. Thereafter they were clinically examined and asked if they still wanted surgery. The specific shoulder exercises focusing on eccentric exercise for the rotator cuff and scapula stabilisers were found to be effective in reducing subacromial pain and improving shoulder function, thereby reducing the need for surgery.Study V) All patients including those operated, in Study IV were re-examined after one year using clinical assessment scores. The option of surgery was continuously available up to the one-year follow-up. Ultrasound and radiological examinations performed at inclusion were analysed in relation to the choice of surgery. The positive effects of the specific exercise programme were maintained after one year and significantly fewer patients in this group chose surgery. Surgery was significantly more often chosen by patients who had a low baseline shoulder score, and/or a full thickness rotator cuff tear. All patients showed significant improvement in the clinical scores one year after inclusion or one year after surgery.These results support the concept that subacromial pain has a multifactorial aetiology and that the first line of treatment should be specific shoulder exercises. When conservative treatment fails, an acceptable result can be achieved with arthroscopic subacromial decompression. The rotator cuff status is important to consider when treating and studying these patients.
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| 3. |
- Ekholm, Birgit, 1956-
(författare)
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Diagnostic Evaluation of Schizophrenia for Genetic Studies
- 2005
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Schizophrenia is one of the most severe mental disorders. Heredity is accepted as a major causative factor. To find molecular mechanisms behind schizophrenia, patient materials with reliable and valid diagnoses must be identified. In order to compare schizophrenia diagnostic procedures for reliability, validity and suitability for genetic studies by evaluation of record information, interview and register diagnostic data and to examine patient materials for linkage or association with molecular genetic markers three patient materials were recruited: sporadic cases, a large pedigree and sib-pairs. Schizophrenia diagnoses based on patient records only, showed good to excellent agreement with diagnoses based on both records and interviews. Register diagnoses generally displayed poor agreement with research diagnoses, but in 94% of patients sometimes registered as schizophrenic psychoses a research diagnosis of these disorders was certified. In the pedigree, analysis suggested linkage to chr 6p23 in a single branch of the pedigree, and a genome scan indicated linkage to the 6q25 region. A genome scan analysis of the sib-pair material was suggestive of linkage to chr 10q25.3-q26.3. In the case-control sample and a meta-analysis there was an association between a dopamine D2 receptor polymorphism (Ser311Cys), on chr 11q22-23, and the disorder. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor gene variants (chr 11p13) were also analysed without any robust significant findings. For patients in long-term treatment for schizophrenia in Sweden, psychiatric record reviews should be valid, reliable and sufficient for assessment of lifetime research diagnosis. Swedish register diagnosis of schizophrenic psychoses has a high positive predictive power in relation to corresponding research diagnoses. For future Swedish studies focusing on a broad definition of schizophrenia, it is sufficient to rely on the register diagnoses of schizophrenic psychosis. There is no major vulnerability gene or locus that is common to the majority of patients with schizophrenia, indicating genetic heterogeneity.
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| 4. |
- Gabrielsson, Sebastian
(författare)
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A moral endeavour in a demoralizing context: Psychiatric inpatient care from the perspective of professional caregivers
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Patients in psychiatric care experience a need for and expect to develop interpersonal relationships with professional caregivers and to be respected and listened to. Despite demands for care to be person-centred and recovery-oriented, patients experience that psychiatric inpatient care fails to meet their expectations. Nursing research suggest that nurses aspire to engage with and meet the needs of patients, but that the strenuous reality of inpatient care prevents them from doing so. Exploring the content and context of psychiatric inpatient care from the perspective of professional caregivers might provide valuable insights regarding what caregivers do, and more importantly it can aid in understanding why they do what they do.This thesis aimed to explore the content and context of adult psychiatric inpatient care from the perspective of professional caregivers. This was achieved by clarifying the concept of person-centred care in the context of inpatient psychiatry, describing staff members’ reasoning on their choice of action and perceptions of interprofessional collaboration in challenging situations in inpatient psychiatric care settings, and exploring nurses’ experiences of good nursing practice in the specific context of inpatient psychiatry. A systematic review of the literature identified 34 scholarly papers that were analysed using evolutionary concept analysis. Focus group interviews were conducted with 26 professional caregivers and analysed using qualitative content analysis. Individual qualitative interviews were conducted with 12 skilled, relationship-oriented nurses and analysed using an interpretive descriptive approach to qualitative analysis.Reviewing the literature on person-centred care in inpatient psychiatry clarified how person-centred care is expected to result in quality care when interpersonal relationships are used to promote recovery. Professional caregivers’ reasoning on choice of action described different concerns in caregiver-patient interaction resulting in a focus on either meeting patients’ individual needs or solving staff members’ own problems. Describing professional caregivers’ perceptions of interprofessional collaboration suggested that they are being constrained by difficulties in collaborating with each other and a lack of interaction with patients. Exploring nurses’ experiences of good nursing practice revealed how circumstances in the clinical setting affect nurses’ ability to work through relationships. It is argued that these findings describe the workings of two opposing forces in psychiatric inpatient care. The concept of caring as a process forms the basis for discussing the content of care as a moral endeavour in which nurses strive to do good. The concept of demoralizing organizational processes is used to discuss the context of care as demoralizing and allowing for immoral actions.The main conclusions to be drawn are that, from a nursing perspective, nurses in psychiatric inpatient care need to focus on patients’ experiences and needs. For this they need sufficient resources and time to be present and develop relationships with patients.Nurses in psychiatric inpatient care also need to take personal responsibility for their professional practice. Attempts to transform psychiatric care in a person-centred direction must consider all of these aspects and their interrelatedness. Further research on psychiatric inpatient care is needed to understand more about how the content of care relates to the context of care.
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| 5. |
- Maripuu, Martin, 1973-
(författare)
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Hypocortisolism in recurrent affective disorders
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Bipolar disorders and recurrent depressions are two common psychiatric disorders with a life time prevalence of approximately 1% and 8%, respectively. Despite treatment these patients suffer from affective symptoms up to 50% of the time, resulting in lower well-being. The average life length is also reduced with 10-15 years, mainly attributable to suicide and cardiovascular disease. Increased stress is one of many factors that have been shown to be linked to an increased risk for developing affective disorders and some comorbid somatic conditions such as metabolic disturbances and cardiovascular disease. An increased stress level is known to cause hyperactivity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal-axis (HPA-axis) with increased cortisol secretion. Hyperactivity of the HPA-axis (or hypercortisolism) is one of the most replicated neurobiological finding in depression. In other stress related disorders it has however been shown that prolonged stress over long periods of time can lead to a state of low HPA-axis activity, hypocortisolism. Since persons with recurrent affective disorders such as bipolar disorder and recurrent depression are exposed to a high degree of recurrent and chronic stress it could be expected that in addition to hypercortisolism, a state of hypocortisolism could also develop in these disorders, potentially exerting an influence upon the psychological and somatic wellbeing among these patients.The major aim of this thesis was to evaluate whether hypocortisolism is related to relevant psychiatric and somatic phenotypes in recurrent affective disorders.In bipolar disorder, individuals with hypocortisolism exhibited a higher degree of depression and low quality of life compared to patients with normal HPA-axis activity. In recurrent depression, individuals with hypocortisolism exhibited shorter leukocyte telomere length than patients with normal or high HPA-axis activity, which is an indication of an accelerated aging process. In a sample of both bipolar and recurrent depression patients, hypocortisolism was associated with an increased proportion of obesity, dyslipidemia and metabolic syndrome compared with patients with normal or high HPA-axis activity. Patients with recurrent depression showed a higher occurrence of hypocortisolism than the control sample representative of the general population. Patients with bipolar disorder showed a similar occurrence of hypocortisolism as the control sample. Among bipolar disorder patients with a low degree of lifetime with lithium prophylaxis, there was an inverse correlation between age and HPA-axis activity. In contrast, among patients with a higher degree of lifetime with lithium prophylaxis as well as among the controls, there was no correlation between age and HPA-axis activity. Accordingly, hypocortisolism was most common among older patients with a low degree of lifetime with lithium prophylaxis. In conclusion, hypocortisolism in both recurrent depression and bipolar disorder was associated with multiple clinically-relevant phenotypes. Additionally it was shown for bipolar disorder patients that increasing age was a risk factor for hypocortisolism and that prophylactic lithium treatment was a protective factor. It is argued that the protective effect of lithium towards the HPA-axis is attributable to its mood-stabilizing effect, which in turn reduces the chronic stress level. These results provide new insight into the role of hypocortisolism and chronic stress in recurrent affective disorders warranting further studies and hopefully providing clues to improved treatment strategies.
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| 6. |
- Ranebo, Mats, 1970-
(författare)
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Rotator Cuff Tears : Short- and long-term aspects on treatment outcome
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Rotator cuff tear is a common disorder and there is a lack of knowledge of appropriate treatment and consequences of different treatment modalities. The overall aim of this thesis was to examine short- and long-term results of rotator cuff tear treatment.In Paper I we did a retrospective 21 to 25-year follow-up of a consecutive series of patients with partial and full-thickness rotator cuff tears, treated with acromioplasty without cuff repair. The cuff status had been documented in a specific perioperative protocol in all patients at the index operation. We did x-ray, ultrasonography and clinical scores with Constant score and Western Ontario Rotator Cuff index (WORC) at follow-up. We identified 111 patients with either a partial or a full-thickness tear, but at follow-up 21 were deceased and 11 were too ill from medical conditions unrelated to their shoulder. Out of the remaining 78 eligible patients, 69 were examined (follow-up rate 88 %) and they had a mean age at the index operation of 49 years (range 19-69 years). Forty-five had a partial tear and 24 a full-thickness tear at the index operation. At follow-up, 74% of patients with full-thickness tear had cuff tear arthropathy grade 2 or more according to the arthropathy classification of Hamada (grade 1 to 5) and 87% had developed tear progression (i.e. a larger tear). Corresponding numbers in those with a partial tear was 7 % arthropathy and 42 % tear progression, and the differences between the full-thickness group and the partial tear group was significant for both outcome measures (P<0.001 for both analyses). In those with arthropathy, the mean Constant score was 47 (standard deviation [SD], 23), the mean age and gender-adjusted Constant score 62 (SD, 27) and the mean WORC 58 % (SD, 26). Patients with a partial tear at follow-up had mean Constant score and WORC within the normal range. In multivariable analysis with logistic regression, having a full-thickness tear at the index operation was a risk factor for arthropathy (odds ratio [OR] 37.8; 95% confidence interval [CI], 8.2-175.0) and for tear progression (OR 6.09; 95% CI, 1.41-26.29).In Paper II we examined the contralateral shoulder in the same patients as in paper I and with the same methodology. Sixty-one patients were examined and 38 had had a partial tear at the index operation 21-25 years ago and 23 a full-thickness tear. The overall rate of contralateral full-thickness tears was 50.8 %, which is higher than the 16-35 % rate found in previous studies of newly diagnosed cuff patients. The rate of contralateral full-thickness tear ranged from 13.6 % in patients with a partial tear in the index shoulder at follow-up, to 90 % in patients with a full-thickness tear and arthropathy in the index shoulder. There was a significant correlation regarding conditions between shoulders in the same patient, with a Spearman coefficient of 0.72 for the number of ten-dons with a full-thickness tear, 0.31 for Hamada grade of arthropathy and 0.65 for Constant score. The number of tendons with a full-thickness tear in the index shoulder at follow-up was a risk factor for a contralateral full-thickness tear (OR 3.28; 95% CI, 1.67-6.44) in a multi-variable logistic regression model. We also found that cuff tear arthropathy was significantly more common in patients who had undergone an acromioplasty (P<0.001), a finding which is not confirmatory but may generate a hypothesis.Paper III addressed 17 to 20-year results after operation with a synthetic interposition graft for irreparable cuff tears. We used X-ray, ultrasonography and clinical scores at follow-up. We identified a consecutive series of 13 patients, one of whom was deceased at follow-up. Ten of the remaining 12 participated in a complete follow-up and 2 did only x-ray examination. Nine out of 12 (75 %; 95% CI, 43-95 %) had cuff tear arthropathy Hamada grade 2 or more in the index shoulder at follow-up. The mean Constant score was 46 (SD, 26) and the mean WORC 59 % (SD, 20). Seven out of 12 had contralateral cuff tear arthropathy, and the difference in frequency of arthropathy between shoulders was not statistically significant (P=0.667).In Paper IV we tested whether early repair of small cuff tears, involving mainly supraspinatus, would give a superior clinical result com-pared to physiotherapy without repair in a prospective randomised trial with 12 months follow-up. We used Constant score as the primary out-come, and WORC, EQ-VAS and Numerical Rating Scale for pain (NRS) as secondary outcomes. We also aimed at assessing the rate of tear progression in unrepaired shoulders and the healing rate in repaired shoulders by Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) performed at 12 months. With a high grade of follow-up (100 % for 12 months Constant score and 95 % for 12 months MRI), the repair group had a 12 months median Constant score of 83 (Quartile range [QR], 25) and the conservative group 78 (QR, 22). This between-group difference in medians of 4.5 (95% CI,-5 to 9; P=0.68) was not statistically significant and we did not detect any significant differences in the secondary outcomes at 12 months. The retear rate was 6.5 % in repaired patients and 29 % of unrepaired patients had a tear enlargement >5 mm.The results in this thesis indicate that patients with small, traumatic, full-thickness tears of mainly supraspinatus have no clinical benefit of early surgical repair compared to physiotherapy alone, but in the long-term, patients with full-thickness tears have an increased risk of tear progression, cuff tear arthropathy and low clinical scores. These results are especially important in the treatment decision of repair or not in younger patients. Having a full-thickness tear is also a risk factor for having a contralateral cuff tear, a phenomenon that underlines the importance of endogenous factors in the development of rotator cuff tears. If a cuff tear is not repairable to bone, the addition of a synthetic inter-position graft does not seem to prevent cuff tear arthropathy.
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| 7. |
- Sandman, Per-Olof, 1950-
(författare)
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Aspects of institutional care of patients with dementia
- 1986
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of the present study was to investigate all long-term institutions in the county of Västerbotten, Northern Sweden, to give a detailed description of the institutionalized population with respect to motor functions, vision, hearing, speech, ADL-functions, prevalence of psychiatric symptoms and behavioral disturbances, staff work load, use of psychoactive drugs and prevalence of dementia. Another aim was to select some specific 'problem areas' in the nursing care of demented patients for further descriptive and interventional studies. For this reason, morning care procedure (hygiene, dressing), meal behavior (eating, communication), nutrition, constipation and relocation between institutions were selected.The results of the study have been reported in six papers summarized below:I.The study has shown that the proportion of demented patients is increasing in longterm institutions in Sweden. Furthermore, demented patients were shown to be more impaired in all rated functioning abilities and exhibited more psychiatric symptoms and behavioral symptoms. A high proportion of the demented probands were also prescribed psychoactive drugs, i.e. neuroleptics.II. Five patients with Alzheimer-type dementia were monitored during morning care. A 12-step classification system was developed to be used as a guide to understand and determine abilities essential for performance of morning care for demented patients. The quantitative assessment showed that none of the patients were able to manage morning care independently, but there was a wide variation in their highest level of performance.III. Five patients with Alzheimer-type dementia were observed (video taped) during their meals in a changed meal milieu and with new meal routines. When the patients ate without staff participation, the two least demented patients became 'caregivers'. When two mental nurses joined the group, first in civil clothes and then in white uniforms, the patients dropped their roles as helpers. The patients were able to compose complete meals in 0-79 per cent of the meals. The conversation during the meals could be characterized as incomplete, with short sentences and a lot of breaks. Sixty-three per cent of all utterances were about food and eating and almost all conversation concerned the present time.IV. Thirty-three psychogeriatric patients, with severe constipation were given a high- bran bread instead of their accustomed laxatives. During the high-bran treatment period, the number of bowel evacuations and the volume of faeces increased. The total laxative consumption decreased by 93 per cent.V. Nutritional status and dietary intake were studied in a sample of severely demented, institutionalized patients. Energy and /or protein malnutrition was found in 50 per cent of the patients. The mean energy intake was 2059 kcal. Malnourished patients had had four times as many infectious periods during their hospital stay as patients without malnutrition. Thirty-nine of 44 patients lost weight during their hospital stay.VI. Thirty-three psychogeriatric patients were followed for 36 weeks after relocation from a mental hospital to two newly built nursing homes. An intensive pre-relocation program was performed. No negative effects of the relocation were found. On the contrary, the relocated group improved their ADL-functions after the transfer.Based upon the above cited studies, a model for nursing care of demented patients is presented.
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| 8. |
- Wikgren, Mikael, 1981-
(författare)
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Telomeres and the brain : an investigation into the relationships of leukocyte telomere length with functional and structural attributes of the brain
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Telomeres are the outermost parts of linear chromosomes. They consist of tandemly repeated non-coding short nucleotide sequences (TTAGGG in all vertebrates), in humans spanning over the last 2 to 15 kilobase pairs of the chromosome. Due to the end-replication problem, telomeres shorten with each cellular division. A critically short telomere will trigger the cell to enter a state of cellular senescence or to apoptose. The rate of telomere shortening can be accelerated by factors such as oxidative stress and inflammation. Taken together, this contributed to making telomere length a candidate biomarker of health and aging. Studies have shown that leukocyte telomere length progressively shortens with age, and that it independent of age is associated with age-related morbidity, lifestyle factors, and mortality. This thesis was aimed at exploring the relationships of leukocyte telomere length with various functional and structural attributes of the brain. In Paper I, telomere length was shown to be longer among non-demented carriers of the apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 allele, a well-established risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease. However, the rate of telomere shortening was greater among the ε4 carriers, possibly due to the higher levels of oxidative stress and inflammation associated with this allele. Furthermore, performance on episodic memory tests was inversely related to telomere length among ε4 carriers. The results may contribute to a better understanding of the pathophysiology related to the APOE ε4 allele. The volume of the hippocampus, a structure in the brain critical for episodic memory function, was in Paper II found to be inversely related to telomere length among non-demented APOE ε3/ε3 carriers. No correlation between hippocampal volume and telomere length was discernible among ε4 carriers, but they fit the pattern exhibited by the ε3/ε3 carriers as they tended to have smaller hippocampi and longer telomere length compared with the ε3/ε3 carriers. The results are possibly explained by a low proliferative activity among subjects with smaller hippocampi, which might also explain the inverse association between telomere length and episodic memory performance in Paper I. In Paper III, we describe results corroborating earlier findings of shorter telomere length among individuals suffering from depression. Moreover, we found that the shorter telomere length among the patients to a large extent could be linked to a hypocortisolemic state; a state which has been associated with chronic stress. The findings corroborate the link between telomere length and stress, and underline the role of stress in depressive illness. Two prominent manifestations of the aging brain are atrophy and white matter hyperintensities. In Paper IV, we report that white matter hyperintensities and cerebral subcortical atrophy were associated with shorter telomere length in aged non-demented individuals. Cortical atrophy was not associated with telomere length. Inflammation may be the underlying cause of the associations, as it is linked to telomere attrition, subcortical atrophy, and white matter hyperintensities. Taken together, these results show that leukocyte telomere length has the potential of being used as a biomarker for structural and functional attributes of the brain. Furthermore, the findings can provide new insights into mechanisms of disease and aging of the brain
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| 9. |
- Åström, Monica, 1941-
(författare)
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Depression after stroke
- 1993
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Both stroke and depression are major health problems in the elderly. In this study, the prevalence of major depression after stroke was investigated in a well-defined sample of acute stroke patients (n=80), followed up at 3 months, 1 year, 2 and 3 years after the stroke event. Links to biological and psychosocial factors were examined. Hypercortisolism was studied by the dexamethasone suppression test and compared with healthy elderly. Living conditions (including demographic caracteristics, economic resources, health, functional ability, activity/leisure, social network) and life satisfaction were described before and after stroke in relation to a general elderly population.Demographic caracteristics, economic resources, social network and psychiatric morbidity prestroke did not differ from the general elderly population. Already prior to the stroke, patients reported more health problems and lower functional ability in many aspects of daily life, more passive leisure time and a lower global life satisfaction. After stroke, contacts with children were maintained, whilst contacts outside the family declined and remained lower than in the general elderly population. Stroke involved a marked reduction in global life satisfaction. Poor life satisfaction at 1 year remained poor for the entire three years; these stroke victims had a higher frequency of major depression early after stroke.The prevalence of major depression was 25% at the acute stage, 31% at 3 months, decreased to 16% at 1 year, was 19% at 2 years and increased to 29% at 3 years. The most important predictors of immediate major depression were left anterior brain lesion, dysphasia, and living alone. Dependence in self-care ability and loss of social contacts outside the family were the most important predictors at 3 months. From 1 year onwards, loss of social contacts contributed most to depression and at 3 years also cerebral atrophy. Sixty percent of patients with early depression (0-3 months) had recovered at 1 year; those not recovered at 1 year had a high risk of chronicitation.Hypercortisolism as measured by the dexamethasone suppression test was associated with major depression late (3 years) but not early (0-3 months) after stroke. At 3 years, the dexamethasone suppression test had a sensitivity of 70%, a specificity of 97%, a positive predictive value of 88%, a negative predicitive value of 91%, and a diagnostic accuracy of 90%. Nonsuppression of dexamethasone at 3 months was a significant predictor of major depression at 3 years.
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