Alterations in complex behavioral patterns during the extended period of the COVID-19 pandemic are predicted to promote a variety of psychiatric disease symptoms due to enforced social isolation and self-quarantine. Accordingly, multifaceted mental health problems will continue to increase, thereby creating a challenge for society and the health care system in general. Recent studies show that COVID-19 can directly or indirectly influence the central nervous system, potentially causing neurological pathologies such as Alzheimer disease and Parkinson disease. Thus, chronic COVID-19-related disease processes have the potential to cause serious mental illnesses, including depression, anxiety, and sleep disorders. Importantly, mental health problems can foster systemic changes in functionally-linked neuroendocrine conditions that heighten a person’s susceptibility to COVID-19 infection. These altered defense mechanisms may include compromised “self-control” and “self-care”, as well as a “lack of insight” into the danger posed by the virus. These consequences may have serious social impacts on the future of COVID-19 survivors. Compounding the functionally related issues of altered mental health parameters and viral susceptibility are the potential effects of compromised immunity on the establishment of functional herd immunity. Within this context, mental health takes on added importance, particularly in terms of the need to increase support for mental health research and community-based initiatives. Thus, COVID-19 infections continue to reveal mental health targets, a process we must now be prepared to deal with.
Background: Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder is a common neurodevelopmental disorder frequently diagnosed between the ages 7 and 10 years. We measured ADHD symptomatology in a representative sample of the Czech population. Material and Methods: Data collection was performed in January 2019 through the European National Panel. The respondents completed a demographic questionnaire focusing on ADHD history and a standardized questionnaire, the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) screener for ADHD symptomatology in adulthood. Results: From the sample of 1,518 respondents, 3% of the respondents reported having been diagnosed with ADHD/hyperkinetic disorder in their lifetime. According to ASRS scoring, 119 respondents were classified as suspected ADHD. Overall, more males than females reported ADHD symptomatology. Age was also significantly associated with ASRS. Education status yielded no significant results. Conclusion: Our study documents that the prevalence of ADHD symptomatology in adults is comparable with that in Western countries despite the different historical and health care backgrounds.
Molecular techniques (RAPD and i-PBS) were used to study genetic diversity within persimmon collection at Horticulture Faculty of Mendel University in Lednice. The aim of the work was to distinguish 14 known and 6 of unknown origin persimmon cultivars. The basic screening of 20 OPT primers was applied to 4 cultivars differring in the place of origin. Within the group of screened primers there were chosen those, which gave polymorphic repeatable strong and middle strong bands. Selected primers were used for the RAPD reactions within the whole persimmon collection. Three OPA primers previously described in the literature were also used for the RAPD reactions within the whole persimmon collection. Additional 16 i-PBS primers previously described in the literature were also used for i-PBS analysis of the whole group of cultivars. Amplification was successful with 12 i-PBS primers. The FreeTree software package was used to generate a similarity matrix and then to produce a dendrogram using UPGMA analyses. The similarity dendrograms of all persimmon cultivars were created based on both approaches and also on combination of both analyses by program Tree View. All the dendrograms clearly separated the assessed cultivars into 4 clusters. There are cluster of American persimmons – Meader’ (1), ’Garretson’ (2) and ’Early Golden’ (3). They are representatives ofD. virginiana. Further part of dendrogram includes singleD. lotus(5), which is also clearly separated from other cultivars of the genusDiospyros. The third cluster includes interspecific hybrids ’Rossiyanka’ (10) and ’Nikitskaiya Bordovaiya’ (13), which arised from crosses ofD. virginianaandD. kaki. The last cluster is formed by cultivars of Japanese persimmon – ’Mikatani Gosho’, ’Zenjimaru’, ’Tone Wase’, ’Hiratanenashi’, ’Fuyu’, Chinese cultivar – ’Sansi’ and two Italian cultivars ’Vaniglia’ and ’Tipo’. They are clustered without significant distinction. The similarities and the differences revealed among incorporation of cultivars into groups were compared with the literature findings.
Background There is a high prevalence of cognitive and socioemotional dysfunction in very low birth weight (VLBW <1500 g) and extremely low birth weight (ELBW <1000 g) children. This study from the Czech Republic aimed to compare the cognitive and socioemotional development at 5 and 9 years of age of children born with VLBW/ELBW with children born with normal birth weight (NBW ≥2500 g). Material/Methods The clinical group consisted of 118 VLBW/ELBW children and the control group consisted of 101 children with NBW at ages 5 to 9 years. The research battery included selected subscales from the Intelligence and Development Scales (IDS), A Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment – second edition (NEPSY-II), and the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF). Data were analyzed using STATA IC v. 15 software and G*Power (descriptive statistic, analysis of variance (ANOVA), correlations, multivariate analysis of variance – MANOVA, post hoc power analysis). Results We found a statistically significant difference in cognitive and socioemotional development between children with VLBW/ELBW and those with NBW. The average intelligence quotient (IQ) of VLBW/ELBW children was 96.38, while that of NBW children was 12.98 points higher ( P <0.001). NBW children achieved better results on all subtests of the IDS ( P <0.001) as well as in affect recognition ( P <0.001). All results for both groups were within normal range. Parents of VLBW/ELBW children did not recognize impaired executive functioning ( P =0.494). Conclusions This study has shown significant cognitive and socioemotional deficit in children born with VLBW and ELBW when evaluated at 5 and 9 years of age.
Background: ADHD is a common neurodevelopmental disorder frequently diagnosed between the ages 7 and 10 years. We measured ADHD symptomatology in a representative sample of the Czech population. Material and Methods: Data collection was performed in January 2019 through the European National Panel. The respondents completed a demographic questionnaire focusing on ADHD history and a standardized questionnaire, the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) screener for ADHD symptomatology in adulthood. Results: From the sample of 1,518 respondents, 3% of the respondents reported having been diagnosed with ADHD/hyperkinetic disorder in their lifetime. According to ASRS scoring, 119 respondents were classified as suspected ADHD. Overall, more males than females reported ADHD symptomatology. Age was also significantly associated with ASRS. Education status yielded no significant results. Conclusion: Our study documents that the prevalence of ADHD symptomatology in adults is comparable with that in Western countries despite the different historical and health care backgrounds.
Background Studies show neurological differences between patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and healthy controls. Furthermore, it is possible that poor timing is linked with impairments in neural circuitry. This study aimed to test the hypothesis that there is a difference in time perception between adults with severe ADHD symptomatology and adults with no ADHD symptomatology. Material/Methods Previously, we collected data from a more extensive set of participants (n=1518) concerning the prevalence of ADHD in adulthood. We recruited participants from 3 groups defined by increasing ADHD severity out of this participant pool. Each participant was presented with 2 experimental tasks (in counterbalanced order): duration estimation and duration discrimination. Results In general, we did not find any specific differences in time perception related to the severity of ADHD. Regarding duration estimation, we found that the difference between the actual and estimated durations increased with the actual duration ( F (1, 7028.00)=2685.38, P <0.001). Although the differences between groups were not significant, the group×duration interaction was ( F [1, 7028.00]=10.86, P <0.001), with a very small effect size (η p 2 <0.001, 95% CI [0.00, 0.01]). Conclusions The results suggest that although individuals may demonstrate increased ADHD symptomatology, they may not have objectively more significant difficulties in time perception tasks than their counterparts with mild symptomatology. Nonetheless, time perception should be further studied because, as qualitative research suggests, participants with more severe ADHD symptomatology subjectively perceive more significant differences in time management in real life.
Background The risk of infections is increased by patients with RA. There is increasing evidence, that biological agents can contribute to risk of both non serious and serious infections. Vaccination is attractive method to prevent certain infections. Numerous studies have documented good efficacy of vaccinations treated by biologic drugs. ACR and EULAR have developed recommendations for vaccination of adult patients with rheumatic diseases (1). Nevertheless, how it is reflected in clinical practise is not known. Objectives To evaluate, how the patients with rheumatic inflammatory diseases treated by DMARDS and biologics are vaccinated in Czech Republic. Methods Crossectional study using special questionnaire. Study was performed in one academic tertiary centrum and two country private practices not using biologic therapy. Research was performed in second half of 2013. Results 340 patients have been included in study. The diagnosis was RA (220) 65 %, ankylosing spondylitis (77) 22,7 %, psoriatic arthritis (39) 11,5 % and SLE (3) 0,9 %. The mean age was 51,3 ± 14,4 years, duration of disease 13 years and male to female 33,6 % vs. 66,4 %. The proportion of patients in academic centrum to private practises was 231 (108) 68 % vs. 32 %, 31 % of patients were on DMARDs only, 69 % on biologics (ADA 28 %, INF 8 %, GOL 13 %, REM 8 %, ETA 3 %, RIT 4 %, ABA 2 %). Before initiation of immunosuppressive therapy 57 % were vaccinated for tetanus,18,8 % for flue, 9,4 % for hepatitis B, 6,5 % for hepatitis B, 2,9 % for pneunoccoc, 0,9 % for Hemophilus infl. and 0,6 % for Neisseria meningitis. During biologic / DMARD therapy were treated 35 % of patients. The vaccination status has been assessed in initial work–up in 42 % of patients. It was actively offered to 28,5 % of patients only 33 % of patients would have agreed on offer of vaccination and 66 % not. Approximately 50 % of patients agreed of payment for preventive vaccination before biologic therapy. Conclusions Despite EULAR and Czech Rheum Soc. recommendations vaccination status is very low and only 18 % of patients is vaccinated for flue and 3 % for pneumoccocus. Based on these results, we suggest education campaign for both doctors / patients. We also initiate discussion with authorities for better reimbursement of vaccination for patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases treated by biologic drugs. References Refeences: van Assen S, Agmon-Levin N, Elkayam O, et al. EULAR recommendations for vaccination in adult patients with autoimmune inflammatory rheumatic diseases. Ann Rheum Dis 2011;3:414-422 Acknowledgements Key words: vaccination, rheumatic diseases, biologic therapy. Supported by grant of Ministry of Health Czech Republic Nr. NT12437 Disclosure of Interest K. Pavelka Grant/research support from: Ministry of Health Czech Republic Nr. NT12437, E. Moster: None Declared, H. Ptackova: None Declared
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