S100B and homocysteine in the acute alcohol withdrawal syndrome.

Elevations of serum homocysteine levels are a consistent finding in alcohol addiction. Serum S100B levels are altered in different neuropsychiatric disorders but not well investigated in alcohol withdrawal syndromes. Because of the close connection of S100B to ACTH and glutamate secretion that both are involved in neurodegeneration and symptoms of alcoholism the relationship of S100B and homocysteine to acute withdrawal variables has been examined.

Do euthymic bipolar patients have normal cognitive functioning?

Purpose Of Review: Research on the neurocognitive functions of bipolar patients has yielded inconsistent results over recent years. There is a growing need for clarification regarding the magnitude, clinical relevance and confounding variables of cognitive impairment in bipolar patients.

Recent Findings: Current findings of studies investigating executive functions, psychomotor speed and memory functions suggest heterogeneous cognitive functioning in patients.

Neurocognitive functions in euthymic bipolar patients.

Objective: Meta-analytic findings support the hypothesis of specific neurocognitive deficits for bipolar patients in the domains of attention, processing speed, memory and executive functions. This study aims to show neurocognitive impairment in euthymic patients with bipolar I disorder compared with healthy controls while detailing the impact of medication side-effects or illness characteristics on neuropsychological test performance.

Method: Forty euthymic patients with bipolar I disorder were compared with 40 healthy controls in a cross-sectional design.

[Academic procrastination in clients of a psychotherapeutic student counselling center].

The start of university education is the beginning of a new phase of life for young adults, which requires significant psychosocial adjustments. Sociobiographical data, clinical symptoms, characteristics of education, work attitude, and career perspectives were gathered from 152 clients by a psychotherapeutic student counselling center to evaluate characteristics of students with and without academic procrastination. The procrastination group comprised heightened numbers of students who had changed universities, and people with suboptimal career prospects and career targets.

Dimensions of personality--relationship between DSM-IV personality disorder symptoms, the five-factor model, and the biosocial model of personality.

Dimensional approaches regard personality disorders as extreme or maladaptive variants of traits that are commonly used to describe normal personality. Previous clinical and nonclinical studies identified four factors interpreted as Antisocial, Asocial, Asthenic, and Anankastic. To investigate the validity of this four-factor structure in healthy volunteers, 97 male and 98 female students completed versions of the NEO-PI-R and TPQ.