Publications by authors named "Ladislav Hosak"

Objectives: Studies of schizophrenia endophenotypes may help clinicians better understand the etiopathogenesis and treatment of this mental disorder. The aim of the study was to determine if retinal arteriolar or venular abnormalities are an endophenotype of schizophrenia.

Design: We performed a one-time cross-sectional study.

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Background: The aim of our study was to find a possible association between retinal microvascular abnormality and major depression in a non-geriatric population.

Method: The participants with major depression were hospitalised at the University Hospital in Hradec Kralove, Department of Psychiatry. Retinal images were obtained using a stationary Fundus camera FF450 by Zeiss and a hand-held camera by oDocs.

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Background: Both genetic and environmental factors are important in etiology of mental disorders. Calculating polyenviromic risk/protective scores provides an updated perspective in research on the environmental causes of psychiatric disorders. We aimed to compare environmental risk and protective factors in patients with psychosis or a mood disorder (PSYCH+MOOD) and those with an anxiety disorder (ANX).

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Background: Mental disorders affect about one-third of the human population, are typically chronic and significantly decrease the quality of life. Presently, the treatment of mental illnesses is far from adequate with a substantial proportion of the patients being pharmacoresistant and suffering from relapses. One of the reasons for this complicated situation is that we do not precisely know about the causes of mental disorders, so their treatment cannot be causal.

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Objective: The aim of this article is to review the interface between psychiatry and ophthalmology at several levels, such as the influence of psychopharmacology on eye disorders, the occurrence of psychiatric symptoms in eye diseases, and the neuroophthalmological examination methods supporting the validity of psychiatric diagnoses.

Materials And Methods: We searched the PubMed computer database for the key words "Psychiatry" and "Ophthalmology" on the 28th of August, 2018 to obtain relevant articles which were consequently summarized.

Results: The results showed that most patients with ocular disease simultaneously have one or more psychiatric symptoms.

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Background: The aim of our retrospective naturalistic observational study was to describe the use of maintenance electroconvulsive therapy (M-ECT) in chronic pharmacoresistant schizophrenia.

Subjects And Methods: We delineated 19 cases of chronic pharmacoresistant schizophrenia (females N=12) recently treated with maintenance electroconvulsive therapy at the Havlickuv Brod Psychiatric Hospital in the Czech Republic. Demographic, clinical and treatment variables were recorded.

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The review is a summary of structural and functional changes in the human retina observed in patients with schizophrenia. The main focus is on the potential of these changes to serve as schizophrenia-specific biomarkers accessible to clinicians. We identified three features of the retina that can be detected non-invasively in humans and which appear to show charateristic changes in schizophrenia: (1) retinal microvasculature displaying abnormally wide venules; (2) electroretinograms indicating altered function of photoreceptors or other cells in the retinal component of the visual pathway; (3) optical coherence tomography pointing to structural differences between the retinae of patients with schizophrenia and those of healthy volunteers.

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Early diagnosis of anxiety and depression may be facilitated by the use of neurobiological markers. In depression and panic disorder, transcranial sonography (TCS) has revealed decreased echogenicity of the brainstem raphe (BR). The aim of the present study was to detect whether decreased echogenicity of the BR correlates with personality features described in the five-dimension model, especially neuroticism.

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Objectives: Schizophrenia is a severe psychiatric disease affecting about 1% of the general population. The relative contribution of genetic factors has been estimated to be up to 80%. The mode of inheritance is complex, non-Mendelian, and in most cases involving the combined action of large numbers of genes.

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Unlabelled: Introduction and Aim: Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a common complication of transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunting (TIPS). It is associated with a reduced quality of life and poor prognosis. The aim of this study was to compare two groups of patients who did and did not develop overt HE after TIPS.

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Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a heritable disease with a heavy personal and socio-economic burden. Antidepressants of different classes are prescribed to treat MDD, but reliable and reproducible markers of efficacy are not available for clinical use. Further complicating treatment, the diagnosis of MDD is not guided by objective criteria, resulting in the risk of under- or overtreatment.

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Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder that affects approximately one percent of the general population. The pathogenesis of schizophrenia is influenced by many risk factors, both environmental and genetic. The environmental factors include the date of birth, place of birth and seasonal effects, infectious diseases, complications during pregnancy and delivery, substance abuse and stress.

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The etiology of schizophrenia is complex. The aim of this article is to present a global view of the causes of schizophrenia and their interconnectivity. Recent genetic research into schizophrenia is based on genome-wide association studies, the assessment of DNA copy number variations, and the concept of endophenotypes.

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Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) may be a precursor of Alzheimer's disease (AD). There is a boundary area between normal aging and dementia. In practice, the term "age related cognitive decline" has been used interchangeably with "normal aging".

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Objectives: The main aim of the study was to investigate the physiological and social needs of patients hospitalized with schizophrenia to uncover potential issues in these areas.

Methods: The relevant self-evaluating CANSAS questionnaire for physiological and social needs was used by nurses in a cohort of hospitalized schizophrenic patients undergoing rehabilitation before discharge from the mental hospital.

Results: Two hundred and forty-four patients (women N = 115) aged 18-58 years were involved in the study.

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Background: A new method of assessment of microvascular abnormality in living schizophrenic subjects via retinal imaging was described by Meier et al. (2013). The principal aim of this review is to summarise the relevant knowledge and suggest further avenues of research into this topic.

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New findings in schizophrenia genetics are based on genome-wide association studies (GWAS), research into DNA copy number variations (CNVs), and endophenotypes. More than 70 genes have recently been suspected to be involved in the genetic background of schizophrenia based on the GWAS´s results. They are typically related to neurodevelopment/neuroplasticity, immunology and neuroendocrinology.

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Background: The primary goal of the present study was to replicate our previous finding of increased coagulation and thrombocytes activity in drug-naïve psychotic patients in comparison with healthy controls and ascertain whether the blood levels of thrombogenesis markers further increase over the course of a consecutive one-year antipsychotic treatment.

Subjects And Methods: We investigated the plasma levels of markers indicating activation of coagulation (D-dimers and Factor VIII) and platelets (soluble P-selectin, sP-selectin) in an antipsychotic-naive group of nineteen men and seventeen women with acute psychosis (age 28.1±8.

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Background: Methamphetamine is a neurotoxic agent. Its chronic abuse may result in cognitive impairment with negative consequences for patients' treatment and rehabilitation. The aim of the study was to compare Wisconsin Card Sorting Test profiles of Czech subjects dependent on methamphetamine with healthy individuals.

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Background: Despite the fact that the genetic basis of schizophrenia has been intensively studied for more than two decades, our contemporary knowledge in this field is rather fractional, and a substantial part of it is still missing. The aim of this review article is to sum up the data coming from genome-wide association genetic studies in schizophrenia, and indicate prospective directions of further scientific endeavour.

Methods: We searched the National Human Genome Research Institute's Catalog of genome-wide association studies for schizophrenia to identify all papers related to this topic.

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Objectives: The term "copy number variation/variant" (CNV) denotes a DNA sequence with a magnitude of 1 kb at least which is differently represented among individuals based on its deletion or duplication. Since 2008, multiple studies have reported copy number variations in schizophrenia, and they seem to fill in a gap in our knowledge on the genetic background of schizophrenia. The aim of this review is to sum up the current findings related to CNVs in schizophrenia in order to facilitate further research.

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Objectives: About 25,000 serious methamphetamine abusers live in the Czech Republic among the total population of 10 million. Dependence on methamphetamine is markedly related to the brain neurotransmitter dopamine, metabolised by catechol-O-methyltransferase enzyme. The main aim of the study was to ascertain whether the Val158Met catechol-O-methyltransferase gene polymorphism is associated with methamphetamine dependence in this Central European country.

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Background: Antipsychotic treatment has been repeatedly found to be associated with an increased risk for venous thromboembolism in schizophrenia. The extent to which the propensity for venous thromboembolism is linked to antipsychotic medication alone or psychosis itself is unclear. The objective of this study was to determine whether markers of thrombogenesis are increased in psychotic patients who have not yet been treated with antipsychotic medication.

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Myocarditis is a rare but life threatening adverse effect of clozapine. Some symptoms of myocarditis--elevated temperature, tachycardia and fatigue--appear commonly during the onset of treatment with clozapine and during the dose titration. We present a case of a patient with concurrent schizoaffective disorder and Parkinson's disease, who twice developed clozapine-induced myocarditis.

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