Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0015672 (fatigue)
 51,768 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

"Psychasthenia exists--we meet it every day". Despite this affirmation, Pierre Janet's views remain unappreciated by international psychiatry. Psychasthenia is not included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM III-R). This pathology, described by Janet as both benign and terrible, is presently broken into many diagnostic categories with respect to the principal symptomatology of the patient. When a mood disorder is present, these patients can have diagnostic criteria for major depression or dysthymia. Patients with prevalent anxiety, phobia or obsessive-compulsive symptoms, must also be classified in having anxiety disorders. When somatic complaints are major symptoms, the patient's disease can be, on the whole, attributed to a somatoform disorder. This scale is a global evaluation of psychasthenia. It is made up of three lists of items. The first concerns asthenia or fatigue sine materia. The items in this group allow an evaluation of the physical and mental characteristics of asthenia associated with an inability of acting. Difficulties in mental concentration are measured by items in the second list. Mental processes are associated with doubts and waverings. They are interrupted by interferences caused by obsessions with recurrent and persistent ideas, impulses or images. Physical symptoms without organic pathology or a pathophysiologic mechanism constitute the neurasthenic part of psychasthenia. In the third list, somatic complaints are spelled out in a check-list of these potential symptoms. This scale can be used as a help in the diagnosis. Items 2, 3, 5, 25, 26 and 29 have a specific reference to the history of the disorder.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:[A scale to assess psychasthenia]. 129 95

In order to assess the degree of thallium exposure in a population living around a thallium emitting cement plant in a small city in North-West Germany thallium levels in 24 h urine samples of 1,265 subjects and in hair samples of 1,163 subjects were determined. Urinary thallium levels in two groups of subjects living in an urban and a rural area of West Germany were determined for reference. As compared to these subjects the population living around the cement plant exhibited obvious signs of increased thallium intake. The mean urinary thallium concentration was 2.6 micrograms/l and ranged up to 76.5 micrograms/l. In contrast, the mean urinary thallium levels of the two reference groups were 0.2 and 0.4 micrograms/l, respectively. Hair thallium levels of the population living around the cement plant were also markedly increased (mean: 9.5 ng/g). The major route of the population's increased intake of thallium was found to be the consumption of vegetables and fruit grown in private gardens in the vicinity of the cement plant. As was shown by chemical analyses vegetables and fruit grown in these gardens were contaminated by thallium-containing atmospheric dust fall-out caused by emissions of the cement plant. The pulmonary route of uptake as well as other sources did not seem to play a significant role in the population's exposure to thallium. Polyneuritic symptoms, sleep disorders, headache, fatigue and other signs of psychasthenia were found to be the major health effects associated with increased thallium levels in urine and hair. No positive correlation was found between the thallium levels in hair and urine and the prevalence of skin alterations, hair-loss and gastro-intestinal dysfunctions.
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PMID:Intake and health effects of thallium among a population living in the vicinity of a cement plant emitting thallium containing dust. 691 43

Psychologic factors were studied in 10 patients with symptoms presumed to be caused by electricity (EG) and in 10 patients with symptoms presumed to be caused by visual display units (VG) and compared with a sex- and age-matched control group (CG). Psychologic differences between the EG and VG were also measured. The symptoms presumed to be caused by electricity or visual display units were registered, and the personality, psychologic functioning, and quality of life were determined by using the Karolinska Scales of Personality (KSP), an additional Personality Scale (PS), a Psychological Functioning Scale (PFS), and a quality of Life Scale (QLS). The results showed that the commonest general symptoms in the EG/VG were skin complaints, fatigue, pain, and dizziness, and the commonest oral symptoms were gustatory disturbance, burning mouth, and temporomandibular joint dysfunction. The patients in the EG described more different types of both general and oral symptoms than those in the VG. The result showed that the VG scored significantly higher only in the KSP Somatic Anxiety and Muscular Tension scales, and the EG scored significantly lower in the KSP Socialization scale and significantly higher in the Somatic Anxiety, Muscular Tension, and Psychasthenia scales. In addition, only the EG differed significantly on the PS, PFS, and QLS. The EG differed significantly in such psychologic aspects as being more fatigued in the PS, in having more difficulty in concentrating, in taking the initiative, and in getting on with people in the PFS and experiencing inactivity and visiting other people rarely in the QLS. The conclusion was that patients with symptoms presumed to be caused by electricity and visual display units differed from each other psychologically and, therefore, should be handled clinically in different ways. The need for an interdisciplinary approach to these patients is emphasized.
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PMID:Psychologic aspects of patients with symptoms presumed to be caused by electricity or visual display units. 855 7

The effects of reward and punishment are different, and there are individual differences in sensitivity to reward and punishment. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of reward and punishment on task performance, mood, and autonomic nervous function, along with the interaction with personality. Twenty-one healthy female subjects volunteered for the experiment. The task performance was evaluated by required time and total errors while performing a Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. We assessed their personalities using the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) questionnaire, and mood states by a profile of mood states. Autonomic nervous function was estimated by a spectral analysis of heart rate variability, baroreflex sensitivity, and blood pressure. Repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed significant interaction of condition x time course on mood and autonomic nervous activity, which would indicate a less stressed state under the rewarding condition, but revealed no significant interaction of condition x time course on the task performance. The interactions with personality were further analyzed by repeated measures ANOVA applying the clinical scales of MMPI as independent variables, and significant interactions of condition x time course x Pt (psychasthenia) on task performance, mood, and blood pressure, were revealed. That is, the high Pt group, whose members tend to be sensitive and prone to worry, showed gradual improvement of task performance under the punishing situation with slight increase in systolic blood pressure, while showed no improvement under the rewarding situation with fatigue sense attenuation. In contrast, the low Pt group, whose members tend to be adaptive and self-confident, showed gradual improvement under the rewarding situation. Therefore, we should carefully choose the strategy of reward or punishment, considering the interaction with personality as well as the context in which it is given.
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PMID:Effects of reward and punishment on task performance, mood and autonomic nervous function, and the interaction with personality. 1965 50

The study examined the impact of trait anxiety and social conformity on ratings and test performance during controlled solvent challenge. Healthy women (n=20) and men (n=18) were exposed to increasing levels of toluene and n-butyl acetate in a challenge chamber, during which they repeatedly rated smell intensity and annoyance, and completed neurobehavioral tests. Trait anxiety was measured by the Psychasthenia scale of the Karolinska Scales of Personality (KSP), and social conformity by the KSP Social Desirability scale. Among women, high Psychasthenia was related to higher increase in ratings of mucous membrane irritation, fatigue, and annoyance from other aspects of the environment than smell during challenges, and was related to a higher increase in reaction time variability. Among men, Psychasthenia was unrelated to annoyance ratings, and was inversely related to the increase in smell intensity ratings. Social desirability was unrelated to any rating or performance dimension for either gender.
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PMID:Impact of trait anxiety and social conformity on responses to experimental chemical challenge. 2178 39