Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0025362 (mental retardation)
 15,878 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

This study was designed to identify predictors of parental stress and psychological distress among parents of children with mental retardation in the United Arab Emirates. It examined the relative contributions of child characteristics, parents' sociodemographics, and family environment to parental stress and psychological distress. Participants were parents of 225 mentally retarded children, of whom 113 were fathers and 112 were mothers. Measures of parental stress (QRS-F), psychiatric symptom index (PSI) and family environment scale (FES) were administered in an interview format. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to predict parental stress and psychological distress. The results indicate that the model containing all three predictor blocks, child characteristics, parents' sociodemographics, and family environment, accounted for 36.3% and 22.5% of parental stress and parents' psychiatric symptomatology variance, respectively. The age of the child was significantly associated with parents' feelings of distress and psychiatric symptom status, and parental stress was less when the child was older. Parents reported more psychiatric symptomatology when the child showed a high level of dysfunction. Fathers' work appeared to be a significant predictor of parental stress, indicating that for fathers who were not working the level of stress was higher than fathers who were working. Lower socioeconomic level was associated with greater symptom rates of cognitive disturbance, depression, anxiety, and despair among parents. Among the family environment variables, only the personal growth dimension stood out as a predictor of parental stress. An orientation toward recreational and religious pursuits, high independence, and intellectual and recreational orientations were associated with lower levels of parental stress. On the other hand, parents in achievement-oriented families showed elevated levels of parental stress. Implications for prevention, and intervention as well as parent training and system-oriented counseling programs are discussed.
 ...
PMID:Psychological distress among parents of children with mental retardation in the United Arab Emirates. 1712 51

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is the most common psychiatric disease worldwide. The precise molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying this disorder remain largely unknown. Wilms' tumor 1 (Wt1), a transcription factor, plays critical roles in cancer and organ development. Importantly, deletion of the 11p13 region that contains the WT1 gene is a major cause of WARG syndrome (Wilms' tumor, aniridia, genitourinary anomalies, and mental retardation), which is characterized by psychiatric disease, including depression. However, the roles and mechanisms of WT1 in embryonic neurogenesis and psychiatric disease remain unclear. Here, we demonstrate that the brain-specific deletion of Wt1 results in abnormal cell distribution during embryonic neurogenesis, which is accompanied by enhanced proliferation of neural progenitors and reduced neuronal differentiation. Moreover, neurons exhibit abnormal morphology during cortical development following Wt1 ablation. Furthermore, Wt1cKO mice exhibit depressive-like behaviors, including immobility, despair, and anhedonia. Mechanistically, Wt1 recruits Tet2 to the promoter of erythropoietin (Epo), which results in enhanced 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) levels and the promotion of Epo expression. Either Epo plasmid electroporation or Epo protein injection can partially restore the deficiency caused by Wt1 deletion. Importantly, administration of Epo to both embryos and adults can ameliorate the depressive-like behavior of Wt1cKO mice. In addition, WT1 plays a similar role in human neural progenitor cells (hNPCs) proliferation and differentiation. Taken together, our findings reveal the critical role and regulatory mechanism of Wt1 in embryonic neurogenesis and behavioral modulation, which could contribute to the understanding of MDD etiology and therapy.
 ...
PMID:Brain-specific Wt1 deletion leads to depressive-like behaviors in mice via the recruitment of Tet2 to modulate Epo expression. 3239 87