Association of schizophrenia and autoimmune diseases: linkage of Danish national registers

OBJECTIVE: Individuals with schizophrenia and their relatives tend to have either higher or lower than expected prevalences of autoimmune disorders, especially rheumatoid arthritis, celiac disease, autoimmune thyroid diseases, and type 1 diabetes. The purpose of the study was to estimate the association of schizophrenia with these disorders as well as a range of other autoimmune diseases in a single large epidemiologic study. METHOD: The Danish Psychiatric Register, the National Patient Register, and a register with socioeconomic information were linked to form a data file that included all 7,704 persons in Denmark diagnosed with schizophrenia from 1981 to 1998 and their parents along with a sample of matched comparison subjects and their parents. The data linkage required that the autoimmune disease occur before the diagnosis of schizophrenia. RESULTS: A history of any autoimmune disease was associated with a 45% increase in risk for schizophrenia. Nine autoimmune disorders had higher prevalence rates among patients with schizophrenia than among comparison subjects (crude incidence rate ratios ranging from 1.9 to 12.5), and 12 autoimmune diseases had higher prevalence rates among parents of schizophrenia patients than among parents of comparison subjects (adjusted incidence rate ratios ranging from 1.3 to 3.8). Thyrotoxicosis, celiac disease, acquired hemolytic anemia, interstitial cystitis, and Sj?gren's syndrome had higher prevalence rates among patients with schizophrenia than among comparison subjects and also among family members of schizophrenia patients than among family members of comparison subjects. CONCLUSIONS: Schizophrenia is associated with a larger range of autoimmune diseases than heretofore suspected. Future research on comorbidity has the potential to advance understanding of pathogenesis of both psychiatric and autoimmune disorders.     

Nurses' self-reported knowledge about and attitude to nutrition -- before and after a training programme

Scand J Caring Sci; 2012; 26; 81–89
Nurses’ self‐reported knowledge about and attitude to nutrition – before and after a training programme Background: It is well known that appropriate nutrition is vital for inpatientrecovery. Traditionally, nutrition is part of nurses’ area of responsibility and as it affects mortality and morbidity, it is important that nurses feel responsible for, and accomplish adequate nutrition care during the patients’ hospital stay. But putting evidence of nutritional topics into practice is challenging and nutrition care seems to be a low priority nursing task. Aims: To investigate the impact of training programme targeted nurses with special responsibilities for nutrition on the nurses’ knowledge of nutrition, and whether it enhanced their attitude to their responsibility for nutrition care in relation to assessment and management. Methods: An intervention study was conducted with 16 nurses from either medical or surgical wards who participated in a 12‐month training programme. These nurses were divided into two groups and interviewed twice before and after the intervention. Focus group interviews were used to gather data about their daily clinical work in relation to nutrition. Deductive content analysis was used to analyse the described data. Results: The training programme did have an impact on the nurses’ knowledge of nutrition. It made them feel more secure and strengthened their ability to take responsibility for more nutrition management and as the results indicate, improved their awareness of nurse‐specific treatment and their responsibility for nutrition assessment. We also found that nurses still have difficulty expressing their knowledge of nutrition using academic concepts, as they mainly use general phrases. Conclusion: The findings suggest that a short‐duration training programme enhances nurses’ awareness of nutrition care, but it is not enough to achieve the nurses’ full understanding of their responsibility for nutrition care.     

No association of polymorphisms in human endogenous retrovirus K18 and CD48 with schizophrenia

The human endogenous retrovirus HERV-K18 is located within intron 1 of CD48 on chromosome 1q and is still active in the human genome. Genetic variation in HERV-K18 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) has previously been associated with an increased risk of schizophrenia (SZ) and with type 2 diabetes (T2D) among individuals with SZ. Here, we present a replication study of association of two SNPs in HERV-K18 and 19 tagSNPs in CD48 with (a) SZ and (b) T2D in patients with SZ in two Danish samples (total number of cases=750 and controls=1214). No association was found with SZ or with T2D among individuals with SZ for any of the investigated SNPs. However, one HERV-K18 SNP showed a tendency toward an association with T2D in younger SZ patients, in agreement with previous findings, but due to a very low sample size, this result needs to be further investigated.     

Acyl-coenzyme A binding protein expression is fibre-type specific in rat skeletal muscle but not affected by moderate endurance training

The metabolic active form of free fatty acids, long-chain acyl-coenzyme A (lc-acyl-CoA), binds to its 10-kDa binding protein with high affinity. In the present study, we investigated the content of lc-acyl-CoA binding protein (ACBP) in different skeletal muscle fibre types. Soleus had the highest expression of ACBP (0.33+/-0.02 microg mg protein(-1)) and the content was as high as in heart muscle. The content in mixed gastrocnemius (0.27+/-0.02 microg mg protein(-1)), extensor digitorum longus (0.21+/-0.01 microg mg protein(-1)) and white gastrocnemius (0.16+/-0.01 microg mg protein(-1)) were lower than in soleus and differed from each other ( P<0.05). The ACBP content correlated positively with the fraction of myosin heavy chain I in the skeletal muscles (Spearman rank correlation rho=0.90; P<0.0001), and negatively with the myosin heavy chain IIB fraction ( rho=-0.92; P<0.0001). The content of ACBP also correlated with 3-hydroxy-acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (HAD) and citrate synthase (CS). Five weeks of endurance training increased HAD and CS activities in soleus and mixed gastrocnemius but did not affect the ACBP content. These findings demonstrate that ACBP expression is fibre-type specific in skeletal muscles and correlates with beta-oxidative potential. Training-induced increase in oxidative capacity was not paralleled by an increase in ACBP content.     

Estimation of<Emphasis Type="Italic"> V̇</Emphasis>O<Subscript>2max</Subscript> from the ratio between HR<Subscript>max </Subscript>and HR<Subscript>rest</Subscript> – the Heart Rate Ratio Method

The effects of ̇raining and/or ageing upon maximal oxygen uptake (O_2max) and heart rate values at rest (HR_rest) and maximal exercise (HR_max), respectively, suggest a relationship between O_2max and the HR_max-to-HR_rest ratio which may be of use for indirect testing of O_2max. Fick principle calculations supplemented by literature data on maximum-to-rest ratios for stroke volume and the arterio-venous O₂ difference suggest that the conversion factor between mass-specific O_2max (ml·min^–1·kg^–1) and HR_max·HR_rest ^–1 is ~15. In the study we experimentally examined this relationship and evaluated its potential for prediction of O_2max. O_2max was measured in 46 well-trained men (age 21–51 years) during a treadmill protocol. A subgroup (n=10) demonstrated that the proportionality factor between HR_max·HR_rest ^–1 and mass-specific O_2max was 15.3 (0.7) ml·min^–1·kg^–1. Using this value, O_2max in the remaining 36 individuals could be estimated with an SEE of 0.21 l·min^–1 or 2.7 ml·min^–1·kg^–1 (~4.5%). This compares favourably with other common indirect tests. When replacing measured HR_max with an age-predicted one, SEE was 0.37 l·min^–1 and 4.7 ml·min^–1·kg^–1 (~7.8%), which is still comparable with other indirect tests. We conclude that the HR_max-to-HR_rest ratio may provide a tool for estimation of O_2max in well-trained men. The applicability of the test principle in relation to other groups will have to await direct validation. O_2max can be estimated indirectly from the measured HR_max-to-HR_rest ratio with an accuracy that compares favourably with that of other common indirect tests. The results also suggest that the test may be of use for O_2max estimation based on resting measurements alone.An erratum to this article can be found at