Fatih Hilmi Cetin

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and oxidative stress: A short term follow up study.

In this study, we aimed to investigate total antioxidative status (TAS) and total oxidative status (TOS) of plasma and antioxidant enzymes such as paraoxonase (PON), stimulated paraoxonase (SPON), arylesterase (ARES) and thiols in plasma of children and adolescents with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). In the second step. this study aimed to reveal the possible effects of ADHD treatment on these parameters. Fifty-six patients with ADHD and 52 healthy controls were involved in this study. Venous blood samples were collected and oxidative and antioxidative parameters were studied. In the second phase of the study, blood samples were taken from patients using medication. Pre-treatment oxidative stress index (OSI) values and the plasma TOS levels of the patients with ADHD were statistically higher than those of the control group. The plasma thiol levels of the patients with ADHD were significantly lower than the control group. The post-treatment plasma antioxidative parameters levels were significantly higher than the pre-treatment levels. The post-treatment oxidative stress index value was significantly lower than the pre-treatment value. Therefore, oxidative metabolism was found to be impaired in children and adolescents with ADHD. It was also determined that methylphenidate repairs the oxidative balance by increasing antioxidant defence mechanisms.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and anti-Purkinje autoantibodies: no link?

ABSTRACT OBJECTIVES: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurobehavioral disorder that begins in early childhood, and many factors play role in its etiology. Many studies have been conducted to identify the causes of ADHD, but the exact factors are still unknown. Although cerebellar dysfunction in the etiology of ADHD was shown in different studies, the possible causes of dysfunction and the role of neuroinflammation among these causes has not been clarified yet. Anti-Yo is an antibody against the antigens in the cytoplasm of purkinje cells and indicates cerebellar degeneration, and Anti-Hu and Anti-Ri are antibodies against cellular nuclear antigens of purkinje cells. This study aimed to evaluate the role of neuroinflammation that is a potential cause of cerebellar dysfunction, which is thought to be an important factor in the development of ADHD. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional and descriptive study that aimed to evaluate the potential association between ADHD and cerebellar neuroinflammation by comparing the serum anti-purkinje cell antibody measurements between case and control groups. The cases were recruited at the Gazi University Child Psychiatry Department, and laboratory analyses were performed at the Ankara Numune Research and Training Hospital Medical Microbiology Department. Sixty children and adolescents with ADHD, and 60 healthy controls were planned to be included in the study. Cases that admitted with ADHD symptoms were given Conners teacher forms according to routine procedure; then the cases with scores over the cut-off of Conners teacher form were evaluated clinically for a diagnosis of ADHD, and after clinical evaluations they were asked to participate the study if they met the eligibility criteria. If they accept to participate the study, informed consents were given to cases and parents, and meanwhile, Turkish version of Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School Age Children-Present and Lifetime Version (K-SADS-PL) was also applied to cases. A 5-ml serum was spared from the blood samples that obtained for routine test during diagnosis. Control group was planned to be formed from the blood samples of 60 healthy children that admitted to child psychiatry clinic for counselling. At the time of analyses, diluted according to the directions of manufacturers, incubated with fluorescent staining including antibodies (Anti-Hu, Anti-Yo, and Anti-Ri), and evaluated under immunofluorescent microscope by three specialists. RESULTS: Sixty healthy volunteers and 60 cases with ADHD were included in the study. Some of the samples were excluded from the study due to the damage to laboratory tubes during transport. Assessments were conducted with 52 ADHD and 52 healthy control samples. The male/female ratio was 41/11(78.8%/21.2%) in the patient group and 35/17 (67.3%/32.7%) in the control group (p = 0.185). Average age was 9.81 ± 2.41 in the patient group and 9.46 ± 2.14 in the control group (p = 0.442). No positive results were obtained for anti-Purkinje antibody in ADHD or control groups. CONCLUSIONS: No evidence regarding the potential role of cerebellar neuroinflammation in the etiology of ADHD was determined in this study. But these results need replication in larger samples and different methods.

The validity and the reliability study of the Egocentricism Scale in Turkish

Objective: The aim of the current study is to validate and test the psychometric properties of the Adolescent Egocentricism Scale in Turkish which can be used in certain studies carried out with adolescent and adult populations. Methods: The translation of the scale was carried out in five different steps. The resulting form was applied to three different samples (N1=547, N2=656, N3=155) totaling up to 1358 university students. For construct validity, confirmatory factor analysis was carried out. For convergent and discriminant validity, the Narcissism Scale, Inclusion of the Other to the Self Scale, Aggression Scale, and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale were administered. For the reliability measures, internal reliability and test re-test reliability analyses were carried out. Results: As a result of the validity analyses, the original three factor structure (uniqueness, self-focus, imaginary audience) was kept. The relationships of the whole scale or of the sub-dimensions with similar of different structures were validated according to certain theoretical assumptions. As a result of the reliability analyses, the internal reliability of the whole scale was between 0.73 and 0.78, and the results of the test re-test reliability analyses were between 0.61 and 0.68. In addition, there were significant sex differences and significant differences in high and low scores of egocentricism. Conclusion: The results of the analyses revealed adequate proof for the validity and the reliability of the Turkish version of the scale and the results were discussed in light of the available literature.

The Role of Environmental Factors in Etiology of Attention- Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Environmental factors in etiology of ADHD Attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common developmental disorders of childhood. It was reported that it is a disease that affects 5.29% of children and adolescents in the entire world. Although ADHD is a disorder with high inheritability, genetic factors are not the only explanation to ADHD etiology. ADHD is a disorder etiology which has genetic and environmental components and gene-environment interaction. In spite of the fact that many environmental factors are linked to ADHD, the number of environmental factors that are proven to be in significant cause-effect relation is too small. In other words, in presence of proper genetic basis, disease appears in presence of many environmental factors each of which have a slight effect, its severity or prognosis is variable. Environmental factors that are most commonly linked to ADHD pathophysiology are; complications during pregnancy, natal and postnatal period, several toxins and food substances. It has been considered that exposure to risk factors that may affect development of the brain in any of these periods will have long-term effects on behavior. Along with mother’s cigarette or alcohol use during pregnancy, emotional difficulties, medical diseases and complications of pregnancy; natal complications, low birth weight, premature birth, post mature birth, physical traumas that may affect brain development in early childhood, psychosocial difficulties are also found to be related to ADHD. Studies of gene-environment interaction also note the importance of environmental factors. For example, a study showed that in cases which carry 7 repeated alleles of DRD4, exposure to prenatal cigarettes causes more severe symptoms of ADHD. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the role of