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Background: The aim was to investigate the personality profile of bipolar disorder I and II, and healthy controls, and to study whether personality influences the course of bipolar disorder. Methods: One hundred ten patients with bipolar disorder I, 85 patients with bipolar disorder II, and 86 healthy individuals had their personality profile assessed using the Swedish universities Scales of Personality (SSP), an instrument developed to explore personality-related vulnerabilities and correlates of psychiatric disorders. Patients were followed prospectively for 2 years. To assess the impact of Neuroticism, Aggressiveness, and Disinhibition on illness course, we performed logistic regressions with the outcome variables mood episodes (depressive, hypo/ manic, mixed), suicide attempts, violence, and the number of sick leave days. Results: Bipolar disorder I and II demonstrated higher global measures of Neuroticism, Aggressiveness, and Disinhibition as compared with healthy controls. A third of the patients scored ≥bove the populationbased normative mean on the global neuroticism measure. The two subtypes of bipolar disorder were, however, undistinguishable on all of the personality traits. In the unadjusted model, higher neuroticism at baseline predicted future depressive episodes and suicide attempts/violent behavior, but this association disappeared when adjusting for baseline depressive symptoms as assessed with MADRS. Conclusions: A significant minority of the patients scored ≥bove the population mean on the global measures of Neuroticism, Aggressiveness and Disinhibition; scores this high are usually evident clinically. Yet, the personality profile does not seem to have prognostic value over a 2-year period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The risk of a disease or psychiatric disorder is frequently measured by the age-specific cumulative incidence. Cumulative incidence estimates are often derived in cohort studies with individuals recruited over calendar time and with the end of follow-up governed by a specific date. It is common practice to apply the Kaplan-Meier or Aalen-Johansen estimator to the total sample and report either the estimated cumulative incidence curve or just a single point on the curve as a description of the disease risk.Methods: We argue that, whenever the disease or disorder of interest is influenced by calendar time trends, the total sample Kaplan-Meier and Aalen-Johansen estimators do not provide useful estimates of the general risk in the target population. We present some alternatives to this type of analysis.Results: We show how a proportional hazards model may be used to extrapolate disease risk estimates if proportionality is a reasonable assumption. If not reasonable, we instead advocate that a more useful description of the disease risk lies in the age-specific cumulative incidence curves across strata given by time of entry or perhaps just the end of follow-up estimates across all strata. Finally, we argue that a weighted average of these end of follow-up estimates may be a useful summary measure of the disease risk within the study period.Conclusions: Time trends in a disease risk will render total sample estimators less useful in observational studies with staggered entry and administrative censoring. An analysis based on proportional hazards or a stratified analysis may be better alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study was designed to investigate cognitive abilities and their correlations with CTG repeat expansion size in classical Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1), given that earlier studies have indicated cognitive deficits, possibly correlating with blood CTG repeats expansion size. Methods: A measurement of CTG repeat expansion in lymphocytes and an extensive neuropsychological examination was made in 47 patients (25 women and 22 men). Individual results in the examination were compared with normative data. Results: A substantial proportion of patients with DM1 (> 40%) scored worse in comparison to normative collectives on tests measuring executive, arithmetic, attention, speed and visuospatial abilities. We found significant correlations between longer CTG repeat expansion size and lower results on most tests associated with these abilities. Furthermore, the association between executive (frontal) deficits and DM1 were strengthened when considering both test results and correlations with CTG repeat expansion size in lymphocytes. Conclusion: This study showed deficits in several cognitive abilities when patients with DM1 are compared to normative collectives. Some of the neuropsychological tests associated with these abilities are correlated to CTG repeat expansion size in blood. These data highlight the importance of considering cognitive deficits when seeing patients with classical DM1 in clinical practice, but also the utility of using blood CTG repeat expansion size as a broad predictor of finding cognitive deficit in DM1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]