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Adult ADHD Symptomatology and Lifestyles in the Czech Population.
Weissenberger, Simone ; Ptáček, Radek (advisor) ; Bob, Petr (referee) ; Fischer, Slavomil (referee)
ADHD is a lifelong neurodevelopmental disorder that is mostly seen in childhood and that can also manifest or carry on into adulthood. It is of crucial importance for clinicians to be aware of the adult version of ADHD so that they can adequately recognize and treat those who are ailed by the condition. It is also important to raise awareness of the condition to clinicians in Czech Republic, as our study clearly shows that there are a fair amount of adults who are living with strong symptoms. We conducted our study on ADHD symptomatology among Czech adults and the correlated lifestyles to get a better picture of the condition and how it presents itself, to give a clear idea of questions that could be asked by clinicians to adults regarding their lifestyles and ADHD.We also decided to only stick tol symptomatology rather than previous diagnosis to further refine our research and get a clear picture. Our study was the first to assess ADHD symptoms and investigate lifestyles in the Czech adult population. The study was cross-sectional as this allowed us to assess the symptoms and lifestyles in "real time". The cross-sectional design was a strength as well as a limitation in the sense that we cannot see what the individuals will do in the future, whether symptoms have improved or worsened, or likewise...
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Synesthetic associations and psychopathological symtomps.
Neckář, Marcel ; Bob, Petr (advisor) ; Ptáček, Radek (referee) ; Světlák, Miroslav (referee)
1 Synesthetic associations and psychopathological symptoms Marcel Necká Abstract Synesthesia in general is a phenomenon of intersensory and intrasensory linkage that may be observed in various conditions including artistic creativity and also manifests in conditions of various brain dysfunctions and injuries. Synesthesia is a phenomenon represented by transmodal associative connections that may represent a continuum from strong synesthetic phenomena to its mild forms that may enable creation of "synesthetic" metaphors. This study is focused on projective assessments of word-color association and their relationship to psychopathological measures reflecting stress, depression, dissociation and other psychometric measures in 154 participants selected from general population. The results are in agreement with previous reported studies suggesting that lighter colors are more frequently associated with positive emotional meanings. In addition the results indicate significant relationships of color- word associations to some specific words with depression, anxiety, alexithymia and symptoms of traumatic stress. These results are in ac-cordance with existing findings in context of the so-called metaphorical synesthesia where significant role might be attributed to color intensity. In this context, results of this...
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Cognitive Disorganisation and Insight in Schizophrenia.
Toušková Petrásková, Tereza ; Bob, Petr (advisor) ; Ptáček, Radek (referee) ; Roman, Robert (referee)
Tereza Petrásková Toušková - Cognitive Disorganisation and Insight in Schizophrenia 1 SUMMARY Conscious awareness is related to brain activities represented as unita- ry, integrated and changeable processes reflecting binding of diverse modalities of basic neural informational processes and their subjective components. According to recent research disturbances of self- awareness and conscious experience have a critical role in pathophysi- ology of schizophrenia, which in early stages of the disease mainly in- clude overactivation of the HPA axis. Together these studies suggest that the processes of disrupted awareness and conscious disintegration in schizophrenia likely might be related and represented by similar dis- ruptions on the brain level, which in principle could be explained by various levels of disturbed connectivity and information disintegration that may negatively affect usual patterns of synchronous activity consti- tuting adaptive integrative functions of consciousness. In this context, a purpose of the theoretical part of the disertation is to describe basic neu- robiological mechanisms underlying integrative processes in the brain with its complementarily related mental activities including self- awareness and insight reflecting interrelated processes between mind and brain that implicate...
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Hierarchy and human behavior. BDSM as an alternative sexual behaviour.
Jozífková, Eva ; Weiss, Petr (advisor) ; Bob, Petr (referee) ; Zvěřina, Jaroslav (referee)
Preferences for sexual arousal by overstated dominance and submission in sex is categorized as F65.5, sadomasochism, according to ICD, but this behaviour is called BDSM among the general public. The ground of these preferences could be ultimately biological. These preferences reflect behavioural strategy which enables to gain higher reproductive success. Men and women who were sexually aroused by a submissive partner had more male relatives than men and women with other preferences. Contrary to the women, the dominant men reported themselves as more attractive. Women who were aroused by a higher-ranking partner considered themselves more attractive. Sons of couples in which was hierarchical disparity had more siblings than sons of "equal" couples or couples with no hierarchical disparity. Daughters of hierarchically disparate couples had more brothers than daughters of "both dominant" partners. Concurrently, number and gender of offspring as well as self- reported attractiveness are likely to be criteria of the reproductive success in humans. It is also interesting that hierarchically disparate couples, without regard to gender of higher-ranking partner, reached higher reproductive success than "equal" couples. Individuals who preferred higher- or lower-ranking partner were also aroused by...
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Neuroimmune and endocrine correlates of stress response and dissociation in affective disorders
Bízik, Gustáv ; Bob, Petr (advisor) ; Horáček, Jiří (referee) ; Yamamotová, Anna (referee)
Depression and other mental disorders are the leading cause of disability worldwide and their burden has increased considerably over past decades. However, advances in psychopharmacology of psychiatric disorders are not in measure with this negativ trend. As a result, a large body of researchinpsychiatryandneurosciencestries to furtherourunderstanding of pathophysiologicalmechanismsunderlyingmooddisorders andothermentalillnesses in order to improve the efficacy of current treatments and to identify new therapeutic agents. According to current evidence, stress-related pathways and inflammation processes are directly involved in thedevelopment of depressive disorder andseveral other psychiatric conditions.Thestudy of the effects and consequences of stress exposure requires an interdisciplinary approach,taking into account specific aspects of the "inputs", such as chronic stress and traumatic experiences, and related psychological processes, with the crucial role of dissociation. Following these theoretical findings, the empirical research performed in two cohorts of inpatients with depressive disorder focused on immune and endocrine responses to stress and their relationship to psychopathological symptoms, specifically trauma-related symptoms, psychic and somatoform dissociation and depressive...
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Therapists' in-session experiences with a depressive client: A grounded theory
Roubal, Jan ; Bob, Petr (advisor) ; Jakubů, Jiří (referee) ; Čermák, Ivo (referee)
Objective: Empirical literature on the interpersonal reactions elicited by exposure to a depressed individual identified two basic reactions: depressed mood induction and rejection of the depressed person. Relatively not many empirical studies is devoted to the topic of therapists' own experiences when working with depressive clients, although working with depressive clients burdens therapists themselves significantly. This study explores how therapists experience psychotherapy sessions with a currently depressive client and presents a processual theoretical model of the researched phenomenon. Method: Individual and focus group interviews were conducted with 30 therapists of various theoretical orientations, yielding a set of 22 in-session event descriptions. The grounded theory method was used as a methodological framework for the analysis. Results: The therapists' experience was conceptualized as Experiential oscillation between gravitating towards a client's depressive experience and moving away from it. It's evolvement over the course of a session is depicted by a model of Depression Co-experiencing Trajectory with six phases: 1. Sharing depressive experience, 2. Turning to oneself, 3. Striving for symptom change, 4. Distancing from depressive experience, 5. Turning to a client, 6. Focusing on...
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Psychoneuroimmunology of alexithymia
Uher, Tomáš ; Bob, Petr (advisor) ; Boleloucký, Zdeněk (referee) ; Smolík, Petr (referee)
Alexithymia represents a deficit in identifying and expressing emotions, paucity of fantasies, and an externally oriented cognitive style. Currently, numerous studies document that alexithymia and several mental and somatic disorders are significantly related. Several findings also indicate that this association might be caused by alexithymia related dysregulation of neuroendocrine and immune functions. Together these findings indicate that stressors related to alexithymia could underlie the process of neuroendocrine and immune dysregulation that likely may present a significant risk, sustaining and mediating pathogenesis of several disorders and particulary psychosomatic illnesses. In this context, it is also known that several proinflammatory cytokines may play a role in pain generation and that alexithymia is significantly associated with pain symptoms in several pain disorders. Following these findings this study includes several new data developing current state of the art and showing some alexithymia specific changes in patients with neurological disorders. Main finding of this study shows that alexithymia and anxiety in their specific interactions are linked to increased levels of interleukine-8 (IL-8) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the group of patients with non-inflammatory neurological...
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Stress and Limbic Iritability in Depresseion and Alkohol Dependency : Craving and Depression as a Disorder of Inhibitory Mechanisms?
Jasová, Denisa ; Bob, Petr (advisor) ; Popov, Petr (referee) ; Balcar, Karel (referee)
Stress and limbic iritability in depression and alcohol dependency Denisa Jasová Abstract Depressive disorders and alcohol dependency recently present epidemiologically most significant psychiatric disorders. According to current research both diseases are multifactorial, mainly represented by genetic and environmental conditions. Several recent research studies are mainly focused on social factors related to stress and traumatic events such as neglect, deprivation, verbal, emotional, physical and sexual abuse, bullying and others. Important feature of these pathological conditions present disbalance between excitatory and inhibitory systems. In this context in affective disorders as well as in alcohol dependency these inhibitory deficits are represented by increased sensitivity and excitability of the limbic system called limbic irritability. Several studies suggested that these pathological changes may be described using the kindling model that potentially may explain limbic changes similar to temporal lobe epilepsy which may produce affective, cognitive and psychosensory symptoms but without typical changes that occur in neurologically diagnosed epilepsy. Following these findings significant correlations between depression and limbic irritability and between limbic irritability and alcohol craving have...
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Traumatic Stress, Dissociation and Schizophrenia: Psychopathological and Psychophysiological Charakteristics
Gláslová, Kateřina ; Bob, Petr (advisor) ; Kukleta, Miloslav (referee) ; Kostroň, Lubomír (referee)
Results support the hypothesis that epileptogenic phenomena are related to traumatic stress in pathogenesis of dissociative states in schizophrenia because of significant correlations of traumatic stress, dissociation, and complex partial seizure-like symptoms. This is in accord with recent findings that schizophrenia as well as epilepsy is related to a loss of physiological balance between excitation and inhibition. Epilepsy is linked to over-excitation while on the other hand schizophrenia is connected to over-inhibition in the nuclei of the limbic system, hypothalamus and their projection sites (Stevens, 1999). In epilepsy the normal equilibrium between excitation and inhibition is permanently altered by repeated focal excitation or kindling, resulting in a permanent state of excessive focal excitability and spontaneous seizures (Stevens 1999; Goddard, McIntyre, Leech, 1969). Similar "kindling" or sensitization may be induced in inhibitory systems in response to focal physiological pulsed discharges of limbic and hypothalamic neurons and this excess of inhibitory factors may then be manifested as a psychosis (Stevens, 1992, 1999). This might correspond to intracranial (stereo-tactic) EEG studies in schizophrenia patients which reported epileptic discharges in limbic structures (Heath, 1962, 1975; Monroe,...
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