Search

Background: The literature contains several cases of anorexia nervosa (AN) patients with prolonged QTc interval. However, the risk of prolonged QTc interval is controversial and the risk of cardiac events in AN patients has yet to be investigated. Methods: We estimated the difference in mean QTc interval and relative risk of borderline prolonged QTc (>440 ms) and prolonged QTc (>460 ms) between 430 adult women AN patients and 123 healthy controls using 3 correction formulas. In a follow-up study, we estimated the risk of a primary end point (a composite of ventricular tachycardia, aborted cardiac arrest, and cardiac arrest) in AN patients compared with a population-based cohort derived from the Danish Civil Register. Results: Mean QTc for AN patients was 408 ms (Hodges), 402 ms (Fridericia), and 399 ms (Bazett). Hodges’ found a slightly increased mean QTc (6.8 ms, 95% confidence interval, 1.6–12.0; P =0.01) and percentage with QTc >440 ms in AN patients (relative risk, 3.7, 95% confidence interval, 1.4–10.3; P =0.01), not observed with Fridericia’s and Bazett’s formulas. There was no difference in the risk of QTc >460 ms between AN patients and healthy controls. During a median follow-up of 10.1 years, AN patients had an increased risk of the primary end point compared with the population-based cohort (hazard ratio, 10.4, 95% confidence interval, 2.6–41.6; P =0.001). However, absolute numbers were small with cumulative incidences of 0.5% and 0.07%, respectively, after 10 years. No events occurred in any AN patient with QTc >440 ms. All-cause mortality was also significantly increased in AN patients compared with the population-based cohort (hazard ratio, 11.2, 95% confidence interval, 5.1–24.5; P Conclusions: Overall, there was no difference in mean QTc interval or risk of prolonged QTc between AN patients and healthy controls. However, AN patients had a notably increased all-cause mortality, as well as an increased risk of cardiac events, which was not related to the baseline QTc interval.

Objective:We investigated whether patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder have poorer memory and executive functions than healthy controls.Background:The relatively inconsistent previous findings on this question reflect a lack of well-matched control groups, the inclusion of patients with comorbidity, and the use of noncomparable neuropsychological tests to assess memory and executive functions.Methods:We used well-accepted neuropsychological tests of memory and executive functions to assess 42 patients who had obsessive-compulsive disorder without comorbidity, and 42 healthy controls. We matched the patients and controls pairwise by sex, age, and years of education.Results:The patients performed significantly worse than the controls on the Rey Complex Figure Test, which assesses visuospatial memory and organizational skills. This group difference remained after we controlled for age, education, intelligence, and severity of depressive symptoms.Conclusions:The findings indicate that patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder may have impaired visuospatial memory and organizational skills, and these impairments should be considered in treatment.Trial Registration:ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00792038.

Background: The etiologies of autism spectrum disorder and many neurodevelopmental disorders are largely unknown. The detection of a seasonal variation of birth of children diagnosed with a certain disorder could suggest etiological factors that follow a seasonal pattern. We examined the seasonal variation of births of children diagnosed with any of 4 common childhood neuropsychiatric disorders: autism spectrum disorder, hyperkinetic disorder, Tourette syndrome, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Methods: The study cohort consisted of all children born in Denmark from 1990 through 1999 identified in the Danish Medical Birth Register (n 669,995). Outcome data consisted of both inpatient and outpatient diagnoses reported to the Danish National Psychiatric Registry from 1995 through 2004 using the International Classification of Diseases, 10th edition, diagnostic coding system. Logistic regression combined with spline (a smoothing method) was used to estimate the variation with season of birth for each disorder. Estimates of risk of each disorder with season of birth were adjusted for differences in follow-up time and change in incidence over time. Results: No convincing variations in season of birth were observed for any of the 4 disorders, or for the autism-spectrum-disorder subtypes. Conclusion: Although we cannot rule out the possibility of seasonal variation of birth for a range of childhood neurodevelopmental disorders, we find little evidence that seasonal environmental factors are related to these disorders. (Epidemiology 2007;18: 240‐245)