Citation

Soderstrom H, Blennow K, Manhem A, Forsman A. J. Neural. Transm. 2001; 108(7): 879-886.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Clinical Neuroscience, Göteborg University, Sweden. henrik.soderstrom@rmv.se

Copyright

(Copyright © 2001, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

11515753

Abstract

Cerebral dysfunction without corresponding structural pathology has been reported in brain imaging studies of violent offenders. Biochemical markers in the CSF reflect various types of CNS pathology, such as blood-brain barrier dysfunction (CSF/S albumin ratio), infectious or inflammatory processes (IgG and IgM indices), neuronal or axonal degeneration (CSF-tau protein) and synaptic de- or regeneration (CSF-growth associated protein-43 (GAP-43)). We compared these CSF markers in 19 non-psychotic perpetrators of severe violent crimes undergoing pretrial forensic psychiatric investigation and 19 age- and sex-matched controls. Index subjects had significantly higher albumin ratios (p = 0.002), indicating abnormal vascular permeability as part of the complex CNS dysfunction previously reported in violent offenders. Axis I disorders, including substance abuse or current medication, did not explain this finding. Since Ig-indices, CSF-tau protein or CSF-GAP-43 were not increased, there was no support for inflammation or neuronal/synaptic degeneration as etiological factors to CNS dysfunction in this category of subjects.

Language: en