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Publications (43)
Multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) or idiopathic environmental intolerance (IEI) is understood as an acquired disorder with multiple recurrent symptoms that cannot be traced to any well-known medical or psychiatric condition and is associated with diverse environmental influences that are well tolerated by the majority of people. In a prospective...
In approximately 20% of patients with suspected allergies, no organic symptom explanation can be found. Limited knowledge about patients with "medically unexplained symptoms (MUS)" contributes to them being perceived as "difficult" and being treated inadequately. This study examined the psychobehavioural characteristics of patients presenting for a...
Only a small number of studies on the natural disease course in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) have been conducted. This is surprising because knowledge about the progression of symptoms is a precondition for the design of clinical drug trials.
The aim of the present study was to examine the cognitive decline of 20 patients with...
Psychobehavioral characteristics of patients with somatoform disorders (SFDs), are increasingly discussed as possible positive criteria for this diagnostic group. However, little is known about psychobehavioral differences, or similarities, between the different SFD presentations, i.e., polysymptomatic [multisomatoform/somatization disorders (MSD)]...
This analysis aimed to study predictors of different treatment outcomes and associations between subjective symptoms, psychometric variables and mercury levels in patients who subjectively attributed their health problems to dental amalgam.
A secondary and retrospective analysis of data of a recently published randomized clinical trial was performe...
To explore a combination of health-related psychobehavioral features as potential positive criteria for somatoform disorders (SFD). Currently, SFD can only be diagnosed in the absence of sufficient organic symptom explanation, resulting in low criterion validity and delay of appropriate therapy.
Cross sectionally, we studied various psychobehaviora...
The aim of this article was to investigate whether there is evidence for a specific syndrome of health problems attributed to dental amalgam.
A secondary and retrospective analysis of two different databases was performed: (a) 90 patients (47% female, mean (SD) age 34 (6) years) of a clinical trial to remove amalgam fillings who attribute their hea...
Education seems to protect against symptoms of neurodegeneration, but highly educated individuals experience faster cognitive decline after the onset of dementia. No studies on the effects of education on the clinical course in frontotemporal lobar degenerations (FTLD) exist. The aim of the study was to explore the effect of education on the rate o...
. Bornschein S, Förstl H, Zilker T (Technische Universität München, München, Germany). Idiopathic environmental intolerances (formerly multiple chemical sensitivity) psychiatric perspectives. J Intern Med 2001; 250: 309–321.Idiopathic environmental intolerances (IEI)/multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) is characterized by various somatic symptoms w...
Bei Beschwerden bezogen auf weitverbreitete chemische Substanzen oder auch Strahlungen, verbunden mit Beeinträchtigungen von Lebensqualität und Leistungsfähigkeit, aber unauffälliger Anamnese, Befund, Human- und Biomonitoring, handelt es sich wahrscheinlich um umweltbezogene somatoforme Störungen. Psychotherapeutisch ist neben der hohen psychischen...
Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) is an acquired disorder with recurrent symptoms referable to multiple organ systems. No widely accepted test of physiologic function correlates with symptoms and it has not been recognized as a distinct entity by the scientific community. Few double-blind placebo-controlled studies have been done. The objectives...
Based on the assumption that professional groups with frequent chemical exposure are at an increased risk for developing Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), a sample of 45 professional pest controllers was investigated.
The examination of the pest controllers consisted of a physical and laboratory examination with urine screening for pyrethroid me...
It has been hypothesized that people with subjective hypersensitivity to chemicals may indeed suffer from neuronal damage due to widely distributed environmental toxins and that such deficits of diagnostic importance can be demonstrated with the help of functional neuroimaging even in single cases. In this study, a small group of well-characterized...
Die Umweltmedizin befasst sich mit den akuten und chronischen Auswirkungen von chemischen und physikalischen Umwelteinflüssen sowohl auf die objektiv messbare als auch auf die subjektiv wahrgenommene Gesundheit. Da die Einflüsse jedoch sehr komplex, stetig wechselnd und experimentell nur begrenzt untersuchbar sind, sind subjektiv wahrgenommene Kaus...
Idiopathic environmental intolerances (IEI) - formerly multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS) - are characterized by diffuse symptoms reported after exposure to low doses of everyday chemicals. Previous theories about the origin of IEI have emphasized either biological or psychological factors, neglecting a probable interplay. Many have suggested cl...
The influence of nutritional factors on brain metabolism and the course of mental illness are increasingly being addressed in international research. It is a matter of discussion whether dietary habits, e.g., the amount of fish or vegetables, have an effect on the incidence of certain illnesses. Furthermore an optimized or supplemented diet could o...
The influence of nutritional factors on brain metabolism and the course of mental illness are increasingly being addressed in international research. It is a matter of discussion whether dietary habits, e.g., the amount of fish or vegetables, have an effect on the incidence of certain illnesses. Furthermore an optimized or supplemented diet could o...
To identify the pattern of progression of decline of cerebral glucose metabolism in frontotemporal dementia (FTD, frontal variant).
22 patients with mild FTD underwent 18F-FDG-positron emission tomography at baseline and at follow-up in average 19.5 months later. Patient scans were compared with scans from 15 healthy age-matched control subjects on...
Ein aktuelles Phnomen in der Umweltmedizin ist die multiple Chemikaliensensitivitt (MCS). Betroffene berichten von einer subjektiven Unvertrglichkeit kleinster Mengen ubiquitr vorhandener Chemikalien. Die tiologie des Syndroms ist umstritten. Aktuell werden am ehesten psychologische Zusammenhnge diskutiert, aufgrund derer MCS als somatoforme Strung...
Environmental influences are very complex, continuously changing, and only partially accessible to scientific investigation. Therefore subjective causal attributions can be difficult to prove and also to disprove. When patients attribute their symptoms to environmental triggers and perceive health threats from commonly used chemical agents or elect...
Semantic dementia (SD). Objective: To identify the pattern of decline of cerebral glucose metabolism in SD using cerebral (18)F-fluoro-2-desoxy-D-glucose positron emission tomography scanning ((18)F-FDG-PET).
Eight patients with SD underwent (18)F-FDG-PET at baseline and at re-examination in average 15 months later.
Compared with healthy control su...
To understand idiopathic environmental intolerances (IEI)-formerly multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS)-it is helpful to outline its characteristic psychiatric morbidity.
We applied a standardized interview according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition (SCID) to 305 environmental patients with and without IEI....
Ziel der Studie: Auf Initiative des Ausschusses „Umsetzung des Arbeitszeitgesetzes” der Delegiertenversammlung des Ärztlichen Kreisverbandes (ÄKBV) München wurde im Herbst 2004 eine Befragung unter angestellten und beamteten Münchner Ärzten zu Arbeitszeit und Arbeitsbedingungen durchgeführt. Ziel war es, den realen Stand der Umsetzung der Arbeitsze...
In autumn 2004 the local association of physicians (Arztlicher Kreis- und Bezirksverband München) performed a survey among employed physicians in Munich on working hours and working conditions. The aim of the study was to assess the extent to which the German law on working hours is actually implemented in employed physicians, and to obtain informa...
Patients with environmental illness experience a large number of psychological symptoms. The nature of these symptoms and their pathogenesis (toxicogenic versus psychogenic) is controversial. The objective was to (1) characterize the nature of the psychological symptoms according to well-established diagnostic criteria, and (2) to investigate the a...
Frontotemporale lobäre Degenerationen (FTLD) verursachen 30 - 50 % der Demenzen mit präsenilem Beginn. Bei rund 40 % der Patienten mit FTD findet sich eine positive Familienanamnese für Demenz, in weniger als 10 % der Fälle liegt ein klarer autosomal dominanter Erbgang vor. Ziel unserer Arbeit war, an einer Gruppe von 82 deutschen Patienten mit FTL...
Environmental clinics are frequented by patients with fears and complaints related to environmental triggers. A dose-independent overreaction to small doses of widely used and generally non-toxic chemicals is referred to as multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), but no clearly defined clinical syndrome with objective physical findings has been deline...
Background: Many patients with multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) also report intolerances of food, drugs or alcohol. Method: We present patient histories concerning these intolerances from our environmental clinic (2001-2003). We compared patients with MCS to patients with other types of illness related to the environment. Results: Patients with...
50 years after the first description of multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), there is ongoing debate about its etiology and pathophysiology. Proponents of the toxicogenic, olfactory-limbic, and immunologic theory favour a somatic origin of the disorder. Others believe that MCS is predominantly psychogenic. In spite of several decades of research, n...
We present the case of a 51-year-old female patient consulting ! our outpatient department of environmental medicine who is suffering from malignant hypertension and subjective intolerance of multiple chemicals and drugs (MCS). Because of the latter she refuses pharmacotherapy of her hypertension, which leads to a detrimental course of disease. We...
Background: Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) is an individual overreaction to low doses of a variety of widely used chemicals. By interviewing 2032 Germans we aimed to obtain information about symptoms attributed to environmental causes, the frequency of self-reported chemical sensitivity, the diagnosis MCS and beliefs and attitudes concerning e...
Multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) poses a medical challenge. Proposed etiologies are as numerous as they are contradictory, direct and indirect costs are high, and patient suffering considerable. In the absence of objective diagnostic criteria, estimation of its prevalence is difficult. Nevertheless, establishment of the diagnosis is frequently s...
Controversy surrounds the origin of symptoms attributed to environmental pollutants or widely used chemicals, and the authors believed that a psychiatric evaluation could advance understanding of this contentious condition. They assessed psychiatric morbidity, somatization, and self-attentiveness in patients seen in their Environmental Clinic. Two...
Multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) is a controversially discussed symptom complex. Patients afflicted by MCS react to very low and generally non-toxic concentrations of environmental chemicals. It has been suggested that MCS leads to neurotoxic damage or neuroimmunological alteration in the brain detectable by position emission tomography (PET) an...
Patients with multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) react to low levels of common environmental chemicals with various health complaints. The etiology and pathogenesis of MCS is not clear. Objective criteria for diagnosis are lacking. Usually there are no pathological somatic findings, while psychiatric morbidity is considerably high. Somatoform, moo...
An increasing number of individuals with diverse health complaints are currently seeking help in the field of environmental medicine. Multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) or idiopathic environmental intolerances (IEI) is defined as an acquired disorder with multiple recurrent symptoms associated with environmental chemicals in low concentrations tha...
Idiopathic environmental intolerances (IEI)/multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) is characterized by various somatic symptoms which cannot be explained organically, but are attributed to the influences of toxic environmental chemicals in low, usually harmless doses. In the absence of a widely accepted definition of IEI, contradictory aetiological hy...
Multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) or idiopathic environmental intolerance (IEI) is understood as an acquired disorder with multiple recurrent symptoms that cannot be traced to any well-known medical or psychiatric condition and is associated with diverse environmental influences that are well tolerated by the majority of people. In a prospective...
In Environmental Medicine the term "psychiatrization" is used more often than in other medical fields, mostly when it comes to unexplained syndromes attributed to environmental hazard, such as Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS). For a variety of reasons patients fear to be examined by a psychiatrist or to be diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder,...
