[Organic brain syndromes. Classification and pathogenetic factors of oxidative brain metabolism in 155 patients]

Homogeneous subgroups of 155 "organic" in-patients of a state mental hospital were formed by computer assisted multivariate statistical methods based on AMDP-rating scales assessment of the given psychopathology, to lend support to new classifications of organic mental syndromes (DSM III, ICD-9) on the one side and to reduce the heterogeneity of patient-population on the other. The grouping of symptoms were: organic core symptomatology, affective and delusional hallucinatory symptom complexes. Brain oxidative metabolism differed significantly within the syndromally differentiated groupings of patients (p(u) = 0.001): slightly increased cerebral oxygen consumption and lactate-glucose-index half of normal in the depressives oxygen consumption minimally impaired in the patients with organic core symptoms and the lactate-glucose index significantly higher. The delusional patients had qualitatively similar changes as the depressives. The disorders of brain metabolism have relevance in pathogenetic and pathophysiologic terms as well as indicating significance and, probably, quality of prediction for the different mental syndromes.