ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1996

数据来源: OVID

ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1996

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

Emerging evidence indicates that schizophrenia may in some cases be a neurodevelopmental disorder, resulting in part from the effects of prenatal exposures. Studies by our group have focused attention on the potential role of prenatal nutritional deficiency as a potential etiological factor. Therefore, we sought to examine the biological plausibility of prenatal nutritional deprivation in the etiopathogenesis of schizophrenia. We conducted a review of the pertinent literature. Four lines of evidence support prenatal nutritional deficiencies as a plausible set of risk factors for schizophrenia: a) their effects are not incompatible with the epidemiology of schizophrenia; b) they have adverse effects on brain development; c) general malnutrition results in neuropathological anomalies of brain regions implicated in schizophrenia; and d) prenatal malnutrition affects maternal systems critical to the developing fetal nervous system. There is sufficient evidence to warrant further studies of prenatal nutritional deficits as risk factors for schizophrenia. A strategy for testing these hypotheses is outlined.

ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1996

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

A multinational, collaborative, biomedical investigation of the effects of hoasca (ayahuasca), a potent concoction of plant hallucinogens, was conducted in the Brazilian Amazon during the summer of 1993. This report describes the psychological assessment of 15 long-term members of a syncretic church that utilizes hoasca as a legal, psychoactive sacrament as well as 15 matched controls with no prior history of hoasca ingestion. Measures administered to both groups included structured psychiatric diagnostic interviews, personality testing, and neuropsychological evaluation. Phenomenological assessment of the altered state experience as well as semistructured and open-ended life story interviews were conducted with the long-term use hoasca group, but not the hoasca-naive control group. Salient findings included the remission of psychopathology following the initiation of hoasca use along with no evidence of personality or cognitive deterioration. Overall assessment revealed high functional status. Implications of this unusual phenomenon and need for further investigation are discussed.

ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1996

数据来源: OVID

ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1996

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

This article is concerned with issues pertaining to the degree to which clinical therapeutic decisions can reasonably depart from the best available scientific data. There is a tension between the traditions of practitioner autonomy and the boundaries set by research findings. Ambiguity exists as to how much freedom practitioners have to accept or reject the existing scientific paradigm. The nature of the dilemma is explored by analyzing the current problems confronting child psychiatrists and pediatricians who choose to treat depressed children with antidepressants. Despite unanimous literature of double-blind studies indicating that antidepressants are no more effective than placebos in treating depression in children and adolescents, such medications continue to be in wide use. The strategies used to resolve this sort of contradiction are considered, and certain ethical puzzles are appraised.

ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1996

数据来源: OVID

ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1996

数据来源: OVID

ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1996

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

We undertook this study to determine whether predictors of positive placebo response in chronic schizophrenic outpatients could be identified. Twelve placebo responders and 33 placebo nonresponders who participated in a parallel-group, double-blind, 12-week clinical drug trial were compared. No significant differences between the groups were found with regard to 16 anamnestic and symptom variables. To investigate further which variables at baseline predicted positive placebo response, a stepwise linear regression model was created. Of the seven variables entered into the model, only high scores in the positive domain of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (delusions, unusual thought content, grandiosity, and suspiciousness/persecution) at baseline predicted significantly positive placebo response (p= .0047). Because the onset of placebo response was gradual, the authors hypothesize that placebo response in chronic schizophrenia consists mainly of two ingredients: nonspecific psychotherapeutic effect caused by the several assessments carried out during the study, and regression toward the mean.

ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1996

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

Cognitive impairments in depression have recently been proposed as secondary to more basic attentional disturbances. Studies have shown that performance on the Stroop Color-Word Test is impaired in depressives, but it is not clear whether this impairment reflects a primary distractor inhibition disturbance or a more global cognitive dysfunction, such as a reduction of processing resources. In the present study, unmedicated clinical depressives were evaluated using a computerized Stroop Color-Word Test and the Visuo-Spatial Interference Test, a selective attention task that makes fewer demands on resources. Compared with normal subjects, depressives presented increased choice reaction times (CRT) and interference in both tests. Correlations were found between CRT and interferences only in depressives, favoring the processing resource hypothesis. Further exploratory analysis comparing the more rapid depressives and the slower normal subjects on CRT revealed that although these subgroups had comparable CRT, rapid depressives still exhibited increased interference on the Visuo-Spatial Interference Test. Thus, in non- or mildly retarded patients, a specific distractor inhibition deficit was observed in absence of resource deficit.

ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1996

数据来源: OVID