ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:2001

数据来源: OVID

ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:2001

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

To date, the research literature has yielded conflicting reports regarding the specificity of antisaccade deficits to schizophrenia. We sought to examine antisaccade and working memory task performance in schizophrenia patients and bipolar patients, as well as to examine the relationship between the two tasks in both patient populations. Thirty-four schizophrenia patients, 20 bipolar patients, and 30 nonpatient controls were administered saccadic inhibition (antisaccade), working memory, and sensorimotor tasks. Compared with the controls, the schizophrenia patients displayed both antisaccade deficits and working memory deficits. In contrast, the bipolar patients produced significantly more errors on the antisaccade task than the controls, though the bipolar group performed similarly to the control group on the working memory task. Mediational analyses demonstrated that working memory partially mediates the relationship between patients' diagnostic group status and antisaccade task performance; working memory performance contributed uniquely to the prediction of antisaccade task performance in the two patient groups. Antisaccade deficits do not appear specific to schizophrenia. The results suggest that in schizophrenia, working memory and antisaccade tasks are tapping similar cognitive processes, whereas in bipolar patients the processes underlying antisaccade and working memory performance are disparate.

ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:2001

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

This study evaluated the relationships between self-ratings of physical role functioning and general health, two components of the MOS SF-36, and a variety of demographic, quality of life, clinical, functional, and attitudinal variables in a cohort of adults living with severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI). We hypothesized that poorer self-perceptions of physical functioning and general health would be significantly related to more severe symptoms and poorer functioning and quality of life. Study subjects were 218 adults with SPMI enrolled in a randomized controlled trial comparing two vocational interventions for persons who were unemployed. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to determine whether psychiatric symptoms, poorer self-perceptions of role limitations due to physical health problems and overall general health independently contributed to more severe symptoms and poorer functioning and quality of life. Psychiatric symptoms were inversely related to size of social network and satisfaction with safety. Increased role limitations were associated with reduced medication compliance, general life satisfaction, and satisfaction with health, daily activities, and safety. Reduced general health was significantly associated with reduced work motivation, self-esteem, current inability to work, self-report of functioning, and almost all subjective life satisfaction domains. Within this group of people with severe mental illness, psychiatric symptoms were minimally associated with outcomes. Physical role limitations contributed more, and an integrated global measure of overall health perception was most important. If we are to help persons with severe mental illness maximize their quality of life and functioning, our clinical interventions should employ an approach that appreciates and recognizes the importance of the patients' experience of a holistic and integrated experience of health.

ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:2001

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

Insight impairment occurs commonly in psychotic disorders (including mood episodes with psychotic symptoms). The aim of the present study is to measure changes of insight over the course of a psychotic episode and to investigate its relationships with symptoms and neurocognitive functions, as well as psychosocial factors. Insight was assessed at weekly intervals in 80 consecutive inpatients presenting with a psychotic episode by using a Chinese translation of the Scale to Assess Unawareness of Mental Disorder (SUMD). The relationships between insight change and other variables were explored. Modest but significant changes in insight were found in both directions with clinical resolution of psychotic symptoms. In particular, insight "declined" as symptoms improved in a number of patients. In addition, changes in insight score correlated with changes in Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) performance. More changes in insight (in either direction) tended to occur in younger patients. These results indicated that adequate control of psychotic symptoms and improvement in neuropsychological functioning might be associated with better insight recovery.

ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:2001

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

Studies have suggested that family burden adversely affects clinical outcome in the major mental disorders. Logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the effect of family burden reported at baseline (acute model), or 7 months (stabilization model), on the risk of having a subsequent affective episode, in a sample of 264 patients with Research Diagnostic Criteria-diagnosed bipolar illness. Higher levels of baseline burden and a depressive index episode significantly increased the risk for a major episode at 7 months. Higher 7-month burden significantly increased the risk for a major episode at 15 months among patients with relatively low 7-month BPRS symptom levels. Caregiver burden reported at times of symptom relapse and during stabilization predicts subsequent adverse clinical outcomes among patients with bipolar disorder and suggests a need for family support.

ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:2001

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

The purpose of this study was to identify differences in family functioning between subjects with pseudoseizures and their families, and control subjects with epilepsy. Thirty-one adult subjects with pseudoseizures and 31 controls with intractable epilepsy, whose diagnoses were confirmed using video-EEG, were recruited from the epilepsy unit of a tertiary care hospital over a 4-year period. Each study participant and their first-degree adult family members completed two standardized questionnaires designed to measure family functioning: the McMaster Family Assessment Device (FAD) and the Beavers Self-Report Family Inventory (SFI). Individuals with pseudoseizures, when compared with epileptic subjects, exhibited significantly elevated scores in three scales of the FAD and in one scale of the SFI, indicating greater psychopathology within the family, as perceived by the individual. Statistically significant differences with the FAD were on measures of affective involvement (p= .044), communication (p= .004), and general functioning (p= .013). The SFI revealed significantly greater difficulty with conflict (p= .050). No differences were noted between subjects with both pseudoseizures and epilepsy and subjects with pseudoseizures alone. In comparison with the families of the epileptic group, the families of subjects with pseudoseizures displayed statistically significant elevations in their responses on the roles scale (p= .003) of the FAD. The responses of the family members did not differ in regard to the role they assumed within the family unit (i.e.,spouse, parent). In summary, individuals with pseudoseizures view their families as being more dysfunctional, particularly in the area of communication, whereas their family members perceived difficulties in defining roles. This suggests that family education and interventions focusing on these areas, may be an important aspect of the treatment of patients with pseudoseizures.

ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:2001

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

Exposure to the dead has been an important subject for traumatic stress research, considering that such exposure is a risk factor for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Individuals required to handle the dead from war are exposed to multiple stressors. No previous studies, however, have examined pre- and post-responses to traumatic death. We studied the pre-post responses of 352 military men and women who worked in the mortuary that received the dead from the Persian Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm) in 1990 to 1991. The respondents were volunteers and nonvolunteers for assignment to the mortuary; some had prior experience in handling the dead and some did not. Symptoms of intrusion and avoidance were measured before and after exposure. Four groups were examined based on the degree of exposure to remains. Age, sex, volunteer status, and prior experience handling remains were statistically controlled. Post-exposure intrusion symptoms increased significantly for all groups exposed to the dead. Increased post-exposure avoidance symptoms were present in the two groups with the greatest exposure to remains. There were no significant increases in intrusion or avoidance in the unexposed group.

ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:2001

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

In a large (N= 1744) study of previously hospitalized psychiatric patients, multiple follow-up attempts were made to contact the ex-patients over a 1-year period after their discharges. When contacted they were asked to provide information about their posthospital adjustment; 59.5% of the sample was reached at least once and usable data obtained either in a telephone interview or from a mailed survey form. The contacted and noncontacted people represented very different subpopulations, both demographically and in terms of typical psychiatric descriptors. Those who were of lower socioeconomic status, male, unmarried, racial minorities, and those with records of substance abuse or assaultiveness, and who were generally more severely impaired during the baseline hospitalization wereunderrepresented in the contacted group. Possible reasons for these sample biases, the implications for hospitals conducting outcome assessments (i.e.,for research and program evaluation purposes), and strategies for dealing with this kind of methodological problem are discussed.

ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:2001

数据来源: OVID

ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:2001

数据来源: OVID