ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1985

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

This review examines two putative biological markers for schizophrenia: reduced blood platelet monamine oxidase (MAO) activity and impaired smooth pursuit eye movements. Studies of these biological markers among patient samples are presented, including their theoretical background, measurement, genetics, validity, and specificity of the markers for schizophrenia, and the artifacts that might lessen their utility. These results are then compared with those from the biological high-risk research strategy, which selects nonpatient volunteers solely on the basis of a deviant marker, and then examines the clinical, psychological, and biological correlates of the marker. The results of these studies suggest that low platelet MAO activity is not an adequate marker for schizophrenia but is associated with characteristics related to hypomanic behavior and sensation seeking. Smooth pursuit eye tracking impairment, in contrast, seems to be directly associated with schizophrenia-related traits, such as the negative symptoms found among chronic schizophrenics, or with the characteristics observed in the biological relatives of schizophrenics. Finally, the implications of these findings are discussed.

ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1985

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

This paper reports two studies bearing upon the role of defensive projection in paranoid conditions. The first study considered a proposal explaining the mechanics of projection. People who use their social environment for standards of comparison in making self-evaluations may distort the social comparison process in the case of a threatening characteristic. False attribution or selective perception may allow a social standard to be shifted toward the negative attribute. Given the modified standard, the characteristic can be minimized or denied. Evidence supporting this hypothesis was found when high projectors (among normals) reported greater use of social comparison in reaching self-evaluation judgments concerning negative qualities. The second study considered the clinical implications of the proposition that defensive projection, defined this way, would be found among those who are more heavily invested in their social environment. It was predicted that reactive paranoid schizophrenics, identified by greater premorbid commitment to their social environment, would use projection; process paranoid schizophrenics, having a greater premorbid history of social withdrawal, would not. This prediction was confirmed. Process paranoids demonstrated the most idiosyncratic free associations to verbal cues, suggesting the autistic (self-preoccupied) quality of their thinking and delusions.

ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1985

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

An experiment was conducted to determine whether depressed borderline patients could be distinguished from normal controls and psychotic patients on the basis of a visual backward masking task that measures speed of information processing. Results showed that a) borderline patients could not be distinguished from normal controls on the information-processing task; b) both the borderline patients and the normal controls were superior to psychotic patients with diagnoses of major depressive, schizoaffective, and manic disorders; and c) among the three psychotic groups, the schizoaffective subjects were the most impaired.The data support the idea that borderline patients have normal-range information-processing functions. In distinction, all three psychotic groups showed disruption of this fundamental ego function by which information is processed. The results of related experiments indicate that schizotypal patients (in distinction to borderline patients) are abnormal information processors. Taken together, these findings support the contention that the schizotypal/borderline distinction is valid.

ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1985

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

Two trained and experienced clinical psychologists and two nontrained students rated the sections in Gunderson's Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines (DIB) on the basis of hospital records for 16 patients (DIB-R). The results showed that both reliability and validity,i.e., correlations with an actual interview, were unexpectedly high, around .80 for the trained judges and around .55 for the nontrained judges. The conclusion is that the DIB may be used for retrospective diagnosis of borderline patients from hospital records.

ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1985

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

Does thought disorder emerge solely as a function of psychosis, or is it a function of diagnosis? The present research investigated whether thought disorder is more frequent in specific diagnostic groups, such as schizophrenia and mania, than in other types of psychotic disorders. The frequency and severity of positive thought disorder was assessed in 324 Research Diagnostic Criteria and DSM-III schizophrenics, manics, other psychotic patients, and nonpsychotic patients, and a normal comparison group. Fifty-seven percent of the sample were first hospital admissions. Patients were tested at the acute phase of their disorder, within the first 2 weeks of hospitalization, with three cognitive tests. Scores from these three tests were scaled to obtain a composite index of the severity of positive thought disorder.Diagnostic factors were more salient to the severity of disordered thinking than was psychosis. Thought disorder was significantly more frequent in schizophrenia and mania than in other psychotic disorders (p< .05). The frequency of patients with severe thought disorder was reduced as one moved down the hierarchy of manic, schizophrenic, schizoaffective, and depressed psychotic disturbances (p< .001). Rather surprisingly, the current research suggests that nonpsychotic manic patients may be as thought disordered as psychotic manic patients at acute phases of disturbance. This would indicate that the presence of positive thought disorder in mania is not primarily a function of most of these patients' being psychotic at the acute phase of disturbance.Thought disorder was not simply a function of psychosis. Although psychotic patients in general showed more severe thought disorder than did nonpsychotic patients, only about 30% of the other psychotic patients exhibited severe positive thought disorder.These results bear directly on issues relating to the diagnostic specificity of severe positive thought disorder. Neither thought pathology nor any other individual symptom is specific to one psychiatric disturbance. However, severe positive thought disorder is more frequent in schizophrenia and mania than in other types of psychotic and nonpsychotic disorders.

ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1985

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

Computerized axial tomography (CAT) scans were blindly examined, and lateral ventricular-to-brain ratios calculated in 19 schizophrenic and 27 bipolar patients, and in an equal number of individually matched normal controls. Family history, early development, past psychiatric history, and current functioning and symptomatology were analyzed for all patients. Lateral ventricular enlargement on CAT was found in a significant proportion of both patient groups. Patients with such enlargement tended to have greater numbers of negative symptoms and poorer premorbid adjustment, but did not differ regarding family history of psychiatric illness. A subgroup of schizophrenics with presumed early brain damage was identified. This group had more marked ventricular enlargement, a greater number of negative symptoms, and an earlier onset of illness.

ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1985

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

The autosomal recessive disorder homocystinuria involves, in all its subgroups, an abnormality of methionine metabolism. The metabolism of methionine has been a central focus of interest for those who propose the transmethylation hypothesis of schizophrenia. The “methionine effect,” as described in the research literature, is thus a theoretical link between these two disorders. The authors review the literature and describe those cases where both have occurred in the same patient. They indicate that whereas many patients with homocystinuria have been psychotic, few have been actually labeled schizophrenic. A patient with homocystinuria, mental retardation, and episodic psychosis is described and this case is used to point to the difficulties in making a definite psychiatric diagnosis in these patients. A relationship between the two syndromes is suggested.

ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1985

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

The practice of polygamy, although varying from culture to culture, is widespread in many areas of the world. In Kuwait, for example, 8 to 12.5% of all marriages contracted are polygamous. Although sociologists and anthropologists, as well as common sense, have suggested that a polygamous marriage may have a negative effect on the wives involved, an extensive literature search failed to uncover any psychiatric research that attempts to examine this situation or objectively delineates possible psychiatric sequelae. The present study was a pilot effort to determine whether Kuwaiti wives of polygamous marriages were disproportionately represented in the inpatient psychiatric as opposed to the general population. A second purpose was to determine the extent of the relationship between psychiatric disorder and marital situation. Preliminary data indicated that the percentage of wives of polygamous marriages was significantly greater in the inpatient psychiatric population than in the general population of Kuwait, as reflected in the 1975 census. In addition, the results suggested a relationship between the nature of psychiatric disorder and the marital situation. Alternate explanations of the data are advanced, and the need for controlled future studies outlined.

ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1985

数据来源: OVID

ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1985

数据来源: OVID