ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1980

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

How do various diagnostic definitions of schizophrenia compare? As part of a larger study of diagnosis and prognosis, nine different systems used for diagnosing schizophrenia were applied to a sample of patients (N=272) from two geographical catchment areas who had been hospitalized for the first time in their lives for functional psychiatric illness. The size and composition of the groups diagnosed schizophrenic by each set of criteria were then compared with respect to five clinical variables hypothesized to be important for differentiating the diagnostic systems. All data were collected with structured interviews of demonstrated reliability.Results showed that several of the variables tested distinguished schizophrenics diagnosed by some systems from those considered schizophrenic by other systems and from those patients in the sample not considered schizophrenic by any system. High levels of delusions of passivity characterized the patients classified as schizophrenic by three systems: Schneider, Langfeldt, and the Flexible System. High psychosis scores characterized the patients considered schizophrenic by the New Haven Schizophrenia Index. Increased chronicity and low levels of affective symptoms characterized the patients considered schizophrenic by the Feighner criteria. Poor work and social function characterized the patients considered schizophrenic by the hospital physician using DSM-II guidelines.These and other findings reported indicate that the various systems for diagnosing schizophrenia have both characteristic differences and overlap. Considering these can help to delineate the extent to which research findings or clinical experience based on the system can be generalized to findings based upon another.

ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1980

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

Consultees' concordance with psychiatric consultants' recommendations for diagnostic action was studied retrospectively. Of 381 initial consultations reviewed, 110 (29 per cent) contained one or more recommendations for diagnostic action. Consultees' responses were rated concordant in only 53 per cent of these cases. This disturbing outcome, reflecting broad resistance to consultants' practice of making recommendations for diagnostic action, is attributed to consultees' use of a functional vs. organic dichotomy regarding psychiatric disorder. The functional category is argued to be perceived by consultees as a nonmedical entity. As the psychiatrist is invoked to deal with this nonmedical entity, he is seen in other than the medical mode and inconsistently afforded medical privilege. The work implies how wide the gap to medical credibility may be for psychiatric consultants and the need for new consultation strategies incorporating this cognizance.

ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1980

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

Difficulties in interpersonal relationships are common complaints of psychiatric patients, and some investigators have contended that a lack of social skills, excessive social anxiety, and interpersonal problems are important causes of psychiatric disorders. To investigate further the relationship between social anxiety and psychiatric disorders, a survey of outpatients (N=303) and untreated controls (N=216) was conducted using measures of social anxiety, self-consciousness, general anxiety, and depression. Schizophrenics, secondary depressives, and nonpsychotic patients in individual and group psychotherapy characterized themselves as most shy in the diagnostic-ally mixed patient group. Patients with primary affective disorders and family therapy patients were less socially anxious and resembled the control group in this respect. The single best predictor of status as a patient vs. status as a control was level of depression as determined by a stepwise discriminant function analysis. The relationship between social anxiety and secondary depression deserves additional attention in order to assess the possible causal links between these variables.

ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1980

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

This study investigated changes in the amplitude of auditory average evoked responses (AER) following a period of abstention in chronic alcohol abusers. The subjects were 11 normal controls and 11 alcoholic inpatients. AERs, elicited by speech sounds and tones, were obtained from frontal and parietal leads over both hemispheres. Subjects were tested on two occasions separated by about 20 days. On the first run the mean amplitude of the alcoholics' AERs was smaller than that of the controls. However, on the second run the alcoholics' parietal responses had improved and were comparable in amplitude to those of the controls, whereas the frontal AERs remained significantly smaller than those of the control subjects. These electrophysiological changes are consistent with neuroanatomical and neuropsychological evidence implicating the frontal aspects of the brain as a site of deficit in alcoholism. Hemispheric differences generally were not statistically significant in either group. The right hemispheric responses of the controls tended to be larger than those of the left hemisphere for both speech and tone stimuli, but the left side produced larger responses in the alcoholic group. The results of this study suggest that electrophysiological responses reflect a process of cerebral recovery which may be distinguishable from EEG changes associated with the withdrawal of a toxic agent.

ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1980

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

The Addiction Severity Index (ASI) is a structured clinical interview developed to fill the need for a reliable, valid, and standardized diagnostic and evaluative instrument in the field of alcohol and drug abuse. The ASI may be administered by a technician in 20 to 30 minutes producing 10-point problem severity ratings in each of six areas commonly affected by addiction. Analyses of these problem severity ratings on 524 male veteran alcoholics and drug addicts showed them to be highly reliable and valid. Correlational analyses using the severity ratings indicated considerable independence between the problem areas, suggesting that the treatment problems of patients are not necessarily related to the severity of their chemical abuse. Cluster analyses using these ratings revealed the presence of six subgroups having distinctly different patterns of treatment problems. The authors suggest the use of the ASI to match patients with treatments and to promote greater comparability of research findings.

ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1980

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

Fifteen agoraphobics took part in a study to investigate their responses to repeated presentations of a phobic motion picture. Five patients were shown the film supraliminally, five were shown it subliminally, and the remaining five formed a control group. Subjective feelings were assessed with visual analogue scales, and three physiological measures, heart rate, skin conductance, and respiratory rate, were recorded. An earlier report showed that both subliminal and supraliminal presentation produced significant improvements in phobic fear and avoidance, and the present results show that the subliminal group found the procedure much less stressful than the supraliminal group. The physiological changes during treatment showed no consistent pattern and appeared to be independent of clinical response. The results show that repeated exposure to subliminal phobic motion pictures is not anxiety provoking to agoraphobic patients and so may be appropriate therapy for those unable to tolerate other forms of treatment.

ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1980

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

This study employed Chapman's matched associative distractor test in order to determine whether an associative dysfunction is unique to the schizophrenias. Schizophrenic and control subjects were administered two matched multiple choice subtests, with only one containing an incorrect associative alternative choice. Only the schizophrenics and the institutionalized elderly made significantly more errors on the associative subtest than on the no-associative subtest. Our results indicate that vulnerability to associative distractors is not a unique pathological response pattern of schizophrenia, and add support to the growing body of knowledge that many of the so-called pathognomonic dysfunctions of schizophrenia can also be found in other groups.

ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1980

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

Post-thyroidectomy bilateral abductor vocal cord paralysis (BAVCP) is a life-threatening syndrome characterized by serious psychiatric manifestations as well as by voice, airway, hypothyroid, and hypoparathyroid symptoms. Of the 128 patients with post thyroidectomy BAVCP syndrome, 45 (35.2 per cent) had psychiatric complications: 21 of the 128 patients (16.4 per cent) had pre-existing psychiatric symptoms exacerbated by the post-thyroidectomy BAVCP syndrome, 16 (12.5 per cent) had psychiatric symptoms initiated by the syndrome, six (4.7 per cent) had psychiatric symptoms etiologically distinct from the syndrome, and two (1.6 per cent) were misdiagnosed. The role of psychiatric treatment is described. Theoretical aspects of laryngeal dysfunctions associated with psychiatric disorders and psychotropic medications are discussed.

ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1980

数据来源: OVID

ISSN:0022-3018    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1980

数据来源: OVID