Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

A Apter

Publications and source records attributed to A Apter.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1996

State and trait anxiety in adolescent suicide attempters.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the relationship between anxiety and suicidal behavior in adolescents. METHOD: Forty-six adolescents who had been hospitalized in an inpatient psychiatric unit after a suicide attempt were compared on measures of anxiety and depression with 72 adolescent psychiatric inpatients who had no history of suicide attempts. RESULTS: The suicide attempters exhibited significantly higher levels of both state and trait anxiety. However, when controlling for depression, the attempters did not differ in their level of state anxiety from the nonattempters, but they still manifested significantly higher levels of trait anxiety than nonattempters. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that anxiety, both state and trait, is a risk factor for suicidal behavior in adolescents. Yet, only trait anxiety appears to be relatively independent of depression in its effect on suicidal behavior risk. These findings imply that clinicans should take into account anxiety, both state and trait, for assessment and treatment of adolescents at risk for suicidal behavior.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Obsessive-compulsive characteristics: from symptoms to syndrome.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the distribution and severity of obsessions and compulsions in a nonclinical adolescent population. METHOD: During preinduction military screening, 861 sixteen-year-old Israelis completed a questionnaire regarding the lifetime presence of eight obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms and three severity measures. The presence or absence of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) or subclinical OCD was ascertained by an independent interview. RESULTS: Although only 8.0% and 6.3% of respondents reported disturbing and intrusive thoughts, respectively, 27% to 72% of subjects endorsed the six remaining OCD symptoms. Twenty percent of subjects regarded the symptoms they endorsed as senseless and 3.5% found them disturbing; 8% reported spending more than an hour daily on symptoms. OCD and subclinical OCD cases differed significantly from non-OCD cases, but not from each other, in distress and mean number of symptoms. Although the distribution of nine of the items differed for noncases, compared with OCD and subclinical OCD cases, the distributions for all items overlapped markedly across the three groups. CONCLUSIONS: OC phenomena appear to be on a continuum with few symptoms and minimal severity at one end and many symptoms and severe impairment on the other. Defining optimal cutoff points for distinguishing between psychiatric disorder and OC phenomena that are common in the general population remains an open question.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Abnormal psychosocial situations and eating disorders in adolescence.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the relationship between abnormal psychosocial situations and eating disorders in adolescents. METHOD: Twenty girls with eating disorders, 20 girls with major psychiatric conditions, and 20 healthy controls took part in the study. They were interviewed using a semistructured interview designed by the World Health Organization to diagnose the psychosocial situations included in the International Classification of Disease Axis 5 classification for child and adolescent psychiatry. All subjects were also given the Eating Attitudes Test. RESULTS: Many life events and psychosocial adversities differentiated significantly between the patients and controls. Inappropriate parental pressure was specific only for the subjects with eating disorders compared with the other psychiatric patients. In addition, Eating Attitudes Test scores correlated significantly with hostility toward child, sibling disability, parental overprotection, inappropriate parental pressures, and negative changes in family relationships. CONCLUSION: These results support the growing literature on the interrelationship between disordered family relationships and eating disorders. They point the way for developing treatment programs dealing with these issues.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Coping styles and suicide risk.

A total of 30 psychiatric in-patients admitted because of suicidal behaviour were compared with 30 non-suicidal psychiatric in-patients and 32 healthy controls on measures of suicide risk and coping styles. The three groups were similar with regard to demographic variables, but the suicidal group scored higher on the suicide risk scale. Suicidal patients were significantly less likely to use the coping styles of minimization and mapping. They were unable to de-emphasize the importance of a perceived problem or source of stress. They also lacked the ability to obtain new information required to resolve stressful life events. Four coping styles correlated negatively with the suicide risk (minimization, replacement, mapping and reversal), while another three (suppression, blame and substitution) correlated positively. These findings may have important implications for therapists and primary prevention workers, and might pave the way towards recognition of the role played by coping styles in predicting suicide and its use for cognitive intervention in these high-risk patients.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1996

[Anorexia nervosa beginning after the menopause].

Anorexia nervosa (AN) in older patients is not often described. We present a 70-year-old woman with AN which started at the age of 50 after her menopause. We suggest that AN starting after the menopause is a unique disturbance with characteristics different from those in younger age groups. The causes of anorexia in the older patient and its special dynamics should be recognized. It may be necessary to create a different diagnostic system and devise special treatment for AN in post-menopausal women.

Age of Onset↗
PubMed1995

Reduction in serotonin 5HT2 receptor binding on platelets of delinquent adolescents.

The possible involvement of serotonin receptors of the 5HT2 type in aggressive behavior was studied in juvenile delinquents. A group of 28 delinquent adolescents (13-18 years old) who had committed violent crimes was compared with a group of age matched controls. Subjects were drug and medication free during the study. 5HT2 receptors were labeled on platelet membranes using tritiated ketanserin. Receptor binding in the delinquent adolescents was significantly lower than in age matched controls. Mean +/- SD of 76 controls was 32.3 +/- 14.2 fm/mg, compared to 16.6 +/- 8.2 fm/mg in 28 delinquents (P < 0.002, Student's t-test). These results support a role for serotonin in general and 5HT2 receptors in particular in human aggressive behavior.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

Correlation of suicidal and violent behavior in different diagnostic categories in hospitalized adolescent patients.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the relative importance of aggression and depression in adolescent suicide within different diagnostic categories. METHOD: One hundred sixty-three consecutive admissions to an adolescent psychiatric inpatient unit were assessed using a semistructure diagnostic instrument, the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children. Scores for depression, suicidal behaviors, and violent behaviors were calculated from this assessment. RESULTS: Anorexia nervosa and conduct disorder patients had the highest suicidal behavior scores. In addition, patients with conduct disorder were significantly more violent than patients with major depressive disorder, and scores on the Violent Behavior Scale correlated with suicidal symptoms but not with depressive symptoms. CONCLUSION: Aggression may be as important in some kinds of suicidal behaviors as is depression. Thus it seems that there are hypothetically at least two types of suicidal behaviors during adolescence: a wish to die (depression) and a wish not to be here for a time (impulse control). The first type of suicidal behavior characterizes that seen in disorders with prominent depression such as major depressive disorder and anorexia nervosa, and the second characterizes disorders of impulse control such as conduct disorder.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

An epidemiological study of trichotillomania in Israeli adolescents.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of trichotillomania and comorbid psychopathology in nonreferred adolescents. METHOD: Using a questionnaire and interview, 794 Israeli 17-year-olds were screened for current and past hair-pulling and comorbid psychopathology. RESULTS: Eight current or past hair-pullers (5 male, 3 female) were identified, yielding a lifetime prevalence of hair-pulling of 1%. Four subjects reported current hair-pulling (point prevalence of 0.5%). None of these reported alopecia, distress, or tension before pulling; only two reported relief after pulling. Thus, none met the full DSM-III-R criteria for trichotillomania. Four subjects reported past but not current hair-pulling, with bald spots in two cases. Three of the four current hair-pullers had significant obsessive-compulsive symptoms, a significantly elevated rate compared to the entire screened population. Two subjects with obsessive-compulsive disorder also had generalized anxiety disorder and, in one case, chronic simple vocal tics. Hair-pullers did not differ significantly from non-hair-pullers in IQ, physical fitness, and overall competency, or prevalence of other comorbid disorders. CONCLUSIONS: In a community adolescent sample, only 25% of hair-pullers reported resulting bare spots and none endorsed both rising tension and subsequent relief. The prevalence of obsessive-compulsive symptoms was significantly elevated in these nonreferred hair-pullers.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

Defense mechanisms in severe adolescent anorexia nervosa.

OBJECTIVE: To compare ego defense mechanisms in adolescents with anorexia nervosa and other major psychiatric disorders, to defenses in healthy adolescents. METHOD: Thirty-seven patients with anorexia nervosa, 30 with major depressive disorder, 20 with obsessive-compulsive disorder, 53 with borderline personality disorder, 60 with schizophrenia, and 81 healthy controls were assessed with Pfeffer's Ego Defense Scale. RESULTS: Regression, denial, projection, repression, introjection, and total defenses were common to all psychiatric patients and distinguished them from normal adolescents. In addition to these defenses, anorectic patients also used intellectualization more frequently than normal adolescents and psychiatric patients. They used sublimation more than other psychiatric patients. Patients with disorders, apart from obsessive-compulsive disorder, that are considered to be often comorbid with anorexia did not have different defense than schizophrenic patients. CONCLUSIONS: Anorectic adolescents overutilize relatively more mature defenses than do psychiatrically ill adolescents, and they overutilize immature defenses compared with normal adolescents. This combination of mature and immature defenses may be related to the uniquely heterogeneous ego functioning seen in anorectic patients, and it may provide insight into the nature of the psychopathology of anorexia nervosa. It also could have important psychotherapeutic and prognostic value.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

Life events and severe anorexia nervosa in adolescence.

The purpose of the study was to study the influence of life events on adolescent patients suffering from anorexia nervosa. Twenty one hospitalized adolescent inpatients with severe anorexia nervosa were compared with 79 adolescent nonanorectic psychiatric inpatients and 40 healthy adolescents for stressful life events throughout their lives. The nonanorectic patients suffered from schizophrenia, affective disorders, anxiety disorders, borderline personality disorder or conduct disorder. The assessment of the contribution of life events to the development of anorexia and the control mental disorders was based on semistructured interviewing of the patients, their parents and the patients' therapists. The instrument used was that developed by Pfeffer. The anorectic patients showed significantly higher negative life event scores than healthy controls in all the areas of life events examined. In addition, they showed significantly more negative life events concerning parents than patients in the other psychiatric diagnostic categories. These findings have relevance for the growing literature on the association between eating disorders and certain forms of child abuse.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

The sociocultural theory in the development of anorexia nervosa.

The relationship between anorexia nervosa (AN) and sociocultural factors is examined. Anorexia nervosa was first described in the West and was reported as particularly rare or absent in Eastern cultures. However, the frequency of its presentation has increased worldwide over the past two decades, probably as a consequence of changes in cultural norms and concepts of feminine beauty and an increasing inflow of Western values into other countries. Sociocultural factors are important in the development of AN in psychologically vulnerable young females, although other factors may also be implicated.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Psychological aspects of developmental endocrinopathies in adolescence.

Ninety-six adolescents referred to a pediatric endocrinology clinic were divided into eight groups according to degree of sexual maturity and height. Each adolescent was assessed by a psychiatric interview, a self-concept questionnaire, a human figure drawing test and a cognitive screening battery. The results showed a definite deleterious effect of growth retardation, but not sexual maturity, on self-concept. Sex of the adolescent did not affect the results. Cognitively there was no difference between groups. The psychological impact of short stature should be taken into consideration in the decision to utilize pharmacological or delay of puberty.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Epidemiology of the sick building syndrome.

The sick building syndrome (SBS) has been the subject of serious scientific inquiry only in the past 10 years. It is commonly accepted to represent eye, nose, and throat irritation; headaches, lethargy, difficulty concentrating, and sometimes dizziness; nausea, chest tightness; and other symptoms. Evidence suggests that what is called the SBS is at least three separate entities, each of which has at least one cause. This review will summarize the epidemiologic investigations of the SBS and present an overview of etiologic hypotheses.

Air Pollution, Indoor↗
PubMed1994

Platelet monoamine oxidase activity in neuroleptic-naive schizophrenic patients: lack of influence of chronic perphenazine treatment.

We investigated the possible relationship between schizophrenia, neuroleptic treatment, and platelet monoamine oxidase (MAO) activity. Platelet MAO activity was similar in neuroleptic-naive schizophrenic patients and healthy controls and was not affected by chronic (10-week) perphenazine treatment. A relationship between platelet MAO activity and central disturbances in schizophrenia remains uncertain.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Cultural effects on eating attitudes in Israeli subpopulations and hospitalized anorectics.

We assessed eating attitudes and body image using the Eating Attitudes Test-26 (EAT: Garner & Garfinkel, 1979) and a 17-item body image scale in Israeli Jewish female high school populations in five distinct residential settings (kibbutz, moshav, city, and 2 different boarding schools); in five ethnically distinct Arab female high school populations (Muslim, Christian, Druze, Circassian, and Bedouin); and in a group of hospitalized adolescent girls with anorexia nervosa. We hypothesized that the attitudes of the adolescent females most exposed to Western body shape ideals and simultaneously undergoing role conflict between traditional and modern images of the female role would most resemble attitudes of anorectics. This was partly supported by the findings. Ethnic differences also emerged in attitude toward food. All the Arab populations except the Circassian showed strong Western influences in their attitudes toward eating and body image and thus may well be prone to epidemics of anorexia and similar eating disorders in the near future. Kibbutz girls were most similar to the anorectic group.

Adolescent↗