Biomedical subjects

A L Errico

Publications and source records attributed to A L Errico.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1995

Eysenck's personality dimensions and sex steroids in male abstinent alcoholics and nonalcoholics: an exploratory study.

This study investigated the relationship between alcoholics' personality characteristics [as indexed by the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ)] and sex steroid levels. Three serum samples were drawn over a 90-min period in 58 inpatient male alcoholics (mean 33 days sober) and 33 non-alcoholic controls. The EPQ was administered at approximately the same point in the treatment process. Replicating previous work, we found alcoholics scored significantly higher on the Neuroticism and Psychoticism scales of the EPQ than controls. Alcoholics also had higher levels of estradiol and total testosterone than controls, which may be reflective of a biological rebound or characteristic premorbid levels. A significant positive correlation was found between testosterone and extroversion in controls, but not in alcoholics. Alcoholics showed a positive correlation between estradiol and neuroticism and a negative relationship between estradiol and extroversion. The results suggest that (a) 'normal' hormone-personality relationships are disrupted in male alcoholics, and b) personality and psychological changes consistent with the physical feminization syndrome may occur in male alcoholics.

Adult↗

PubMed1993

The role of antisocial, affective, and childhood behavioral characteristics in alcoholics' neuropsychological performance.

Chronic alcoholics demonstrate cognitive deficits when compared with nonalcoholics. These deficits are typically attributed to the direct effects of ethanol and its metabolites on the central nervous system (CNS). There are other factors, however, that differentiate alcoholics from controls, such as personality or behavioral characteristics. These factors may affect neuropsychological performance and thus alter the interpretation of alcoholic cognitive deficits as resulting solely from alcohol's toxic effects. To investigate this question, male and female alcoholics and peer nonalcoholic controls were compared on personality, behavioral, and cognitive measures. Alcoholics had greater numbers of antisocial behaviors, childhood behavioral disorder symptoms (CBD), and affective symptomatology, and had poorer neuropsychological performance than controls. The three personality and behavioral factors were positively intercorrelated with each other, and were negatively related to cognitive performance. The CBD factor proved to be the most consistent predictor of neuropsychological performance for both alcoholics and controls, and males and females. While the behavioral factors differentiated alcoholics from controls and predicted performance, significant differences between the groups in cognitive performance still remained when these factors were taken into account.

Adult↗

PubMed1993

Attenuated cortisol response to biobehavioral stressors in sober alcoholics.

Sober alcoholics show an attenuated hormonal response to pharmacological agents that normally stimulate the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPAC) axis. To determine if this same result would be found using biobehavioral stressors, 52 detoxified (mean = 32 days) male alcoholics and 30 male nonalcoholic controls were given two moderately aversive tasks (mental arithmetic and cold pressor test). Three samples of blood were drawn during a 2.5-hour prestressor baseline, a fourth immediately following the stressors and a fifth, 20 minutes later. At each of these times, subjects were asked to report their degree of distress. Serum cortisol concentrations did not differ between groups at baseline or immediately following the stressors, but 20 minutes later alcoholics had significantly lower concentrations than controls. The groups did not differ on their degree of self-reported distress in response to the stressors. Thus, while alcoholics appeared to affectively experience stressful events in a manner similar to that of controls, they had an attenuated cortisol response. A possible pathophysiological mechanism for this dysregulation is discussed in addition to the potential existence of a premorbid condition.

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PubMed1992

Investigation of the role of sex hormones in alcoholics' visuospatial deficits.

This study investigated whether an alcohol-related disturbance in the functioning of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis was a factor in alcoholics' visuospatial impairment. One month detoxified male alcoholics (n = 58) performed significantly poorer than peer controls (n = 30) on a battery of visuospatial and verbal tests. Serum concentrations of testosterone, estradiol, luteinizing hormone and follicle stimulating hormone were obtained at three times during cognitive testing. Previously reported correlations in healthy young male adults between visuospatial performance with testosterone and follicle stimulating hormone concentrations were replicated in control subjects. These correlations were not significant in the alcoholics. The results suggest that chronic alcoholism may disrupt the normal relationships between the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis and cognitive functioning.

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PubMed1992

The role of instructional set on alcoholic performance.

This study was conducted to determine whether alcoholic and control subjects respond differently to manipulations that either enhance personal involvement (PI) or reduce negative affect (R, relaxation) on tests of neuropsychological function. In Phase 1, 48 male alcoholics and 36 male control subjects completed neuropsychological tasks under standard instructional sets. In Phase 2, subjects completed equivalent forms of these tests under one of three randomly assigned conditions; the PI condition in which subjects were encouraged to identify specific ways of improving their performance, the R condition in which subjects participated in a short relaxation exercise designed to reduce anxiety, or a No Treatment (NT) condition in which no attempt to manipulate the subjects' involvement or affect was made. Alcoholics were inferior to controls in both Phase 1 and Phase 2 [Fs (1,82) > 5.03, ps < 0.03]. The experimental manipulation differentially affected measures of negative affect and effort in the predicted direction. There were no group x condition interactions. Alcoholic and control subjects responded comparably to the experimental manipulations. This investigation, in combination with others using related manipulations, reinforces the hypothesis that alcohol-related cognitives dysfunction reflects an underlying deficit in brain states.

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PubMed1991

The influence of depressive symptomatology on alcoholics' locus of control: a methodological note and a correction.

In a previously published experiment from our laboratory, we reported two findings. First, controls showed the expected negative correlation between internal and external LOC dimensions, while alcoholics did not. Second, a difference score between LOC-internal and LOC-external was correlated significantly and positively with alcoholics' abstracting impairment. Data from two new independent samples of alcoholics and controls confirmed the first finding, but not the second; further, a calculation error was discovered in the previously published data that invalidated the second result. However, in all three studies, depressive symptomatology was found to be correlated negatively with the internal-external LOC difference score in both alcoholics and controls. It is suggested that depressive symptomatology be assessed in any study that investigates LOC.

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PubMed1991

Blood pressure dysregulation associated with alcohol withdrawal.

Alcoholics' blood pressures (BP) are typically elevated during withdrawal. Do such elevations predict future blood pressure dysregulation or are they simply a transitory effect of alcohol toxicity? Thirty-two patients admitted to the hospital for alcohol detoxification were tested to examine the relationship between admission BP and response to isometric handgrip administered 4 to 5 days (session 1) and 3 to 4 weeks (session 2) postdetoxification. Alcoholics were divided into three groups based on admission BPs: Hypertensive (HT, greater than or equal to 160/95 mmHg), Borderline Hypertensive (BHT, 140/90-159/94 mmHg), and Normotensive (NT, less than 140/90 mmHg). In sessions 1 and 2, the groups no longer differed on resting BP or heart rate (HR) but did differ on BP and HR response to handgrip: Compared with the NT group, the HT and BHT groups had greater rises in systolic and diastolic BP and HR. There was a trend for HT alcoholics to report a positive parental history of hypertension (91%) compared to BHT and NT alcoholics (64% and 60%, respectively), suggesting the existence of premorbid factors to this exaggerated cardiovascular response. Further, alcohol consumption, based on a quantity-frequency index, was significantly higher in the HT group than in the NT group. The results suggest that transitory elevations in blood pressure observed during alcohol withdrawal may predict future BP abnormalities.

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PubMed1989

Performance deficits on tests of problem solving in alcoholics: cognitive or motivational impairment?

This study tests the hypothesis that the performance deficits of alcoholics on tests of problem-solving abilities are due to impairment in motivation. The Conceptual Level Analogy Test and the Levine Hypothesis Test were administered to 40 sober middle-aged male alcoholic and 30 nonalcoholic individuals in a 2 x 2 [Group (alcoholic, nonalcoholic) by Monetary Incentive (incentive, no incentive)] between-subjects covariance design. The motivational manipulation was a performance-contingent monetary incentive. On the Levine test alcoholics performed less well than nonalcoholics but there were no incentive effects. On the analogy test, surprisingly, alcoholics did not differ from nonalcoholics in performance (probably due to the feedback necessitated by use of a performance-contingent incentive) although incentive effects were found across groups. However, there were no significant Group by Incentive interactions on either test or on self-report questionnaires of subjective states (e.g., effort expended) experienced during the tests. Thus, no evidence was found to support the impaired motivation hypothesis. The cognitive hypothesis remains as the most credible hypothesis to account for the performance deficits of alcoholics on tests of problem-solving ability.

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PubMed1988

Interpersonal problem solving in alcoholics.

In Study 1, a verbal role-playing test of interpersonal problem solving, the Adaptive Skills Battery (ASB), and selected "impersonal" neuropsychological problem-solving tests were given to male alcoholics (N = 73) in a VA alcohol treatment program and to male nonalcoholic controls (N = 36). Alcoholics' ASB competency scores under a "give your typical response" instructional set were significantly lower than controls' scores. In response to a "give the very best response" set, ASB scores for alcoholics and controls did not differ. Alcoholics' interpersonal problem-solving deficits appear to be due to their less effective execution of cognitive or problem-solving skills as opposed to their capacities for such skills. A lack of correlation between performance on impersonal neuropsychological tests and performance on the ASB suggests that these areas of functioning involve quite different psychological processes. In Study 2, alcoholics with alcoholic family members (family history positive) were found to have lower ASB scores than family history negative alcoholics. "Best" ASB responses were positively correlated with therapists' ratings of treatment behaviors and treatment outcome; "typical" ASB responses were not. Thus, alcoholics' therapeutic progress was predicted by their conceptualization of the "best" response in the interpersonal problem-solving situations and not by their typical pretreatment response.

Adult↗

PubMed1988

Abstracting deficits and childhood conduct disorder as a function of familial alcoholism.

Using a large sample (n = 515), family history-positive male alcoholics (FH+) performed poorer than family history-negative (FH-) alcoholics on a test of abstracting ability. They also reported an earlier age of onset of alcoholism, more symptoms of childhood conduct disorder, and tended to report more depressive symptoms than FH- alcoholics, however, these variables were not significantly related to abstracting score. FH+ and FH- samples did not differ on average amount of ethanol consumed per day, vocabulary, state anxiety, childhood attentional deficit disorder, and childhood learning disability. The significant differences found in this study between FH+ and FH- alcoholics were minimal. With such weak effects, the inconsistent findings in studies that have investigated differences between FH+ and FH- alcoholics are understandable.

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