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Biomedical subjects

B A Ritzler

Publications and source records attributed to B A Ritzler.

34 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1981

Established chronicity of psychotic symptoms in first-admission schizophrenic patients.

The course of schizophrenia before a patient's first admission is important theoretically, prognostically, and from a preventive psychiatric perspective. However, there is little systematically collected information on this topic. In this evaluation of a representative sample of first-admission schizophrenic patients, there was a wide variation in chronicity of psychotic symptoms before admission, with 20% of the patients having been symptomatic for more than 2 years and 28% for less than 1 week. Delusions of grandeur, delusions of reference, and suspiciousness were more common in the more chronic patients than in the most acute patients; symptoms of withdrawal and retardation showed the opposite pattern. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for prognosis, prevention, and theory.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1980

Schizophrenia: affect and outcome.

Considerable data suggest that schizophrenic patients with affective symptoms have a more favorable outcome than other schizophrenic patients. This may indicate that such patients are more validly regarded as having either an affective disorder or a schizoaffective psychosis. Studies of this issue have suffered from significant methodologic problems, including inappropriate sampling, unsystematic collection of symptom data, unreliable diagnostic procedures, and restricted outcome assessment. The present study, designed to surmount these methodologic difficulties, indicates that while levels of psychotic symptoms in schizophrenic patients correlate with poor outcome, affective symptoms have little prognostic power.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

Do psychiatric patients fit their diagnoses? Patterns of symptomatology as described with the biplot.

Systems of psychiatric diagnosis have been regularly criticized for their low reliability and their inability to fit accurately the kinds of patients coming for treatment. To explore the reasons for these problems, this study utilizes a new method, the biplot, for defining groups of similar patients and the relationships of these groups to key symptom clusters. Using this technique to analyze data from a representative sample of first admissions for psychiatric disorder, results showed: a) symptom clusters representing the classical diagnostic categories, mania, schizophrenia, neurotic depression, and psychotic depression, were readily identified; b) however, only a few patients were clustered near these traditional syndromes. These findings suggest that although syndromes do exist that fit traditional diagnostic categories, the vast majority of patients fall between these syndromes, having characteristics from several of them. For most patients, forcing the diagnostician to choose among the categories requires an arbitrary decision that may contribute to dissatisfaction in the diagnostician who recognizes how misleading the diagnosis can be.

Adjustment Disorders↗
PubMed1979

A comparison of Rorschach developmental level and form-level systems as indicators of psychosis.

Psychotic and nonpsychotic psychiatric inpatients were tested on the Rorschach. "Reality-testing" was measured by four form-level scoring systems designed by Beck, Mayman, Becker, and Wilensky. The psychotic subjects were dichotomized on three diagnostic dimensions: schizophrenia, paranoia, and premorbid social adjustment. No significant differences were found for the Beck system. With the other systems, psychotics showed significantly poorer reality testing than nonpsychotics. No differences were found for the schizophrenic and paranoid dimensions. The Phillips premorbid adjustment score was negatively correlated with all four measures of "reality-testing." The conclusion drawn was that Rorschach measures of "reality testing" are associated with psychotic and poor premorbid functioning, but do not differentiate schizophrenic from nonschizophrenic psychotics or paranoid schizophrenics from nonparanoid schizophrenics.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

Patterns of disorder in first admission psychiatric patients.

Are there patterns of characteristics in psychiatric patients, different from traditional diagnostic considerations, that could provide important information for understanding, treatment, and research? To pursue this question, this report describes an investigation of clinical and demographic characteristics in a representative sample of first admissions for functional psychiatric disorder. Analyzing the patterns of these characteristics showed that social class had a particularly key role relating to a larger number of characteristics than did symptom and functioning measures. Symptoms when analyzed together revealed replicated factors not corresponding to diagnostic types. The implications of these and other findings for considering a broad perspective in conceptualizing, studying, and treating psychiatric disorder are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1978

The failure to detect low IQ in psychiatric assessment.

The authors assessed the IQs of 188 hospitalized psychiatric patients and found that 27 (14.4%) had IQs of 85 or less. However, the psychiatric records of 22 of the patients with low IQs showed that only 5 contained any mention of level of intellectual functioning. These findings suggest that a variable of major importance for diagnosis and treatment planning is often ignored.

Adult↗
PubMed1977

Prognostic implications of various drinking patterns in psychiatric patients.

The authors examined the drinking patterns of 198 first admission nonalcoholic psychiatric patients to determine the relationship among drinking behavior, severity of pathology, and prognosis. Heavy drinking in the psychiatric sample was not associated with increased levels of pathology and poor prognosis. To the contrary, among these nonalcoholic patients the abstainers and occasional drinkers showed the most severe pathology and poorest prognosis of all drinking groups.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

A survey of Rorschach teaching in APA-approved clinical graduate programs.

A questionnaire on teaching of the Rorschach technique was sent to all APA-approved graduate clinical psychology programs in the United States and Canada. The questionnaire asked for the degree of emphasis placed on the Rorschach in the primary assessment course, the Rorschach teaching experience of the respondent and the respondent's evaluation of the technique as a clinical tool, a teaching aid and a research instrument. The respondent in each case was the faculty member teaching the major diagnostic assessment course. There was a 100% return of the questionnaires. The major results show that (1) 81% of the programs place major emphasis on the Rorschach Technique in the assessment course; (2) only 24% of the programs offer the course for a full year; (3) respondents with more than 10 years teaching experience rated the Rorschach higher than respondents with less experience, and (4) respondents as a group rated the Rorschach highly as a clinical tool and teaching aid, but gave it generally low ratings as a research instrument.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗