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Biomedical subjects

B Pfohl

Publications and source records attributed to B Pfohl.

66 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1981

The mathematical case against unipolar mania.

A mathematical model is developed based on several assumptions to predict frequency of admission for apparent unipolar mania given that such patients have the same illness as bipolars. The model is compared with data from previous studies of unipolar mania and with data from the author's own study of 77 unipolar manic patients. The observations generally supported the model. It is concluded that the DSM III convention of classifying unipolar manics under the heading "Bipolar disorder" is upheld.

Affective Disorders, Psychotic↗
PubMed1981

A learning aid for DSM-III: computerized prompting of diagnostic criteria.

To help overcome many of the difficulties of learning and using the new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatry, a system was developed for reviewing its contents as appropriate to individual clinical cases. It is faithful in format and contents to this Manual. This system is now being regularly used by medical students, residents, and psychiatrists on a voluntary basis, as a teaching aid. It also allows measurement of how the interpretation of DSM-III criteria differs among these groups. This system can be used on relatively inexpensive microcomputers.

Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted↗
PubMed1976

Linguistic analysis of speech in affective disorders.

Various aspects of speech and language were compared, using psycholinguistic techniques, in a group of 15 depressed patients and 16 manic patients: lexical diversity, syntactical complexity, syntactical elements, and content analysis. Contrary to anticipation, the manic patients did not show more varied word choice or complexity of sentence structure than the depressives. In particular, they did not differ significantly in type-token ratio. The greatest difference was in syntactical elements, with manics using more action verbs, adjectives, and concrete nouns, while the depressed patients used more state of being verbs, modifying adverbs, first-person pronouns, and personal pronouns. When compared by content analysis, the manics used more words reflecting a concern with power and achievement. These results imply that depressive speech tends to be more vague and qualified and to show considerable self-preoccupation, while manic speech tends to be colorful and concrete and to show more concern with things than with people.

Achievement↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The effects of changing axis II diagnostic criteria.

This study examined whether changes in diagnostic criteria from the DSM-III to the DSM-III for personality disorders (PDs) had the intended effects. Seventy-two subjects at the University of Iowa from three research studies and one clinical sample were administered two structured interviews (the Structured Interview for DSM-III Personality [SIDP] and the revised SIDP [SIDP-R]) to assess DSM-III and DSM-III-R criteria. Major changes in rates of diagnoses were observed between the DSM-III and DSM-III-R criteria with kappas for agreement ranging between -.025 and .571. As expected, the switch from monothetic to polythetic definitions had an effect on which patients were assigned a given diagnosis. However, not all of the other revisions associated with the DSM-III-R had the intended effects. For instance, the frequency of the diagnosis of schizoid PD did not increase, nor did the overlap between borderline and histrionic PDs decrease. In addition, there was an unintended increase in the rate of paranoid PD. An analysis of individual criteria showed how small, apparently minor changes in the wording of criteria can sometimes have major effects on which patients received a diagnosis of PD.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Four definitions of endogenous depression and the dexamethasone suppression test.

We examined the relationship between the DST and 4 definitions of endogenous depression: DSM-III, Feinberg and Carroll, Newcastle and RDC. Endogenous patients had a significantly higher rate of nonsuppression than nonendogenous patients according to the DSM-III and Newcastle definitions but not according to the RDC and Feinberg and Carroll criteria. Moreover, the relationship between the DST and the DSM-III and Newcastle definitions was significant even after individually controlling for age, psychosis and weight loss. We review the literature on the relationship between the DST and the RDC definition of endogenous depression and suggest that interstudy differences in criteria application may be partially responsible for the inconsistent results across studies.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The relationship between age and post-dexamethasone cortisol: a test of three hypotheses.

Previous studies report that DST nonsuppressors are older than normal suppressors. Data are presented on 188 primary unipolar major depressive inpatients and 35 healthy controls. In males, age appeared to correlate positively with post-dexamethasone cortisols in depressed patients and normal controls, although mean levels were higher in depressives. Female controls showed no consistent relationship between age and post-dexamethasone cortisol. A positive relationship did exist for depressed women. However, the association disappeared when age-of-onset was entered into the model, suggesting that in females early onset may identify a subtype of depression with normal DST suppression.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Validity of an operational definition for neurotic unipolar major depression.

After we reviewed the literature to identify the clinical and phenomenologic correlates of neurotic depression, we constructed a 6-item operational definition to distinguish neurotic unipolar major depressive disorder from non-neurotic major depression. The neurotic depressives were characterized by a low rate of abnormal dexamethasone suppression test (DST) results and a strong family history of alcoholism. Neurotic depressives improved less than non-neurotic depressives during the index hospitalization, and were more frequently rehospitalized during a 6-month prospective follow-up. Neurotic subtyping was significantly negatively associated with DSM-III melancholia. Neurotic classification remained significantly associated with the above validating variables after melancholic status was held constant, whereas melancholic subtyping did not predict DST results, familial alcoholism rates, or outcome when neurotic status was controlled.

Depressive Disorder↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Past loss as a symptom formation factor in depression.

We examined the relationship between past loss and endogenous subtyping of depressed patients. In a sample of 124 female depressed inpatients there was no association between past loss and RDC endogenous or DSM-III melancholic subtyping. We thus failed to replicate Brown and colleagues' finding that past loss is a symptom formation factor.

Depressive Disorder↗