Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

C C Bell

Publications and source records attributed to C C Bell.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1988

The relationship of isolated sleep paralysis and panic disorder to hypertension.

An hypothesis is proposed that there exists a subgroup of African-American hypertensive patients whose hypertension could have been prevented by the early detection and treatment of easily recognizable symptoms that signal the initiation of the pathophysiologic processes that lead to essential hypertension.A pilot study of 31 patients with elevated blood pressure revealed that 41.9 percent had isolated sleep paralysis, 35.5 percent had panic attacks, and 9.7 percent had panic disorder. These proposed hyperadrenergic phenomena may be related to the development of hypertension in certain individuals.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Training psychiatric residents to treat blacks.

As only 600 of the 30,000 psychiatrists in America are black, it is apparent that black psychiatrists in the United States will not be able to meet the needs of all the mentally ill blacks in this country. In view of this situation, the authors feel that psychiatric residency training programs should prepare psychiatric residents to treat black patients. This paper describes some of the knowledge base and experience that residents need to treat black psychiatric patients.

Black or African American↗
PubMed1987

Preventive strategies for dealing with violence among blacks.

In regular medicine if a patient goes to a doctor to be treated for a rat bite, the physician cleans the bite, dresses it, gives antibiotics, and gives a tetanus shot. The physician practicing social medicine would give our imaginary patient the same treatment but would go a step further; he would arrange for someone to go into the patient's community and set rat traps. A similar distinction is made between general psychiatry and community psychiatry, and this distinction highlights one of the main principles of the community psychiatrist's mission, community development. Community development being the art of helping a community achieve a social and interpersonal milieu that promotes an optimum level of mental health (Freed, 1972; Freed, 1972). This aspect of community psychiatry takes on an even greater significance when the community being served is a lower socioeconomic, minority community because of the conditions found in such communities that can impair the overall mental health of the community's individuals, families, and groups. This article will illustrate the principle of community development, the role of one psychiatrist in community development, and its importance to deprived minority communities by describing a community psychiatry approach to the problem of black-on-black homicide.

Black or African American↗
PubMed1987

Coma and the etiology of violence, Part 2.

Coma and the etiology of violence are explored by the author through a review of the literature. Animal studies, post-traumatic psychic disorder studies, post-traumatic anger and violence studies, tumor and lesion of the limbic system studies, temporal lobe epilepsy studies, episodic dyscontrol syndrome studies, and minimal brain dysfunction studies were reviewed in Part 1, which was published in the December 1986 issue of the Journal. Part 2 concludes the review with clinical surveys on violent individuals and studies on clinical treatment of violence.These studies reveal the etiologic significance of central nervous system dysfunction in the production of violent behavior. Because central nervous system factors are involved in some instances of violent behavior, physicians clearly have a role in the early identification of potentially violent subjects and in the intervention or treatment of individuals who have been violent toward others. Studies have consistently found that lower socioeconomic groups are more predisposed to brain injury from trauma, and several studies have indicated that this is true for segments of the black community. Therefore, investigations in the relationship between central nervous system injury and violence should be a major goal of the black community. Black physicians should assume a lead role in these inquiries and in the prevention and treatment of violence, specifically black-on-black number.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

Head injury with subsequent, intermittent, nonschizophrenic, psychotic symptoms and violence.

A young, black, adult woman presented to an outpatient clinic for treatment with a history of intermittent, nonschizophrenic, psychotic symptoms. Blacks, because of their situational sociology, may be more predisposed to severe head injuries, and this acquired biologic factor may be, in part, responsible for the high rates of black-on-black murder. The use of beta blockers is discussed as an adjunct in the treatment of violence occurring in patients with a past history of severe head injury.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

Duration of plastic change in a modifiable efference copy.

A modifiable efference copy associated with the motor command that elicits an electric organ discharge (EOD) is found in mormyrid electric fish. It is a negative image of the expected effect of the afferent input that follows the EOD. A change in the afferent input pattern causes, over time, a corresponding change in the efference copy. The negative image is retained for at least one half-hour when the motor command is artificially silenced.

Animals↗
PubMed1986

Morphology and physiology of the brainstem nuclei controlling the electric organ discharge in mormyrid fish.

The motoneurons to the mormyrid electric organ are driven from the medullary relay nucleus. This nucleus is in turn innervated by an adjacent cell group, nucleus C. The goals of this study were to characterize the morphology and physiology of neurons in these two nuclei, and to test the hypothesis that nucleus C is the command nucleus responsible for initiating the electric organ discharge. Medullary relay neurons and nucleus C neurons were recorded intracellularly and labeled with horseradish peroxidase. Medullary relay neurons have a richly branched dendritic arborization, confined mainly to the nucleus itself, and somatosomatic, dendrosomatic, and presynaptic dendro-axonal gap junctions have been observed. Medullary relay neuron axons descend to the spinal cord without branching. Nucleus C dendrites extend far into the ventral reticular formation. Axons of nucleus C neurons have one branch that ramifies densely within the medullary relay nucleus, forming large club endings on the medullary relay neuron soma. Two additional branches project bilaterally toward the bulbar command associated nuclei. Both medullary relay neurons and nucleus C neurons fire a double action potential that precedes each electric organ discharge. Activity in nucleus C precedes that in the medullary relay nucleus by 100-300 microseconds. Postsynaptic activity is recorded in nucleus C neurons but not in medullary relay neurons. Hyperpolarization of a single nucleus C neuron can lower the frequency of the electric organ discharge. Both morphological and physiological data indicate that nucleus C is an integrating center where the electric organ command is initiated.

Action Potentials↗
PubMed1986

Coma and the etiology of violence, Part 1.

Coma and the etiology of violence are explored by the author through a review of the literature. Animal studies, post-traumatic psychic disorder studies, post-traumatic anger and violence studies, tumor and lesion of the limbic system studies, temporal lobe epilepsy studies, and episodic dysfunction syndrome studies, minimal brain studies are reviewed in Part 1 of this article. Part 2, to be published in a later issue of the journal, will conclude the review with clinical surveys on violent individuals and studies on clinical treatment of violence.These studies reveal the etiologic significance of central nervous system dysfunction in the production of violent behavior. Because central nervous system factors are involved in some instances of violent behavior, physicians clearly have a role in the early identification of potentially violent subjects and in the intervention or treatment of individuals who have been violent toward others. Studies have consistently found that lower socioeconomic groups are more predisposed to brain injury from trauma, and several studies have indicated that this is true for segments of the black community. Therefore, investigations in the relationship between central nervous system injury and violence should be a major goal of the black community. Black physicians should assume a lead role in these inquiries and in the prevention and treatment of violence, specifically black-on-black murder.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Further studies on the prevalence of isolated sleep paralysis in black subjects.

In a previous study, one of the authors (C.C.B.) found isolated sleep paralysis was common in blacks. In this study, conducted by interviews, a recurrent pattern (one or more episodes per month) of isolated sleep paralysis episodes in blacks was described by at least 25 percent of the afflicted sample studied. Frequent episodes were associated with stress, and subjects with isolated sleep paralysis had an unusually high prevalence of panic disorder (15.5 percent). The genetic transmission of sleep paralysis was studied in a large black family, and in addition to stressful environmental factors being associated with the condition, there appears to be a dominant genetic factor associated with the predisposition for developing sleep paralysis. The implications of these findings for stress, anxiety, sleep, and psychophysiologic disorders are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Impaired black health professionals: vulnerabilities and treatment approaches.

The impaired black health professional is in a unique position in American society. Factors that contribute to this uniqueness include: the small number of black health professionals, which limits resources for program development and referrals; overt and covert racism in society and in medical school curriculums; differences in black and white drug and alcohol abuse and suicide patterns; and upward mobility, which tends to isolate the black professional from black support systems. These factors need to be recognized by the health care profession. Bias-free investigations are needed to provide more information on ethnic differences so that impaired health professional programs and services may give more appropriate treatment.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Primary afferent fibers conduct impulses in both directions under physiological stimulus conditions.

In electric fish of the family Mormyridae some primary afferent fibers conduct impulses not only from electroreceptors to the brain but also from the brain to the receptors. The efferent impulses may be elicited by electrical stimulation which is within the physiological range, i.e., by stimulation which is similar in amplitude and duration to the stimulation that is caused by the fish's own electric organ discharge. Afferent and efferent impulses in the same afferent fiber were identified by: simultaneously recording from a fiber at two different points, at the receptor and at the nerve trunk (Figs. 2C-H; 3B-D); by cutting the afferent fiber between the brain and the recording site as well as between the recording site and the periphery; and by intra-axonal recording from the afferent fiber near its entry into the brain (Fig. 4). The efferent impulses result from the central integration of a corollary discharge of the electric organ motor command with excitatory and inhibitory input from several different receptors near the one from which afferent impulses originate (Fig. 4). The centrally originating impulse may be capable of modifying the effect of signals originating in the periphery.

Afferent Pathways↗