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Biomedical subjects

C Perris

Publications and source records attributed to C Perris.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1985

Cross-national study of perceived parental rearing behaviour in healthy subjects from Australia, Denmark, Italy, The Netherlands and Sweden: pattern and level comparisons.

Samples of healthy subjects from Australia, Denmark, Italy, The Netherlands and Sweden completed the EMBU, a Swedish questionnaire aimed at assessing the experience of parental rearing practices. For the purpose of comparison three factors - "emotional warmth", "rejection" and "overprotection" - obtained in a previous factor analytic study, have been used. The most pronounced differences occurred between the Dutch and the Swedish sample on the one hand, and the Italian and Australian sample on the other, with the Danish sample in between. Differences in perceived parental rearing should be considered when comparing personality characteristics and/or psychopathological conditions in subjects from different countries.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

An approach to the diagnosis and classification of schizoaffective disorders for research purposes.

A classification of schizoaffective disorders for research purposes is presented. Two main categories are preliminarily singled out: 1) that characterized by the consecutive appearance of an affective and a schizophrenic syndrome (type I), 2) that marked by the concurrent appearance of a full schizophrenic and a full affective syndrome (type II). Within type I, two subtypes are distinguished: 1) that beginning as a typical schizophrenic disorder and shifting later on into a recurrent affective syndrome (affective subtype), 2) that beginning as an affective disorder and showing in its further course a progressive schizophrenic development towards deterioration (schizophrenic subtype). For type II, a multiaxial classification is proposed. Axis 1 should be used to describe the cross-sectional symptomatology, axis 2 to define the course, and axis 3 to note the presence of associated factors. On axis 1, schizoaffective disorder type II can be divided into a manic and a depressive subtype. Operational diagnostic criteria for each are provided. On axis 2, an affective (recurrent) and a schizophrenic (continuous with exacerbations) subtype can be distinguished.

Cross-Sectional Studies↗
PubMed1985

Application of the Psychiatric Reform Act in the city of Naples. A survey of requests for compulsory admission to the special unit at the University Psychiatric Department I.

One of the most patent inconsistencies in the application of the 1978 Psychiatric Reform Act in many areas of Southern Italy has resulted from the irrational choice, by regional governments, of the general hospitals in which Psychiatric Special Units had to be implemented, and from the inappropriate determination of territorial boundaries defining the competence of such Units. Thus, in the city of Naples, it was decided, in June 1978, to set up Psychiatric Special Units only in the two University Psychiatric Departments and in the Psychiatric Emergency Ward at S. Gennaro Hospital. These Units, equipped with an overall number of 39 beds, were put in charge with the whole province of Naples (about three millions inhabitants). Quite arbitrarily, it was established that University Departments had to admit patients coming from the city of Naples and S. Gennaro Hospital those residing in the rest of the province. By an equally arbitrary choice, female patients from the city of Naples were entrusted to the University Department I and male patients to the Psychiatric Department II. In the following years, from 1979 to 1983, some additional Units were set up in general hospitals of the Naples province. Nonetheless, available beds have not exceeded the overall number of 69, and the catchment areas of the three pre-existing Special Units have not been modified. The chaotic situation engendered by this incongruous application of the Reform Act is outlined, by means of an analysis of the requests for compulsory admission addressed to the Special Unit at the Psychiatric Department I of Naples University during the periods June 16, 1978-December 31, 1979 and June 16, 1982-December 31, 1983.

Commitment of Persons with Psychiatric Disorders↗
PubMed1985

Patients admitted for compulsory treatment to selected psychiatric units in Italy and in Sweden.

Eighty-five Italian and forty-nine Swedish patients consecutively admitted for compulsory treatment to either an Italian or a Swedish psychiatric unit in selected areas of the two countries have participated in an exploratory study aimed at assessing the main characteristics of compulsory admitted patients, and in particular, the immediate reason for admission. The two series proved to be quite similar as concerns most sociodemographic variables, and as concerns clinical diagnosis and severity of the morbid condition at admission as measured by means of a rating scale. More Swedish than Italian patients lived alone when admitted to hospital, and for more of them the request for admission was made by other people than relatives, and a larger proportion of them was accompanied to the hospital by medical or social welfare personnel. In both series the largest proportion had a low educational level and belonged to the lower social groups. The same proportion in the two series had previous admissions. The most common reason for admission was "odd or improper behaviour" for the Swedish patients, and "feared or manifest dangerousness" for the Italian patients. The Italian patients remained at hospital on average half the time than the Swedish patients.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Discrimination of former depressed patients from healthy volunteers on the basis of stable personality traits assessed by means of KSP.

A total of 208 former depressed patients were investigated by means of the personality inventory KSP and compared to 75 healthy volunteers who had never had an affective episode. By means of discriminant analysis 81.3% of the subjects could be correctly classified as former depressed patients or healthy volunteers. When patients in the diagnostic subgroups, unipolars, bipolars, patients with neurotic-reactive depressions and patients with unspecified depressions were compared to healthy volunteers, 85.4%, 83.0%, 84.2% and 86.4% respectively could be correctly classified. The main personality traits differentiating former depressed patients from healthy volunteers were high scores on subscales measuring psychasthenia, impulsivity, guilt and inhibition of aggression and low scores on subscales measuring indirect aggression, hostility, socialization and verbal aggression.

Adjustment Disorders↗
PubMed1984

Pain as a symptom in depressive disorders and its relationship to platelet monoamine oxidase activity.

144 depressed in-patients were rated by means of the Comprehensive Psychopathological Rating Scale (CPRS) and platelet monoamine oxidase (MAO) was determined. 49 per cent of the patients were found to have pain as a symptom, and 21 per cent were found to have more severe pain. The patients with more severe pain were found to have lower platelet MAO activity than the patients without pain or with slight pain. As platelet MAO activity may reflect the turn-over in the serotinergic systems in CNS it is hypothesized that patients with depressive disorders with pain as a symptom may have more pronounced disturbances in the serotinergic systems than patients without pain as a symptom.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Life events and biological vulnerability: a study of life events and platelet MAO activity in depressed patients.

The present study investigated the possible relationship between platelet monoamine oxidase (MAO) activity and life events. From the general hypothesis that the impact of life events should be seen against the background of an individual's vulnerability, it was assumed that low platelet MAO patients would need fewer life events to develop a psychopathological condition and that they would experience more negatively those events that occurred. Patients (n = 127) of both sexes suffering from various kinds of depressive disorders participated in the study. There were 39 unipolar patients, 11 bipolar patients, 43 patients suffering from neurotic-reactive disorder, and 34 patients suffering from an unspecified depressive disorder. No statistically significant differences in MAO activity were found in this series among the diagnostic subgroups. Younger patients predominated among those with the lowest MAO values. As expected, low MAO patients reported a lower number of life events than patients in the highest MAO quartile, and had experienced those events more negatively.

Adjustment Disorders↗
PubMed1984

Presentation of a subscale for the rating of depression and some additional items to the Comprehensive Psychopathological Rating Scale.

From the Comprehensive Psychopathological Rating Scale (CPRS) a subscale for depression has been derived in the course of a study of depression in which 209 patients took part. The subscale presented in this article comprises 28 items from the original pool and two additional items constructed later. The scale has a high degree of internal consistency and is satisfactorily reliable also among previously unskilled raters who have undergone a minimum of training. It is able to significantly differentiate between ill and recovered patients and among patients with syndromes of different severity according to various classification principles. Reported symptoms rated by the subscale correlated significantly with self-ratings of depression. Since the original CPRS pool also comprises items for the rating of manic manifestations, the scale is particularly suitable for the study of patients suffering from affective disorders, also when a switch from depression to mania could occur in the course of treatment.

Adjustment Disorders↗
PubMed1984

Perceived parental rearing practices in depressed patients in relation to social class.

The occurrence of possible differences in rearing practices related to social class has been investigated in a series of 125 depressed patients by means of a special inventory - the EMBU - constructed by our group. Three factors derived from the EMBU in the course of previous studies: "rejection", "emotional warmth", "overprotection" have been taken into account. The rearing practices experienced by subjects belonging to different social classes did not differ concerning "emotional warmth". On the other hand, subjects belonging to the higher social classes scored their parents higher on the variables "rejection" and "overprotection". Since "emotional warmth" proved in an earlier study to discriminate between depressives and healthy controls, it is concluded that the difference cannot have been biased by possible differences in social class.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

ERPs and psychopathology. II. Biological issues.

We have briefly covered important issues and considerations in four topic areas likely to be of use to the ERP researcher who is also interested in biological psychiatry. We cannot ignore diagnosis because of its basic role in the field of psychiatry. Although there are reliability problems, especially in the field of psychiatric diagnosis, ERPs may help in the painstaking task of validating diagnosis based on behavioral observation. In addition, the ERP researcher can use diagnosis to obtain potentially more homogeneous samples of patients so as to reduce between-subject error variance in studies. We have considered research areas like PET scan and CT scan which provide data of more anatomical precision than ERPs for deep neurological sites. While the potential may be there, it is essentially unrealized as yet. Finally, neurochemistry and psychopharmacology seem to be the areas most likely to bear fruit in the immediate future. If this potential is to be realized, it is necessary to formulate new questions and a new methodology to handle these questions. An important question, for example, is whether a biological profile is a more useful criterion than a behavioral profile for predicting response to pharmacological intervention. In biological psychiatry, this question is a human suffering issue of considerable importance.

Antipsychotic Agents↗
PubMed1984

Long-term lithium treatment and renal functions. A prospective study.

Renal functions were examined in 53 patients before the start of long-term lithium treatment (I) and then after 4 months (II) and 12 months (III) on lithium treatment. The tubular function was studied by means of the DDAVP (Minirin) test and the glomerular filtration rate was measured by creatinine clearance. The mean maximum urine osmolality (+/- SE) on the first occasion (I) was 800 +/- 20 mosm/kg H2O, 702 +/- 20 on the second (II), and on the third (III) 723 +/- 17 mosm/kg H2O. The mean creatinine clearance before the start of lithium treatment (I) was 128 +/- 5 ml/min, after 4 months (II) 106 +/- 4 and after 12 months (III) 114 +/- 5 ml/min. The results of the present study suggest that lithium treatment with serum levels of approximately 0.6 mmol/l causes a decrease in renal concentrating ability and the glomerular filtration rate in the early stages after the start of therapy. This decrease in the renal functions does not seem to progress during the first year of lithium treatment.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Cortisol changes in long-term lithium therapy.

a.m. and p.m. serum cortisol levels were investigated in a group of 53 patients before the start of long-term lithium therapy (I) and again after 4 months (II) and 12 months (III) on lithium. The patients were assessed by means of the CPRS and scores for 28 depression items were calculated. When 5 patients with manic/hypomanic scores were excluded the remainder (n = 48) showed a significant decrease in a.m. serum cortisol levels after 1 year on lithium. Those patients with the greatest differences between the CPRS scores before lithium and after 12 months on lithium also displayed significant differences between a.m. and p.m. cortisol levels before the start of lithium and after 12 months of lithium therapy.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Personality traits and monoamine oxidase activity in platelets in depressed patients.

Personality characteristics and platelet monoamine oxidase (MAO) activity have been assessed in 143 depressed patients of both sexes (60 males and 83 females) in the age range 21-65 years (mean age 44.8 +/- 12.8, SD), the personality inventory being completed by the patients when recovered, or at least markedly improved from the depressive disorder. In line with previous studies, a significant negative correlation between MAO activity and the variables, impulsivity and monotony avoidance, was found in the whole series. A significant negative correlation between MAO activities and the traits reflecting verbal aggression and irritability was also found. A separate analysis showed that those correlations hold true for female but not for male patients.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Personality traits in former depressed patients and in healthy subjects without past history of depression.

208 patients (81 male and 127 female) in the age range 21-67 years completed a Swedish personality inventory (Karolinska Sjukhusets Personlighetsinventorium; KSP) aimed at measuring stable personality traits after recovering from the depressive syndrome. Diagnostically, the series comprised 62 unipolars, 31 bipolars, 58 neurotic-reactive depressives, and 57 patients with an 'unspecified' depressive disorder, i.e., those patients who did not meet the criteria for inclusion in any of the aforementioned groups. As a contrast group, a series of 75 mentally healthy individuals (27 men and 48 women with a mean age of 39.5 +/- 12.1 years) without any past history of depression was also investigated. The former patients scored differently from the healthy controls in almost all the personality variables covered by the KSP, with the exception of the variable 'social desirability', on which all groups scored alike. A factor analysis of the results yielded three principal factors: factor 1 covering such variables which reflect anxiety proneness, psychasthenia, suspicion, and guilt; factor 2 (bipolar) covering different aspects of aggression; and factor 3 comprising the variables 'impulsiveness' and 'monotony avoidance'. From the present study it is concluded that although inter-group differences do occur, the main characteristics of the personality of the depression-prone individual seem to be anxiety, psychasthenia (covering such traits as orderly, conscientious, bound to routine), suspicion, and guilt. Such characteristics are shared by all diagnostic subgroups. Depression-prone individuals also show a higher level of inhibited aggression and a lower level of manifest aggression than healthy controls.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adjustment Disorders↗
PubMed1983

Parental rearing behaviour and personality characteristics of depressed patients.

Within the framework of a large and ongoing study of depression in its biological, clinical, psychological and social aspects, 141 patients of both sexes in the age range 21 to 65 years participated in a study of parental rearing practices and personality characteristics. The perceived parental rearing behaviour was assessed by means of a specially constructed inventory (EMBU), and the personality characteristics by means of a Swedish personality inventory, the KSP, which had previously been shown to measure relatively stable personality characteristics. Several important correlations emerged between parental rearing practices and personality traits. In particular, power assertive practices and psychological types of discipline (shaming, guilt-engendering) showed significant correlations with aspects of aggression and significant negative correlations with socialization. There was a good agreement between male and female patients in the judgement of the rearing behaviour of their fathers. However, female patients scored their mother as more abusive, whereas male patients scored them as more over-protective. On the whole, the rearing practices of the mothers were judged more negatively than those of the fathers. The findings of this study appear to be consistent with earlier results reported by other authors.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Patterns of aggression in the personality structure of depressed patients.

The personality characteristics of 208 depressed patients of both sexes were studied by means of a Swedish personality inventory--the KSP--when the patients had recovered from the depressive syndrome. The patients in the study were divided into unipolars, bipolars, neurotic-reactive and "unspecified", i.e. those patients who did not meet the criteria for inclusion in any of the aforementioned groups. Female patients scored higher on variables of anxiety and psychasthenia and male patients scored higher on variables indicating distance preference and hostility. Several traits, in particular those reflecting aggression-out and hostility-out, appeared to be negatively correlated with age, whereas inhibition of aggression appeared to be positively related with age. Bipolar patients scored slightly differently from unipolars in many variables but none of the differences was significant. Neurotic-reactive patients distinguished themselves from the other in variables of aggression-out. Several interrelations between different personality characteristics and aspects of aggression have been investigated. Significant correlation could be shown between aspects of aggression and socialization, impulsiveness and aspects of anxiety. A positive correlation was shown between inhibition of aggression and social desirability, and both variables were shown to correlate with age. It is concluded that the difference in inhibition of aggression between "endogenous" and "non-endogenous" patients found in earlier studies might be due to a difference in age, and to the influence of social desirability.

Adult↗