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Biomedical subjects

D C Ross

Publications and source records attributed to D C Ross.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1983

Treatment of phobias. I. Comparison of imipramine hydrochloride and placebo.

In a controlled-outcome study of phobias, 218 adult phobic patients (147 women and 71 men) received a course of 26 weekly treatment sessions that consisted of behavior therapy (BT) and imipramine hydrochloride, BT and placebo, or supportive psychotherapy and imipramine. The BT consisted of systematic desentization using fantasy and assertiveness training. Patients were classified as agoraphobic, mixed phobic, or simple phobic. Although the conditions of most patients in each group showed moderate to marked improvement, the effects of imipramine were significantly superior to those of placebo in patients with spontaneous panic attacks, ie, patients with agoraphobia or mixed phobia. In patients with simple phobia, who do not experience spontaneous panic, there was not a significant difference between imipramine and placebo. This study clearly distinguished those phobic patients who experienced spontaneous panic from those who did not in terms of pharmacologic benefits.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Treatment of phobias. II. Behavior therapy and supportive psychotherapy: are there any specific ingredients?

Systematic hierarchical desensitization (behavior therapy [BT]) was compared with supportive psychotherapy (ST) during a 26-week treatment trial of patients with agoraphobia, mixed phobia, or simple phobia. We found essentially no difference in effectiveness, not because patients treated with BT had done badly, but because patients receiving ST had done well. A detailed methodologic review concludes that this finding is entirely compatible with the major critical reviews of the psychotherapy literature. Is the active ingredient in psychotherapy simply the generation of hopeful expectancies? This is necessary but not sufficient. For phobics, the psychotherapy session serves primarily as an instigator. The specific corrective activity occurs outside of the formal session in the form of maintained exposure in vivo. Supposed differences between therapies may be entirely due to the rapidly with which the instigational function becomes effective.

Agoraphobia↗
PubMed1982

Body composition in affective disorder before, during, and after lithium carbonate therapy.

The body composition of three unipolar and 17 bipolar patients, studied during the depressive state, was compared with that of 48 controls. The ratio of extracellular to intracellular water content was significantly less in male patients than in male controls: the difference between female patients and female controls was not statistically significant. In patients of both sexes, residual sodium concentration was greater in patients than in controls. The intracellular content of potassium was the same in patients as in controls. In six patients, body composition was studied prior to lithium carbonate therapy, after 17 days of treatment, and 17 days after discontinuing administration of the drug. The significant changes were a decrease in body weight during therapy, and a decrease in body water content and an increase in residual sodium concentration after drug treatment was discontinued.

Adipose Tissue↗
PubMed1982

Anesthetic influence on arteriolar diameters and tissue oxygen tension in hemorrhaged rats.

Arteriolar diameters and tissue oxygen tensions were measured in the cremaster muscles of 68 hemorrhaged rats which were anesthetized with either intramuscular ketamine, 125 mg/kg, plus 30 mg/kg supplements as needed, or enflurane, 2.2% inspired. Animals breathed room air, or room air plus enflurane, throughout the experiments. Arterioles in the cremaster muscle were identified according to successive orders of branching, and the internal diameters of first-, third-, and fourth-order vessels were measured at 30-s intervals. Cremaster muscle oxygen tension was measured polarographically with platinum-iridium microelectrodes. Mean arterial pressure was controlled at 30-35 mmHg during 30 min of hemorrhage, and maximum shed blood volumes were similar (2.6 ml/100 g) in both groups. Principal responses to hemorrhage in rats receiving enflurane were 1) constriction in first-, third-, and fourth-order arterioles, and 2) tissue hypoxia. In hemorrhaged rats receiving ketamine, the constrictor response to hemorrhage either was diminished (first-, and third-order arterioles) or abolished (fourth-order arterioles), and tissue hypoxia did not occur. The authors conclude that ketamine, as compared with enflurane, diminishes or prevents arteriolar constriction and tissue hypoxia in the cremaster muscle of hemorrhaged rats.

Anesthetics↗
PubMed1975

Youthful hypercholesteremia: its associated characteristics and role in premature myocardial infarction.

Hypercholesteremic medical students were different from their normocholesteremic classmates in a variety of ways. When students are grouped by cholesterol level in medical school, gradients across the means of biological, physiological, physical, and psychological characteristics are found. The hypercholesteremic students were older, shorter, and heavier, with younger mothers, less depression, less anxiety and less overall nervous tension under stress. Compared with their normocholesteremic classmates, youthful hypercholesteremics were more than 30 times as susceptible to episodes of acute myocardial infarction occurring 13 to 21 years after the high cholesterol levels were measured. Ten male medical students who subsequently sustained a myocardial infarction, most of whom were known to have had hypercholesteremia in youth, were significantly different at the outset from their 103 hypercholesteremic classmates who have not had such an episode. On the average, the precoronary individuals in medical school were shorter in stature, were older, had more overall nervous tension under stress, were more tired on awakening and had lower academic standing. The combination of hypercholesteremia and a personality profile denoting sensitivity and vulnerability to stress best characterizes this group of ten subjects who sustained a myocardial infarction at an early age. These findings suggest that it may be possible to differentiate young hypercholesteremics who are highly susceptible to myocardial infarction from their hypercholesteremic peers with relatively low susceptibility on the basis of personality profile.

Adult↗