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Biomedical subjects

D K Winstead

Publications and source records attributed to D K Winstead.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Obsessive compulsive patients: familial frustration and criticism.

Familial factors such as attitudes toward illness, knowledge of disease process, and criticism of patients often play an important role in patient compliance and outcome in general medical practice as well as in psychiatric settings. As part of the initial assessment in a psychoeducational group for obsessive compulsive disorder patients and their significant others, nonpatients completed the Relative's Reactions Questionnaire and the Control of Symptoms Schedule. The patients completed the Perceived Criticism Measure. Results suggest that significant others experience frustration with the symptomatic behavior of their friend or family member with obsessive compulsive disorder and may respond too frequently with verbal criticism. The patients themselves reported a moderately high level of criticism from significant others at home. Further research is needed on a larger sample size and with nonpsychiatric and nonobsessive compulsive disorder psychiatric controls.

Adult↗

A treatment strategy for psychogenic vomiting.

Although the literature supports the existence of psychogenic vomiting as a distinct psychiatric disorder, the DSM III-R does not include it as a diagnostic category. Of the numerous articles in the literature which describe this disorder, few discuss treatment. The purposes of this paper are to review the existing literature, to describe the family dynamics which are thought to precipitate the evolution of psychogenic vomiting in the identified patient, and to describe a treatment protocol which has been successfully employed in an outpatient setting. The illness is characterized as an eating disorder in terms of etiology, symptomatology, and treatment. A treatment strategy is described which includes insight-oriented psychotherapy with cognitive/behavioral interventions and family therapy. Two case studies are included which illustrate that a combined therapy approach is efficacious in treating psychogenic vomiting.

Adolescent↗

Preattentive deficit in temporal processing by chronic schizophrenics.

Preattentive visual filtering by two types of neural cells (transient and sustained) constitutes the basic neural correlates underlying visual perception. Transient cells respond abruptly to temporal modulation and to the low spatial frequency components of visual stimuli. Their function is localization of objects and global perception (i.e., detection). Sustained cells respond slowly and selectively to high spatial frequencies and are believed to be responsible for the "oblique effect" (i.e., reduced responsiveness to obliquely oriented high spatial frequencies), which likely occurs at the striate cortex. Their function is to discern the details of an object (i.e., identification). The present study evaluated early visual processing in normal controls and schizophrenics by presenting vertical and oblique (45 degrees) spatial frequency gratings of 0.9 and 12 c/deg that were presented for 50, 100, 175, and 250-msec pulses. Threshold, in milliseconds, to detect an interstimulus interval (ISI) between two grating pulses was the dependent measure. Schizophrenics required longer ISIs for each grating duration, except for 250 msec, and longer ISIs for the 15 c/deg oblique grating. The results indicate that schizophrenics have a preattentive processing deficit that is further elaborated at the cortical level.

Adult↗

Visible persistence in paranoid schizophrenics.

A visual temporal integration (i.e., visible persistence) task was performed by normal controls and paranoid schizophrenics. The task evaluated the critical duration (CD), which approximates the duration of peripheral persistence duration and post-CD persistence, which is possibly more associated with central processes. Subjects were required to report when temporally modulated spatial frequency patterns, which are known to have characteristic temporal processing rates, were pulsing "on-off" with a distinct "off" period. The dependent measure was the duration of visible persistence. An analysis of groups X spatial frequency duration (50, 75, 150, 300 msec) X spatial frequency (high, medium, low), with repeated measures on the last two variables, revealed that the second-order interaction was significant (p less than 0.05). Schizophrenics had shorter visible persistence only for the 300-msec presentation for the high spatial frequency pattern. Also, the CD of schizophrenics did not conform to the duration of normals on the high spatial frequency. The results are discussed in terms of the role high spatial frequencies plays in visual information processing and how shorter visible persistence by paranoid schizophrenics may reflect a premature termination of information necessary for synthesis into accurate percepts.

Adolescent↗

Disordered spatiotemporal processing in schizophrenics.

Schizophrenics have been observed to process information slower than normal individuals. The present study evaluated spatiotemporal information processing by schizophrenics and normal controls by means of a contrast sensitivity task. Spatial frequency gratings (0.9, 3.8, 15 cycles/degree), temporally modulated at 0.0 stationary, 0.8, 3.25, 6.5, and 26.0 Hz, were presented to evaluate whether or not schizophrenics are deficient in processing patterns or temporal information. While the patterns were increasing linearly from 0% to 30% contrast, the subjects were required to discern when pattern or temporal changes first occurred. A multivariate Analysis of Variance revealed that schizophrenics were poorer at detecting temporal changes between 3.25 and 6.5 Hz, whereas they were able to detect patterns better on the low and poorer on the high spatial frequencies compared to normals. No differences were obtained for the stationary pattern. These results are discussed in terms of abnormal sensory gating occurring during the critical duration of temporal integration.

Adolescent↗

Multiple-monitored electroconvulsive therapy: safety and efficacy in elderly depressed patients.

Forty-four patients with severe endogenous depression, all of whom had been administered multiple-monitored electroconvulsive therapy (MMECT), were studied by retrospective chart review. The subjects were divided into two groups, the elderly and the nonelderly, and compared for number of anesthesia inductions (treatment sessions), total number of seizures, total seizure time, and therapeutic outcome. One myocardial infarction occurred in an elderly man, and a confusional state developed whenever MMECT was administered simultaneously with lithium. The conclusions from this project are that MMECT is as safe and efficacious for the elderly as for the nonelderly and that the elderly tolerate many seizures as well as do the nonelderly. While other variables were similar between groups, the overall number of anesthesia inductions in both groups was less than is expected with conventional electroconvulsive therapy.

Adult↗

Biorhythms revisited: rhythm and blues?

In a previous study, no significant relationship was seen between date of psychiatric admission or psychiatric emergency room visit and various phases or critical days in the biorhythm cycle. The present study evaluated these relationships for date of admission of 313 patients--192 with major depression, 88 with bipolar disorder, and 33 with schizophrenia or other diagnoses. No significant relationship to critical days or any combination of critical/noncritical days was found. Two further analyses failed to reveal any significant relationship between admission date and ascendant versus recuperative phases or any combination of cycle and phase. No differences were seen between affectively ill and other patients on any measures evaluated.

Bipolar Disorder↗

A corpus callosal deficit in sequential analysis by schizophrenics.

This preliminary study evaluated interhemispheric (i.e., corpus callosal) information processing by chronic schizophrenic and normal subjects. In right-handed normals the left hemisphere has been reported to be superior in temporal sequential analysis. Consequently temporal information presented to the right hemisphere requires time to cross to the left hemisphere for analysis. Measurement of hemispheric laterality and corpus callosal transfer time were evaluated by a two-pulse temporal discrimination task. Two dot stimuli were presented with decreasing temporal separation during bilateral and unilateral conditions. Subjects were required to judge perceived simultaneity and nonsimultaneity of dot onset. The results indicate that left hemisphere function in chronic schizophrenic and normal controls is superior to the right hemisphere in temporal analysis. Corpus callosal transfer time was significantly slower for chronic schizophrenics than for normal controls.

Adult↗

Bulimia: diagnostic clues.

Bulimia is an eating disorder characterized by the ingestion of large amounts of food, usually followed by self-induced vomiting or laxative abuse. Although sometimes a symptom of obesity or anorexia nervosa, bulimia is often associated with borderline weight and nutritional status and thus may be difficult to detect. Since secrecy and shame accompany this syndrome, patients are reluctant to seek treatment. We present ten diagnostic clues for identifying bulimic patients: (1) preoccupation with weight, (2) gastrointestinal complaints, (3) dental and oropharyngeal changes, (4) salivary gland enlargement, (5) edema and bloating, (6) amenorrhea, (7) dermatologic complaints, (8) substance abuse, (9) laboratory changes, and (10) serious consequences. A case study illustrates the major features of the disorder and its treatment.

Adolescent↗

Temporal integration deficit in visual information processing by chronic schizophrenics.

The primary objective of the present study was to evaluate speed of visual information processing of chronic schizophrenics and normal subjects. Retarded information processing by schizophrenics has been attributed to a dysfunction at the earliest stage of processing. In the present study, by using a backward-masking paradigm and varying target duration we were able to evaluate whether schizophrenic and normals conform to an iconic or visual persistence theory of processing. Also, we evaluated whether schizophrenic and normal information processing is a function of the total time a stimulus is available for viewing prior to disruption (stimulus onset asynchrony, SOA), or whether it is the time following the stimulus offset prior to disruption by the mask (interstimulus interval, ISI). The former conforms more closely to a visual persistence and the latter to an iconic notion of processing. The results indicate that schizophrenics and normals conform to the processing of information as a function of the SOA as opposed to ISI. However, schizophrenic processing during the period of temporal integration (i.e., up to 130 msec) was significantly retarded when compared to normal controls. These findings suggest that for chronic schizophrenics, visual signals associated with target processing during the temporal integration period have either decayed at a slower rate or are more unstable than those of normals. Also discussed is the compatability of these findings with a visual persistence as opposed to an iconic model of information processing.

Form Perception↗