Family interaction versus individual psychopathology. Do they indicate the same processes in the families of schizophrenics?
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to D L Fogelson.
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BACKGROUND: The treatment of bipolar disorders with mood stabilizing agents is complicated by breakthrough episodes of depression. Currently there are no consistently safe and effective medications for these episodes. The authors address the use of bupropion for this purpose. METHOD: Bupropion was added to the treatment regimens of 3 male and 8 female patients who had bipolar disorders as diagnosed by DSM-III-R criteria and were depressed and nonresponsive to current treatment. Ten of the 11 had previously cycled into manic episodes when treated with either a tricyclic antidepressant, fluoxetine, or phenelzine. RESULTS: Seven of the 11 patients had moderate-to-marked improvement after 6 weeks of treatment. A moderate-to-marked improvement continued in 4 of the 11 patients after a mean of 12 months of treatment (range, 0-20 months), justifying the continuation of bupropion. Baseline Global Assessment of Functioning scores, history of previous response to other antidepressants, treatment refractoriness, comorbid diagnoses, bipolar subtype, family history, cycle length, and demographics did not discriminate between bupropion responders and nonresponders. However, 6 of the 11 patients experienced manic or hypomanic episodes that necessitated discontinuation of bupropion. Five of the 6 patients who had manic episodes had been stabilized on lithium and carbamazepine or valproate prior to the addition of bupropion. CONCLUSION: These findings, based on consecutive cases, suggest that bupropion may pose the same risks as other antidepressants in precipitating manic episodes in depressed bipolar patients. The authors conclude that caution should be exercised when using bupropion in the treatment of bipolar disorders.
Three interviewers (second raters) blindly rated 15 audiotapes each of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R, Axis II (SCID-II) administered to the first degree relatives of probands with either DSM-III-R schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or bipolar disorder, for a total of 45 second ratings. Interrater reliability was determined using the intraclass correlation coefficient and ranged from 0.60 to 0.84. The previous studies of the reliability of structured interviews for diagnosing personality disorders are summarized and compared to the present findings. We conclude that the SCID-II can be reliably used to diagnose schizophrenia-spectrum and affective spectrum disorders in the first degree family members of probands with schizophrenic or bipolar affective disorders.
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Using five methods of validation the authors evaluated six patients satisfying DSM-III criteria for schizophreniform disorder. These patients did not differ importantly from patients with affective disorders but differed markedly from schizophrenic patients in past psychiatric history, family history, acute treatment response, short-term course, and dexamethasone suppression test results. The findings suggest that schizophreniform disorder, as defined by DSM-III, may not be a valid entity separate from affective disorder and that acuteness of onset, even in the absence of affective symptoms, implies the presence of affective disorder. The authors suggest that a diagnosis of schizophreniform disorder should not exclude patients from treatment with lithium and antidepressants.
At least 67 schizophrenic patients have undergone dialysis for renal failure, without improvement in schizophrenic symptoms. Ninety-two nonuremic schizophrenic patients have received dialysis in nonblind studies; 22 improved, 21 improved partially, 47 showed no change, and 2 became worse. The authors point out factors other than dialysis that may affect outcome, including family respones and reduction in drug dose. They believe that until the results of current double-blind, sham-controlled trials are known, dialysis should not be prescribed as a treatment for schizophrenia.