Biomedical subjects

D Westbrook

Publications and source records attributed to D Westbrook.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1998

The long-term outcome of cognitive behaviour therapy for adults in routine clinical practice.

It is recognised that there is a comparative lack of evidence on the long-term outcome of cognitive behavioural therapy for patients seen in ordinary clinical settings, as opposed to research trials. This paper presents some data on the outcome of 36 adult patients followed up an average of nearly two years after the end of therapy in a National Health Service CBT clinic. Whilst the vagaries of data collection in clinical practice mean that the generalisability of these results is still tentative, they suggest that the outcome at the end of treatment was generally well-maintained over the follow-up period, with most patients maintaining fairly stable scores on the measures used, and the rest roughly equally divided between those who deteriorated and those who improved further. A high proportion of patients at follow-up reported that they were still using various CBT strategies which they had learnt during therapy.

Adult↗

PubMed1997

Effects of neutralizing on intrusive thoughts: an experiment investigating the etiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

A large sample of non-clinical subjects were screened and those who reported experiencing relatively frequent intrusive thoughts with associated neutralizing were selected. These subjects were randomly allocated to one of two conditions: both groups listened to repeated recorded presentations of one of their intrusive thoughts and were then required either to (a) neutralize it, or (b) distract themselves for a similar period. Ratings of discomfort were taken during this procedure (first phase), and during identical presentations of the same thought without neutralizing or distracting (second phase). Results showed that the group who neutralized during the first phase experienced significantly more discomfort during the second phase and significantly stronger urges to neutralize and distract. There was also evidence that engaging in neutralizing responses during the first phase made it difficult to stop neutralizing during the second phase. The results are considered in the context of the cognitive-behavioural hypothesis that obsessional disorders develop as a consequence of neutralizing normal intrusive thoughts.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1993

Do psychosocial factors influence outcome in severely depressed female psychiatric in-patients?

Fifty-nine women admitted to hospital because of severe depression were studied prospectively during hospital admission and nine months following hospital discharge in order to identify psychosocial and illness factors associated with prognosis. Outcome was measured in terms of both depression scores and recovery at the time of follow-up. In keeping with the findings of other studies, the outcome was often poor, with only 54% having recovered nine months after discharge, poorer outcome being associated with more negative self-esteem measured when the women were depressed and with suicidal ideas. The findings indicate that in severely depressed women likely to be admitted to hospital, psychosocial factors may have less relevance to outcome, at least in the short term, than in less severely depressed patients studied in community or out-patient samples.

Adult↗

PubMed1991

Pulse oximetry.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Adult↗

PubMed1989

Behaviour therapy and obsessional ruminations: can failure be turned into success?

This paper considers the possible reasons for the relative failure of behavioural treatment for 'ruminations' (obsessional thoughts without overt compulsive behaviour). It is argued that this problem is due to an inadequate conceptualisation of the nature of ruminations and that as a result, exposure and response prevention have not been applied effectively. Effective treatment of ruminations requires systematically applied exposure in conjunction with the identification and prevention of covert compulsive behaviours. The practical problems of implementing 'covert exposure and response prevention' are considered and a form of habituation training is described, which is designed to overcome these inadequacies. A series of single case studies using this technique is presented.

Adult↗

PubMed1988

Ultrasound artifacts affecting the diagnosis of breast masses.

An investigation of the outcome of over 1600 breast ultrasound examinations revealed a number of scanning artifacts. Artifactual echoes in cysts resulted from inappropriate scanning factors, including focal zone placement, gain, TGC, and gray scale, and from partial volume effect. The absence of a sign suspicious for carcinoma, posterior shadowing to a solid mass, resulted from faulty focal zone placement, or from the mass resting on chest wall tissue. Pathology was sometimes simulated by postsurgical scars, ducts, and benign calcifications. Corrective procedures to alleviate the various scanning artifacts are recommended.

Breast↗