Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

E L Merrin

Publications and source records attributed to E L Merrin.

29 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1986

Dual factitious disorder.

The DSM-III classification of factitious disorders encourages artificial separation into disorders with physical and those with psychologic symptoms. Despite documented examples of similar patients who present with psychiatric complaints, Munchausen's syndrome is usually considered a form of chronic factitious physical disorder. Three patients with both factitious physical and psychologic symptoms are presented. These patients illustrate the importance of focusing on the fundamental behavior of assuming the patient role, rather than on the specific category of symptoms. We recommend that the category of symptoms be used as a modifying statement, rather than defining separate disorders.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Motor and sighting dominance in schizophrenia and affective disorder. Evidence for right-hand grip strength prominence in paranoid schizophrenia and bipolar illness.

Unusually frequent sinistral motor and sighting dominance have sometimes been reported in schizophrenics, although the majority of patients are still dextral. In this study, assessment of lateral dominance also included a measure of grip strength--a potentially more sensitive index of dominance or lateralised impairment; schizophrenics, non-schizophrenic patients (affective disorder), and normal controls were studied. There were no differences in handedness or sighting dominance. Affective patients, particularly bipolar psychotics, had greater right-handed grip superiority than normals or non-paranoid schizophrenics. Paranoid schizophrenics were similar, being significantly greater in right-sided dominance than non-paranoids, who tended toward a smaller value than normals. Hand grip asymmetry was highly correlated with handedness in normals, but not in patients. The possibility is discussed that these results may reflect asymmetrical patterns of cerebral impairment or attentional bias.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Motor and sighting dominance in chronic schizophrenics. Relationship to social competence, age at first admission, and clinical course.

The relationship was examined between sinistral eye and hand preference and age at first hospitalisation, clinical course and social competence in chronic schizophrenics. Motor and sighting dominance were assessed in 52 newly admitted chronic schizophrenic males. Left-handedness in this study was associated with inferior social competence, but left-eyedness with later age of first hospitalisation and proportionally less time spent in hospitals. These findings were only true for paranoid schizophrenics.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

Identification of abnormal patterns in eye movements of schizophrenic patients.

Using precise infrared recording instrumentation, we measured the eye-movement patterns in six schizophrenic patients who were taking medication and found saccadic intrusions and saccadic smooth-pursuit tracking in three. This defined some of the eye-movement irregularities reported previously by many investigators. A variety of eye-movement functions in addition to smooth pursuit exhibited these abnormalities, including fixation, vergence, and head-eye pursuit. Saccadic intrusions or saccadic pursuit also occurs in a number of neuro-ophthalmologic disorders, and occasionally in healthy normal subjects. Thus, these eye-movement abnormalities do not occur exclusively in schizophrenia.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

Saccadic eye movements of schizophrenic patients measured by reflected light technique.

In order to evaluate the integrity of their saccadic system, we have examined saccadic eye movements and smooth pursuit in a small group of schizophrenic patients, using precise infrared recording instrumentation. There were no significant differences between mean saccadic latencies of patients and controls. Both groups had mean latencies within the normal range of 200-250 msec. Saccades of schizophrenic patients appeared to have normal trajectories and dynamic characteristics. Three of the six schizophrenic patients and one of the three normal controls had smooth pursuit tracking characterized by saccadic intrusions and saccadic smooth pursuit tracking. Occasional saccadic intrusions and saccadic smooth pursuit tracking appeared in the records of all other subjects, but with considerably lower frequency. These results, emerging from reflected light methods, confirm a previous report of normal saccadic latencies in schizophrenic patients using an electrooculographic technique.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Schizophrenia and brain asymmetry an evaluation of evidence for dominant lobe dysfunction.

The author reviewed literature implicating a disturbance located in the left cerebral hemisphere in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. Studies of the psychiatric sequelae of lateralized organic cerebral disease were considered, as well as neurological, neurophysiological, and neuroanatomic studies of psychiatric patients. In general, abnormalities in cerebral hemispheric asymmetry appear to be common among psychiatric patients, particularly those with personality disorders, some affective disorders, autistic children, and, at least, some schizophrenics. The latter may include those with milder, less chronic illnesses. A specific relationship between the side of unilateral cerebral impairment and diagnosis suggested by some authors is not consistently supported by the literature, however. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of neurodevelopmental issues in schizophrenia.

Brain Diseases↗
PubMed1976

The Capgras phenomenon.

The underlying diagnosis of Capgras delusion is not found to be exclusively paranoid schizophrenia, nor is the sex exclusively female, as once was believed. Organic factors play a predominant role in many patients, and 41% of the cases are males. The age at diagnosis in those considered to be schizophrenic is older than is usually expected.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Task-related EEG alpha asymmetry in schizophrenic patients prior to and after neuroleptic treatment.

EEG was recorded from bilateral frontal, central, temporal, and parietal leads (referenced to or transformed to a vertex reference) during cognitive activity in 13 normal controls, ten schizophrenics, and eight patients with affective disorders. All subjects were male and right-handed, and patients had been free of psychotropic medications for at least 2 weeks. A verbal (copying text) and spatial (copying shapes) task were matched for stimulus presentation and motor output. The number and rate of correct responses were recorded for each normal subject and 11 of the patients. As reported by others, normal subjects manifested a significant difference in alpha asymmetry between the tasks, reflecting relatively greater alpha suppression over the left hemisphere during the verbal task compared to the spatial task (P less than 0.05). This effect was not significant in either patient group. However, analysis of seven schizophrenics after neuroleptic treatment revealed robust effects of task on alpha asymmetry similar to that present in the normal control group (P less than 0.02). The results suggest that abnormal task-related brain lateralization may be present in untreated schizophrenic patients, but it is state dependent and does not reflect permanent patterns of brain organization.

Adult↗