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Biomedical subjects

E Stip

Publications and source records attributed to E Stip.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1996

The heterogeneity of memory dysfunction in schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE: To characterize the memory dysfunction of schizophrenic patients. METHOD: The components of the human memory system are described, and then a review of the various memory deficits identified among patients suffering from schizophrenia is presented. Finally, an overview of the latest developments in the comprehension of schizophrenia and a discussion on certain proposals advanced by various researchers in the field intended to shed light on the disorder is provided. RESULTS: Schizophrenia appears to be an amalgamation of many different disorders. No single model for identifying the disorder has been able to encompass every aspect of schizophrenia. CONCLUSION: Future studies will need to consider new ways of selecting and grouping schizophrenic patients.

Brain Mapping↗
PubMed1996

Differential effects of D2- and D4-blocking neuroleptics on the procedural learning of schizophrenic patients.

OBJECTIVE: To illustrate the differential effects of D2- and D4-blocking neuroleptics on the procedural learning of patients with schizophrenia. METHOD: Twenty-nine schizophrenic patients were divided into 3 groups according to their pharmacological treatment: 1) drug naive, 2) haloperidol, and 3) clozapine. They were all assessed on clinical and procedural measures, the latter being the mirror drawing task. RESULTS: All groups showed progressive learning over the successive trials, and drug-naive patients performed better than the other groups. Patients in the haloperidol group showed many fluctuations over trials, suggesting difficulty in the progressive automation of the task. Such fluctuations did not occur in the clozapine group, but performances per se were worse than in the other groups during the learning trials. Automation of the task occurred at the same point (second block of trials) for all groups. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that D2- and D4-blocking neuroleptics do not similarly affect striatal dependent procedural learning in schizophrenia.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

The effect of risperidone on cognition in patients with schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of risperidone on cognitive functions after both 6 weeks and 6 months of treatment and to determine whether any improvement on neuropsychological function relates to improvement in psychopathology. METHOD: Patients' psychiatric and extrapyramidal symptoms were assessed while they were receiving classical neuroleptic treatment and adjunctive medications. Patients were then reassessed after changing to a new treatment of risperidone. RESULTS: During treatment with risperidone, schizophrenic patients displayed improved performance mainly on attentional components, specifically, selective attention and alertness. CONCLUSION: In patients who were given risperidone, there was a positive correlation between improvement in psychopathology and improvement in cognitive tests of explicit memory and alertness.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Memory impairment in schizophrenia: perspectives from psychopathology and pharmacotherapy.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the concept of memory impairment in schizophrenia and the clinical implications of this concept in terms of patient assessment and neuroleptic drug use. METHOD: Narrative literature review. RESULTS: Individuals suffering from schizophrenia normally exhibit some degree of memory impairment. Recent work in psychopathology indicates that the impairment is comprehensive, involving the sensory, short-term, and long-term memory stores. Memory impairment appears to be a primary symptom of the disease, and its underlying causes are likely organic. A number of medications, however (for example, traditional neuroleptics and drugs that have pronounced anticholinergic activity), may cause or exacerbate impairment. In particular, anticholinergic agents used to treat extrapyramidal symptoms, a common complication of neuroleptic drugs, appear to have a deleterious effect on memory. CONCLUSIONS: Memory impairment is an important consideration in the clinical assessment and management of patients with schizophrenia. The use of atypical antipsychotics like risperidone appears to have no impact on memory function; because risperidone is associated with a low incidence of extrapyramidal side effects, it can obviate the need for anticholinergic medications-thus offering greater hope of nondebilitative intervention. The advent of medications that are safer (on cognition) could also lead to generally better outcomes by facilitating compliance with drug regimens and rehabilitation programs.

Amnesia↗
PubMed1994

[Organic personality syndrome in multiple sclerosis and effect of stress on recurrent attacks].

This study focuses on a sample of 35 patients who had recently suffered an attack of multiple sclerosis. They were first subjected to the so-called life stress method in order to look for a connection between life stresses and the attacks of multiple sclerosis. The sample was compared with a paired control population composed of patients recruited from admission departments and medical emergency departments. The AMDP psychopathological evaluation method was applied to the sample, to establish a characteristic mental profile of these patients. Three types of results are highlighted. First, the comparison of the event scores shows a significant difference between the population of patients suffering from an outbreak of multiple sclerosis and the control population. A connection between "life stresses" and the triggering of the outbreaks of multiple sclerosis is therefore mentioned and discussed. Second, the application of the system of the Association de méthodologie et de documentation psychiatrique brings out a mental profile common to patients suffering from multiple sclerosis, consisting of a very specific association of mood disorders: dysphoria, euphoria and mania on the one hand, and depression, anxiety and dramatization on the other, with relative anosognosia. The correlation between dysphoria, the syndrome's principal characteristic, and the event score adds another argument in favour of the connection between life stresses and the evolution of the disease. The main components of this mental profile are primarily correlated with the existence of a neuropsychology suggestive of a medial basal frontal syndrome.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Influence of affective words on lexical decision task in major depression.

In cognitive science, lexical decision task is used to investigate visual word recognition and lexical access. The issue of whether or not individuals who are depressed differ in their access to affectively laden words and specifically to words that have negative affect was examined. Based on some aspects of the Resource Allocation Model (Ellis), it was postulated that patients suffering from depression take more time to recognize items from an affective-loaded list. In order to compare their behavior in a lexical decision task, patients suffering from depression and healthy controls were studied. We hoped to find an interaction between the mood state of subjects and the categories (affective or neutral) of words. Two groups of right-handed adults served as subjects in our experiment. The first group consisted of 11 patients suffering from depression (mean age: 40.2; sd: 6.8). All of this group met the DSM-III-R and the Research Diagnostic Criteria for major depressive disorder. Severity of their disease was rated using the 24-item Hamilton Depressive Rating Scale. All patients suffering from depression were without psychotropic medication. The control group was composed of 24 subjects (mean age: 32.7; sd: 7.9). A depressive word-list and a neutral word-list were built and a computer was used for the lexical-decision task. A longer reaction time to detect the non-word stimuli (F1,33 = 11.19, p < 0.01) was observed with the patients by comparison to the normal subjects. In the analysis of the word stimuli, a group by list interaction (F1,33 = 7.18, p < 0.01) was found.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult↗
PubMed1990

[Contemporary aspects of psychiatry in Communist China].

Psychiatry in Communist China is at a delicate phase where it is drawn both to modern Western medicine and to the wealth of traditional medicine. This is conveyed through accounts of some present-day situations as seen by the author during stays in Peking and Shanghai. After the treatment provided in various hospitals for acute-care and chronic-care patients is described, we are introduced to the organization of mental health at the various levels of hospital and external structures. A general survey of the research being done in epidemiology, neurology and traditional medicine at the Peking Research Centre is also presented. The novel nosography reveals one particular entity: phasophrenia, described as a stereotyped and recurring acute psychotic episode that responds poorly to neuroleptic chemotherapy. Finally, the medico-legal aspects of psychiatry and the effects of the new birth-rate policy are briefly discussed.

Birth Rate↗