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Biomedical subjects

F A Whitlock

Publications and source records attributed to F A Whitlock.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1978

Accidents in old age.

Elderly persons particularly are liable to falls which in women often cause major fractures and other injuries. In Australia, some two per cent of deaths of women aged 65 and over are attributed to non-traffic accidents, and the length of hospital care and subsequent disability following fractures are both important aspects of the total morbidity resulting from falls suffered by older persons.

Accidents↗
PubMed1977

Drug-induced depression and attempted suicide.

Sixty-eight patients who had attempted suicide were matched with non-suicidal patients with similar diagnoses to assess the extent to which excessive drug ingestion by the suicidal group might have contributed to their behaviour. It was found that the suicidal patients were consuming more drugs, particularly those of a potentially depressing kind. The implications of this finding are discussed.

Alcoholism↗
PubMed1977

Crisis, life events and accidents.

Using two life event scales, we found that patients who had sustained accidental injuries had experienced more changes in their lives over the past six months than a matched control group drawn from students and persons undergoing minor surgery. The implications of this finding are discussed.

Accidents↗
PubMed1976

Genetics, drug dependence and schizophrenia.

It has been suggested that drug dependence is a substitute for schizophrenia in young patients and that drug dependence protects them from schizophrenic breakdown. Assuming the correctness of the genetic basis for schizophrenia, it was postulated that persons known to be dependent on heroin would have a higher genetic loading for schizophrenia if the hypothesis was true. An examination of the family backgrounds of 82 drug dependent persons failed to find supporting evidence for the belief that drug dependence is a substitute for schizophrenia in young persons.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1975

Suicide in Brisbane, 1956 to 1973: the drug-death epidemic.

A study of suicide in Brisbane between the years 1956 and 1973 reveals that there was a sharp rise in the incidence of deaths from barbiturate overdosage, which reached a peak in the mid 1960s. Since then there has been a steady decline in suicide rates from drug overdose and a smaller fall in the rate of other forms of suicide. The decline in the incidence of deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning since 1967 may be due to the use of non-toxic domestic gas. The frequent association between barbiturate suicides and previous ingestion of alcohol indicates the danger of the practice and the probability that many of the victims had major drinking problems. An examination of suicide deaths and the prescribing of barbiturates, benzodiazepines and antidepressant drugs between 1962 and 1973 suggests that the fall in suicide rates was due to the better recognition and treatment of depressive illnesses and to the introduction of the safer benzodiazepines in place of barbiturates. The study indicates that placing restrictions on non-violent methods of suicide does not necessarily result in an increase in suicides from violence.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1975

Emotions and skin (II)-the conditioning of scratch responses in cases of lichen simplex.

Lichen simplex is generally regarded as a condition initiated and perpetuated by scratching and emotional tension. It was felt that the scratching might partly be a conditional response to itching and other signals, and that feelings of guilt, anxiety and hostility would be prominent features in these patients. Conditioning experiments designed to establish scratch responses to an itch stimulus (UCS) and a tone (CS) showed that lichen simplex patients conditioned more readily and extinguished more slowly than controls. These finding were more marked when the itch stimulus was applied to affected as compared with normal skin. It was not possible to distinguish differences in the psychological tests between patients and controls. The possible significance of these findings is discussed.

Adolescent↗