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Biomedical subjects

F Rist

Publications and source records attributed to F Rist.

29 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1983

Self assessment of relapse risk and assertiveness in relation to treatment outcome of female alcoholics.

Prior to and following social-skills training during a three months inpatient treatment, 145 female alcoholics indicated for various situations involving social pressure to drink alcohol (a) how difficult it would be for them not to drink (Relapse Risk) and (b) the degree of discomfort they expected (Specific Assertiveness). In addition, General Assertiveness situations, not related to alcohol, were evaluated. Patients who relapsed three months after treatment evaluated the situations more difficult to deal with and creating more discomfort than abstaining patients, although the groups did not differ in their self-rated assertiveness in non-alcohol-related situations. All ratings improved throughout the training, but the differences between outcome groups were similar before and after. When patients were excluded who had relapsed already during treatment, Relapse Risk but not Specific Assertiveness still discriminated between outcome groups. The prognostic power of the Risk rating seems to reflect a general efficacy expectation evident in a strong relation to patients' conviction of being able to stay abstinent, stated already at admission.

Alcoholism↗
PubMed1983

Self assessment of social competence in situations with and without alcohol by female alcoholics in treatment.

Female alcoholic in-patients (N = 156) were asked during a three months treatment to rate the degree of discomfort they expected (a) in situations demanding assertiveness, but not involving rejection of alcoholic beverages and (b) in situations characterized by social temptation to drink. Correlations of ratings with age, duration of problem drinking, mean ethanol consumption per day or length of education were insignificant. Actual experience with social temptation situations in the past did not influence the rating. A principal Component Analysis showed that ratings of discomfort in general social situations and in alcohol related social situations are largely unrelated. The result of partially independent appraisals of general and alcohol related assertiveness suggests that both should be assessed independently, and generalizations from one to the other might be misleading.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

Loudness judgments, evoked potentials, and reaction time to acoustic stimuli early and late in the cardiac cycle in chronic schizophrenics.

Two experiments were performed to test Broen's (1968) theory that chronic schizophrenics show increased sensitivity of the inhibitory mechanisms assumed to follow cardiovascular baroreceptor stimulation. Subjects were chronic schizophrenics and normals matched for age and education. In Experiment I reaction times, vertex potentials, and loudness judgments to single tones presented during systole or diastole were analyzed. Contrary to expectation, schizophrenics more often judged tones presented during systole to be louder than tones presented during diastole; the opposite was true for normals. A similar pattern was found in Experiment II, where pairs of tones were presented instead of single tones. No influence of cardiac cycle on reacion time or evoked potentials emerged. Results do not support Broen's assumption.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1977

[An alcohol contact program: training for increased security of alcoholics in trial situations].

Alcoholics who have taken the decision to abstain are known to develop, partially out of fear of a relapse, an almost phobic avoidance behaviour towards situations where alcoholic drinks may be proffered. Starting from this observation a four-hour behavioural programme, involving modeling and the discussion of appropriate behaviour, was developed to prepare patients for such situations. The two methods resulted in equally highly significant improvement, as measured both by self-assessment and by the assessment of independent observers.

Alcoholism↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Effects of awareness and motor involvement on autonomic conditioning in chronic schizophrenics.

Chronic schizophrenics under neuroleptic medication were compared with normals, matched for age and education, in two conditioning experiments. Both experiments employed a differential paradigm with long conditional stimulus--unconditional stimulus (CS-UCS) intervals. Skin resistance (SR) and finger pulse or heart rate (HR) were recorded. In Experiment 1, half of the subjects were trained in categorizing the to-be conditional stimuli. In a further step, half of the subjects were informed about the CS-UCS contingency. The UCS was an electric shock. Information improved discrimination of SR responses only of normals, and discrimination training had no effect at all on autonomic responses. In Experiment 2, only electrodermal responders were included. Each subject was tested in two sessions, using a loud tone as UCS in one, and a reaction time signal in the other. Again, half of the subjects wee informed about the contingency. Information improved discrimination of SR responses of both diagnostic groups. Decelerations of HR following CS onset showed informed schizophrenics to discriminate better with the loud tone UCS than with the reaction time signal. General autonomic responsivity seems to determine not only discriminative conditioning of schizophrenic patients but also the reports of awareness and the effects of manipulations of awareness. However, when subjects are matched for electrodermal responsivity and are equivalent in terms of SR response conditioning, patients react to information about the contingency with enhanced HR deceleration to the CSs, possibly reflecting a heightened sensitivity of the cardiovascular system.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Autonomic reactivity to mental stressors after single administration of lorazepam in male alcoholics and healthy controls.

Clinically unaffected sons of male alcoholics differ from controls without a family history of alcoholism in two respects: increased autonomic reactivity to aversive as well as non-aversive stimuli and increased attenuation of these responses by alcohol. This pattern of autonomic hyper-reactivity and alcohol-induced stress response dampening (SRD) might be a trait marker of genetic vulnerability and is often interpreted in terms of a diathesis stress model of alcohol dependence. Forty-five alcohol-dependent men (mean age: 39.20 years) and 37 healthy controls (mean age: 35.03 years) participated in a double-blind cross-over study in two experimental sessions each. The benzodiazepine lorazepam was selected as an alcohol substitute. Autonomic reactivity and lorazepam-induced SRD were assessed during incentive and non-incentive reaction time tasks as well as mental arithmetics. Alcohol-dependent men showed elevated resting heart rate levels and increased number of non-specific electrodermal responses. Evidence for autonomic hyper-reactivity was found for a subgroup of alcoholics with a family history of alcoholism.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Short-term effects of improved glycemic control on cognitive function in patients with type 2 diabetes.

BACKGROUND: According to numerous studies, type 2 diabetes is associated with mild cognitive dysfunction, and there is some evidence suggesting favorable effects of improved metabolic control on the mental capability of elderly diabetic patients. OBJECTIVE: To compare patients with type 2 diabetes to normal controls with respect to cognitive performance and to investigate the consequences of glycemic adjustment. METHODS: 53 patients with type 2 diabetes, most of them in secondary failure on oral antidiabetic drugs, but free from conditions which may cause brain dysfunction, were included (mean age 58.8 +/- 6.1 years, duration of disease 12.0 +/- 6.4 years). They were examined prior to (t1), and following (t2) glycemic adjustment with a time interval of approximately 2 weeks. 29 non-diabetic controls, comparable with regard to age, gender, education and verbal intelligence were examined twice with a corresponding time interval. Cognitive performance was assessed by well-standardized tests with a focus on attention/concentration, psychomotor speed, verbal fluency and verbal memory; mood status by two self-rating scales. Restoration of glycemic control included insulin treatment in the majority of patients (46/53). RESULTS: Diabetic subjects scored significantly lower in all cognitive tests used, while they did not differ from controls in mood status. From t1 to t2 they improved in those tests measuring attention/concentration, and psychomotor speed. With regard to similar changes in controls, we interpret these improvements as practice effects rather than the consequence of altered metabolic control. CONCLUSION: In a sample of patients with long-standing type 2 diabetes we could not confirm previous reports of improved cognitive capacity with restoration of glycemic control. Further studies on the effects of changes in control of blood glucose on cognitive performance in type 2 diabetes should be conducted with special regard to drugs used to lower blood glucose.

Adult↗