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Biomedical subjects

G Andrews

Publications and source records attributed to G Andrews.

At least 145 records · Page 8Linked to original sources
PubMed1985

The economic costs of schizophrenia. Implications for public policy.

The direct and indirect costs associated with schizophrenia in Australia were calculated using the incidence approach and compared with similar costings of myocardial infarction in Australia and the United States. In Australia schizophrenia affects one-twelfth as many people as does myocardial infarction, yet costs half as much. This is because the stream of costs associated with each case of schizophrenia is six times the stream of costs associated with myocardial infarction. To illustrate the utility of this costing approach, the information was used to estimate the cost-benefit ratio likely to follow the introduction of social intervention strategies. The information also showed that Australian support for research in schizophrenia is inadequate when compared with that for myocardial infarction and quite out of proportion to the cost of schizophrenia to the community.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

Estimating the economic costs of schizophrenia.

The economic costs of schizophrenia in New South Wales, Australia, were estimated using an incidence-based approach. The incidence of the disease was obtained from a case register. Direct treatment costs were calculated from length of stay data, the probability of readmission, and a direct costing of inpatient and outpatient care. Indirect costs were calculated from tables of average weekly earnings and work-force participation rates modified for the expected types of outcome. The prodrome was costed similarly. Costs were $139 million (in 1975 U.S. dollars), or $29 per head of the population of the State. A sensitivity analysis indicated that the likely margin of error of the estimate was plus or minus 15 percent. Comparison with the costs of myocardial infarction (in the same State at the same time and costed by the same methods) demonstrated that schizophrenia is a costly disease.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

The familial occurrence of agoraphobia.

Agoraphobia is believed to run in families, but this belief is not well supported by the literature. Data were gathered on the risk of agoraphobia in parents and siblings of 60 agoraphobic probands; 12 1/2% of the relatives were reported to have or have had agoraphobia. This risk is significantly greater than estimates of the population incidence, and requires explanation. The details of the pedigrees do not directly support simple genetic models while investigations into environmental factors in agoraphobia by other workers have been inconclusive. As a putative case has been established for the familial occurrence of agoraphobia, further work is required to shed light on whether genetic or cultural factors are paramount.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Early and late components of the contingent negative variation prior to manual and speech responses in stutterers and non-stutterers.

The early and late components of the CNV were measured in 18 stutterers and 18 non-stutterers, all dextral, prior to a manual and 3 speech tasks. It was hypothesized that, due to a proposed deficit in articulatory timing, prior to the more complex speech tasks, stutterers would show reduced late CNV amplitudes over Broca's area when compared to the non-stutterers. This hypothesis was not confirmed. In both groups, there was a finding of greater late CNV activity over the right hemisphere prior to speech responses. Explanations for this finding in terms of (a) CNV polarity, and (b) right hemisphere involvement in the speech responses used, are proposed. It is suggested that attention be paid to the nature of the response when attempting to record slow brain potentials prior to speech.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

The incidence of schizophrenia in New South Wales, Australia. A psychiatric register study.

Age-specific estimates of the incidence of schizophrenia in NSW, Australia, have been made using two methods, one based on a psychiatric register and the other based on routinely collected hospital morbidity data. Similar results were obtained by both methods. The estimates lie towards the bottom of the range of incidence estimates of schizophrenia that have been published for some other countries, and are lower than estimates from a number of U.S. studies. The diagnostic criteria of schizophrenia employed by Australian psychiatrists conform closely to DSM-III criteria.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

A scale to measure locus of control of behaviour.

Many behaviour, psychotherapy and healthy life-style programmes require subjects to take responsibility for the control of the old unwanted behaviours or to be responsible for maintaining new desired behaviours after therapy has ended. A scale to measure the locus of control of behaviour would be valuable if it could predict persons likely to relapse following apparently successful therapy. A 17-item Likert-type scale to measure this construct was developed and shown to have satisfactory internal reliability, to be test-retest reliable in the absence of treatment, to be independent of age, sex and social desirability, and to distinguish clinical disorder from normal non-clinical subjects. Furthermore, change towards internality (a reduced LCB score) during therapy was shown to predict maintenance or, alternatively, change towards externality (an increase or no change in the LCB score) was shown to predict relapse 10 months later in treated stutterers. The scale was shown to be related to the personal control factor of the Rotter I-E scale but to be more powerful a predictor of relapse than this personal control subscale or the full Rotter scale.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Mouse hepatic metallothionein-I gene cleavage by micrococcal nuclease is enhanced after induction by cadmium.

Micrococcal nuclease has been shown to preferentially cleave chromatin in the region of genes actively engaged in transcription. We have used this preferential cleavage to show that the metallothionein (MT) gene in adult mouse liver, when induced to produce mRNA by injection of cadmium, becomes more susceptible to nuclease cleavage. However, the MT gene in uninduced liver, and the alphafoetal protein (AFP) gene in both induced and uninduced liver, remain relatively resistant to nuclease cleavage. The AFP gene is not normally expressed in cadmium induced or uninduced liver. Thus, susceptibility of genes to nuclease cleavage appears to rise with increasing transcription of the gene.

Animals↗
PubMed1983

alpha-Fetoprotein and albumin mRNA levels in liver regeneration and carcinogenesis.

Using a titration procedure, we measured the proportion of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) and albumin mRNA in normal, regenerating, and preneoplastic rat livers. AFP mRNA constitutes approximately 0.006% of the polysomal polyadenylated RNA of normal livers and this proportion increases only slightly before the onset of DNA synthesis in liver regeneration induced by partial hepatectomy or CCl4 injury. In either model of liver regeneration, the proportion of AFP mRNA in polysomal RNA is highest approximately 24 h after the peak of DNA synthesis. The increase in the proportion of AFP mRNA in polysomal RNA is relatively small during liver regeneration (2-4-fold) but is larger (30-50-fold) in preneoplastic livers of rats fed a choline-deficient diet containing 0.1% ethionine. In contrast to those changes in AFP mRNA, albumin mRNA levels remain unchanged during liver regeneration and double in preneoplastic livers. Our results indicate that the concept of "retrodifferentiation" as it applies to liver regeneration and certain types of hepatic neoplasia needs reevaluation.

Albumins↗
PubMed1983

Stuttering: a review of research findings and theories circa 1982.

The research literature on stuttering is extensive, spanning etiology, natural history, phenomenology, and treatment. In this review, existing empirical knowledge is distilled by attending only to replicated findings. These are designated as "facts." Facts concerning the natural history of idiopathic stuttering highlight early childhood onset, probability of recovery, and importance of a positive family history of stuttering. Corroborated evidence on stutterer-nonstutterer differences concerns intelligence distribution, speech development, central auditory function, and sensory-motor response. Predictable changes in stuttering frequency, and even total elimination of stuttering, occur under a remarkable variety of conditions. Review of therapies revealed two that satisfied the most stringent criteria for good treatment. Various theoretical positions are examined for their fit with the established facts. A model of stuttering as a genetically determined reduction in central capacity for efficient sensory-motor integration is preferred, provided acquisition of secondary symptoms is attributed to instrumental learning.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Control of upper airway structures during nonspeech tasks in normal and cerebral-palsied subjects: EMG findings.

Electromyographic (EMG) recordings taken from 13 orofacial and mandibular muscles during a sequence of nonspeech movements were compared in six normal and six cerebral-palsied adult subjects. Abnormalities in the amplitude of muscle activity and timing of muscle control in the cerebral-palsied subjects were borne out in statistically significant differences between the two subject groups on five measures of muscle activity. The findings do not support hypotheses that weakness affects individual upper airway muscles in cerebral-palsied persons or that a pathological imbalance between positive and negative oral reactions is present in these subjects. A possible mechanism for hypertonicity in facial muscles in cerebral palsy is suggested, based on inappropriate activation patterns across muscles. The results are consistent with a previous proposal that a defect in the specification of motor commands and/or their communication to muscles is a fundamental abnormality in cerebral-palsied individuals which affects both speech and nonspeech motor control.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Role of laminin in epithelium formation by F9 aggregates.

The formation and maturation of the outer epithelial layer is essential for maximal alphafetoprotein (AFP) production during differentiation of F9 embryoid bodies in the presence of 5 X 10(-8) M retinoic acid (Grover et al., 1983. J. Cell Biol. 96:1690-1696). The critical phase is between the third and the fourth day when the components of the extracellular matrix organize into a basement membrane. The role of some of these components in the process of epithelium formation and maturation is analyzed in this paper. The role of laminin was investigated by testing the effect of exogenous laminin and antilaminin in cultures of differentiating F9 aggregates. Tests included growth rates, morphological changes, AFP production, determination of AFP mRNA levels, and fluorescent staining for basement membrane components and for epithelial markers. At concentrations greater than 5 micrograms/ml, exogenous laminin inhibited the production of AFP and prevented AFP gene transcription. On the basis of immunofluorescence tests, exogenous laminin appeared to act by preventing the accumulation of a basement membrane and by disrupting the organization of the outer layer into an epithelium. No such effects were produced by fibronectin or collagens type I or IV. Aggregates cultured in the presence of antilaminin also failed to organize an epithelium and did not produce AFP, whereas those in normal rabbit serum differentiated normally. Therefore, endogenous laminin plays a key role not only as a basement membrane structural component but also in organizing the epithelial layer of endoderm cells and hence (indirectly) in gene expression.

Animals↗
PubMed1983

Independence of mitral valve prolapse and neurosis.

An association has been claimed between mitral valve prolapse and the neuroses, especially the anxiety states, panic disorders, and agoraphobia. In this study 103 patients with echocardiographically confirmed mitral valve prolapse were tested with the Eysenck Personality Inventory for neuroticism and with the General Health Questionnaire for the presence of neurotic symptoms. The scores for neuroticism and neurotic symptoms were not significantly different from those of patients with other cardiac diseases or from those of patients presenting in primary care. In addition 50 patients with agoraphobia were screened by echocardiography for mitral valve prolapse, but no cases were detected. It appears that some of the earlier evidence for an association between mitral valve prolapse and neurosis may have been based on groups which were incorrectly diagnosed. It is concluded that mitral valve prolapse and neurosis are independent conditions.

Adult↗