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Biomedical subjects

J A Moses

Publications and source records attributed to J A Moses.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1991

Safety and tolerance of oral dextromethorphan in patients at risk for brain ischemia.

Experimental ischemia models have shown the antitussive dextromethorphan to be an N-methyl-D-aspartate antagonist with neuroprotective properties. We treated 10 patients with a history of recent stroke or transient ischemic attack with oral dextromethorphan (60 mg q.i.d.) for 3 weeks in a placebo-controlled, double-blind, crossover tolerance study. We documented no clinical evidence of toxicity attributable to dextromethorphan in this preliminary study.

Administration, Oral↗
PubMed1991

Evaluation of the diagnostic validity of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery Form II.

The present study evaluated the ability of Form II of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery (LNNB) to discriminate brain-impaired from neurologically normal subjects. Using discriminant analysis the battery was able to separate 55 impaired from 55 nonimpaired subjects matched for age and education at significant levels. The present data also confirm previous findings that age and education significantly affect performance of nonimpaired subjects. Sex was not found to be a factor influencing performance level on the LNNB, Form II. Directions for further research are suggested.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Correlates of rapid neuroleptic response in male patients with schizophrenia.

Correlates of neuroleptic response latency were assessed in 16 male schizophrenic inpatients during 4 weeks of fixed dose (20 mg/day) haloperidol treatment. Rapid responders showed a mean 40% reduction in Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) positive symptom scores by day 10 of treatment. Rapid responders had significantly lower plasma homovanillic acid (pHVA) concentrations compared to non-rapid responders during week 4 of haloperidol treatment. However, rapid versus non-rapid responders did not differ with respect to demographics, baseline positive or negative BPRS symptom scores, performance on tests of neuropsychological function, or mean plasma haloperidol concentrations.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Limitations of the Mini-Mental State Examination in predicting neuropsychological functioning in a psychiatric sample.

The present study examined the ability of the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), a cognitive screening test commonly employed in research and clinical applications, to predict level of performance on a comprehensive neuropsychological battery, the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery (LNNB). The tests were administered to a diagnostically mixed sample of 90 psychiatric inpatients. Correlations between the tests were statistically significant but modest and the MMSE was not able to detect many patients who demonstrated significant deficits on the LNNB. Additional correlational analyses between the MMSE and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised in a subset of patients (n = 72) also showed a modest relationship between these instruments. The results suggest that the MMSE may seriously underestimate cognitive impairment in samples exclusively composed of psychiatric patients, making it inappropriate to rely solely on this instrument to distinguish psychiatric patients with and without cognitive deficit.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

5-HIAA in cerebrospinal fluid and deficit schizophrenic characteristics.

Higher CSF 5-HIAA concentrations and lower CSF HVA concentrations have been associated with various measures of slowed motor behaviour and communication in schizophrenic patients. To derive a single, reliable measure of deficit characteristics in schizophrenic patients, we entered four items of the BPRS reflecting negative symptoms, a work history measure derived from the Strauss-Carpenter scale, and three subscale scores of the WAIS-R into a principal-components analysis to derive a single factor score. The CSF 5-HIAA concentrations were within the normal range of values, and correlated directly with this factor score, but CSF HVA concentrations were not associated with the deficit factor score. These findings add support to the hypothesis that brain serotonin function is associated with deficit schizophrenic characteristics.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Correlations between the MMPI and the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale in schizophrenic and schizoaffective patients.

Though self-report measures and clinician-based ratings are extensively used to document psychopathology, there has been little work examining the relationship between these different types of measurement techniques. The current work examined the relationship between the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) in patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. Correlations were calculated in an initial exploratory sample, and a set of relationships was selected for confirmation in a second sample. The BPRS items of hallucinatory behavior and tension significantly correlated with MMPI measures of psychoticism. BPRS measures of hostility correlated with scale 4 (Psychopathic Deviate) of the MMPI. BPRS and MMPI measures of depression also were related. In contrast, BPRS and MMPI measures thought to reflect negative symptoms were uncorrelated. These results offer behavioral validity for the use of the MMPI in schizophrenic samples and suggest that the two measures tap similar as well as separable symptom constructs thought to be common in schizophrenia.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Luria-Nebraska performance and symptomatology in unmedicated schizophrenic patients.

Recent attempts at subgrouping schizophrenia have emphasized negative symptoms (e.g., blunted affect, emotional withdrawal), and several works have suggested that patients with negative symptoms show greater cognitive deficits and structural brain abnormalities. However, many of these studies have relied on screening devices or single measures of neuropsychological performance. Accordingly, the present study used the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery (LNNB) in assessing 38 unmedicated inpatients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. The results found no relationship between LNNB performance and symptom ratings derived from clinical interviews using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale. The findings show that cognitive performance may be unrelated to symptomatology when a complex battery type test is used.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Serum phosphate and anxiety in major depression.

Serum inorganic phosphate was measured in 33 hospitalized patients with unipolar depression. As predicted, serum phosphate showed significant negative correlations with Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory scales sensitive to anxiety (Psychasthenia: -0.33) and somatic concern (Hypochondriasis: -0.51). This is consistent with previous observations of relative hypophosphatemia in patients with panic disorder. Clinical consequences of relative hypophosphatemia and the possible roles of hyperventilation or elevated peripheral catecholamines as mediators of this effect are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Factor structure of Benton's tests of visual retention, visual construction, and visual form discrimination.

The standard drawing and multiple-choice versions of the Benton Visual Retention Test (BVRT), the Visual Form Discrimination Test (VFDT), the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT), and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised Digit Span subtest were administered to a mixed sample of 97 psychiatric, neurologic, and control subjects. Factor analysis of the Benton test battery measures alone showed that the standard and multiple-choice BVRT protocols performed very similarly. Scoring of the standard BVRT for errors and number of correct items was shown to be statistically redundant for this sample. Possible simplification of standard BVRT scoring was suggested. Copying and immediate visual-memory skills emerged as separable factors on the standard BVRT. When the AVLT and Digit Span measures were factor analyzed with the Benton lest battery measures, however, simple factorial structure emerged only for the AVLT measures (one factor) and the BVRT copying measures that were grouped with the VFDT. A verbal mediation component was thought to be associated with the multifactorial BVRT and multiple-choice BVRT results in this analysis.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1983

The contribution of the right hemisphere to the organization of paragraphs.

Patients with unilateral right-hemisphere lesions performed significantly worse than normal controls in arranging the mixed-up sentences of stories. This impairment was not restricted to paragraphs conveying primarily spatial information, but occurred on other types of paragraphs as well. Nonspecific deficits of brain injury were ruled out as possible alternative explanations for the patients' difficulty on the task. The organization of language at the paragraph level may depend on right-hemisphere functioning.

Brain Damage, Chronic↗
PubMed1983

Reliability analyses of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery factor scales by diagnostic group: a follow-up study.

The 30 scales developed from scalewise factor analyses of the items of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery were subjected to internal consistency analyses by means of coefficient alpha for a mixed brain-damaged group and neurologically normal groups of alcoholic and schizophrenic or schizoaffective disorder patients. Thirty-seven per cent of the factor scales failed to reach a 0.70 coefficient alpha level for the mixed brain damaged group, but that figure was reduced to 23% with use of scales based on an orthogonal factor solution for the Receptive Speech scale. Further refinement of the internally consistent factor scales was recommended. Internal consistency values were too low for the factor scales with the alcoholic and psychotic samples to recommend their clinical use with these groups. Methodological issues in the derivation and application of the factor scales were discussed.

Alcoholism↗
PubMed1983

Reliability analyses of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery summary and localization scales by diagnostic group: a follow-up study.

Reliability analyses were computed for the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery (LNNB) summary and localization scales using coefficient alpha as a measure of internal consistency. Separate reliability analyses were carried out for a mixed group of brain-damaged patients and neurologically normal groups of psychotic (schizophrenic or schizoaffective disorder) and alcoholic patients. The basic LNNB summary scales appeared to have adequate internal consistency for the three groups sampled. The localization scales were internally consistent for the mixed brain-damaged group, but caution was urged in the use of these scales with the psychotic and alcoholic groups in clinical practice. Their further experimental development was encouraged. Use of ipsative comparison tables based on mixed psychiatric and brain-damaged patients were recommended for clinical use only with mixed brain-damaged patients.

Alcoholism↗
PubMed1983

Empirical evaluation of diagnostic rules for evaluation of Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery profiles of chronic schizophrenic, schizoaffective, and brain-damaged patients.

Various decision rules have been advanced for evaluation of brain dysfunction with the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery in a chronic schizophrenic or schizoaffective disorder psychotic population. The rules of Golden (1981a) produced the highest hit rate of 96% for identification of schizophrenics who had normal neurological examination findings as not brain damaged. Most of the psychotic profile decision rules, however, produced high false negative hit rates with known brain damaged cases. The critical level decision rules (Golden, Moses, Graber, & Berg, 1981) had the highest hit rate (76.7%) with the known brain-damaged sample. Optimal classification of diagnostic groups appeared to be facilitated by use of decision rules that were especially designed for the psychotic and brain-damaged groups, respectively.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Schizophrenic subgroups with normal and abnormal cognitive functioning on the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery.

A new set of decision rules for identification of brain dysfunction among schizophrenic or schizoaffective disorder patients were tested with the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery. In a sample of 100 patients from these categories with normal neurological examination findings, three groups of patients were identified. These patients respectively were identified as cognitively normal, borderline, or abnormal. These groups were subjected to a series of multivariate and univariate analyses that showed them to be associated with significantly different profiles on the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery. Different functional systems were postulated to account for the differences in impaired scores across normal, borderline, and abnormal cognitive functioning groups. Further research with external validation criteria was encouraged.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Reliability analyses of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery summary, localization, and factor scales.

Split-half reliability estimates previously reported for the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery (LNNB) summary scales have been uniformly high, but their magnitude depends upon the method of item grouping for the half-tests compared. Coefficient alpha was employed in the current study as it gives the mean of all possible split-half values. Alpha reliability coefficients for the LNNB summary and localization scales remained consistently high in current analyses. Alpha reliability coefficients for the LNNB factor scales were quite variable, but most scales have adequate preliminary values for research work and clinical hypothesis confirmation. Four of six receptive speech factor scales were found to be unreliable. Reexamination of their underlying factor structure was suggested.

Adult↗