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Biomedical subjects

J Birtchnell

Publications and source records attributed to J Birtchnell.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

The negative relating of depressed patients: a new approach.

A new instrument, the Person's Relating to Others Questionnaire (PROQ), based upon a circular ordering of eight modes of relating, constructed around the two dimensions of Closeness-Distance and Upperness-Lowerness, is used to measure the negative and positive relating of depressed patients. It is shown that patients, compared with population subjects, score significantly higher on Negative Closeness, Distance and Lowerness, but that population subjects score significantly higher on Positive Upperness. There is suggestive evidence that the negative scores of patients who fully recover return to the levels of population subjects, indicating that negative relating is part of the depressive state.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Further exploration of the relationship between depression and dependence.

Two instruments, the Self Rating Questionnaire and the Interpersonal Dependency Inventory, were used to examine further the relationship between dependence and depression. Dependence scores on both measures correlated highly with scores on measures of neuroticism, self-esteem, depressive cognition and depression. Dependence scores were significantly higher in samples of depressed subjects than in samples of non-depressed subjects. The scores of depressives who fully recovered dropped, but those of depressives who remained depressed or who only partially recovered remained high. In non-depressed subjects there was no relationship between dependence and gender. There was no support for the use of subscales of dependence.

Defense Mechanisms↗
PubMed1991

Negative modes of relating, marital quality and depression.

Young married couples, with or without a depressed wife, were divided into three groups according to marital quality. Negative modes of relating were assessed by self-rating and partner-rating questionnaires. The intercorrelation of scores for different modes of relating was higher on partner-rating than on self-rating scales. There was a significant gradient of mean negative-relating scores across the three levels of marital quality. The partner-ratings of depressives and their husbands were higher on all negative-relating scales than those of non-depressed women and their husbands. The self-ratings of the depressives corresponded with these negative ratings while those of their husbands did not. The partner-rating scores differentiated between the depressives with poor marriages and those with better marriages.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Poverty and depression.

Depression is often associated with financial difficulties. Helping to resolve money problems may be an important factor in treating depression.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Is living in a slab block depressing?

The level of depression in 25 to 34-year-old, married women was assessed in relation to type of accommodation. The highest depression ratings were in women living in slab blocks and the lowest were in those living in brick houses in conventional streets.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Defining dependence.

The need to define dependence arises out of accumulating evidence that it contributes to depression-proneness. Its accurate definition is therefore a prerequisite for the development of valid methods of measuring it. Because dependence is more a feature of childhood than of adulthood, a dependent person may usefully be viewed as an adult behaving as though he were a child. Dependence is best understood therefore in terms of those developmental deficiencies from which it results. These are failure to separate successfully from the principal parent figure and from the family as a whole, failure to establish a secure personal identity, failure to acquire a general feeling of competence and a realistic assessment of self-worth and failure to feel deserving of the status of adult and to feel on equal terms with other adults. Consequently, adult dependence is characterized by the need to stay close to others, the inclination to be primarily the recipient in interpersonal transactions and the tendency to relate to others from a position of inferiority and humility. The dependent person receives from others a borrowed identity, guidance and direction, compensation for those areas in which he is incompetent and, most important of all, acceptance, approval and affirmation of worth.

Dependency, Psychological↗
PubMed1988

The total score of the Crown-Crisp Experiential Index: a useful and valid measure of psychoneurotic pathology.

The Crown-Crisp Experiential Index (CCEI) was designed as a measure of neurotic symptomatology. The tendency has been to report upon its six separate scales and to ignore the total score. We report on the use of the CCEI in a detailed interview study of 208 40-49-year-old women from a local community and 40 patients of the same age range and sex from a psychiatric hospital. In this study, scores on the six scales of the CCEI were shown to be highly intercorrelated. A case is made for combining the six scale scores to form an overall score of neurotic pathology. This score was validated against a number of variables. It was shown to be significantly related to psychiatric patient status, negative self-evaluation, level of severity of current symptoms, evidence of previous psychiatric episodes, previous psychiatric treatment and psychiatric symptoms in childhood. These validation variables were themselves intercorrelated but severity of current symptoms, self-evaluation and childhood symptoms had significant independent effects. It is concluded that scores on the six scales of the CCEI may be less important than the total score which provides a useful and valid measure of psychoneurotic pathology and has particular application as a screening instrument in community surveys.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Depression and the physical environment. A study of young married women on a London housing estate.

A depression-screening instrument (DSI) was administered to all 25-34-year-old, British-born, married women registered with a health centre on a south-east London housing estate. A disproportionate number of high scorers lived in those dwellings with the highest disadvantagement score. The dwelling interiors of the high DSI scorers were significantly poorer in appearance compared with those of the low scorers. Significantly more of the high scorers (and of their husbands) described the estate as unpleasant, and bad for their children. They raised significantly more objections to other residents' (including children's) behaviour. Their complaints were only partly explicable in terms of their less favourable accommodation.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Depression and family relationships. A study of young, married women on a London housing estate.

The study was carried out on 25-34-year-old, British-born, married women, living on a south-east London housing estate. The reported early and current family relationships of 50 depressed and 40 non-depressed women were compared. Significantly more of the depressed women reported a poor early relationship with their mothers, but not with their fathers. This finding was confirmed by corresponding low care and high overprotection scores (for mothers only) on the Parental Bonding Instrument. On the basis of what the women and their husbands said, the marriages of the depressed women were rated as much poorer. This was confirmed by the women's and their husbands' scores on a Partner Rating Questionnaire and the Ryle-Scott-Heyes Marital Patterns Questionnaire. The depressed women reported a poorer current relationship with their mothers and a much poorer relationship with their husbands' mothers and fathers. Significantly more depressed women reported four or more poor family relationships.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Attachment-detachment, directiveness-receptiveness: a system for classifying interpersonal attitudes and behaviour.

A system of describing attitudes towards others and ways of relating to others is presented. The system is constructed around two dimensions, the one concerned with closeness vs. separateness, the other concerned with dominance vs. submissiveness. Each dimension has two extreme positions and each of these incorporates a range of attitudes and types of behaviour which are systematically described. The two extremes of the closeness-separateness dimension are attachment and detachment. Attachment is a need for proximity and a fear of being alone. Detachment is a need to remain distant and a fear of closeness. The two extremes of the dominance-submissiveness dimension are directiveness and receptiveness. Directiveness is an inclination for giving or doing things to others. It is characterized by a fear of being controlled or taken over. Receptiveness is an inclination to assume a recipient attitude towards others and is characterized by a fear of assuming responsibility. This system lends itself to the development of measures which place an individual on each of the two dimensions. It also provides a conceptual framework within which to frame hypotheses which will have relevance both to clinicians and to researchers. An important consideration is the effect which a person occupying a particular position within the system has upon the attitude and behaviour of others.

Attitude↗
PubMed1986

Psychiatric disorders in marriage.

In marriage, whatever happens to one partner inevitably has its effect upon the other. Sometimes, when one overbalances the other partner is brought down also. At other times it is as though one is able to stay upright at the expense of the other remaining down.

Agoraphobia↗
PubMed1978

Early parent death and the clinical scales of the MMPI.

There is growing evidence that early parent death can affect the severity of adult depressive illness. It was anticipated, therefore, that early-bereaved depressed patients might score higher on certain MMPI clinical scales than non-bereaved, depressed controls matched for age and sex. This is shown to be the case, the most affected scales being Hypochondriasis and Paranoia. Hypochondriasis is shown to be more strongly associated with early father death, while Paranoia is associated equally with mother and father death. There is some suggestion that early mother death is also associated with elevation of the F score. Early parent death is shown to have no effect upon the MMPI scores of non-depressed patients.

Adult↗
PubMed1977

Seriousness of suicide attempt in relation to personality.

From a sample of psychiatric referrals who had completed the MMPI the following three groups, matched for age and sex, were derived: 42 patients with a history of a serious suicide attempt, 42 patients with a history of a non-serious attempt, and 126 patients who had neither attempted nor contemplated suicide. Non-serious suicide attempters were shown to be the most deviant group and differed to a significant extent from each of the other two groups on the Dependency, Hostility and Unconventionality scales. Male non-serious attempters showed the most disturbed personality profile. This implies that there is, for males, a higher personality threshold for making a non-serious attempt, which may account for the fact that suicide attempts, most of which are non-serious, are commoner among females.

Female↗