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Biomedical subjects

J Cutting

Publications and source records attributed to J Cutting.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1989

Schizophrenic inability to judge facial emotion: a controlled study.

The ability of schizophrenics to judge facial emotion was examined using a new test derived to remedy methodological inadequacies in previous studies. The derivation procedure of the test is described. Five groups of 20 subjects each took part: acute schizophrenics, chronic schizophrenics, schizophrenics in remission, in-patients with depressive illness and normal subjects. They were asked to make a dichotomous emotion judgement ('happy' or 'sad') about a set of photographed faces: and then to make a dichotomous non-emotion judgement ('old' or 'young') on a set of photographs chosen from the same original pool to form a task of equal difficulty and discriminating ability. It was predicted, from previous studies, that acute schizophrenics would be specifically impaired on judging emotional expression in faces. Instead, they were found to be impaired on both an emotion and a non-emotion task on photographs of faces when these tasks were matched for difficulty and discriminating ability. They were significantly worse than remitted schizophrenics and normal subjects for both tasks, and for emotion, significantly worse then depressed subjects as well. The findings are considered in the light of current theories of visual processing in schizophrenia and of the neuropsychology of face processing.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Schizophrenic thought disorder. A psychological and organic interpretation.

It is suggested that schizophrenic thought disorder comprises four relatively independent components: delusion; intrinsic thinking disturbance; formal thought disorder; and deficient real-world knowledge--a new concept. Schizophrenic and neurotic control subjects were given tests of thinking, perception, appreciation of conversational discourse, and social and practical knowledge. Not all deluded schizophrenics had intrinsic thinking disturbance. Those that did tended to have overinclusive categorisation as the most apparent deficit. Formal thought disorder was associated with a poor performance on the test of conversational discourse. The most striking result was that 75% of schizophrenic patients were markedly deficient, relative to neurotic patients, on their knowledge of everyday social issues.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

The nature of overinclusive thinking in schizophrenia.

Schizophrenics were compared with neurotic controls on four tests of categorical thinking in an attempt to discover the nature of overinclusive thinking. The tests provided both verbal and nonverbal measures of conceptual loosening, the proportion of out-of-category items, distortion of the internal structure of a category and any tendency towards overcategorization. The results showed that schizophrenics were relatively worse on nonverbal than on verbal categories with, in particular, a greater degree of conceptual loosening and a tendency towards overcategorization. The most striking abnormality emerged during observation of the actual sorting strategy itself. Schizophrenics tackled the task in a way which suggests that they lack the ability to form a Gestalt of the task.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

The phenomenology of acute organic psychosis. Comparison with acute schizophrenia.

The psychopathology of acute organic psychosis was investigated by interviewing 74 patients using the Present State Examination (PSE). Their delusions, perceptual disturbance, thought disorder, and emotional disorder were categorised and then compared with those seen in 74 acute schizophrenics. In acute organic psychosis there was a particular pattern to the delusions, perceptual disturbance, and thought disorder, which was quite unlike that seen in acute schizophrenia. These results have implications for theories claiming that schizophrenia is an organic psychosis. It is suggested that the psychopathology in acute organic psychosis has very different origins from that seen in schizophrenia.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1986

Personality and psychosis: use of the Standardized Assessment of Personality.

The Standardized Assessment of Personality, a semistructured interview for use with an informant, was used with a relative or a close friend to determine the premorbid personality of 100 consecutive patients admitted with major psychiatric disorders - major affective disorders (18 manics, 35 depressives), schizophrenia (28) and other functional psychoses (19). Forty-four per cent of the entire sample had an abnormal personality as defined by the presence of one of 10 prominent traits to a marked degree. A further 6% had the same traits to a lesser degree. The proportion of patients with an abnormal personality (all types) was comparable across the four diagnostic groups (manics 39%, depressives 54%, schizophrenics 39%, other functional psychotics 37%). However, if one included all traits (marked and mild), patients with an affective disorder had more between them than did the non-affective groups. This difference was largely accounted for by cyclothymic, anxious and obsessional traits. The schizophrenics and other functional psychotics had surprisingly few prominent traits and, in particular, a schizoid personality rarely preceded a schizophrenic illness.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

The nature of the abnormal perceptual experiences at the onset of schizophrenia.

Sixty schizophrenics and 40 depressives in remission from the floridly psychotic phase were given a semi-structured interview concerning their abnormal perceptual experiences at the onset of their illness. About 50% of each set of subjects had experienced an alteration in the quality of their perception. However, there was a fairly characteristic pattern in each case: emotional tainting of the world around, a sense of unreality and noise sensitivity in depression; and an indefinable, qualitative change in visual perception, particularly affecting the way colours, people, space and facial expression were viewed, in schizophrenia. Of the various theories which have been put forward to explain perceptual change in schizophrenia, a breakdown in gestalt appeared to explain these findings best.

Auditory Perceptual Disorders↗
PubMed1982

Picture perception and abstract thought in schizophrenia.

Acute schizophrenics were compared with depressed, normal and brain-damaged subjects on their ability to appreciate a meaningful picture. Their responses were measured for level of abstraction (how well the theme was conveyed), for strategy (whether details were reported before or after a global interpretation) and for appropriateness of content. Schizophrenics were less abstract than normals, more abstract than brain-damaged subjects, but no different from depressives on this measure. Their strategy was different from normals but comparable with that of depressives. The majority of schizophrenics gave inappropriate responses. It is suggested that meaningful picture interpretation might be a useful tool for evaluating the distortion of meaning which characterizes schizophrenia.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1982

The appreciation of imagery by schizophrenics: an interpretation of Goldstein's impairment of the abstract attitude.

Three experiments are reported in which schizophrenics are compared with other psychiatric patients on (i) the imagery value of words in their speech, (ii) their memory for words differing in imagery value, and (iii) their ability to distinguish the imagery value of two words. The study was designed to evaluate a neglected interpretation of Goldstein's ideas that schizophrenics are more concrete, in that their 'action is determined by momentary sense impressions'. The results gave no support for this interpretation and it is suggested that an abnormal way of categorizing the world is more likely to be a useful way of formulating Goldstein's ideas.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Response bias in Korsakoff's syndrome.

The contribution of response bias to the amnesia of Korsakoff's syndrome was studied. Ten Korsakoff patients and ten alcoholic controls were asked for confidence ratings in a recognition memory task. Parametric signal detection measures (d', Cx) were considered appropriate. Korsakoff subjects displayed a more cautious response bias to patterns than did alcoholics.

Alcohol Amnestic Disorder↗
PubMed1981

Judgement of emotional expression in schizophrenics.

Acute schizophrenics, chronic schizophrenics, psychiatric controls and patients with a depressive illness were asked to judge which of two faces in photographs was the more friendly. Acute schizophrenics disagreed significantly with the other three groups of subjects whilst agreeing with them on a control task of perceptual judgement involving colours. In a second experiment a new group of acute schizophrenics disagreed with remitted psychotics and psychotic depressives in judging friendliness and meanness but agreed with these control groups in judging age of the faces. The findings are presented as a potentially fruitful area for research on psychological deficits in schizophrenia.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1980

Unmodified ECT.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Electroconvulsive Therapy↗
PubMed1980

Physical illness and psychosis.

One hundred psychotic patients referred to a consultation service in a general hospital were compared with 50 psychotic patients without physical illness in a psychiatric unit. Background, mental and cognitive state were evaluated. In addition to providing a list of likely causes of cerebral dysfunction in such a sample, the study revealed an increased incidence of prior depression in those with cerebral dysfunction, and identified a group where psychosocial factors appeared more significant than cerebral dysfunction in determining the psychosis. The various ways in which a psychosis can be associated with a physical condition, and the various forms that it can take even when cerebral dysfunction is present, are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

Differential impairment of memory in Korsakoff's syndrome.

Groups of Korsakoff, alcoholic and non-alcoholic subjects were given picture-recognition memory (patterns and objects) and verbal learning tasks. Korsakoff subjects were impaired relative to the two control groups on verbal learning and object-picture memory; on pattern memory Korsakoff and alcoholic subjects were comparable but both were inferior to non-alcoholics. These findings gave some support to the idea (Butters and Cermak, 1976) that visuo-spatial functions (represented here by pattern memory) are impaired through chronic alcoholism whilst the development of Korsakoff's syndrome induces an additional impairment in semantic processing of information (represented here by verbal learning and object-picture memory).

Adult↗
PubMed1979

The neuropsychiatric disorder in systemic lupus erythematosus: evidence for both vascular and immune mechanisms.

As part of a prospective survey of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) a detailed collaborative study of the clinical, psychiatric, and laboratory features in 15 patients with nonfocal neuropsychiatric disease has been undertaken. In addition to conventional clinical and psychometric evaluation, electroencephalograph, and cerebrospinal fluid analysis, the study included the assessment of cerebral blood flow with oxygen-15 brain scans and serological testing for the presence of antineuronal and lymphocytotoxic antibodies. Of the 15 patients 12 had psychiatric manifestations, while 13 had various neurological abnormalities. All except 2 episodes of cerebral disease were transient. Striking abnormalities in cerebral blood flow and metabolism were seen in 12 patients, even in the presence of subtle clinical features. Sequential scans showed that improvement in clinical features was accompanied by a reversal of scan abnormalities. All sera contained brain-reactive antibody, either antineuronal IgG antibody (13) or lymphocytotoxic IgM antibody (12) or both (10), though there was an inconsistent association between clinical features and antibody titre. It is suggested that transient disturbances of cerebral vascular function in SLE might allow brain-reactive antibodies from the circulation access to cerebral tissue. In this way the nature of the neuropsychiatric abnormalities would depend on both vascular and immunopathogenic mechanisms.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

Memory in functional psychosis.

Acute schizophrenic, chronic schizophrenic, and depressive patients (20 of each) were compared with normal subjects and six groups of patients with organic brain disease. They were given tests of verbal learning (left hemisphere type function) and pattern recognition memory (right hemisphere type function). All functional psychotics showed impaired memory. Acute schizophrenics were, however, only impaired on the verbal task, suggesting left hemisphere dysfunction, while chronic schizophrenics and depressives were impaired on both tasks, suggesting bilateral dysfunction.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

A cognitive approach to Korsakoff's syndrome.

Ten Korsakoff and ten alcoholic subjects were compared on their ability to take advantage of meaningful and linguistic factors in five verbal memory experiments. Korsakoff subjects were deficient in the use of visual imagery, in remembering random letters and in learning relatively easy paired-associates; there was a suggestion that they did not benefit from variation in word class. The effect of word frequency, the ability to remember very easy paired-associates, and possibly the effect of pronounceability were preserved. These findings were interpreted as supporting a model which emphasised the disruption of some higher cognitive structure whilst leaving intact simpler memory functions.

Adult↗