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Biomedical subjects

J E Overall

Publications and source records attributed to J E Overall.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
PubMed1983

Factors affecting outcome of depressive symptoms in alcoholics.

Eighty-eight patients consecutively admitted to an alcohol treatment program were studied to determine the amount of depressive symptoms on entry to the program and after 4 weeks of treatment. The degree of symptoms was in turn related to various aspects of their drinking behavior. Twenty-two of the patients were classified as having moderate to marked depressive symptoms, 40 had mild symptoms, and 26 had no significant symptoms at the time of entry into the program. Factors in drinking behavior that best characterized those with moderate to marked symptoms were addiction, sleep disturbance, hangover incapacitation, loss of control, neurological signs, and organicity/toxicity. At the end of treatment, only four patients could actually be diagnosed as depressed, while 12 had mild residual symptoms and 72 no longer had significant symptoms. The one factor that clearly distinguished those patients with residual depressive symptoms was the use of drinking for social facilitation. For such individuals, bars and drinking were the focus of social life. The favorable course of depressive symptoms in alcoholics soon after they stop drinking suggests that they are more likely the consequence of drinking than the cause of it. The fact that patients who drink primarily to facilitate social aspects of their lives were the most likely to have residual symptoms suggests that treatment of such individuals should involve development of alternative mechanisms of social interaction.

Alcoholism↗
PubMed1983

A factor analysis of the informational concerns of adolescent cancer patients.

To acquire insights into the number and nature of different underlying concerns that motivated individual adolescent cancer patients' responses to health information items previously studied by Levenson and associates, exploratory factor analysis methodology was employed. Ten major aspects of the content domain emerged as important information needs of individual cancer patients: physical appearance, current treatment concerns, nonspecific cancer information, future outlook, familial implications, communication, health behavior, near-term expectations, teenage identification, and use of medications. Most factors failed to consistently relate to patient age, sex, race or diagnosis. Discussion focuses on the implications and suggested application of outcomes.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1982

Refinement of phenomenological classification in clinical psychopharmacology research.

A large clinical psychopharmacology data bank consisting of results from several hundred clinical drug trials was used to refine phenomenological classification concepts and methodology. Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) profiles for 2623 psychiatric patients from that data bank were analyzed to define prototypical patterns that are maximally representative of homogeneous subgroup within the drug treatment population. Prototype profiles and classification functions that can be used to accomplish similar classifications of future research subjects are presented. Placebo response rates and active drug response rates for subjects in the large data pool are compared across the eight phenomenological types. It is suggested that anxious and hostile subtypes of depressive disorder may be poor subjects in clinical drug trials because of the excessive placebo response rate. In contrast, withdrawn-disorganized thinking disturbance types tend to be poor subjects for trials of neuroleptic drugs because they respond poorly to both active drug and placebo.

Antidepressive Agents↗
PubMed1982

Alcohol-induced euphoria: alcoholics compared to nonalcoholics.

The affective responses of 24 alcoholics and 21 nonalcoholics were compared in a 2-hour free-drinking situation. At baseline the alcoholics were more dysphoric. During the drinking, the alcoholics reported no relief from the dysphoria but reported and displayed increases in positive mood. The magnitude of the positive affective response to alcohol was comparable in the two groups judged by most scales. The data offer little support for the hypothesis that alcoholics achieve a special euphoria from alcohol. Methodological problems in assessing alcohol-induced mood changes are reviewed.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

The significance of treatment effects across several independent studies.

Standardized means can be generated from the t, F or chi 2 statistic used to test the significance of treatment effects in each of several independent studies. An unweighted means ANOVA, calculated from the standardized means, provides tests of significance for the treatment main effect across studies and for the differences in magnitudes of the treatment effects between studies. The protection against Type I errors (false positive conclusions) afforded by the standardized means ANOVA is evaluated in a series of Monte Carlo simulations involving both equal and unequal sample sizes and error variances. A detailed illustration of the method is provided. The combining of information from multiple independent trials in clinical psychopharmacology research is illustrated with regard to problems of establishing the general equivalence of two drugs, as well as in providing a comprehensive conclusion concerning efficacy across several studies that may not appear uniformly positive.

Antipsychotic Agents↗
PubMed1981

Treatment validity of different diagnostic concepts of depression.

This study evaluated the comparative treatment validity of four different but overlapping sets of criteria for the diagnosis of depression: the St. Louis, New York, Texas Actuarial, and Composite criteria. Results revealed that none of the criteria offered predictive strength or demonstrated particular advantages over the others. Patients excluded by each of the various criteria tended to do as well as those included; a small percentage of patients included by each of the criteria were nonresponders to drug therapy. Once a clinical and psychometric diagnosis was established, then no additional (short-term) prognostic information was gained by further scrutiny with the various research diagnostic criteria examined.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Order of appearance of alcoholic symptoms.

An extensive alcoholism history questionnaire was administered individually to 102 alcoholics. The results were analyzed by averaging the mean age of first occurrence of each symptom for the whole group, and separately by focusing on the order of appearance within each individual subject. The results of these two approaches are presented and compared.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

Correlational structure of a new self-rating scale for psychiatric patients.

The Self-rating Psychiatric Inventory List (SPIL) is a newly developed patient self-rating scale. Factor analyses of the intercorrelations among the 88 self-rating variables of the SPIL revealed nine clinically meaningful dimensions of psychopathology to be measured by the instrument. A factor score profile sheet normed for the psychiatric population is presented.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

Phenomenological classification of depressive disorders.

Empirical cluster analysis methods have been the basis for development of a phenomenological classification of depressive disorders. Verbal descriptions of the distinguishing features of anxious, hostile, agitated, and retarded subtypes of depression are provided to facilitate development of clinical classification concepts. A review of some of the validity data is presented.

Antidepressive Agents, Tricyclic↗
PubMed1980

Research criteria for the diagnosis of depression.

Four sets of research criteria for depression are compared: the Feighner, Spitzer, Texas Actuarial, and Composite methods. Of 80 carefully selected depressed patients, 68% satisfied Feighner's criteria, 71% Spitzer's, 75% the Texas Actuarial, and 94% the Composite criteria. Not only did the criteria sets select different proportions of the total, but they also selected substantially different patients, suggesting that results obtained from studies using one set of criteria for diagnosis or selection might not be generalizable to other groups of "depressed" patients. The authors recommend further studies, comparing relative validity as well as reliability, of alternative research diagnostic criteria.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

Comparative evaluation of research diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia.

Criteria for establishing a diagnosis of schizophrenia have been proposed by several different authors. This study compared six different research diagnostic criteria (RDC) in a series of 166 patients who received a clinical diagnosis of schizophrenia in a multicenter study. The alternative criteria differed in the proportion of clinical diagnoses that were confirmed, with the Washington University (Feighner) criteria accepting only 26%. The criteria also disagreed concerning which particular patients qualified for the diagnosis. The Washington University and New York RDC disagreed 50% of the time, and some other disagreement rates were even higher. More evaluative research is needed before arbitrary criteria are permitted to redefine the concept of schizophrenia.

Computers↗