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Biomedical subjects

J Gunn

Publications and source records attributed to J Gunn.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

Altered erythrocyte cation transport related to hypertension or oral contraception.

Intracellular cation concentrations (Nai, Ki), and the influx of Rb86 and of Na22 were measured in the erythrocytes of 22 normal women with no family history of hypertension, 16 women with untreated essential hypertension, and 14 normotensive women treated with hormonal contraceptives. Values for total Rb influx, and for its components denoting sodium pump activity (ouabain-sensitive) and Na, K co-transport (ouabain-resistant, frusemide-sensitive), were significantly greater in the hypertensive and contraceptive-treated groups than in the normal group. Na, K cotransport measured by Na influx (frusemide-sensitive) was found to be significantly increased in the contraceptive-treated but not the hypertensive group. Passive sodium diffusion (frusemide-resistant Na influx) and Ki did not differ significantly between groups. Nai was lower in the hypertensive group than in the other two groups. These findings support the hypothesis that hypertension or hormonal contraception are associated with increased leakage of K ions from erythrocytes, without a corresponding increase in passive Na influx: the change in cell membrane permeability is compensated for by increases in Na, K co-transport and sodium pump activity, adjusted to allow for altered differential permeability to K and Na ions.

Adult↗

Violence and psychosis. II--Effect of psychiatric diagnosis on conviction and sentencing of offenders.

An examination of the records of all sick and violent men remanded to a large English prison suggested a tendency among police to consider men to be exceptionally dangerous simply because of their mental illness. On further study, however, there was no evidence that the mentally ill were more vulnerable to detention without subsequent conviction than their normal peers. Remand was rarely followed by help for the mentally abnormal men studied; this is disturbing as requests for psychiatric help constitute an important reason for custodial remand. Less than a third of the men with active symptoms went to hospital, although some of the less disturbed received supervision (including probation) orders, occasionally with treatment. As there is evidence that most of the few mentally abnormal offenders who subsequently receive treatment benefit from it, psychiatrists should do more for offender patients.

Affective Disorders, Psychotic↗

Violence and psychosis. I. Risk of violence among psychotic men.

A survey of the records of 1241 men remanded in prison on criminal charges over four months yielded a high prevalence of psychiatric disorder. Of the total prison intake of 2743 men over the same period, 246 (9.0%) showed major symptoms of psychiatric illness and a further 237 (8.6%) symptoms of withdrawal from drugs or alcohol. Symptoms of neurotic disorders were underrecorded, so in terms of diagnosis 237 men (8.7%) were considered to be psychotic. Of these, 166 (70%) were schizophrenic. The influence of affective psychosis was small. The risk of violence among men with schizophrenia was high. Twenty five (9%) non-fatal personal assaults and 24 (21%) offences of damage to property were committed by men with schizophrenia. The presence of mental illness probably influences the decision to remand in custody for some of these offences, but this is unlikely to explain the substantially higher prevalence of schizophrenia among men convicted of homicide (five (11%) ) and arson (six (30%) ) than would be expected in the general population of Greater London (0.1-0.4%). The prevalence of schizophrenia among men convicted of homicide may even be an underestimate, as may the prevalence of affective psychosis and possibly of other psychiatric abnormalities, given the substantial incidence of concurrent suicide in such men.

Dangerous Behavior↗

Erotomania in males.

In anglophonic countries erotomania has traditionally been regarded as a female disorder of little more than curiosity value. The French literature recognizes the disorder in males, but as a rarity. In a recently collected group of violent male offenders the syndrome proved to be fairly common. The offending behaviour was invariably triggered by the core symptom. A description is provided of four cases whose level of aggression was low but appeared to be directly related to the firmness with which the delusion of being loved was held. The disorder of these men can be regarded as a variant of one of the major functional psychoses, but for the purposes of predicting behaviour and management there may be advantages in treating it as a syndrome in a similar taxonomic category as that of morbid jealousy.

Adult↗

Epileptic homocide: a case report.

This case report augments a paper published in 1971 (Gunn and Fenton) in which it was indicated that automatic behaviour is a rare explanation for the crimes of epileptic patients. It was claimed that although two possible "automatic" crimes were committed by two epileptic patients among the 46 male epileptics at Broadmoor there were no such crimes committed by any of the 158 male epileptic prisoners who came into a national sample. Since then it has become clear that one man serving life imprisonment, exluded from the epileptic prisoner sample in 1967 because of a doubt about his diagnosis, is definitely epileptic and probably killed his wife during an epileptic attack or its immediate sequela.

Epilepsy↗