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Biomedical subjects

J Himmelhoch

Publications and source records attributed to J Himmelhoch.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

Fluoxetine treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Fluoxetine hydrochloride, a new antidepressant, was administered to 10 obsessive-compulsive patients, and the effects of treatment were examined in a single-blind placebo design. The effects of fluoxetine were examined with respect to depressive symptomatology and obsessions and compulsions per se. The results suggest that fluoxetine affected depressive symptoms but also had an effect on self-reported measures of obsessions and ritualistic behavior. Results are discussed in terms of improvement in obsessive-compulsive disorder, the relation of improvement to initial levels of depression, and patients' ability to tolerate the drug.

Adult

Social skills training compared with pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy in the treatment of unipolar depression.

The authors contrasted four treatments for unipolar (nonpsychotic) depression: 1) amitriptyline, 2) social skills training plus amitriptyline, 3) social skills training plus placebo, and 4) psychotherapy plus placebo. They studied 72 female outpatients, 52 of whom completed the 12 weeks of treatment. The four treatments, conducted by experienced clinicians, were not substantially different from one another. Each treatment produced significant and clinically meaningful changes in symptomatology and social functioning. However, the authors identified several notable differences across groups: a significant difference in dropout rates (from a high of 55.6% for the amitriptyline group to a low of 15% for the social skills plus placebo group) and a significant difference in the proportion of patients who were substantially improved. The social skills plus placebo treatment was the most effective treatment on this dimension.

Adult

Trazodone.

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Cardiovascular Diseases

Social anxiety and psychiatric diagnosis.

Difficulties in interpersonal relationships are common complaints of psychiatric patients, and some investigators have contended that a lack of social skills, excessive social anxiety, and interpersonal problems are important causes of psychiatric disorders. To investigate further the relationship between social anxiety and psychiatric disorders, a survey of outpatients (N = 303) and untreated controls (N = 216) was conducted using measures of social anxiety, self-consciousness, general anxiety, and depression. Schizophrenics, secondary depressives, and nonpsychotic patients in individual and group psychotherapy characterized themselves as most shy in the diagnostically mixed patient group. Patients with primary effective disorders and family therapy patients were less socially anxious and resembled the control group in this respect. The single best predictor of status as a patient vs. status as a control was level of depression as determined by a stepwise discriminant function analysis. The relationship between social anxiety and secondary depression deserves additional attention in order to assess the possible causal links between this variables.

Adult

Sleep EEG and motor activity as indicators in affective states.

This report reviews a number of studies which support our current classification schema for affective disorders. This classification differentiates between an anxious-hyperactive type and an anergic-hypoactive type which are then further subdivided into primary and secondary affective disorders. While the motor and activity measurements are for the most part limited to patients suffering from primary affective disease, current studies under way indicate that secondary affective disorders may also have characteristic biologic changes. EEG sleep and motor activity parameters provide useful pointers for differential diagnosis and treatment while having the added advantage of diminishing the clinician's almost exclusive dependency on amnestic data and the psychological observations made on the patient's behavior.

Adjustment Disorders