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Biomedical subjects

J K Murphy

Publications and source records attributed to J K Murphy.

48 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1989

Race and gender influence ambulatory blood pressure patterns of adolescents.

The purpose of this study was to examine ambulatory blood pressure and heart rate patterns in healthy, normotensive adolescents and to determine the influence of race and gender on these patterns. Ambulatory blood pressure recordings were performed on 199 adolescents; 42 were black males, 55 were white males, 65 were black females, and 37 were white females. The mean age (+/- SD) was 13 +/- 2 years. Blood pressure readings were obtained with an automatic, noninvasive recorder. Black adolescents and white adolescents had similar blood pressures while awake (116/69 vs. 116/69 mm Hg), with boys having higher levels of systolic blood pressure (118 vs. 114 mm Hg) and comparable levels of diastolic blood pressure (69 vs. 69 mm Hg) relative to girls. The patterns while the adolescents were asleep, however, were different. White boys (106 mm Hg), white girls (105 mm Hg), and black girls (105 mm Hg) had similar systolic blood pressures during sleep. Black boys (112 mm Hg), however, had significantly higher systolic blood pressures while asleep. Black adolescents, as a group, had significantly higher diastolic blood pressures than white adolescents while asleep (64 vs. 61 mm Hg). Changes in blood pressure from awake to asleep were not related to changes in heart rate. Results of this study indicate that both race and gender are important determinants of the diurnal pattern of blood pressure and heart rate in adolescents.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Doxepin as an adjunct to smoking cessation: a double-blind pilot study.

In a double-blind study, 19 adults received bedtime doses of either 150 mg of doxepin hydrochloride (N = 9) or placebo (N = 10). After 3 weeks the subjects were instructed to stop smoking and continue taking medication for 4 additional weeks. Cessation was reported by all nine doxepin subjects 1 week after cessation and by seven doxepin subjects 9 weeks after cessation. One placebo subject reported cessation. Cotinine assays generally confirmed cessation but were subject to interpretation. Doxepin assays suggested that the precessation level was associated with cessation. Further studies with larger samples and extended follow-up are needed to determine the reliability of these results.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Race and cardiovascular reactivity. A replication.

In a previous study, we reported that black children demonstrated greater cardiovascular reactivity than did white children to the psychological stress of a television video game. Reliance on urban volunteers and the wide age range of the children may have limited conclusions concerning the generalizability of those results. In the present study, 481 of 484 children enrolled in the third grade of the public schools of an entire rural county in Tennessee were examined with the same video game procedure used previously. Results indicated greater heart rate and blood pressure reactivity among black children than among white children. Thus, the previous results were replicated. The greater prevalence of hypertension among black adults may relate to the greater reactivity among black children; reactivity may be either a marker or a mechanism in the development of hypertension.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1988

Physical fitness in children: a survey method based on parental report.

In the present study of 213 healthy children, the relation between parental reports of activity level and laboratory-determined physical fitness was examined. Results indicated that parental reports of activity level were associated with fitness for the entire sample. The association was most consistent among White children who resided in a household that was headed by their father.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

Chronic pain: an investigation of assessment instruments.

The present study investigated professional perceptions of utility and the actual predictive validity of the MMPI and the Millon Behavioral Health Inventory (MBHI) in a sample of chronic pain patients. Overall results indicated statistical preference for the MBHI on nine of the ten dimensions of clinical utility. In addition, patient prognosis was rated as more favorable based upon the MBHI report. The differences noted between raters of different professional capacities were hypothesized to reflect differences in familiarity with assessing pain patients from a psychological perspective. However, over the course of a one year follow-up, neither instrument significantly predicted such behaviors as hospital usage, medication usage or general status. Rather, the psychologists who wrote the original consultations (which were not rated for utility) were more accurate than either the MMPI or the MBHI in predicting these health related behaviors.

Chronic Disease↗
PubMed1986

Race and cardiovascular reactivity. A neglected relationship.

The magnitude of the cardiovascular response to stress has been implicated in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease. Psychological stress procedures have received increased usage as an alternative to expensive physical (exercise) stress procedures. In the present investigation, 213 healthy, black or white, male or female children between the ages of 6 and 18 years were exposed to the psychological stress of a video game. The video game challenge was administered by a black or a white experimenter and was played under three levels of increasing stress, 1) personal challenge, 2) experimenter's challenge, and 3) experimenter's challenge accompanied by a financial incentive, while blood pressure and heart rate were monitored. Results indicated that the video games provoked significant and incremental cardiovascular reactivity across the games. Black children demonstrated significantly greater reactivity than white children; the racial difference was more reliably observed for systolic and diastolic blood pressure than for heart rate. Furthermore, the race of the experimenter exerted a significant effect and often interacted with the race of the child, such that greater reactivity occurred in same-race pairings than in mixed-race pairings. These results suggest that reactivity is affected by an individual's race and social milieu and that reactivity may be one mechanism responsible for the greater prevalence of hypertension among blacks.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1982

A case study reportedly involving possession.

The following case report documents the efficacy of a behavioral intervention in the case of a reportedly possessed adolescent female. The intervention used was the differential reinforcement of other behavior which involved monetary and social reinforcement for appropriate behaviors and inattention to inappropriate and unusual behaviors, i.e. the incidents of possession behavior. The procedure was formalized in a contingency contract. The entire intervention was successfully implemented by the subject's great-grandmother.

Behavior Therapy↗
PubMed1977

Effect of surveillance on the number of hysterectomies in the province of Saskatchewan.

In 1972 the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan appointed a committee to study hysterectomies because the Saskatchewan Department of Health had data showing that the annual number of hysterectomies carried out in the province had increased by 72.1 per cent between 1964 and 1971, whereas the number of women over 15 years of age had increased by 7.6 per cent. The committee compiled a list of indications for hysterectomy. Any hysterectomy carried out for one of these reasons was classified as justified, and the remainder as unjustified. Five hospitals were reviewed in 1970 and a further two in 1973. In 1974, all seven hospitals were reviewed again. In these hospitals, the average proportion of unjustified hysterectomies had dropped from 23.7 per cent at the time of the first review to 7.8 per cent in 1974. The total number of hysterectomies in the province dropped by 32.8 per cent between 1970 and 1974.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Modernization in the Samoas and children's reactivity: a pilot study.

This investigation studied the potential effects of societal modernization on Samoan children's blood pressure and heart rate reactivity to a standardized television video game procedure. Ethnic Samoan children were sampled from Western Samoa (N = 72), a relatively underdeveloped country with a largely agricultural economy, and American Samoa (N = 70), a territory of the United States that has undergone substantial modernization due to recent economic aid. Results indicated that Western Samoans demonstrated significantly greater systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and heart rate reactivity than American Samoans. These data, in conjunction with previous data, suggest that the hemodynamic effects of an acute stressor are inversely associated with societal modernization and an individual's adoption of a lifestyle reflecting integration into a modernized society. Further work is needed to examine the implications of this hypothesis and the associations among concrete measures of modernization and children's cardiovascular risk.

Adolescent↗