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Biomedical subjects

J Kroll

Publications and source records attributed to J Kroll.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1982

Are there borderlines in Britain? A cross-validation of US findings.

This study extends the series of investigations of the borderline concept to a British inpatient population. It compares patient's ratings and diagnoses according to DSM-III, the international Classification of Diseases, ninth version (ICD-9), Gunderson's Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines (DIB), and Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory data. A subpopulation of British inpatients was identified by DIB and DSM-III borderline criteria. All were given ICD-9 personality disorder diagnoses by their British consulting psychiatrists. The date support the concept of borderline personality disorder in the sense that there is a significant level of agreement between the DIB and DSM-III diagnoses, but the clinical and psychometric differentiation of borderline from other types of personality disorders, as well as the interrelationship between the borderline personality disorder and a concomitant depressive state, remain to be demonstrated before the validity of the borderline concept is established.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1982

Visions and psychopathology in the Middle Ages.

Descriptions of visionary experience from written medieval sources are examined from a cross-cultural perspective. The mental states of the persons having the visions range from terminal illnesses, states of starvation, stress-related syndromes, dreams and hypnagogic states, and seemingly unremarkable mental states. Although a few of the visions elicited some skepticism on the part of contemporaries, most reports of visions were accepted at face value as bona fide visions, with no discernible differentiation between starvation visions, dreams, deliria of illnesses, and possible mental illness. Only four of the visions appeared causally related, by today's standards, to mentally illnesses. These persons were not recognized as mentally ill by their contemporaries. Since there was a recognition of mental illness in the Middle Ages, it would appear that such recognition was based on symptoms other than visions or hallucinations. It is also possible that hallucinations, as culturally supported phenomena, were not as available as forms of expression of psychoses in the Middle Ages as they are today. Such a possibility has interesting implications regarding the role of a culture in shaping the forms by which mental illnesses are expressed, recognized, and labeled.

Alcoholism↗
PubMed1981

Borderline personality disorder: interrater reliability of the diagnostic interview for borderlines.

Three interviewers, working in pairs and using the Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines (DIB), interviewed three samples of 10 adult psychiatric inpatients. The two members of each interviewer pair alternated in the role of interviewer. Each member of the interviewer pairs completed the interview schedule and scored the protocol according to the instructions provided by the authors of the DIB. Interrater reliability was determined for each interviewer pair using the Kappa statistic. Reliability values were at about the level reported recently by Spitzer, Forman, and Nee (1979) for DSM-III axis I diagnoses in general. Additional statistical analyses were performed to determine whether there were patient sex differences on DIB scores, whether the two male interviewers differed from the female interviewer in their ratings of male or female patients, and whether experience differences among the three interviewers were reflected in their rating of patients. Among the latter analyses, the only significant finding was that in the interviewer pair consisting of a very experienced male psychiatrist and a male first year psychology graduate student, the former rated male patients as less borderline than did the latter. No other difference was found among raters, or between sex of patient and interviewer sex or amount of clinical experience. It was concluded that the DIB is sufficiently reliable for use in clinical research.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1981

In-patient community meetings: problems and purposes.

The role of the in-patient community meeting is discussed in relation to the general difficulty of attributing specific effectiveness to any type of therapeutic activity on an in-patient service. Close scrutiny of such units demonstrates that staff and patients are composed of several heterogeneous subgroups, not all of whom share common attitudes and values or benefit from similar activities. Within this framework the major problems as well as functions of the community meeting are discussed. Specific questions which await investigation with clinical research are elaborated.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1979

Philosophical foundations of French and U.S. nosology.

The author examines the philosophical foundations of French and American nosology with a view toward understanding the relatively minor influence of French psychiatry in America. Despite the excellence of its descriptive psychiatry, much of French nosological writing is based on philosophical viewpoints that are antithetical to the empirical and pragmatic traditions of American psychiatry. French nosology, which is closely involved with the metaphysical issues of existentialism, phenomenalism, and structuralism, reveals these interests in language and concepts that do not easily permit its hypotheses to be scientifically tested, a prerequisite for any American classification.

France↗
PubMed1978

Quantitation of proteins by densitometric scanning of immunoelectrophoretic precipitates.

Densitometric scanning of stained immunoelectrophoretic precipitates of nine human serum proteins showed that the optical density of the precipitates is approximately proportional to the molar concentration of antigen in the sample. Deviations from this correlation were noted for the macroglobulins (mol. wt. greater than 15 x 10(4)). The resolving capacity of the line immunoelectrophoretic procedure permits densitometric valuations of composite patterns.

Blood Proteins↗
PubMed1978

Violence and mental illness in a peasant society: characteristics of violent behaviours and 'Folk' use of restraints.

Thirty-five people labelled as baa (crazy or insane) were studied in Laos--a country without psychiatrists or psychiatric institutions. Informant information was obtained for violence prior to becoming baa, violence during the course of their baa condition, and violence during the seven days prior to interview. Observation for violence was made for a one day period at the time of the interview. Use of restraints was also assessed. Subjects were significantly more apt to have assaulted others, posed a risk to themselves, and been restrained (although not incarcerated) during their baa condition as compared to their previous state. Those in early stages of their condition (two years or less) manifested more violence than those later in their condition. 'Folk' use of restraints was applied only after dangerous or violent behaviour had occurred. Restraints were released as soon as practicable, but there was an 'ascending' use of certain restraint measures if violence persisted.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

The concept of childhood in the middle ages.

The question is raised of whether the Middle Ages held a view of the nature of childhood as distinct from adulthood. Evidence is offered from legal documents, medical writings, and church and monastic chronicles to support the viewpoint that the special nature of the child was perceived (although with great ambivalence) as being fragile, vulnerable, and naive, while also possessing a potential for closeness to God and the supernatural world.

Attitude↗