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Biomedical subjects

J L Matson

Publications and source records attributed to J L Matson.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1984

Psychometric properties of the psychopathology instrument for mentally retarded adults.

One hundred and ten adults, from borderline to severe levels of mental retardation, were assessed through the outpatient clinic of a university-affiliated mental health center and a large state psychiatric hospital. These patients were included only after they had demonstrated the ability to respond to questions of similar difficulty to those presented in the Psychopathology Instrument for Mentally Retarded Adults. This measure was designed by the authors based on DSM III criteria, and covered seven types of psychopathology including schizophrenia, depression, psychosexual disorders, adjustment disorder, anxiety, somatoform disorders, and personality problems. In the present study the psychometric properties of the scale were reviewed and/or evaluated including internal consistency of items and test-retest reliability, and factor analysis.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Diagnosis and drug use in mentally retarded, emotionally disturbed adults.

Inpatient and outpatient, emotionally disturbed, borderline to severely mentally retarded adults (N = 110) were assessed to evaluate the relationship of medication to psychiatric diagnosis and symptomatology. Patients were assessed on the Psychiatric Instrument for Mentally Retarded Adults, the Beck Depression Inventory, the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale, the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, and the Social Performance Survey Schedule--a measure of social adaptation. All these instruments had been modified for use with mentally retarded persons. Comparisons were made evaluating patients receiving major tranquilizers, anticonvulsant and antianxiety drugs, by diagnostic category. Furthermore, an assessment was made of inpatients versus outpatients, based on amount of medication prescribed. It was found that considerable variation in the numbers of drugs and the amount of drug used occurred, based on the type of psychiatric condition, particularly those on informant data on schizophrenia, affective disorder, and adjustment reaction disorder. Implications of these and related results for psychotropic drug use with mentally retarded emotionally disturbed persons are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Behavioral treatment of psychosomatic complaints of mentally retarded adults.

Three mildly mentally retarded adults were treated for psychosomatic complaints using a multiple-baseline format across types of behavior and therapists. Also, social appropriate behavior incompatible with the target behavior was assessed. Subjects were matched on age, sex, and intellectual level with persons not considered to have this problem in order to establish the clinical significance in frequency of psychosomatic complaints. Additionally, baseline, treatment, and follow-up sessions were rated on the frequency of psychosomatic complaints by 10 adults from the community. Stomachache, headache, and multiple physical complaints were treated with a combination of token reinforcement, performance feedback, instructions, and modeling. Frequencies of the target behavior were decreased to near zero and maintained at that level during follow-up, and subjects were rated in the normal range of performance on both social validation criteria. Also, subjects' performance on adaptive behavior incompatible with psychosomatic complaints was improved.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Exploration of phobic behavior in a small child.

Behavioral assessment is an area receiving ever increasing attention. In the present manuscript an attempt is made to expand the ways in which one problem area frequently addressed by behavior therapists, phobias, is assessed and evaluated. A number of overt behaviors and self reports of fear by a very young girl are described in a naturalistic setting and the implications of these data are presented.

Behavior Therapy↗
PubMed1983

Development of a rating scale to assess social skill deficits in mentally retarded adults.

In the current study, two experiments were conducted to establish the reliability of a scale developed with persons of normal intelligence for the assessment of social skill deficits and excesses of the mentally retarded. The experiment was divided into two studies. The first was aimed at establishing which of the 100 items could be accurately rated by having pairs of staff independently score 22 mild and moderately retarded adults who were outpatients at a local community mental health center. A correlation of r = .30 was established as a minimum cut off for reliability. With this criterion, 57 items were selected from the scale for further testing. In the second study, 207 different patients from the same outpatient clinic, from the mental retardation center of a nearby state psychiatric hospital and from Champaign, Illinois, were assessed on the 57-item Social Performance Survey Schedule. A factor analysis was then run and four subscales of the assessment instrument were established. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Verbal behaviors in depressed and nondepressed mentally retarded persons.

Thirty depressed and 30 nondepressed mentally retarded adults were selected from an initial pool of 110 patients seen at either inpatient or outpatient psychiatric settings in western Pennsylvania. These two groups were compared on each of 14 operationally defined behaviors in an analogue interview setting. Despite the fact that these behaviors are typically considered to characterize depression, no difference was found between the depressed and nondepressed groups. A discussion of the possibilities for these results is made.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1983

Assessment of depression in mentally retarded adults.

Depression and psychopathology were assessed in 110 adult patients (ages 18-71 years) classified as borderline, mildly, moderately, or severely mentally retarded. Patients completed modified versions of the Beck Depression Inventory, the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale, the MMPI depression scale, the Thematic Apperception Test, and the Psychopathology Instrument for Mentally Retarded Adults. Clinicians and ward personnel rated the patients on the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression and an informant version of the Psychopathology Instrument for Mentally Retarded Adults. The measures correlated significantly with each other and were consistently related to the diagnosis of depression.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1983

An empirical demonstration of the random stimulus design.

The random stimulus design, a single case methodology, was described. This design is a variant of the reversal or withdrawal design; however, the same set of items is presented to a subject only a small percentage of the total number of experimental conditions rather than across all conditions. The design is considered most applicable under conditions where numerous presentations are not desired since they may result in boredom, fatigue, or related variables that may adversely affect the evaluation of the dependent variables. Spelling and reading deficits were treated in the present study, but only as a means of illustrating the experimental design.

Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity↗
PubMed1982

Behavioral treatment of depression in a prepubertal child.

The present study evaluated behavioral treatment of symptoms of depression in a 10 yr-old boy. Diagnosis of the child's depression was made on the basis of DSM-III criteria. Information was obtained from separate interviews with the child and mother and from multiple assessment instruments. Ratings from several sources (mother, psychiatrist, psychologist and staff) confirmed the diagnosis. Four behaviors that characterized the child's depression were selected for intervention and included inappropriate body position, lact of eye contact, poor speech and bland affect. Treatment, evaluated in a multiple-baseline design across symptoms, consisted of the combination of instructions, modeling, role-playing and feedback. Results indicated that behaviors characteristic of childhood depression could be reliably identified and effectively treated by behavioral techniques. Treatment effects were maintained at 12-week follow-up assessment.

Behavior Therapy↗
PubMed1982

Treatment of phobias in a hospitalized child.

A 12-year-old girl, hospitalized on a psychiatric intensive care unit, was treated for phobias of school and unfamiliar males. Treatment focused on decreasing several avoidance responses and increasing prosocial approach responses. Treatment consisted of instruction, performance feedback, participant modeling and social reinforcement. Marked changes were evident when treatment was introduced in a multiple-baseline design across several phobic and prosocial behaviors. Treatment effects generalized beyond the persons and situation included in training, were reflected in overall global ratings by persons unfamiliar with the treatment, and were maintained up to a 7-week follow-up when the child returned to the hospital for reassessment. Contact with the child 21 weeks after discharge indicated that the gains were reflected in school attendance and social interaction in everyday situations.

Behavior Therapy↗
PubMed1982

A review and analysis of applied research in mental retardation: 1975-1980.

A review of the number and type of studies in mental retardation published in six prominent journals was made. Variables examined included whether the study was applied or not and in the latter case, whether the study was an assessment, treatment or epidemiological paper. Other variables evaluated were length of follow-up, frequency of applied studies published in each journal, whether subjects were children or adults, inpatients or outpatients, level of mental retardation and form of treatment employed. Implications of the present studies with regard to future directions of applied research are discussed.

Adult↗