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Biomedical subjects

J Leff

Publications and source records attributed to J Leff.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
PubMed1981

Psychophysiological responses of schizophrenic patients to high and low expressed emotion relatives.

Measurements of spontaneous fluctuations in skin conductance in 20 acutely ill schizophrenic patients were made in a video-tape studio. Recordings were made initially with the patient talking to an interviewer, then during a video-taped interview conducted with the patient's key relative. The Expressed Emotion (EE) of the patient's key relative had been measured previously. Significant differences in the type of spontaneous fluctuation activity between patients who had low EE and high EE relatives were demonstrated when the relative was present, but not when the relative was absent. The findings were not related to phenothiazine medication.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

The role of maintenance therapy and relatives' expressed emotion in relapse of schizophrenia: a two-year follow-up.

A two-year follow-up study was conducted, mainly from case notes, of patients who had originally taken part in a study of the influence of relatives expressed emotion on schizophrenic relapse. It was found that in the two years following discharge from hospital patients from high expressed emotion homes had a significantly greater relapse rate than those from low expressed emotion homes. The prophylactic effect of maintenance drugs was no longer evident for patients from high expressed emotion homes at the two-year follow-up. By contrast, a significant protective effect of maintenance therapy emerged for patients from low expressed emotion homes. The interpretation of these findings is discussed.

Attitude to Health↗
PubMed1981

Schizophrenia.

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Acute Disease↗
PubMed1980

The interaction of life events and relatives' expressed emotion in schizophrenia and depressive neurosis.

A history of life events in the three months before onset of illness was taken in a group of schizophrenic and a group of depressed neurotic in-patients. The Expressed Emotion (EE) of the patients' key relatives was measured. There was no difference between the schizophrenic and depressed patients in the rate of events in the three month period before onset or in the proportion of undesirable events. However, the two groups exhibited significantly different patterns of interaction between life events and relatives' EE. Schizophrenic patients living with high EE relatives had a low rate of life events compared with those living with low EE relatives, whereas depressives living with high criticism relatives had a high rate of events compared with those living with low criticism relatives. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to schizophrenic and depressive patients' differential vulnerability to environmental stress.

Adjustment Disorders↗
PubMed1978

Replication of bromodeoxyuridylate-substituted mitochondrial DNA in yeast.

The DNA of several strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae was labeled by growing the culture in medium supplemented with thymidylate and bromodeoxyuridylate. It was thus possible to follow the course of mitochondrial DNA replication in density shift experiments by determining the buoyant density distribution of unreplicated and replicated DNAs in analytical CsCl gradients. DNA replication was followed for three generations after transfer of cultures from light medium to heavy medium and heavy medium to light medium. Under both conditions, the density shifts observed for mitochondrial DNA were those expected for semiconservative, nondispersive replication. This was further confirmed by analysis of the buoyant density of alkali-denatured hybrid mitochondrial DNA. With this method, no significant recombination between replicated and unreplicated DNA was detected after three generations of growth.

Centrifugation, Density Gradient↗
PubMed1977

The cross-cultural study of emotions.

The problems encountered in cross-cultural research are detailed and the way they affect the study of emotions is discussed. They include: obtaining samples of subjects in developing countries that are comparable to samples studied in the West: constructing tasks and writing and translating questions that are meaningful for subjects from a variety of cultures; dealing with subjects to whom the experimental method appears strange; and attempting to eliminate ethnocentric bias from the design of studies, the perception of subjects' responses, and the interpretation of data. Psychiatric studies of emotional disorders and psychological studies of the perception of emotion across cultures are reviewed in relation to these problems. It is concluded that this area of study is in its infancy, and guidelines for future development are laid down.

Anxiety↗
PubMed1976

The measurement of expressed emotion in the families of psychiatric patients.

In a series of studies of the influence of family life on the course of an established schizophrenic illness, it has been shown that the level of emotion expressed by relatives shortly after a schizophrenic patient is admitted to hospital is strongly associated with symptomatic relapse during the nine months following discharge (Brown et al., 1962, 1972). This paper states the case for an abbreviated version of the primary research instrument used in these studies, the Camberwell Family Interview Schedule. In the 1972 study the single most important measure contributing to the overall expressed emotion index proved to be the number of critical remarks made about the patient by the relative when interviewed alone. An analysis of 15 tape-recorded interviews from this study showed that the majority of critical comments were produced within the first hour and there was virtually no relationship between total number of critical comments and length of interview (r = 0.08). This analysis supported the use of a shortened interview in which the areas most likely to produce any criticism were given priority in the sequence of questioning. This abbreviated version has been used successfully in a replication and extension of the 1972 study. A group of 37 schizophrenic patients is being compared with a group of 31 depressed neurotic patients. Patterns of emotional response of these patients' relatives are discussed.

Child↗
PubMed1976

Bromodeoxyuridine 5'-monophosphate incorporation into yeast nuclear and mitochondrial deoxyribonucleic acid.

Standard laboratory yeast strains can be enriched for thymidine 5'-monophosphate (TMP) uptake derivatives that generate only a low percentage of respiratory-deficient colonies (petites) under inhibition of TMP biosynthesis. Such mutants incorporated bromodeoxyuridine 5'-monophosphate (BrdUMP) into both nuclear and mitochondrial deoxyribonucleic acid (mtDNA); however, they showed a selectivity for TMP over BrdUMP incorporation. The preferential incorporation of [3H]TMP or BrdUMP into mtDNA was strain dependent. The density increments after growth in the presence of BrdUMP reached 50 mg/ml for nuclear DNA and 22 mg/ml for mtDNA in CsCl gradients. Density shifts corresponding to 4% bromouracil substitution were easily detected. Preliminary density transfer experiments confirm that mtDNA does not replicate in synchrony with nuclear DNA.

Bromodeoxyuridine↗
PubMed1967

A mutagenic effect of visible light mediated by endogenous pigments in Euglena gracilis.

Mutant cells lackng chlorophyll, chloroplasts, and chloroplast DNA were produced by irradiating Euglena gracilis in aerobic conditions with visible or red light (greater than 610 nanometers) of an intensity equivalent to that of direct sunlight. The photosensitizer is apparently the endogenous chlorophyll present in the chloroplasts. These mutants are comparable to those induced by ultraviolet light, x-rays, heat, or streptomycin. Our findings indicate that visible light can serve as a mutagenic agent in the absence of exogenous photosensitizers, thus directly effecting the course of evolution of organisms containing chlorophyll.

Animals↗