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Biomedical subjects

J Marcus

Publications and source records attributed to J Marcus.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1985

Relationships among neurological functioning, intelligence quotients, and physical anomalies.

The relationships among IQ, neurological signs, and minor physical anomalies--all measures of central nervous system status--were assessed in the index and control children of the study. The strongest correlation was found between neurological functioning and IQ; the relationship between anomalies and neurological functioning was less strong; and no relationship was found between anomalies and IQ. Consistently, the most poorly functioning children tended to be offspring of schizophrenic patients (index cases), although the same children did not always perform poorly on all tests. What emerges is a set of clusters of individuals with varying combinations of functional/developmental problems.

Brain↗
PubMed1985

Clinical observation of high-risk children.

Systematic observations of the behavior of high-risk and control children were made during the clinical interview, the neurological examination, psychometric testing, and the experimental psychological test battery. Children were unaware that observations of them were being made and recorded. In all four examination settings, index children were seen as impaired relative to control children in their communication skills, ability to relate to the examiners, and motor behavior. There were no consistent differences between town and kibbutz subjects, and no interactions with genetic background. However, index boys showed a general trend toward greater pathology than index girls.

Child↗
PubMed1985

Psychophysiological reactivity in high-risk children.

This study was designed to test and extend previous reports of differences in autonomic responsivity between offspring of schizophrenic patients and control subjects. In specific, greater galvanic skin response (GSR) to stimuli and quicker GSR recovery have been reported in high-risk children. In the present study we found no evidence of autonomic hyperactivity, as evidenced by GSR to tones, in high-risk as compared to control subjects. There was some trend for index subjects to show slower GSR recoveries than control subjects, which is opposite to findings from earlier studies. Subjects were also presented with the Information Detection Test, in which GSR responses to emotionally meaningful vs. neutral stimuli were compared. Index children were less reactive than control subjects to the meaningful stimuli, and they discriminated between meaningful and neutral stimuli more poorly. Our findings do not confirm the learning theory of schizophrenia suggested by Mednick, but do suggest that developmental lags in high-risk as compared to control children may contribute to the psychophysiological differences that we found.

Autonomic Nervous System↗
PubMed1985

Neurological findings in high-risk children: childhood assessment and 5-year followup.

The results of the two neurological examinations of the Israeli children, both original and followup, are presented. The multidimensional scalogram analysis technique was used to identify children with multiple areas of neurological dysfunction. These children consisted almost exclusively of the offspring of schizophrenic patients: 22 of the 50 index cases were in this region of poor functioning during at least one of the testing periods, as compared with only 3 of the 50 control cases. The most common neurological signs were "soft" perceptual-sensory signs, poor motor coordination, poor right-left orientation, poor balance, and motor overflow. No "hard" neurological differences were found between the groups. This is the first major report of long-term stability of neurological soft signs in the offspring of schizophrenic persons.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

A longitudinal study of offspring born to methadone-maintained women. I. Design, methodology, and description of women's resources for functioning.

In order to examine alternatives to the hypothesis that any lasting damage to a child is caused by the direct toxic effects of fetal exposure to methadone, we designed a longitudinal, multigenerational study of the offspring of methadone-maintained women. We collected extensive data on both parents and children, hypothesizing that drugs can affect infants through a variety of causal routes. We have used a method of data analysis, POSAC, that retains the identity of individual children and families, and enables us to look at patterns of individuals' behavior over time and identify meaningful subgroups of individuals. We collected extensive information from 18 methadone-maintained and 24 comparison women. During the last trimester of pregnancy, we interviewed the women about their education, families, lifestyles, drug use, and health histories; we also assessed their psychiatric functioning and IQ's. We found that as a group the methadone-maintained women were more likely to receive public assistance, to evidence psychiatric dysfunctioning, and to be less educated (although showing no statistical difference in IQ's) than were comparison women. Similar to comparison women, two-thirds of methadone-maintained women were involved in stable relationships with male partners. The methadone-maintained women appeared committed to their methadone treatment and, in general, viewed their pregnancies in positive terms. Although as a group the methadone-maintained women possessed poorer resources for maternal functioning than the comparison group, about half the methadone-maintained women possessed resources at least adequate for maternal functioning.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

A longitudinal study of offspring born to methadone-maintained women. II. Dyadic interaction and infant behavior at 4 months.

As part of a longitudinal study of offspring born to substance abusers, we assessed 17 methadone-exposed and 23 comparison 4-month-old infants using the Bayley Scales, and videotaped their interaction with their mothers. In analyzing the Bayley Infant Behavior Record we found that the methadone-exposed group differed from the comparison group on motor functioning but not significantly on social or cognitive behaviors; methadone-exposed infants were more tense, active, and poorly coordinated than comparisons. Using a scale we developed, we rated communicative functioning in dyadic interactions, and related mothers' interactive performance to their psychological and psychosocial resources and infants' interactive performance to their behavioral functioning as assessed on the Bayley Infant Behavior Record. Applying a multidimensional technique, Guttman's Partial Order Scalogram Analysis by Coordinates (POSAC), we found an intriguing relationship that generalized across drug and comparison groups: greater tension than activity, with high tension especially, related to poorer functioning, but tension lower than activity related to better functioning. Specifically, infants who were tense and not active were also poorest on social functioning (low responsiveness to people and low cooperativeness) and showed short attention span and low persistence combined with high interest in sights and sounds. On the other hand, infants who showed low-to-moderate tension and moderate-to-high activity were highly responsive and cooperative; some also had long attention span and high persistence coupled with interest in sights and sounds. Infants who were both very tense and very active were poor on social functioning. Furthermore, most infants with tension higher than activity did poorly in communicating with their mothers, while infants with tension lower than activity interacted well. The POSAC technique has enabled us to identify meaningful subgroups of infants who were not merely quantitatively but qualitatively different in their behavioral functioning. Cutting across drug and comparison groups, we found that mothers who performed poorly on interaction were likely to have poor resources for maternal functioning. Methadone was only one among the risk factors affecting interaction.

Child Behavior↗
PubMed1984

A longitudinal study of offspring born to methadone-maintained women. III. Effects of multiple risk factors on development at 4, 8, and 12 months.

Infants exposed to methadone in utero were compared to infants of drug-free women at 4, 8, and 12 months on two aspects of their behavior: motor coordination and attention. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how differences between the methadone and comparison infants were affected by other family and medical risk factors. No matter what the level of other risk factors, methadone infants showed poorer motor coordination at 4 months and poorer attention at 12 months as a group than comparison infants. Family risk factors, however, did modulate the strength and direction of differences between methadone and comparison infants. After 4 months, methadone infants continued to show poorer motor coordination than comparison infants only in families with poorer resources (such as low SES, maternal psychopathology and low intelligence, absence of father). Poorer early medical resources (pre- and perinatal complications) heightened the differences between methadone and comparison infants at early ages, but by the end of the first year no longer played a role in modulating the drug effect. The authors tentatively conclude that methadone exposure in utero has very limited teratological effects per se on the long-term development of infants, and that the pathology seen in some individual children is probably due to an interaction with other factors.

Attention↗
PubMed1982

Electromyographic assessment of neonatal muscle tone.

A new psychiatric research method for measuring infant muscle tone using quantified electromyography is described. Muscle tone was assessed electromyographically from the arms and legs of 44 neonates; 18 offspring of drug abusing women, 26 control infants. Infants from the drug group had higher muscle tone than control infants. There was also a tendency for smaller infants and females to have higher muscle tone. Electromyographic assessments of tone were correlated with examiners' clinical assessments, but tended to be more sensitive to tone in specific muscle groups.

Birth Weight↗
PubMed1981

Infants at risk for schizophrenia. The Jerusalem Infant Development Study.

The development of infants born to parents with serious mental disorders was followed up from birth through the first year of life. An individual-differences approach to statistical analysis. Multidimensional Scalogram Analysis (MSA), was shown to be an effective statistical procedure for examining heterogeneous psychiatric populations. The MSA revealed the existence of a subgroup of infants born to schizophrenics who repeatedly performed poorly in motor and sensorimotor areas of functioning during their first year of life. These infants were especially vulnerable to external insults, and many had low to low-normal birth weights. These findings, taken together with similar findings from other investigations, add support to the hypothesis that these infants may have a genetically determined neurointegrative deficit.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Antibodies to inhalant fungal antigens in patients with asthma in Israel.

Thirty-eight of 97 asthmatic patients, seven of 26 normal subjects and two of 39 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) were found to have antibodies to one or more of the inhalant fungi and candida antigens assayed by both immunodiffusion and counterimmune electrophoresis. Atopy was demonstrated in 33 of the 38 asthmatic patients with antibodies. Eleven asthmatics had anti-alternaria antibodies while only two reacted to aspergillus.

Alternaria↗