Biomedical subjects

Jeremy M Silverman

Publications and source records attributed to Jeremy M Silverman.

39 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

PubMed2002

Symptom domains in autism and related conditions: evidence for familiality.

Heterogeneity in autism impairs efforts to localize and identify the genes underlying this disorder. As autism comprises severe but variable deficits and traits in three symptom domains (social interaction, communication, and repetitive behaviors) and shows variability in the presence and emergence of useful phrase speech, different genetic factors may be associated with each. The affected cases (n=457) in multiply affected siblingships (n=212), including a proband with autism and one or more siblings with either autism or marked deficits in autism symptom domains, were assessed using the Autism Diagnostic Interview, Revised. Symptom domain scores and language features were examined to determine their similarity within siblingships. The variance within siblingships was reduced for the repetitive behavior domain and for delays in and the presence of useful phrase speech. These features and the nonverbal communication subdomain provided evidence of familiality when we considered only the diagnosis of autism to define multiply affected siblingships (cases: n=289; siblingships: n=136). In addition, the same familial features identified also appeared familial for those with autism-related conditions. Finally, the level of severity of almost all of the familial features varied within multiplex siblingships independently. The features identified as familial replicate the combined set suggested in earlier, smaller studies. Furthermore, the familiality of these features extend to related conditions of milder severity than autism and appear to be independent. Making distinctions among families by the severity of these features may be useful for identifying more genetically homogeneous subgroups in studies targeted at genes for specific autism-related symptom domains.

Autistic Disorder↗

PubMed2002

Characterizing affective instability in borderline personality disorder.

OBJECTIVE: This study sought to understand affective instability among patients with borderline personality disorder by examining the degree of instability in six affective domains. The authors also examined the subjective intensity with which moods are experienced and the association between instability and intensity of affect. METHOD: In a group of 152 patients with personality disorders, subjective affective intensity and six dimensions of affective instability were measured. The mean scores for lability and intensity for each affective domain for patients with borderline personality disorder were compared with those of patients with other personality disorders through analyses that controlled for other axis I affective disorders, age, and sex. RESULTS: Greater lability in terms of anger and anxiety and oscillation between depression and anxiety, but not in terms of oscillation between depression and elation, was associated with borderline personality disorder. Contrary to expectation, the experience of an increase in subjective affective intensity was not more prominent in patients with borderline personality disorder than in those with other personality disorders. CONCLUSIONS: By applying a finer-grained perspective on affective instability than those of previous personality disorder studies, this study points to patterns of affective experience characteristic of patients with borderline personality disorder.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Cross-domain variability of cognitive performance in very old nursing home residents and community dwellers: relationship to functional status.

BACKGROUND: Recent evidence suggests that cross-domain variability in cognition may be related to subsequent cognitive decline beyond mean performance levels in cognitive tasks. OBJECTIVES: To examine age-related changes in cross-domain variability across cognitive task performance in very old nursing home residents in contrast to community-dwelling older adults. To explore the relationship between cross-domain variability in cognition and functional disability in very old age. METHODS: 204 very old (82.00+/-8.51 years) residents from the Jewish Home and Hospital, Bronx, N.Y., and 376 community-dwelling older adults of similar age (86.75+/-5.84 years) were tested on a cognitive battery. Cross-domain variability scores were computed across the cognitive tasks. Functional disability measures were derived from the CDR (Clinical Dementia Rating) Scale. RESULTS: Whereas oldest old community-dwelling adults showed a decrease in variability across domains with age, variability increased with age in nursing home residents, irrespective of the level of cognitive performance. Cross-domain variability was associated with functional disability beyond the effects of age, gender, education, dementia status, residential status, and level of cognitive performance. CONCLUSION: Findings suggest that cross-domain variability in cognition is related to functional decline with age. Cross-domain variability in cognition may be a prominent predictor for the development of functional decline in very old adults.

Age Factors↗