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Biomedical subjects

M Alpert

Publications and source records attributed to M Alpert.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
PubMed1981

Styles of listening and clinical sensitivity.

We report the results of a study of the relation between individual differences in listening style and clinical sensitivity. Listening style is conceptualized as extending from a critical, analytic, focused attitude to a holistic, intuitive, free-floating attitude. Two measures of listening style are used: eye-blink rate and memory for high-imagery words. A tape recording, a 17-minute fragment of a psychotherapy, has been rated by a panel of experts as containing 22 cues reflecting the patient's concern with termination of treatment. This calibrated tape is played to clinicians, and their ability to identify the cues is our experimental measure of clinical sensitivity. It was found that listening style is a strong predictor of clinical sensitivity. The method offers promise for study of a range of issues relevant to therapeutic processes.

Attention↗
PubMed1981

Acoustic analysis: an objective measure of affective flattening.

Acoustic analysis of voice patterns is an objective means of evaluating flatness of affect. Thirty-one patients defined as having flat affect by a reliable rating scale were compared with 30 patients who were not flat. The hypothesis that flat patients display monotonic speech was confirmed, for these patients showed less variance in both the amplitude and frequency of their speech than the nonflat patients.

Humans↗
PubMed1981

Halothane effect on cGMP and control of motor activity in mouse cerebellum.

The effect of halothane on cerebellar control of motor activity and on cerebellar cyclic 3',5'-guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) content was studied in mice. Isoniazide and picrotoxin were used to increase motor activity and induce seizures associated with an increase in cerebellar cGMP content. Halothane markedly decreased the cerebellar cGMP content (by 60 per cent at 0.61 per cent, the concentration at which 50 per cent of mice lost righting reflex) and prevented the isoniazide-induced increase in cGMP content. Halothane, 0.61 per cent, significantly reduced both isoniazide- and picrotoxin-induced motor activity; the ED50 convulsive dose of isoniazide (137.7 +/- 7.04) and of picrotoxin (1.9 +/- 0.2 mg x kg-1, sc) was about three times higher (402.2 +/- 17.9 and 5.8 +/- 0.6 mg x kg-1, sc, respectively) in mice exposed to halothane. In contrast, halothane did not alter the ED50 convulsive dose of strychnine, which has a different site and mechanism of action, blockade of glycine receptors, a mechanism not involving the cerebellar system. These results indicate that halothane has a significant effect on the cerebellar control of motor activity and that cGMP plays an important role in the alteration of cerebellar function by halothane.

Animals↗
PubMed1980

Electroencephalographic analysis: a methodology for evaluating psychotherapeutic process.

The relationship between individual differences in listening style and clinical sensitivity was studied. Listening style is conceptualized as extending from a critical, analytic, focused attitude to a holistic, intuitive, free-floating attitude. We studied the listening styles of psychiatric residents while they listened to a tape recording, a 17-minute fragment of a psychotherapy that had been rated by a panel of experts as containing 22 cues reflecting the patient's concern with termination of treatment. The ability of clinicians to identify these cues is our experimental measure of clinical sensitivity. Our measures of listening style include eyeblink rate, memory for high-imagery words, and electroencephalogram recorded from electrodes over the right and left temporal areas, all measured while psychiatric residents listened to the tape. Results suggested that an abundance of alpha indicates a readiness on the part of the listener to process clinically relevant information. In addition, a listening style with engagement of the right hemisphere predicted clinical sensitivity. These findings suggest ways to study how the skilled clinician "tunes" himself empathically to his patient.

Alpha Rhythm↗
PubMed1980

An un-dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia.

The dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia is examined critically. Although the hypothesis is couched in chemical terms, the evidence is primarily pharmacologic. In addition, neuroleptic mechanisms do not fit a simple hyperdopaminergic formulation, and treatment efficacy points to a general psychotic rather than specific schizophrenic role for dopamine. Most compromising to the hypothesis is the therapeutic action of L-dopa when combined with neuroleptics in chronic schizophrenics. Dopamine appears important but cannot be viewed as a simple pathogen.

Antipsychotic Agents↗
PubMed1980

Cognitive stimulus-control program for obesity with emphasis on anxiety and depression reduction.

A 20-week cognitive stimulus-control treatment program for obesity was conducted in which 27 subjects participated. The program utilized stimulus control procedures, anxiety and depression reduction exercises, and assertiveness training. Statistically significant differences were obtained in weight loss (P < 0.001), anxiety (P < 0.05) and depression (P < 0.01) reduction when comparing pre- and post-treatment scores. Pre-and post-treatmet anxiety (P < 0.05) and pre-and post-treatment depression (P < 0.05) are significantly related. Pre-and post-treatment percent over ideal weight (P < 0.05) is significantly related. A significant relationship exists between years overweight and percentage overweight (P < 0.05); and a significant relationship between pre-treament depression and pounds lost (P < 0.05) is noted. Predictors of success in an obesity-control program are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

Paradoxical reaction to L-dopa in schizophrenic patients.

The authors administered 6 g of L-dopa to 8 schizophrenic patients and 750 mg of chlorpromazine to 7 schizophrenic patients. Chlorpromazine showed only a modest advantage over L-dopa and only on some Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale factor scores, and at maximum dosage the thought disturbance factor score in the L-dopa-treated group was not worse than at baseline. The results suggest that L-dopa is associated more with toxic than with schizophreniform symptoms and that there is adaptation to its effects. The authors discuss implications of these findings for the dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

The neuroleptic hypothesis: study of the covariation of extrapyramidal and therapeutic drug effects.

A therapeutic trial with chlorpromazine was conducted with a homogeneous (for age and sex) group of recently admitted schizophrenic patients. Extrapyramidal effects were measured through quantitative analysis of digital tremor, after four days of fixed-dose treatment. Assessment of treatment efficacy was based on Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale ratings, done at the end of four weeks' treatment. Those patients whose tremor was least affected by drug were most likely to benefit from the treatment. Implications of this negative correlation for our understanding of the neuroleptic hypothesis and the closely associated dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

Imagery mediation of vocal emphasis in flat affect.

The hypothesis that schizophrenics with flat affect have an interference with imagery mediation of language function was derived from clinical impressions that (1) such patients fail to show appropriate voice emphasis, and (2) that word imagery contributes to normal vocal emphasis patterns. Experiment 1 acoustically measured the emphasis patterns in schizophrenics with and without flat affect as they read text controlled for word imagery. Experiment 2 studied the effect of imagery in a paired-associate learning task in the same patients. The results supported the hypothesis, both for emphasis patterns and learning rates. These findings suggest that flat affect may be the product of factors in the schizophrenic process interacting with cognitive processes that are independent of the disease.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

Asymmetry of information processing in hallucinators and nonhallucinators.

In previous work we had developed evidence suggesting that hallucinating schizophrenics differ from nonhallucinators in the pattern of errors made in a shadowing task. Non hallucinators appeared to be less willing to guess when they were unsure. The errors of the hallucinators seemed more semantically elaborate. The experiment had not been designed to study these factors and the current experiment was conducted using a technique reported by Pisoni et al. These workers had studied normal Ss in an immediate recall task, using semantically well integrated (SWI) or poorly integrated (SPI) sentences. Pisoni et al. had shown that right ear presentation produced more accurate recall of SWI as compared to SPI sentences, whereas left ear presentation failed to discriminate these sentences. Utilizing the methods of Pisoni et al., we replicated their findings in a normal control group. The results from our hallucinating and nonhallucinating groups were different from each other, the nonhallucinators being less accurate, discriminating semantic integration level on left rather than right ear input, and making more fragmented errors. Little support could be found for attributing this pattern of performance to nonspecific aspects of the procedures. It appears that the nonhallucinators process information differently from hallucinators. These differences may reflect alterations in language development. It is speculated that such differences might be consistent with interference with the development of brain asymmetry.

Age Factors↗