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Biomedical subjects

M Schuckit

Publications and source records attributed to M Schuckit.

36 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1990

Clinical importance of age at onset in type 1 and type 2 primary alcoholics.

Alcoholics have been proposed to be comprised of subtypes who differ in their age at onset and in type 1 vs type 2 characteristics. This study examined whether the clinical course of primary alcoholics was associated with age at onset as well as the type 1-vs-type 2 classification scheme. Interviews with 171 consecutive primary alcoholic men entering an alcohol treatment program revealed that age at onset of alcoholism was correlated with alcohol, drug, and childhood criminality problem histories. Neither classification of these alcoholics into discrete type 1 and type 2 categories nor placing them along a continuum of type 2 characteristics was consistently associated with severity of clinical histories. These findings underscore the clinical importance of age at onset and suggest the possibility that the type 2 prototype might represent a separate diagnosis, antisocial personality disorder, and not alcoholism itself.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Short REM latency in primary alcoholic patients with secondary depression.

Primary alcoholic patients with secondary depression had significantly shorter REM latency and less non-REM sleep than alcoholics without other psychiatric diagnoses and normal control subjects. Both patient groups had significantly longer sleep latency and less sleep efficiency, total sleep time, and delta sleep than control subjects.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Use of laboratory tests to monitor heavy drinking by alcoholic men discharged from a treatment program.

Changes in blood test values from the time of discharge from an alcohol treatment program to 3-month follow-up were studied in two consecutive series of alcoholic men. The parallel combination of a percent increase in gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) of greater than or equal to 20%, in aspartate aminotransferase (SGOT) of greater than or equal to 40%, and in alanine aminotransferase (SGPT) of greater than or equal to 20% over discharge values was developed as a rule and then cross-validated to identify those alcoholic men who had resumed drinking at follow-up. Serial determination of these three test values in combination can be used to distinguish recovering alcoholics who remain abstinent from those who resume drinking.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Alcoholic patients with secondary depression.

This study of alcoholic patients with and without secondary depression showed that the two groups were almost identical in demographic characteristics, early-life antisocial problems, quantity and frequency of drinking, and family history of affective disorder. The depressed patients reported slightly more alcoholism in their first-degree male relatives and tended to have more alcohol-related life problems. The only significant difference between the two groups was that the depressed patients were heavier users of drugs other than alcohol. Thus severe depression in alcoholics may be related to a greater intake of drugs in addition to alcohol.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

Event-related brain potentials are different in individuals at high and low risk for developing alcoholism.

Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) from normal drinkers with and without a family history of alcoholism were compared. Three separate groups of 10 subjects each (5 with and 5 without a family history of alcoholism) ingested either a placebo or ethanol at 0.56 or 0.94 g/kg. In each comparison, ERP components elicited in conjunction with subjects' decisions about task-relevant stimuli were of significantly reduced amplitude in individuals with a family history of alcoholism. Additionally, both the latency of the positive component and reaction times to correctly detected targets were significantly later in individuals with a positive history of alcoholism than in those without such a history. These group differences were apparent both with and without a challenge of alcohol. The data suggest that brain functions are different in individuals at high and low risk for the development of alcoholism (i.e., those with and without a family history of alcoholism, respectively).

Alcoholism↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Memory for temporal order and frequency of occurrence in detoxified alcoholics.

The ability to retain temporal order (recency) and event frequency information was assessed in long-term alcoholics and in nonalcoholic control subjects. On the temporal recency task, the alcoholics were impaired when they were asked unexpectedly to judge how recently these stimuli had been presented. When subjects were aware that they would eventually be asked to make decisions about temporal order, the alcoholics evidenced significant difficulties only for the figural stimuli. On the task requiring judgements about the frequency of events, alcoholics demonstrated significant deficits only when they had to make unexpected judgements about figural stimuli. The implications of these findings for the neurological basis of alcoholics' cognitive deficits are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Assessment of olfactory deficits in detoxified alcoholics.

Olfactory functioning was evaluated in 37 male detoxified alcoholics and in 21 age-matched nonalcoholic controls using the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT). Of the original subjects, 23 alcoholics and 14 controls returned for reevaluation 3-4 months following initial testing. The results showed that alcoholics had significantly lower UPSIT scores than did the controls, both at baseline and follow-up testing. Thirty-two percent of the alcoholics' UPSIT scores, in comparison to five percent of the controls' scores, fell into the clinically impaired range. Although current smoking patterns correlated significantly with UPSIT indices, comparisons limited to nonsmokers still indicated that the alcoholics were significantly impaired on this olfactory task. Correlational analyses indicated that olfactory performance was unrelated to alcoholics' scores on visuoconceptual and language tasks. Correlations with MR-derived indices of CSF volume showed a highly significant relationship between UPSIT scores and cortical sulcal volumes. Additionally, alcoholics (N = 15) who remained abstinent had significantly higher scores at follow-up than those who were not abstinent (N = 8). These findings demonstrate that alcoholism is associated with basic olfactory impairments which are only partially reversible with abstinence and that cortical structures play an important role in this sensory loss.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Polysomnography and depressive symptoms in primary alcoholics with and without a lifetime diagnosis of secondary depression and in patients with primary major depression.

BACKGROUND: There is evidence suggesting that there is: (1) additive polysomnographic effects of alcoholism and depression; and (2) elevated baseline REM density in primary alcoholics with (PASD) and without lifetime history of secondary depression (NPA). METHODS: 23 PASDs, 59 NPAs, and 23 primary major depression patients (PMD) underwent polysomnography. Any drinking within 3 months after a 1-month inpatient alcohol rehabilitation defined relapse. RESULTS: PASDs' polysomnography was more like NPAs than PMDs. Polysomnography reflected 3-month sobriety status more than diagnosis. LIMITATIONS: Not all PASD's met full major depression criteria upon admission. CONCLUSIONS: Alcoholism affected polysomnography more than depression. Elevated admission REM density predicted 3-month relapse in PASDs and NPAs.

Adult↗