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Biomedical subjects

M Spitzer

Publications and source records attributed to M Spitzer.

125 records · Page 7Linked to original sources
PubMed1987

[Clinical aspects and practical applications of DSM-III].

In the first section of this paper, the clinically relevant features of the Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 3rd edition (DSM III) are described and compared with those of the ICD-9 (International Classification of Diseases). It is evident, among other facts, that the narrower concept of schizophrenia and the extension of the scope of affective disorders exercises an effect particularly on the class of schizoaffective disorders, which are considerably reduced in number. The second section of the paper is a report on the experience with the practical application of the DSM III at the Department of Psychiatry (University Hospital) of the University of Freiburg, FRG. A comparison of diagnoses based on DSM III with those based correspondingly on ICD 9 resulted e.g. in a reduction of the number of neurosis diagnoses and a surprising increase by a factor of three and a half of diagnosed personality disorders. The possible causes of such "movements" and their implications for clinical everyday practice are discussed.

Humans↗
PubMed1986

Cervical cancer detected by cervicography in a patient with negative cervical cytology.

The existence of false negative cervical cytology is well recognized. Cervicography was introduced in part to minimize the incidence of false negative smears, but its use has been controversial. A case is presented of a patient with occult cervical cancer whose initial Papanicolaou smear was atypical (class II) and follow-up smear was negative. The patient's cancer was detected by cervicography. Detection of the patient's disease would have been delayed were it not for cervicography.

Aged↗
PubMed1983

Psammoma bodies in papillary adenocarcinoma of the endocervix.

Psammoma bodies have never previously been noted in conjunction with cervical cancer. This paper presents a case of endocervical adenocarcinoma with psammoma bodies. Malignant and benign lesions which have previously been associated with psammoma bodies are reviewed. The proposed mechanisms of psammoma body formation are considered. The appropriate action upon finding psammoma bodies on cervicovaginal cytology is discussed.

Adenocarcinoma, Papillary↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Disordered recognition and perception of human faces in acute schizophrenia and experimental psychosis.

Three disorders of facial recognition and perception in acute schizophrenia and mescaline-induced psychosis are described and illustrated using original clinical and experimental material: "affective prosopagnosia" or stress-related dysfunctional face recognition; "physiognomization" of the environment or persistent illusions and hallucinations of nonspecific faces; and the "mirror phenomenon" or the experience of inner alienation from one's reflected face, which is perceived as independently alive, sinister, and generally physically distorted. It is proposed that neuropsychology suggests relationships between these phenomena that might otherwise be less apparent. No final neurobiological solution to the problem of dysfunctional facial perception and recognition in psychosis is presented, but various insights and suggestive models from the neurosciences are discussed. Attention is also paid to the conditions under which one might need to combine neuropsychological approaches with hermeneutically oriented analyses.

Acute Disease↗
PubMedDate not supplied

On defining delusions.

The DSM-III-R definition of delusions bears inconsistencies and does not account for the way delusions are detected clinically. It can be traced back to Karl Jaspers who was the first to mention the three criteria of delusions, which are to be found in the textbooks ever since: (1) certainty, (2) incorrigibility, and (3) impossibility or falsity of content. Psychiatrists always felt uncomfortable with the third criterion, and Kurt Schneider pursued the most thorough attempt to dispose of this criterion by his definition of delusional perception. It can be shown that while his definition is wrong, the phenomena he had in mind do, in fact, have some distinctive features. Proceeding from the first two criteria of Jaspers, a new definition is proposed that emphasizes the way certain contents are stated and disregards the issue of right or wrong. Advantages of this definition are discussed and a distinction between delusions (about external reality) and certain actual experiences (happening in the patient's mind) is proposed.

Delusions↗
PubMedDate not supplied

A neurocomputational approach to delusions.

Neuronal networks process information in parallel. The cortex can be viewed as a computational surface that creates and maintains dynamic maps of representations of important sensorimotor and higher-level aspects of the environment and the organism. Its functions can be modeled by a particular type of neural network, the self-organizing feature map. Most importantly, representations of information in the cortex and in these maps have been demonstrated to change dynamically according to the salience and frequency of the input. This feature is referred to as neuroplasticity. The fact that general operational characteristics of computational maps in the cortex can be fine-tuned according to specific processing needs is referred to as neuromodulation. Within this framework of cortical maps and their computational models, acute and chronic delusions are discussed in terms of neuromodulation and neuroplasticity. This neurocomputational approach provides new insights into the phenomena in question, is detailed enough to allow empirical testing, and has therapeutic implications.

Brain↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Contextual insensitivity in thought-disordered schizophrenic patients: evidence from pauses in spontaneous speech.

The distribution of pauses in spontaneous speech of schizophrenic patients was studied. Normal control subjects and schizophrenic patients without thought disorder pause more frequently before nouns not suggested by the context, and less frequently before nouns suggested by the context. No context dependency of the pauses before nouns was found in thought-disordered schizophrenic patients. The data are interpreted in terms of a reduced signal-to-noise ratio in semantic associative networks responsible for lexical access in thought-disordered schizophrenic patients.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Mobile mammography: the technologist's role.

This article discusses the role of the radiologic technologist in a mobile mammography screening program targeted at the economically disadvantaged in Dade County, Fla. It describes the development of process, structure and outcome standards used to guide and evaluate both the program and the radiologic technologist within this setting, highlighting the technologists' valuable contributions to the program.

Allied Health Personnel↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Noise-driven neuroplasticity in self-organizing feature maps: a neurocomputational model of phantom limbs.

The term "phantom limb" denotes the sensation that an extremity is present although it has been lost. A number of clinical features and recent findings of cortical map plasticity after destruction of afferent pathways (deafferentation) suggest that phantom limbs are caused by large-scale cortical reorganization processes. However, in paraplegics, who also suffer from cortical deafferentation, phantom sensations rarely develop, and if they do, they are weak, lacking in detail, and delayed, occurring after months. This has been taken to suggest a non-cortical genesis of phantom limbs. This article proposes a biologically plausible minimal neural network model to solve this apparent puzzle. Deafferentation was simulated in trained self-organizing feature maps. Reorganization was found to be directed by input noise. According to the model, the production of input noise by the deafferented primary sensory neuron promotes cortical reorganization in amputees. No such noise is generated or conducted to the cortex in paraplegics.

Amputation, Surgical↗