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Biomedical subjects

M von Rad

Publications and source records attributed to M von Rad.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1982

Content analysis of verbal behaviour in psychotherapy research: a comparison between two methods.

Verbal behaviour of a mixed patient population during psychotherapeutic interviews was analysed for affective content by means of two content analytic techniques, the Gottschalk-Gleser method and the 'anxiety topics dictionary' developed at the University of Ulm. Both methods share basic theoretical assumptions regarding affect definition and strive for pragmatic relevance in their meaning categories. They differ with respect to the analysis program they employ, the main difference being the coding unit and the extent to which they take into account contextual information. Correlational data presented shows a significant positive relationship between scores for shame and separation anxiety from both methods. A somewhat weaker correlation was found for guilt anxiety. These results suggest a formal similarity between these constructs as operationalized by both methods and call for further research on the comparability of meaning categories in studies of verbal behaviour.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

Empirical evidence of alexithymia.

In spite of the wide discussion on alexithymia for the last years, empirical research aimed at its testing or validation has been remarkably scarce. Two basic approaches can be distinguished: psychometric investigations (for instance, using questionnaires) based upon previous operationalization of 'alexithymic' behavior and direct observation of behavioral patterns in different types of individuals. This second approach entails the relating of these behavioral features to alexithymia. As an example, our research results from these situations will be presented and discussed. The emphasis will be placed upon psychodynamic models. It is shown that the conditions under which the exploration is carried out are particularly important for the manifestation of 'alexithymic' characteristics in speech.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Situational influences on verbal affective expression of psychosomatic and psychoneurotic patients.

Group comparisons between psychosomatic and psychoneurotic patients using the Gottschalk-Gleser method of speech content analysis are presented. Two matched patient groups (N = 40 each) were discriminated on the basis of anxiety and hostility scores derived from verbal samples collected during psychoanalytically conducted first interviews. A concordance with clinical classification was reached in 79.75 per cent of cases, with psychosomatic patients exhibiting lower affect scores. These results could not be replicated in a comparison between 92 psychoneurotic and 56 psychosomatic patients based upon verbal samples produced in responses to a request to narrate a dramatic life episode (standard instruction). Percentage of correctly classified cases was 62.84 in the second study. Factor structures derived from affective variables showed more similarity between independent samples of psychoneurotic than between samples of psychosomatic patients across both exploration situations (interview and standard instruction). A major factor exhibiting high loadings from guilt anxiety and ambivalent hostility was evinced, being more important in psychoneurotics. These results are discussed against the background of the alexithymia notion. Methodological considerations pertaining to diagnostic applications of the Gottschalk-Gleser content analysis are presented.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

Alexithymia: anxiety and hostility in psychosomatic and psychoneurotic patients.

Verbal samples obtained from 40 psychoneurotic and 40 psychosomatic patients, matched with respect to age, sex, intelligence and some social indicators, were examined using different methods of content analysis. According to the concept of 'alexithymia' it was postulated that the restricted fantasy life and difficulty in expressing feelings attributed to psychosomatic patients would be reflected at the speech level (psycho-analytic interviews). The measurement of anxiety and hostility using the Gottschalk-Gleser scales gave the following results: with total anxiety in particular, and its subscales guilt, shame, separation and diffuse anxiety, and with hostility, the psychosomatic patients showed lower values than the neurotic patients, which were in part highly significant. The results confirm the existence of the 'psychosomatic phenomenon' but they do not permit statements concerning its etiology.

Anxiety↗
PubMed1979

Comments on theory and therapy of psychosomatic patients with a follow-up study.

Given the specific problems of the physically sick, the psychoanalytic therapy of psychosomatic patients normally calls for modification of treatment concepts that have proved viable for patients with mental disorders (neuroses) alone. The patients' difficulty in experiencing and expressing the experience of feelings as well as the fixation on one kind of physical complaint make it essential that the patient be unconditionally 'accepted' and offered translation aids so that within the patient-doctor relationship the 'mute' physical complaints can be assisted towards verbalisation and new emotional experiencing. The kind of special treatment forms indicated is determined by the extent of healthy personality elements. Here, in addition to nonverbal procedures, such techniques as combined inpatient--outpatient group psychotherapy, the subject of the present follow-up study, have proved to be helpful.

Body Image↗
PubMed1975

[Spontaneous carotid cavernous fistula in a case of hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (Osler-Rendu) (author's transl)].

A 37-year-old woman suffered from headaches, right facial pain, double vision and occasional tinnitus. On examination there was only a slightly dilated right pupil, weakened corneal reflex and capillary bleeding from telangiectasia of both hands. Similar bleedings occured in her mother (mouth and hands) and son (nose). The arteriography of the right carotid artery showed a cavernous sinus fistula with a small shunt. Steady compression of the carotid artery by hand caused a marked improvement in the subjective symptomatology.

Adult↗
PubMed1975

[Alcohol and malabsorption in the pathogenesis of peripheral and central nerve damage (author's transl)].

Xylose absorption was measured, within ten days of being admitted to hospital, in 54 alcoholics with neurological abnormalities. Small-intestine malabsorption was demonstrated in 19. Classified according to the customary clinical diagnoses, 16 of 49 with alcohol polyneuropathy had abnormal values, with no correlation to nerve conduction velocity. There was also no difference among 14 in predelirium and eight in delirium. However, all four patients with Wernicke's encephalopathy had a malabsorption syndrome. These results are similar, also quantitatively, to those reported in the literature in alcoholics without neurological signs. Alcohol may be involved in the pathogenesis of alcoholic polyneuropathy both as a toxic factor and also via nutritional deficiency.

Adult↗
PubMed1975

Combined inpatient and outpatient group psychotherapy: a therapeutic model for psychosomatics.

A special strategy of psychotherapeutic approach to psychosomatic patients is described including a 3-month period of inpatient and a 2-year period of outpatient group psychotherapy. Additional therapeutic procedures applied during the time of hospitalization are a special kind of sensitivity training ('sensual awareness' -- 'konzentrative Bewegungstherapie') and analytic ergotherapy. The therapeutic techniques used are psychoanalytic with special regard to the scenic figures which arise during the course of a session. The 'scenic function of the ego' represented in, e.g., certain body movements, sitting-arrangments, and talking-sequences offers the opportunity of a possible access to the often poor phantasy life of the psychosomatic patient, suffering from what we call the Pinocchio syndrome. The key structure of the model implies the arrangement fixed prior to the onset of therapy between patients and therapist, to stay together as a closed in- and outpatient group for 2 years. This enables the patients to take the risk of new emotional experiences under the cover of protected living conditions in the hospital, as well as the chance to check and confirm these experiences under the pressure of the regular social conditions they live in.

Hospitalization↗