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N McConaghy

Publications and source records attributed to N McConaghy.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1990

Event-related potential indices of selective attention and cortical lateralization in schizophrenia.

Auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) from a multidimensional selective attention task were recorded from 10 unmedicated schizophrenic patients and 10 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. Tone pip stimuli varying on the dimensions of pitch (high or low) and location (left or right ear) formed four 'channels' of stimuli: left low, left high, right low, and right high. The pitch difference was considerably more difficult to discriminate than the location difference. Subjects were instructed to pay attention to a designated channel and press a button whenever they detected a long-duration, rare target tone that occurred amongst frequent short-duration standard tones. There were a number of differences between unmedicated schizophrenics and controls in processing negativity elicited by standard tones. There was no evidence of hierarchical processing of stimulus dimensions in the early processing negativity component, and the late frontal component was virtually absent in schizophrenics. Furthermore, there was evidence that in schizophrenics the processing of the location dimension was delayed for standard tones having the same pitch as the target. The P300 component to attended target tones was substantially reduced in schizophrenics over parietal sites but there was no difference between the two groups over frontal sites. The results are interpreted in terms of multiple attentional deficits in schizophrenics that are indicative of a failure in the planning and execution of selective listening strategies. Such a failure may result from a dysfunction in the prefrontal regions of the brain.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Boredom proneness in pathological gambling.

To test the hypothesis that pathological gamblers seek stimulation as a means of reducing aversive under-aroused states of boredom and/or depression, the Beck Depression Inventory, Zuckerman's Sensation Seeking Scale and a Boredom Proneness Scale were administered to 48 diagnosed pathological gamblers and a control group of 40 family physician patients. Analyses of variance showed pathological gamblers obtained significantly higher boredom proneness and depression scores than those of controls. That the Boredom Proneness Scale failed to correlate with the Zuckerman Boredom Susceptibility subscale suggested the two measure differing dimensions. Results indicated the possible existence of three subtypes of pathological gamblers, one group characterized by boredom, another by depression, and a third by a mixture of both depression and boredom.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Assessment and treatment of sex offenders: the Prince of Wales Programme.

The treatment programme for sex offenders at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney, is described. Penile circumference assessment is not used as there is no evidence it provides a valid measure of individuals' paedophile or rapist tendencies. Sex offenders' self-reports remain the major source of information in their assessment. The development of the two major techniques used--imaginal desensitization and short-term medroxyprogesterone--is outlined. About 80% of subjects can be expected to show a good response to one or other of these therapies. Of those who do not, most respond to the alternative or aversive therapy. Adolescent offenders appear to require more intensive treatment. Results appear comparable with those of more intensive programmes in use overseas.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Can reliance be placed on a single meta-analysis?

Meta-analysis replaced statistical significance with effect size in the hope of resolving controversy concerning evaluation of treatment effects. Statistical significance measured reliability of the effect of treatment, not its efficacy. It was strongly influenced by the number of subjects investigated. Effect size as assessed originally, eliminated this influence but by standardizing the size of the treatment effect could distort it. Meta-analyses which combine the results of studies which employ different subject types, outcome measures, treatment aims, no-treatment rather than placebo controls or therapists with varying experience can be misleading. To ensure discussion of these variables meta-analyses should be used as an aid rather than a substitute for literature review. While meta-analyses produce contradictory findings, it seems unwise to rely on the conclusions of an individual analysis. Their consistent finding that placebo treatments obtain markedly higher effect sizes than no treatment hopefully will render the use of untreated control groups obsolete.

Bias↗
PubMed1989

Validity and ethics of penile circumference measures of sexual arousal: a critical review.

Wheeler and Rubin (1987) advanced evidence that penile volume responses (PVRs) were no more sensitive than penile circumference responses (PCRs) in measuring erection which the authors incorrectly identified with sexual arousal. Knowledge of the literature would have led them to question that identification and the methodology of their study. PVRs have repeatedly been demonstrated to assess validly not erection but the sexual orientation of individuals, when derived from the early stage of erectile response to brief stimuli that were from their onset of moderate erotic strength. PCR assessment has been of the degree of erection to stimuli of 2-10 min duration. No success has been reported using PCR measures of erection to classify subjects individually as to their sexual orientation. Classification of groups of 30 but not 6 homosexuals was successful using their PCRs to nudes. Attempts to identify rapists and pedophiles from normals, and aggressive from nonaggressive rapists and pedophiles by PCRs have failed to be replicated. In comparing PVRs and PCRs, Wheeler and Rubin used as stimuli three 10-min presentations of a film which apparently did not immediately introduce erotic material. This procedure would not elicit meaningful PVRs. Though never validated as a measure of individuals' sexual arousal, PCR measures of erection are currently widely recommended for assessment and determining treatment of individual sex offenders. If these assessments could affect or are believed by the offenders to affect the outcome of the legal processes in which they are involved, the procedure is not only scientifically unsupported, it is unethical.

Arousal↗
PubMed1989

Resistance to treatment of adolescent sex offenders.

Little information is available concerning adolescent sexual offenders and their response to treatment. Of 45 sex offenders treated in two studies, 6 were adolescents and 21 of the 39 adults reported that their deviant behavior had commenced before or during adolescence. All 6 adolescents presented for treatment only following detection of their offenses, which in 3 led to legal charges. Of the 39 adults, 12 sought treatment voluntarily. Subjects were randomly allocated to receive covert sensitization, imaginal desensitization, medroxyprogesterone, or imaginal desensitization plus medroxyprogesterone. The response of the adults was equivalent to the best reported in the literature. Seven of the 39 required additional treatment, 3 being charged for further sexual offenses. Four of the 6 adolescents required additional treatment, 3 being charged with further sexual offenses. These differences were statistically significant. Adolescent sexual offenders may be more resistant to treatment because their sexual urges are under more direct hormonal control whereas in adults sexual urges are in part under the control of behavior completion mechanisms. Sexual offenses in adolescence need to be considered as at least as significant as those of adults, and more intensive follow-up treatment appears indicated in their management.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Thought disorder or allusive thinking in the relatives of schizophrenics? A response to Callahan, Madsen, Saccuzzo, and Romney.

Romney and Saccuzzo et al. (J Nerv Ment Dis 176:364-367; 368-371, 1988) disagreed concerning the need for further studies investigating the presence of thought disorder and associative cognitive dysfunction in relatives of schizophrenics. Saccuzzo et al. were concerned at the variations in the results of previous studies. Methodological issues relevant to such variation are discussed. It is pointed out that the study (McConaghy J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 22:243-246, 1959) initiating psychometric investigation of cognitive processes of relatives of schizophrenics was based on the belief that what was familially transmitted was not thought disorder, but a nonpathological looseness of associations, shown also by a percentage of normal subjects. This looseness was later termed allusive thinking. It was considered that allusive thinking acted as an inherited predisposition to schizophrenia. It required the addition of impairment of abstract thinking to constitute the characteristic thought disorder originally described by Bleuler. To account for the significant degree of thought disorder found in 6% to 12% of normal subjects, some researchers now accept that thought disorder exists in normal subjects on a continuum with schizophrenic thought disorder. It is suggested that replication of a later study demonstrating familial transmission of allusive thinking in university students and their parents could aid in clarifying the significance of the findings of increased incidence of looseness of associations in the families of schizophrenics.

Association↗
PubMed1989

Behaviour completion mechanisms, anxiety and agoraphobia.

Little attention has been paid to the situations which provoke the initial attack of anxiety in agoraphobia. According to the behaviour completion hypothesis many normal subjects experience increased tension in such situations when there is a delay in the completion of a behaviour. One hundred and eight medical students completed a questionnaire designed to investigate this hypothesis. They reported experiencing increased tension or anxiety significantly more frequently in situations provoking agoraphobia when the situations contained a component of delay, as compared to such situations without this component, or to situations not commonly provoking agoraphobia. It is proposed that tension, anxiety and panic form a continuum of increasing levels of arousal, but are associated with different cognitions. It is further proposed that the arousal level of agoraphobics is sensitized, so that delay which provokes mild increases of arousal in the healthy, provokes high arousal in agoraphobics. This finding supports the hypothesis that delay in behaviour completion is a mechanism in the generation of tension and anxiety.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Anxiety and/or depression in the pathogenesis of addictive gambling.

The Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and the Beck Depression Inventory were administered to 75 pathological gamblers seeking behavioral treatment, to investigate the hypothesis that anxiety and depression were important determinants in the maintenance of gambling behavior. Further, subgroups of "pure" poker-machine and "pure" horse-race gamblers were isolated and compared to determine whether differences existed between groups of individuals who selected different forms of gambling. Although the desire to win money was given as the main reason for participation, need for money played a less significant role in precipitating further gambling. Rather, the concept that pathological gambling is a behavioral stress reaction received some support. As a group pathological gamblers had moderate levels of depression. State or trait anxiety scores were no different from Spielberger's normative sample of neuropsychiatric patients, but were higher than those of college students. No significant differences were found between the poker-machine and horse-race gambling subgroups on age, years gambling, years of uncontrolled gambling, state and trait anxiety, or depression. It was suggested that environmental factors are of importance in determining the form of gambling selected, but differences between these subgroups on other psychological dimensions could not be excluded on the basis of the present study.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

Imaginal desensitization: a cost-effective treatment in two shop-lifters and a binge-eater resistant to previous therapy.

Case reports are given of three patients, two suffering from compulsive shop-lifting and one from binge-eating, who responded to a week's treatment with imaginal desensitization after having failed to respond to prolonged interpretative psychotherapy. Expectancy of improvement did not appear to play a major role in their response, but it appears impossible to disprove that expectancy determines the response to this or any form of psychotherapy. Whether or not imaginal desensitization acted specifically in the present study, in view of its cost-efficacy it is suggested it is worthy of trial in impulse disorders which have persisted despite treatment.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Treatment of sex offenders with imaginal desensitization and/or medroxyprogesterone.

Thirty sex offenders were randomly allocated: 10 to receive medroxyprogesterone therapy (M), 10, imaginal desensitization (ID) and 10 both (ID + M). Twenty-four responded for one year though 3 subsequently relapsed. There were no significant differences in response to the 3 treatments. Four patients who did not respond to the initial treatment and the 3 who relapsed responded to further treatment. Most treated with M maintained heterosexual intercourse at pretreatment frequency. Self-reported reduction in anomalous sexual urges in patients receiving M correlated with reduced testosterone levels one month following treatment, demonstrating that the response was specific and validating the assessment by patients' self-reports. Where cost-effectiveness or time constraints are factors influencing treatment of sex offenders, one of these therapies warrants consideration.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

Somatosensory evoked potential activity: a measure of interhemispheric transfer in schizophrenia?

Jones and Miller (1981) reported that schizophrenics could be distinguished from healthy controls by latency differences in their ipsilateral and contralateral somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs), considered a measure of corpus callosum conduction time. Subsequent replication studies failed to follow the method of the original study. The present study represents a precise replication. An additional control for contamination of SEPs by an auditory stimulus generated by the vibrotactile stimulus was used. Ipsilateral SEP activity was identified but poor definition of a positive peak in the range of interest prevented measurement of peak latency. Evidence was advanced to suggest that such ipsilateral potentials result from activity at the vertex. It was concluded that this method is inappropriate for the investigation of interhemispheric transmission.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Assessment and management of pathological gambling.

This article describes a brief treatment--imaginal desensitization--which enables pathological gamblers to retain control of gambling, discusses its development and advances evidence from 2-9 years' follow-up of its efficacy.

Aversive Therapy↗
PubMed1987

Heterosexuality/homosexuality: dichotomy or continuum.

A recent reanalysis of Kinsey's data rejected his conclusion that heterosexuality and homosexuality were a continuum. A number of studies have been published over the past decade reporting that 5% or less of adolescents were aware of homosexual feelings, a finding also inconsistent with Kinsey's data. These studies have rejected prenatal hormones and rearing by homosexual parents as influencing sexual orientation. If Kinsey's data are correct and 40% or more of adolescents are aware of homosexual feeling the findings of these studies are invalid. Two replications of an initial study with representative samples of medical students found over 40% of both males and females currently aware of some homosexual feelings, consistent with Kinsey's conclusion. The ratio of reported homosexual to heterosexual feelings correlated with opposite sex-linked behaviors in the male, supporting the validity of the subjects' reports. If subjects representative of other subgroups of the population are investigated with this easily implemented method and report similar data, this theoretically and sociologically significant divergence of belief concerning the incidence of the heterosexual/homosexual balance would be resolved.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Low platelet monoamine oxidase and sensation seeking in males: an established relationship?

A significant negative correlation between platelet monoamine oxidase (MAO) activity, a stable peripheral enzyme measure under genetic control, and sensation seeking, as measured using the Zuckerman Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS), has been reported for male subjects in several studies. As tobacco smoking has been related to both these measures, in the present study correlations were calculated among smoking and non-smoking male university students. Platelet MAO activity was negatively correlated with the Disinhibition and Total scales of the SSS. These correlations were not significantly different in smokers and non-smokers. The results are discussed in terms of recent evidence of reduced platelet MAO activity in psychiatric patients.

Adult↗