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Biomedical subjects

P M Furlan

Publications and source records attributed to P M Furlan.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1998

The importance of developing an informatics framework for mental health.

Though mental health services are important in human terms, and account for a tenth of health expenditure, they are not well served in informatics developments. There are no specific mental health components in the European Union's health telematics programmes, and there is similar under-representation in national programmes. Yet telematics has much to offer mental health services and their management, and can address directly current service anxieties. Telematics concepts which could benefit mental health include integrated, multi-disciplinary records, real-time multi-site record access, and structured programmes to plan, schedule, and monitor care delivery. The power of information systems to sort data, and to represent them graphically, can sift like data items from complex records, and can present them in displays which highlight their significance. Above all, quality of care can be enhanced by monitoring, and by improved outcome measurement. However, a planned programme of research and development is needed, to relate and adjust current health informatics techniques to the special attributes of mental health. The World Health Organisation has identified the potential of such a programme, but greater vision and commitment is needed at policy level if mental health services and patients are to receive the benefits from health informatics which are available to the physically ill.

Abstracting and Indexing↗
PubMed1997

Salivary cortisol and daily events in nursing home residents.

The authors evaluated the feasibility of using salivary cortisol as a noninvasive measure of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-axis responses to stressful events of daily living in elderly nursing home residents. Ten medically stable male nursing home residents (age 81.7 +/- 12.42) gave salivary samples before and after an assisted bath, and at corresponding times on the subsequent (control) day. Regression models, with measures of salivary cortisol on the bath and control days for two timepoints before the bath and four timepoints after the bath as the dependent variables, yielded significant effects of time, bath status, and day. Salivary cortisol testing is noninvasive and easy to collect from long-term care patients, including those with moderate degrees of dementia. It may be of use as a tool for studying the stressors associated with care, the determinants of HPA responses, and the consequences of hypercortisolemia in these vulnerable patients.

Aged↗
PubMed1995

[Psychosexual interventions combined with biologic therapy of erectile dysfunction].

The authors, beginning from che concept of erectile disorder with mixed pathogenesis, describe its clinical dimension. The psychic variables which prevent the use of biologic-andrologic therapy (FIC, penis prosthesis) are then considered: 1) psycho-sexual difficulties before the onset of the organic lesion; 2) the partner's relationship with the biologic-andrologic therapy; 3) the patients' relationship with the biologic therapy. A model of intervention (Group Psycho-sexologic Intervention) on the psychic variables interfering with the use of the biologic-andrologic therapy is then described. The authors end by considering the psychological impact and the possible psychoiatrogenicity of biologic-andrologic therapies.

Erectile Dysfunction↗
PubMed1995

[Penile prosthesis].

In this article the Authors, after describing the history of the penile prosthesis surgery and analyzing the technical progresses made in the last twenty years, offer their personal experience and data from the most recent literature about treatment of erectile dysfunction through the application af penile prosthesis, about the indications for the operation and the choice of the type of prosthesis. They also explain all the possible complications and eventual mechanical failures, which have considerably decreased in the last few years.

Erectile Dysfunction↗
PubMed1994

[Psychological problems related to the sexual stimulation video (SSV) test in the diagnosis of erectile disorders].

The Authors analyze scientific community's attitude towards VSS test. Related psychological problems are examined: the doctor's fear to be accused of voyeurism, the doctor's inadequacy in "invading" patient's field of intimacy, the doctor's relationship with his own erotic fantasies and with pornography, the "castrating" aspects in hospital environment and so on.

Diagnosis, Differential↗
PubMed1992

The image of self and of the environment in drug abusers: a comparative study using the TAT.

This study attempted to add to our understanding of the heroin abusers' identity problems, using images of the self and the environment. Murray's Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) was applied to a group of male drug users undergoing withdrawal treatment with methadone and also to a group of male, non-drug using controls. The needs of the subjects and the demands of the environment, plus interaction between the two, were compared between the two groups to obtain information about the self and lifestyle. Among the data which emerged, is an increased need for destructive aggression and an environment experienced as coercive and emarginating. Among the interactions we observed coerced imagination, difficulties in identification, personal relationships based on abandonment with persecutory projection of the female figure and a tendency toward immature defences such as avoidance, denial and acting out. This information is discussed in relation to possible means of treatment.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

[Preventive psychology and andrological problems].

The Authors focus the main aspects and the secondary prophylaxis of the psychogenic sexual disorders, showing some interdisciplinary methodological aspects between andrology and psychiatry and illustrating the emotional-cultural requisites of the physician who is going on to prophylactically operate. In the second part a protocol of psychological prophylaxis structures in sequential issues is presented, this protocol is the one used by the University Urological Division of S. Luigi Gonzaga Hospital with the collaboration of the Psychiatric Division of the same Hospital. This protocol is to be presented to patients scheduled for surgery on the genital area.

Erectile Dysfunction↗
PubMed1986

[Hospital emergencies in drug addiction. Analysis and interpretation of data recorded at 3 DEAs of the Turin area].

The present research forms part of a wider research organised as part of an NRC sub-project on the psychotherapy of drug addiction. It aims to examine drug addiction services in order to assess the interrelations between these services, their ways of operating and the use drug addicts make of them. An attempt is also made to identify the response models offered by these structures and their relation to the specific demand by the drug addicted users, the aim being to show that the initial response has in itself a largely unexploited capacity to direct the requirements of the drug addicted patients.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

[Services for prevention, cure and rehabilitation of drug addiction in the Vercelli and Novara provinces].

The drug addiction prevention and treatment services in the provinces of Vercelli and Novara are examined. The aim of the present work was to study an area in a transitional stage, where agricultural and industrial work and society is changing as are cultural values but where there is sufficient prosperity both to encourage the spread of drug addiction to permit the establishment of appropriate care. The local services for the prevention and cure of drug addiction and the rehabilitation of addicts were set up in 1978. The present work aims to assess the current situation and function of those services.

Health Surveys↗
PubMed1978

[An atypical case of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), (with special reference to psychiatric and psychological evaluations)].

An atypical case of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis is described, with particular reference to its psychiatric and psychological aspects in the light of the neurological and laboratory data: slow-gamma electrophoresis of the spinal fluid, periodic delta signs in the EEG over about 6 yr, 1/160 blood titre of anti-measles virus antibodies. The history displayed an ingravescent dementia course and the patient's continuing survival for more than 11 yr makes the case the longest recorded in the literature. Both the psychiatric-psychological and neurological symptoms had occurred in distinct stages. It is suggested that neurological recrudescence was responsible for the pattern of symptomatological stabilisation followed by sudden relapses. The symptoms regarded as characteristic of the terminal stage have not yet appeared, especially on the neurological side.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

Further observations on carbamazepine plasma levels in epileptic patients. Relationships with therapeutic and side effects.

Plasma levels of carbamazepine, phenytoin and phenobarbital were monitored weekly over a period of 9 weeks in 20 epileptic patients unresponsive to treatment. No attempts were made to modify phenytoin and/or phenobarbital plasma levels; emphasis was on achieving carbamazepine plasma levels of 4 to 10 mug per milliliter. A remarkable drop in seizure frequency was attained within 2 to 3 weeks of monitoring, with carbamazepine plasma and concentrations within the desired range. Children disposed of the drug faster than adults. No effects of phenytoin and phenobarbital on carbamazepine plasma levels could be observed, while phenobarbital on carbamazepine plasma levels fluctuated remarkably without any relationship to carbamazepine levels. Transient leukopenia was present in most of the patients, while a significant reversible drop in red blood cells was observed in eight patients. The data reported confirm that with a careful monitoring of drug plasma levels, carbamazepine may exert a definite passive effect on seizure frequency in epileptic patients poorly responsive to therapy.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

[Neuropsychiatric findings in a case of paramyoclonus multiplex].

In a subject affected with multiple paramyoclonus, showing asyncronous, bilateral, intermittent, spontaneous myoclonic jerks, a neuro-psychiatric investigation was performed. Several day-time poligraphic recordings were normal, while the night-time ones showed the lack of myoclonic jerks throughout the sleep. Metrazol activation pointed out a probable hyperexcitability of brain stem reticular formation. The psychiatric investigation, performed with a psychodynamic approach let realize the existence of a distortion of neuro-psychological functions due to an impaired elaboration of emotional information and psycho-structuring engrams. The Authors conclude for a posible convergence of biological and psychological factors causing the clinical symptoms.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

[The influence of noise on the human central nervous system (author's transl)].

We studied the effects of the road noise on the central nervous system in a group of 40 normal adult subjects. The neurophysiological research included the following parameters: acoustic and visual evoked cortical potentials, percentage of EEG desynchronization, contingent negative variation (CNV) and sleep-EEG. The results showed in every subject a reduction of the amplitude of the acoustic evoked potential recorded during the road noise as against to that one we recorded during normal silence. This fact, also in contrast to the stability of the visual evoked potential during the road noise and the normal silence, permitted to verify the existence of a neuronal occlusion phenomenon interesting the evocative acoustic stimulus when the noise is provided at the same time. The study of the EEG desynchronization during the road noise compared to that one during the normal silence did not give any statistically difference. The study of the CNV gave analogous results. Only if we complete the research with the study of the base-personality of every subject by the Rorschachtest, we found significant differences among the neurphysiological parameters as the EEG desynchronization and the CNV during the normal silence and the noise in relation to the different levels of anxiety and endotensivity of every subject.

Acoustic Stimulation↗