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Biomedical subjects

R Abrams

Publications and source records attributed to R Abrams.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1987

Cognitive impairment patterns in schizophrenia and affective disorder.

A battery of neuropsychological tasks was used to study 62 schizophrenics, 67 melancholics, and 30 manics satisfying specific research diagnostic criteria, and 42 normal subjects. Two patterns of neuropsychological impairment among patients were identified by factor analysis. The first pattern of bifrontal, non-dominant hemisphere dysfunction was shared by schizophrenics and affectively ill patients, whereas the second pattern of dominant temporo-parietal-occipital impairment was most frequent in a subgroup of schizophrenics. These relationships remained after accounting for the effects of age, gender, handedness and drugs received at time of testing.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

ECT-induced EEG asymmetry and therapeutic response in melancholia: relation to treatment electrode placement.

Six right-unilateral and bilateral ECTs were equally effective in reducing Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression scores in 34 melancholic patients whose EEG symmetry did not change after ECT. However, a substantial therapeutic advantage was recorded for bilateral ECT in those patients whose EEG symmetry changed. Accentuation of ECT-induced EEG slowing over the right hemisphere was associated with right-unilateral ECT and a lesser treatment response, suggesting that the therapeutic advantage reported by some investigators for bilateral over right-unilateral ECT may be attributed to a poor outcome experienced by those unilateral ECT patients who developed right-sided EEG slowing.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Cisplatin and etoposide before definitive radiation therapy for inoperable squamous carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, and large cell carcinoma of the lung: a phase I-II study of the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group.

A trial of "neoadjuvant" cisplatin-etoposide and radiation therapy was conducted by the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group for non-small cell carcinoma of the lung limited to the thorax. Thirty evaluable patients were studied: two achieved complete response and four achieved partial response after chemotherapy. All patients underwent radiation therapy as planned, with no unusual acute reactions. Sixteen patients had local failure, and 13 had distant metastasis. Twenty-seven patients are dead, two are alive with cancer, and one is clinically free of cancer at 145 weeks. Five of six patients who survived greater than or equal to 2 years after treatment had adenocarcinomas. There was no unexpected late toxicity. This combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy is unlikely to improve results in the treatment of inoperable non-small cell carcinoma of the lung over those with radiotherapy alone.

Actuarial Analysis↗
PubMed1985

Mania with emotional blunting: affective disorder or schizophrenia?

Fourteen of 134 consecutively admitted manic patients exhibited emotional blunting in addition to the full manic syndrome. The authors compared these 14 blunted manic patients with the remaining 120 nonblunted manic patients and with 31 schizophrenic patients admitted during the same period. They found that the blunted manic patients more closely resembled schizophrenic than nonblunted manic patients on most of the demographic, clinical, and familial variables studied. Although mania with blunting may represent a variant of schizophrenia, the etiologic association between long-term neuroleptic administration and emotional blunting requires further study.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Short-term cognitive effects of unilateral and bilateral ECT.

We administered an extensive battery of primarily non-memory neuropsychological tasks to 37 patients with endogenous depression, randomly assigned to either bilateral (B/ECT) or unilateral (U/ECT) electroconvulsive therapy. Testing was done prior to therapy and again shortly after the sixth induced seizure. The two groups did not significantly differ in cognitive impairment, either before or after treatment, and within-group cognitive changes following treatment were small. We conclude that neither B/ECT nor U/ECT substantially worsen non-memory cognitive performance in depressed patients, yet both result in significant clinical improvement.

Cognition↗
PubMed1985

Discriminant validity of the MMPI for borderline personality disorder.

This study explores the discriminant validity of the MMPI in relationship to the DSM-III and the Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines (DIB) constructs of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). A two-way analysis of variance model assessed differences between inpatients (n = 42) and outpatients (n = 42) and between BPD and nonBPD patients. We compare the best discriminant model for the current samples with previous BPD discriminant functions. The present study assesses a wider range of psychopathology in which the MMPI appears to be relatively insensitive to the BPD construct while retaining the high specificity reported in previous studies. Implications for the use of the MMPI as a diagnostic instrument are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Mania and DSM-III schizophreniform disorder.

The investigations applied DSM-III schizophreniform criteria to 111 patients satisfying Feighner criteria for mania. Thirteen manics (12%) who met the DSM-III criteria were compared to the remaining manics. Manics satisfying DSM-III schizophreniform criteria had more depressive symptoms, but the two groups did not differ significantly on a number of demographic, clinical, and laboratory variables previously found to discriminate schizophrenics from affectives. The morbid risk for affective disorder in first-degree relatives of manics satisfying DSM-III schizophreniform criteria, although not significantly different, was one-third that of the remaining manics. However, the morbid risk for alcoholism in the relatives of the schizophreniform sample was twice that of the other group. The relative groups did not differ in combined morbid risk for alcoholism and affective disorder. The validity for psychiatric research of the DSM-III schizophreniform category is discussed in light of these findings.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Genetic studies of the schizoaffective syndrome: a selective review.

The diagnostic validity of the schizoaffective syndrome is assessed from a genetic vantage point. Five studies are reviewed that meet specific methodological requirements. No evidence is provided for the transmission of schizoaffective disorder as a diagnostic entity. The relationship of the schizoaffective syndrome to manic-depressive illness and to schizophrenia is unresolved, and genetic overlap exists between these two disorders in the transmission of the syndrome, with the larger contribution coming from affective disorder, and schizophrenia contributing primarily a severity of illness factor.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Cognitive impairment in schizophrenia.

The cognitive functioning of 62 schizophrenic subjects was compared with that of 42 normal controls using neuropsychological tasks that included assessment of soft neurological signs, an aphasia screening test, tachistoscopic stimulation, auditory threshold determinations, and items from the Mini-Mental State, Halstead-Reitan, and Luria-Nebraska batteries. Performance was rated blindly for hemispheric, regional cortical, and global impairment. No control showed more than a mild deficit, whereas three-quarters of the schizophrenic patients exhibited moderate to severe dysfunction. Schizophrenic subjects differed significantly from controls on all measures and showed bilateral impairment that was comparatively worse in the dominant frontotemporal regions. These differences were not a function of age, sex, handedness, or drug administration.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Prolactin levels after bilateral and unilateral ECT.

Serial post-ictal serum prolactin levels were obtained over a period of one hour after bilateral or unilateral electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in six patients. Bilateral ECT yielded significantly higher mean post-ictal prolactin levels than unilateral ECT at the 15, 20, 30 and 60 minute sampling times. These findings demonstrate a greater hypothalamic-stimulating effect of bilateral than unilateral ECT, and may explain the reported therapeutic advantage of bilateral over unilateral ECT in the treatment of patients with melancholia.

Delusions↗
PubMed1983

The importance of mood-incongruent psychotic symptoms in melancholia.

We examined the clinical, genetic and prognostic significance of mood-incongruent psychotic symptoms in a sample of melancholic patients with and without such features, and a control group of schizophrenic patients. We found no differences between the two depressive groups for any of the important variables studied, but marked differences for both groups in comparison with the schizophrenic sample. Mood-incongruent psychotic symptoms do not appear to identify a unique sub-population of melancholia.

Adult↗