Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to R G Knight.
During a health survey of a New Zealand community, two S-R inventories measuring responsiveness to anger and to anxiety provoking situations were administered to 1127 adults. With age treated as a covariate, no association was found between scores on these measures and blood pressure.
Research on interventions for amnesics is reviewed which suggests that it is possible to teach amnesics specific information or memory skills but that these are not likely to generalize or to be maintained spontaneously. It is suggested that interventions with clearly defined behavioural goals and which have programmed for generalization and maintenance of treatment gains may prove to be most effective. The purpose of interventions for chronically hospitalized cognitively impaired patients does not appear to have been considered adequately, and it is concluded that future research will be hampered unless greater consideration is given to information processing theory relating to amnesia. Possible directions for future research are discussed.
As part of a general health survey of a small New Zealand town, the Crow-Crisp Experiential Index, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, a shortened version of the Hostility and Direction of Hostility Questionnaire, and the Zung Self-rating Depression Scale were administered to 1173 subjects over the age of 15. Blood pressure was moderately correlated with age and Quetelet's Index, a measure of obesity. Low but significant correlations were found between Somatic Anxiety, Hysteria, and the Urge to Act-out Hostility scale. However, when effects of age were controlled for, in a series of multiple regression analyses, the correlations with psychometric test scores were no longer significant. This study confirms several previous reports that neuroticism, anxiety, depression, and hostility are of little significant in predicting levels of blood pressure in the general population.
In a preliminary investigation of the post-partum 'blues', a group of 98 primiparous women were assessed before and after birth, using a state depression scale, the state anxiety scale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and visual analogue scales for rating anxiety and depression. A matched sample of 96 non-pregnant women was given the same measures, at the same time intervals. Between-group differences were found on the visual analogue scales administered on the days immediately after birth, but not on the other state mood scales. The most sensitive measures of the post-partum blues proved to be the highest and average visual analogue scale of depression scores recorded over the period of hospitalisation.
The rehabilitation status of amnesic alcoholic patients who previously participated in either a memory training programme, an activation control programme, or an assessment only condition, was determined at a 12 month follow-up. An earlier study found a non-specific improvement in memory functioning for patients in both group programmes. These patients were also found to be more likely to be discharged from hospital at the 12 month follow-up. It is suggested that further attempts to rehabilitate brain-damaged alcoholics may be justified.
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The relationship between three different methods of assessing memory impairment: cognitive tests, questionnaires, and observational rating scales, was assessed in 20 dysmnesic alcoholic in-patients. The cognitive tests were subdivided into those which measured everyday memory skills and those which were traditional experimental-laboratory tasks. All three methods were highly intercorrelated and the correlation between practical and experimental cognitive tests was also high. Memory test scores were not as highly correlated with either performance on perceptual-motor tasks or full-scale IQ.
Presented age and sex-specific norms for the 13-item short form of the Beck Depression Inventory, based on data collected during a general health survey (N = 1091). Females were found to score more highly than males, and an internal consistency reliability of .81 was found.
Considered methods of evaluating the pattern of subtest scores on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised. The rationale and method for calculating the size of a significant difference between a subtest and the mean of the subtests scores for an individual are described. The score differential necessary at three probability levels for a reliable difference between the subtest mean and any one subtest, corrected for the number of a-posteriori comparisons made, are presented.
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Using the subtraction method described by Bashore (1981), inter-hemispheric transfer times were calculated from the RTs of 12 schizophrenic and 12 matched hospitalized control patients to stimuli presented tachistoscopically to their left or right visual hemifields. No evidence was found for inefficient transfer of information between the hemispheres of the schizophrenics.
Daily levels of anxious and depressed mood, as well as motor and speech activity were monitored for five depressed and four hypomanic patients during the courses of their in-patient treatment. The data were compared with results from nine matched control subjects. Motor activity was assessed using the actometer--a wrist watch which translates activity into movement of the watch hands--and the speech activity by recording the pause, phonation, and total times taken to recite the digits from one to ten. Validity data for the actometer and for total and pause time were found to be encouraging as outcome monitors for the treatment of depressive affect; the significant results from the total time measure suggest that this simple method is worthy of more widespread use in clinical settings.
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Means and standard deviations are reported for the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and the Zung Self-Rating Depression scale, collected during the course of a general health survey. Data for different age samples and for both sexes are presented for use in the evaluation of the significance of anxiety and depression levels in patients presenting with these symptoms. High estimates of reliability based on internal consistency statistics were found for all scales. Females scored more highly on both the measures and scores were inversely correlated with age, indicating the importance of specific and appropriate norms in assessing affective states.
Simultaneous application of the lysostaphin sensitivity test for identification of Staphylococcus aureus and the deoxycholate test for the identification of Streptococcus pneumoniae was evaluated for reliability in rapid identification (1 h) of these organisms from blood cultures by using BACTEC 6B and 7C bottles. The procedure was applied to 127 cultures, 74 lysostaphin tests and 53 deoxycholate tests. Lysostaphin-tested organisms included 23 S. aureus, 40 Staphylococcus epidermidis, 1 Listeria sp., 1 Peptococcus sp., 2 Micrococcus sp., 2 diphtheroids, and 5 mixed cultures. Deoxycholate-tested organisms included 14 S. pneumoniae, 32 Streptococcus spp. (not S. pneumoniae), 1 Listeria sp., 1 Peptococcus sp., 2 diphtheroids, and 3 mixed cultures. Analysis of the data revealed positive and negative predictive values of 95.8 and 94%, respectively, for the lysostaphin test and 100 and 97.4%, respectively, for the deoxycholate test. The combined tests provide rapid reliable identification or elimination of S. aureus and S. pneumoniae in blood cultures.
Inhibition of the Na+-K+ active transport system has been postulated to be one mechanism through which myocardial contractility is increased. Rubidium is one substance which has been shown to increase the contractility of guinea-pig atria and inhibit the activity of the isolated Na+,K+-adenosine triphosphatase of guinea-pig ventricle. A reexamination of these results confirmed the positive inotropic effect of rubidium on guinea-pig atria and demonstrated that this effect on contractility is accompanied by a decrease in both resting potential and action potential duration. However, it was also found that rubidium produced a transient negative inotropic effect in guinea-pig ventricle. The latter response was closely paralleled by a transient shortening of action potential duration. A concentration of rubidium maximally effective in decreasing contractility (2.0 mM) had no effect on the slow response action potential or contraction. RbCl (0.1 mM) had no effect on cyclic adenosine 3':5'-monophosphate levels of the ventricle or atrium. RbCl did inhibit active transport in the ventricle, as evidenced by a significant reduction in the electrogenic contribution on the active transport system to the maximal diastolic membrane potential during high-frequency drive. These results demonstrate that RbCl has different effects on the contractility of atrial and ventricular muscle. They also suggest that inhibition of the sodium pump is not necessarily accompanied by an increased force of myocardial contraction.