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Biomedical subjects

R Manchanda

Publications and source records attributed to R Manchanda.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1986

Comparison between the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale and the Manchester Scale for the rating of schizophrenic symptoms.

A reliability study was carried out to compare the short Manchester Scale (MS) to the longer Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), to see if similar items scored the same aspect of pathology and to find the sources of error. The raters were a psychiatrist and a psychologist cum medical student; they had recently arrived in Britain, came from different cultures and had not used the scale previously. Comparisons between the scales were made by interviewing the patients separately and together using either one or both scales. The items on the MS showed a higher interrater reliability as compared to the BPRS, both with independent and simultaneous ratings. Items based on observation only correlated poorly as compared to items based on verbal report. Lower between-scale correlations for delusions and affect were observed even where the same rater used the two scales, suggesting that the scales have different meanings for these items. The MS is a suitable alternative to the BPRS for quantifying schizophrenic symptoms.

Affect↗
PubMed1986

Does propranolol have an antipsychotic effect? A placebo-controlled study in acute schizophrenia.

Thirty-six acute schizophrenics were randomly assigned to dextro (d)-propranolol or placebo in a double blind trial lasting four weeks. All patients had a fixed dose of haloperidol during the first week, which resulted in an initial improvement in both groups. Thereafter, a deterioration towards base-line was seen. Six patients on placebo, but none on propranolol were treatment failures at the end of three weeks (P less than 0.001). Comparison of change in scores from week 2 to 4 showed significantly greater deterioration in the placebo group; d-propranolol thus had a better effect than placebo in sustaining the initial improvement with haloperidol. The overall magnitude of clinical change from pre-treatment scores is small, the majority of the patients showing little or no overall improvement. It is concluded that d-propranolol has a detectable therapeutic effect, which by inference must have a novel pharmacological basis, but this is not as potent as standard neuroleptics.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

Pathway and hemispheric differences in the event-related potential (ERP) to monaural stimulation: a comparison of schizophrenic patients with normal controls.

Previous research has established the stability of the contralateral dominance effect of the auditory temporal N120 peak amplitude. The purpose of this experiment was to examine event-related potential (ERP) asymmetries in schizophrenia, with particular reference to this contralateral dominance phenomenon. Ten unmedicated schizophrenic patients and ten controls heard a series of monaural tones, with no task requirements, while EEG was recorded from Cz, Pz, T3, and T4 referred to linked earlobes. Patients were characterized by smaller N120 amplitudes than controls, an effect that was slightly more pronounced at temporal sites. Patients failed to show the normal N120 contralateral dominance effect. Hemisphere asymmetry ratios revealed that 50% of the patients showed ipsilateral dominance in the auditory pathways. Furthermore, the hemisphere asymmetries (whether ipsilaterally or contralaterally dominant) seen in patients were significantly greater than for controls. These data offer a new level of explanation for schizophrenic performance abnormalities in dichotic listening paradigms and an explanation for for the apparent dichotomy in patient performance between exaggerated right ear advantage (REA) and left ear advantage (LEA).

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1984

Schizophrenia and spectral analysis of the visual evoked potential.

Power spectral analysis was performed on the visual evoked potentials (VEPs) recorded in response to flashes of different intensity in both unmedicated schizophrenic and normal subjects. At occipital locations (O1, O2), schizophrenics showed less power than normals in the 10-14 Hz frequency range. In the 18-22 Hz range, schizophrenics showed under-activation in the left hemisphere and over-activation in the right. At temporal locations (T3, T4), schizophrenics showed abnormal (left greater than right) hemisphere patterns of activation in 10-14 Hz and 18-22 Hz ranges. There were no group differences in relationships between power and intensity changes at vertex (Cz). The results suggest abnormal cortical-subcortical interactions during analysis of visual information in schizophrenia.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Visual evoked potentials in schizophrenia. Intensity effects and hemispheric asymmetry.

Visual evoked potentials (VEP) to different flash intensities were recorded at a central site (Cz) plus at homologous temporal and occipital locations in normal and unmedicated schizophrenic subjects. Schizophrenic patients showed an hemisphere asymmetry of the P100-N120 peak-trough amplitude with smaller left but larger right hemisphere amplitudes than normal. Further, two subgroups of patients were found with abnormalities lateralized to the left hemisphere. One group was found to have abnormal P100 amplitude-intensity patterns at the left temporal site while the other group showed deviant N120 amplitude-intensity patterns at the left occipital location. The clinical significance of these results can be seen in the higher nuclear schizophrenia (PSE-CATEGO) scores in the left temporal subgroup and the higher hypomania and situational anxiety scores in the left occipital group. Patients also showed slower than normal P100 and N120 peak latencies.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

(Des-Tyr)gamma-endorphin for schizophrenia. A critical review.

(Des-Tyr)-gamma-endorphin is a naturally-occurring neuropeptide. It has no opiate-like activity, and animal research suggests that it shares with haloperidol certain effects on animal behaviour. The compound was given to schizophrenics, and initial claims of 'a reduction or total disappearance of symptoms in schizophrenics partly or completely resistant to conventional neuroleptics and suffering from long-lasting psychoses' were made. Several investigators have attempted to replicate these findings without success. This paper reviews the shortcomings in methodology and interpretation of results of the investigations carried out so far and emphasises that the fundamental question of whether (Des-Tyr)-gamma-endorphin has any clinical antipsychotic effect has not been answered by any study to date.

Antipsychotic Agents↗
PubMed1982

The syndrome of schizophrenia: relations between electrodermal response, lateral asymmetries and clinical ratings.

Forty-eight undrugged hospital admissions with a present state examination (PSE) diagnosis of schizophrenia were subdivided by the direction of lateral differences in electrodermal response amplitudes to tones. The 29 with larger right-hand responses and the 19 with larger left-hand responses were compared on CATEGO syndromes and brief psychiatric rating scale (BPRS). The larger group had symptoms like those of classical Bleulerian schizophrenia--blunted affect, emotional withdrawal, impaired social functioning, disorganized thought and retarded motility. The other group manifested florid symptoms including hypomanic affect, pressure of speech, ideas of reference, depressive hallucinations and delusions, hypochondriasis, grandiosity and situational anxiety. The psychophysiological measures may provide an objective aid to diagnosis and implications for altered cerebral organization in psychotic patients.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1980

Drug abuse among resident doctors.

240 young doctors undergoing a residency programme in a medical school in India were individually interviewed for pattern and extent of drug abuse. Drug abuse was operationally defined as "Indulgence in a drug with a frequency of at least once a month without medical prescription". Of the doctors 30.4% were categorised as drug abusers currently, 14.2% had used one or the other drug in the past, and 17.9% had never used any drug. A significantly higher level of abuse was observed among male doctors (37.1%) than female doctors (2.2%). Alcohol was most commonly abused (17.9%). Minor tranquilizers were abused by 17.5%. None of the doctors was abusing any substances on a daily basis. No hard drugs were abused. Common reasons for alcohol intake were for the sake of company and curiosity. Minor tranquilizers and amphetamines were taken for their pharmacological effects.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1979

Hostility and guilt in obsessive-compulsive neurosis.

The enquiry relates to the investigation of 30 cases of obsessive-compulsive neurosis with special reference to the phenomena of hostility and guilt as revealed through Foulds' Five Punitive Scales and the Thematic Apperception Test. Controls consisted of an equal number of subjects suffering from neurotic depression. Analysis reveals acting-out hostility and extrapunitive tendency in the experimental group. No significant difference was found in terms of guilt scores.

Female↗
PubMed1975

A preliminary study of iron absorption by whole body counting and correlation with DFO excretion.

A preliminary study of iron absorption by whole body counting was carried on a group of 16 women. The cases included 8 patients suffering from iron deficiency anaemia and various infections as well as 8 healthy controls. High iron absorption is associated with iron deficiency, these changes being more marked in iron deficient controls than in those with infection or malignancy. In iron deficient controls results of whole body counting correlate very well with other haematological investigations.

Anemia, Hypochromic↗