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Biomedical subjects

S A Cooper

Publications and source records attributed to S A Cooper.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Histrionic personality disorder as pseudo-learning disability.

The case of a 20-year-old woman with a histrionic personality disorder is described. She claims to have a mild learning disability, and indeed, is receiving special college education for people with learning disabilities and has a specialist learning disability social worker, despite being of above average intelligence. Aetiologically, her persona is viewed as a psychological defence, rather than a deliberate attempt at deception. A process of 'institutionalization' appears to have occurred and compounded the problems with further regression. Psychiatrists and professionals in allied disciplines should not accept that a person has a learning disability purely because that person tells you that he or she has one.

Adult↗

Detection of psychiatric disorders in elderly medical inpatients.

In a psychiatric census of a 196-bed acute inpatient Medicine for the Elderly unit, 76.1% of patients resident during 1 week were screened and interviewed in a two-stage diagnostic procedure. Of 153 patients studied, 11.1% were delirious, 26.8% were demented, and 9.2% were depressed. Overall, 56.9% of the cases were identified by ward nurses, and 55.5% by the ward doctors; taken together, ward staff identified 75.0% of the cases (kappa = 0.46), indicating that detection of psychiatric disorder in this population might be improved if doctors and nurses pooled their observations on this aspect of patient assessment.

Aged↗

Late onset mania in Down's syndrome.

Manic episodes have seldom been reported in individuals with Down's syndrome. The case of an individual with Down's syndrome who developed a manic episode in later life is described. This manic episode was subsequently followed by a first depressive episode.

Activities of Daily Living↗

Multi-infarct dementia in Down's syndrome.

In spite of a burgeoning literature on the association of Down's syndrome with Alzheimer's disease, the occurrence of multi-infarct dementia has largely been overlooked. A 55-year-old woman with Down's syndrome in whom a dementing process was associated with evidence of significant cerebrovascular disease is reported here. It is considered that she sustained both multi-infarct dementia and probable Alzheimer's disease. It is suggested that such cases are under-reported.

Brain↗

Clinical features and diagnostic criteria of depression in Down's syndrome.

BACKGROUND: Depression occurs commonly in people with Down's syndrome, although there is little published about this association. This study explores the limitations of Diagnostic Criteria for Research, based on ICD-10 (DCR) and DSM-III-R depressive criteria. METHOD: Case not examination identified 42 adults with Down's syndrome who have sustained 56 depressive episodes. The clinical features are reported. RESULTS: All episodes were diagnosed as depression. DSM-III-R criteria for major depressive episode were met by 50% of the episodes. DCR for depressive episode of at least mild severity were fulfilled by 68%. CONCLUSIONS: These criteria were unduly restrictive for this group. Commonly occurring symptoms are not included in the criteria, while certain criteria items never occurred. Criteria should be modified to facilitate future research.

Adolescent↗

Narcotic receptor blockade and its effect on the analgesic response to placebo and ibuprofen after oral surgery.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the contribution of endogenous opiates to the analgesic response after treatment with placebo, codeine, and ibuprofen after oral surgery. Eighty-one patients undergoing complicated dental extractions were pretreated with either a placebo or the narcotic antagonist naltrexone 50 mg, 30 minutes before surgery. After surgery, patients self administered one of three possible postsurgical medications, which included placebo, codeine 60 mg, and ibuprofen 400 mg, when their pain reached a moderate or severe intensity. The study was double-blind with the three postsurgical treatments being randomly allocated within each presurgical treatment block. Pain intensity, pain relief, pain half gone, and overall evaluations were assessed for up to 6 hours. Ibuprofen was significantly more efficacious (p < .05) than codeine or placebo for most analgesic measures. The administration of naltrexone before surgery reduced the analgesic response to both placebo and codeine. Pretreatment with naltrexone did not diminish the peak analgesic response to ibuprofen, but surprisingly prolonged (p < .05) the duration of its action. The results suggest that a blockade of endogenous opiates by naltrexone diminished the placebo response, but that naltrexone may prolong ibuprofen analgesia by some unknown mechanism.

Adult↗

Ibuprofen controlled-release formulation. A clinical trial in dental impaction pain.

This double-blind study compared a controlled-release formulation of ibuprofen 600 mg with three doses of regular ibuprofen 200 mg and three doses of codeine 30 mg. Patients who had dental impaction surgery received the controlled-release ibuprofen, codeine, or regular ibuprofen when postoperative pain reached moderate to severe intensity. At 4 and 8 hours after dose 1, patients who had initially received the controlled-release ibuprofen received a placebo, and those taking ibuprofen and codeine received their second and third doses of those drugs. All doses of study medication or placebo appeared identical for each treatment. Subjects made evaluations hourly for 12 hours in a diary. The controlled-release ibuprofen had a comparable onset to ibuprofen, a higher peak effect, and was significantly more effective than ibuprofen at hour 4; the controlled-release ibuprofen was significantly more effective than codeine for all hourly observations through hour 9. Ibuprofen was significantly better than codeine only through hour 3. The controlled-release ibuprofen had the lowest incidence of side effects and codeine the highest. The single dose of the controlled-release ibuprofen formulation appeared as efficacious as three regular doses of ibuprofen 200 mg over a 12-hour period.

Adult↗

Pathological jealousy and mental handicap.

Though widely reported in the general population, pathological jealousy has not previously been reported in an individual with a mental handicap. We describe the case of a 39-year-old man with a borderline mental handicap and an abnormal premorbid personality who demonstrates the condition.

Adult↗

Mania and Down's syndrome.

Until recently, it was considered that Down's syndrome precluded a diagnosis of mania, or gave rise to an atypical presentation. There have been seven case reports of mania in people with Down's syndrome and all these cases are reviewed. The clinical features of mania are noted to be similar to those previously described in individuals with learning disabilities due to other causes. However, all reported cases are male and none has a family history of affective disorder. In two of the seven men reported, the illness followed a rapid cycling pattern. Hypothyroidism and monoamine biochemistry in people with Down's syndrome are discussed in the context of these atypical features.

Adult↗

Analgesic onset time as a measure of topical anesthetic efficacy in spontaneous toothache pain: a pilot study.

The purpose of this pilot investigation was to determine the usefulness of analgesic onset time as a measure of topical anesthetic efficacy in patients with spontaneous toothache pain. Under blinded conditions, 20 patients with spontaneous toothache pain from an open tooth cavity were randomly assigned to receive either 20% benzocaine or placebo (80% polyethylene glycol). The medication was applied directly to the open cavity in a volume of 3 drops. Patients then depressed a stop watch when they initially experienced pain relief. Patients who did not obtain relief were assigned the maximum onset value of 600 seconds. The average analgesic onset time was 111.8 seconds in the benzocaine group and 289.0 seconds in the placebo group. In the benzocaine group, 90% of the patients reported some pain relief, while a surprisingly high 60% reported some pain relief in the placebo group. The results of this study suggest that in the spontaneous toothache pain model, analgesic onset time is a valuable measure of topical anesthetic efficacy. In addition, polyethylene glycol at a concentration of 80% may not be a totally inactive vehicle.

Adult↗

Differential rates of psychiatric disorders in adults with Down's syndrome compared with other mentally handicapped adults.

The total number of adults with Down's syndrome living in Leicestershire, ascertained by widespread enquiry, was found to be 378. Of these, 371 were matched with adults with mental handicap due to other pathologies, on the basis of age, sex, and type of residence. Those with Down's syndrome were found to have a different spectrum of mental disorders from those without the syndrome. In particular, Down's syndrome patients were more likely to have been diagnosed as having depression and dementia; the controls were more likely to have been diagnosed as suffering from conduct disorder, personality disorder, or schizophrenia/paranoid state. The same proportion of each group had been given a diagnosis of autism.

Adult↗