Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

S C Schulz

Publications and source records attributed to S C Schulz.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1989

Prospects for the genetic analysis of schizophrenia.

This issue of the Schizophrenia Bulletin provides a forum for the presentation of early results and speculative hypotheses based on the application of molecular genetic methods for linkage studies in schizophrenia. Contributors were given the freedom to explore the historical and theoretical perspectives on the genetics of schizophrenia. They were also asked to balance their enthusiasm and cautious skepticism at the new suggestions of linkage involving chromosome 5 (Sherrington et al. 1988). In this overview, the epidemiologic evidence for a genetic factor in schizophrenia and recent linkage studies are briefly discussed. In addition, the potential and limitations of different linkage strategies in schizophrenia are examined.

Chromosomes, Human, Pair 5↗
PubMed1989

Community adjustment of chronic schizophrenic patients in urban and rural settings.

The influence of environmental conditions on the community adjustment of chronic schizophrenic patients who live in boarding homes and other residential facilities was studied using data from medical records and interviews with patients. Seventy-eight patients living in an urban area and 46 patients living in a rural area were included in the study. Compared with rural patients, urban patients were more likely to live in substandard dwellings, to receive less practical support from the home operator, and to report more incongruence with household members and aversive neighborhood conditions. Urban patients showed significantly more psychopathology, functioned more poorly in relationships with others, and had poorer global functioning than rural patients. Except for the physical condition of patients' dwellings, all the environmental conditions measured in the study were significantly associated with some measures of community adjustment regardless of geographic setting.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Rationale for clinical trials of opiate antagonists in treating patients with personality disorders and self-injurious behavior.

A subgroup of patients with personality disorders from the DSM-III-R (American Psychiatric Association 1987) "flamboyant" cluster is characterized by repetitive self-injurious behavior (SIB) apparently not motivated by suicidal intent. After describing the clinical and demographic characteristics of these patients, the clinical and preclinical evidence suggesting the involvement of endogenous opiate systems in this behavior is reviewed. Patients with personality disorders and SIB have been found to have elevated levels of plasma beta-endorphin. However, the available evidence is not sufficient to show whether this is a cause of or a consequence of SIB. Behavioral stereotypies resulting in self-injury in animals and SIB in mentally retarded patients have been shown to be abolished by opiate antagonist administration in a significant proportion of both groups. The available evidence suggests that clinical trials of oral opiate antagonist drugs should be undertaken because of the promise such drugs have in the treatment of this sometimes life-threatening disorder.

Clinical Trials as Topic↗
PubMed1988

Borderline personality disorder: replication of MMPI profiles.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a particular MMPI profile is associated with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Forty-seven symptomatic volunteers who satisfied DSM-III criteria for borderline and/or schizotypal personality disorder were given the full MMPI. Concordance of MMPI profile for BDP confirmed the findings of four previous studies. Elevations were noted on F, D, PD, PA, PT, and SC. A subject's profile with this pattern is interpreted from item content as generally neurotic, dysthymic, socially withdrawn, suspicious, apathetic toward the future, affectively erratic, unable to anticipate the consequences of his or her own behavior, and unable to judge the social desirability of his or her own behavior. Correlations of the foregoing scales with a total BPD score ranged from .44 to .77, with a multiple R of .80 and a cross validity of .77. The accuracy of predicting actual BPD and non-BPD cases was 89%. Accordingly, the MMPI could be used as a coarse screen for BPD casefinding in that patients with the MMPI profiles above should be selected for more thorough diagnostic workup. In the future, the MMPI might be linked to other variables, such as drug response, to understand further the pathophysiology of BPD.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

Changes in EEG mean frequency associated with anxiety and with amphetamine challenge in BPD.

Recent authors have hypothesized that cerebral dysfunction, as reflected in an abnormal EEG, may play an important role in the behavioral symptoms of patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Spectral analysis and amphetamine challenge testing are two promising methods for probing the clinical symptomatology of this disorder. In this study, we evaluated the relationship between clinical symptoms and computerized EEG spectral analysis in BPD patients both before and after amphetamine challenge. We found that mean frequency values on spectral analysis consistently correlated with anxiety levels in our patients, but did not correlate with a wide variety of other important symptoms, such as depression or transient psychosis. This result, coupled with our previous negative findings concerning EEG abnormalities in patients with BPD, casts doubt on the etiological relationship of cerebral dysrhythmias to the behavioral pathology of this disorder, but raises interesting questions concerning the relationship of anxiety and mean frequency.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

The amphetamine challenge test in patients with borderline disorder.

The authors used amphetamine as a psychopharmacological probe to investigate the hypothesis that patients with borderline personality disorder are prone to psychosis following ingestion of a dopamine agonist. Sixteen patients with borderline personality disorder participated in the study. Significant increases in the mean total Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale scores and in activation and thought disturbance factors after amphetamine administration were noted in the sample. Patients with diagnoses of both schizotypal and borderline personality disorders worsened transiently with amphetamine administration, but patients with only the borderline diagnosis improved. These results indicate the usefulness of pharmacological probes to further understand DSM-III axis II disorders.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1986

Borderline and schizotypal personality disorders treated with low-dose thiothixene vs placebo.

Fifty outpatients with borderline and/or schizotypal personality disorder were randomly allocated to thiothixene (Navane) or placebo treatment that was continued for 12 weeks. The mean daily dosage of thiothixene hydrochloride in the final week of the study was 8.7 mg, a lower dosage than is used in outpatient schizophrenics. Significant drug-placebo differences were found, regardless of diagnosis, on "illusions," "ideas of reference," "psychoticism," "obsessive-compulsive symptoms," and "phobic anxiety," but not on "depression." Thiothixene seems to have more than an antipsychotic effect. Since response to treatment studies are a means for reformulating diagnostic concepts, we suggest a subdiagnosis defined by those symptoms that are drug-responsive, some of which are not included in current diagnostic criteria. Patients with borderline and schizotypal disorder without the foregoing symptoms probably would not profit from thiothixene and might needlessly be placed at risk for adverse drug effects.

Administration, Oral↗
PubMed1986

The familial sporadic classification: its power for the resolution of genetic and environmental etiologic factors.

An increasingly popular research method for identifying etiologic heterogeneity in psychiatric illness has been to compare the frequency of a risk factor in affected individuals with no affected relatives (sporadic cases) and in affected individuals with one or more affected relatives (familial cases). This paper presents a power analysis of this familial vs sporadic method, assuming a multifactorial model with a normally distributed liability to illness resulting from the additive effect of polygenes and multiple environmental factors. Various parameter estimates for a risk factor that identifies a component of either the genetic or the environmental contribution to disease liability are examined. Almost without exception, large sample sizes of probands and relatives need to be studied to have a substantial probability of detecting etiologic heterogeneity. The required sample size decreases dramatically when monozygotic twins are studied. If the multifactorial model accurately depicts the etiology for psychiatric disorders, these results suggest that the familial versus sporadic design is useful only when pursued in the context of large sample nuclear family studies or studies of monozygotic twins.

Diseases in Twins↗