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Biomedical subjects

S Fisher

Publications and source records attributed to S Fisher.

At least 163 records · Page 9Linked to original sources
PubMed1987

Menstrual symptoms and up-down vectors.

Multiple studies considered the somatic symptom correlates of up-down asymmetries in women. In four samples, involving a total of 81 women, menstrual symptoms were significantly linked with the up-down distortion of the space surrounding self. In addition, there were borderline relationships between menstrual symptoms and other indices of up-down asymmetry. The findings suggested a possible link between menstrual symptoms and concerns about possessing versus not possessing power. Over-all, the results support previous studies indicating that spatial sets reflect important attitudes or conflicts that seem to play a role in somatic symptomatology. However, they point up the importance of considering sex differences.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

A program for improving energy conservation behaviors in adults with rheumatoid arthritis.

This paper presents the design and evaluation of an occupational therapy program developed at the National Institutes of Health for teaching energy conservation and joint protection to adults with rheumatoid arthritis. An existing model for educational diagnosis in health education was used to identify program, behavioral, and educational objectives for the new program. The use of this model resulted in measurable objectives, which were used as outcome measures in the randomized research evaluation of the new program. The dependent variables measured were activity-of-daily-living status, psychosocial adjustment to illness, knowledge, disease activity, pain, and fatigue. None were significantly different after the intervention. The independent variables measured included components of balancing rest and physical activity. After 3 months, a greater percentage of the subjects receiving the workbook-based occupational therapy program than those receiving traditional occupational therapy demonstrated an application of the behaviors the intervention was designed to change.

Arthritis, Rheumatoid↗
PubMed1987

Radiolabeled meta-iodobenzylguanidine and the adrenergic neurons of salivary glands.

The handling of radiolabeled meta-iodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) by salivary glands was evaluated. In the submaxillary glands of rats, the uptake of 125I-MIBG was decreased after 1) nerve injury induced by 6-hydroxydopamine, 2) inhibition of the uptake-1 pathway by desmethylimipramine, and 3) surgical denervation. However, the reduction in 125I-MIGB uptake was less than that of 3H-norepinephrine (3H-NE) and of the endogenous content of NE in the glands. Yet, the sympathomimetic phenylpropanolamine displaced about the same fraction of 125I-MIBG as 3H-NE. These results suggest that 40% or more of 125I-MIBG resides in extraneuronal sites but that at least 30% and possibly more lies in the adrenergic nerve terminals. Fasting and feeding rats produced changes in the rates of disappearance of 125I-MIBG and 3H-NE from the submaxillary gland that were different, and the rates of loss of 125I-MIBG cannot be used as an index of adrenergic nerve activity. In man, the concentrations of 123I-MIBG in the salivary glands, particularly the parotid gland, are readily visible and measureable. Imipramine reduced the uptake of 123I-MIBG into parotid glands little or not at all; some of the 123I-MIBG may enter neurons via an imipramine-insensitive pathway, but a substantial fraction probably arrives in intraneuronal locations. Thus, phenylpropanolamine displaced over 50% of the parotid pool of 123I-MIBG. However, in only the most severe case of generalized autonomic neuropathy was the uptake of 123I-MIBG reduced.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

3-Iodobenzylguanidine↗
PubMed1987

Long-term versus short-term amitriptyline side effects as measured by a postmarketing surveillance system.

As part of a large-scale postmarketing surveillance study, the adverse clinical events (ACEs) reported by 85 outpatients taking amitriptyline were investigated. Two discrete groups of patients were identified based on their duration of amitriptyline treatment: 45 had started the drug within 2 weeks of their interview (mean = 10.1 days, SD = 1.6 days), while 40 were much longer term tricyclic antidepressant patients (mean = 227.2 days, SD = 135 days). Our analysis of amitriptyline side effects reported by each of these two discrete groups challenges the common clinical impression that tricyclic side effects, in general, abate with continued treatment. Shorter term patients were much better able to correctly attribute their adverse clinical events to their drug therapy. Anticholinergic side effects were reported as new symptoms by the long-term patients just as frequently with similar ratings of subjective severity. These reports of adverse drug reactions of recent onset by long-term amitriptyline users may reflect the fact that such symptoms fluctuate in their occurrence and may not be recognized as potentially drug-induced until some threshold for patient tolerance is exceeded.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Imipramine and chlordiazepoxide in depressive and anxiety disorders. II. Efficacy in anxious outpatients.

A double-blind, placebo-controlled comparison at three collaborating university sites included 242 patients diagnosed as having anxiety disorders. A two-week placebo washout period preceded random assignment to eight weeks of imipramine hydrochloride, chlordiazepoxide hydrochloride, or placebo treatment. Antianxiety effects of imipramine were superior to those of the other two agents by the second treatment week; these effects became more clearly significant thereafter and were independent of degree of both baseline depression and anxiety. Excluding patients with possible panic-phobic syndromes from the analyses removed most significant antiphobic and antidepressant effects of imipramine but left intact imipramine's significantly superior antianxiety effects.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

New approaches to postmarketing surveillance.

As part of a large-scale ongoing project exploring new pharmacy-based methods of postmarketing surveillance, we are comparing a patient-initiated monitoring system to a staff-initiated approach. Here we report data only from staff-initiated, computer-directed telephone interviews with 231 outpatients approximately 2 weeks after they had been prescribed a target drug chosen from two markedly different pharmacological classes for which adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are well-documented. Our results indicate that spontaneous patient reports of "new or unusual symptoms" obtained from a standardized staff-initiated telephone interview can be quite reliable, leading to accurate detection of known tricyclic antidepressant and antibiotic ADRs.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗
PubMed1986

Cancer cure with organ preservation using radiation therapy.

In 1985, the American Cancer Society has anticipated that 910,000 new cases of invasive cancer will be diagnosed in the United States. More than 37% of those patients can be treated for cure with organ preservation using radiation therapy. The basic biologic background for such an approach to the problem is well established. Clinical data to substantiate the validity of the concept date from 1902 to the present. Without question, organ preservation is becoming a major and important concept in the management of the patient with cancer, and new and innovative techniques for treatment are enabling the organ to be preserved, the cancer to be cured, and appropriate cosmesis and function to be preserved. Many tumor sites are appropriate for this treatment technique, including the breast, the eye, the larynx, and the prostate. In 1985, there has been new emphasis on the successful treatment of cancer with the preservation of the organ intact. The maxim to offer the patient the maximum potential for cure with the minimum complication now has an additional concept related to the opportunity to preserve cosmesis and function.

Breast Neoplasms↗
PubMed1985

Meningococcal arthritis.

Meningococcal infection (MI) remains endemic in the Western Cape. A review of 2216 cases in which the condition was diagnosed and notified to the relevant authorities between January 1977 and March 1982 is presented. In 121 patients the disease was complicated by meningococcal arthritis (MA). MI and MA occurred most commonly in the Coloured population; over 50% of patients with MI were less than 2 years of age; and patients with MA were slightly older than the sample mean. The onset of arthritis showed a biphasic pattern with an early peak at 1-2 days and a later peak, heralded by typical recrudescence of fever, at 5-10 days which usually lasted 5-7 days. It was most often monarticular, the knee being the joint most frequently affected. Four cases of isolated MA were also encountered.

Arthritis, Infectious↗
PubMed1985

Height, weight, and risk of breast cancer relapse.

The records of 231 patients with primary breast cancer and 85 patients with metastatic breast cancer were reviewed to determine whether indices of body weight were associated with prognosis. Results support previous reports that indices of body weight are relatively weak, but real, prognostic factors.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

The perception of performance in stress: the utilisation of cognitive facts by nondepressed and depressed students.

Three experiments are reported in which expectancies about performance in stressful conditions by nondepressed and depressed nonclinical populations were examined. The first experiment was concerned with estimates of either errors or response rates made in advance, with regard to the likely competence level of a (hypothetical) person allegedly working in conditions of either loud noise, fatigue, sleep loss, social stress, or incentive. Nondepressed subjects as well as depressed subjects provided negative expectancies. The second experiment involved obtaining an estimate of personal competence in conditions where subjects were instructed that personal performance on the task would be required after the estimate had been provided. Nondepressed subjects differed from depressed subjects in that the estimates of the former were less negative in terms of the magnitude of the estimates provided. A third experiment was designed to see whether the negative expectancies about performance in stress exhibited both by nondepressed and by depressed subjects would be used in making allowances for the competence of a typist on the basis of a typescript allegedly produced under high noise conditions. An unexpected effect was that depressed subjects judged the typist more harshly and failed to make allowance for adverse working conditions in the way that nondepressed subjects did. The results are discussed in terms of the implications for understanding cognitive factors in depression.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Public drug information: a telephone-based model for patient education.

As one facet of a larger investigation evaluating the various means by which patients receive information concerning their medications, a telephone-based drug information service was established for selected public use. The purpose was to detail the growth and utilization of the service, characterize the type and importance of the questions asked, and compare the potential utility with that of the USP-DI patient package insert (PPI) in responding to the public's drug information requests. Availability of the toll-free number for the Prescription Drug Information Service (PDIS) was controlled by offering it only to outpatients receiving selected medicines from the pharmacy of a large university-based medical center. The PDIS was operated by clinical pharmacists who participated in completing standardized operational data forms after each drug information call by the public. Of those calls received, 91.7% were not of a serious nature and most commonly dealt with side effects, drug interactions, and drug identification. Fifty percent of first-time calls occurred within two days of the subject's visit to the pharmacy and 23.4% of the total PDIS calls were repeat contacts. Interestingly, 34% of the patients' questions could not have been answered using the standard USP-DI PPI.

Data Collection↗