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Biomedical subjects

S K Johnson

Publications and source records attributed to S K Johnson.

81 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

Personality dimensions in the chronic fatigue syndrome: a comparison with multiple sclerosis and depression.

This study investigated the relative rates of personality disturbance in chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Individuals who met the CDC criteria for CFS were compared to two other fatiguing illness groups, mild multiple sclerosis and depression, as well as sedentary healthy controls. Subjects were administered a structured psychiatric interview to determine Axis I psychiatric disorders and two self-report instruments to assess Axis II personality disorders and the personality trait of neuroticism. The depressed group had significantly more personality disorders and elevated neuroticism scores compared with the other three groups. The CFS and MS subjects had intermediary personality scores which were significantly higher than healthy controls. The CFS group with concurrent depressive disorder (34% of the CFS group) was found to account for most of the personality pathology in the CFS sample. The results are discussed in the context of the relationship between personality variables and fatiguing illness.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
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Sudden vs gradual onset of chronic fatigue syndrome differentiates individuals on cognitive and psychiatric measures.

To examine the influence of mode of illness onset on psychiatric status and neuropsychological performance, 36 patients with CFS were divided into two groups: sudden vs gradual onset of symptoms. These two CFS subgroups were compared to each other and to sedentary healthy controls on standardized neuropsychological tests of attention/concentration, information processing efficiency, memory, and higher cortical functions. In addition, the distribution of comorbid Axis I psychiatric disease between the two CFS groups was examined. The rate of concurrent psychiatric disease was significantly greater in the CFS-gradual group relative to the CFS-sudden group. While both CFS groups showed a significant reduction in information processing ability relative to controls, impairment in memory was more severe in the CFS-sudden group. Because of the significant heterogeneity of the CFS population, the need for subgroup analysis is discussed.

Cognition Disorders↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Assessing somatization disorder in the chronic fatigue syndrome.

This study was conducted to examine the rates of somatization disorder (SD) in the chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) relative to other fatiguing illness groups. It further addressed the arbitrary nature of the judgments made in assigning psychiatric vs. physical etiology to symptoms in controversial illnesses such as CFS. Patients with CFS (N = 42), multiple sclerosis (MS) (N = 18), and depression (N = 21) were compared with healthy individuals (N = 32) on a structured psychiatric interview. The SD section of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS) III-R was reanalyzed using different criteria sets to diagnose SD. All subjects received a thorough medical history, physical examination, and DIS interview. CFS patients received diagnostic laboratory testing to rule out other causes of fatigue. This study revealed that changing the attribution of SD symptoms from psychiatric to physical dramatically affected the rates of diagnosing SD in the CFS group. Both the CFS and depressed subjects endorsed a higher percentage of SD symptoms than either the MS or healthy groups, but very few met the strict DSM-III-R criteria for SD. The present study illustrates that the terminology used to interpret the symptoms (ie, psychiatric or physical) will determine which category CFS falls into. The diagnosis of SD is of limited use in populations in which the etiology of the illness has not been established.

Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Neuropsychiatric status of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome: an overview.

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is an illness that results in debilitating fatigue as well as rheumatological, infectious, and neuropsychiatric symptoms. The present paper is a brief overview of the neuropsychological and psychiatric research on CFS. Studies from our laboratory contrasting CFS with patients with multiple sclerosis, depression, and healthy controls are detailed. Our hypothesis of neuropsychological impairments in CFS is discussed.

Cognition↗