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T Harris

Publications and source records attributed to T Harris.

At least 199 records · Page 11Linked to original sources
PubMed1986

Loss of parent in childhood and adult psychiatric disorder: the role of lack of adequate parental care.

The inconclusiveness of the literature on the role of loss of parent in influencing psychiatric disorder in adulthood is well known. A number of reasons involving sampling, location and other methodological features, are given to account for these contradictory findings. A study specially designed to cope with these features is then described and basic results are reported. These indicate that, in a sample of women aged 18-65, loss of mother before the age of 17, either by death or by separation of one year or more, was associated with clinical depression in the year of interview. Loss of father by death was in no way associated with current depression, but separation from father showed a trend which, however, did not reach statistical significance. Control for other possible confounding factors did not change this patterning of results; these were further supported when psychiatric episodes earlier in adulthood were examined. Examination of the caregiving arrangements in childhood suggests that it is 'lack of care', defined in terms of neglect rather than simply hostile parental behaviour, which accounts for the raised rate of depression. Such 'lack of care' is more frequent after loss of mother than after loss of father.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

Social support, self-esteem and depression.

A prospective study of 400 largely working-class women with children living at home has used measures of self-esteem and 'social support' to predict the risk of depression in the following year once a stressor had occurred. Actual support received at the time of any crisis in the follow-up year was also measured. Self-esteem was correlated quite highly with some of the measures of support. A core tie was defined as a husband, lover or someone named as very close at first contact. Negative evaluation of self (i.e. low self-esteem), and various indices of lack of support from a core tie at the first interview, were associated with a greatly increased risk of subsequent depression once a stressor occurred. Lack of support from a core tie at the time of the crisis was particularly highly associated with an increased risk. There was also a high risk among those who were 'let down' - that is, for those who did not receive the support which they might have expected in terms of the first interview material. It is concluded that it is essential for prospective enquiries to take account of the actual mobilization of support in the follow-up period.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1985

Alexander's disease.

This is the first pathologic report of an infant at 37 weeks' gestation with Alexander's disease. The findings demonstrate that the disease can arise in utero and be extensive at birth before myelination begins.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Interpreting data in aetiological studies of affective disorder: some pitfalls and ambiguities.

Although recent research in social psychiatry has produced an encouraging congruence of findings and conclusions, puzzling inconsistencies continue to be reported. One explanation which is often overlooked is that subtle differences in the way seemingly identical variables are grouped can produce sizeable, and sometimes dramatic, differences in the patterning of the same data. Re-examination of existing results can therefore often better clarify confusing inconsistencies than collection of new data. This is illustrated by examples from recent studies of affective disorder where the grouping of variables is discussed in three broad areas: parental loss in childhood, precipitating stress, and social support. Until the aetiology of affective disorder is more fully understood, it will often be clearer if data are analysed more than once, so that several combinations of variables are systematically examined.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Distribution of neurones containing DOPA decarboxylase and dopamine-beta-hydroxylase in some sympathetic ganglia of the dog: a quantitative study.

Using a technique by which binding sites for two antibodies can be visualized in single tissue sections, we have studied the distribution of neurones containing DOPA decarboxylase-like and dopamine beta-hydroxylase-like immunoreactivity in ganglia of dog sympathetic chain. Three types of neurones could be distinguished: those that contained both enzymes, and were presumably noradrenergic; those that contained neither enzyme, and were presumably not catecholaminergic; and a group that contained DOPA decarboxylase but lacked dopamine beta-hydroxylase. The numbers of cells of each type were counted in serially-sectioned ganglia from regions of the sympathetic chain thought to contain dopaminergic neurones (T12-L1 and L7-S2). The percentages of total cell numbers contributed by the DOPA decarboxylase-positive, dopamine beta-hydroxylase-negative cells in these regions were similar to the estimates of dopaminergic neurone numbers that can be made from previously obtained biochemical data. Our results are consistent with the presence of dopaminergic neurons in regions of the paravertebral chain supplying the kidney and the distal hindlimb.

Animals↗
PubMed1984

Characterization of chromaffin-like cells in the canine sympathetic chain by enzyme immunohistochemistry and quantitation of their distribution.

Some of the paravertebral sympathetic ganglia of the dog contain relatively large amounts of dopamine, which we have suggested previously is localized in dopaminergic neurones. However, the possibility exists that intraganglionic chromaffin-like cells may also be a source of dopamine. In order to resolve this question, we have examined the distribution of chromaffin-like cells in dog paravertebral ganglia (T7-S2) using formaldehyde-induced fluorescence of catecholamines and immunohistochemical localization of dopa decarboxylase, dopamine beta-hydroxylase and phenylethanolamine N-methyltransferase. The results have been compared with levels of the different endogenous catecholamines in equivalent ganglia. Clusters of between 20 and several thousand chromaffin-like cells were randomly present in ganglia at all levels of the chain, and were most common in the more caudal segments (L4 or below); but many ganglia contained no cells. About 24,000 chromaffin-like cells were found in 18 ganglia from six animals which were stained for dopa decarboxylase and dopamine beta-hydroxylase. In 16 of these ganglia, all of the 17,000 cells present contained both enzymes, indicating that they could synthesize noradrenaline. In the remaining two ganglia, 500 out of 7000 cells contained dopa decarboxylase, and therefore were capable of synthesizing dopamine, but appeared to lack the dopamine beta-hydroxylase necessary to convert this to noradrenaline. Five ganglia from three other dogs were stained for dopamine beta-hydroxylase and phenylethanolamine N-methyltransferase. A further 2600 cells were found in these ganglia and both enzymes were present in all of the cells, indicating that they could all synthesize adrenaline. Biochemical estimates of the various catecholamines showed that ganglia containing appreciable amounts of adrenaline had similar distributions to those containing chromaffin-like cells in the same animals. High concentrations of adrenaline were often correlated with high concentrations of noradrenaline but were not correlated with high concentrations of dopamine. It is concluded that paravertebral chromaffin-like cells in the dog store adrenaline, and also perhaps noradrenaline, but not dopamine. The high concentrations of dopamine found in certain ganglia cannot therefore be attributed to the presence of these cells. The erratic distribution of chromaffin-like cells suggests that they are unlikely to fulfil any general role in modulation of ganglionic transmission.

Animals↗
PubMed1984

Psychiatric disorder in a rural and an urban population: 3. Social integration and the morphology of affective disorder.

This paper focuses on the morphology of affective disorder. We set out to confirm on the island of Lewis a cross-over result originally found on the island of North Uist, whereby in those sections of the population where the rates of depression were lowest the rates of anxiety were highest. These sections of the population varied in the degree to which their members were integrated into the traditional way of life. 'Integration' was characterized in terms of churchgoing and crofting (the word for farming in the Hebrides). It is predicted here that the churchgoing rather than the crofting component of the integration measure would account for any cross-over result found concerning the morphology of symptoms. This hypothesis, derived from a theoretical concern with links between repression and anxiety, is not confirmed. Instead, crofting is found to be the component of the integration index which predicts anxiety/phobia without depression. In seeking to explain this unexpected finding further significant associations between crofting, pure anxiety/phobia and the style of personal relationships are revealed. It is also confirmed that types of severe events among women are also found to vary with the degree of integration into traditional society. A perspective is then developed which might explain how the interaction between style of personal attachments and types of provoking event could produce variations in the morphology of affective disorder.

Agriculture↗
PubMed1982

Disease, distress and depression. A comment.

Bebbington et al. (1981) in their paper in the present number of this Journal suggest that psychiatric disorders in the community are likely to be cases of distress and base this assertion on the fact that very few out-patients have a significant life event preceding onset. A review of 7 recent studies of depressive patients, using a broadly comparable life-event instrument, gives a quite different picture: an average of 56% had an important life event before onset, compared with 18% in the general population. It is concluded that the authors arrive at their conclusion because they have failed in a number of critical respects to replicate previous analyses. The distinction between disease and distress is discussed in the light of these results.

Bipolar Disorder↗
PubMed1981

Psychiatric disorder in a rural and an urban population: 2. Sensitivity to loss.

In an earlier paper we found that a model of depression developed on a sample of women in a London population was confirmed in a female population in the Outer Hebrides. Differences in the rates of onset and chronic cases between the two populations, however, suggested that the Scottish women might be more likely to become depressed after the death or intimation of death of close relatives; furthermore, it seemed that such depressions were more likely to remain chronic in the Scottish islands than in London, and to contain a strong anxiety component. This difference is discussed in the light of socio-cultural differences between the two populations, particularly in terms which relate family structure, marital position and contact with relatives to affective disorder in terms of theories of attachment.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1981

Overweight and obesity in preschool children in New York City.

In an effort to ascertain the prevalence of obesity in young children, 48 nursery schools in Manhattan and Queens, New York City were surveyed. The weights and heights of 2606 children, ages 3 to 6 yr, were obtained. Three-hundred seventeen children (12.2%) were above 120% of ideal body weight and 122 (4.7%) were above 130% of ideal weight. Twenty percent of the children from schools attended by youngsters from low income families, 12% from schools attended by pupils from middle income families, and 5% from schools with pupils from families with a high income were classified as obese. Of the obese children's actual body weights 90% were at or greater than the 75th percentile for age while mean higher percentiles of the obese and nonobese children were not significantly different. Sex specific prevalence rates were similar for boys and girls. These data indicate that obesity is already prevalent in the nursery school population and that such obese children can be easily identified from weight and height measurements at a time when programs for successful permanent weight reduction and maintenance may be feasible.

Body Height↗
PubMed1980

Depression and anxiety in the community: replicating the diagnosis of a case.

The diagnoses were reviewed of 866 women interviewed in 5 community surveys carried out by the Bedford College team. The diagnoses matched commonly held conceptions of who is a case in terms of both severity and type of syndrome. Two methods of replicating the diagnoses are prevented, one based on discriminant function analysis and the other based on a simple checklist.

Anxiety Disorders↗