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T R Schori

Publications and source records attributed to T R Schori.

8 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1997

Psychological precursors of disorders: a thought-provoking observation.

While still in medical school at The Johns Hopkins University, participants in the Precursors Study, a longitudinal study of the precursors of coronary artery disease and other disorders, were given the Rorschach test along with other psychological and physical tests. In the present study, we looked at a cohort of 41 participants who, 8 to 24 years after having finished medical school, could be classified into five disorder groups: coronary, hypertension, mental illness, suicide, or malignant tumor. Using stepwise discriminant analysis, we found that participants' Rorschach test scores differed significantly among disorder groups. Since the Rorschach scores considerably predated the appearance of the disorders, this finding implies that the Rorschach scores were predictive of the subsequent development of the various disorders. The Rorschach scores were especially good at predicting mental illness. If this finding is not spurious, it suggests that a given Rorschach profile would be predictive long before mental illness became apparent. Consequently, it offers the possibility that some intervention might be undertaken which could either result in mental illness not occurring or, at perhaps a minimum, lessen its severity. Since the Precursors Study results discussed in this paper are some years old, it is likely that another cohort of participants have developed the various disorders. Therefore, the authors recommend that the discriminant functions derived from this effort be validated with another cohort from that study who had not yet exhibited one of the five disorders when the current analysis was undertaken. Were that not possible, we would recommend that this study simply be replicated with another cohort.

Health Status↗
PubMed1996

Health care trends and holding the line on costs.

The increasing reliance on third party payment of health care costs has resulted in people assuming less personal financial responsibility for their own health care. Lessened personal financial responsibility has resulted in greater use of the Health Care System and so has led to greater costs for health care. This increased cost has focused attention on cost control and implementation of measures designed to control costs. The cost control measures, however, are flawed. Were the purchase of health care once again to become subject to consumers' buying decisions, health care costs would be brought under control.

Health Care Costs↗
PubMed1977

Evaluation of guidelines for safe exposure to continuous noise of moderate and high intensity.

In a 1974 report the Environmental Protection Agency made predictions, based upon extrapolations from the literature, as to what constitutes a 5 dB equal 90th percentile TTS2 curve, i.e., a "safe exposure" curve. However, because of a dearth of data for brief exposures to noise, they were uncertain as to the accuracy of some of their predictions. Therefore, in the present investigation, the TTS2 consequences of brief exposures to noise were systematically evaluated. Specifically, 40 subjects were tested at each of 10 appropriately spaced durations of exposure to noise. The 90th percentile TTS2 at 4000 Hz was determined for each duration of exposure and then a multiple regression equation was fitted to these values. From this equation, a 5 dB equal 90th percentile TTS2 curve was calculated, which represents our predictions as to the trade-offs between noise intensity and duration of exposure necessary to produce 90th percentile TTS2S of 5 dB. A comparison of our predictions to those of the EPA (in the area of uncertainty) suggests that the conservative EPA predictions may be too conservative while the EPA's modified and extended CHABA-criterion predictions (from Nat. Acad. Sci., Nat. Res. Council Committee on Hear., Bioacoustics, Biomechanics) may not be sufficiently conservative. Although our predictions reflect the trends which were actually observed in the present investigation, it would be unreasonable to assume that our predictions are more than "ball park" estimates of reality. They do suggest, though, that in reality a 5 dB equal 90th percentile TTS2 curve would probably be intermediate between the conservative EPA curve and EPA's modified and extended CHABA criterion curves.

Audiometry↗