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Biomedical subjects

V Pishkin

Publications and source records attributed to V Pishkin.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1993

Academic achievement in Substance-Abusing and Conduct-Disordered adolescents.

This study determined the influence of adolescent alcohol abuse on academic achievement. Substance Abusing (SA), Conduct Disordered (CD), and Normal Student Control (NSC) adolescents, stratified on Family History (FH) of alcoholism and gender, were tested on the Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT). While SAs and CDs did not differ on the PIAT, both had lower subtest and total test standard scores than NSCs. FH + SAs did not differ from FH + CDs on the Spelling subtest, but both groups had significantly lower scores than FH - NSCs. For SAs and NSCs there were no significant correlations between measures of alcohol intake and PIAT subtest scores.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

Systolic blood pressure and neuropsychological test performance of alcoholics.

This study examined resting systolic blood pressure (SBP) as a mediator of neuropsychological (NP) test performance in nonhypertensive alcoholics and controls. A median-split was used to assign alcoholics and controls to low and high SBP groups. Results showed that: (1) When SBP level was not considered, alcoholics only performed worse than controls on the WAIS Comprehension subtest. (2) Alcoholics and controls in the high SBP groups had fewer correct items on the WAIS Comprehension and Raven's, Set I tests than subjects in the low SBP groups. (3) Significant Diagnostic Group by SBP Group interaction was found for the Sentence Writing test. For this test only controls in the High SBP Group did worse than controls in the Low SBP Group. (4) Individual group comparisons for all NP tests showed that alcoholics in the High SBP Group were more impaired than controls in the Low SBP Group on the WAIS Comprehension, Shipley Abstraction Age and Stark Visual-Spatial tests; but alcoholics in the Low SBP Group did not differ from, or outperformed, controls in the High SBP Group on the WAIS Comprehension, Shipley Abstraction Age, Raven's, Set I, and Stark Visual-Spatial tests. These data demonstrate that both alcoholism and high SBP adversely and differentially affect the NP test performance of alcoholics and controls.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Resting cardiovascular activity and antisocial behavior in Essential and Reactive alcoholic men.

This study showed that 10 men identified as Essential alcoholics had significantly lower resting systolic and diastolic blood pressures and significantly higher scores on Latcham's measure of antisocial behavior than 11 Reactive alcoholics. For all alcoholics the antisocial measure was positively correlated with the total score on the Rudie-McGaughran questionnaire. Also, the antisocial measure was negatively correlated with diastolic blood pressure and heart rate. If lower resting cardiovascular activity were a psychophysiological indicator of more antisocial behavior, change on both variables could be associated with initiation and maintenance of alcoholic drinking by Essential alcoholic men.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Factor analysis of the Rudie-McGaughran Essential-Reactive questionnaire for VA alcoholic men.

In this study factor analysis was used to estimate the validity of the Rudie-McGaughran Essential-Reactive questionnaire. Answers of VA alcoholic men were tape-recorded and scored using the Rudie and McGaughran criteria. Only 2 factors, economic dependence and gastrointestinal symptoms, were validated using factor analysis. Five of the remaining six factors evaluated dimensions of dependence unique to the Essential alcoholic men.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1991

Psychophysiological activity and neuropsychological test performance in alcoholics.

This study examined electromyogram (EMG) and skin conductance level (SCL) as mediators of neuropsychological test performance of alcoholics. Alcoholics and controls with high EMG performed less well than low EMG subjects on 12 measures of neuropsychological performance. For SCL, the alcoholics and controls in the Low Group did not differ from those in the High Group on any measure. Analyses that used information intake (Low EMG and High SCL) and rejection (High EMG and Low SCL) information postures (IPs) demonstrated that the intake group outperformed the rejection group on 10 neuropsychological measures. Subjects with intake IPs reported more stimulation, concentration, and interest during the tasks than did subjects with rejection IPs. Results suggest that IPs can be used to identify alcoholics with neuropsychological deficits.

Alcoholism↗
PubMed1991

Differences between essential and reactive alcoholics on tests of neuropsychological functioning and affect.

This study tested the hypothesis that Essential Alcoholics (n = 15) develop a more severe form of alcoholism than Reactive Alcoholics (n = 12). VA alcoholic patients were classified as Essential or Reactive Alcoholics, using the Rudie-McGaughran questionnaire, and tested on four neuropsychological tests, the Neuropsychological Impairment Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory, Tarter's Hyperactivity/Minimal Brain Dysfunction questionnaire, and Latcham's Measure of Antisocial Behavior. While the two groups did not differ in age, education, or Family History of alcoholism. Essential Alcoholics had an earlier age of onset and a longer chronicity of alcoholism. After analysis of covariance was used to control for group differences in age of onset and chronicity, Essential Alcoholics were still significantly higher on depression and significantly more impaired on five subtests of the Neuropsychological Impairment Scale: global measure, total items, general, learning-verbal, and frustration. Nonsignificant group differences, in the expected direction, were found for the Shipley Mental Age and Tarter's questionnaire. These results suggest that Essential Alcoholics have higher depression scores and greater impairments in neuropsychological functioning than Reactive Alcoholics.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Physiological responses of type A and type B men during cognitive performance.

Twenty male medical students classified as Type A or Type B solved a Concept Identification (CI) problem while measurements were taken on cardiovascular and somatic activity. The As produced significantly more overall electromyogram (EMG) activity and greater vasomotor activity than the Bs at baseline and during the task. Both Type As and Bs showed significantly higher levels of Heart Rate (HR), systolic and diastolic blood pressures, skin conductance, frontal EMG, and lower levels of vasomotor activity during work on the problem than during pre- and post-problem baselines. Type As showed significant negative correlations between total errors during CI and level of vasomotor activity, and between postsolution response latency and skin conductance. Type Bs showed a strong positive association between presolution response time and heart rate that did not hold for the As. The As appear to have shown sympathetic activation associated with quality of problem-solving performance, while the B's showed a relationship that suggested an impaired efficiency of performance associated with cardiac activation.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Thought disorder and schizophrenia: isolating and timing a mental event.

This study explored the ability of nonparanoid schizophrenic, paranoid schizophrenic, and mixed psychiatric control (manics and schizoaffectives) patients to perform on two types of conceptual, speeded inference (SI) tasks, which differ in type of abstraction process required. The subjects (N = 30) were grouped into high and low levels of thought dysfunction, as measured by the Whitaker Index of Schizophrenic Thinking (WIST). There were no differences among the three clinical groups on the conceptual, SI tasks. Reaction times differed reliably across the two SI tasks. High-WIST subjects were impaired on SI accuracy. Significant impairment in accuracy was demonstrated by high-WIST time and error groups on the more complex SI tasks. Information processing deficit was demonstrated in terms of encoding phase and reaction time in problem-solving of the three diagnostic groups as a function of WIST levels.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Redundancy and complexity of information in cognitive performances of schizophrenic and normal individuals.

Examined cognitive performance of schizophrenic and normal Ss matched on age, education, and intelligence (N = 120). Complexity of information and redundant cues were manipulated systematically in a concept identification (CI) task. Schizophrenics were not impaired compared to normals in solution of problems with low redundancy. Whereas normals' performance was facilitated by redundant information, schizophrenics demonstrated marked deficit in CI as a function of that information. Results were interpreted in terms of schizophrenics' inability to filter out irrelevant information, in addition to their deficit in channel capacity for utilizing relevant-redundant cues, which have been shown to reliably facilitate normals' CI.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Associative response bias and severity of thought disorder in schizophrenia and mania.

Studied severity of thought disorder related to putative, exaggerated tendency of schizophrenics to respond to associative intrusions. Three groups of patients, paranoid schizophrenics, nonparanoid schizophrenics, and manics, participated in the investigation. The findings were: vulnerability to associative distractors is not specific to schizophrenia; performance deficit is more related to severity of thought disorder than to a specific diagnosis; degree of cognitive impairment was found to negatively influence verbal performance; the three groups of patients manifested equivalent levels of cognitive impairment.

Bipolar Disorder↗
PubMed1983

Convergent and discriminant validity of the WIST.

Tested the ability of the Whitaker Index of Schizophrenic Thinking (WIST): (1) to distinguish schizophrenics from nonschizophrenics (N = 30); (2) to agree with clinically rated severity of thought disorder; and (3) to correlate with a measure of generalized cognitive deficit. The WIST was not found to discriminate accurately schizophrenics from nonschizophrenics, but was found to agree strongly with the Shipley Institute of Living Scale, a measure of generalized cognitive dysfunction. Finally, clinically rated estimates of schizophrenic thinking (i.e., conceptual disorganization, unusual thought content) failed to predict WIST Index. The WIST appears to be primarily a measure of generalized deficit.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Cognitive deficit in schizophrenia. Subvocal mediation, rigidity, and complexity parameters.

This study investigated the effects of problem complexity on cognitive performance of 96 schizophrenic and nonpsychiatric inpatients. Subvocal activity (mediation) and three rigidity parameters were examined in relation to performance. The major findings were: a) with increased problem complexity, schizophrenics demonstrated relatively greater difficulty in performance than controls; b) subvocal activity was greater in schizophrenics than controls and was positively related to both the complexity of the problem and the inability to respond correctly; c) motor-cognitive rigidity was higher in schizophrenics and positively correlated with cognitive errors, as well as with the subvocal activity--this was not so in controls, demonstrating the differential role of the rigidity dimension in the two populations.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Cognitive and electrophysiologic parameters during ascending and descending limbs of the blood alcohol curve.

This study examined the effects of acute alcohol ingestion and prior success or failure upon cognitive performance of 40 healthy, non-alcoholic subjects, during both the ascending and descending limbs of the blood alcohol curve. Measures of physiological arousal were made with frontal/laryngeal electromyographic and skin conductance response level parameters. Major findings were: (1) cognitive performance was impaired by alcohol ingestion; (2) autonomic arousal was significantly greater after alcohol than after placebo; (3) number and amplitude of skin response were greater on the ascending than on the descending limb; (4) the anticipated effects of failure on cognitive performance were ameliorated by alcohol; and (5) differential effects of alcohol on the psychophysiological parameters were demonstrated.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Doxepin and hydroxyzine in treating anxiety: effects of failure and motivation on cognitive performance.

The effects of doxepin and hydroxyzine on the cognitive performance of 60 patients with anxiety were compared under different levels of experimentally induced motivation and experience of success or failure. Both drugs reduced the inhibiting effects of failure on concept learning. The combination of high motivation and failure interfered more with the performance of control patients than the drug groups. The cognitive facilitation effects of doxepin were most pronounced in the low motivation-failure condition, while hydroxyzine yielded superior performance in both success and failure conditions, regardless of motivation level.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Schizophrenic, alcoholic, felon and management factor compositions of social status.

Administered the Social Status Study scale to four different groups: 174 incarcerated felons, 125 alcoholics, 278 management consultants, and 388 chronic undifferentiated schizophrenics. Five factors were derived fro each of the four populations. Major finding is that factorial composition of the groups is dependent upon specific population characteristics, and the overall factors are not sufficient for clinical judgment of individuals from different subgroups. The resulting factors were clearly unique in depicting social adjustment maladjustment styles in each of the clinical groups.

Alcoholism↗
PubMed1981

Social factors ion schizophrenic, alcoholic, executive and prison populations.

Investigated factorial structure of social status in hospitalized schizophrenics, alcoholics, executives and prison populations totaling 965 Ss. Five major factors were derived from the data obtained by administration of a 200-item Social Status Study instrument: Factor I--Social Class Role; Factor II--Conservative Citizen Role; Factor II--Worker Status Role; Factor IV--Political Citizen Role, and Factor V--Political-Social Mobility. Description of the levels of integration along the personal-social dimension represented by the four clinical groups was proposed.

Adult↗