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Biomedical subjects

W I Fraser

Publications and source records attributed to W I Fraser.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1990

Linguistic performance in schizophrenia: a comparison of acute and chronic patients.

A computer-assisted analysis of samples of free speech from acute schizophrenics (n = 50), chronic schizophrenics (n = 27) and normal subjects (n = 50) enabled a comparison of the linguistic profiles of the three groups. The chronic group consistently emerged as the most impaired, on measures of complexity, integrity (error) and fluency of speech, with the acute patients performing less well than normal speakers but better than chronic patients. Demographic differences could account for only a small number of the linguistic differences. A comparison of chronic schizophrenics from the community and those from long-stay wards suggested that their poor linguistic performance was in some way related to the illness process and not to institutionalisation. Three possible explanations for these results were considered, particularly the possibility that low complexity of speech, negative symptoms and poor outcome are in some way related.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1990

Re-examination of the language of psychotic subjects.

To investigate whether language in schizophrenia deteriorated progressively, 11 schizophrenic subjects, 9 manic subjects and 9 controls were re-tested after an interval of three years using the computer-assisted syntactical analysis technique of Morice. In 13 of the 16 linguistic variables described as hallmarks of schizophrenic speech decline, deterioration was noted in schizophrenics in the direction predicted and relative to the manic and control groups. The deterioration was most pronounced in complexity and integrity of speech. One variable remained unchanged and two (semantic variables) showed marginal improvement. It was concluded that language, and in particular syntax, does deteriorate in the schizophrenic process.

Bipolar Disorder↗
PubMed1989

Computer-assisted linguistic analysis of two mentally retarded psychotic female's texts.

Prompted monologues from a schizophrenic and manic mentally handicapped female were analysed using a computer program designed to generate 118 syntactic variables. The procedure was repeated after several years. The linguistic profiles and their change over time were characteristic of chronic schizophrenia and mania, respectively: the schizophrenic-illness-based profile showed further linguistic disintegration; the manic-illness-based profile showed linguistic recovery, mirroring clinical improvement.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Neuro-developmental study of profoundly mentally handicapped children in hospital care.

Swedish estimates of the need for long-term intensive health care provision for profoundly mentally handicapped children were compared with an Edinburgh survey, and the neurodevelopment and health characteristics of Edinburgh children with profound mental handicap who required prolonged admission are described. The extent of their disabilities indicates the complexity of the task of designing alternatives to their present hospital provision which will adequately meet their health needs.

Abnormalities, Multiple↗
PubMed1987

Computer-assisted linguistic analysis of an autistic adolescent's language: implications for the diagnosis of Aspberger's syndrome and atypical psychoses.

This study illustrates the use of a computer-assisted linguistic analysis technique to compare the spoken language of an adolescent, diagnosed in childhood as autistic, with that of normal and schizophrenic individuals. A distinctive profile, in keeping with accounts in the literature of autistic speech, was noted to be radically different from that found in linguistic analysis of schizophrenic speech. This distinctive profile was mirrored by her written linguistic analysis. Changes indicative of some improvement in language function were seen on re-recording after 5 years. Implications of this technique for differential diagnosis of Aspberger's syndrome and atypical psychoses are mentioned.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

Positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia and linguistic performance.

Selected subjects from a group of first onset schizophrenics (aged under 30 years) were taken from a previous study and placed in one of two groups depending upon whether they had exclusively positive symptoms (n = 9) or a mixture of positive and negative symptoms (n = 9). Their linguistic profiles were compared with those of a group of controls (n = 10) matched for educational attainment and parental social class. Both groups of schizophrenics had significantly lower integrity scores, suggesting that they made more syntactic and semantic errors. Those patients who presented with negative symptoms tended to have speech of lower syntactic complexity than the other two groups, although the difference just failed to reach statistical significance. It is suggested that syntactic and semantic errors are state dependent features associated with positive symptoms, whereas low syntactic complexity may be a more enduring feature associated with the presence of negative symptoms.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1986

Psychiatric and behaviour disturbance in mental handicap.

This study reports on the relationship between behavioural and psychiatric perceptions of mentally handicapped subjects. A Standardised Psychiatric Interview schedule was found to characterise psychiatric problems in the mentally handicapped along eight dimensions: depression, neurasthenia, psychoticism, phobias, histrionic elation, hypochondria, mental retardation and medication effects. A Behavioural Disturbance Scale characterised disturbances along six dimensions: aggressive conduct, mood disturbance, withdrawal, antisocial conduct, idiosyncratic mannerisms and self-injury. The relationships between the two modes of assessment were investigated using multiple regression. Clinical features were not expressed in behaviour disturbances, nor were they related to age, sex or hospitalisation. The communicativeness of an interviewee was, however, found to limit the detection of depression.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

The diagnosis of schizophrenia by language analysis.

Our aim was to test the findings of a study which claimed that, if the syntactic structure of schizophrenic speech were subjected to a detailed linguistic analysis, clear differences would be demonstrated between schizophrenic, manic and control populations. It was confirmed that schizophrenics do have less syntactically complex speech which contains more errors. Using linguistic variables in a discriminant function analysis, it was possible to predict diagnoses correctly in 79% of cases.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

How to keep quiet: some withdrawal strategies in mentally handicapped adults.

In mental handicap, communication is frequently disrupted not only by the lack of linguistic skills but also by behaviour problems, in particular communicative withdrawal. Three cases illustrate types of withdrawal and interview features and show how the Communicative Style Scale (CSS) is used to analyse strategies by which mentally handicapped subjects maintain withdrawal.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

A study of six cases of de Lange Amsterdam dwarf syndrome, with special attention to voice, speech and language characteristics.

From a survey of southern Scotland, six severly handicapped subjects (age-range 8 to 22 years) were established by firm criteria as suffering from the de Lange Amsterdam Dwarf syndrome. They showed a high incidence of behaviour disturbance. Language development was retarded and all but one of the subjects were dysphonic. A connection may exist between the glottal "fry" (an unperiodical phonation of the vocal folds in a frequency below the normal pitch register) observed in the cries of the younger non-speaking cases and the hoarseness in the speech of the older subjects.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1975

The usefulness of the semantic differential with "mild grade' mental defectives.

Although the semantic differential has been quite widely used with mental defectives, its usefulness (in its traditional form) with such a population has not been conclusively demonstrated. The semantic differential was developed and shown to be valid as an index of representational mediation processes. However, there is also evidence of a mediational deficiency among retardates which, therefore, ought to be reflected in retardates' responses to the semantic differential. Thus, the present study was designed to test two hypotheses: (a) that mild grade retardates, in comparison with subjects of average intelligence, would show less discrimination in the use of the semantic differential, and (b) that such discriminative deficiencies would in turn predispose toward a polarized response bias among the retarded. The results, which support both hypotheses, are discussed in terms of their implications for the usefulness of an unmodified semantic differential with the mentally subnormal.

Adult↗