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Biomedical subjects

A Rudnick

Publications and source records attributed to A Rudnick.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

The relation of social support-seeking to quality of life in schizophrenia.

Social support-seeking has been shown to improve the outcome of schizophrenia. However, no study to date has documented the impact of social support seeking on self-perceived quality of life in schizophrenia, particularly not on the relation between symptoms and quality of life. The present study explored this issue with a sample of 58 outpatients diagnosed with schizophrenia without comorbidity. Social support seeking, symptoms (positive, negative, and extrapyramidal), and multidimensional self-reported quality of life were assessed cross-sectionally. Negative symptoms were inversely related to the quality of life domain of activities of daily living. Other symptoms and social support-seeking were not related to quality of life, and social support-seeking did not interact with symptoms in their relation to quality of life. Social support-seeking may thus not be beneficial (nor disruptive) as a way of coping with symptoms in schizophrenia. More studies are needed in order to investigate the relation of social support-seeking to symptoms and to quality of life in serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, so that interventions with persons suffering from these disorders may be better guided.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2000

Visual search in schizophrenia: latent inhibition and novel pop-out effects.

A visual search task was used to assess attentional function in a mixed group of schizophrenic patients and in normal controls. Subjects identified presence or absence of a unique shape presented with homogeneous distractors. Response time (RT) was examined as a function of prior experience with target, distractor, or both. On each trial, targets and/or distractors were either novel or familiar. Schizophrenic patients were slower than controls in all conditions. In the test phase, three target/distractor conditions were examined (PE - target and distractors pre-exposed but reversed; NPE - target novel and distractors pre-exposed; NOV - novel target and distractors). As predicted, normal controls, but not schizophrenics, showed latent inhibition (LI: PE minus NPE). The latter finding was due to the absence of normal LI in female patients. A novel pop-out effect (NOV minus NPE) was obtained which did not interact with any of the other variables. The results suggest that the LI effect is indeed related to the processing of irrelevant stimuli, and that, at least female schizophrenic patients process such stimuli differently from controls. Past inconsistencies in the LI-schizophrenia literature may be the result of disproportionate gender compositions in patient and control groups.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

The ends of medical intervention and the demarcation of the normal from the pathological.

This study examines the ends of medical intervention and argues that mainstream contemporary medicine assumes that appropriate ends may be discovered (i.e., naturalism), rather than created or decided upon (i.e., conventionalism). The essay then applies these considerations to the problem of the demarcation of the normal from the pathological. I argue that the common formulations of this dispute commit a fallacy, as they characterize the "normal" as a state of the organism and not as an ongoing process within it. Such a process may be characterized as self-creation and self-repair. Such considerations support the conclusion that normality may be regarded as a regulative idea, rather than as an end-state, and as part of the ends of medical intervention, depending upon choice and context.

Disease↗
PubMed2000

The biopsychosocial model of medicine revisited: a meta-theoretical excursion.

Engel's biopsychosocial model of medicine has been widely endorsed by contemporary medicine, at least in theory. Yet, whereas Engel's notion refers mainly to physician-patient communication, the prevalent interpretation of this model is mainly etiological. The present meta-theoretical study examines the relation between the different notions of the model. Using logical analysis and the theory of (critical) rationality, in particular Wettersten's theory of (complementary) styles of rationality, it is argued that the different notions of the model may be complementary, rather than contradictory or incommensurable as usually implied by those holding them.

Communication↗
PubMed1999

Relation between command hallucinations and dangerous behavior.

This article presents an updated review of studies on the relation between command hallucinations and dangerous behavior. The author reviewed all studies published between 1966 and 1997 according to MEDLINE and between 1974 and 1997 according to PSYCLIT. Forty-one studies were found, of which 82.9 percent dealt with the relation between command hallucinations and dangerous behavior. Of these studies, 32.3 percent were controlled, and they were grouped into three partially overlapping classes: those concerned with violent behavior, those concerned with suicidal behavior, and those concerned with mediating variables. Most of these studies agreed on the non-existence of an immediate relation between command hallucinations and dangerous (violent or suicidal) behavior. Even though the studies were divided about the existence of a relation between severity/dangerousness of command content and compliance with the commands, there was agreement about the existence of a direct relation between compliance with commands and both benevolence and familiarity of commanding voice. It seems that the research and knowledge available to date on this subject is both scant and methodologically weak. Future study should probably concentrate on mediating factors, such as appraisal and coping attitudes and behaviors.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1998

Modified crisis intervention for personality disorder.

This study proposes that the goal of crisis intervention for persons with personality disorders should be to return them to their pre-crisis level of functioning, even though this is maladaptive. This is contrasted with standard crisis intervention, which aims to return normal or neurotic persons to their pre-crisis normal or neurotic functioning, usually by means of few and short-term therapeutic encounters. The modification proposed costs more time and resources in persons with personality disorders in crisis and fits the intervention to the personality type. This is illustrated by the case of Eve, a patient in crisis, whose pre-crisis functioning was maladaptive because of a dependent personality disorder. The goal of (modified) crisis intervention in this case was to return the patient to her dependent lifestyle, by means of pharmacotherapy combined with intensive supportive psychotherapy during 3-4 months of partial (day) hospitalization. The special nature of crisis in personality disorders is discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Isolation, characterization, and chromosomal mapping of the human Nkx6.1 gene (NKX6A), a new pancreatic islet homeobox gene.

Nkx6.1 (gene symbol NKX6A), a new member of the NK homeobox gene family, was recently identified in rodent pancreatic islet beta-cell lines. The pattern of expression suggested that this gene product might be important for control of islet development and/or regulation of insulin biosynthesis. We now report cloning of human NKX6A, characterization of its genomic structure, and its chromosomal localization. The predicted protein of human NKX6A contained 367 amino acids and had 97% identity to the hamster protein. The highly conserved NK decapeptide and homeodomain regions were identical between human and hamster, suggesting functional importance of these domains. The coding region spanned approximately 4.8 kb and was composed of three exons. The gene was localized to four CEPH "B" yeast artificial chromosome clones (914B4, 951G9, 981D6, and 847B3), and a nearby polymorphic marker (D4S1538) on chromosome 4 was identified < 1270 kb from the gene. Using fluorescence in situ hybridization, we also determined that NKX6A maps to 4q21.2-q22.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1997

Transcriptional synergy between LIM-homeodomain proteins and basic helix-loop-helix proteins: the LIM2 domain determines specificity.

LIM-homeodomain proteins direct cellular differentiation by activating transcription of cell-type-specific genes, but this activation requires cooperation with other nuclear factors. The LIM-homeodomain protein Lmx1 cooperates with the basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) protein E47/Pan-1 to activate the insulin promoter in transfected fibroblasts. In this study, we show that two proteins originally called Lmx1 are the closely related products of two distinct vertebrate genes, Lmx1.1 and Lmx1.2. We have used yeast genetic systems to delineate the functional domains of the Lmx1 proteins and to characterize the physical interactions between Lmx1 proteins and E47/Pan-1 that produce synergistic transcriptional activation. The LIM domains of the Lmx1 proteins, and particularly the second LIM domain, mediate both specific physical interactions and transcriptional synergy with E47/Pan-1. The LIM domains of the LIM-homeodomain protein Isl-1, which cannot mediate transcriptional synergy with E47/Pan-1, do not interact with E47/Pan-1. In vitro studies demonstrate that the Lmx1.1 LIM2 domain interacts specifically with the bHLH domain of E47/Pan-1. These studies provide the basis for a model of the assembly of LIM-homeodomain-containing complexes on DNA elements that direct cell-type-restricted transcription in differentiated tissues.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1997

On the notion of psychosis: the DSM-IV in perspective.

Using a historical overview and a conceptual analysis of the notion of psychosis, the DSM-IV suggestion to narrow down the notion of psychosis to delusions and hallucinations is examined. It is argued that the suggestion continues a trend in modern psychiatry, and that, perhaps more than others, it might lead to the (mis)identification of the notion of psychosis with the notion of error, which fails to demarcate disordered reality representation--as in delusions and hallucinations--from normal reality representation. Finally, the notion of (impaired) reality testing is presented as permitting such a demarcation, and it is concluded that it is therefore clinically useful and should be preserved, at least for the time being, in the notion of psychosis, including the narrow sense of the notion of psychosis as suggested in the DSM-IV.

Delusions↗
PubMed1994

Pancreatic beta cells express a diverse set of homeobox genes.

Homeobox genes, which are found in all eukaryotic organisms, encode transcriptional regulators involved in cell-type differentiation and development. Several homeobox genes encoding homeodomain proteins that bind and activate the insulin gene promoter have been described. In an attempt to identify additional beta-cell homeodomain proteins, we designed primers based on the sequences of beta-cell homeobox genes cdx3 and lmx1 and the Drosophila homeodomain protein Antennapedia and used these primers to amplify inserts by PCR from an insulinoma cDNA library. The resulting amplification products include sequences encoding 10 distinct homeodomain proteins; 3 of these proteins have not been described previously. In addition, an insert was obtained encoding a splice variant of engrailed-2, a homeodomain protein previously identified in the central nervous system. Northern analysis revealed a distinct pattern of expression for each homeobox gene. Interestingly, the PCR-derived clones do not represent a complete sampling of the beta-cell library because no inserts encoding cdx3 or lmx1 protein were obtained. Beta cells probably express additional homeobox genes. The abundance and diversity of homeodomain proteins found in beta cells illustrate the remarkable complexity and redundancy of the machinery controlling beta-cell development and differentiation.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1990

Towards a rationalization of biological psychiatry: a study in psychobiological epistemology.

Contemporary biological psychiatry is in a seemingly inchoate state. I assert that this state of biological psychiatry is due to its violation of an epistemological criterion of rationality, i.e., the relevance criterion; that is, contemporary biological psychiatry is irrational as it adopts a conception irrelevant to the psychobiological domain. This conception is mechanistic. The irrationality of biological psychiatry is manifest as the dominance of neurochemical explanations of psychopharmacological correlations, resulting in predictive sterility and, correspondingly, in the dominance of serendipity. I suggest a rationalization of biological psychiatry through a conception relevant to the psychobiological domain. This conception is hierarchical.

Biological Psychiatry↗