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Biomedical subjects

B Fish

Publications and source records attributed to B Fish.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Infants at risk for schizophrenia: sequelae of a genetic neurointegrative defect. A review and replication analysis of pandysmaturation in the Jerusalem Infant Development Study.

A 1975 report stated that a schizophrenic genotype may be manifested in infants by a neurointegrative defect called pandysmaturation. Recent evidence supports this: (1) 12 studies found delayed development in schizophrenics' infants and in preschizophrenics; (2) "blind" psychometric evaluations favored an adult schizotypal disorder in four to six of seven high-risk subjects with pandysmaturation in the New York study; and (3) finally, in a partial replication of this method using the Jerusalem data, blind diagnoses of "probable" and "possible" pandysmaturation were significantly related to a parental diagnosis of schizophrenia and to cognitive and motor neurointegrative deficits at 10 years. Obstetrical complications were unrelated to diagnosis, pandysmaturation, or outcome in the overall sample. However, we found a small subgroup of schizophrenic offspring in whom the most severe motor deficits at follow-up were related to obstetrical complications, pandysmaturation, and low birth weight.

Adult

Alternative fat-restricted diets for hypercholesterolemia and combined hyperlipidemia: feasibility, design, subject recruitment, and baseline characteristics of the dietary alternatives study.

UNLABELLED: Dietary recommendations for the treatment of hypercholesterolemia (HC) emphasize stepwise reductions in fat intake, but there is no agreement on what lower limit is desirable or achievable. These recommendations have applied broadly to persons with HC alone, as well as to those with a combined elevation in triglyceride (TG) and cholesterol, even though they may differ in pathophysiological mechanisms and response. In this paper, we describe the design and feasibility of recruiting and randomizing subjects with HC or combined hyperlipidemia (CHL) to an outpatient dietary intervention study of progressively fat-restricted diets. Diets were designed to contain 30, 26, 22, and 18% of calories from fat; 300, 200, 100, and 100 mg cholesterol/day; and a polyunsaturated/saturated fat ratio of approximately 1.0. Triglyceride and low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) cutpoints were based on the age-specific 75th percentile value. Over 18 months, 8372 men were screened, yielding 320 HC subjects randomized to the four diets and 211 CHL subjects randomized to the first three diets (because of fewer CHL subjects). At baseline, HC and CHL subjects were similar in age, education, lifestyle, dietary intake, and LDL-C, but CHL subjects were heavier, more hyperglycemic, hyperinsulinemic, and hypertensive. CONCLUSIONS: Recruiting a large cohort of HC and CHL subjects from an industrial workforce is feasible in a restricted time frame. CHL subjects demonstrate features of the insulin resistance/hypertension syndrome, differing from HC subjects. CHL is sufficiently common relative to HC (2:3) to permit a comparison of dietary responses between the two conditions. Finally, the randomization of HC and CHL subjects to the diets yielded statistically indistinguishable groups, permitting a test of the efficacy of the alternative diets within each hyperlipidemic (HL) category.

Adult

Formal thought disorder in childhood onset schizophrenia and schizotypal personality disorder.

The Kiddie Formal Thought Disorder Rating Scale (K-FTDS) was examined in a sample of 29 schizophrenic, 10 schizotypal, and 54 normal children, aged 5-12.5 yrs. The schizophrenic and schizotypal children had significantly more illogical thinking and loose associations than the normal children. There were no significant differences between the illogical thinking and loose associations ratings of the schizophrenic and schizotypal children. Young schizophrenic, schizotypal, and normal children had more illogical thinking and loose associations than older children in their respective groups. The diagnostic, developmental, and cognitive implications of the study's results are discussed.

Association

The Kiddie Formal Thought Disorder Rating Scale: clinical assessment, reliability, and validity.

The Kiddie Formal Thought Disorder Story Game and the Kiddie Formal Thought Disorder Scale were administered to schizophrenic, schizotypal, and normal children, aged 5 to 13 years. The story game elicited more elaborate speech samples than did a structural clinical interview focused on psychotic symptomatology. The sum of illogical thinking and loose associations was a reliable kappa = 0.77), sensitive (79%), and specific (90%) indicator of schizophrenia in this sample. It also demonstrated significant developmental changes in the schizophrenic and normal subjects. Incoherence and poverty of content of speech were infrequently rated in both schizophrenic and normal subjects.

Child

A new onset of fatigue in an active elderly man.

Fatigue is often perceived as part of normal aging. Yet for many active elderly, a complaint of generalized, non-specific weakness should alert the physician to the existence of possible underlying pathology, as this case demonstrates.

Aged

Infant predictors of the longitudinal course of schizophrenic development.

This study was begun in 1952 to test the hypothesis that specific neurointegrative disorders in infancy predict vulnerability to later schizophrenia and schizotypal disorder. Twelve offspring of chronic schizophrenic mothers and 12 controls from similar low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds have been studied since their births in 1952-53 and 1959-60. The infants were ranked according to the severity of their neurointegrative disorder, or "pandysmaturation" (PDM), based on analysis of Gesell tests and physical growth measures repeated 10 times between birth and 2 years. Twenty-three subjects (96 percent) completed all 10-, 15- and 20/22-year followup examinations. PDM was significantly related to maternal schizophrenia but not to obstetrical complications, SES, sex, or ethnic background. The severity of PDM was significantly related to the blind evaluations of the severity of psychopathology at 10 years. One 26-year risk subject has been chronically schizophrenic since age 17. The author, nonblind, provisionally diagnosed six other risk subjects as schizotypal or paranoid personality. All seven had PDM; six required 6 to 18+ years of treatment; four with "negative" symptoms remain severely impaired. All six sick subjects had severe social-affective symptoms by 3-6 years of age; four had perceptual deficits by 2 years. Some social-affective, cognitive, academic, and vocational impairments included in the "negative" symptoms and "process" traits of schizophrenia had antecedents before 2 years of age. Primary prevention requires research into the mechanisms underlying these dysfunctions in infancy.

Adolescent

Vestibular hyporeactivity in infants at risk for schizophrenia. Association with critical developmental disorders.

Vestibular responses to caloric stimulation were measured from birth to age 2 years in ten infants born to schizophrenic mothers. This is part of a study of evolving neurointegrative disorders that may be associated with a genetic risk for schizophrenia. Transiently decreased vestibular responses coincided with several developmental disorders that were related to psychopathology at 10 years. Absent to decreased responses were associated with (1) a "pandevelopmental retardation" involving physical growth as well as postural-motor and visual-motor development, (2) an "abnormally quiet" state in the first month, and (3) failures of bimanual integration between 4 and 6 months. The transitory nature of the decreased nystagmus rules out the possibility of an organic lesion of the vestibular system. Rather, it suggests that some covert decrease in arousal accompanied those periods when central nervous system integration was disrupted.

Arousal

Bilateral femoral dysgenesis syndrome: a case report.

This paper reports a child with the Bilateral femoral dysgenesis--unusual facies syndrome (BFD-UF). The child has, in addition to previously reported findings, a ventricular septal defect with valvar and infundibular pulmonic stenosis, absence of the labia majora, bilateral syndactyly of the second and third toes, bifid great right toe and a pilonidal sinus. The similarity to cases of Caudal Regression Syndrome (phocomelic diabetic embryopathy) is noted.

Abnormalities, Multiple

Neurobiologic antecedents of schizophrenia in children. Evidence for an inherited, congenital neurointegrative defect.

In chronic schizophrenics, disordered motor development in childhood is followed by more early cognitive and social impairment and poorer outcome; childhood schizophrenics represent the most extreme variants of this. Preschizophrenic infants show a fluctuating dysregulation of maturation--or "pandevelopmental retardation" (PDR)--that involves physical growth; gross motor, visual-motor, and cognitive development; proprioceptive and vestibular responses; muscle tone; and possibly arousal. Pandevelopmental retardation was significantly related to a genetic history for schizophrenia (less than .05), but not to obstetric complications. The severity of PDR was significantly related to the severity of later psychiatric and cognitive disorder (less than .01). Pandevelopmental retardation provides a "marker" in infancy for the inherited neurointegrative defect in schizophrenia. These disordered functions should be studied by anyone interested in the biology of the schizophrenic genotype or in specific early interventions for children at risk.

Adult