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Biomedical subjects

B J Cohler

Publications and source records attributed to B J Cohler.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1997

Positive parent/adult child relationships: impact of severe mental illness and caregiving burden.

Comparison of 222 parents of an adult child who had a psychiatric disability and 434 parents with a nondisabled adult child revealed that parents' positive appraisals of their relationship with the target child was significantly predicted by their perceived caregiving burden, but not by their child's psychiatric status. Implications for interventions that enhance parent/adult child relationships are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

From war nursery to therapeutic milieu.

The issue of violence in childhood and society is reviewed from the comparative perspective of the care of children by Anna Freud and her colleagues during the bombing of World War II and the plight of seriously troubled children and adolescents living in poverty and in violent families in contemporary society. Consistent with observations reported by Mahron, violence among these children is understood as a response to a world experience that is depleting and overwhelming; some sense of being alive is provided through aggressive behavior. Founded on the concept of the therapeutic milieu as described by Aichhorn, Bettelheim, and Redl and Wineman, the psychoanalytic intervention program described here fosters enhanced capacity for tension management and ego development via techniques of crisis management within the group living situation, incorporating the life-space or marginal interview, therapeutic education, and psychotherapy.

Child Behavior Disorders↗
PubMed1995

Are there patients with late-onset schizophrenia in state hospitals?

Diagnoses of all individuals admitted between 1989 and 1991 to a State of Illinois Hospital were examined to determine the prevalence of patients meeting DSM-III-R criteria for late-onset schizophrenia. Four prevalence rates were determined for each year based on the frequency of late-onset patients in (1) total psychiatric admissions, (2) total admissions over age 45, (3) admissions with diagnoses of schizophrenia, and (4) admissions over age 45 and diagnosed schizophrenia. Results showed that the mean (across the three years) of the four prevalence rates of late-onset schizophrenia ranged from 0.24% to 4.1%. This range is far below prevalence rates on hospitalized patients previously reported in the literature (6 to 34%). Reasons for discrepancy are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Suicide, life course, and life story.

This article explores how a life-course perspective and narrative methodology can be used to study risk factors for late-life suicide. A life-course approach to aging and suicide requires consideration of age as both social and personal construction. "On-" and "off-time" events and their impact on adjustment are used to illustrate these social and personal constructions. Cohort, period, and historical events have potentially profound effects on risk for suicide, yet the study of these effects is difficult because they are so often confounded in longitudinal study. Lifelong personality characteristics that are not life-threatening in earlier life may be of greater risk in later life depending on life circumstances such as physical dependencies. A life-story or narrative approach offers an alternative method for incorporating these complicated factors when studying late-life suicide. The psychological autopsy can be considered a type of "narrative" used by various individuals to gain understanding about a suicide.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1994

Age and family burden among parents of offspring with severe mental illness.

Family burden reported by parents of offspring with severe mental illness was examined to determine whether burden increases with age. Older parents were troubled by cognitive dimensions of burden, while younger parents were distressed by their offspring's behavior, suggesting that interventions should vary according to parents' age as well as developmental stage of their child's illness.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1992

Marital satisfaction among parents of the severely mentally ill living in the community.

Factors influencing marital satisfaction among 131 parents of adult offspring with severe mental illness were explored. Those found to be most predictive of marital satisfaction were parents' ability to comfort one another, parents' gender, number of offspring, family income, and interpersonal sensitivity. Implications of these findings for practical and policy approaches to preventive intervention are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1989

The life course of gay and lesbian youth: an immodest proposal for the study of lives.

The authors raise questions about several fundamental assumptions and methods regarding study of the development of gay and lesbian youth. Primary among these are the validity of reliance on respondents' recollections regarding their childhood and adolescent experiences; inferences about developmental processes and outcomes made on the basis of cross-sectional samples; the time-specific, cohort-bound nature of many previous constructs and findings; and the persistent search for continuities between childhood gender behavior and adult sexual orientation. In consequence, the emerging body of theory is largely a developmental psychology of the remembered past. Strategies are suggested for longitudinal, prospective research on homosexual adolescents, shifting attention from child-based, "causal" models to those of adolescent and adult-centered perspectives. Aimed at understanding life changes and the developmental processes and course of negotiating them, longitudinal methods will more accurately reflect current experiences of gay and lesbian youth coming of age in a unique historical context. Findings from studies of the life course have direct implications for modification of current developmental theories, particularly those that can inform gay and lesbian-sensitive clinical services for all age groups.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1986

Predictors of outcome in schizophrenia: the process-reactive dimension.

Premorbid social-sexual competence and the process-reactive dimension, as assessed by the Phillips Scale, were investigated as predictors of posthospital adjustment in a prospective study of two samples of 141 young, early phase schizophrenics (a private hospital sample and a state hospital sample). The Phillips Scale predicted subsequent outcome at significant levels for one of the two samples of DSM-II schizophrenics (a "broad" construct of schizophrenia). It did not predict outcome as well for DSM-III schizophrenics (a "narrow" construct of schizophrenia). Mixed results emerged from separate analyses of first-admission schizophrenics only and for male schizophrenics only. The data indicated that marital status accounts for some of the positive relationship between the Phillips Scale and later outcome. A more focused measure of prehospital social adjustment successfully predicted social functioning at followup for both DSM-II and DSM-III schizophrenics (p less than .05). There were some significant and near-significant relationships, but overall results suggest that when the influence of chronicity and marital status is reduced, the relationship between the Phillips Scale and subsequent outcome is less robust than was once thought.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

Children of depressed and schizophrenic mothers.

A sample of psychotic mothers and their children who were five years or younger when first recruited for our study of high risk children was followed up five years later. The current sample, obtained from our previous work, consisted of 18 schizophrenic, 12 depressed and psychotic, and 22 well mothers and their six to 12 year old children. The mothers were equated for education and age, and the children for sex and age. Cognitive style tests and interviews measuring social adjustment and functioning were given to both the parents and the children.

Attention↗
PubMed1977

Children of psychotic mothers. Performance of 3-year-old children on tests of attention.

Children of mentally ill mothers (N = 21), believed to be at risk for the subsequent development of psychopathology (high-risk group) were compared with children of well mothers (N = 21)(low-risk group) on the Embedded Figures Test (EFT) and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT). Results indicated that children in the high-risk group perform less well than low-risk children on the EFT (particularly on the more difficult stimuli), but do not differ from low-risk children on the PPVT. These results are interpreted as showing greater impairment of attention among children of mentally ill mothers than among children of well mothers.

Attention↗