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Biomedical subjects

B T Co

Publications and source records attributed to B T Co.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1986

Studies in involuntary civil commitment and involuntary electroconvulsive therapy.

On January 2, 1979, the state of Missouri enacted new mental health laws. In this tandem study the impact of the change in law at an acute urban mental health center in St. Louis, Missouri, was examined in two specific areas: involuntary civil commitment and involuntary electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). The first part of this examination was conducted by comparing all patients (N = 86) who were referred to court to determine their need for involuntary civil commitment from July 1, 1980, to June 30, 1982, to a nonadjudicated control group (N = 87). The second part of this examination was conducted by comparing all patients (N = 19) who were referred to court to determine their need for involuntary ECT from July 1, 1979, to June 30, 1983, to a voluntary ECT recipient control group (N = 24). A large series of statistical comparisons were made. The major finding to emerge from these data was that clinicians were selectively referring to court a group of patients with histories of recurrently becoming both dangerous and noncompliant with hospitalization. In addition, it appears that voluntary ECT is used conservatively and involuntary ECT is used very conservatively.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Who are the "committed?" Update.

In 1977, Herjanic et al. (Tomelleri, C.J., Lakshminarayanan, N., and Herjanic, M. Who are the "committed?" J. Nerv. Ment. Dist., 165: 288-293, 1977) described all patients court committed to an acute urban mental health facility in St. Louis, Missouri, from July 1, 1973 to June 30, 1975. On January 2, 1979, major revisions in the civil commitment statutes of the state of Missouri went into effect. By the same method and at the same mental health center, this study describes all patients who reached the stage of a court hearing from July 1, 1980 to June 30, 1982 under the new civil commitment law. The following observations are made: a) 4 per cent of the total population of admitted patients reached the stage of a court hearing under the old civil commitment law but only 2.4 per cent reached the same stage under the new civil commitment law; b) only 3 per cent of the petitions for commitment were rejected by the probate court under the old civil commitment law in contrast to 30 per cent under the new civil commitment law; c) among court-committed patients only, the mean length of hospitalization decreased from 122 days under the old civil commitment law to 51 days under the new civil commitment law; and d) the proportion of committed patients requiring readmission increased from 22 per cent under the old civil commitment law to 50 per cent under the new civil commitment law. In this study, 595 hospitalizations were reviewed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1976

Amitriptyline plasma levels and therapeutic response.

Eighteen depressed outpatients were treated for 6 wk with amitriptyline. Clinical improvement was monitored using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale administered by two psychiatrists blind to the tricyclic used for treatment, dosage, and plasma levels. Amitriptyline and its desmethyl metabolite, notriptyline, were assayed twice weekly by gas chromatography-mass fragmentography. For the 17 patients having total tricyclic plasma levels between 0 and 250 ng/ml, there was a negative correlation between the Hamilton score and the mean total tricyclic level (p less than 0.01) and amitriptyline level (p less than 0.005). The mean nortriptyline level did not significantly correlate with the Hamilton score. The 10 patients having mean total tricyclic levels above 95 ng/ml had lower median Hamilton scores at week 3 (p less than 0.025) and at week 6 (p less than 0.0025) than those whose tricyclics were lower. The percentage of recovered patients increases significantly as the plasma levels rise to 250 ng/ml, the maximum plasma level considered in this study.

Adolescent↗