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Biomedical subjects

B Toone

Publications and source records attributed to B Toone.

24 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Relationship between interictal psychopathology and the type of epilepsy. Results of a survey in general practice.

Psychiatric morbidity was assessed in a sample of 88 adult epileptic patients drawn from general practices in South London. Using the Clinical Interview Schedule, 48% emerged as psychiatric cases. When either total CIS score or caseness status was used for comparison, group differences were evident; patients with temporal lobe epilepsy and focal non-TLE did not differ, but each was significantly more impaired than those with primary generalised epilepsy. The groups also differed in their psychiatric symptom profiles. The results suggest that the increased prevalence of interictal psychopathology commonly associated with TLE may also be a feature of other forms of focal epilepsy.

Epilepsies, Partial

Nocturnal penile tumescence and serum testosterone levels.

Ten patients with chronic epilepsy were selected; five had high and five had low total serum testosterone levels. Each patient slept for two nights in the sleep laboratory. EEG monitoring and measurements of nocturnal penile tumescence were carried out during sleep. A clear relationship between both total and free serum testosterone levels were found with nocturnal penile tumescence. FSH, LH, SHBG, and prolactin showed no relationship. The five patients with low serum testosterone levels all showed reduced sexual activity.

Adolescent

Habituation of physiological responses in anxiety.

In the first study, 20 male and 20 female volunteers were studied under threat-of-shock and no-threat conditions with respect to anxiety levels, skin conductance, EEG auditory evoked response, and alpha-blocking variables. The threat-of-shock increased anxiety levels, skin conductance level, and fluctuations. The P300 component of the AER was greater in anxious individuals and habituation of the alpha-blocking response was retarded. In the second study, 12 anxious patients were compared with 12 normal subjects under threat-of-shock and 12 normal subjects under no-threat. Anxiety was associated with increased skin conductance fluctuations, larger P300 AER components, and impaired habituation of the alpha response.

Adult

Attention, eye tracking and schizophrenia.

Two experiments are reported. The first experiment successfully replicated the finding that Smooth Pursuit Eye-Tracking(SPET) performance recorded using electronsystagmographic techniques statistically differentiates between groups of clinically diagnosed shizophrenic patients and normal controls. Ratings taken of spontaneous patient behaviour during testing indicated that behaviour which on a priori grounds was thought to preclude optimum attention to eye tracking was related to greater impairment of schizophrenic performance. The second experiment investigated the effect of experimentally induced distraction on SPET performance by normal controls. It was found that competing tasks of increasing levels of difficulty produced increasing degrees of impairment in SPET performance. The results of the two experiments were interpreted as evidence that SPET performance is sensitive to superficial inattention, and that deficits in schizophrenic SPET performance are best explained by attentional deficits in the schizophrenics.

Adolescent

The EEG in Huntington's chorea: a clinical and neuropathological study.

The EEGs are reported on a group of 95 patients with Huntington's chorea. Thirty one showed little activity of any kind, and in particular no alpha rhythm above 10 μV in amplitude was seen. Only those records which still met these criteria when re-examined were included in the `low voltage' category. EEGs in this category occurred significantly more frequently in institutionalized patients and in those with a positive family history of Huntington's chorea, dementia, and choreiform movements together. Computer averaged responses to light and sound were found in the three patients examined, though their routine EEGs were low voltage. Neuropathological examination confirmed a clinical diagnosis of Huntington's chorea in 14 patients investigated. There was a statistically significant association between cortical atrophy, including the frontal lobe, and a `low voltage' EEG. It was concluded that the low voltage record, though not specific for Huntington's chorea, was rare in other neurological disorders. The EEG is therefore of value in patients suspected of having Huntington's chorea as well as in various presenile dementias.

Adult