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Biomedical subjects

C G Matthews

Publications and source records attributed to C G Matthews.

14 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

The role of neuropsychology in the assessment and treatment of persons with epilepsy.

Several areas of current interest in the neuropsychology of epilepsy are briefly reviewed in this article. These include variables pertaining to seizures, seizure history, antiepileptic drugs, and methods of neuropsychological evaluation. It is apparent that epilepsy is a multifaceted area: Psychologists not only can be of great assistance to patients with this condition, but may also learn a great deal from this complex disorder.

Anticonvulsants↗
PubMed1979

The effect of symptom duration on cognitive and motor performance in parkinsonism.

Neuropsychologic test performance was examined in a normal control group and in three groups of Parkinson disease patients, with symptoms for 2 years or less, for 3 to 5 years, or for 6 to 15 years. On a test battery sampling a wide variety of cognitive and motor abilities, significant intergroup differences occurred primarily on tasks with a primary motor component, although mild intergroup cognitive impairment was also demonstrated. The results suggested that maximal deterioration occurred during the first 5 years of symptoms, with few significant additional changes after that.

Attention↗
PubMed1978

Hyperkinesis and food additives: testing the Feingold hypothesis.

Teacher ratings, objective classroom and laboratory observational data, attention-concentration, and other psychological measures obtained on 36 school-age, hyperactive boys under experimental and control diet conditions yielded no support for the Feingold hypothesis. Parental ratings revealed positive behavioral changes for the experimental diet; however, they seemed primarily attributable to one diet sequence. Parents' behavioral ratings on ten hyperactive, preschool boys indicated a positive response to the experimental diet; again, laboratory observations showed no diet effect.

Child↗
PubMed1978

Synthetic food colors and hyperactivity in children: a double-blind challenge experiment.

Nine hyperactive male subjects, selected on the basis of showing a favorable "response" to the Feingold diet in an earlier study, were maintained on a strict elimination (Feingold) diet for 11 weeks, and were given multiple trials of placebo and challenge food materials. Parental and teacher ratings, classroom behavior observations, and neuropsychological test scores obtained during baseline, placebo, and challenge conditions, in general, were not found to be adversely affected by the artificial color challenge materials. As expected, comparable data gathered on a matched control group showed them to receive substantially better ratings than the hyperactive subjects on the majority of the comparison measures employed. Possible explanations for the discrepancy between the dramatic clinical-anecdotal reports that have been given and the much more equivocal findings from formal experimental projects are presented.

Child Behavior Disorders↗
PubMed1977

Effect of major motor seizure frequency upon cognitive-intellectual functions in adults.

Wechsler Aandult Intelligence Scale and Halstead neuropsychological performances were investigated in three groups of adult subjects with major motor epilepsy classified according to low, moderate, and high seizure frequency. The groups were equated on seizure duration and age at onset variables. On 7 of the 14 psychological measures employed, significant between-group differences were obtained, with poorest, intermediate, and best test scores associated with the high, moderate, and low seizure frequency groups, respectively. Similar performance comparisons were made on two additional groups: a "high risk" group characterized by early onset age, long seizure duration, and high seizure frequency, and a "low risk" group characterized by late onset age, short seizure duration, and low seizure frequency. Highly significant differences were obtained between the high risk and low risk groups on 12 of 14 variables, with the high risk subjects demonstrating severe cognitive and adaptive impairment in comparison to the low risk subjects. The results support the conclusion that increased frequency of major motor seizures is associated with increasing levels of adaptive impairment, and that the probability of severe cognitive-adaptive dysfunction is further and substantially increased when high seizure frequency is accompanied by a history of early onset and long duration of the disorder.

Adult↗
PubMed1977

Effect of early versus late onset of major motor epilepsy on cognitive-intellectual performance: further considerations.

Two groups of adult patients, one with early (0-5 years), the other with late (10-15 years) age of seizure onset, were compared on 14 variables derived from the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and Halstead's neuropsychological measures. The groups were matched for duration of the disorder and seizure frequency, and all subjects (Ss) had unequivocal histories of major motor seizures. The group with early age of onset obtained significantly lower WAIS, Verbal IQ, Performance IQ, and Full Scale IQ values than the group with late age of onset. No significant intergroup differences were obtained on Halstead's measures, although the performances of both groups were impaired vis-a-vis non-neurological control expectancy. The results suggest that early onset age, as operationally defined in this study, has a specifc differential influence which is restricted to psychometric intellectual functions as measured by the WAIS in groups matched for seizure duration and seizure frequency.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

Age of onset and psychometric correlates of MMPI profiles in major motor epilepsy.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the MMPI performances of patients with major motor epilepsy and of nonepileptic brain damaged patients in relation to age of onset, duration of brain dysfunction and adequacy of intellectual functions. The present results suggest that MMPI indices of emotional disturbance are more closely associated with the degree of psychometric and cognitive impairment than they are with age of onset or duration of brain dysfunction. This effect is evident both in patients with major motor epilepsy and in nonepileptic brain damaged subjects.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1976

Prognostic implications of neuropsychological test performance for surgical treatment of epilepsy.

Surgical treatment of epilepsy is undertaken on the basis of prognostically favorable clinical and laboratory data. Analysis of neuropsychological test data obtained preoperatively and postoperatively from 14 surgically treated patients indicates that specific measures of neuropsychological test performance may provide prognostic information aside from the utility of this testing for lateralization and localization. An impairment Index which is derived from the extensive test battery was related to change of seizure frequency. The groups of patients which have an improved or seizure-free status postoperatively also have the least preoperative neuropsychological impairment. The group of patients which did not show improvement of seizure frequency had a younger mean age at onset of seizures (x = 6.7 years), while the group which was rendered seizure free had a later age at onset (x = 17.2 years). There was no relationship for the duration of seizures prior to surgery and the outcome following surgery.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1975

The effect of early versus late onset of major motor epilepsy upon cognitive-intellectual performance.

Performance on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale and Halstead neuropsychological measures were investigated in two groups of adult subjects with major motor epilepsy of early (0 to 5 yr) and later (17 to 50 yr) onset, and in two groups with early and later onset of brain damage without epilepsy. The two groups with early onset earned poorer scores on most tests than did the two groups with later onset. The findings suggest an adverse effect of cerebral dysfunction of early onset, whether accompanied by major motor seizures or not. Subjects with early onset of major motor seizures scored significantly lower on 9 of 14 measures than subjects in any other group, none of which showed significant intergroup differences in the dependent variables employed. The results support the conclusion that early age of onset of major motor seizures is more apt to result in impairment of mental abilities in adult life than is later onset of seizures or early or late onset of brain damage uncomplicated by epilepsy.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1975

Cognitive and motor-sensory performances in toxic and nontoxic epileptic subjects.

Psychometric, adaptive ability, motor proficiency, and sensory discrimination measures were administered to adult seizure patients within 36 hours of blood serum determinations of diphenylhydantoin, phenobarbital, and primidone. Thirty-five subjects in whom at least one of the three drug levels fell within stated mug per milliliter toxicity ranges were compared with 28 subjects of comparable age and IQ who were identified by the same procedure to be nontoxic. The toxic group consistently obtained poorer mean test scores, and significant intergroup differences were found on several measures of attention and concentration and on tests of motor coordination and static tremor.

Adult↗