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Biomedical subjects

C Hatcher

Publications and source records attributed to C Hatcher.

15 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

Suicide and violence risk in law enforcement: practical guidelines for risk assessment, prevention, and intervention.

Research and anecdotal reports indicate that suicide and violence risk may be higher among members of law enforcement than those in other occupational categories. This article examines the phenomenon of suicide and violence risk within this population, and law enforcement cultural variables that may contribute to elevated risk. Suicide and violence risk factors and clues unique to law enforcement are described, as are intervention approaches which may be helpful to managing and reducing risk.

Guidelines as Topic↗
PubMed1998

The role of the psychologist in crisis/hostage negotiations.

Over the past three decades, there has been a noted increase in hostage and barricade incidents involving perpetrators with a variety of emotional, economic, and political motives. A hostage incident may be defined as an incident in which (a) perpetrator(s) hold(s) one or more persons against their will in a location known to police. A barricade incident, on the other hand, is an incident without hostages in which a perpetrator is barricaded, also in a location known to police and refusing to surrender. Approximately 25 years ago, a theory of crisis/hostage negotiations was developed which has been continuously refined in field applications. This article will define the goal of crisis/hostage negotiation, review the history of hostage taking from biblical times to the present, review the utilization of psychologists and other mental health consultants by police crisis/hostage negotiation teams, and discuss the four roles and related functions of psychologists on crisis/hostage negotiation teams.

Consultants↗
PubMed1992

The role of violence in decisions about hospitalization from the psychiatric emergency room.

OBJECTIVE: The authors evaluated the relationship between violent behavior and decision making about hospitalization from the psychiatric emergency room. METHOD: The medical charts of 321 patients evaluated in an urban psychiatric emergency room during a 4-week period were reviewed retrospectively. Violent behavior was defined as physical attacks on persons or fear-inducing behavior before or during the evaluation in the emergency room; and its value in predicting hospitalization decisions was assessed with logistic regression analyses that also included 12 demographic, clinical, and contextual variables. RESULTS: A model predicting hospitalization decisions was developed and cross-validated. Although violent patients were more likely to be hospitalized than nonviolent patients, clinical variables such as diagnosis and overall severity of psychiatric impairment were more important than violent behavior in predicting hospitalization decisions. CONCLUSIONS: Despite legal pressures to focus on overt behaviors such as violence as a basis for liability prevention and civil commitment, clinicians in this study did not allocate inpatient resources to preventively detain persons unlikely to benefit from treatment. Rather, they hospitalized the most severely disturbed patients, with diagnoses such as schizophrenic and manic disorders for which a widely accepted therapeutic armamentarium exists. The results are consistent with clinical recommendations that in the evaluation of the violent patient, attention needs to be given to the underlying disorder, since violent behavior itself can result from diverse causes only some of which require inpatient psychiatric treatment.

Decision Making↗
PubMed1988

Family survivors of suicide and accidental death: consequences for widows.

The impact of completed suicide on the surviving family was studied. Thirteen widows whose husbands had died through suicide were compared with 13 widows whose husbands had died in accidents. The widows' views of their families' functioning, and the extent of life stress and psychiatric symptoms experienced by the widows, were assessed. Interview data suggested more guilt and blaming in suicide survivor families. However, on standardized questionnaires, suicide survivors showed no more family dysfunction, life stress, or psychiatric symptomatology than accident survivors. Both groups acknowledged clinically significant levels of symptoms. The findings raise questions about the validity of generalizations based on the clinical literature regarding the uniquely pathogenic impact of suicide on family functioning.

Accidents↗
PubMed1986

Blunt and penetrating diaphragmatic injuries with or without herniation of organs into the chest.

From 1970 to 1984, 189 patients with penetrating injury and 20 with blunt injury were treated at Grady Memorial Hospital. One hundred eight-five patients with penetrating injury (Group 1) and 9 with blunt injury (Group 2) required emergency laparotomy. In the remaining 15 patients (Group 3), the diagnosis of diaphragmatic injury was delayed from 18 hours to 15 years (mean, 8 months) after injury. The vast majority of the Group 1 and all Group 2 patients had injury to other organs, and the diagnosis of the diaphragmatic injury was made in almost all of them during the emergency laparotomy. The diagnosis in Group 3 patients was made by chest roentgenogram alone or with an upper gastrointestinal series or barium enema. All diaphragmatic injuries were repaired primarily except one which was repaired with Prolene mesh. Four of the Group 1 patients died, a mortality of 2.2%, and 2 of the Group 2 patients died, a mortality of 22.2%. All Group 3 patients recovered. This study suggests that diaphragmatic injury should be suspected in all patients with penetrating as well as blunt injury of the chest and abdomen and particularly of the epigastrium and lower chest. The presence of such an injury should be excluded before the termination of the exploratory procedure. Also, diaphragmatic injury should be suspected in patients with roentgenographic abnormalities of the diaphragm or lower lung field following trauma. The presence of diaphragmatic injury in such patients should be excluded with appropriate diagnostic studies to protect the patient from its late complications.

Abdominal Injuries↗
PubMed1986

Nizatidine: a new histamine receptor blocker in the treatment of active duodenal ulcers.

Forty-three patients with newly diagnosed duodenal ulcers were treated with a new histamine blocker, nizatidine, and with placebo. The incidence of complete endoscopic healing was 38, 74, and 82% in the nizatidine treated patients compared with 25, 37, and 50% in the placebo treated group after 2, 4, and 8 wk of treatment, respectively. Nizatidine was clearly more effective than placebo after 4 wk of treatment. The size of unhealed ulcers decreased more than 50% in 62, 50, and 50% in the nizatidine treated groups versus 27, 25, and 40% in the placebo treated groups after 2, 4, and 8 wk of treatment, respectively. The difference between the two was not statistically significant for any given period. There was a significant correlation between day pain relief and ulcer healing in both treatment groups. Nizatidine significantly improved day pain relief only after 8 wk of treatment (p less than 0.01). No patient developed any side effects as a result of nizatidine treatment, except that the serum creatinine level rose from 1.05 to 1.1 mg/100 ml but still remained within the normal accepted range. This study demonstrated that nizatidine at 150 mg po bid could be effectively used in the treatment of duodenal ulcer disease.

Clinical Trials as Topic↗
PubMed1985

Dopamine production by isolated glomeruli and tubules from rat kidneys.

To locate the sites of dopamine (D) production in rat renal cortex, we separated glomeruli and proximal tubules by sieving or centrifugation in Percoll after collagenase digestion. After centrifugation layer I contained 60-80% glomeruli and 20-40% tubule fragments, half of which did not stain with alkaline phosphatase, layer II contained 0-5% glomeruli, 10-25% tubule fragments other than proximal tubules, and 70-85% proximal tubule fragments. Layer IV contained 85-95% proximal tubules. Gluconeogenic rates were (micromoles per hour per gram wet weight) as follows: I, 4 +/- 1; II, 7 +/- 2; and IV, 16 +/- 1. Norepinephrine (NE) content was (picomoles per gram wet weight) I, 310 +/- 30; II, 540 +/- 40; IV, 195 +/- 60. D content was (picomoles per gram wet weight) I, 26 +/- 6; II, 46 +/- 13; IV, 33 +/- 7. Surgical denervation 4-6 days previously reduced the norepinephrine content of layers I and II to 35 +/- 10 (p less than 0.001) and of IV to 60 +/- 20 (p less than 0.05) and the D content of layers I and II to 13 +/- 6 and 6 +/- 6 pmol/g, respectively (p less than 0.01); D content of layer IV was unchanged. D production from 10(-7) M 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPA) was (nanomoles per gram per minute) I, 0.2 +/- 0.03; II, 0.7 +/- 0.1; IV, 1.0 +/- 0.04. DOPA consumption was (nanomoles per gram per minute) I, 0.6 +/- 0.1; II, 1.4 +/- 0.3; and IV, 1.8 +/- 0.2. Denervation did not change D production or DOPA consumption.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Animals↗
PubMed1983

Family characteristics in high and low health care utilization.

Despite the position of the family as the basic social unit, the majority of studies of medical care utilization focus on individuals. In this preliminary study, nine families of high utilizers and 12 families of low utilizers were compared using the Moos Family Environment Scale and a semistructured interview. Significant differences were seen in structure, interactional patterns, and health-related behavior. The high utilizer families, as a whole, saw themselves as less expressive and more achievement-oriented. High utilizer children saw much more parental control than did low utilizer children. There was greater divergence in perspective between husbands and wives of high utilizing families than between spouses in low utilizing families. High utilizer families were less social than low utilizer families. There was greater use of tranquilizers and greater dissatisfaction with doctors in the high utilizer families as well.

Achievement↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Violence and trauma response.

This chapter is intended to assist managers and occupational physicians in assessing the impact of violence-induced trauma in the workplace, and in determining the most appropriate responses for both employee and corporate welfare. Among the topics covered are the dimensions of violence in the workplace, the phases of the trauma experience, the objective and subjective experience of employee-victims, and the dynamic interplay and organizational trauma.

Adaptation, Psychological↗