Biomedical subjects

C J Carpenter

Publications and source records attributed to C J Carpenter.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2000

Learning and forgetting in schizophrenia.

Recent studies of patients with schizophrenia have consistently demonstrated marked deficits on measures of initial learning. However, contradictory results have been reported concerning retention and forgetting. The present study examined the level of initial and delayed recall of stories and visual figures in a group of 76 patients with schizophrenia and 51 normal controls. Schizophrenia patients demonstrated marked impairments in initial and delayed recall as well as significantly worse percentage retention scores. However, schizophrenia patients and healthy controls individually matched on level of initial recall had nearly identical delayed recall performance. The results suggest a primary deficit in the initial acquisition of information rather than an accelerated rate of forgetting in schizophrenia.

Adult↗

PubMed1993

Implicit memory in patients with schizophrenia and normal controls: effects of task demands on susceptibility to priming.

Two experiments employing a stem-completion priming paradigm are reported. The first of these compared patients with schizophrenia (SC) to normal controls and demonstrated impaired implicit memory in the SC patients under task conditions identical to those used previously with other patient groups. The second experiment was designed to examine the effects of implicit task demands and stimulus selection upon susceptibility to priming, with a second group of SC patients and normal controls. Results indicated that the ability to carry out the task demands of the implicit condition (i.e., generate completions for word-stems) was inversely related to susceptibility to priming in both the SC patients and controls. In addition, the baseline probability of specific completions was found to be correlated with the ease of priming those completions, suggesting a possible mechanism for producing statistical dissociations between implicit and explicit retrieval conditions with this paradigm. These findings suggest that certain implicit tasks may be susceptible to nonmemory psychological influences that have not been adequately investigated to date; these may be responsible for "normalizing" the performance of amnesic patients as well as producing statistical dissociations from explicit memory tasks.

Adult↗

PubMed1992

Visual orienting in schizophrenia.

Patients with schizophrenia demonstrate a variety of attentional impairments which have proven difficult to relate to specific neural systems. Posner et al. (1988) reported an asymmetric slowing of right visual field orienting in schizophrenia similar to that observed in patients with parietal lesions. We examined the visual orienting performance of 19 patients and controls using two different versions of the Posner paradigm. In overall ANOVAs we found main effects of group, cue condition, and delay interval. However, we did not observe any main effect of visual field or interactions involving visual field. There was some evidence of an asymmetric cost of invalid cues similar to those reported by Posner et al. The bulk of data suggests bilateral attentional deficits.

Adult↗

PubMed1992

Forms of memory failure in schizophrenia.

Effortful and automatic memory task performances were examined in 36 schizophrenic patients and 18 normal control Ss. Tasks included free recall, recognition, and frequency estimation. Patients demonstrated impairment in recall, in recognition, in semantic encoding, and in frequency estimation. Deficits were observed across tasks despite differences in attentional demands. The results suggest a basic compromise of memory function, which is consistent with recent neuroimaging evidence of structural or physiological abnormalities in frontal and temporal lobe structures in schizophrenia.

Adult↗

PubMed1992

Release from proactive interference: determinants of performance and neuropsychological correlates.

The Wickens (1970) modification of the Brown-Peterson short-term memory task has been used to investigate release from proactive interference (PI) in a number of memory-impaired groups. It has been suggested that failure to release from PI is observed only in patients with compromise of both memory and 'frontal-lobe' functions. The present study examined performance on this paradigm in patients with schizophrenia (SC), a neuropsychiatric disorder which typically includes both frontal and mnemonic impairments. Patients with SC were found to exhibit significantly less release from PI than normal controls. It was determined through correlational analyses that average Trial 1 performance on this task could predict performance on all subsequent trials, indicating that 'release' from PI may measure the same psychological process as the Brown-Peterson task, which does not include a release condition. Trial 1 performance in the SC group was correlated with a wide range of neuropsychological measures, but after the effect of full scale IQ was partialled out, only correlations with measures of memory and measures of frontal-lobe function remained significant. The results support previous formulations of the neuropsychological concomitants of release from PI, but suggest that failure to release on this paradigm may be secondary to a significant compromise of the ability to perform the Brown-Peterson task. It is proposed that the experimental design constraints necessary to elicit a failure to release from PI in any patient group may limit the utility of this measure, and that Brown-Peterson performance may be a more reliable index of the neuropsychological functions involved.

Adult↗

PubMed1989

Impact of military life stress on the quality of life of military wives.

Ten domains of life satisfaction were developed for military wives based on a factor analysis of 44 items derived from various studies of quality of life. Factor scores were computed for each domain, and multiple regressions were performed with the domains of satisfaction as the independent variables. Two dependent variables were used--namely--a measure of general well-being and overall satisfaction with life. The most important component of both general well-being and life satisfaction was a factor dealing with marriage, health, and family life. Factors related to domains of satisfaction with military life also explained significant amounts of variance in both dependent variables.

Factor Analysis, Statistical↗

PubMed1986

Gender, adult structuring of activities, and social behavior in middle childhood.

The study was designed to test the relations among gender, adult-provided activity structure, and social behavior for children in middle childhood. Adult-provided structure was defined as verbally presented rules, guidelines, suggestions, and modeling. Children aged 7-11 years attended a 1-week summer day camp in which activities characterized by high or low adult structure were available. As predicted, girls spent more time in highly structured activities, whereas boys spent more time in low-structure activities. Once in high-structure activities, however, both genders displayed high rates of adult-directed bids for recognition, leadership attempts, and compliance and low rates of peer interaction. In low-structure activities, children directed high rates of leadership and other social behaviors to same-sex peers. Children who chose high-structure activities most often were also most likely to interact with adults in those activities. Those who chose low-structure activities showed the highest rates of interaction with male peers. Sex-typed personality attributes were not related to activity choice. The results are interpreted in a framework encompassing the interactions of "person" attributes, environmental variables, and behavior.

Child↗

PubMed1986

Seasonal affective disorder in children and adolescents.

The authors studied seven children with symptoms of seasonal affective disorder. During the winter months the children regularly experienced irritability, fatigue, school difficulties, sadness, and sleep changes as well as other symptoms of seasonal affective disorder found in adults. An open trial of bright environmental light reversed many of these symptoms and improved mood and psychosocial functioning in the winter months. School counselors and therapists should consider seasonal affective disorder in the differential diagnosis of children with school difficulties that are most prominent in the fall-winter semester.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1985

Antidepressant effects of light in seasonal affective disorder.

The authors treated winter depression in 13 patients with typical seasonal affective disorder by extending the length of winter days with bright and dim light in the morning and evening in a balanced-order crossover study. Bright light had a marked antidepressant effect, whereas the dim light did not. This response could not be attributed to sleep deprivation. Subsequent pilot studies indicated that bright evening light alone is probably also effective. Several patients were able to maintain the antidepressant response throughout the winter months by continuing daily light treatments.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Usage patterns of phototherapy in seasonal affective disorder.

We mailed a questionnaire to patients affected with seasonal affective disorder (SAD) to determine patterns of self-selected light use and efficacy of treatment. Data obtained from 127 patients who responded indicate that despite, inconvenience and other use-limiting factors, many patients with SAD derive sustained benefit from phototherapy over months. No consistent pattern or duration of effective treatment emerged. Development of a less cumbersome means of delivering phototherapy and reimbursement by insurance companies remain concerns to patients.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Pin site care during external fixation in children: results of a nihilistic approach.

We prospectively followed 27 consecutive children with tibial circular external fixators applied between July 1, 1995, and June 30, 1997. A simple pin care system with no physical pin cleansing except that provided by daily showers was used. Children with inflamed or infected pin sites were placed on an oral antibiotic (cephalexin) for 10 days. Pin sites were graded according to the system of Dahl et al. on a 0 to 5 scale. A total of 4,473 observations was made. Patients developed 178 pin tract infections (4.0% per observation), with 151 (85%) grade 1 and 27 (15%) grade 2 infections. No pin was removed because of infection. Diaphyseal half pin sites were less commonly infected (1.6%) than periarticular wire or half pin sites (4.5%). We recommend only showering without other physical pin cleaning procedures in children undergoing external fixation procedures.

Administration, Oral↗