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Biomedical subjects

C V Gamsu

Publications and source records attributed to C V Gamsu.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1990

Prediction of survival in dementia by cognitive tests: a six-year follow-up.

One hundred and sixteen elderly female in-patients with confirmed diagnoses of senile or arteriosclerotic dementia were tested on the Paired-Associate Learning Test (PALT) and Cognitive Assessment Scale (CAS) of CAPE and were followed up annually for six years. Comparison of those patients who had died by each follow-up date with those who had survived showed that in general the latter had had better PALT and CAS scores.

Aged↗
PubMed1987

A controlled trial of treatments for generalized anxiety.

Treatments for chronic anxiety have received considerable interest recently. Firstly, there is a body of research which has shown problems of dependence and habituation in the long-term use of anti-anxiety drugs. A second development is that of psychological treatments for anxiety. Because of the problems involved in the use of benzodiazepines, it is important to determine whether or not psychological treatments are a reasonable alternative when treating chronic anxiety. This study was designed to test the relative effectiveness of cognitive-behavioural therapy, anxiety management training and treatment by benzodiazepines against a waiting list control. Measures were taken on both the process and outcome of treatment. The most immediate and greatest improvements in anxiety were seen in the group receiving drugs. However, these improvements reduced as the trial progressed and were minimal at the end of therapy. Both psychological treatment groups improved as the trial progressed with the most significant and consistent changes seen in the cognitive-behaviour therapy group. However, at follow-up there was no difference between the two groups receiving psychological treatments. Because of their lack of sustained improvement, over half of the group receiving drugs refused to wait without treatment until the follow-up assessment.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Confrontation naming in parkinsonian patients: post-operative anomia revisited.

Forty-three consecutively admitted Parkinsonian patients, of whom over a third had undergone stereotactic surgery about a decade previously, and a small control group were given a confrontation naming task. A number of comparisons were made, under the rubrics of success in naming, types of error and response latency, in an attempt to ascertain whether evidence of post-operative anomia could be detected. No such evidence was found. However, Parkinsonian lesions were shown to exert a constant quantitative effect on performance in the confrontation naming of objects.

Aged↗
PubMed1986

Use of the CAPE Pm test with disabled patients.

The problem of estimating a patient's CAS total score on CAPE when the Pm (maze) test cannot be administered because of sensory or physical--rather than cognitive--disability is considered. Analysis of the scores of 250 elderly subjects who attempted all three CAS tests suggests that 'proration' of total CAS scores from I/O and MA scores, while preferable to alternative methods, results in error in a significant proportion of cases and should be used only with caution.

Aged↗
PubMed1986

Prediction of survival by three psychological measures.

One hundred and seven elderly female in-patients with confirmed or suspected diagnoses of dementia were assessed by the Paired-Associate Learning Test (PALT), and the Cognitive Assessment Scale (CAS) and Behaviour Rating Scale (BRS) of CAPE. Eighteen months later, 62 patients were still alive. These had significantly better scores on the 'easy' set of PALT and on BRS than the non-survivors; the differences on the 'mediate' and 'hard' sets, and on CAS, while in the predicted direction, were not significant.

Aged↗
PubMed1986

Calculating reliability measures for ordinal data.

Establishing the reliability of measures taken by judges is important in both clinical and research work. Calculating the statistic of choice, the kappa coefficient, unfortunately is not a particularly quick and simple procedure. Two much-needed practical tools have been developed to overcome these difficulties: a comprehensive and easily understood guide to the manual calculation of the most complex form of the kappa coefficient, weighted kappa for ordinal data, has been written; and a computer program to run under CP/M, PC-DOS and MS-DOS has been developed. With simple modification the program will also run on a Sinclair Spectrum home computer.

Computers↗
PubMed1985

The concurrent validity of the survey version of the Clifton Assessment Procedures for the Elderly (CAPE).

The concurrent validity of the survey version of the Clifton Assessment Procedures for the Elderly (CAPE) was assessed by comparing the performance of four groups of elderly women selected to represent different levels of impairment and dependency. It was found to discriminate significantly among patients with severe (n = 100), moderate (n = 40), mild (n = 50) and no (n = 20) dementia; it also significantly distinguished between patients with severe and moderate dementia and patients with physical disability (n = 100) and with signs of 'institutionalization' (n = 25). Patients in the severe, moderate, mild and no dementia groups had all been judged clinically to have been placed appropriately as, respectively, geriatric psychiatry in-patients, geriatric psychiatry day-patients or local authority home residents, or as being able to live independently in the community. However, although the survey version dependency grade is intended for use in allocating patients to health and social services facilities, overall agreement between grades and clinically determined placement was only 63 per cent. Thus while the survey version may be useful in discriminating among groups of elderly people of different levels of impairment for research or screening purposes, its clinical value with individual patients remains uncertain.

Aged↗