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Biomedical subjects

D A Puryear

Publications and source records attributed to D A Puryear.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1991

Characteristics of elderly persons seen in an urban psychiatric emergency room.

With the aging of the U.S. population, an increase in the use of the psychiatric emergency room by elderly persons is expected. In this study of 118 elderly persons seen in a general hospital psychiatric emergency room, half had a history of psychiatric illness. A third appeared to have chronic organic brain disease, and a third had affective disorders. Misprescription or misuse of medications was implicated in the problems of 27 patients. The problems of most patients were not emergencies; most had experienced symptoms of their presenting complaint for more than six months, finally overtaxing the coping capacities of their caregivers. The authors discuss factors that prevent elderly persons from seeking help on their own and emphasize the need for earlier interventions with elderly patients and for education of the public and professionals about issues, such as overmedication, that are important in the care of elderly persons.

Aged↗
PubMed1990

The effect of clerkship site on medical student examination grades.

Fairness and equity in grading medical students is a subject of continuing interest and concern. It appeared that the students on one clerkship site, the emergency room, were scoring less well on the written final examination than those on the other clerkship sites. Correlating the scores confirmed this impression. A simple intervention was made, and follow-up examination of the scores revealed that it was effective; in fact, the students on the emergency clerkship are now scoring higher than those on the other sites.

Achievement↗
PubMed1984

Benzodiazepines--misuse, abuse and dependency.

Recent European articles report many adverse effects of benzodiazepines, including aberrant symptoms, toxic states, dependency and withdrawal syndromes. The dependency may be primary high-dose, primary low-dose (therapeutic) or secondary dependency (multiple drug abuse). Withdrawal syndromes include rebound effects and benzodiazepine-specific reactions. Anxiolytic use of benzodiazepine should be limited to the treatment of short-term anxiety-producing situations.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

The emergency room as a clerkship site.

The psychiatric emergency room of a county hospital is one of five clinical placement sites for the authors' medical school junior clerkship. The students assigned to the emergency room share the same core didactic work as students who are placed at more traditional sites, but the emergency room students have additional seminars in crisis intervention, aspects of emergency psychiatry, and orientation to social agencies. Analysis of data measuring the achievement of behavioral objectives common to all five clinical sites shows that emergency room students, in comparison with their peers at other sites, averaged more patient contact, more direct observation, and more supervisory experiences.

Attitude↗