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D Grosz

Publications and source records attributed to D Grosz.

8 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1994

Assessing positive and negative symptoms in children and adolescents.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to test the reliability and validity of a new assessment instrument for positive and negative symptoms in severely disturbed children and adolescents (Kiddie-PANSS). METHOD: The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale for adult schizophrenia was modified through successive field trials on the basis of developmental characteristics of children and adolescents. The scale was then given to 34 inpatients (19 children, mean age = 9.35 years, and 15 adolescents, mean age = 14.33 years) with DSM-III-R diagnoses of schizophrenia, psychosis not otherwise specified, schizoaffective, affective, conduct, personality, and developmental disorders determined independently by child psychiatrists. All patients with schizophrenia were placed in the schizophrenic group, and all others were placed in a general inpatient group. The Kiddie-PANSS ratings were given by three trained child psychiatrists after a 30-35-minute structured interview. The Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist, the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms, and the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms were also administered in order to determine criterion-related association. RESULTS: Intraclass correlation coefficients revealed that all subscales and total psychopathology were reliably assessed among raters. The Kiddie-PANSS and Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms/Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms correlated with one another, indicating criterion-related association. Differences on measures of positive, negative, and general psychopathology, as measured by the Kiddie-PANSS, between the patients with schizophrenia and the general inpatient group were highly significant. CONCLUSIONS: The Kiddie-PANSS shows good interrater reliability and criterion-related validity. In a cohort of inpatient children and adolescents the scale successfully differentiated schizophrenic patients from nonschizophrenic patients.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

Testosterone and aggression in children.

OBJECTIVE: A link between serum testosterone and aggressive behavior, which has been demonstrated in numerous animal studies and suggested in several studies of adult men, has never been investigated in children before the time of puberty. METHOD: We measured serum testosterone, sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) in 18 highly aggressive prepubertal boys, ages 4 to 10, hospitalized for violent or unmanageable behavior at a state children's psychiatric facility in New York City (the Bronx). We compared them with a group of age and race matched controls from the same demographic area, screened negative for aggressive behavior problems. All the aggressive subjects met DSM-III-R criteria for conduct disorder and scored higher than the 98th percentile on the aggression subscale of the Child Behavior Checklist (mean T = 80 for the group). RESULTS: There were no significant differences between aggressive and nonaggressive children for T, SHBG, DHEA, DHEAS, or ratios of combinations of these variables. CONCLUSIONS: These findings raise questions about inferences from adult studies that testosterone may play a causal role in the development of human aggression. Testosterone does not appear to be a useful biological marker for aggressivity in early childhood.

Aggression↗
PubMed1992

Suicide and violence associated with panic attacks.

Several studies have indicated that patients with panic attacks have a higher rate of suicide attempts as well as deaths from suicide. Additionally, several investigators have presented case reports of individuals manifesting suicidal and violent behaviors directly and temporally associated with panic attacks. We report on four additional cases and suggest that these findings may explain, in part, the increased rate of suicidal behavior among patients with panic attacks found by some investigators. Furthermore, these case reports offer preliminary evidence that the relationship between violent behavior and the panic state may be clinically significant and deserving of further elucidation.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Desipramine treatment in panic disorder.

Apart from imipramine (IMI), the efficacy of tricyclic antidepressants in panic disorder (PD) has received surprisingly little investigation. The authors report on a 6 week open trial of desipramine (DMI) preceded by a 10 day placebo lead-in, in 15 patients with PD. By week 6, 80% of the patients were globally rated as much or very much improved on a mean dose of 198 mg. Much of the improvement resulted from a reduction in non-panic attack symptomatology (i.e., psychic, somatic and phobic anxiety). Longer duration of illness, male gender and residual psychic anxiety were associated with poorer response in a subgroup of patients. DMI caused minimal intolerable side effects, suggesting possible compliance advantages in comparison to IMI. Beyond supporting the efficacy of DMI in PD, the results of the study point to a significant medication responsive non-panic illness component and caution against over-relying on panic attacks in assessing both illness severity and treatment response.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The Suicide and Aggression Survey: a semistructured instrument for the measurement of suicidality and aggression.

Despite the rising concern with the increasing rate of violent and suicidal behaviors in this country and others, we remain relatively limited in our ability to rigorously define, classify, and measure these behaviors. In addition to our previous work in developing self-rating scales assessing aspects of aggressive behaviors, we have developed the Suicide and Aggression Survey (SAS), a new, comprehensive, semistructured interview and research tool, for the purpose of comprehensively evaluating and understanding the multiple constituents of these behaviors, and for assisting in predicting which individuals might be at high risk for suicide or violence. The present report describes the need for such an instrument and the theoretical models that have guided us in constructing it; one of these is a sequential description of the major classes of variables related to aggression and the other is a two-stage model of countervailing forces. Preliminary reliability data and a description of the structure of the interview are included.

Adolescent↗