PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

D K Kinney

Publications and source records attributed to D K Kinney.

29 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1987

Relationship of neurological abnormalities in schizophrenics to family psychopathology.

Competing etiological models make opposite predictions as to the relationship between focal neurological abnormalities in schizophrenics and the prevalence of psychosis in their families. In previous studies of neurological abnormalities in schizophrenia, the authors found an increased prevalence of focal neurological signs in both patients and their nonschizophrenic relatives. The current study examines the relationship between neurological abnormalities in 24 schizophrenic patients and psychopathology in their families. A family history of psychotic psychopathology was found to be associated with an increased prevalence of focal neurological abnormalities in the schizophrenics. The results are relevant to current models of the potential role of neurological factors in the etiology of schizophrenia and illustrate how family studies of the joint distribution of psychiatric and neurological data can potentially help to distinguish between different etiological models.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Neurologic abnormalities in schizophrenic patients and their families. I. Comparison of schizophrenic, bipolar, and substance abuse patients and normal controls.

The prevalence of neurologic abnormalities detectable on standard clinical examination by neurologists blind to diagnosis was compared for DSM-III-diagnosed, age- and sex-matched groups consisting of 24 schizophrenic (SCZ) patients, 24 patients with bipolar affective disorder (MDI) with history of psychosis, 24 patients hospitalized for alcohol or other drug abuse (D/A), and 24 normal volunteers (NL). The SCZ group had significantly more total abnormalities than the other three; both the MDI and D/A groups in turn had more total abnormalities than normal controls. After exclusion of findings due to medication or otherwise unrelated to the pathogenesis of psychiatric illness, only the SCZ-NL, SCZ-MDI, and D/A-NL differences remained significant. When neurologic abnormalities were further restricted to those indicating localized dysfunction of the corticospinal tracts, basal ganglia, or cerebellum, the only two persistent significant differences were between SCZ-NL and SCZ-MDI groups.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Neurologic abnormalities in schizophrenic patients and their families. II. Neurologic and psychiatric findings in relatives.

Neurologic abnormalities in 21 nonschizophrenic siblings and parents of schizophrenics, 24 DSM-III schizophrenics, and 24 normal "control" subjects were assessed by experienced neurologists blind to the subjects' psychiatric status. Medication artifacts and other neurologic signs likely to be etiologically irrelevant to psychiatric illness were excluded. Psychiatric diagnostic assessments of subjects were made blind to neurologic results. The prevalence of neurologic abnormalities in relatives was significantly greater than in controls, but similar to that among the schizophrenics. Relatives and controls differed even more markedly on signs involving motor system abnormalities of localizing significance. Finally, the relatives showed a suggestive dissociation of psychopathology and neurologic signs. The results appear most consistent with the hypothesis that overt schizophrenia may often result from the combined operation of two independent familial factors--one "psychopathologic," the other "neurologic".

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Content analysis of speech of schizophrenic and control adoptees and their relatives: preliminary results.

Speech samples were collected on 20 Danish schizophrenic adoptees, along with 26 control adoptees and their respective biological and adoptive relatives. Typewritten transcripts of these speech samples were scored using the Gottschalk-Gleser Social Alienation-Personal Disorganization (SA-PD), or "Schizophrenic', content analysis scale. Both mean scale scores and the proportion of subjects with extremely high (i.e. deviant) scores were significantly higher in schizophrenic adoptees than in either (a) subjects with no psychiatric disorder or (b) the sample with psychiatric disorders other than schizophrenia. The proportion of deviant scores was also notably high among subjects who, though not schizophrenic, had schizotypal features on the SADS-L interview. Scores were particularly high in schizophrenic adoptees who had a biological parent or sibling with schizophrenia or schizotypal features. By contrast, scores of 29 adoptive relatives of the schizophrenic probands were quite low. The present study appears to corroborate the results of previous studies done in the U.S.A. and Great Britain which suggest that high scores on the SA-PD scale tend to characterize those schizophrenics for whom genetic liability appears to be strongest.

Adoption↗
PubMed1978

Genetic transmission of schizophrenia.

There is convincing evidence form consanguinity, twin, and especially adoption studies that schizophrenia has a genetic component. There is also evidence from studies of MZ twins for an environmental component. It is not known whether the relevant environmental factors are prenatal or postnatal, psychosocial or physical; the presence of schizophrenia in the rearing family does not seem to be etiologically significant. It is likely that schizophrenia, especially if defined by symptoms alone, is etiologically heterogeneous. Study of pedigrees with several affected individuals is a useful approach to resolving this heterogeneity. The relevant genes may not code directly for schizophrenia, but for risk factors that predispose to the illness under particular environmental conditions. Careful methodology is needed to distinguish cause from effect of studying psychosocial factors. Genetic counseling is possible on the basis of empirical risk figures, but clarification of biological risk factors and environmental preciptants will make possible a much more rational approach to counseling and prevention.

Adoption↗
PubMed1976

Infant attention to auditory discrepancy.

Groups of 7 1/2-month-old infants heard 1 of 8 episodes consisting of no, slight, moderate, or a large discrepancy between a habituated standard and a transformed auditory stimulus. The patterns of cardiac deceleration, regarded as an index of attention supported the hypothesis that attentiveness is an inverted-U function of the degree of discrepancy between stimulus event and schema.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Season of birth and obstetrical complications in schizophrenics.

Many studies indicate that both obstetrical complications (OCs) and birth in winter or early spring are risk factors for schizophrenia, but few studies have examined how these risk factors covary in the same subjects. We assessed pre- and perinatal OCs, while blind to diagnosis, using medical data recorded at the time of subjects' births, in 29 probands with DSM-III schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and 39 of their unaffected adult sibs. Pre- and perinatal OCs were both significantly more common in probands than sibs. Schizophrenics not born during the winter or early spring had significantly more total and perinatal OCs than schizophrenics born in other months, but did not differ for prenatal OCs. Results indicate that OCs increase risk for schizophrenia, but also suggest the possibility that the impact of OCs on this risk may be affected by season of birth.

Adult↗