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Biomedical subjects

E D Bailey

Publications and source records attributed to E D Bailey.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Hypochondriacal patients' appraisal of health and physical risks.

OBJECTIVE: The authors' goal was to assess the degree to which hypochondriasis is accompanied by a heightened sense of risk of disease and other physical hazards. METHOD: Fifty-six patients meeting DSM-III-R criteria for hypochondriasis were compared with 127 nonhypochondriacal patients from the same primary care setting. Both groups completed a self-report questionnaire assessing the degree to which they felt at risk of developing various medical diseases or being subject to injury from accidents or criminal assault. RESULTS: Both groups of patients exhibited an optimistic bias in that they considered themselves to be less at risk than others of their age and sex. However, the hypochondriacal group had a significantly higher total risk score than did the nonhypochondriacal group. In large part, this intergroup difference was the result of the hypochondriacal patients' perception that they were likely to develop various diseases. The hypochondriacal group did not score significantly higher than the comparison group in estimating their risk of succumbing to accidents and criminal victimization. Perceived risk was significantly associated with the self-reported tendency to amplify benign bodily sensations. CONCLUSIONS: An exaggerated appraisal of risk, jeopardy, and vulnerability to disease may be part of the cognitive distortion seen in hypochondriasis. If this is confirmed, cognitive and behavioral therapies for hypochondriasis may need to include a focus on these patients' understanding and appraisal of risk.

Attitude to Health↗
PubMed1998

A prospective 4- to 5-year study of DSM-III-R hypochondriasis.

BACKGROUND: Although hypochondriasis is generally thought to be a chronic and stable condition with a relatively low remission rate, this disorder remains understudied. METHODS: This is a 4- to 5-year prospective case-control study of DSM-III-R hypochondriasis. Medical outpatients meeting DSM diagnostic criteria for hypochondriasis completed an extensive research battery assessing hypochondriacal symptoms, medical and psychiatric comorbidity, functional status and role impairment, and medical care. A comparison group of nonhypochondriacal patients from the same setting underwent the same battery. Four to 5 years later, both cohorts were re-interviewed. RESULTS: One hundred twenty hypochondriacal and 133 nonhypochondriacal comparison patients were originally studied. Follow-up was obtained on 73.5% (n = 186) of all patients. At follow-up, the hypochondriacal sample was significantly (P<.001) less hypochondriacal and had less somatization (P<.001) and disability than at inception, but 63.5% (n = 54) still met DSM-III-R diagnostic criteria. When compared with the comparison group using repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance, these changes remained statistically significant (P<.0001). Changes in medical and psychiatric comorbidity did not differ between the 2 groups. When hypochondriacal patients who did and did not meet diagnostic criteria at follow-up were compared, the latter had significantly less disease conviction (P<.05) and somatization (P<.01) at inception, and their incidence of major medical illness during the follow-up period was significantly (P<.05) greater. CONCLUSIONS: Hypochondriacal patients show a considerable decline in symptoms and improvement in role functioning over 4 to 5 years but two thirds of them still meet diagnostic criteria. Hypochondriasis, therefore, carries a very substantial, long-term burden of morbidity, functional impairment, and personal distress.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1996

Predictors of persistent palpitations and continued medical utilization.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to determine the predictors of persistent palpitations and continued medical utilization in a sample of medical patients referred for ambulatory electrocardiographic monitoring. METHODS: A prospective telephone follow-up was conducted with patients who had undergone ambulatory electrocardiographic monitoring 3 months earlier. At inception, patients completed in-person interviews and self-report questionnaires, assessing somatization, hypochondriacal attitudes, bodily amplification (high degree of sensitivity to bodily sensations), and two types of life stress (minor daily irritants and major life changes). At follow-up, patients completed a structured interview about their clinical course, palpitations, and utilization of medical care during the interval. RESULTS: At 3-month follow-up, 55 of the inception cohort of 67 patients were interviewed again. The mean severity of palpitations for the entire sample declined significantly, but 46 (83.6%) patients continued to experience their presenting symptoms. Stepwise multiple linear regression revealed that the interaction of bodily amplification and daily life stress at inception uniquely explained 10.0% of the variance in palpitation severity at follow-up. A four-step model composed of these two interaction terms and age and education level accounted for 21.4% of the variance in palpitations. The medical utilization findings are complementary in that the interaction of amplification and daily irritants at baseline predicted the number of unscheduled medical visits over the subsequent 3 months. The total number of ventricular premature contractions occurring during ambulatory monitoring was not a significant predictor of palpitations. CONCLUSIONS: Palpitations are more persistent in persons who are both highly sensitive to bodily sensations and who experience a greater number of minor daily irritants. The existence of either predictor alone is not sufficient to perpetrate this functional somatic symptom; it requires the combination of these predictors.

Aged↗
PubMed1986

Influence of duration on the frequency discrimination of Bobwhite Quail (Colinus virginianus).

In attempting to parcel out the components within calls that may have functional significance or "message value", the present study of the series pitted "best audible" frequencies of Bobwhite Quail against one another in a frequency discrimination task, and further looked at these frequencies relative to their durational limits. The tasks set for the birds were difficult. In Expers. I and II, 8 adult quail discriminated between frequencies which presumably have independent significance (the 1.0-kc/s of the adult separation call, and the 3.5-kc/s of the chick "lost" call) at lessening durations (200-30 msec). In Exper. III, duration discrimination was tested at single frequencies. The tasks were related in several ways to "real call" situations like those met by birds under field conditions. Mean frequency discrimination performance was about 75%-correct when the standard and comparison tones were both 200 msec in duration, about 65% when both were at 100 msec, and at chance levels at shorter durations. This was true whether the standard tone remained at 200 msec (Exper. I) or was shortened along with the comparison tone. The limit of durational discrimination at both peak frequencies was also of the order of 100 msec. Thus, quail can discriminate the frequency of peak frequency signals that vary in duration down to a limit of 100 msec., but as the task becomes more difficult (i.e., reduced duration or similar frequency content) decreased sensitivity might have to be offset by enhancement of other signal parameters.

Animals↗
PubMed1985

Frequency discrimination in bobwhite quail (Colinus virginianus).

Bobwhite quail (Colinus virginianus) (N:9, aged 24 mo) were trained using a positive reinforcement paradigm to respond to an assigned "standard" frequency of either 1.0 or 3.5 kc/s by pressing a response key. Each S was trained in 2 phases to respond to its assigned frequency rather than to alternately presented tones of a different frequency. In every test each S discriminated its assigned frequency at greater than chance levels. Discrimination ability was poorest when delta F was at the minimum tested (0.25 kc/s). Birds whose standard frequency was 1.0 kc/s were better at the task than those trained to a 3.5-kc/s standard, especially when finer discriminations were required (Phase II). This superiority at 1.0 kc/s confirmed what was seen previously (Barton et al, J. Aud. Res., 1984, 24, 87-97) in the Bobwhite's audibility curve; it was hypothesized that the correspondence may have to do with the need for adult birds to recognize frequency variations near 1.0 kc/s that are uniquely made by immediate conspecifics rather than other members of the species. As such it may well represent a "fine tuning" of the bird's acoustic abilities.

Animals↗
PubMed1984

Audibility curve of bobwhite quail (Colinus virginianus).

Male Bobwhite quail (Colinus virginianus) (N:5) were initially handled, then trained upon hearing a 1.5-kc/s tone of 3-sec duration to approach a feeder-loudspeaker system and peck a response key for food reinforcement. Threshold testing in subsequent sessions using a method of limits established the species' audibility curve over 11 frequencies from .25-8 kc/s and at stimulus durations of 3 sec and for some at 200, 100, and 50 msec. A W-shaped audibility curve was obtained for the group with points of greatest sensitivity at 1 and 3.5 kc/s which were about 25 db more sensitive than the endpoints at .25 and 8 kc/s. These points of least and greatest sensitivity were not altered until the stimulus durations were shortened to 100 and 50 msec, respectively. To compare with regions of greatest sensitivity, sonographic representations of two major Bobwhite calls were drawn. There was a coincidence between the peak sensitivity at 1 kc/s and the major frequency in the adult "separation" call, and between the peak sensitivity at 3.5 kc/s and the chick "lost" call. Together, the audibility and sonographic data provided an interpretative base from which to suggest possible functional analysis of calls.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1983

Occupational exposure to dial painters and assemblers of radioluminous timepieces.

An evaluation of available personnel monitoring data and radium body burden records of dial painters handling an annual average of 1.5 Ci of radium indicates that they received an average of about 2 rem/person whole body exposure, 3 rem to the lungs from radon inhalation and 0.2 rad to the bone from radium body burdens. Among groups of similar workers handling tritium in Texas plants, the highest occupational exposures were about 160 mrem annually per person received by refinishers of tritium dial timepieces and back-lit watch assemblers. Based upon scenarios of exposures to 147Pm, repairers of timepieces containing 147Pm receive about 4.4 X 10(-4) mrem/person/yr whole body dose equivalent. The amounts that they process are in the microcurie range. Although the trend is away from the use of radium as a luminizing activator, there are indications that it is still used in timepieces even as tritium and 147Pm are increasingly being used for this purpose.

Body Burden↗
PubMed1979

A reexamination of apomorphine induced stereotypy in the rat in light of self administration experiments.

1. Apomorphine is known to both elicit stereotypy and to support behavioral self administration. The present report examined a possible contribution of stereotypy to self administration. 2. Non-contingent intraperitoneal injection of apomorphine in adult male Sprague-Dawley rats immediately prior to their placement in an experimental chamber significantly elevated barpressing above operant rates. 3. This indicates a novel dopamine induced behavior which may play a role in determining self administration behavior. 4. The data suggest three interpretations of previous self administration experiments.

Animals↗