Biomedical subjects

E J Rickert

Publications and source records attributed to E J Rickert.

13 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1999

Self-efficacy in overweight individuals with binge eating disorder.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the relationship between self-efficacy judgments in obese individuals with binge eating disorder, "borderline" binge eating disorder, and no binge eating problems. RESEARCH METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Before participation in a residential weight management program, 79 male and female subjects were administered the Weight Efficacy Lifestyle Questionnaire (WEL) and the Binge Eating Scale (BES). Based on DSM-IV diagnostic questions, subjects were categorized as BED, Borderline BED, or non-BED. RESULTS: Krusal-Wallace Rank-Order analysis of variance revealed significant negative associations between binge eating and total WEL scores as well as the subscales of Negative Emotions, Social Pressure, Physical Discomfort, and Positive Activities. Differences were significant between the BED and the Borderline BED groups with the exception of the Social Pressure scale and the Total WEL scores. BED diagnosis as well as severity of binge eating were strongly associated with low self-efficacy ratings. DISCUSSION: These results indicate that obese individuals with binge eating disorder demonstrate lower self-efficacy than those without this condition and that self-efficacy is related to the severity of binge eating.

Body Mass Index↗

PubMed1995

Different HIV risk profiles in samples of college students and homeless persons.

A cross-sectional survey examined demographic characteristics, self-reported sexual behaviors, and knowledge of AIDS in samples of 106 homeless persons and 260 college students. As expected, the two samples differed with respect to age, gender, race, and education. Respondents in both samples possessed moderate knowledge of HIV infection and AIDS and reported they considered their personal risk of HIV infection low. Both samples acknowledged frequent use of alcohol with sexual activity, active and passive oral sex, and lax use of condoms. A discriminant analysis indicated that a greater percentage of college students were sexually active than of the homeless sample and that the homeless group had a higher proportion of individuals who were either homosexual or bisexual, who had sexual contact with multiple partners or who had visited a prostitute, who had sexually transmitted diseases, and who had injected drugs. Although the risk profiles differed, each group reported high-risk behaviors and perceptions of low personal risk of HIV infection.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗

PubMed1989

Forebrain monoamines and associative learning: III. The US pre-exposure effect.

This experiment evaluated the effects of forebrain norepinephrine (NE) and serotonin depletion on the unconditioned stimulus (US) pre-exposure phenomenon. Rats with either dorsal bundle lesions, raphe lesions, or which served as vehicle controls were assigned to one of two training conditions. One-half of the animals in the 3 lesion groups received 30 episodes of a stimulus which later served as the US. The remaining rats experienced standard conditioning of CS-US pairing without US pre-exposure. The results indicate that while raphe-lesioned and vehicular rats exhibited the US pre-exposure effect, conditioning was unimpaired in NE-depleted rats following pre-exposure. These findings are consistent with a contextual blocking interpretation of the US pre-exposure effect.

Animals↗

PubMed1989

Differing sexual practices of men and women screened for HIV (AIDS) antibody.

This study describes the results of a survey of all persons screened for antibodies to the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) during a 3-mo. period at a county health department. Complete interviews and serologic analysis for antibodies to HIV using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay were obtained from all 43 persons. HIV antibodies, confirmed by Western blot assay, were present in 7 or 16% of the sample. Self-reported changes in sexual practices among the 27 seronegative homosexual men occurred prior to counseling and screening, but 9 seronegative women reported no change in high-risk behaviors. The number of black men and women screened were disproportionately smaller than their representation in the community. These findings suggest that stronger educational efforts are needed to disseminate information to women and blacks who are at risk for HIV infection.

AIDS Serodiagnosis↗

PubMed1983

Forebrain monoamines and associative learning: I. Latent inhibition and conditioned inhibition.

Two experiments evaluated the effects of depletion of forebrain norepinephrine (NE) or serotonin (5-HT) on two forms of internal inhibition. Experiment 1 examined the role of NE and 5-HT depletion on latent inhibition: rats with dorsal bundle or raphe lesions or vehicle control rats were trained to one of two pre-exposure conditions (single vs multiple stimuli) or to a non-pre-exposure control prior to conditioning. The results of this experiment showed that latent inhibition was attenuated under either condition of pre-exposure following depletion of 5-HT but that attenuation was present in NE depleted rats only when pre-exposed to multiple stimuli. Experiment 2 assessed the rate at which a conditioned inhibitor was established following NE or 5-HT depletion. The results of Experiment 2 indicated that the formation of a conditioned inhibitor was unimpaired following depletion of either NE or 5-HT. The results of Experiment 1 demonstrate that 5-HT and NE have different effects on associative processes: 5-HT apparently affects a habituation-like process, whereas NE is an important influence on more complex mechanisms involving the comparison of new with previously acquired information. The findings of Experiment 2 are consistent with behavioral investigations which show that conditioned inhibition affects output processes rather than the salience of stimuli.

Animals↗

PubMed1983

Forebrain monoamines and associative learning: II. Superconditioning/unblocking.

The roles of norepinephrine (NE) and serotonin (5-HT) were assessed by comparing the effect of their depletion on the associability of stimuli. NE and 5-HT depleted rats and vehicle controls were assigned to two training conditions and to a control condition. In each of the training conditions rats were pre-exposed to a single stimulus prior to conditioning to a compound stimulus formed from the pre-exposed cue and a new stimulus. The training conditions differed only in the order of testing of each of the stimuli following training. Rats assigned to the control condition received only compound conditioning before the associability of each cue was assessed. The findings show that: (a) vehicle rats in the training tasks evidence superconditioning: the associative strength of the new element exceeds that of the pre-exposed cue; (b) equivalent associative strength was found with either cue regardless of their testing order for NE depleted rats; and (c) 5-HT depleted rats did not show superconditioning: the pre-exposed cue competes with the new cue for available associative strength.

Animals↗

PubMed1981