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Biomedical subjects

E J Short

Publications and source records attributed to E J Short.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Short-term cardiovascular effects of methylphenidate and adderall.

OBJECTIVE: The primary purpose of this study was to examine the cardiovascular effects of Adderall (ADL) in a clinic-based group of youths with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder ranging in age from 4 to 17 years. METHOD: One hundred thirty-seven patients were treated with either methylphenidate (MPH) or ADL. Youths prescribed MPH were given medication twice daily, and youths treated with ADL received medication once daily. Patients were evaluated under five conditions: baseline, placebo, 5 mg/dose, 10 mg/dose, or 15 mg/dose. Resting pulse, diastolic blood pressure, and systolic blood pressure were examined after 1 week at each treatment condition. Changes from baseline on these parameters were examined. RESULTS: The short-term cardiovascular effects of both ADL and MPH were modest. No patients experienced any clinically significant change in these cardiovascular measures during the course of this brief trial. CONCLUSION: Since the short-term cardiovascular effects of ADL appear minimal, specific cardiovascular monitoring during short-term ADL treatment at doses of 15 mg/day or less does not appear to be indicated. In addition, under similar conditions, using similar methods, both medication treatments led to changes in blood pressure and pulse that were clinically insignificant.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

Developmental aspects of psychostimulant treatment in children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the relationship between age and short-term clinical response to psychostimulant treatment in youths with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and to examine whether weight-corrected doses of optimized psychostimulant therapy varied as a function of patient age. METHOD: One hundred seventy-seven patients were treated with either methylphenidate (MPH) or Adderall (ADL). Sixty-six youths received ADL and 111 patients were treated with MPH. All youths were evaluated at baseline and after receiving a week of treatment at each blinded, randomized dose level (placebo, 5, 10, or 15 mg). A "best dose" for each patient was assigned before the medication blind was broken. Behavioral ratings by both teachers and parents were examined for dose and medication effects. RESULTS: The medications had similar efficacy in children and teenagers. Older youths, however, benefited from a smaller weight-adjusted dose of medication than did the younger children. Similar efficacy was observed between the medications. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that psychostimulants are equally effective in treating children and adolescents with ADHD. Adolescents with ADHD may not necessarily require more medication than younger children to achieve a similar therapeutic response.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

Differential effectiveness of methylphenidate and Adderall in school-age youths with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the effectiveness of a single dose of Adderall (q.d.) with that of 2 daily doses of methylphenidate (b.i.d.; MPH) as a treatment for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in youths ranging in age from 5 to 17 years. Forty-two youths treated with MPH were compared with 42 youths treated with Adderall. Subjects were matched for age, sex, and DSM-IV diagnostic subtype. METHOD: Youths were assigned to the Adderall or MPH condition by their prescribing physician. All youths were evaluated under 5 conditions, including baseline, placebo, 5 mg, 10 mg, and 15 mg. The best dose was assigned prior to breaking the medication blind and was assigned by the consensus of the psychologist and psychiatrist. Subjective ratings by both teachers and parents were examined for dosage level effects and medication type effects. RESULTS: Best dose was always superior to baseline and placebo conditions. No differences between MPH and Adderall were observed on either teacher or parent ratings of behavior. CONCLUSIONS: Both MPH and Adderall have been shown to be effective treatments for children with ADHD. Both medications appear to improve teachers' and parents' ratings of behavior. Single-dose treatments of Adderall appear to be as effective as 2 daily doses of MPH and therefore increase the possibility of managing treatment without involving the school in medication administration. In addition, youths who have previously been unsuccessfully treated with MPH because of adverse side effects or poor response may be successfully treated with Adderall.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

Analysis of humor skills among elementary school students: comparisons of children with and without intellectual handicaps.

Differences in the comprehension, production, and appreciation of humor were explored among students who were achieving normally (20 second graders, 21 fourth graders) or had learning disabilities (14 fourth graders) or developmental handicaps (12 fourth graders). Comprehension of humor was assessed by explanations of what made cartoons funny. Production was assessed by completion of captionless cartoons. Appreciation was evaluated by ratings of funniness and facial mirth. Results indicated that children without handicaps comprehended the cartoons better than did the students with intellectual handicaps. No production differences were observed. Students who had intellectual handicaps demonstrated age-appropriate appreciation ratings; however, students with developmental handicaps lacked differential sensitivity.

Cartoons as Topic↗
PubMed1991

A qualitative and serial analysis of social problem solving in aggressive boys.

Social problem solving skills in 84 elementary school aged boys were assessed to identify those responses most salient in the prediction of ratings of aggressive and socially withdrawn behavior. Aggressive and socially withdrawn boys did not differ from the control group in the number of effective first solutions generated to the hypothetical stories. The control group generated significantly more effective solutions as second alternatives to the stories than did the aggressive or socially withdrawn boys. In addition, the number of effective second responses generated significantly predicted both aggression and social withdrawal after controlling for verbal problem solving. Results are discussed in terms of differences in cognitive processes as well as implications for treatment.

Aggression↗
PubMed1984

Developmental differences in the comprehension and production of narratives by reading-disabled and normally achieving children.

Reading-disabled children's language skills have long been implicated in their poor school performance. This study is a cross-sectional and longitudinal examination of the narrative language skills of both reading-disabled and normally achieving children in an attempt to understand more clearly the language processes involved in these skills and how these processes relate to reading achievement over time. Children were read scriptlike narratives and asked to demonstrate their knowledge of the story by a nonverbal enactment of the narrative. After perfect enactment of the story was assured, the children were asked to paraphrase the narratives. Results from both the cross-sectional and longitudinal study indicated that reading-disabled children comprehended the narratives in a comparable fashion to normal peers, but they performed more poorly on a variety of content and complexity measures derived from their paraphrases. The study indicates that reading-disabled children's language problems are persistent over time in the area of verbally expressing information, even when they have demonstrated nonverbal comprehension.

Achievement↗
PubMed1984

The plasticity of intellectual development: insights from preventive intervention.

Debates regarding the plasticity of intelligence are often fired by a confusion between 2 distinct realms of development, that is, between developmental functions (e.g., a group's average IQ over time) and individual differences (e.g., the relative rank ordering of individual IQs within a group). Questions concerning the stability of these 2 realms are statistically independent. Thus there are 2 kinds of intellectual plasticity, and there may be no developmental convergences between them. In the present study, data from an early intervention program were used to investigate the 2 kinds of plasticity separately and to examine certain possible convergences between them. The program involved children at risk for developmental retardation who were randomly assigned at birth to 2 rearing conditions (i.e., educational daycare vs. no educational intervention) and whose intellectual development was then studied longitudinally to 4 years of age. Our findings indicate that developmental functions are moderately alterable through systemic early education, particularly after infancy, whereas individual differences are moderately stable, again particularly after infancy. They also indicate that the 2 kinds of plasticity are independent; the alteration of developmental functions through daycare affects neither the stability nor the determinants of individual differences. We discuss the implications that these findings have for current models of mental development, for the nature-nurture debate, and for arguments concerning the efficacy of early intervention programs.

Child Day Care Centers↗
PubMed1976

Individual differences in habituation rates and object concept performance.

The scores from object concept tasks for 15 infants at 14 months of age were analyzed with respect to their habituation rates at 4 months of age. Partitioning of the data according to subjects categorized as fast and slow habituators brought some organization consistent with the notion that the former are more advanced than the latter. Statistical differences between groups did not obtain, but a significant correlation between ranked task scores and habituation ratios offers some support to the interpretation. The possibility of using habituation rates or ratios as an index of differences in processing, perhaps with some predictive value, may be considered if further evidence of relations to later cognitive performanceis found.

Concept Formation↗