Biomedical subjects

Eric Taylor

Publications and source records attributed to Eric Taylor.

40 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

PubMed2002

Evidence for a pure time perception deficit in children with ADHD.

BACKGROUND: Deficits have been found previously in children with ADHD on tasks of time reproduction, time production and motor timing, implicating a deficit in temporal processing abilities, which has been interpreted as either secondary or primary to core executive dysfunctions. The aim of this study was to explore further the abilities of hyperactive children in skills of time estimation, using a range of time perception tasks in different temporal domains. METHOD: Time estimation was tested in a verbal estimation task of 10 seconds. Time reproduction was also acquired for two time intervals of 5 and 12 seconds. A temporal discrimination task aimed to determine the idiosyncratic threshold of minimum time interval (in milliseconds) necessary to distinguish two intervals differing by approximately 300 milliseconds. Twenty-two children diagnosed with ADHD were compared to 22 healthy children, matched for age, handedness and working memory skills. RESULTS: Children with ADHD were significantly impaired in their time discrimination threshold: on average, time intervals had to be 50 ms longer for the hyperactive children in order to be discriminated when compared with controls. Children with ADHD also responded earlier on a 12-second reproduction task, which however only approached significance after controlling for IQ and short-term memory. No group differences were found for the 5-second time reproduction or verbal time estimation tasks. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that children with ADHD perform poorly on time reproduction tasks which load heavily on impulsiveness and attentional processes and they also suggest that these children may have a perceptual deficit of time discrimination, which may only be detectable in brief durations which differ by several hundred milliseconds. A temporal perception deficit in the range of milliseconds in ADHD may impact upon other functions such as perceptual language skills and motor timing.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Pathways to care in children at risk of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

BACKGROUND: There is underdiagnosis of and low use of specialist services for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). AIMS: To quantify the filters in the help-seeking pathway through primary care and to investigate factors influencing progress for children at risk of ADHD. METHOD: A total of 127 children (5-11 years old) with pervasive hyperactivity who passed each filter (primary care attendance and general practitioner (GP) recognition of disorder) were compared with those who had not. RESULTS: Primary care attendance was only associated with parental perception of the behaviour as problematic (OR 2.11; 95% CI 1.11-4.03). However, GP recognition was related to both parent and child factors - parental request for referral (OR 20.83; 95% CI 3.05-142.08) and conduct problems (OR 1.48; 95% CI 1.04-2.12). GP non-recognition was the main barrier in the pathway to care; following recognition, most children were referred. CONCLUSIONS: Parents can be regarded as the main gatekeepers for access to specialist services.

Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity↗

PubMed2002

Validation of single nucleotide polymorphism quantification in pooled DNA samples with SNaPIT. A glycosylase-mediated methods for polymorphism detection method.

Association studies using genome scans to identify quantitative trait loci for multifactorial disorders, with anything approaching reasonable power, have been compromised by the need for a very dense array of genetic markers and large numbers of affected individuals. These requirements impose enormous burdens on the genotyping capacity for most laboratories. DNA pooling has been proposed as a possible approach to reduce genotyping costs and effort. We report on the application of the SNaPIT technology to evaluate allele frequencies in pooled DNA samples and conclude that it offers a cost effective, efficient and accurate estimator and provides several advantages over competing technologies in this regard.

Chromosome Mapping↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Treatment of atopic dermatitis and psoriasis vulgaris with bupropion-SR: a pilot study.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether the antidepressant bupropion may be useful in treating atopic dermatitis and psoriasis in nondepressed patients. METHOD: Ten nondepressed subjects with atopic dermatitis and 10 with psoriasis completed a single-track, open-label treatment protocol with bupropion-SR in doses of 150 mg/day and 300 mg/day, administered sequentially for 3 weeks each, followed by a 3-week wash-out. Treatment response was assessed at the end of each 3-week period. RESULTS: Six of the 10 subjects with atopic dermatitis showed a reduction in affected body surface area by the end of 6 weeks of bupropion treatment, with affected area increasing toward the prestudy baseline in all responders following bupropion discontinuation-a highly significant treatment effect (p =.0003). Of the 10 subjects having psoriasis, improvement over baseline after 6 weeks of treatment was seen in eight subjects, with coverage increasing toward the prestudy baseline in the responders following bupropion discontinuation (p =.001). Average reduction in affected area in the responders at week 6 of treatment was approximately 50% in both groups. CONCLUSIONS: The generally good tolerability and relative safety of bupropion-SR makes a trial of this agent worthwhile in patients with atopic dermatitis or psoriasis who have failed treatment with more conventional medications. Normalization by bupropion of potentially causative neuroendocrine, immunologic, or catecholaminergic abnormalities in both of these dermatologic disorders is a possible mechanism of action for the observed salutary effects of this drug on our subjects' skin disease.

Adult↗