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Biomedical subjects

F E Miller

Publications and source records attributed to F E Miller.

17 recordsLinked to original sources

Grief therapy for relatives of persons with serious mental illness.

Grief is a key reaction experienced by many relatives of persons with serious mental illness. Parents, spouses, and children may endure great longing for the quality of their former relationship with the ill person, as well as grief over dashed hopes and aspirations. The author describes a format for grief therapy for relatives of persons with serious mental illness that is based on four tasks of mourning: making the loss real, expressing overt and latent affect, accommodating to the loss through relationships other than that with the mentally ill person. Grief therapy is a potentially appropriate complement to existing approaches for family members, such as psychoeducation.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Diagnosis of hypertension in a family practice setting: a preliminary study of published protocol versus 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring.

Although there have been many recommendations in the medical literature regarding the proper evaluation of hypertensive patients, there have been few reports regarding physician compliance with such diagnostic protocols. To assess physician compliance with the diagnostic protocol published by the Joint National Committee for the Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure (JNC), we reviewed the records of 181 hypertensive patients in the family practice clinic of a medical university. We found numerous discrepancies between the published protocol and actual practice. Antihypertensive medication was then discontinued in a small subset of the study group, and the diagnosis of hypertension was reevaluated by both JNC criteria and by 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. As compared with 24-hour ambulatory measurements, the JNC criteria were ineffective in properly classifying hypertensive status of the patients in this small subset.

Adult↗

The development and evaluation of an online computer-assisted Rorschach Inkblot Test.

An interactive computer program was developed in the BASIC language to present the performance and inquiry phases of the Rorschach Inkblot Test. As the subjects handled the traditional cards they entered their perceptions into the computer database, guided by instructions presented on the computer display. No assumptions were made about the percepts, but the Klopfer scoring questions were asked directly by the computer during the inquiry. The program scored the test as the subject answered the scoring questions on the keyboard. Thirty subjects were assessed using a test-retest design. One subgroup was tested first by a psychologist, and the other was tested first by the computer. The determinants of the psychologist and computer testing situations were found to be correlated and overall not significantly different except in location and time scores where the media differed.

Humans↗

Locomotor hyperactivity in neonatal rats following electrolytic lesions of mesocortical dopamine neurons.

These experiments examined the effects on locomotor activity of brain lesions that destroyed either mesocortical or nigrostriatal dopamine (DA) neuronal projections in neonatal rats. Electrolytic lesions of the medial ventral tegmental area in 4-day-old rats reduced the content of DA within the frontal cortex and septum by 42-57% and resulted in a 2-fold increase in locomotor activity during days 22-24 of life. In contrast, bilateral electrolytic lesions of the substantia nigra in 4-day-old rats reduced the content of DA within the caudate putamen by 68%, but failed to alter locomotor activity during days 22-24 of life. These results suggest that loss of mesocortical DA neurons may underlie the locomotor hyperactivity seen following brain DA-depleting 6-hydroxydopamine injections in neonatal rats and that these mesocortical DA neurons may normally influence the ontogeny of locomotion in the rat.

Animals↗

Magnitude and duration of hyperactivity following neonatal 6-hydroxydopamine is related to the extent of brain dopamine depletion.

This experiment examined the relationship between the extent of brain dopamine (DA) neuron destruction in the neonatal rat and locomotor hyperactivity during subsequent development. Brain DA neurons were destroyed selectively in neonatal rats by intraventricular injections of 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) following desmethylimipramine (DMI) pretreatment of both days 3 and 6 of life. Groups of rats received total doses of 50, 70, 100 or 200 microgram of 6HDA or the vehicle solution. Each group of rats given 6-OHDA displayed 3- to 5-fold increases in locomotor activity relative to vehicle control rats on days 16 and 18 of life. Rats given 50 or 70 microgram of 6-OHDA displayed hyperactivity that diminished during days 18-32 of life, approaching the level of activity seen in vehicle-treated rats. It contrast, rats given 100 or 200 microgram of 6-OHDA displayed consistently high levels of locomotion during days 18-32 of life. When tested as adults (days 55-66 of life) only those rats given 200 micrograms of 6-OHDA as neonates continued to display locomotor hyperactivity. The extent of 6-OHDA-induced depletion of DA was proportional to the magnitude of locomotor hyperactivity seen during neonatal life. Brain DA was depleted to the greatest extent in rats which displayed permanent hyperactivity. Regardless of the extent of depletion of brain DA, adult rats given intraventricular injections of 125, 200 or 275 micrograms of 6-OHDA at 48 days of age (following pargyline and DMI pretreatment) displayed no significant change in locomotor activity. These results indicate that the magnitude and duration of locomotor hyperactivity seen following neonatal 6-OHDA injections are correlated with the extent of loss of central DA neurons and suggest that brain DA projections exert important influences on the ontogeny of normal locomotion.

Animals↗

Small-colony forms of enteric bacteria after exposure to aminoglycosides.

Small colony forms of enteric bacteria were isolated in vitro after exposure of near-lethal amounts of aminoglycosides. These small-colony forms were several times more resistant to all aminoglycosides than the parent clones. A small form of Escherichia coli was isolated directly from a clinical specimen, along with a more sensitive larger colony.

Aminoglycosides↗