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Biomedical subjects

F G Foster

Publications and source records attributed to F G Foster.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1978

The application of EEG sleep for the differential diagnosis of affective disorders.

On the basis of two EEG sleep criteria, REM latency and REM activity, the authors achieved 81% accuracy in distinguishing between 47 patients with primary depression and 48 patients with secondary depression using discriminant analysis. Sleep efficiency, the percentage of delta sleep, and the percentage of REM sleep discriminated between psychotic and nonpsychotic subgroups in the group with primary depression with 75% accuracy. REM activity and intermittent nocturnal awakening accurately discriminated two subtypes of patients with secondary depression at a level of 81%. These results suggest that EEG sleep measurements can yield significant data to aid in differential diagnosis in psychiatry.

Adult↗
PubMed1977

EEG sleep diagnosis of medical disease in depression.

The diagnosis of medical disease in the context of a depressive syndrome which may mimic medical illness has traditionally relied on a combination of exhaustive medical screening and neuropsychological testing. When 10 patients with primary depression were compared to 10 patients whose depression occurred in the context of concurrent medical disease, a single EEG sleep variable, total phasic REM activity (RA), correctly identified 95% of all 20 patients as either primary depressives or medical patients with depression. Conventional psychiatric assessment and neuropsychological testing were significantly less powerful discriminators among this sample.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

Telemetric motor activity in children. A preliminary study.

A lightweight telemetric mobility sensing system was used to study the relationship between high levels of motor activity during free-play and school performance. Among the 21 normal children, there was a significant correlation between high ankle motor activity during free-play, poor school achievement, the presence of neurological soft signs, and a poor self-image. Those normals whose free-play ankle activity was above the mean, also had significantly more errors and performed at a significantly lower level on the Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test than children whose activity was below the mean. This preliminary study suggests that the telemetric mobility sensing system can be easily applied to children to assess clinically relevant components of psychomotor activity.

Achievement↗
PubMed1976

Rapid eye movement sleep density. An objective indicator in severe medical-depressive syndromes.

The electroencephalographic sleep patterns of 12 patients with a final diagnosis of primary depression and those of 12 patients admitted to the Clinical Research Unit with this diagnosis, but subsequently also found to be suffering from severe medical disease, were compared. Patients with depression concurrent with severe medical disease have significantly less phasic conjugate rapid eye movement (REM) activity during REM sleep than subjects with the diagnosis of a primary depression. These findings suggest that quantification of REM density may be used clinically to distinguish between medical-depressive syndromes and primary affective disorders.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1976

Electroencephalographic sleep diagnosis of primary depression.

Studies of severely depressed hospitalized patients suggest a shortened rapid eye movement (REM) latency as a specific biological marker for primary affective disease. To assess the validity of these findings, 40 outpatients referred to our Electroencephalographic Sleep Center for evaluation of depressive symptoms were studied. Concurrent with the all night EEG sleep studies, all patients received a brief clinical interview and a battery of self-rating scales. The entire sample was then subdivided into primary and secondary depressives on the basis of follow-up diagnoses. While there were no significant differences between groups on self-ratings of depressive symptoms, the group of primary depressives had significantly shorter REM latencies and higher measures of phasic REM than the secondary depressives. Furthermore, in this patient group, the delineation of primary vs secondary depression was greater than 80% on the basis of only two nights of EEG sleep. Such objective biological measures, if replicated, could provide a method for increasing the accuracy of differential diagnosis among depressed populations in clinical research.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

EEG sleep changes as predictors in depression.

The authors conducted a study of 18 depressed patients to see whether EEG sleep measurements might provide a predictive tool for response to antidepressant medication. They found that although the sedative characteristics of amitriptyline did not differentiate good responders from poor responders until the third week of drug treatment, the good responders showed significant increases in REM latency, decreases in REM sleep time, decreases in REM sleep percent, and decreases in REM activity after only 2 nights of drug treatment.

Amitriptyline↗
PubMed1975

Sleep EEG and motor activity as indicators in affective states.

This report reviews a number of studies which support our current classification schema for affective disorders. This classification differentiates between an anxious-hyperactive type and an anergic-hypoactive type which are then further subdivided into primary and secondary affective disorders. While the motor and activity measurements are for the most part limited to patients suffering from primary affective disease, current studies under way indicate that secondary affective disorders may also have characteristic biologic changes. EEG sleep and motor activity parameters provide useful pointers for differential diagnosis and treatment while having the added advantage of diminishing the clinician's almost exclusive dependency on amnestic data and the psychological observations made on the patient's behavior.

Adjustment Disorders↗
PubMed1975

Psychomotor activity as a correlate of Depression and sleep in acutely disturbed psychiatric inpatients.

Combining a lightweight telemetric mobility sensing system with nightly EEG-sleep recordings, the authors obtained continuous monitoring of rest-activity cycles among psychiatric patients hospitalized for primary depression or acute schizophreniform thought disorder. The patients with primary depression had a significantly higher percentage of their total 24-hour motor activity distributed during the night. Furthermore, this increased nocturnal motor activity did not correlate significantly with concurrent EEG-sleep measures of wakefulness. Indeed, the best predictors of wakefulness were measures of daytime activity. This desynchronization of sleep and nighttime motor activity in primary depression may explain the need for combined pharmacotherapy in some severely depressed patients. The authors suggest that expressing activity as a percentage distribution function, rather than in terms of absolute amplitude, provides an objective diagnostic index of depression.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1975

Objective measurement of human motor activity: a preliminary normative study.

Motor activity values have been generated for a population of young adult subjects in order to develop normative values for motor activity levels. Using the large-scale-integrated (LSI) motor activity monitor, day and night motor activity have been continuously and noninvasively monitored for approximately 1 month on 13 normal subjects. Comparisons between measured and self-rated motor activity tend to validate this technique. The results are discussed in relation to ongoing motor activity studies showing definite changes in activity associated with fluctuations in mood and anxiety.

Adult↗