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Biomedical subjects

G B Kaskey

Publications and source records attributed to G B Kaskey.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1984

Development of an emergency psychiatric treatment unit.

The increasing number of deinstitutionalized patients in crisis are placing new demands on general hospital emergency rooms. The authors discuss the approaches used in staffing and operating a psychiatric emergency service at a large general hospital in western Massachusetts. After studying the disposition of patients seen on the service, the authors determined that overnight hospitalization and crisis management could substantially reduce the need for longer hospital admissions. Subsequently a proposal was developed for a seven-bed emergency psychiatric treatment unit to provide brief, intensive psychiatric care for both voluntary and involuntary inpatients. The authors describe the staffing and layout of the unit, and the population to be served.

Crisis Intervention↗
PubMed1980

Drug treatment in delusional depression.

In a retrospective study, the drug response of delusional patients with primary depression who were treated with tricyclic antidepressants (TCA), neuroleptics, or combined TCA plus neuroleptic therapy was examined. Significantly more patients responded to the combined drug regimen, as has been found in other recent studies. Clinical response was not related to severity of symptoms, drug dosage, or demographic characteristics. The clinical superiority of neuroleptics plus TCA in the treatment of delusionally depressed patients suggests the possible role of dopamine in the psychosis associated with depression and implicates norepinephrine and serotonin in the disordered locomotor activity and mood of primary depressive illness.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

Effects of lithium on evoked potentials and performance during sustained attention.

Two versions of the continuous performance test (CPT) differing in complexity were administered to 15 patients with bipolar affective disorder, manic type before and after treatment with lithium. Reaction time, performance accuracy, and the late positive component (LPC) of the event related potential evoked by the task were measured concurrently. Lithium treatment decreased errors of commission on both CPT tasks, although the difference was significant only for the simpler task. Reaction time was significantly increased by lithium treatment on the more difficult CPT task, LPC amplitude to the target stimulus on the difficult CPT was significantly increased by lithium. The data are interpreted as consistent with an attention-enhancing effect of lithium, coupled with a general reduction in the tendency to respond to stimuli.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

Relationships between stimulus intensity and amplitude of visual and auditory event related potentials.

Event related potentials were recorded from subjects presented with separate trains of lights and tones of three intensity levels (75, 240 and 750 fl and 60, 77 and 95 dB respectively). The auditory P1-N1 and N1-P2 components increased linearly with loudness, whereas in visual evoked responses, these components were maximal at an intermediate brightness. There was no correlation between responses to the two modalities. The results are examined in relation to current theories of cortical stimulus processing.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

The late positive component of the evoked response in acute schizophrenics during a test of sustained attention.

To investigate the relationship between behavioral and cortical measures of impaired attention in schizophrenia, 17 hospitalized acute schizophrenics and 16 hospitalized nonpsychotic patients were studied. Event-related potentials (ERP) were obtained while subjects performed the Continuous Performance Test (CPT) under three conditions: First base line, Auditory-Visual Distraction, and Second base line. Schizophrenics made more errors of omission and commission and had longer reaction times. Analysis of the Late Positive Component (LPC) of the ERP revealed that both groups had an attenuated LPC during distraction and a larger LPC to the critical compared to the noncritical stimulus throughout all conditions. Schizophrenics had a smaller LPC and a smaller amplitude difference between the critical and noncritical stimulus than the nonpsychotics throughout all conditions.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1978

The effect of distraction on acute schizophrenics' visual tracking.

To examine the nature of impaired smooth pursuit eye movement (SPEM) in schizophrenia, 16 hospitalized schizophrenics in the acute phase and 16 hospitalized nonpsychotic patients were studied. The experiment consisted of five 30-sec visual tracking phases: (i) base line (no distraction); (ii) auditory-visual distraction; (iii) middle base line; (iv) dichotic listening; and (v) final base line. Schizophrenics were characterized by significantly more velocity arrests throughout all phases of the experiment. Auditory-visual distraction did not impair either group's SPEM relative to base line performance. In contrast, dichotic listening significantly increased both groups' velocity arrests. This form of distraction also tended to produce greater impairment among schizophrenics. The failure of apparently intense auditory-visual distraction to significantly disrupt schizophrenics' SPEM suggests that inattentiveness alone does not account for schizophrenics' tracking impairment. This notion is supported by the finding that only the more intense distraction by dichotic listening produced a (trend toward) greater impairment in schizophrenics.

Acoustic Stimulation↗