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Biomedical subjects

G J Tucker

Publications and source records attributed to G J Tucker.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1998

Seizure disorders presenting with psychiatric symptomatology.

Seizure disorders can be mistaken for psychiatric disorders and, the two have a number of poorly understood interrelations. Disruptions of consciousness, motor activity, hallucinations, and abrupt mood and anxiety changes can all be seizure manifestations caused by cortical neuronal discharges. This article presents the classification and proposed psychopathology of seizure disorders. It then reviews the psychiatric conditions that frequently mimic elements of such seizure disorders, giving hints that will allow the clinician to correctly identify seizures that are creating psychiatric presentations. Finally, this article makes clear the situations in which anticonvulsant medications may be of value when nothing else seems to be working.

Anticonvulsants↗
PubMed1993

Reliability of the Part II board certification examination in psychiatry: examination stability.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine the reliability (examination stability) of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN) Part II (oral) examination in psychiatry. METHOD: The authors analyzed the consistency (agreement between grades given by two independent examiners) for a 1-year examination cycle using a weighted kappa statistic and compared different parts of the examination (live patient and videotape), different examination sites, different days, and different times of the day. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in agreement between examiners by different parts of the examination, examination site, day of the week, or time of day. CONCLUSIONS: The stability of the Part II ABPN examination in psychiatry is not influenced significantly by the format or site of administration. Candidate performance is the predominant factor in the determination of passing or failing grades.

Bias↗
PubMed1993

Regional syndromes.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Cognition Disorders↗
PubMed1991

DSM-IV: proposals for revision of diagnostic criteria for delirium. APA Work Group on Organic Disorders of the DSM-IV Task Force and Major Contributors.

This paper reviews the historical development of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. It presents some of the issues that the clinician has found difficult in applying DSM-III and DSM-III-R criteria for delirium. In addition it introduces some options for DSM-IV criteria for delirium based on several empirical studies. These options should be studied and debated carefully over the next year because in part, they represent radical departures from existing diagnostic criteria for delirium.

Aged↗
PubMed1991

Reliability of the Part II Board Certification Examination in Psychiatry: interexaminer consistency.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to examine the reliability (interexaminer consistency) of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN) Part II (oral) examination in psychiatry. METHOD: Grades were assigned independently by two examiners who observed the same examination in a 1-year cycle (1,422 candidates, two examinations each). The consistency between these pairs of grades (pass, condition, fail) was analyzed using a weighted kappa statistic. RESULTS: There was perfect agreement between examiners in 67% of examinations, minor disagreement in 26%, and major disagreement in 7% (weighted kappa = 0.54-0.56). CONCLUSIONS: The Part II ABPN examination demonstrates fair to good reliability as measured by interexaminer consistency. Development of more explicit grading criteria should further improve examiner agreement in future examinations.

Educational Measurement↗
PubMed1988

Somatization, paranoia, and language.

Somatization and paranoia are circumscribed distortions of reality that are impervious to the normative process of consensual validation. These distortions are often postulated as a means of bolstering lowered self-esteem. We used computerized content analysis of the free speech of patients with these disorders in order to identify and compare dimensions of self-concept reflected in their lexical choices. Interestingly, patients with these disorders differed in the themes prominent in their speech. The higher frequency categories used by the somatization disorder group conveyed an overwhelming sense of negativism, distress, and a preoccupation with an uncertain self-identity. In contrast, the categories used by the paranoid patients portrayed an artificially positive, grandiose self-image and a defensive abstractness. Our exploratory analysis suggests that circumscribed distortions of reality in somatization and paranoid disorders are not associated with the same common defensive style attempting to bolster self-esteem.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Neurology and psychiatry.

There has been a long historical relationship between neurology and psychiatry. This relationship has been nurtured by the common interest in the central nervous system and disturbed behavior associated with dysfunctions of the nervous system. This paper reviews the formal relationships between neurology and psychiatry and particularly looks at the behavioral aspects of neurological disease. For the past 10 years, both from a clinical and a theoretical viewpoint, the importance of understanding central nervous system functioning and dysfunctioning has become increasingly apparent to psychiatrists.

Humans↗
PubMed1988

The language of altered states.

To compare the subjective experience of different forms of altered states of consciousness, computerized content analysis was applied to 66 autobiographical accounts of schizophrenia, hallucinogenic drug states, or mystical ecstasy and to 28 autobiographical control accounts of important personal experiences. The patterns of lexical choice used by the four groups were significantly different in word frequencies from 49 of 83 lexical categories measured. When data from the 13 most statistically significant categories were used in discriminant and classification analyses, 84% of the samples were correctly identified by their word frequencies. These findings suggest that the subjective experiences of schizophrenia, hallucinogenic drug-induced states, and mystical ecstasy are more different from one another than alike.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1988

Diagnostic classification through content analysis of patients' speech.

Speech samples from 71 patients in four diagnostic groups were analyzed by two quantitative methods of speech content analysis, the results of which were entered into a discriminant analysis to test whether patients could be accurately classified back into their appropriate diagnostic groups. These classifications were compared with classifications made by two psychiatrists, blind to the patients' diagnoses, who read transcripts of the speech samples. The results suggest that data from the systematic quantification of lexical choice can be used to classify patients into their respective diagnostic groups and that this classification compares favorably with that done by psychiatric raters.

Computers↗
PubMed1988

Modern perspectives on epilepsy in relation to psychiatry: classification and evaluation.

This paper begins a two-part series on current psychiatric aspects of epilepsy. Part I focuses on the current classification of epileptic seizures; the possible relationships of epilepsy, especially temporal lobe epilepsy, with psychopathology; and the difficulties of evaluating epileptic conditions through electroencephalography. Part II, to be published in the April issue, will cover the management of epilepsy that is accompanied by behavior disturbance.

Electroencephalography↗