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Biomedical subjects

J D Rainer

Publications and source records attributed to J D Rainer.

12 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1979

Nervous and mental disease. Genetics and the future of psychoanalysis.

Genetics has been associated with psychoanalytic theory since the earliest writings of Freud. Innate factors of constitution and heredity have been recognized in studies of adults and children, both retrospective and prospective. Contemporary genetics has become a science of gene expression and control, not merely of transmission, and its influence will illuminate processes of interaction in the development of affect and personality. As new genetic proposals and practices influence the choices and meanings of human life, they will have a profound effect on man's decisions, values, and self-image, and psychoanalysis will need to reaffirm its interpreative role. Finally, more effective prevention and treatment will be based on better appreciation of the interacting roles of genotype and environment.

Child↗
PubMed1979

Heredity and character disorders.

The role of heredity in personality development and character disorder has been studied by a variety of means. These include investigation of twins and/or families, using clinical ratings, personality scales, or psychological tests; observation of neonates and infants; and longitudinal description of discordant pairs of twins. Attention to the interaction of heredity and environment provides new strategies for prevention and treatment.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

A genetic study of schizophrenia pedigrees. II. One-locus hypotheses.

One-locus models have been fitted to two sets of two-generational families, studied by Kallmann because each contained a schizophrenic twin proband; in one set each twin proband was in the nuclear group, in the other in the peripheral group. Allowing for a lognormal age of onset distribution and a dependence of ascertainment probability on age of onset, the following hypotheses were tested and rejected: ascertainment probability is a noncurvilinear function of age of onset on a log-log scale; the transmission of schizophrenia is via one Mendelian locus, and the transmission of schizophrenia is independent of parental type. The last hypothesis is more likely than one-locus Mendelian inheritance, but it too must be rejected.

Alleles↗
PubMed1977

Schizophrenics' adopting parents. Psychiatric status.

With the exception of one finding in one experiment, adoption studies have demonstrated that genetic and not rearing factors play an etiological role in the schizophrenias. In that one study, clinical evaluations showed the biological parents of schizophrenics as more disturbed than the adopting parents of schizophrenics, who were, in turn, slightly more disturbed than the adopting parents of normal persons. Both the biological and the adopting parents of schizophrenics showed an equivalent degree of Rorschach pathology, suggesting the possible role of a learned communication disorder in the schizophrenic disorders. A replicative study were performed, employing the same design but utilizing a systematic sample. Structured interviews and tests were administered to the biological parents of nongenetic retardates. Structured clinical evaluation showed the biological parents of schizophrenics to be more disturbed than the other two groups, between whom there was no difference in psychopathology. With analysis of the Rorschach tests, the biological parents of schizophrenics showed significantly more Rorschach pathology than found in the other two groups, whose degree of disorder was the same. This study again confirms the role of genetic factors and fails to show an environmental component in the etiology of the schizophrenias.

Adoption↗
PubMed1977

Lithium and aggressive behavior in patients with early total deafness.

Patients with early total deafness frequently present with impulsive, aggressive behavior. Nine such inpatients were treated with Lithium. Two acting out adolescents showed a response to medication and a third personality disorder was dropped for side reactions. Of six schizophrenics, five responded in terms of aggressive behavior, while requiring continued medication with phenothiazines at notably lowered doses for their schizophrenic pathology.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1975

Accuracy of the family history method in affective illness. Comparison with direct interviews in family studies.

We interviewed available spouses and first-degree relatives of 140 bipolar and unipolar probands for current and past psychopathology, and assessed interrater reliability. Diagnoses based on direct interviews of relatives were compared with those based on reports of the probands and of all other interviewed family members. Probands underestimated the prevalence of affective illness and other psychiatric disorders in their relatives, and overestimated the age of onset of illness in their ill relatives. Probands reported more accurately about illness in their spouses and parents than in their siblings and children, but accuracy reached acceptable levels for spouses only. Diagnoses on relatives derived by combining reports of all other interviewed family members, including the proband, were slightly more accurate than those based on the proband's reports alone. Good accuracy was obtained only for reports about spouses.

Adult↗