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J E Helzer

Publications and source records attributed to J E Helzer.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

The risk of alcohol abuse and dependence in adulthood: the association with educational level.

In this analysis of prospectively gathered data, the authors sought to estimate the degree to which risk of alcohol abuse and dependence might be elevated among adults who attended but did not complete high school and among those who attended college without earning a degree. Study subjects were selected in 1980-1984 by taking probability samples of adult household residents at five sites of the Epidemiologic Catchment Area Program: New Haven, Connecticut; Baltimore, Maryland; St. Louis, Missouri; Durham-Piedmont, North Carolina; and Los Angeles, California. At baseline, participants completed standardized interviews that measured sociodemographic variables and assessed whether they had met diagnostic criteria for currently or formerly active alcohol abuse-dependence syndromes. The interviews were readministered 1 year later to identify incident cases among the 13,673 participants. After subjects were sorted into risk sets by age and residence census tract and after persons with a prior history of alcohol abuse or dependence were excluded, there were in 156 risk sets 160 incident cases and 526 subjects at risk for future occurrence of alcohol syndromes. Compared with adults who had earned a college degree, those who had attended high school without completion were at increased risk (relative risk (RR) = 6.23, 95 percent confidence interval (CI) 2.41-16.09) as were adults who had attended college without earning a degree (RR = 3.25, 95 percent CI 1.36-7.76). In contrast, risk of alcohol disorders among adults with a high school diploma but no college was not reliably greater than the level of risk for those with a college degree (RR = 1.88, 95 percent CI 0.79-4.47).

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

A comparison of two computer-administered versions of the NIMH Diagnostic Interview Schedule.

This study compared three versions of the NIMH Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS): "traditional" interviewer-administered DIS; computer-administered DIS (subject interacting alone with computer); computer-prompted DIS (interviewer using computer program as a guide). Kappas for 20 diagnoses ranged from .15 to .94, and averages for the three method pairs ranged from .57 to .64, which are comparable to other DIS reliability studies. Agreement between pairs of methods were comparable. Subjects' attitudes toward the computer interview were positive. While they felt they could better describe their feelings and ideas to a human, they found the computer contact less embarrassing. Overall, subjects had no preference for one method over another. Measures of social desirability and deviant response biases were correlated with diagnostic results. Reading ability did not affect subject's ability to respond to the DIS, although subjects with lower reading levels preferred the computer interview more.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Should caffeine abuse, dependence, or withdrawal be added to DSM-IV and ICD-10?

OBJECTIVE: The authors reviewed basic science and clinical data on caffeine abuse, dependence, and withdrawal in order to make a conclusion about whether these disorders exist and should be included in DSM-IV and ICD-10. METHOD: Studies were located through computerized searches, reference sections of published articles, and written requests. RESULTS: The studies show that abstinence from caffeine induces a withdrawal syndrome of headache, fatigue, and drowsiness which begins within 12-24 hours and lasts about 1 week. The syndrome can be severe and appears to be one reason for continued use of coffee. The prevalence of this caffeine withdrawal syndrome is unknown. Use of caffeine may aggravate some common behavioral and medical disorders. In double-blind tests, a subset of coffee and soda drinkers reliably self-administered caffeinated beverages in preference to uncaffeinated beverages. Clinical indicators of dependence, such as difficulty stopping use of caffeine and use despite harm, have not been documented. CONCLUSIONS: Caffeine withdrawal but not caffeine abuse or dependence should be included as a diagnosis in DSM-IV and ICD-10. Future research should focus on whether some caffeine users exhibit clinical indicators of drug dependence.

Caffeine↗
PubMed1992

Psychiatric morbidity of foreign students in Yugoslavia: a 25 year retrospective analysis.

Psychiatric morbidity of hospitalized foreign students in Yugoslavia was analyzed in a 25-year retrospective study and was compared to the psychiatric morbidity of a group of Yugoslav students hospitalized in the same psychiatric institutions, over the same time period. Results showed significantly higher rates of paranoid and depressive reactions amongst foreign students, and suggested correlation between their psychiatric morbidity and maladaptation to the new living conditions.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1992

When do alcoholics first discuss drinking problems?

Data from a sample of 338 alcoholics who were identified from medical record reviews and diagnosed as alcohol dependent according to DSM-III criteria by means of a structured psychiatric interview were analyzed to determine when in the course of alcohol disorder development first discussion with a health professional about their drinking problems had occurred. The data support an image of alcoholics as experiencing many drinking problems before seeking professional help and, particularly, before attending AA. These data point to early identification as a possible fruitful strategy to alleviate some of the social costs of drinking problems.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Do life events or depression exacerbate inflammatory bowel disease? A prospective study.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether depressed mood or life events are associated with an exacerbation of inflammatory bowel disease. DESIGN: A prospective study of a consecutive sample of patients with relapsing inflammatory bowel disease, followed by monthly questionnaires and periodic office visits. SETTING: A referral-based gastroenterology clinic at a medical school. PATIENTS: A consecutive sample of 32 patients with inflammatory bowel disease who had had at least one relapse in a 2-year period after entry into the study. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The Social Readjustment Rating Scale (measuring life events), the Beck Depression Inventory (a visual analog scale for depressed mood) and an inventory of intestinal symptoms were completed monthly by each subject with a 78% rate of compliance. A mean of 2.2 exacerbations was seen per subject during the study period. Life events were not temporally associated with changes in intestinal symptoms. Significant associations were found between intestinal symptoms and the two mood scales (P less than 0.05 for each), but no directionality in symptom occurrence could be detected in a time-lagged analysis. The results were similar when the months preceding exacerbations of inflammatory bowel disease were analyzed separately. CONCLUSIONS: Although these findings suggest that mood changed concurrently with exacerbation of inflammatory bowel disease, no evidence indicated that stressful life events or depressed mood precipitated exacerbations in this study group.

Colitis, Ulcerative↗
PubMed1991

Performance of two forms of a computer psychiatric screening interview: version I of the DISSI.

This study reports on the performance of two forms of version I of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS) computer screening interview, using the traditional interviewer-administered DIS (T-DIS) as the standard. The screening interview was either self-administered (called the S-DISSI) with the subject keying in responses, or interviewer-administered (I-DISSI), with the interviewer keying in the subject's responses. Sensitivity and specificity for both forms were ample (excluding antisocial personality), ranging from 60% to 100% for sensitivity and 54% to 95% for specificity. Concordances with the T-DIS were similar for both forms of the screening interview, ranging from .10 to .87 and compared favorably to those reported by other investigators. The I-DISSI took on average 30 min less than either the T-DIS and S-DISSI. Since the performances of both versions were equivalent, the decision to use either may be based on available resources and characteristics of the study population.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Agreement between DSM-III and III-R substance use disorders.

With proposed criteria for DSM-IV substance dependence imminent, an evaluation of the impact of changes from DSM-III to DSM-III-R would be informative. Recent admissions to St. Louis drug treatment centers were interviewed with the DIS-III-R, which covers criteria from both systems. Kappa values for system agreement, diagnostic overlap and percent positive agreement are reported by substance. The DSM-III-R system cast a wider net for dependence than DSM-III for alcohol, tobacco and amphetamines. Neither system predominated for cannabis, opioids and barbiturates/sedatives/hypnotics. Reasons for differences and implications of findings are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

New methods in cross-cultural psychiatry: psychiatric illness in Taiwan and the United States.

OBJECTIVE: Cross-cultural psychiatric research has suffered from many methodological shortcomings. To answer some of these shortcomings, the present study compared rates of psychiatric disorders in Taiwan and the United States by combining data from both countries into a single data set. METHOD: Results from large, community-based surveys in the United States and Taiwan, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Epidemiologic Catchment Area survey and the Taiwan Psychiatric Epidemiological Project, were combined into a single data set. This integration of the data sets was possible because both surveys used the NIMH Diagnostic Interview Schedule to ascertain cases. The integrated data sets were then analyzed with identical algorithms to generate lifetime prevalence rates of psychiatric disorders according to DSM-III criteria for both the United States and Taiwan. RESULTS: Lifetime prevalence rates of psychiatric illness in Taiwan were generally lower than U.S. rates. The rates of any disorder were 21.56% in Taiwan and 35.55% in the United States (Z = 22.34, p less than 10(-109]. The rates of most specific disorders were lower in Taiwan, and none of the rates was higher in Taiwan. CONCLUSIONS: While a culturally determined response bias may have lowered the rates in Taiwan somewhat, the results appear to be valid. Implications for the future use of structured diagnostic interviews in cross-cultural research are discussed.

Algorithms↗
PubMed1990

Smoking, smoking cessation, and major depression.

A relationship between cigarette smoking and major depressive disorder was suggested in previous work involving nonrandomly selected samples. We conducted a test of this association, employing population-based data (n = 3213) collected between 1980 and 1983 in the St Louis Epidemiologic Catchment Area Survey of the National Institute of Mental Health. A history of regular smoking was observed more frequently among individuals who had experienced major depressive disorder at some time in their lives than among individuals who had never experienced major depression or among individuals with no psychiatric diagnosis. Smokers with major depression were also less successful at their attempts to quit than were either of the comparison groups. Gender differences in rates of smoking and of smoking cessation observed in the larger population were not evident among the depressed group. Furthermore, the association between cigarette smoking and major depression was not ubiquitous across all psychiatric diagnoses. Other data are cited indicating that when individuals with a history of depression stop smoking, depressive symptoms and, in some cases, serious major depression may ensue.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Alcoholism--North America and Asia. A comparison of population surveys with the Diagnostic Interview Schedule.

The Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS) is a highly structured instrument that enables lay examiners to gather the clinical information necessary to generate psychiatric disorders according to the DSM-III, Feighner, and Research Diagnostic Criteria. It was developed originally as the diagnostic interview for the Epidemiologic Catchment Area (ECA) survey. Because it adheres to DSM-III and can be used by lay interviewers, thus making it practical for studies involving large samples, it has been used for other population surveys in North and South America, Europe, and Asia. This investigation compares the epidemiology of DSM-III-defined alcohol abuse and addiction in DIS-based population surveys cross-nationally (in St Louis, Mo; Edmonton, Canada; Puerto Rico; Taipei City, Taiwan; and South Korea). We found considerable variation in the lifetime prevalence of alcoholism but a similarity in the age of onset, the symptomatic expression, and the associated risk factors. We also found an inverse correlation between the prevalence of alcoholism and the strength of the association of the risk factors we examined. The work described herein demonstrates the utility of consistent definition and method in cross-cultural psychiatric research. The substantive findings have implications for the definition of alcoholism and for a better understanding of genetic and environmental interactions in its etiology.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

Depression in Viet Nam veterans and civilian controls.

In order to investigate the long-term psychological consequences of Viet Nam combat, the authors located and personally interviewed a group of 571 randomly selected Viet Nam veterans and 284 matched civilian controls 3 years after the veterans returned to the United States. In the veterans they found a weak association between combat and subsequent depressive symptoms, but the association did not persist after controlling for preservice factors. The incidence of depressive symptoms and syndromes was similar when veterans were compared with nonveterans. Results are contrasted with a 12-month follow-up study of the same veterans in which a stronger association between combat and later depression was found.

Antisocial Personality Disorder↗
PubMed1978

Concurrent diagnostic validity of a structured psychiatric interview.

In order to estimate the concurrent validity of a structured psychiatric interview, we compared interview diagnoses obtained for 101 psychiatric inpatients to those recorded in the same patients' hospital charts. For most diagnoses considered, concordance was found to be high. For those in which concordance was low, we examined the reasons for the diagnostic discrepancy. Diagnostic errors that were judged to have occurred on the basis of the structural interview often seemed to have resulted from a lack of longitudinal clinical observation. However, more errors were judged to have occurred in the hospital charts, apparently because of physician oversight. We conclude that the concurrent validity of this structured interview is high and that such examinations might be useful not only for research but also for the routine initial evaluation of psychiatric patients.

Alcoholism↗
PubMed1977

Reliability of psychiatric diagnosis. I. A methodological review.

This article reviews some methodological aspects of studies of diagnostic reliability in psychiatry. We define and discuss the concept of interrater reliability and review some of the ways in which the design of the reliability study can influence the results. Three basic methodological issues are raised, including: importance of structured interviews and objective diagnostic criteria, the importance of a test/retest vs an interviewer/observer design, and the calculation of reliability in a way that takes chance agreement into account.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1977

Reliability of psychiatric diagnosis. II. The test/retest reliability of diagnostic classification.

In a study of interrater diagnostic reliability, 101 psychiatric inpatients were independently interviewed by physicians using a structured interview. Newly admitted patients were randomly selected and examined by one of three psychiatrists. A second psychiatrist reexamined the same patient about 24 hours later. Interviews from the two examinations were evaluated independently and diagnoses were made on the basis of objective criteria. The degree of diagnostic agreement for the two examinations were calculated using the kappa statistic. Agreement was found to be high as compared to other studies in the psychiatric literature, despite the fact that in most previous investigations diagnoses were not made independently. The results were also compared to studies of reliability of medical judgments. Possible reasons for the high interrater reliability are discussed and include the use of a structured interview and objective diagnostic criteria.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗