Homoclites revisited: the search for identification in hospitalized young adult patients.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to J G Looney.
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Because of the widely varying symptomatology seen in the neuroses, questions have been raised about whether they constitute a realistically defined category of illness. The authors followed 4074 Navy enlisted men diagnosed as neurotic between 1966 and 1969 and compared disposition decisions and posthospital outcomes for four major neurotic subtypes (anxiety, hysterical, depressive, and phobic-obsessive-compulsive). Neurotic patients as a group were also compared with patients in other diagnostic categories. Although posthospital outcomes were found to differ among the four neurotic subtypes, the differences were not large when compared with the differences between the neuroses as a group and other major diagnostic categories. Those findings suggest that the neuroses are a distinct group with regard to outcome, and that the use of this diagnostic category should not be abandoned without further study.
The authors provided psychiatric consultation to medical personnel in charge of a Vietnamese refugee camp in California. Although the emergency measures that supplied clothing, food, shelter, and medical care to nearly 60,000 refugees were immensely successful, consultation was requested to assist with selected mental health problems. The recommendations of the consulting team were related to the stage of camp development: early recommendations concerned easing adaptation to the camp setting; later efforts included creating a psychiatric crisis clinic and carrying out a mental health survey on a random sample of refugees. The results of this survey helped camp directors to understand how refugees responded to the camp experience.
The authors suggest that there are a number of shortcomings in DSM-II's classification system for psychophysiologic disorders, which lists this group of disorders as a distinct group of diseases different from other organic diseases. They propose a new, multiaxial method of classification in which the clinician could indicate the role of psychological factors in the initiation, exacerbation, or maintenance of any physical disorder. This method would make it possible for the first time in psychiatric nomenclature to indicate a clinical judgment of the importance of psychological factors in all physical disorders rather than focusing on a small group of illnesses traditionally regarded as psychosomatic or psychophysiologic.
The validity and usefulness of the diagnostic category transient situational disturbance were evaluated by studying the course and outcome for 2,078 hospitalized naval personnel. The condition was found to be less severe and disabling than other major psychiatric disorders in terms of chronicity, length of hospitalization, and disposition. Outcomes in terms of rehospitalization rates and work effectiveness also were relatively favorable. Based on three or more years of follow-up, a substantial proportion of patients originally diagnosed as having a transient situational disturbance subsequently manifested personality disorder problems. The results suggest that clearer criteria are needed to define situational disturbances operationally and to identify patients with underlying personality disorders.
The authors surveyed psychiatric residency programs to see what educational resources were available to residents assigned to provide emergency services during evening and nighttime hours. Almost half the sample of 89 programs assigned first-year residents to provide emergency care. The primary immediate means of support for the residents was telephone assistance, in 49 per cent of the programs, or the presence of a non-psychiatrist professional, in 35 per cent. The general lack of educational resources reflects the traditional dispositional model of emergency psychiatry, the authors say, with its emphasis on briefly evaluating the patient and referring him elsewhere for services; current training practices cannot meet the goals of the crisis system model in which a comprehensive treatment program is begun in the emergency room.
The authors describe the efforts made to meet the mental health needs of Vietnamese children and their families in a large refugee camp. Many of the children received strong emotional support from the multigenerational Vietnamese families, and they adapted well to the new environment. However, children separated from their families demonstrated increased emotional vulnerability, and foster placement of children without families presented a serious problem. The authors suggest that our national commitment to these refugees may have ended when they left the confines of the refugee camp.
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Drawing on their experience, the authors explore the opportunity for learning administrative process that is available to the psychiatric chief resident. They categorize six models of the psychiatric chief residency and document two of them, the ward chief and the interface chief, as providing particularly rich administrative experiences. Although the chief resident's administrative experience is only a preliminary one, it can be a first step in solidifying his identity as a clinician-executive.
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