Biomedical subjects

J L Howes

Publications and source records attributed to J L Howes.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1997

Outcome evaluation of a short-term mental health day treatment program.

OBJECTIVES: To determine whether a structured, 6-week mental health day treatment program was meeting its objectives and to examine the program's effectiveness with specific patient groups. METHOD: Self-report questionnaires focusing on psychiatric symptoms, assertiveness, stress management, and social functioning were completed by patients directly prior to admission (pretest), at discharge (posttest), and at 4-month follow-up. Clinician ratings, including the DSM-III-R Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) scale, were collected. Ninety-one participants completed pre- and posttests, and 51 completed the 4-month follow-up. RESULTS: The majority of the participants displayed affective disorders or adjustment disorders. There was significant reduction in psychiatric symptoms and improvement in assertiveness, social functioning, and stress management from pretest to posttest. These gains were maintained at follow-up. All diagnostic groups responded similarly, except the bipolar disorder group. CONCLUSION: These data indicate that the program was meeting its objectives and offer strong support for the usefulness of short-term day treatment for wide range of patients. The bipolar group performed differently compared with the other subsamples. The reliability of the GAF scale and when it may be most useful are discussed.

Adjustment Disorders↗

PubMed1992

Remote memory: recalling autobiographical and public events from across the lifespan.

In this study the recall of autobiographical and public events across the lifespan was examined in a sample of middle-aged and older-aged adults. The tasks were modified versions of one first introduced by Galton (1879), and they required subjects to recall events from specific time periods across their entire lifespan. The four tasks differed in the nature of the episodes requested (autobiographical or public) and whether recall was word-cued or non-word-cued. Verification of public events was assessed archivally, and autobiographical events were verified by a sample of relatives for a subgroup of the subjects and reported events. The results indicated that memory for public events decreases with increased age of the subject, but this effect is not generally found for the recall of autobiographical events. The older-aged subjects were able to recall an equal number of autobiographical episodes from all life segments, whereas recall of news events tended to decrease with remoteness of the episode. These data are contrary to those models that posit general memory loss as a function of age or of remoteness of the events.

Aged↗

PubMed1988

Assessing remote memory with an improved public events questionnaire.

In the present research, public events recall and recognition tests were developed that appear to be psychometrically stronger than those used in the past. Following test construction, these tests were administered to older and middle-aged participants in order to examine the effects of chronological age and historical time period on memory for remote news events. Results indicated that middle-aged participants generally exhibited a better memory for news events than did older participants for the time periods that both age groups lived through. Across the life span, a common pattern was observed. Specifically, there was an increase in memory for events until the teenage years and fairly constant performance thereafter for both age groups. From these findings, we can clearly argue against a loss theory of remote memory. Some gender differences were observed on the recall and recognition tasks, but they were not as global or as frequent as Botwinick and Storandt (1980) suggested. The clinical potential of the remote memory tests is briefly considered.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1987

Kinesigenic choreoathetosis due to brain injury.

This uncommon paroxysmal movement disorder featuring attacks of dystonic spasm with athetoid posturing is usually of idiopathic nature, often familial and starting in childhood. There are a few reported examples due to cerebral pathology, and only four previous cases due to brain trauma. We report here a 21 year old man with left-sided motor spasms, choreoathetoid in type, which were clearly caused by a right frontal penetrating injury with contusion and haemorrhage. The attacks were relieved by phenytoin therapy. In this case, it seems that the post-traumatic paroxysmal kinesigenic choreoathetosis may be a form of reflex epilepsy.

Adult↗

PubMed1983

Effects of experimenter- and self-generated imagery on the Korsakoff patient's memory performance.

The ability of Korsakoff patients to retain verbal information was examined as a function of self- and experimenter-generated imagery. Korsakoff and alcoholic control participants were presented 12-item paired-associate test lists following both self-and experimenter-generated imagery conditions, and baseline conditions involving no specific instructions. Participants completed a standard recall and a forced-choice recognition task 15 min and 24 hr following the learning trials for each test list. Results indicated that Korsakoff patients can utilize self-generated and experimenter-generated imagery to improve performance. Experimenter-generated was found to be as facilitative or mor facilitative, than self-generated imagery.

Aged↗