The effects of sessions, individual characteristics, group behavior, sedative medications, and pharmacological anticipation, on simple visual and auditory reaction time were evaluated with a randomized block design. The project involved 4 separate small groups of 5 to 9 healthy young adults who met 4 times for 9 hr. over 4 mo. and received 4 drug regimens under controlled conditions. Attitudes toward the experiment, which were mainly related to an early fear of potent drugs and late feelings of weariness, markedly affected reaction time. This effect decreased the test-retest reliability of the instrument, hence its sensitivity. Group behavior, subjective feelings attributable to the medications, and pharmacological anticipation, on the other hand, did not seem to have affected psychomotor performance. The effects of sedatives were much more marked and consistent with reaction time than with subjective responses, which primarily represented the influence of anticipation. This dissociation between objective and subjective behavior indicates that the subjects acted according to the drugs which they had taken but felt according to what they believed they had received.

Anxiety↗

PubMed1975

Effects of personal interactions and setting on subjective drug responses in small groups.

Subjective responses induced by secobarbital and meprobamate were evaluated in 4 X 4 controlled trials in small groups of healthy young adults over 4 months. Drug effects were mainly influenced by attitudes toward the project, personal interactions, and anticipations of the subjects. The effects of some of these factors were similar to, and at least as powerful as those which are usually considered characteristic of sedatives and stimulants. The same factors, however, did not apparently effect objective responses.

Analysis of Variance↗

PubMed1975

Commentary. Major drug-prescribing patterns in general hospitals.

Prescriptions of major drug classes were surveyed for one year in five teaching and five nonteaching general hospitals. Their overall rates varied over a two- to three-fold range in medicine, surgery, and pediatrics, but were uniform throughout the hospitals. Parenteral fluids and antibiotics represented over one half of the pharmacotherapy used in every specialty except medicine, where tranquilizers were the most frequently prescribed drugs. Prescribing patterns lacked consistency in obstetrics and newborn services, and generally with steroids, vasopressors, and anticoagulants. Significant variations also involved the use of fluids in pediatrics, diuretics in surgery, and vasodilators in medicine. These variations were too unpredictable and large to be attributed to specific differences among patient populations. Only two discrepancies were noted between teaching and nonteaching hospitals: tranquilizers were prescribed more often in the former, and vasopressors in the latter.

Drug Prescriptions↗

PubMed1975

Objectives of pharmacological education.

Pharmacological education is presented as a continuous undertaking of preclinical students, clerks, and physicians and surgeons in training and practice (1). Carrying out this activity requires five operations: (a) selecting criteria of effective and safe drug use in patients; (b) defining attitudes, knowledge, and skills of clinicians who practice effective pharmacotherapy; (c) developing these attitudes, knowledge, and skills in prescribers: (d) evaluating the proficiency of prescribers at certification and in actual practice; and (e) identifying causes of prescribing deficiencies in order to amend inappropriate methods of instruction.

Drug Prescriptions↗