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Biomedical subjects

J Zur

Publications and source records attributed to J Zur.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1996

From PTSD to voices in context: from an "experience-far" to an "experience-near" understanding of responses to war and atrocity across cultures.

This paper examines some of the difficulties of exporting the Western concept of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to non-Western cultures. Using data drawn from Guatemala where I lived and worked among Quiché Mayan war widows, illustrates how culturally-specific understandings of events and reactions to them affect the well-being (or otherwise) of people exposed to extreme adverse events. The paper turns to the voices of the widows, who experienced and survived intense political conflict, explaining their experiences of violence within their particular context.

Cross-Cultural Comparison↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Chronic solvent abuse. 1. Cognitive sequelae.

Twelve adolescent males with a history of chronic solvent abuse were compared with 12 delinquent controls on a battery of neuropsychological tests. Toluene was the active constituent most commonly abused. Solvent abusers tended to have lower overall intelligence test scores. On the Bexley Maudsley Automated Screening Test, the solvent abusers scored significantly lower on tests involving visual processing, especially the Symbol Digit Coding test. These results are cautiously interpreted as indicating that chronic solvent abuse carries an increased risk of cognitive impairment.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Chronic solvent abuse. 2. Relationship with depression.

Twelve adolescent males with a history of chronic solvent abuse were compared with 12 delinquent controls on a structured interview concerning their history of solvent abuse, drug and alcohol abuse, and on a self-report inventory of depression. Solvent abusers had histories of severe social and emotional deprivation, and reported higher rates of depression. This was particularly true of the most chronic abusers of solvents. These findings do not reflect any referral bias and it is concluded that the association between chronic solvent abuse and depression is a real one. Psychological, social work and psychiatric services need to take the presentation of chronic solvent abuse more seriously.

Adolescent↗