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Biomedical subjects

K Hammill

Publications and source records attributed to K Hammill.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1997

The psychiatric-primary care nurse practitioner: a futuristic model for advanced practice psychiatric-mental health nursing.

A new paradigm for delivering comprehensive mental and general health services has been born out of the necessity to integrate all aspects of health care. Because of issues of cost-effectiveness and capitation, fragmentation of services is no longer viable. Graduate programs in nursing will need to: (1) effectively prepare its practitioners to manage the complexity of both medical and psychiatric problems of clients, (2) promote health and prevent disease, and (3) counsel and refer clients. The psychiatric nurse practitioner is uniquely suited to provide comprehensive health care to both clients in psychiatric settings as well as primary care environments. An overview of the Psychiatric-Primary Care Nurse Practitioner program at the University of Pittsburgh is described.

Clinical Competence↗
PubMed1995

Pharmacotherapy of impaired affect in recovering schizophrenic patients.

BACKGROUND: Prominent and persistent anxiety, depression, and/or negative features characterize a substantial minority of recovered or residually psychotic schizophrenic outpatients and contribute to poor outcome. Because extrapyramidal side effects of typical neuroleptic medications often resemble such features, we first systematically studied the contribution of extrapyramidal side effects to these problems and their treatment. For patients who remained distressed, controlled trials of supplemental thymoleptics were undertaken. METHODS: In trial 1, 92 distressed (depressed and/or anxious) patients and 36 patients in a defect state (patients with negative symptoms) participated in a double-blind, intramuscular challenge that compared centrally acting benztropine mesylate with peripherally acting glycopyrrolate. In trial 2, 57 distressed patients and 22 patients in a defect state were randomly assigned to a double-blind, neuroleptic medication dose-reduction group. In trial 3, 57 chronically distressed patients who were maintained on a low dose of fluphenazine decanoate were randomly assigned to a supplemental desipramine hydrochloride, lithium carbonate, or placebo group under double-blind conditions for 12 weeks. RESULTS: For patients who were already maintained on antiparkinsonian medication, impaired affect was not resolved by additional benztropine. Only distressed patients with a family history of severe mental disorder (often affective) showed improvement with neuroleptic medication dose reduction. Patients in the defect-state group reported less dysphoria on a reduced neuroleptic medication dose, but negative symptoms persisted. Desipramine improved diverse aspects of mood and residual psychoticism, possibly as a prophylaxis against minor affective exacerbations. Depression improved in women only. Lithium positively affected multiple indexes of anxiety and anxious depression. CONCLUSION: Most often, persistent affective impairments are neither resistant extrapyramidal side effects nor characterological traits. Thymoleptics improve the nonphasic, chronic types of anxiety and depression in contrast to the acute, episodic forms, for which little support can be found in the literature.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Insight in schizophrenia. Its relationship to acute psychopathology.

The relationship between insight and acute psychopathology was explored in a group of 52 acutely psychotic, schizophrenic patients. A measure of insight, reflecting patients' recognition of their illness and need for care, was validated against ratings from a semi-structured interview and against assessments of patients' compliance with medication. Contrary to expectations, degree of insight was not consistently related to the severity of acute psychopathology, as measured on two structured scales. Nor did changes in insight during hospitalization vary consistently with changes in acute psychopathology. These data suggest that very little of the deficiency in insight seen in schizophrenic patients is explainable on the basis of acute psychopathological features. The mechanism that accounts for impairment in insight in schizophrenia may be relatively resistant to treatment with neuroleptic medication.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1989

Hospitalized schizophrenic patient views about seclusion.

Twenty-six of 100 consecutively admitted schizophrenic or schizoaffective patients required seclusion during their hospital stays. Seclusion episodes usually involved involuntarily committed, severely ill patients and occurred early in their hospitalizations. The recollections of the personal seclusion experiences of 17 patients were generally factually accurate, except for a tendency to play down disruptive aggressive behavior on their part. Patients described seclusion as a painful experience associated with feelings of helplessness, fear, sadness, and anger. However, patients also stated that seclusion rooms were necessary on inpatient psychiatric units and that the rooms were used for the control of disruptive aggressive patient behaviors. This study highlights not only the need for staff to clarify for patients what behavior has led to seclusion and what behavior will lead to release, but also the need for staff to acknowledge patients' distress at the experience.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

1,25 dihydroxycholecalciferol effects in chronic dialysis. A double-blind controlled study.

1,25 dihydroxycholecalciferol [1,25(OH)2D3] was studied in a double-blind controlled fashion in patients on chronic dialysis. Serum calcium was unchanged in 16 patients on vitamin D3 (D3) (400 to 1200 IU/day). In 15 patients on 1,25(OH)2D3 (0.5 to 1.5 microgram/day), serum calcium increased from 9.05 +/- .15 to 10.25 +/- .20 mg/dl (p less than 0.001), returning to 9.37 +/- .16 mg/dl (p less than 0.001) in the post control period. Patients on D3 showed no reversible decrease in immunoreactive parathyroid hormone levels, but patients on 1,25(OH)2D3 did, from a control of 1077 +/- 258 to 595 +/- 213 microliter equivalents/ml (p less than 0.01), and returned to 1165 +/- 271 microliter equivalents/ml (p less than 0.005). Nine of 12 patients on D3 who underwent serial iliac-crest biopsies showed histologic deterioration, and six of seven who received 1,25(OH)2D3 were improved or unchanged (p less than 0.025). Bone mineral and calcium decreased in patients on D3 (p less than 0.05) but not in those on 1,25(OH)2D3. Hypercalcemia occurred in five of 15 patients. We conclude that 1,25(OH)2D3 has a calcemic effect in chronic dialysis patients, decreases levels of immunoreactive parathyroid hormone, and is associated with histologic improvement in bone disease. Thus, 1,25(OH)2D3 is a valuable adjunct to the management of renal osteodystrophy but requires monitoring of serum calcium to avoid hypercalcemia.

Adult↗