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Biomedical subjects

L A Gottschalk

Publications and source records attributed to L A Gottschalk.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2003

The effects of anticancer chemotherapeutic drugs on cognitive function and other neuropsychiatric dimensions in breast cancer patients.

This preliminary study aimed to apply a novel computerized measure derived from the content analysis of 5-min speech samples from patients with breast cancer to measure cognitive impairment and other neuropsychiatric dimensions during the course of anticancer chemotherapeutic treatment. Since such patients are often administered other pharmacological agents to alleviate their symptoms in addition to anticancer chemotherapeutic agents, another aim was to try to distinguish the mental effects of the anticancer drugs from the effects of any other drugs administered. Before and during the course of their anticancer chemotherapy, 12 breast cancer patients gave 5-min verbal samples, elicited by purposely ambiguous instructions, to talk about any personal life experiences. The recorded verbal samples were scored by a computer program (PCAD 2000) to measure the magnitude of cognitive impairment and other relevant neuropsychiatric dimensions. All of the pharmacological agents administered to the patients were recorded. The computer program automatically compared the scores derived from each verbal sample to already established norms to determine whether each score was within normal limits or one to three standard deviations from the norms. Significantly elevated Cognitive Impairment Scale scores were found in the verbal samples of 9 of the 12 patients. All patients had instances of elevated Health/Sickness Content Analysis Scale scores as well as frequent significantly elevated scores in shame anxiety and in death anxiety. In the Quality of Life Content Scale, the scores were uniformly low, ranging from +1.64 to -9.11. Further studies are being carried out to determine which patients are especially susceptible to cognitive impairment under these treatment conditions.

Antineoplastic Agents↗
PubMed2000

Risperidone for the treatment of stuttering.

A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was conducted to assess the efficacy of risperidone in the treatment of developmental stuttering in 16 adults. Eight subjects received placebo and eight received risperidone at 0.5 mg once daily at night, increased to a maximum of 2 mg/day. After 6 weeks of treatment, decreases in all measures of stuttering severity were greater in the risperidone group than in the placebo group; the between-treatment difference was significant (p < 0.05) on the most important measure, the percentage of syllables stuttered. In the risperidone group, reductions from baseline in scores for the percentage of syllables stuttered, time stuttering as a percentage of total time speaking, and overall stuttering severity were significant (p < 0.01); changes in scores on the fourth measure of stuttering, duration, were not significant. No significant decreases occurred in the placebo group. Among the eight patients in the risperidone group, five responded best to 0.5 mg/day, with stuttering recurring at higher doses. The remaining three patients responded better with increasing doses of risperidone. Risperidone was generally well tolerated. The results of this small study indicate that risperidone may be effective in the treatment of developmental stuttering. This finding needs to be confirmed in a larger trial.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

The application of computerized content analysis of natural language in psychotherapy research now and in the future.

For many years the author and his colleagues have been involved in studying the roots and processes of the conveyance of semantic messages via spoken language and verbal texts. After establishing that reliable and valid measurements of highly relevant neuropsychiatric categories, such as anxiety, depression, and cognitive impairment, can be made by identifying and counting the occurrence per grammatical clause of language content and form categories typifying specific content-analysis scales, the research focus has turned towards computerizing this process of content analysis. This report summarizes the achievements and applications of the current empirical status of this method of computerized content analysis of natural language to psychotherapy research, and it speculates on possible future applications in the millennium.

Computing Methodologies↗
PubMed1999

Anxiety and hope during the course of three different medical illnesses: a longitudinal study.

BACKGROUND: Somatic illness and its consequences evoke strong emotions of various kinds. They may affect the course of illness and the treatment results through their physiological components. The purpose of the study was to explore emotional reactions to different kinds of illnesses and changes of these emotions over time. METHODS: Subjects were 259 medical patients suffering from: primary hypertension, myocardial infarction and cancer of the lungs or pharynx. The study was longitudinal and consisted of three phases. The first was performed immediately after the patient was diagnosed, the second was done 5 weeks later and the third about half a year after the onset of illness. The patients' emotional state was evaluated with the Gottschalk-Gleser Content Analysis Scales: the Anxiety and the Hope Scales. RESULTS: Significant effects of the kind of illness and of its interaction with the phase of the study were found. In the hypertension group, both anxiety and hope were slightly elevated immediately after diagnosis, then slightly lowered. The myocardial infarction group exhibited a low level of these emotions in the first phase, an increase in the second and then a little decrease. Cancer patients manifested high anxiety and relatively low hope in the initial phase, then a decrease in anxiety and an increase in hope. CONCLUSIONS: Both anxiety and hope accompany the illness in its consecutive phases, reflecting properties of illness as a source of psychological stress and the coping process.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1999

The application of a computerized measurement of the content analysis of natural language to the assessment of the effects of psychoactive drugs.

This article aims to answer the question whether developing technology is now capable of measuring objectively and accurately the effects of psychoactive pharmacological agents by means of computerized assessments of psychological states and traits through the analysis of content and form of people's speech. At the present time, psychopharmacological researchers involved in clinical trials rely on DSM-IV criteria and standardized self-report measures and observer rating scales to assess psychoactive drug effects. Attention is drawn to the potentially unrecognized measurement errors and relatively low interrater reliability by these methods--for example, all raters are not free of observer bias and every subject administered a drug is not equally and accurately well-informed about the self. The computerized content analysis methods tend to avoid these biases and measurement errors. A review is provided describing the Gottschalk-Gleser method of measuring psychobiological dimensions from the form and content of short (usually five-minute) speech samples of verbal behavior, generally elicited by standardized and purposely ambiguous instructions to talk about any interesting or dramatic personal life experiences. Norms have been obtained by this method of speech elicitation, adjusted for age, sex and educational level. Sections are provided covering cross-cultural and language validation research on the Gottschalk-Gleser content analysis method, the influence of medical or psychiatric illness as well as psychoactive drugs on verbal content analysis-derived scores, and the research carried out for more than 20 years computerizing this content analysis procedure through the development of artificial intelligence software enabling these measurements to be done from typescripts of speech samples on computer diskettes. A brief review deals with the general applications of this method of measurement to basic and clinical psychiatry, psychosomatic medicine, neuropsychology, the diagnostic process in a psychiatry outpatient clinic, children's mental health problems, dream research, and assessment of mental processes during PET scanning of the brain. This is followed by a review of the applications of this method of content analysis of speech to neuropsychopharmacological testing of antianxiety, antidepressive, antipsychotic, and other psychoactive drugs, as well as to pharmacokinetic variables and clinical response. This method is now in the process of being used in clinical trials in psychopharmacology and is recommended for more extensive use in this research area.

Artificial Intelligence↗
PubMed1997

D2 dopamine receptor polymorphism and brain regional glucose metabolism.

Positron emission tomography (PET) studies have shown decreased glucose metabolism in brain regions of detoxified alcoholics and cocaine abusers. However, it is not clear whether this decrease is due to chronic drug abuse or a pre-existing condition. Molecular genetic studies have found an association of the D2 dopamine receptor (DRD2) A1 allele with alcoholism and drug abuse. Moreover, reduced central dopaminergic function has been suggested in subjects who carry the A1 allele (A1+) compared with those who do not (A1-). In the present study, using 18F-deoxyglucose, regional glucose metabolism was determined in healthy nonalcohol/nondrug-abusing subjects with the A1+ or A1- allele. The mean relative glucose metabolic rate (GMR) was significantly lower in the A1+ than the A1- group in many brain regions, including the putamen, nucleus accumbens, frontal and temporal gyri and medial prefrontal, occipito-temporal and orbital cortices. Decreased relative GMR in the A1+ group was also found in Broca's area, anterior insula, hippocampus, and substantia nigra. A few brain areas, however, showed increased relative GMR in the A1+ group. Since polymorphism of the DRD2 gene is commonly observed in humans, the importance of differentiating A1+ and A1- alleles subjects in PET studies is suggested.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

The application of computerized content analysis of speech to the diagnostic process in a psychiatric outpatient clinic.

Twenty-five new psychiatric outpatient were clinically evaluated and were routinely administered a brief psychological screening battery which included measures of symptoms, personality, and cognitive function. Included in this assessment procedure were the Gottschalk-Gleser Content Analysis Scales on which scores were derived from five-minute speech samples by means of an artificial intelligence-based computer program. Intercorrelations of these content analysis measures with scores obtained from the MMPI-2, SCL90, and other measures confirmed previously published construct validation findings. The use of this computerized content analysis procedure for initial, rapid diagnostic neuropsychiatric appraisal is supported by this research.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Computerized measurement of the content analysis of natural language for use in biomedical and neuropsychiatric research.

Over several decades, the senior author, with various colleagues, has developed an objective method of measuring the magnitude of commonly useful and pertinent neuropsychiatric and neuropsychological dimensions from the content and form analysis of verbal behavior and natural language. Extensive reliability and validation studies using this method have been published involving English, German, Spanish and many other languages, and which confirm that these Content Analysis Scales can be reliably scored cross-culturally and have construct validity. The validated measures include the Anxiety Scale (and six subscales), the Hostility Outward Scale (and two subscales), the Hostility In Scale, the Ambivalent Hostility Scale, the Social Alienation-Personal Disorganization Scale, the Cognitive Impairment Scale, the Depression Scale (and seven subscales), and the Hope Scale. Here, the authors report the development of artificial intelligence (LISP based) software that can reliably score these Content Analysis Scales, whose achievement facilitates the application of these measures to biomedical and neuropsychiatric research.

Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted↗
PubMed1995

Uses of dreams.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Diagnosis, Differential↗
PubMed1994

The development, validation, and applications of a computerized measurement of cognitive impairment from the content analysis of verbal behavior.

This is a report of the development, validation, and computerized applications of a method of measuring cognitive and intellectual impairment through the content analysis of verbal behavior. The content analysis procedure utilized is based on the method developed by Gottschalk and Gleser for the measurement of the magnitude of many other psychological states and traits, in addition to cognitive dysfunction. Verbal behavior studies are reviewed that examine the cognitive effects of age, certain psychoactive drugs, alcohol, total body irradiation, sensory overload, and dementia. Finally, the availability of a recently developed artificial intelligence software program is reported that will reliably, rapidly, and objectively score speech samples (on Gottschalk-Gleser Scales) transcribed according to specific directions from IBM-compatible computer diskettes.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

Influence of patient caregivers on course of patient illness: "expressed emotion" and alternative measures.

The influence of the quality of care that patients receive during the course of their illness has been the subject of special scrutiny in the area of mental health. The concept of "expressed emotion" (EE) evolved in an effort to understand the impact of family and social environment on the vulnerability to relapse of schizophrenic patients. A semistructured interview, the Camberwell Family Interview, was developed to assess expressed emotion. This article examines the historical context, generalizability, methodological strengths and limitations of the construct of EE and the Camberwell Family Interview, as well as the nature and effects of treatment intervention programs designed to neutralize adverse effects of patient caretaker attitudes.

Caregivers↗
PubMed1993

The cerebral neurobiology of hope and hopelessness.

Hope and hopelessness are useful constructs that have been employed by clinicians in theory making regarding the pathogenesis and course of disease and in the application of various psychological and medical treatments to illness. French (1952) and Frank (1968) viewed hope as a necessary motivating force in influencing an individual to try to overcome inner psychological conflicts and seek to resolve a psychoneurosis. Melges and Bowlby (1969) classified the types of hopelessness in psychopathological processes. Perley et al. (1971), using an objective method for content analysis of small samples of speech (Gottschalk 1974), found that elevated hope scores predicted continuation of psychiatric treatment rather than dropping out. Gottschalk et al. (1967, 1969) found that hope scores derived from verbal samples predicted the duration of survival of patients with terminal cancer receiving irradiation treatment (1969) and predicted relatively favorable outcome in psychotherapy (1967).

Attitude↗
PubMed1993

Cortical-striatal-thalamic circuits and brain glucose metabolic activity in 70 unmedicated male schizophrenic patients.

OBJECTIVE: The cortical-striatal-thalamic circuit modulates cognitive processing and thus may be involved in the cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia. The imaging of metabolic rate in the structures making up this circuit could reveal the correlates of schizophrenia and its main symptoms. METHOD: Seventy male schizophrenic patients underwent [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography after a period of at least 4 weeks during which they had not received neuroleptic medication and were compared to 30 age-matched male normal comparison subjects. RESULTS: Analyses revealed decreased metabolism in medial frontal cortex, cingulate gyrus, medial temporal lobe, corpus callosum, and ventral caudate and increased metabolism in the left lateral temporal and occipital cortices in the schizophrenic cohort. Consistent with previous studies, the schizophrenic group had lower hypofrontality scores (ratios of lateral frontal to occipital metabolism) than did comparison subjects. The lateral frontal cortical metabolism of schizophrenic patients did not differ from that of comparison subjects, while occipital cortical metabolism was high, suggesting that lateral hypofrontality is due to abnormalities in occipital rather than lateral frontal activity. Hypofrontality was more prominent in medial than lateral frontal cortex. Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) scores, obtained for each schizophrenic patient on the scan day, were correlated with regional brain glucose metabolic rate. Medial frontal cortical and thalamic activity correlated negatively with total BPRS score and with positive and negative symptom scores. Lateral frontal cortical metabolism and hypofrontality scores did not significantly correlate with negative symptoms. Analyses of variance demonstrated a reduced right greater than left asymmetry in the schizophrenic patients for the lateral cortex as a whole, with simple interactions showing this effect specifically in temporal and frontal cortical regions. CONCLUSIONS: Low metabolic rates were confirmed in medial frontal cortical regions as well as in the basal ganglia, consistent with the importance of the cortical-striatal-thalamic pathways in schizophrenia. Loss of normal lateralization patterns was also observed on an exploratory basis. Correlations with negative symptoms and group differences were more prominent in medial than lateral frontal cortex, suggesting that medial regions may be more important in schizophrenic pathology.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

Striatal metabolic rate and clinical response to neuroleptics in schizophrenia.

A low metabolic rate in the caudate nucleus and putamen in schizophrenic patients while they were not receiving medication was found to predict a favorable clinical response to haloperidol. Twenty-five patients (21 men and four women) entered a double-blind crossover trial of haloperidol and placebo; to our knowledge, this is the first such trial with positron emission tomography to be reported. Patients received either placebo or medication for the first 5 weeks, and they received the other treatment for the second 5 weeks. Positron emission tomographic scans were obtained at weeks 5 and 10. Patients with low relative metabolic rates in the caudate nucleus and putamen while they were receiving placebo were more likely to show decreases in their Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale scores with haloperidol treatment than individuals with normal or high metabolic rates. Among responders, haloperidol treatment had a "normalizing" effect on metabolic activity in the striatum, with the metabolic rate while they were receiving haloperidol being higher than that while they were receiving placebo. Nonresponders were more likely to show a worsening of hypofrontality while they were receiving medication and an absence of change in the striatum.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

The measurement of quality of life through the content analysis of verbal behavior.

The 'quality of life' is a construct which many researchers are attempting to measure by means of self-rating procedures and by ratings from external observers. Another method of measuring this construct includes features of both the self-report method and the external observer rating method, and by doing so it minimizes some of the measurement errors inherent in the separate methods; this third method involves the content analysis of verbal behavior. This latter method preserves the reliability and validity of the scales that have been developed and tested for content analysis, while preserving the meanings intended by the subjects who are being assessed on this dimension, which meanings are often obscured or lost through self-report and ratings scales. A group of Content Scales especially applicable to assess the quality of life are reviewed and examples of their applicability are given. A discussion is provided dealing with special problems involving the assessment of this dimension, including cross-cultural issues and other factors that need consideration with respect to generalizability of the findings.

Communication↗
PubMed1992

Effects of lorazepam on the properties of brain polysomes.

This study determined the effects of acute administration of lorazepam (LRZ) on brain protein synthesis by examining the translational abilities of polysomal RNA under in vitro conditions compared to those produced by the CNS depressants, ethanol and pentobarbital. Lorazepam (2 mg/kg body weight), ethanol (4 g/kg body weight) or pentobarbital (40 mg/kg body weight) were given orally to 6-week old male Sprague-Dawley rats. Control groups were either untreated or received the vehicle sesame seed oil orally. The measurement of rectal temperature in each group before (baseline) and 60 min after drug administration showed no change in body temperature in the control or LRZ treated groups but there was a significant temperature drop in the ethanol and pentobarbital group. After 60 min of drug administration, experimental groups when compared to the controls showed significant inhibitions in the translational activities of the cerebral polysomes. The inhibition was most pronounced with polysomes from the LRZ treated group and was consistently observed over a 60 min time period. The findings suggest polysomal translation as one of the major sites of action of LRZ which is independent of changes in body temperature as compared to ethanol and pentobarbital. Since protein synthesis is known to play a key role in learning and memory, the observed inhibitory effects of LRZ may explain its interference with memory consolidation observed under experimental and clinical conditions.

Animals↗