Biomedical subjects

L Fogg

Publications and source records attributed to L Fogg.

31 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

PubMed1990

Challenging the amphetamine challenge test: report of an antidepressant treatment study.

The primary goal of this study was to determine whether the amphetamine challenge test (ACT) response, as measured by a subjective rating scale, the How I Feel Scale (HIF), could predict antidepressant treatment outcome. Following a 1-day non-blind ACT with dextroamphetamine (d-AMPH), patients were treated double-blind for 6 weeks with either desipramine, alprazolam, or a desipramine-alprazolam combination. Regression (true score) analyses were carried out on pre- and post-ACT HIF scores and on baseline and end of study Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) scores to determine the magnitudes of improvement measured in response to the ACT and antidepressant treatment, respectively. Regression analyses were performed on the residuals (true scores of improvement) to determine the best fitting (linear) prediction equation. Improvement in the HIF total score predicted HDRS improvement for the whole sample. Possible sources of error contributing to the outcome are identified and the results are discussed in relation to previous clinical investigations of the potential usefulness of the ACT as a predictor of antidepressant response.

Adult↗

PubMed1990

Antidepressant or antianxiety? A study of the efficacy of antidepressant medication.

The authors analyzed the relative contributions of improvement in depressive and anxiety symptoms, as measured by the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD) and the Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety (HRSA), respectively, after 1 week of treatment to the prediction of improvement in HRSD score after 6 weeks of antidepressant pharmacotherapy. Fifty-six subjects completed 6 weeks of treatment with either desipramine (n = 20), alprazolam (n = 18), or a desipramine-alprazolam combination (n = 18). The results showed that early improvement in the HRSD was a moderately strong predictor of the total 6-week improvement in HRSD score, and a better predictor than early improvement in the HRSA. Partial correlations showed that early HRSD improvement was significantly related to total HRSD improvement within the alprazolam group. This pattern of response differed from those observed for the other treatment groups. Desipramine-treated subjects showed gradual improvement over the course of the study, and the improvement in week 1 was not so strongly predictive of overall improvement. The relationship between early and total HRSD improvement for the combination treatment group was intermediate to the other two groups. These findings are discussed in the context of the relationship between depression and anxiety, and potential implications for the treatment of these overlapping and often mixed syndromes.

Adult↗

PubMed1990

Time-related predictors of suicide in major affective disorder.

The authors studied 954 psychiatric patients with major affective disorders and found that nine clinical features were associated with suicide. Six of these--panic attacks, severe psychic anxiety, diminished concentration, global insomnia, moderate alcohol abuse, and severe loss of interest or pleasure (anhedonia)--were associated with suicide within 1 year, and three others--severe hopelessness, suicidal ideation, and history of previous suicide attempts--were associated with suicide occurring after 1 year. These findings draw attention to the importance of 1) standardized prospective data for studies of suicide, 2) assessment of short-term suicide risk factors, and 3) anxiety symptoms as modifiable suicide risk factors within a clinically relevant period.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1990

Intelligence and neuropsychological functioning in psychiatric disorders.

The present report examines consistency across four psychiatric conditions (schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, manic disorder, and depression) on neuropsychological dysfunction assessed by two different instruments, the Halstead-Reitan and Luri-Nebraska batteries, in relation to WAIS-IQ. Results indicated that the impairment scale from the Luria-Nebraska has a stable relationship to IQ across diagnostic groups. In contrast, the impairment index from the Halstead-Reitan battery shows a diagnosis-dependent relationship. Schizophrenics, schizoaffective and manic disorder subjects show a more uniform linear relationship. This is contrary to expectation given Halstead's (1947) distinction between "biological" and psychometric intelligence. The findings are discussed from the standpoint of clinical severity and outcome associated with contemporary diagnostic formulations of nonschizophrenic affective disorders.

Journal Article↗

PubMed1989

Lateralized cerebral dysfunction in schizophrenia and depression: gender and medication effects.

The neuropsychological functioning of 52 schizophrenic and 39 major depressive patients was examined using the four Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery lateralization scales, with the effects of gender and medication status examined alone and in interaction with diagnosis and laterality variables. Comparisons between the diagnostic groups revealed that gender influences some aspects of neuropsychological performance, particularly those involving bilateral complex cognitive-perceptual rather than sensorimotor skills. This effect was more distinct for depressives than schizophrenics when cerebral lateralization differences were present. There was no significant left hemisphere disadvantage for schizophrenics which was gender-related. Medication status revealed no appreciable effects for depressives, although both male and female schizophrenics receiving neuroleptics showed a greater degree of complex perceptual-cognitive dysfunction compared to unmedicated schizophrenics. Level of cerebral impairment was equivalent for the right and left hemispheres for both groups. Consequently, these data are not consistent with other findings demonstrating differential hemispheric disadvantages between schizophrenia and depression.

Journal Article↗

PubMed1988

Family history and five-year suicide risk.

Family history was examined to determine whether suicide in index patients is associated with suicidal behaviour or mental disorder in their first-degree relatives. Twenty-seven suicides occurred within 5 1/2 years among 955 affectively disordered probands. Among 5042 proband relatives aged 18 years and older, 44 had committed suicide prior to proband entry to the study; however, only one was the relative of a proband suicide. Only two of the relatives who committed suicide were themselves related. As to attempted suicide of relatives, neither the number of attempts nor the severity of attempt was predictive of suicide in probands. Comparison of diagnosis between groups of relatives showed more drug abuse among relatives of proband suicides; this appears to be related to drug abuse among the proband suicides themselves. In contrast to the clustering of suicides within biological families found in other research, these data do not support the use of family history as a clinically useful indicator of suicidal potential in affectively disordered probands.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1987

A field test of Motto's risk estimator for suicide.

The authors undertook a field test of Motto and colleagues' Risk Estimator for Suicide by selecting a subset (N = 593) of psychiatric patients with major or chronic affective disorder that corresponded to Motto's sample. They rated each subject on Motto's scale, using standardized data collected at hospital admission. Fourteen patients (2.4%) in their sample and 136 (4.9%) in Motto's sample died by suicide within 2 years. The authors tested the null hypothesis of a uniform suicide risk across all 10 deciles of risk scores by comparing observed and expected frequencies of suicide using the variance test for homogeneity of the binomial distribution. Their findings raise questions about Motto's risk scale but do not definitively invalidate it.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1984

Growth hormone and prolactin response to apomorphine in schizophrenia and the major affective disorders. Relation to duration of illness and depressive symptoms.

The responses of serum prolactin (PRL) and growth hormone (GH) to the dopamine agonist apomorphine hydrochloride (0.75 mg subcutaneously) were studied in a large group of unmedicated hospitalized patients with functional psychoses. There were no differences in the GH response in various diagnostic groups. The PRL response was greater in patients with affective disorders. The GH response was inversely related to total duration of illness in the entire sample of patients, but this correlation was independent of age effect only in the group of patients with major depression. In schizophrenics, the effect of the two factors, age and duration of the illness, could not be separated. The apomorphine-induced GH response was significantly correlated with psychosis ratings and negative symptom scale scores. The apomorphine-induced PRL suppression correlated significantly with various measures of depression across diagnostic groups.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1983

Assessment of negative and positive symptoms in schizophrenia.

Reliable, convenient rating scales to assess negative and positive symptoms in schizophrenia are necessary to evaluate further the theoretical and clinical importance of this division of symptoms and signs. The authors describe the application of the Rasch model, a probabilistic, item-independent, and sample-independent test construction procedure to the development of scales for both types of symptoms. The scales for negative and positive symptoms, which are based separately on the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia-Current (SADS-C) and the Nurses' Observation Scale for Inpatient Evaluation (NOSIE), demonstrated excellent reliability and temporal stability (i.e., yielded a rank order of patients that remained stable over time). The pattern of interscale correlations supports the view that positive symptoms, cognitive-affective negative symptoms, and social withdrawal are independent of one another.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Blood pressure and mood responses in hypertensive patients on antihypertensive medications.

Nurse practitioners who are responsible for the clinical management of patients with hypertension must choose antihypertensive medications that minimize side effects. Nurse practitioners must be aware of the drugs' potential influences on physiologic and psychological variables and include adequate assessment of these responses in patients during treatment. Pindolol, propranolol, and hydrochlorothiazide were equally effective in reducing systolic and diastolic blood pressure in essential hypertensives, although pindolol and hydrochlorothiazide did not affect resting heart rate (an advantage in some patients). Hydrochlorothiazide was associated with a trend for several negative mood changes in black subjects; depression scores of black subjects were significantly increased with hydrochlorothiazide. The results of this study indicate the need to consider race and other factors in research about antihypertensive mood responses.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

A longitudinal study of maternal depression and preschool children's mental health.

The purpose of this longitudinal study was to examine the relationship between maternal depression and preschool children's mental health in a community sample. Cohort 1 (n = 97) consisted of mothers and children followed from 2 to 3 years of age. Cohort 2 (n = 97) consisted of mothers and children followed from 3 to 4 years of age. Mothers completed a self-report measure of depression twice during 1 year. The children's day care providers/nursery school teachers completed two instruments measuring the children's social competence and behavior problems at the end of the year. Maternal depression was significantly related to lower social competence and more behavior problems in the children. Although there were no significant mean differences in children's mental health scores by gender, boys of more depressed mothers were more likely to have poorer social competence and more behavior problems than girls. Item analyses suggest that the boys' behaviors may be particularly aversive for depressed mothers, increasing the likelihood that these mothers will respond to and reinforce their sons' difficult behaviors.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

The role of catecholamines, age, and fitness on blood pressure reactivity to dynamic exercise in patients with essential hypertension.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the relationship between exercise blood pressure (BP) and catecholamine levels in hypertensive subjects and, secondarily, to evaluate the influence of age and fitness level. DESIGN: Descriptive correlational. SETTING: Midwestern, university-affiliated medical center. SUBJECTS: 27 hypertensive subjects, mean age 45 years, who were free of antihypertensive medications. OUTCOME MEASURES: BP and plasma catecholamines (norepinephrine and epinephrine). INTERVENTION: Subjects were given an incremental maximal exercise test on a cycle ergometer beginning at 25 watts with workloads increasing by 25 watts every 2 minutes until exhaustion. Plasma catecholamines were measured at rest, at 100 watts, and at maximal exercise. BP, heart rate, and oxygen consumption (VO2) were measured at rest and at the end of each workload. RESULTS: Systolic and diastolic BP were unrelated to catecholamines at rest and during exercise. When subjects were evaluated according to fitness level (VO2max), resting BP was not significantly different among groups (low fitness = VO2max < or = 25 ml/kg/min; moderate fitness = VO2max 26 to 39 ml/kg/min; high fitness = VO2max > or = 40 ml/kg/min). However, an inverse relationship was observed between fitness level and rate of rise of systolic and diastolic BP during submaximal work. Multiple regression showed that fitness predicted diastolic BP response (p = 0.02) at 100 watts. Age, however, predicted systolic BP response (p = 0.015). CONCLUSIONS: Neither the level of resting nor the magnitude of BP response to exercise in hypertensive subjects was directly related to level of plasma catecholamines. The magnitude of change in BP during exercise was modulated by age and fitness level.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

What does the NCATS (Nursing Child Assessment Teaching Scale) measure?

The purpose of this study was to examine what aspects of the mother-child relationship are measured by the Nursing Child Assessment Teaching Scale (NCATS). A racially heterogeneous sample of 128 mothers completed questionnaires measuring maternal depression, parenting self-efficacy, knowledge of developmental and parenting principles, and perceived difficult toddler temperament. Mothers and children were also videotaped during home visits while completing two teaching tasks that were later scored using NCATS. NCATS Parent subscale scores were significantly related to maternal knowledge and education but unrelated to depression and self-efficacy. Child subscale scores were unrelated to all of the study variables, including perceived difficult temperament. Significant differences were noted among African-American, Hispanic, and white mothers. The findings suggest that the NCATS taps cognitive factors more reliably than affective factors underlying the mother-child relationship and the cognitive factors may be culturally biased.

Adult↗