PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

M J MacCulloch

Publications and source records attributed to M J MacCulloch.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1983

Sadistic fantasy, sadistic behaviour and offending.

This paper explores the genesis of sadistic behaviour in men and its relationship to crime. Sixteen male special hospital patients, each with a diagnosis of psychopathic disorder, formed the basis of this descriptive study. In only three cases were the crimes explicable in terms of external circumstances and personality traits. The offences of the remaining 13 cases became comprehensible only when the offender's internal circumstances were explored: investigation revealed repetitive sadistic masturbatory fantasies which had spilled over into overt behaviour because the patients had felt impelled to seek and create increasingly dangerous in vivo 'try-outs' of their fantasies. The paper discusses the crucial link between sadistic fantasy and behaviour.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Neuroendocrine mechanisms and the aetiology of male and female homosexuality.

Theories on the classification and aetiology of male homosexuality are reviewed, particularly recent hypotheses on the role of prenatal hormonal influences on brain sexual differentiation and subsequent sexual object choice in the male. Female as well as male brain sexual differentiation may be hormonally determined, and so primary homosexuality in both sexes may be due to abnormalities in foetal exposure to hormones, leading first to physical mis-differentiation and later to homosexual behaviour in genetically and phenotypically normal men and women.

Androgens↗
PubMed1979

Catastrophe theory: a model interaction between neurochemical and environmental influences in the control of schizophrenia.

Catastrophe theory is a new mathematical technique relating variables in a novel, discontinuous way. It suggests ways in which neurochemical and environmental influences could interact so that very small changes in either variable may produce rapid changes in intensity of psychosis that are characteristic of schizophrenia. Other behavioural and pharmacological characteristics of schizophrenia previously considered paradoxical may be similarly explicable, and the model predicts factors most likely to generate relapse.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1975

The automated assessment of the effect of flurazepam and nitrazepam on mood state.

Some further results on the effects of the two hypnotic drugs, nitrazepam and flurazepam monohydrochloride, on mood state are described. An automated assessment and scoring system, Computer Assisted Psychometric System (C.A.P.S.), was used to assess mood state and showed that both hypnotics had a mild euphoriant effect even when administered to healthy volunteers during the daytime. This was most marked in the case of nitrazepam. It is argued that such euphoriant side effects should be further investigated as they can occur when hypnotics are administered on a long-term nightly basis, and there may therefore be a dependency aspect for those patients who habitually take such hypnotic drugs. The broad scope of the C.A.P.S. system is also discussed.

Anti-Anxiety Agents↗
PubMed1975

Auditory thresholds and the effect of reduced auditory feedback of suttering.

The effects of reduced auditory feedback were investigated using an accurately calibrated binaudal pure tone producer on 27 stuttering children and 68 non-stuttering controls. A comparison was made of both auditory hearing and discomfort thresholds in the two groups; the hearing thresholds did not differ between the groups. The results did however replicate an earlier finding which suggested that stutters have a lower threshold for auditory discomfort than do normal speakers, and showed that fluency is inversely related to auditory feedback. The discussion suggests that a necessary cause of stuttering is a physiological abnormality in side-tone conduction and central processing.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1975

The thymoleptic action of two salts of flurazepam ('Dalmane').

A double-blind comparison was made of two dose levels (15 and 30 mg.) of the monohydrochloride and dihydrochloride salts of flurazepam ('Dalmane') in 40 hospitalised patients requiring a night-time hypnotic. Each patient in the four drug/dose groups was his own control and took a placebo for 3 nights followed by the active compound for a further 3 nights. On waking each morning a mood state questionnaire was completed. The results indicate that flurazepam is not only an effective hypnotic, but that it has an apparent anxiolytic effect the following morning. Patients report feeling less anxious and more cheerful following drug administration and this result was most noticeable with the 15 mg. monohydrochloride dose.

Adult↗