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Biomedical subjects

M Leibman

Publications and source records attributed to M Leibman.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1998

A theory-based treatment of psychotic symptoms in schizophrenia: treatment successes and obstacles to implementation.

This study investigated the use of the immediacy theory to explain the existence of auditory hallucinations and delusions in individuals with schizophrenia and to develop treatment strategies. In a 2-phase approach, a therapist trained 6 individuals with schizophrenia to stop responding to the immediate stimuli ostensibly evoking their symptoms and instead to respond to more remote stimuli unrelated to the problem behavior. Two other participants received nonspecific supportive psychotherapy to control for rater bias and to provide some comparison to the experimental treatment. Following 6 weeks of therapy, participants in the experimental group improved on 66% of the symptom measures. By contrast, participants in the control group improved on only 11% of the measures. The individuals in the experimental group retained some of these benefits during the follow-up period. The findings are discussed in light of several contributory factors.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Age-related differences in formal thought disorder in chronically hospitalized schizophrenic patients: a cross-sectional study across nine decades.

OBJECTIVE: This study used a cross-sectional design to examine the frequency of occurrence and severity of 10 different signs of thought disorder in schizophrenic patients across the lifespan. METHOD: Schizophrenic patients, who ranged in age from 19 to 96 years (N = 392), were examined with the Scale for Assessment of Thought, Language, and Communication. The cognitive functioning of the geriatric patients (patients over the age of 64, N = 120) was also assessed. RESULTS: Poverty of speech was more common and more severe in geriatric patients, while four different signs of thought disorder that reflect disconnected speech were less common and less severe in geriatric patients. Analysis of covariance found that the lower severity of disconnection thought disorders in the older patients was not attributable to differences in the amount of speech produced. CONCLUSIONS: Aspects of disconnected speech were less severe in older patients, while the severity and frequency of poverty of speech were greater. These findings suggest that the two previously identified separate dimensions of communication disorder in schizophrenia vary differently with age and possibly in their cognitive and biological underpinnings.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Verbal fluency deficits in geriatric and nongeriatric chronic schizophrenic patients.

This study examined age-related differences and correlates of deficits on phonological and category fluency tasks performed by schizophrenic patients. Equal numbers (n = 41) of geriatric (age > 64) and nongeriatric chronically hospitalized schizophrenic patients were examined with tests of phonological and category fluency, verbal learning and delayed recall, confrontation naming, and reading, as well as overall estimates of cognitive impairment. Both types of fluency tests were performed very poorly by both groups. Age-related differences were found to be statistically significant. In both groups, category fluency impairments were correlated with deficits in naming, while phonological fluency deficits were best predicted by memory impairments. These data suggest that category fluency impairments are part of a general profile of impaired semantic functioning, whereas phonological fluency deficits may be induced by alterations in information processing capacity.

Aged↗
PubMed1996

Cognitive impairment and negative symptoms in geriatric chronic schizophrenic patients: a follow-up study.

Cognitive impairment is increasingly recognized as an important aspect of schizophrenia. Since cognitive impairment has many features in common with the negative symptoms of the illness, it is possible that some of the characteristics attributed to negative symptoms are due to an association with cognitive impairments. In order to test this hypothesis, 174 chronically hospitalized geriatric schizophrenic patients were examined twice at a 1-year follow-up with ratings of the severity of their symptoms (using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale: PANSS) and assessments of cognitive functions with the Mini-Mental State Examination and a brief neuropsychological battery aimed at the typical impairments seen in dementia. Positive symptoms were unassociated with any of the cognitive variables, while negative symptom severity was correlated with each of the cognitive measures. In the cross-temporal analyses, cognitive impairments were more stable over time than negative symptom scores, but cognitive impairment did not predict the severity of any negative symptom over time. At each assessment, however, cognitive impairment was strongly correlated with each of the seven negative symptoms studied. These data indicate that cognitive impairments and negative symptoms are related, but discriminable, features in schizophrenia and that the considerable overlap between some negative symptoms and estimates of cognitive function may suggest a rethinking of the definition of some of these symptoms.

Aged↗
PubMed1990

Money isn't everything.

Three elements are essential to an effective incentive strategy: various reinforcers, the employee's motivational needs and the organization's business goals. When these factors are integrated into a coherent incentive policy, employees can focus their attention on the company's business goals.

Employee Incentive Plans↗