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Biomedical subjects

N C Beck

Publications and source records attributed to N C Beck.

45 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1982

Therapist ratings as predictors of therapy attendance.

Rated 200 clients who were attending a community mental health center outpatient clinic immediately after the initial therapy session. Therapist ratings consisted of a 21-item scale that included descriptions of client behavior during the session and estimates of client duration of stay. In a sample comprised of the first 100 clients, a variety of items from the scale and client demographic variables were related significantly to subsequent attendance. A multiple regression equation derived from these data generated statistically significant predictions with regard to stay in the second sample of 100 clients.

Ambulatory Care↗
PubMed1982

Predicting client attrition from psychotherapy through behavioral assessment procedures and a critical response approach.

Adults who requested outpatient psychotherapy completed a pretreatment questionnaire after admission and a posttreatment questionnaire immediately after the first therapy session. Questionnaire items concerned the client's situation at the time of the request for treatment (e.g., distance travelled to the clinic), past behavior in fulfilling commitments, self-prediction of session attendance, and reaction to the initial interview. Five items were related significantly to continuation in two separate S samples. A critical response scale comprised of 14 items and responses proved highly predictive of the number of treatment sessions attended in both initial (N = 78) and cross-validational groups (N = 91).

Adult↗
PubMed1980

Preparation for childbirth and contemporary research on pain, anxiety, and stress reduction: a review and critique.

The literature on psychoprophylaxis (prepared childbirth) manifests little interface with contemporary psychosomatic research, despite the fact that psychosomatic variables are intimately involved in the treatment process. Comments are made regarding the application of research on pain and anxiety reduction to labor preparation, and the employment of this knowledge in the development of more efficacious treatment methods. In addition, an examination of studies designed to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of psychoprophylaxis reveals that a variety of methodological errors have confounded the measurement of treatment effects. It is concluded that preparation for labor is a valid and desirable subject of inquiry for psychosomatic medicine, with particular relevance for researchers engaged in a study of the cognitive, behavioral, or psychophysiological manifestations of pain, anxiety, or stress.

Anxiety↗
PubMed1979

Preparation for labor: a historical perspective.

A historical analysis of the literature pertaining to psychoprophylaxis demonstrates that contemporary treatment methods have diverse and complex origins. Although many training manuals are presented as outlines of the "Lamaze" method, historical evidence indicates that Grantly Dick-Read (Natural Childbirth. London, Heinemann, 1933; Childbirth Without Fear. New York, Harper and Brothers, 1944), an English obstetrician, made the most substantive contributions to this area. Although Fernand Lamaze is generally regarded as the pre-eminent authority on psychoprophylaxis, a comparison of his 1958 text with the original Soviet source (I. Velvovsky et al., (Eds.), Painless Childbirth Through Psychoprophylaxis, Moscow, Foreign Languages Publ. House, 1960) demonstrates that he deleted and modified substantial portions of the treatment regimen and failed to keep abreast of developments in Soviet theory. Neither Dick-Read, Velvovsky et al. or Lamaze (Painless Childbirth. London, Burke, 1958) present data which permit cause and effect conclusions regarding treatment and outcome. By the same token, none of these authors demonstrated interest in the empirical validation of their theories regarding pain, anxiety, or fear reduction.

Female↗
PubMed1978

Natural childbirth. A review and analysis.

A review and critique of the literature relating to the effectiveness of psychoprophylaxis (natural childbirth) is made. Based on this review, it is concluded that a variety of methodologic errors have confounded the measurement of treatment effects. An outline of these issues is presented, and it is pointed out that an elucidation of the relationship between treatment and outcome cannot occur until researchers become aware of certain factors that are essential to the validity of their experiments. These factors include the following: 1) the use of a random assignment of subjects to treatment and control groups; 2) the inclusion of a group of controls that receive an attention-placebo treatment; 3) the utilization of obstetricians who are unaware of the type of preparation their patients have received; 4) a careful specification of the details of each treatment procedure; and 5) the utilization of psychologic tests that are appropriate for the purpose of measuring pain and anxiety reduction.

Anesthesia, Obstetrical↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Effects of cognitive and pharmacologic strategies on analogued labor pain.

Using an analogued labor pain procedure, the efficacy of combinations of five cognitive and one pharmacologic approach to pain management was examined. Nulliparous undergraduates (N = 120) were randomly assigned to 1 of 12 groups. Cognitive groups included: systematic desensitization (SYS DENS); sensory description (SEN DESC); sensory transformation (ST); modeling (M); and relaxation (R); combined groups: SYS DENS, SEN DESC, and ST; SEN DESC, ST, and R; SEN DESC, R, ST, and Demerol. Pharmacologic groups included expected Demerol, did not expect Demerol, placebo, and no treatment control. Subjects assigned to a cognitive group received two 1-hour training sessions 1 week apart. Remaining subjects were given the assigned pharmacologic treatment one-half hour prior to the exposure to the painful stimulus. Assessment of the cognitive and pharmacologic approaches were made in a 1-hour session involving twenty 80-second exposures to a laboratory pain stimulus patterned to resemble labor contractions. Dependent variables included self-reported pain, blood pressure, frontalis electromyograph, heart rate, and respiratory rate. Significant treatment by trials and treatment effects were found for self-reported pain. No other effects achieved statistical significance.

Adult↗