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Biomedical subjects

N McConaghy

Publications and source records attributed to N McConaghy.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

P300 and conceptual loosening in normals: an event-related potential correlate of "thought disorder?".

Reduced amplitude of the P300 component of the event-related potential (ERP) has frequently been reported in schizophrenic patients and their first-degree relatives. The present study examined the relationship between this ERP measure of attentional processing and loosening of associations in normal university students (termed "allusive thinking"). Among male subjects, scores reflecting increased conceptual loosening, measured using the Lovibond scoring method for the Goldstein-Scheerer Object Sorting Test (OST), were significantly correlated with smaller P300 amplitude recorded during an auditory target detection task. There was no association between OST score and either performance of the target detection task or self-reported psychopathology. It is suggested that reduced P300 amplitude could reflect altered attentional processing in individuals with a constitutional trait factor of thought disorder.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

The relationship between relative's Expressed Emotion and schizophrenic relapse: an Australian replication.

We report a predictive study, carried out in Sydney Australia, investigating the association between the Expressed Emotion (EE) status of the household to which the patient is discharged and schizophrenic relapse. Expressed Emotion was not related to illness severity either at admission or discharge, but was related to variables reflecting chronicity and employment history. There was a significant association between returning to a high EE household and both re-hospitalisation and relapse. The significant association between EE and relapse held only for: patients not on medication, males, and those patients in high contact with their relatives. A discriminant function analysis found that decline in occupational status and the number of critical comments expressed by the relative were the strongest predictors of relapse. The results presented here are consistent with the majority of published reports on EE and relapse and contradict the negative findings of a recently published but smaller study also carried out in Sydney.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

The Sydney intervention trial: a controlled trial of relatives' counselling to reduce schizophrenic relapse.

The result of a psychosocial intervention which aimed to reduce schizophrenic relapse through relatives' counselling is presented. Thirty-six schizophrenic patients living in high Expressed Emotion (EE) parental households were randomly allocated to an intervention or control group. The parents of patients allocated to the intervention were offered ten weekly sessions of counselling. The patient was not included in these sessions. Patients in both groups received standard after-care of medication and support. Relapses in the intervention group, although fewer, were not significantly different from the control group. Given the impressive evidence in favour of family interventions in reducing relapse rates in schizophrenic patients possible reasons for this result are discussed. Aspects of the intervention described here, exclusion of the patient, no control over the patients' medication or involvement with their management, short duration of intervention and lack of individual assessment, could explain this finding. This negative result is important in indicating what factors should be included in an effective psychosocial intervention.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Do sex-linked behaviors in children influence relationships with their parents?

When relationships are found between parents' and children's behaviors it is usually assumed the parents' behaviors produced those of the children. Forty-four young adult males and 36 young adult females reported the degree to which they showed various sex-linked behaviors and feelings of same versus opposite sex identity in childhood, and adolescence, and currently. These behaviors accounted for up to 57% of the variance of measures of the quality of relationships with parents. In men, opposite-sex-linked behaviors and identity correlated most strongly with current negative parental and particularly paternal relationships. They also correlated strongly with negative paternal relationships in childhood. Some sex-linked behaviors and sex identity items in men correlated positively with maternal overprotection in childhood and adolescence. Correlations between women's sex-linked behaviors and sexual identity items and their parental relationships were weaker but more consistently negative. As in men, opposite-sex-linked behaviors and identity in women correlated most strongly with current negative paternal relationships. The pattern of the associations and the finding that many opposite-sex-linked behaviors in subjects' childhood correlated most strongly with negative parental relationships in early adult life suggest that the parents' feelings could be partly a response to, rather than totally causal of, the subjects' sex-linked behaviors.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Comparison of imaginal desensitisation with other behavioural treatments of pathological gambling. A two- to nine-year follow-up.

Of 120 pathological gamblers randomly allocated to imaginal desensitisation (ID) or to other behavioural procedures (60 to each group, all procedures administered over one week) 63 subjects were contacted two to nine years later. Twenty-six of the 33 who received ID reported control or cessation of gambling compared with 16 of 30 who received other behavioural procedures. This difference was significant, indicating ID had a specific effect additional to that of the other behavioural procedures. It is suggested the other procedures could be regarded as placebos. As the response at a mean of over five years to one week of ID is comparable with that reported to more intensive therapies, after briefer follow-up, it is suggested ID is a cost-effective therapy for pathological gambling, and is worth considering when resources are limited.

Aversive Therapy↗
PubMed1979

Tests of gender feelings and behavior in homosexuality, transvestism and transsexualism.

Categorized 64 male transsexual and transvestite Ss into two groups on the basis of the strength of their feminine gender identity. The two groups were compared to a homosexual group and a control group on four tests designed to measure gender feelings and behavior, namely: the California Personality Inventory Femininity Scale, the Draw-A-Person test, the Franck Drawing Completion test, and the Information and Vocabulary subtests of the WAIS. It was found that the CPI-Fe scale and DAP test significantly correlate with the degree of feminine gender identity reported by the Ss. However, the two tests appear to measure different aspects of gender feelings and behavior in some Ss.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

Maternal deprivation: can its ghost be laid?

The hypothesis that separation from an established mother figure in early childhood has a detrimental effect on a child's later mental health has been widely promulgated and commonly accepted both in academic and lay circles throughout the Western world. The hypothesis continues to have a significant effect on mothers' decision as to whether they should resume work or not, and on governmental policy concerning the provision of child-care facilities for the children of those mothers who do. The evidence for the hypothesis is reviewed and it is concluded that it does not satisfy the requirements of scientific methodology. The theory that a child's attachment to its mother figure is the emotional basis for its future love relationships, group affiliations and loyalty to the state, is now being accorded similar acceptance without further evidence than that supporting the original hypothesis.

Child↗
PubMed1978

Heterosexual experience, marital status, and orientation of homosexual males.

The penile volume responses of homosexual males to pictures of nude women and men were measured and related to the subjects' marital status and experience of heterosexual intercourse. Single subjects with no experience of heterosexual intercourse and married subjects with a history of intercourse with only their wives showed significantly greater response to pictures of men compared to pictures of women than did single subjects with experience of heterosexual intercourse and married subjects with experience of intercourse with women additional to their wives. It was concluded that extensive experience of heterosexual intercourse with one partner did not reduce homosexual responsiveness as measured by subjects' penile response to pictures of nude men and women. It was further concluded that some homosexual males showed physiological evidence of a degree of bisexuality in addition to the behavioral evidence that they sought heterosexual physical relationships.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

Dichotic listening and allusive thinking.

Previous work suggests that allusive thinkers have a broader attentional process associated with weak central inhibition. The method of dichotic stimulation was used to investigate this concept. Sixty-three university students completed a battery of tests including 2 dichotic listening tasks. The Object Sorting Test was used as a measure of allusive thinking. Allusive thinkers showed a trend towards impaired shadowing performance. Mislabelling of shadow as distractor words and vice versa, on recall and recognition tasks, showed the strongest correlation with allusive thinking. Such mislabelling was considered to reflect impaired discrimination learning, and provides further support for a hypothesis relating allusive thinking to weak Pavlovaian central inhibition.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1978

Two clinically discrete syndromes of transsexualism.

Transsexuals are defined as subjects who have a sustained feminine gender identity combined with a wish to alter their bodily appearance towards the feminine. The results of this study indicate that they can be differentiated into two clinically discrete groups. In an investigation of 29 transsexuals who sought a change of sex operation it was found that those who had experienced fetishistic arousal were significantly more likely to be older, to have experienced heterosexual intercourse, to be married and to show penile responses to pictures of men and women indicative of a more heterosexual orientation. They had less experience of homosexual contact to orgasm as compared transsexuals who had not experiennced fetishistic arousal , but this difference was not statistically significant. Frequency of cross-dressing, strenght of feminine gender identity and intensity of desire for a sex change operation did not discriminate the two groups. The fact that desire for a sex change operation may be associated with experience of fetishistic arousal could be one reason for the higher incidence transsexualism in men than in women.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

Parental relationships during childhood in homosexuality, transvestism and transsexualism.

The nature of the relationships of 29 male homosexuals, 34 male transvestites and 29 male transsexuals with their parents, during childhood, was assessed on the basis of the subjects' reports, and on their responses to two tests, namely the Childhood Family Relationship test and a Semantic Differential. If the subjects' reports are valid significantly more mothers of transvestite and transsexual subjects hoped for a girl prior to the subject's birth. During childhood there was a trend for homosexual, transvestite and transsexual subjects to report that their fathers lacked interest in them or were absent from home. There was little evidence to support the view that homosexual, transvestite or transsexual subjects had pathological relationships with their mother. Intrafamilial childhood environmental factors reported by homosexuals, transvestites and transsexuals appear to be non-specific.

Adult↗
PubMed1977

Can fetishism occur in transsexuals?

The literature concerning the relationships between transsexualism and transvestism and their association with fetishism is reviewed. Sexual activity, including sexual arousal to women's clothes, is frequently reported in histories of transsexuals. Characteristics are reported of 12 male subjects who have shown sexual arousal to women's clothes and who have a sustained cross-gender identity combined with a desire for a change-of-sex operation. Diagnostic categories alternative to transsexualism for subjects who cross-dress are inadequate to classify at least some of the 12 subjects reported. Restricting the definition of transsexualism so as to exclude those who have shown fetishistic features is considered premature.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

The discrete syndromes of transvestism and transsexualism.

The literature concerning the relationship between transvestism and transsexualism is briefly reviewed. Some workers consider the two conditions to be on a continuum, whereas others feel that they are independent clinical entities. To clarify the relationship between the two syndromes, biographical data were collected and penile volume changes recorded in 29 subjects who identified themselves as transsexuals and 35 who identified themselves as transvestites. In comparison to the transvestite subjects, significantly more transsexuals were younger, were single, cross-dressed fully, and reported homosexual interest, a feminine gender identity, and a desire for a sex-change surgery. In comparison to the transsexual subjects, significantly more transvestites reported heterosexual interest, cross-dressed partially, and had shown fetishistic arousal. It is concluded that transvestism and transsexualism are separate clinical entities.

Adult↗
PubMed1977

The clinical syndromes of femmiphilic transvestism.

Thirty-four members of a club established for heterosexual transvestites were interviewed. They were categorized into two groups. Subjects in group I were satisfied with cross-dressing and did not desire additional feminization. Subjects in group II desired to alter their bodily appearance toward female by taking female hormones or by having surgical intervention. Group II transvestites cross-dressed more frequently and had a more intense feminine gender identity and stronger homosexual interests than did group I transvestites. A feminine gender identity appeared to be present from childhood in both groups but to be stronger in group II. Cross-dressing in subjects of both groups often occurred first during childhood and almost always prior to age 15. All subjects showed a period of fetishistic arousal to women's clothes during adolescence. With increasing age, fetishistic arousal diminished or disappeared and the frequency of cross-dressing increased. Terms in the literature used to describe the type of transvestism reported in this study are discussed. It was suggested that the term "femmiphilic transvestism" be used to describe the condition of the subjects of both groups. The term has fewer disadvantages than terms previously suggested.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1977

Allusive thinking, the Word Halo and verbosity.

The concept of allusive thinking is briefly reviewed and a Pavlovian model of thinking advanced. It is hypothesized that allusive, as compared with non-allusive thinkers, have a broader but less intense attention process associated with weaker inhibition. From this model it was predicted that on word tests which require judgements of similarity of meaning, allusive thinkers would tend to choose more remote or unusual words as similar in meaning. The Word Halo Test and the Word Sorting Test were administered to 63 university students using the Object Sorting Test as a measure of allusive thinking. The prediction that allusive thinkers would choose more unusual words as similar in meaning was supported. A tendency for allusive thinkers to be more verbose than non-allusive thinkers was also noted.

Adolescent↗