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Biomedical subjects

R A DeVaul

Publications and source records attributed to R A DeVaul.

18 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1987

Medical school performance of initially rejected students.

At the University of Texas Medical School at Houston we had a unique opportunity to examine performance through the medical curriculum and one year of postgraduate training of 50 students initially rejected for medical school. Each had been interviewed by the same Admissions Committee, which earlier had selected 150 students through the traditional process. In contrasting the initially accepted and initially rejected groups, academic and demographic variables accounted for only 28% of group difference. The 72% of group difference not accounted for by the variables examined was presumed to relate to Admissions Committee preference. In attrition and in both preclinical and clinical performance through medical school and one year of postgraduate training, there were no meaningful differences between the groups. The observations suggest that the traditional interview process probably does not enhance the ability to predict performance of medical school applicants.

Achievement↗
PubMed1978

The hysterical personality--I. The healthy hysteric.

This paper examines the meaning and validity of 'hysterical personality disorders'. Theories and descriptions of hysterical personalities have been conflicting and often mutually incompatible, leading to a vague and imprecise nosology. No generally accepted specific inclusion criteria or follow-up studies are available; consequently, the diagnosis of 'hysterical personality disorder' has reflected adaptive as well as maladaptive traits. This paper critically examines the healthy dimension of Lazare's continuum of personality pathologies exhibiting hysterical traits. The continuum, in an attempt to reconcile the inconsistencies of this diagnosis, ranges from the relatively healthy (good, genital, true) hysteric, to the sick (bad, oral, 'so-called good') hysteric. But this paper concludes that here, too, evidence for diagnostic legitimacy is lacking. Women at the healthy end of the hysterical personality spectrum are best regarded as healthy and do not meet criteria for the diagnosis of a personality disorder.

Female↗
PubMed1977

Emotional factors in inflammatory bowel disease.

Inflammatory bowel diseases are not caused by emotional conflicts, but emotional factors influence both the pathogenesis and the course of the illness. Establishing a trusting physician-patient relationship is important in helping the patient to (1) avoid denial of illness or chronic illness behavior, (2) understand symptoms and diagnostic and treatment procedures, and (3) cope with loss of a key person or the threat of lessened self-control.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1976

Psychiatry: unresolved grief. Clinical considerations.

Unresolved grief refers either to the absence or to the prolongation of normal grief. It is identified by (1) painful response to recall of the deceased, (2) realization of not having accepted the loss or of not being able to grieve, and (3) unaccountable depression, emergence of medical symptoms on the anniversary of the loss, or both. Three clinical syndromes can be defined in relation to the stage at which the grief process has been arrested. Treatment involves encouraging patients to talk about the deceased and guiding them through a normal grief reaction. Psychiatric evaluation should be considered when suicidal ideation is present.

Adult↗