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Biomedical subjects

R B SLOANE

Publications and source records attributed to R B SLOANE.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1964

PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF HEADACHE.

Headache is considered as a non-specific syndrome illustrating the concept of pain as an emotion. Viewed in this way, its meaning looms larger than its site.Pain indicates dis-ease of the patient, sometimes with his body, but more often with his life. No pain is "imaginary", nor can some pain be assigned to physiological and some to psychological pathways. Such a decision is often merely a judgmental one.Just as the "brain" cannot easily be separated from the "mind", so to believe that some pain is "physical" and some "emotional" is a distortion. All painful syndromes are mixed and the problem is to decipher the meaning of the pain. Only rarely will headache respond to physical measures alone.

Headache↗
PubMed1964

PROBLEMS OF COMMUNITY PSYCHIATRY.

An analysis of existing psychiatric facilities in the community reveals their heterogeneity and fragmentation. Parallel, overlapping and non-communicating, they deal with treatment in a piecemeal fashion and with prevention only by default. Divorce between the different therapeutic phases of what is often the same illness violates any continuity of care. The provincial mental hospital, which arose in part out of social pressure to isolate the "mad" patient, finds itself, often enough, isolated in turn from the community it serves.Greater integration of available treatment resources for the psychiatric patient would serve both his interest and the general concepts of preventive and rehabilitative medicine. An understanding of how this may be achieved may engender social and professional impetus toward the accomplishment. The general hospital is a logical coordinating focus for these facilities and when it has adopted this role this might lead to a greater acceptance of emotional illness by both patients and doctors.

Canada↗
PubMed1963

A psychiatric and psychological study of amitriptyline (Elavil) as an antidepressant.

The antidepressant effects of amitriptyline (Elavil) were investigated by means of psychiatric assessment and psychological testing of 20 depressed patients who were compared, before and after treatment, with a placebo-treated control group of 14 similar patients. After three weeks on doses of 150 mg. per day, 13 out of 20 of the actively treated group were rated as improved, compared with only three out of 11 of the control group (p < .05). Clinical improvement was associated with changes on some objective tests. No persistent adverse side effects were observed. It was concluded that amitriptyline is an effective antidepressant.

Amitriptyline↗
PubMed1963

Clinical investigation in psychiatry.

A study involving correlations between personality and the fasting serum cholesterol level of normal volunteers on a fat-free diet was used to illustrate techniques of clinical investigation in psychiatry. Precise data were not quoted, but the procedure was described to show how behavioural studies differ from biological ones. Somatotyping (no significant correlation), excretion of catecholamines under stress (raised with high cholesterol levels) and classical conditioning (no significant correlation) were used as examples of simple biological functions. These were contrasted with trait ratings where one observer predicted cholesterol levels with a high degree of accuracy and another with a low and unreliable one. It seemed that the most important trait being rated was "aggressiveness", and this was probably differentially elicited by the two observers, the one male and authoritarian, the other female and permissive. Such an interaction distorted the information obtained to a degree seldom seen in other data-gathering situations. Estimated and actual achievement on a competitive pin-ball game failed to show significant correlations with other traits. Questionnaires on the attitudes of the subjects' mothers suggested some correlation between severity of training and aggressivity. The techniques of personality investigation described embraced behavioural observations which, it was suggested, were ill-taught in existing undergraduate medical curricula.

Achievement↗