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Biomedical subjects

R C Hall

Publications and source records attributed to R C Hall.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Developing a level III/IV medical/psychiatry unit. Establishing a basis, design of the unit, and physician responsibility.

This article is part of a series defining the administrative, logistical, and funding issues necessary for the establishment of a medical/psychiatry unit. It emphasizes the experience of individuals who have developed such units and is offered in an attempt to prevent duplication of costly mistakes. Administrative issues, factors affecting the physical design of the unit, requirements for medical coverage and medical and psychiatric programmatic support, and the ethical issues encountered in managing such a unit are discussed.

Delivery of Health Care

Categorization of types of medical/psychiatry units based on level of acuity.

Medical/psychiatry units can be categorized by the level of acuity of medical and psychiatric illness. Type I units are categorized as those that primarily provide psychiatric care with a low level of medical acuity. Type II units include general medicine or medical subspecialty units that are associated with a psychiatric liaison service and provide low levels of psychiatric care to those admitted to the general medical setting. Type III and Type IV units are characterized by a true departure from the current ward settings and care for patients who have concurrent and more severe medical and psychiatric problems in a unified setting. Both of these units require special physical changes in the ward structure, additional nurse training, and coordinated physician coverage to function effectively.

Acute Disease

Quality assurance in a setting designed to care for patients with combined medical and psychiatric disease.

In an attempt to address the needs of patients with combined medical and psychiatric illness, a variety of clinical centers are now creating medical/psychiatry units. These units differ widely in their clinical capabilities, yet no adequate delineation of safeguards regarding quality of care currently exists. This article discusses minimum quality guidelines for four types of medical/psychiatry units that are based on the level of acuity of patients' medical and psychiatric disease.

Acute Disease

Bulimia nervosa. Four uncommon subtypes.

The histories and psychological profiles of more than 500 patients meeting DSM-III-R criteria for bulimia nervosa were reviewed. A total of 310 patients demonstrated the most characteristic pattern of bulimia, with finger-induced purging and occasional diet pill, diuretic, or laxative abuse. Seventeen patients reported binge eating with no self-induced vomiting but with severe laxative abuse (i.e., greater than or equal to 50 laxatives daily). A total of 126 patients reported bulimia with finger-induced purging and regular mild (i.e., 2-3 daily) laxative abuse. Eight patients reported bulimia without finger-induced purging, diuretic, or laxative abuse but with the regular abuse of ipecac as a means of inducing vomiting. Four clinical subtypes of bulimia were seen. These were overt bulimia, which occurred in 8.9% of the sample; obsessive-ritualistic bulimia, which occurred in 2% of the sample; sexually evocative bulimia (Fatal Attraction Syndrome), which occurred in 2.9% of the sample; and masochistic bulimia, which occurred in 4.9% of the sample. Each of these subtypes of bulimia are described and defined. The characteristic psychologic profile, clinical features, and implications for treatment and research are discussed.

Acting Out

Dual-purpose tube for enteroclysis and nasogastric-nasoenteric decompression.

A catheter designed for the dual purpose of nasogastric-nasoenteric decompression and enteroclysis is described. The catheter facilitates direct decompression of the obstructed small bowel and, if necessary, subsequent performance of enteroclysis. The use of this tube obviates dual intubation and its accompanying discomfort.

Catheterization

Rectal indomethacin.

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Administration, Oral

Direct gas chromatographic determination of carbamate pesticides using Carbowax 20M-modified supports and the electrolytic conductivity detector.

The gas chromatographic behavior of 32 carbamate pesticides was investigated using the Hall electrolytic conductivity detector. Relative retention indices were successfully determined for 24 carbamates on six different columns. Columns investigated included Ultra-Bond, 3% OV-101 on Ultra-Bond, 1% OV-17 on Ultra-Bond, 1% OV-210 on Ultra Bond, 1% Carbowax 20M on Ultra-Bond and 0.5% OV-210 + 0.65% OV-17 on Ultra-Bond. Chemical-ionization gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was used to verify that the carbamates were chromatographed intact. Chemical-ionization mass spectra are reported. Analytical procedures are demonstrated for the determination of carbamate residue in soil.

Carbamates

Physicians' concordance with consultants' recommendations for psychotropic medication.

Physicians' concordance with the recommendations of psychiatric consultants regarding the use of psychotropic medications in a general hospital was retrospectively examined in an outcome study. Using medical records in a series of 200 consecutive consultations, the authors found 68% of all psychotropic recommendations resulted in physician responses rated concordant and 24% nonconcordant. Resultant concordance ratings are presented according to category of recommendation (that is, start, adjust, continue, or discontinue) and drug groupings. The data suggest that drug group is not a critical variable in physician concordance. Responses did differ by category of recommendation. Further study of physician concordance is desirable. The work suggests both the potential of and need for outcome studies in consultation work.

Humans

Association between plasma and liver vitamin A levels in the calf; weanling pig, rabbit and rat; and adult goat fed fixed intakes of vitamin A.

To reexamine the relationship between plasma and liver vitamin A levels, data from various species of animals fed fixed intakes of vitamin A ester (expressed as retinol equivalents/kg liver weight/day) were vitamin A ester (expressed as retinol equivalents/kg live weight/day) were studied. The intakes ranging from deficient to toxic were for 48 calves, 4 to 17,600 micrograms; 39 pigs, 17.6 to 19,842 micrograms; 86 rabbits, 4.5 to 287 micrograms; 138 rats, 4 to 16,384 micrograms; and 40 goats, 1 to 17,640 micrograms. Following the feeding of these intakes for periods of between 5 and 133 weeks, blood and liver samples were taken for vitamin A determinations. Plasma vitamin A concentrations reached minimum values at low liver vitamin A levels whereas liver vitamin A levels reached maximum values at high plasma vitamin A concentrations. Upon elimination of data pairs at the extremes, linear regressions of log10 (total liver vitamin A) on plasma vitamin A concentrations and of plasma vitamin A concentrations on log10 (total liver vitamin A) were statistically significant. Therefore it was possible to estimate within limits the log10 (total liver vitamin A) from plasma vitamin A. Applicable limits were for the calf 8 to 46 micrograms/100 ml of plasma, for the pig 14 to 32, for the rabbit 14 to 74, for the rat 5 to 51 and for the goat 22 to 55. Simple correlation coefficients were 0.92, 0.60, 0.93, 0.92 and 0.75.

Aging

Presentation of the steroid psychoses.

This study suggests that patients receiving daily doses of 40 mg of prednisone or its equivalent, are at greater risk for developing steroid psychosis. Psychotic reactions were twice as likely to occur during the first 5 days of treatment as subsequently. Premorbid personality, history of previous psychiatric disorder, and a history of previous steroid psychosis did not clearly increase the patient's risk of developing psychotic reaction during any given course of therapy. Steroid psychoses present as spectrum psychoses with symptoms ranging from affective through schizophreniform to those of an organic brain syndrome. No characteristic stable presentation was observed in these 14 cases reported here. The most prominent symptom constellation to appear some time during the course of the illness consisted of emotional lability, anxiety, distractibility, pressured speech, sensory flooding, insomnia, depression, perplexity, agitation, auditory and visual hallucinations, intermittent memory impairment, mutism, disturbances of body image, delusions, apathy, and hypomania. Phenothiazines administered in average daily doses of 212 mg produced excellent response in all patients studied. Of particular note was the fact that tricyclic antidepressants produced an exacerbation or worsening of the clinical state in all patients to whom they were administered.

Adrenal Cortex Hormones

The effects of histamine on responses of the rabbit ear artery to electrical stimulation and to exogenous noradrenaline.

1 The effects of a subconstrictor dose of histamine (9 x 10(-7) mol/l) on the responses of the isolated perfused ear artery of the rabbit to electrical stimulation (E.S.) and to exogenous noradrenaline (NA) were investigated.2 Both intraluminal (I/L) and extraluminal (E/L) histamine potentiated responses to E.S. and to I/L NA to the same extent.3 Mepyramine alone (2.5 x 10(-6) mol/l) had no effect on the response of the ear artery to either stimulus, but in the presence of this concentration of mepyramine, the potentiation by histamine of the response to I/L NA was significantly decreased and that to E.S. was replaced by inhibition.4 The H(1)-receptor agonist, 2(2-pyridyl) ethylamine, applied I/L potentiated responses to I/L NA at both concentrations used (5.1 and 51 x 10(-7) mol/l), but only potentiated the effects of E.S. at the higher concentration.5 The H(2)-receptor antagonist, metiamide (4 x 10(-6) mol/l), alone did not alter the extent of potentiation of responses to either E.S. or I/L NA by histamine. This suggests relatively weak H(2)-receptor activity in the rabbit ear artery. In the presence, but not the absence of metiamide, the potentiation by histamine of the I/L NA response was reversible, an observation suggesting an interaction between metiamide and the non-reversible component of the potentiating effect of histamine.6 These results are interpreted in terms of postsynaptic H(1)-receptors which potentiate and presynaptic H(2)-receptors which inhibit contractile responses in the ear artery.

Animals

Adjustment of a group of Vietnamese people to the United States.

The authors collected data on 50 Vietnamese families living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, by individual and group interview questionnaire. They also used interviews of all of the Vietnamese people who came to the local community mental health center and studied the records of the center and other local social agencies for sociodemographic data. They define a number of specific sociological stresses encountered by Vietnamese refugees but conclude that basically these people are adjusting well without losing their cultural identity.

Adaptation, Psychological

Lithium therapy and toxicity.

Lithium is a potent agent for the control of psychiatric disease. It is safe and effective when properly administered; however, its use requires a maximally informed physician and careful clinical monitoring of patients. The drug's side effects are usually dose related, and certain patients are at greater risk of experiencing toxicity than others. Management of acute intoxication involves gastric lavage, sodium replacement and the administration of other agents or dialysis to facilitate clearance.

Bipolar Disorder

Physical illness presenting as psychiatric disease.

A study of 658 consecutive psychiatric outpatients receiving careful medical and biochemical evaluation, defined an incidence of medical disorders productive of psychiatric symptoms in 9.1% of cases. The most frequent presentations were of depression, confusion, anxiety, and speech or memory disorders. The presence of visual hallucinations was believed to indicate medical etiology until proved otherwise. Major illnesses presenting with psychiatric symptoms in order of frequency were infectious, pulmonary, thyroid, diabetic, hematopoietic, hepatic and CNS diseases. Forty-six percent of these patients suffered from medical illnesses previously unknown to either them or their physician. A plea is made for careful medical evaluation of psychiatric patients.

Adult