PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

R Holmström

Publications and source records attributed to R Holmström.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

Abnormal lateralization of motor activity during sleep in schizophrenia.

In previous studies it has been demonstrated that during sleep healthy subjects with consistent left- or right-handedness perform about two thirds of their movements with the non-dominant hand. We examined the motor activity during waking and sleep of 13 medicated hallucinating schizophrenic patients without motor side effects and 17 control subjects using bilateral wrist actometry during two nights. Five of the patients were also monitored by continuous infrared video recording and by the Static Charge Sensitive Bed method during the movement recording nights. Lateralization to the non-dominant side during nocturnal low activity period or sleep was absent in the schizophrenic group, in which the dominant hand remained more active. This was not due to movement excess. The difference in lateralization between the controls and the patients should be considered a preliminary finding until replicated. It suggests abnormal laterality of arousal, attention or movement system during sleep in schizophrenia. It may imply abnormality in the sleep dependent modification of attentive behavior, or it may be explained by the lateralized effects of neuroleptic medication.

Adult↗

Healthy students as adult citizens (mental health of the Finnish student. Follow-up, report V).

The longitudinal research project dealing with the mental health of Finnish students was started in the year 1965. This paper is the fifth follow-up report from research phase III. It describes the most healthy subgroup by contrasting it with the ill subgroup. Time and sex as well as external and internal reality are essential aspects of this comparison between the healthy and the ill. Differences between the healthy and the ill have been described in terms of a) external facts, b) background information (phases I and II) and c) subjective inner feelings. The special character of mental health and illness in men and women is also discussed from several points of view. In the attempt to interpret the extensive body of data and to give it a coherent shape, one general hypothesis which has been formed is that women tend to be characterized by a greater 'mobility' between the more mature, adult level and an earlier one, reaching back all the way to the oral aspects of the dyadic relationship. Such mobility and flexibility has both its advantages and its disadvantages. The specific aspects of women's difficulties are easily obscured by the duality of the roles taken on by the woman, and the great difference between them - that of adult woman and that of mother. In particular the maternal role easily comes to mask problematic early elements, which under subsequent conditions of stress may be activated. The male personality is more definite and clearcut in this respect, but by the same token also more rigid.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Differences in adjustment among university-educated men and women.

The present study forms a part of a thirteen-year longitudinal study of mental health and examines how university-educated men and women have adapted to an average environment. In basic cross-tabulations, 63 out of the total 356 psychological and sociological characteristics proved to be differently distributed for men and women. On the other hand, there were no quantitative differences in global mental health-illness indicators between the sexes. Fifteen central personality characteristics indicating good adaptation were kept constant. Different scales for men and women were needed for adjustment measures such as: "social position", "level of university degree", "ego strength", "control of anger", "general ability", "norm-dependence". On the contrary, "satisfaction with occupation", "self-actualization in love", "having children", "quality of social background" were distributed identically. Consequently, keeping these indicators constant did not decrease sex-differences. Hartmann's concept of adaptation to average environment proved to be rather difficult to apply in practice. Differences in how men and women adapted in Finnish society were examined in detail. The general adjustment was rather successful but there were signs indicating that the women's adaptation was less successful.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Assessment of mental health and illness, considered in the light of a 13-year longitudinal study (mental health of the Finnish student. Follow-up, report III).

The present study forms part of a longitudinal study of mental health and covers a period of 13 years. Two fundamental findings were obtained in the present work. The first of these was in brief that the development of mental disorders and occurrence of symptoms increase with age. The other finding was that men and women differ in many ways from each other in terms of the nature of mental health. We might say that healthy as well as perhaps more disturbed narcissism takes different forms in women and men. Women are more faithful to tradition, men's interest is more directed toward social concerns and object relationships. Women are more practiced in self-observation, while men resort to action and somatization. Women's symptoms are dominated by fear and worry, while men, following tradition have to mask their fears.

Female↗