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Biomedical subjects

R Lennox

Publications and source records attributed to R Lennox.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Reliability, validity and responsiveness of a revised scoring system for the Liverpool Seizure Severity Scale.

This report examines the reliability, validity and responsiveness of a revised scoring system for the Liverpool Seizure Severity Scale (LSSS). The revised scoring system was validated using archival data from an observational study and a randomized controlled study. Factor analyses confirmed that a single dimension captured how patients evaluate the severity of their most severe seizures occurring during a recall period. The revised scoring system repositions the severity score to range from 0 (no seizures) to 100 (most severe possible). Scores based on the new system were reliable, had construct validity (known-groups validity), and were responsive to changes in the patients' epilepsy as noted by their physicians. Results suggest that future epilepsy studies assessing seizure severity should incorporate the revised LSSS scoring system and a modified version of the questionnaire that simplifies self-assessment and analyses. The modified version of the LSSS and its scoring system are appended to this report.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed2000

The impact of women's family status on completion of substance abuse treatment.

This study examines the role of family status and demographic characteristics in explaining the nearly 60% dropout rate for women in substance abuse treatment. Data from the administrative record files of the Illinois Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse (OASA) for the fiscal year 1996-97 were analyzed for women age 12 or older who completed intake for publicly funded substance abuse treatment and whose outpatient treatment records were closed at year-end. Multivariate logistic regression models found that the likelihood of not completing treatment was greatest for women who were African American, pregnant, had custody of minor children, or were younger than age 21. However, African American women who had children in foster care were more likely to complete treatment. Implications for treatment and research are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

Maternal methadone dosage and neonatal withdrawal.

The aim of this study was to assess the influence of maternal methadone dosage on the severity of neonatal withdrawal. The charts of 67 drug-abusing mothers and their 70 infants were examined to determine documented patterns of drug usage and the severity of neonatal withdrawal. Of these, 40 women were on a methadone programme. There was a strong relationship between maternal methadone dose at delivery and severity of neonatal withdrawal as assessed by the Neonatal Abstinence Score, length of stay and duration of treatment. Children whose mothers received methadone had mean peak symptom scores greater than 10 whereas the group receiving no methadone had mean scores of less than 4 (p < 0.001). These effects tended to increase with increasing doses of methadone. Length of stay and duration of neonatal treatment showed highly statistically significant increases (p < 0.001) with increasing methadone dose. Maternal methadone dose appears to be strongly related to the severity of neonatal withdrawal.

Birth Weight↗
PubMed1983

Self-monitoring and sex as moderator variables in the statistical explanation of self-reported marijuana and alcohol use.

Self-monitoring and sex are examined as likely moderators of some of the known effective predictors of self-reported use of marijuana and alcohol. The theory of self-monitoring implies that in comparisons between low and high self-monitors, dispositional predictors account for more of the variance in reported use among low self-monitors and environmental predictors account for more of the variance among high self-monitors. With the two classes of predictors established via principal-components analysis and with subgroups defined by scores on Snyder's Self-Monitoring Scale, data from 807 college students showed that self-monitoring does not affect the action of either dispositional or environmental predictors. Thus, the self-monitoring construct promises explanatory leverage that in these tests, the scale is not able to deliver. When subgroups are defined by sex, analyses of reported alcohol use yield small but significant moderator effects: Women's use is more predictable from environmental variables, whereas men's use is more predictable from dispositional variables. These effects are consistent with the conclusions of recent meta-analyses of results from studies of sex differences in conformity to group pressures.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1979

Lithium concentration and clinical responses.

The clinical use of measurements of drug concentrations in blood is empirical and largely confined to compliance and toxicity monitoring. As currently used in once or thrice a day dosage, lithium treatment is pulsatile, the blood concentration varying threefold over 24 hours; routine measurements reveal nothing of this and therefore do not aid therapeutic use. In a pilot study it is shown that the plasma lithium concentration can be raised from 0 to 2 mmol/l in a few hours, inducing changes in both kidney function and neuropsychological tests after only short delay. This suggests that mania might be quickly controlled with rapid dosage and opens up a new way of analysing the mechanisms of lithium action, or of using it to reveal changes in cerebral functioning.

Diuresis↗
PubMed1975

Affinity chromatography of DNA-binding proteins from human, murine and man-mouse hybrid cell lines.

About 60 proteins from human and murine cell lines were isolated by their ability to bind to different preparations of DNA. In the intact cell, the majority of these proteins are to be found in the cell nucleus. The electrophoretic mobilities of the DNA-binding proteins from human, murine and man-mouse hybrid cell lines were compared in two-dimensional acrylamide gels. Few, if any, species-specific differences were found. These observations suggest that the structures of the vast majority of the proteins that interact with DNA are conserved through evolution. A molecular basis is thus provided for the intracellular of hybrid cells derived from different animal species.

Animals↗