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Biomedical subjects

S Bloch

Publications and source records attributed to S Bloch.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Reliability of doppler scanning of the carotid bifurcation: angiographic correlation.

The results of continuous wave Doppler scanning of 96 common carotid arteries and their immediate branches were compared with those of selective angiography. The overall accuracy of the Doppler technique for the assessment of the common, internal and external carotid arteries was 98%, 81% and 86%, respectively with a sensitivity of 60%, 70% and 54%, and a specificity of 100%, 93%, and 96%. When stenoses of 50% were considered hemodynamically insignificant, the overall accuracy of the assessment of the common, internal and external carotid arteries rose to 100%, 93% and 93%, but the sensitivity was only 100%, 83% and 53%, whereas the specificity was 100%, 96% and 96%. This modality did not prove useful in the detection of intimal ulcers and plaques nor could the degree of stenosis be accurately graded. The above data indicate that contrast angiography remains imperative prior to surgery.

Angiography

A method for the study of therapeutic factors in group psychotherapy.

A method is described for the study of therapeutic factors in group therapy in which patients and their therapists prepare brief reports at regular intervals about those events in treatment which they regard as important; these reports are then assigned by independent judges to a classification of therapeutic factors which has been specifically devised for this purpose. The feasibility, validity and reliability of the method are discussed and its potential application to group therapy research and training briefly mentioned.

Adult

The psychiatrist in the terminal care unit.

The types of problems of 49 patients referred to a psychiatrist in a terminal care unit are reported and their management reviewed. The findings suggest that a psychiatrist can play a useful role in such a unit, particularly in supervising medical and nursing staff in the psychological care of patients and in helping more directly in the management of psychiatrically complicated cases.

Adult

Assessment of patients for psychotherapy.

Factors in the patient which have been commonly cited by therapists as relevant in assessment for psychotherapy are examined as well as the research done on them. These factors are discussed under four categories: (a) factors related to the illness, (b) personal factors related to the treatment, (c) personal factors not directly associated with the illness and (d) current life circumstances. Research on methods of assessing patient suitability is discussed together with an account of the reasons for the rather disappointing contribution of systematic research.

Adult

[Intermdeiate forms of atrioventricular defects. Reflections apropos of 50 consecutively operated cases].

Fifty cases of intermediate forms of atrioventricular defect were treated surgically. The operation was performed in the traditional manner in all cases. One post-operative death and three cases of severe mitral incompetence leading to reoperation were observed. The authors emphasise that it is essential to look for and excise the chordae and abnormal fibrous bands, that it is generally unnecessary to touch the tricuspid valve and that there is a danger of obstructing the aortic canal if the correction of the asymmetry of some mitral clefts is attempted. Analysis of the results leads them to tend to respect the cleft mitral valve when the regurgitation is minimal and to suture it all along its length when the regurgitation is severe. Mitral annuloplasty may be a useful complementary procedure and a left atrial approach may be proposed with this in mind in certain cases. Conduction defects remain a serious problem in this type of surgery; not so much complete heart block, which is exceptional, but trifascicular block, often present preoperatively, whose prognostic is, to say the least, uncertain.

Adolescent

Alcoholics in interactional group therapy: an outcome study.

Three interactional therapy groups of alcoholic patients (N = 20) were formed, and treatment outcome after eight months and again after 12 months of therapy was compared with the outcome of 17 neurotic patients in comparable therapy. Outcome assessment was obtained from three sources: patient, therapist, and independent judge, using both nomothetic and ideographic measures. The results indicated that although more alcoholic than neurotic patients terminated therapy within the first six sessions, a higher percentage of alcoholic patients remained in therapy for 12 months. At the end of 12 months, both samples had improved along a wide variety of variables, and there were no significant differences between the alcoholic and neurotic population in degree of improvement.

Adult

Psychiatry as ideology in the USSR.

This paper was given as a talk at the Venice Biennale on 9 December 1977. It was part of a symposium on "The Freedom of Science--Problems of Science of Scientists in Eastern Europe". Dr Bloch details some of the problems of psychiatry and its vulnerability to improper use and thus the dilemmas which must ensue in day to day practice. He looks at psychiatry in the USSR and the system within which Soviet psychiatrists must work. The Communist Party and career advancement for psychiatrists would appear to be closely related and it is suggested that, in all probability, the majority of psychiatrists are as perturbed at the misuse of their profession as their Western colleagues, but act compliantly out of fear. Severe punishments have been imposed on those psychiatrists who have dared to speak out against the régime and the system as operated. Dr Bloch concludes by urging Western psychiatrists to do all they can to help their Soviet colleagues to initiate a return to an independent and automous psychiatric profession.

Communism

Hemagglutination and hemagglutination-inhibition studies with a strain of Nebraska calf diarrhea virus (bovine rotavirus).

A hemagglutinin has been prepared from Nebraska calf diarrhea virus (NCDV) propagated in BS-C-1 cell line. After cesium chloride centrifugation, the hemagglutinin of the bovine rotavirus was found to be associated with intact virions (density 1.355 g/ml) but not with virions lacking an outer capsid layer (density 1.375 g/ml). In hemagglutination-inhibition (HAI) tests, the hemagglutinin reacted specifically with NCDV serum, and HAI seroconversions were detected in some sera tested. Cross-reactions were observed in complement fixation tests between the human and bovine rotaviruses but were not demonstrated by HAI, suggesting that the hemagglutinin detects a specific rather than a group antibody response.

Animals

The impact of a weekend group experience on individual therapy.

Thirty-three patients in long-term individual therapy were referred to one of three weekend groups: two experimental (affect-arousing, gestalt therapy) groups and one control (meditation-Tai Chi) group. The impact of the weekend group experience (WGE) on individual therapy was examined six and 12 weeks later. At six weeks the patients in the experimental groups showed, on some measures, a significantly greater improvement in their individual therapy than did controls. By 12 weeks, there were no demonstrable differences. The WGE was not without risk: even though the group leaders were highly trained, responsible clinicians, two patients suffered considerable psychological damage. The control (meditation-Tai Chi) group offered a relatively innocuous experience; there was no risk, but few members found the specific procedures useful in their lives. Intense affect arousal in the WGE was not related to positive change in subsequent individual therapy. Those expressing the greatest affect in either experimental group were no more likely to have had a measurable positive impact on their subsequent individual therapy than patients expressing little or no measurable affect.

Adjustment Disorders