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Biomedical subjects

S Thurber

Publications and source records attributed to S Thurber.

14 recordsLinked to original sources

Behavioral effects of continuous hippocampal stimulation in the developing rat.

There is controversy as to whether prolonged seizures are more detrimental to the immature than the mature brain. To evaluate this question continuous hippocampal stimulation was used to induce prolonged limbic seizures in 20-, 30- and 60-day-old rats. The long-term effects on learning and activity level were then studied at age 80 days using the Morris water maze, a test of spatial learning and memory, and the open field test, a test of an animal's reaction to a novel environment. Limbic status epilepticus in 60-day-old but not 20- and 30-day-old rats caused long-term impairment of learning in the Morris water maze. No differences were noted between the control and the experimental animals in the open field test. These results suggest that the age of seizure onset is an important determinant of long-term cognitive sequelae.

Animals

The Therapist Evaluation Inventory: evidence for an unidimensional scale.

The internal structure of the Therapist Evaluation Inventory (TEI) was investigated with data gathered from therapy sessions conducted by 16 individual psychotherapists with 292 psychiatrically disturbed adolescent inpatients. A principal components analysis (Varimax rotation) indicated a single dimension that accounted for 70.39% of scale variance. The findings did not corroborate a factor structure consistent with the a priori scales of the TEI.

Adjustment Disorders

Asymptomatic congenital cytomegalovirus infection. Audiologic, neuroradiologic, and neurodevelopmental abnormalities during the first year.

Twenty-eight infants with asymptomatic congenital cytomegalovirus infection and 13 control infants were followed up prospectively. Congenital sensorineural hearing loss was documented by auditory brain-stem responses in four infected infants (two had mild bilateral loss, one had mild unilateral loss, and one had extreme unilateral loss) but in no controls. Four infected infants had diffuse periventricular radiolucencies on computed tomographic scan; none had calcifications or ventriculomegaly. No differences between groups were noted on neurologic examination results or on the Bayley Mental Developmental Index; however, one infected infant had a severely delayed Bayley Psychomotor Developmental Index score. In addition, the mean Mental Developmental Index score of the four infected infants with diffuse periventricular radiolucencies was significantly below that of the remaining infected infants (93 +/- 8 vs 109 +/- 13). These data suggest that asymptomatic congenital cytomegalovirus infection may be associated with a broad range of audiologic, subtle neuroradiologic, and neurodevelopmental differences in early infancy.

Cytomegalovirus Infections

Cognitive distortions and depression in psychiatrically disturbed adolescent inpatients.

Beck's model of depression was examined with 110 hospitalized adolescents. Intercorrelations among measures of cognitive distortions and depression supported the downward extension of Beck's theorizing to adolescent inpatients. Inconsistencies between data sources (parent vs. child) suggest possible self-report contamination or the insensitivities of adult caregivers to the subjective elements of depression. The findings also may relate to unstable, developmental aspects of depressed episodes.

Adolescent

Antecedents of gregarious alcoholism: an a priori model.

Path analysis procedures were used to test a causal model that concerns possible antecedent conditions in relation to gregarious drinking patterns. Selected scales from The California Psychological Inventory (CPI) and The Alcohol Use Inventory (AUI) constituted the assessments. The model was partially corroborated with reference to a group of 40 alcoholics (32 males; 8 females; M age = 33) in an outpatient treatment setting. The presumed causal variables accounted for 26% of the variance in self-reported gregarious drinking. Support was obtained for the assumption that certain interpersonal deficiencies may combine with beliefs in social benefits via alcohol usage to produce gregarious alcoholism.

Adult

Effect size estimates in chemical aversion treatments of alcoholism.

This study found that aggregate studies on alcohol aversion therapy tended to support a moderate level of treatment impact that may have noteworthy practical import. Emetics appear to generate fairly consistent findings; a paralysis-inducing chemical may produce variable results.

Alcohol Drinking

The health and educational status of adolescents with congenital rubella syndrome.

As part of a longitudinal study of children with congenital rubella syndrome, 53 adolescents between 16 and 18 years of age were surveyed to determine their health and educational status. The findings were compared with those at the 18-months evaluation. At 16 to 18 years neurosensory impairments, cerebral dysfunction and organic behaviour syndromes were predominant, but the majority of children had multiple handicaps. A higher proportion had hearing loss. Although all the hearing-impaired children were begun in oral-based educational programs, 90 per cent of those with severe to profound hearing-loss diagnosed before the age of 18 months had changed to total or manual communication. Those with mild to moderate hearing-loss diagnosed after 18 months primarily communicate orally. The educational implications of these findings are discussed.

Adolescent

Internal-external control, interpersonal trust, and the motive to avoid success in college women.

The Internal-External Control scale, Interpersonal Trust scale, and an assessment of the Motive To Avoid Success were administered to 86 undergraduate women. As expected, external and low trust scores covaried with comparatively high levels of achievement-related anxiety. The results were interpreted in terms of possible repression tendencies of internal subjects and the defensive properties inherent in the external and low trust belief systems.

Achievement