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William Perry

Publications and source records attributed to William Perry.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2003

The use of the Ego Impairment Index across the schizophrenia spectrum.

The goal of this study was to assess perceptual and thought disturbance, as indexed by the Ego Impairment Index (EII; Perry & Viglione, 1991), a Rorschach-derived measure, across the schizophrenia spectrum. We hypothesized that there would be an increase in EII scores (indicating increased disturbance) across the spectrum from nonpatients to severely disturbed, hospitalized schizophrenia patients. Normal comparison participants (n = 66), students with elevated scores on either the Perceptual Aberration/Magical Ideation or the Physical Anhedonia Scales (n = 24), first-degree relatives of schizophrenia patients (n = 36), participants diagnosed with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed. [DSM-IV]; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) schizotypal personality disorder (n = 36), outpatient schizophrenia participants (n = 33), and hospitalized schizophrenia patients (n = 56) were studied. As hypothesized, we found increased EII scores in all of the schizophrenia spectrum groups when compared against normal comparison participants. Furthermore, the EII was significantly different between the schizophrenia patients and the other schizophrenia spectrum groups. These findings support the use of the EII as a sensitive measure of perceptual and thought disturbance across the schizophrenia spectrum that yields specific information regarding the type of thinking problems that occur within schizophrenia spectrum subgroups.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Modifying the Rorschach Human Experience Variable to create the Human Representational Variable.

The Human Experience Variable (HEV; Perry & Viglione, 1991) provided information about interpersonal perceptions not previously available within the Comprehensive System (CS; Exner, 1993). Research data suggests that it was related to interpersonal functioning and as a result, psychological impairment and health. In this article, we present the rationale and empirical basis for recent psychometric refinements to the HEV, consequently renamed the Human Representational Variable (HRV). Research addressing the reliability and validity for the HRV is summarized. Based on data and experience with the HEV, this study summarized some small modifications to the original algorithm. The refined variable, the HRV, has been added to the CS (Exner, 2000). Data presented here suggest that the HRV has improved psychometric properties compared to the HEV and that it is simpler to understand. Research recommendations and interpretive suggestions are also presented.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Refinements in the Rorschach Ego Impairment Index incorporating the human representational variable.

The Ego Impairment Index (EII; Perry & Viglione, 1991) is a composite measure of psychological impairment and thought disturbance developed from the empirical and theoretical literature on the Rorschach. In this article, we summarize reliability and validity data regarding the EII. Our major goal was to present the rationale and empirical basis for recent refinements in the EII. Among the subcomponents of the original EII was the Human Experience variable (HEV), which has recently been revised and replaced with the Human Representational variable (HRV; Viglione, Perry, Jansak, Meyer, & Exner, 2003). In this study, we replaced the HEV with the HRV to create the EII-2. This was accomplished by recalculating the factor coefficients with a sample of 363 Rorschach protocols. We present additional validity data for the new EII-2. Research recommendations and interpretive guidelines are also presented.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Assessing disturbed thinking and cognition using the Ego Impairment Index in older schizophrenia patients: paranoid vs. nonparanoid distinction.

OBJECTIVE: We compared thought-disturbance via the Rorschach-derived Ego Impairment Index (EII) between DSM-IV paranoid vs. nonparanoid (undifferentiated and disorganized) subtypes of older schizophrenia patients. METHODS: 44 DSM-IV medically stable outpatients with schizophrenia (27 paranoid, 17 nonparanoid) and 45 normal comparison participants aged 45-100 years were assessed using the EII, a Rorschach-derived cognitive-based measure of disturbed thinking. Group differences on the EII and the relation of this measure to key demographic and clinical variables were examined. RESULTS: Nonparanoid schizophrenia patients demonstrated significantly greater impairment on the EII than their paranoid counterparts. The EII performance of paranoid patients was similar to normal comparison participants. Furthermore, the paranoid patients displayed better premorbid intellectual functioning, less negative symptoms, and better global cognitive performance than nonparanoid patients. Finally, greater impairment on the EII was correlated with poor performance on a global measure of cognitive ability. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings substantiate previous work suggesting that nonparanoid patients have a form of the illness characterized by worse premorbid functioning and greater disturbed thinking and cognition than their paranoid counterparts.

Aged↗
PubMed2002

Neuropsychological impairment in patients with chronic hepatitis C.

Hepatitis C is the most common cause of chronic liver disease in the United States and it significantly reduces quality of life. The role of cognitive deficits contributing to the morbidity of this disease has not been well characterized. The purpose of this study was to examine cognitive functioning in patients with chronic hepatitis C and to investigate relationships among parameters of disease severity and performance on neuropsychological tests. Sixty-six patients with chronic hepatitis C and 14 patients with other chronic liver diseases were administered a brief battery of neuropsychological tests assessing attention, visuoconstructional ability, learning, memory, and psychomotor speed. Cognitive impairment in patients with chronic hepatitis C ranged from 0% on a visuoconstructional task to 82% on a measure of sustained attention and concentration. Test scores of patients with chronic hepatitis C did not differ from those of patients with other chronic liver diseases. Hence, patients with and without chronic hepatitis C experience cognitive deficits, especially in tasks requiring attention and psychomotor speed. In addition, there was a significant relationship between fibrosis stage and test performance, with greater fibrosis associated with poorer performance. However, both patients with and without cirrhosis exhibited cognitive dysfunction. In conclusion, these findings suggest that progressive hepatic injury may result in cognitive problems even before the development of cirrhosis. Future studies need to determine the effect of this decrease in cognitive function on quality of life.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Information processing deficits in acutely psychotic schizophrenia patients medicated and unmedicated at the time of admission.

OBJECTIVE: In patients with schizophrenia, information processing deficits, such as those reported in studies that measured prepulse inhibition of the human startle response and habituation of startle magnitude, may be improved with atypical antipsychotic treatment. However, it remains unclear whether antipsychotic medication is directly responsible for the improvement or whether differences in prepulse inhibition reflect other factors, such as acuity status. The present study investigated the effects of antipsychotics on prepulse inhibition and startle habituation in acutely hospitalized patients with schizophrenia. METHOD: Forty-one acutely psychotic schizophrenia patients (21 who were unmedicated at the time of admission and 20 who had been receiving antipsychotic treatment) were tested within 72 hours of hospital admission. Thirteen healthy subjects were also studied for comparative purposes. Primary dependent measures were startle responsivity, reactivity, prepulse inhibition, and startle habituation. RESULTS: Schizophrenia patients, whether medicated or unmedicated at admission, showed prepulse inhibition deficits compared with healthy subjects and did not statistically differ from each other in startle magnitude, prepulse inhibition, or habituation. There was a higher number of startle "nonresponders" among those who had been receiving medication versus those unmedicated at the time of admission. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings suggest that antipsychotic effects on prepulse inhibition may not be evident at a time when schizophrenia patients are acutely symptomatic. These results suggest that the neurobiological substrate underlying prepulse inhibition deficits may be dysregulated during acute psychotic states while the patients are in early phases of medication treatment.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1999

Hemispheric and attentional contributions to perceptual organization deficits on the global-local task in schizophrenia.

Right and left hemisphere hypotheses have been proposed to account for cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. To examine these hypotheses, perception of global-local patterns was studied in 22 patients with schizophrenia and 28 normal comparison participants. The patients with schizophrenia showed an abnormally exaggerated global processing advantage when attention was divided between global and local levels but not when participants were instructed to attend to either the local or global level. This finding suggested a local processing (left hemisphere) deficit, which was overcome through strategic attentional allocation (instructional set). When the stimulus visual angle was reduced from 9 degrees to 3 degrees, the normal participants showed a shift from a local to a global processing advantage, but the patients did not. This finding suggested a more subtle deficit in strategic attentional processes that develop through exposure to stimulus context.

Adult↗