Premorbid adjustment and paranoid-nonparanoid status in schizophrenia.

Using 98 schizophrenics, good premorbids were found to be evenly distributed regarding paranoid vs. nonparanoid symptomatology. Poor premorbids were predominantly nonparanoid and rarely paranoid. However, paranoids were predominantly good premorbids, whereas nonparanoids were distributed between good and poor premorbids. (15 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Premorbid adjustment and affective expression in schizophrenia.

Randomly selected 2 samples composed of 25 process and 25 reactive schizophrenics. There were no significant differences among the groups either in mean age or education. Mmpi deviation scores were obtained for each s by subtracting s's mean clinical scale score from each of the 9 mmpi clinical scales. Reactive ss had significantly (p     

Influence of adjustment and physical attractiveness on the employability of schizophrenic women.

Compared manifest adjustment and physical attractiveness for their effects on hirability. Employment interviewers assessed 21 18–54 yr old female psychiatric patients who had been videotaped taking part in a simulated job interview. Results indicate that (a) 43% of the interviewees were considered employable by at least 3 of 4 interviewers, although all interviewees were hospitalized with diagnoses of psychosis at the time. (b) Manifest adjustment (i.e., during the interview) related strongly to Ss' hirability. (c) Variables that had nonsignificant correlations with hirability included physical attractiveness (whether judged from videotapes or still photos) and demographic indexes such as number of previous hospitalizations and age at 1st hospitalization. The significant correlation between manifest adjustment and employability corroborates results of earlier studies that used "normal" confederates (stooges) rather than actual mental patients. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Premorbid adjustment and paranoid-nonparanoid status in schizophrenia: A further investigation.

Investigated the interrelations between premorbid social competence, role orientation as expressed in symptomatology, and paranoid-nonparanoid status in 295 Veterans Administration (VA) hospital and 300 state hospital male schizophrenic patients. Among state hospital paranoid schizophrenics, paranoids had higher premorbid social competence scores (Phillips-Zigler Social Competence Index) than nonparanoids. For VA hospital schizophrenics, paranoid-nonparanoid status was unrelated to premorbid social competence. State hospital patients had lower premorbid competence scores and a higher incidence of nonparanoid diagnosis than VA hospital patients. The prevalence of a number of symptoms also differed between the 2 hospitals. The role orientation symptom pictures differed both for hospitals and for paranoid and nonparanoid status. The relationships between role orientation, paranoid-nonparanoid status, and premorbid social competence are discussed within a developmental framework. (23 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contextual constraint and the language function of schizophrenic outpatients.

Compared the syntactic and semantic parameters of linguistic constraint in male chronic schizophrenic outpatients, chronic schizophrenic inpatients, and nonpsychiatric medical outpatients, to determine if improvement could be made in this type of cognitive functioning. Results show that the schizophrenic outpatients failed to benefit from increased verbal meaningfulness, indicating a need for further therapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Premorbid adjustment as predictor of outcome in schizophrenia: results of a prospective study

The present prospective follow-up study of 163 schizophrenic patients admitted to hospital for the first time examined the relationship between premorbid adjustment and different measures of the 3-year course and outcome. The same instruments had been used in all phases of the study. The Premorbid Adjustment Scale was used to assess premorbid social functioning. Outcome measures were positive symptoms, negative symptoms, social disability and number of rehospitalizations. The results of the multiple regression analyses showed that premorbid adjustment was the strongest overall predictor of outcome. Premorbid adjustment was significantly associated with negative symptoms and social disability over the 3-year course of illness. In a further step, we examined the relationship between good, moderate and poor premorbid adjustment and the course of positive symptoms, negative symptoms and social disability within the first 3 years after index admission. The most important finding was that premorbid functioning showed a stronger correlation with the course of negative symptoms and social disability than with the course of positive symptoms. Poor premorbid social functioning implies a poor social course of the illness. Female subjects showed better premorbid functioning than male subjects. Good premorbid adjustment was strongly associated with an acute onset of the illness, and poor premorbid adjustment with an insidious onset.     

Premorbid social competence in schizophrenia.

Investigated the interrelations between premorbid social competence, role orientation as expressed in symptomatology, and paranoid-nonparanoid status in 37 male schizophrenics. Ss with relatively high premorbid social competence displayed a symptom picture characterized by turning against the self. Paranoid-nonparanoid status was found to be related neither to premorbid social competence nor to role orientation. The similarities and discrepancies between the findings of this and earlier studies are discussed. (16 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Premorbid competence, role orientation, and gender differences in DSM-II versus DSM-III schizophrenic patients.

The study compared 71 patients diagnosed as schizophrenic or within the schizophrenia spectrum according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-II) with 66 patients who received similar diagnoses according to DSM-III. On measures of premorbid competence and role orientation, DSM-II and DSM-III schizophrenic patients obtained comparable scores. The DSM-III patients with schizophrenic versus schizophrenia spectrum diagnoses also obtained comparable scores on these measures. The gender differences in premorbid competence and role orientation that have consistently characterized DSM-II schizophrenics continued to characterize DSM-III schizophrenic and schizophrenia spectrum patients. The results suggest that findings previously obtained with DSM-II schizophrenics concerning premorbid competence and role orientation can be generalized to DSM-III schizophrenics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Early mothering experience and personality change.

This study examined the context of the early mothering experience and how that experience was related to personality change in 48 members of a longitudinal sample of women from age 21 (in 1958 or 1960), before any of them were married, to age 27 (in 1963 or 1964). Early motherhood was analyzed in terms of (a) how positively the woman described her experience and (b) how willing and able she was to maintain the full-time commitment considered necessary in the early 1960s. Path analyses showed that these two dimensions had somewhat different interrelations with mother's personality, the marriage, and husband's personality and participation as a father. However, both dimensions were related to relative increase in ego-resiliency and to relative decrease in feelings of vulnerability between ages 21 and 27, even when family and work variables were taken into account. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Negotiating the middle years: Ego-resiliency and successful midlife adjustment in women.

Midlife is a time of heightened reevaluation and reorientation during which individuals are faced with potentially stressful changes and turning points. Ego-resiliency (ER) is proposed to be a powerful personality resource that enables individuals to adaptively negotiate the challenges of this period. Through examination of data from 2 longitudinal samples of women (N?=?208), Study 1 examined whether observer-based and self-reported ER assessed at the beginning of midlife (at age 43) can predict life adjustments of specific relevance to this period assessed in late middle age (ages 52 and 48). In Study 2 age 43 ER was used to predict directional changes in central life adjustments and feelings about life over this same period (between ages 43 and 52). Predictions across samples, across measures of ER, or both were confirmed by replicated findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Patterns of adjustment among children of battered women.

Children exposed to interparental violence have been characterized by an array of psychological problems, but findings regarding the precise nature of these problems have been inconsistent. This study used cluster analysis to determine whether distinct patterns of adjustment could be identified in 228 8- to 14-year-old children residing in battered women's shelters. Five such patterns emerged: multiproblem–externalizing, multiproblem–internalizing, externalizing, mild distress, and no problems reported. This solution was cross-validated in independent halves of the sample and was similar for boys and girls. Differences among the clusters on relevant family and demographic variables were examined, and it was found that the clusters could be distinguished on the basis of the frequency of children's exposure to interparental violence, parent–child aggression, and children's appraisals of interparental conflict. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sleep's function in the spontaneous recovery and consolidation of memories.

Building on 2 previous studies (B. R. Ekstrand, 1967; B. R. Ekstrand, M. J. Sullivan, D. F. Parker, & J. N. West, 1971), the authors present 2 experiments that were aimed at characterizing the role of retroactive interference in sleep-associated declarative memory consolidation. Using an A-B, A-C paradigm with lists of word pairs in Experiment 1, the authors showed that sleep provides recovery from retroactive interference induced at encoding, whereas no such recovery was seen in several wake control conditions. Noninterfering word-pair lists were used in Experiment 2 (A-B, C-D). Sleeping after learning, in comparison with waking after learning, enhanced retention of both lists to a similar extent when encoding was less intense because of less list repetition and briefer word-pair presentations. With intense encoding, sleep-associated improvements were not seen for either list. In combination, the results indicate that the benefit of sleep for declarative memory consolidation is greater for weaker associations, regardless of whether weak associations result from retroactive interference or poor encoding. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hospitalization and Premorbid Characteristics in Withdrawn and Active Schizophrenics.

Hospitalization and premorbid data were collected on withdrawn and active schizophrenics in an attempt to explore basic differences between these types of patients. Results showed that withdrawns are first hospitalized at an earlier age, stay in the hospital longer each time they are admitted, spend more of their lives in psychiatric facilities, and have a higher incidence of delusions and hallucinations than actives. These data seem to reflect basic differences beyond the schizophrenic episode since withdrawns were also found to have a poorer overall premorbid adjustment, are less likely to be married, have fewer estimated friends between the ages of 6 and 18, and have fewer estimated high school activities than actives. Finally, implications for future research and high-risk studies are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perinatal complications in births to low socioeconomic status schizophrenic and depressed women.

Pregnancy and birth complications in births to 57 schizophrenic, 28 depressed, and 31 well women were studied. The sample was of low socioeconomic status (SES) and predominantly African-American. The study extended earlier work on the perinatal status of infants born to schizophrenic women by including measures of severity of maternal disturbance; mother's age, IQ, and premorbid social competence; and family composition. The results show that maternal competence and the mother's diagnosis of schizophrenia were significant variables in determining the likelihood of less adequate prenatal care and more complicated births. The results indicate the importance of an assessment not only of a disturbed woman's diagnosis but also of her personal background and social competence in determining the likelihood of obstetrical complications. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Left ventricular hemodynamics and function in acute myocardial infarction: studies during the acute phase, convalescence and late recovery

The left ventricular hemodynamics of 70 patients with acute myocardial infarction were determined from measurements of pulmonary arterial end-diastolic pressure, cardiac index, mean arterial pressure and heart rate during the acute phase(first study, 5 hours after admission), 4 to 6 weeks later (second study, during convalescence) and in 35 percent of all subjects 6 to 12 months after the acute infarction (third study). Serial analysis of serum creatine kinase was carried out during the acute phase. The peak CK value normalized for body surface area was used as a rough index of the extent of the acute myocardial necrosis. The condition of all survivors of the acute stage improved. Patients with only slightly reduced left ventricular performance during the acute stage recovered to nearly normal during convalescence. The condition of patients with greatly reduced left ventricular function also improved but remained impaired during convalescence. In all patients the main changes in left ventricular hemodynamics occurred within the first 4 to 6 weeks; there was almost no further alteration during the following 9 months.     

Size constancy as a function of personal adjustment and disposition.

"A size-distance judging task was given to 40 men who were classified in 4 groups, respectively styled 'neurotic introverts,' 'neurotic extraverts,' 'normal introverts,' and 'normal extraverts.' Analysis of data from 4 distances under 2 conditions of judgment, i.e., objective and analytic, indicated that neuroticism was the major source of between-group variation. Under analytic conditions, neurotic persons tended to match the stimulus in terms of visual angle, and normals in terms of size." 15 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Spatial and temporal variability in the pattern of recovery of ventricular geometry and function after acute occlusion and reperfusion

Myocardial ischemia and infarction are known to cause changes in both ventricular shape and function. Little is known about the recovery of ventricular geometry after transient myocardial ischemia and its relationship to recovery of function. To examine the pattern of recovery of ventricular geometry following transient coronary artery occlusion and to assess the relationship of this to the return of systolic function, we used echocardiography to study 13 dogs following 15-minute occlusion of the left anterior descending coronary artery. During ischemia, total endocardial surface area (ESA) increased from 32.55 +/- 1.77 to 45.36 +/- 3.18 cm2 (p = 0.001). The most striking increase was at the apex, where circumference increased from 5.04 +/- 0.24 at baseline to 7.86 +/- 0.43 cm at the end of occlusion (p = 0.0001), an increase of 58%. During reperfusion, ventricular geometry rapidly returned toward normal (baseline), with recovery of 80% of the increase in ESA evident by 15 minutes of reperfusion. Recovery of systolic function was substantially slower (p < 0.005 for all periods of observation during the 2 hours of reperfusion). During reperfusion, recovery of ventricular geometry and function was not uniform throughout the ischemic bed. The apex recovered most slowly, with the centroid of the area of abnormal contraction progressively moving along the long axis of the left ventricle toward the apex. There was also a progressive decrease in the radius of the area of dysfunction, from 2.0 +/- 0.15 at end occlusion to 0.13 +/- 0.07 cm at 120 minutes of reperfusion (p = 0.0001). There was no difference in blood flow between the apical and anterior segments during ischemia or reperfusion. Reperfusion favorably reduced the ischemic zone dilation before recovery of active systolic function and geometric recovery thus may be important in determining ultimate functional recovery. In addition, recovery of function proceeded inward towards the center of the ischemic territory and in a wavefront from the base to apex. This heterogeneous and asymmetric recovery suggests that sampling at one point within the ischemic zone may not reflect the true temporal pattern of recovery.     

Premorbid psychometric indicators of the gene for Huntington's disease.

Follow-up was made of 88 Ss who had a 50% chance of inheriting Huntington's disease (HD) from a parent and who had been tested 15–20 yrs previously. Striking differences were seen in premorbid mean test scores (Shipley-Institute of Living Scale for Measuring Intellectual Impairment, Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test, and the Wechsler intelligence tests) between 28 Ss who developed HD and 60 Ss who remained free of HD symptoms. The overall pattern of mean test scores showed progressively lower scores with increased closeness to overt HD. Attempts at "prediction" with test scores were made. Although hit–miss ratios as high as 3 to 1 were found with the intellectual tests, cross-validation could drastically reduce the high prediction accuracy. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)