Arthur Canter

The analgesic properties of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol and codeine

The administration of single oral doses of delta‐9‐tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) to patients with cancer pain demonstrated a mild analgesic effect. At a dose of 20 mg, however, THC induced side effects that would prohibit its therapeutic use including somnolence, dizziness, ataxia, and blurred vision. Alarming adverse reactions were also observed at this dose. THC, 10 mg, was well tolerated and, despite its sedative effect, may have analgesic potential.

Analgesic Effect of Delta‐9‐Tetrahydrocannabinol

A preliminary trial of oral delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) demonstrated an analgesic effect of the drug in patients experiencing cancer pain. Placebo and 5, 10, 15, and 20 mg THC were administered double blind to ten patients. Pain relief significantly superior to placebo was demonstrated at high dose levels (15 and 20 mg). At these levels, substantial sedation and mental clouding were reported.

The creative writer: Psychiatric symptoms and family history

Abstract A group of 15 successful creative writers was found to differ significantly from a group of 15 noncreative controls when both were examined for psychiatric symptoms and family history using a structured interview and specifically defined diagnostic criteria. Seventy-three percent of the writers suffered from some form of psychiatric disorder, as compared with 20% of the controls. The most common illness was affective disorder, which occurred in 67% of the writers and 13% of the controls. The two groups also differed significantly in family history. The primary relatives of writers had a 21.4% prevalence for any type of psychiatric illness, as compared with 4.4% among the relatives of controls. Morbid risk for depression was 19% among the primary relatives of writers and 2% for primary relatives of controls. In addition to an increased risk for psychiatric illness, relatives of writers also had a higher incidence of creativity; 23% of the primary relatives of writers were creative, while only 7% of the primary relatives of controls were similarly creative. These data suggest a familial association between creativity and affective disorder.

Stressful life events and burn injuries

About half of the 67 adults admitted to a burn treatment unit during the course of a year were found to have pre-existing physical and/or psychiatric conditions that increased their susceptibility to injury. In addition, the majority of victims were unmarried, unemployed, and came from low social class, circumstances that tended to increase their vulnerability. A significant increase in stressful life events was reported by these patients during the year preceding burn injury. This life change was negatively correlated with age, income, and number of friends, and positively correlated with social class and psychiatric illness. Two subgroups of persons vulnerable to burns were identified, the first, older women with physical illness, and the second, persons of low social class with psychiatric disorders. The findings have implications for burn prevention and rehabilitation of burn victims.

The significance of thought disorder in diagnostic evaluations

Abstract A group of 42 clinicians examined proverb interpretations and samples of writing from two schizophrenics, two manics, and two creative writers without any information about symptoms or past history. They diagnosed thought disorder more frequently in the writers and manics than in the schizophrenics and noted in them more traits commonly thought characteristic of thought disorder. Suspected diagnoses were never the same as the actual clinical diagnoses, and they were unable to distinguish the psychotic from the nonpsychotic individuals. These data suggest that current thinking about the nature and significance of thought disorder should be reexamined and reevaluated.

Changes in mood during incubation of acute febrile disease and the effects of pre-exposure psychologic status.

&NA; Psychologic measures of mood, distress and psychologic vulnerability were obtained from young male volunteers participating in experimental tularemia studies before exposure, during incubation of disease and during the acute and convalescent illness periods. Daily temperature and fever records were maintained. It was found that the onset of negative mood feelings was prodromal to fever in the majority of subjects. Psychologically vulnerable subjects tended to react to a greater degree and to show more severe illness as measured by the duration of fever than did the nonvulnerable subjects.

The Frequency of Physical Illness as a Function of Prior Psychological Vulnerability and Contemporary Stress

&NA; Psychologically vulnerable and nonvulnerable adults, as defined by scores on the MMPI and CMI, were compared on their subsequent histories of accident‐stress experiences and numbers of visits to a medical dispensary for complaints of physical illness during an 18‐month period. Both groups had equivalent proportions of subjects with accident‐stress experiences. Psychological vulnerability and accident‐stress were significantly associated with higher illness rates when considered independently, and in combination were associated with even higher illness rates. The types of illnesses were similar in the two psychological groups. Among subjects making the most frequent dispensary visits, however, the psychologically vulnerable ones had proportionately more of their complaints in the GT and less in the URI illnesses than the nonvulnerable ones.

A Background Interference Procedure for Graphomotor Tests in the Study of Deficit

This note is a preliminary report on the development of a simple procedure which can be applied to graphomotor tests of visuo-motor and visuo-perceptive capacities. One problem with the usual graphomotor test is the difficulty in differentiating the deficiency in performance that may be due to simple motor ineptitude and mental defect in contrast with that from psychosis and cerebral disease. This experimental technique requires S to copy figures of the BenderGestalt type, each on a blank sheet of paper. After an interpolated task, he copies the figures onto papers which concain a ~noderately dense background of randolnly placed intersecting curved lines. This method allows one to contrast Ss performance under the Background Interference Procedure (BIP) with that obtained under standard conditions. Try-outs of different configuracions on BIP paper, using copying techniques and memory-for-designs tests, show the procedure to be applicable to different kinds of existing tests. In one study using the copy method, 21 patients with brain syndrome were compared with a like number of non-organic patients. Decrements in the quality of performance by 17 of the organic Ss under BIP conditions were noted in contrast to only two of the non-organic Ss (xk 118.8, p < .01) . In another study using the Benton Visual Retention Test (BVRT), 12 neurological patients were given either Form C or D of the BVRT with 10-sec. exposure. Half the group did the BVRT on standard paper followed by an interpolaced task and then an alternate BVRT form on BIP paper. T h e ocher half carried out the tests i n reverse order. Seven of the patients obtained a decrement in performance under BIP conditions, using both raw score and error scores on the BVRT, independent of order of administration. Four of the patients actually drew better on BIP. These patients differed neurologically in that they had diffuse types of damage in contrast to the rest of the group. Irnprove~nent in performance has been noted in other try-outs with some neurotic and personality disorder patients. This phenomenon is being investigated further. It appears chat the BIP has alerting properties as well as stressful ones for different patients. At this preliminary stage, the BIP appears to hold a promise of extending che range of application of grapho~notor tests to many clinical and research problems.

Performance of senile and healthy aged persons on the BIP bender test.

The standard Bender test and its repetition on Canters BIP paper along with the WAIS Vocabulary and Block Designs were administered to 16 senile and 17 healthy elderly Ss. The defects of the senile Ss were clearly revealed by the tests but the conventional use of Bender error scores and the discrepancy between Vocabulary and Block Design scores would also identify at least a fourth of the healthy elderly as having mild to moderate deficit consistent with organic brain damage. On the other hand, the BIP reflected the normal perceptuomotor performance of the healthy Ss while retaining sensitivity to the degree of organicity of the senile Ss.