Arthur S. Tamkin

Depression Among Alcoholics

The relationships of cognition, health status, and age to depression among alcoholics were studied. Eighty male alcoholics in an alcohol treatment unit were rated on health status and given a battery of psychological tests and scales. These included the Hooper VOT (cognition) and several self-rated depression indices: MMPI-Depression, MCMI-Dysthymic, BDI-Total (BDI-Somatic and BDI-Psychological), and the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). Results showed that depression was present in this sample at mild clinical levels. Regression analyses showed that age was the most influential factor on the MMPI-D and BDI-Somatic. Age also was most influential on the GDS, with health status contributing. However, except for somatic depression, the amount of explained variance was small. Despite this, it is argued that age is a contributing factor to depression among alcoholics, especially the somatic elements of depression.

Cognitive impairment in alcoholics.

The research literature shows that, as a result of chronic alcohol abuse, there occur impairments in abstract reasoning, problem-solving, and perceptual-motor functioning. In an earlier study, Tamkin (1983) obtained significant differences between alcoholics and paired neurotic inpatient controls only on abstract reasoning measured on the Weigl Color-Form Sorting Test. Verbal functions and recall of designs showed no group differences. This study sought to replicate the Weigl test results and to examine other types of cognitive impairments in alcoholics relative to published norms. The study subjects were 104 male alcoholics in an alcohol rehabilitation unit. The tests used were the Weigl, Trails A and B, and three subtests of the WAIS. The proportion of impaired Weigl performances was similar to that obtained in 1983, and all the other test scores were significantly poorer than their published norms.

Age‐related norms for the Hooper Visual Organization Test

Explored the effects of age, education, and IQ on Hooper Visual Organization Test (VOT) scores and age-related norms for psychiatric patients. Ss were 211 male, veteran, psychiatric inpatients, grouped into six age decades, who were administered routinely the VOT and Shipley Institute of Living Scale plus other tests upon admission. Analyzing the relation between age decade and VOT, a one-way analysis of variance produced an F significant at the .001 level. An intercorrelation matrix for all the study variables disclosed that age, IQ, and education all were correlated significantly with VOT scores, as well as with each other, except for IQ and age. However, a multiple regression analysis revealed that only age and IQ accounted for significant amounts of the variance in VOT scores. Thus, these results argue for the use of age-related norms as well as norms that correct for IQ.

The effectiveness of the Weigl color‐form sorting test in screening for brain dysfunction

Investigated the Weigls diagnostic significance by correlating it with several psychometric and personal variables, including degree of brain dysfunction. Forty-three male, veteran, psychiatric patients were administered the complete WAIS, Hooper, Benton, and Weigl, and their ward psychiatrist estimated presence and degree of brain dysfunction. Although uncorrelated with brain dysfunction, the Weigl did correlate significantly with 13 of the 19 study variables involved in assessment of brain function. Factor-analytic studies showed that the Weigl loaded significantly on the factor associated with neurological function. It was discovered that when a patient who is being screened can perform the conceptual requirements of the Weigl, then additional conceptual-verbal tests (e.g., Similarities) are less useful in discriminating organicity than perceptual tests (e.g., Object Assembly). When a patient cannot shift on the Weigl, then further conceptual tests will be useful.

Factor Analytic Study of Irrational Beliefs

This study investigated the validity of the Rational-Emotive Therapy construct of irrational beliefs and provided discriminant validity for a test of irrational beliefs, the Idea Inventory. 216 male psychiatric inpatients from a large medical center were administered a battery of psychological measures. These included the Idea Inventory, the MMPI, the Beck Depression Inventory, the Hooper Visual Organization Test, and the Shipley Institute of Living Scale. The Idea Inventory is a 33-item scale assessing the 11 irrational beliefs of Elliss RET schema. Correlations showed that there is adequate internal consistency among the 11 subscales of the Idea Inventory and that there were 73 of 110 significant coefficients between this scale and the MMPI. Only a small amount of common variance, however, is accounted for. Most importantly, a factor analysis using all of the scales yielded five factors. The first factor included the scales of the Idea Inventory exclusively, with the MMPI and cognitive scales loading on other factors. Discussion centered on the validity of the Idea Inventory and on the independence of irrational beliefs and psychopathology.

The efficacy of rational-emotive group therapy in psychiatric inpatients

The impact of rational-emotive theory and therapy upon the practice of clinical psychology has been profound, and many purportedly objective experimental tests of its efficacy as a mode of treatment have been reported. Yet the great majority of these reports have failed to utilize actual clinical populations. This study evaluated rational-emotive group therapy with psychiatric inpatients. Results supported the claim that irrational beliefs are related to emotional disturbance. It was also shown that patients undergoing rational-emotive group therapy changed their self-reported irrational beliefs more than did a control group. Finally, there was a trend for the experimental subjects to be more likely to have been discharged from the hospital during the 90-day follow-up period than were control subjects. However, this study failed to demonstrate that change in irrational beliefs was related to improvement in psychiatric symptoms or rates of discharge from the hospital. Some of the difficulties in conducting treatment evaluation research in a psychiatric hospital setting are discussed with respect to these results.

Age-corrected norms for Shipley Institute of Living Scale scores derived from psychiatric inpatients.

Age has been identified as a particularly powerful factor that affects neuropsychological test scores. The Shipley Institute of Living Scale especially requires age-corrected norms because the Abstraction subtest has been shown to decline with advancing age. This study attempts to improve upon the methodology employed in a previous study by the same authors (Tamkin & Jacobsen, 1986) by correcting only the Abstraction score, increasing the number of subjects to 486, and increasing the number of age groupings to 11. An empirically derived correction for each age group is added to the Abstraction score, and the total Shipley score then is entered in Table 5 of Paulson and Lin (1970) to determine the corresponding WAIS IQ. These norms are ecologically valid for adult, male inpatients with various psychiatric diagnoses, a population for whom the Shipley frequently is used.

MMPI personality type and cognitive flexibility as determined by the Weigl color-form sorting test in psychiatric patients

The relationship of cognitive flexibility with MMPI personality type, age, education, and IQ was investigated for a sample of 41 psychiatric inpatients. Cognitive flexibility was measured by the Weigl Color-Form Sorting Test. An index for measuring divergent thinking behavior was obtained from determining the similarity of their admission MMPI profiles to a MMPI prototype profile for divergent (psychotic) ideation using the formula: Divergent thinking = PA + PT + SC - L - K. Results showed that in this sample, cognitive flexibility was related significantly and inversely to the level of divergent thinking (p = .02), but was unrelated to IQ test scores. Supplemental analyses indicated that the level of divergent thinking may mask the established relationship of cognitive flexibility with age and education.

Comparison among Four Measures of Depression in Younger and Older Alcoholics

Two hypotheses were tested: (1) The Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) would be less affected by age in an older alcoholic group than in a younger one. (2) In comparison with other depression scales—Beck Depression Inventory, Depression Scale of MMPI, and Dysthymic Scale of Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory—the Geriatric Depression Scale would be the one least affected by age in the older group. To test these hypotheses two groups were formed, containing 36 and 37 subjects, whose mean ages were 32.50 and 53.98 yr. All subjects were administered the four depression scales and tests of cognitive function. The results confirmed the first hypothesis as r was .32 between age and the Geriatric Depression Scale for the younger group and .03 for the older group. The second hypothesis was not confirmed. All four depression scales correlated nonsignificantly with age in the older group. The use of the depression scales for all ages was supported and discussed.

Some correlates of the Weigl Color-Form Sorting Test in alcoholics

The correlates of the Weigl Color-Form Sorting Test in a group of 48 alcoholic inpatients were explored. It was predicted that Weigl performance would be related to conceptual flexibility (Trails B), verbal conceptual ability (Similarities), and symbol substitution (Digit Symbol). It was predicted further that the Weigl would be unrelated to Vocabulary and Trails A. Significant correlation coefficients for the Weigl were obtained with education, Vocabulary, Digit Symbol, and Trails B. However, a stepwise regression analysis disclosed that only Trails B was a significant predictor of Weigl performance.