Coralee Yale

Improved survival following bone marrow transplantation for aplastic anaemia.

Summary. We transplanted 46 patients with severe aplastic anaemia with a new pretransplant immunosuppressive regimen consisting of cyclophosphamide (200 mg/kg) and low‐dose total body irradiation (3 Gy). This regimen (CY‐TBI‐2) was designed to decrease the high risk of graft rejection associated with the use of cyclophosphamide alone, without increasing the incidence of graft‐versus‐host disease (GHVD) or interstitial pneumonia (IPn). Two‐year actuarial disease‐free survival of patients conditioned with CY‐TBI‐2 was 62% (95% CI: 47–77%). Only one patient rejected her graft and the incidence and severity of GVHD and IPn were not increased compared to previous studies. Patients < 25 years of age had excellent 2‐year survival of 82% (95% CI: 69–95%). These data indicate that CY‐TBI‐2 is an effective means of preventing graft‐rejection and achieving long‐term disease‐free survival in multiply transfused patients with severe aplastic anaemia.

Predicting individual responses to drug treatment in schizophrenia: a test dose model.

The literature and the findings from the Camarillo Schizophrenia Research Project reported in this paper indicate that a satisfactory method for predicting the response of an individual schizophrenic patient to antipsychotic drugs has yet to be devised. A test dose procedure is described which offers promise of a practical approach to selecting the most appropriate drug and dosage for a particular patient and tailoring blood concentrations to the needs of the individual case. Preliminary findings indicate that the test dose procedure is feasible; that detectable changes occur after a single test dose; and that measurements made during the test dose period may be predictive of eventual outcome. These findings are, of course, only a report of a preliminary pilot experiment, subject to important caveats about small number of cases, interpretation of large numbers of correlation coefficients, and need for cross-validation. Nevertheless, they are encouraging and suggest that the test dose approach has considerable potential for further research.

Assessment of psychiatric outcome—I. Cross section analysis ☆

Abstract Cross Section Analysis is a flexible method of depicting the outcome of a patients illness from chronological series data such as post-treatment measurements. Patient status is assessed by display of outcome in terms of ‘cross point values’ at fixed ‘cross points’ in time from a pre-determined origin. The method involved interpolates or extrapolates cross point values when observations are not available at cross point times, by utilizing information from the measurements actually obtained. The necessary procedures and computations are described with illustrations from case data. The cross section method has important practical and theoretical advantages.

Assessment of psychiatric outcome. II. Simple Simon analysis

Abstract Simple Simon analysis is a method of describing the outcome of a patients illness over time in simple terms that should be meaningful to the ordinary clinician and that give some insight into process trends occurring over the selected period. It can be used to compare individual patients or subsets of patients over a given period of time. The necessary procedures, computations and tabulations are described.