John W. Largen

Nuclear magnetic resonance in schizophrenia: A preliminary study☆

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) scans were performed in nine patients with schizophrenia and five control subjects. NMR scans allowed multiple-plane views of the brains of schizophrenic patients and demonstrated much greater detail of morphological structure than computed tomographic (CT) scans. This small sample of subjects, however, showed no significant differences in several quantitative measurements between schizophrenic patients and control subjects. Problems in the interpretation of image intensity measures of NMR scans are discussed.

Neuropsychological patterns of presenile and senile dementia of the Alzheimer type

Thirty-seven patients with a presumptive diagnosis of dementia of the Alzheimer type were divided into presenile and senile groups according to the age at which they first received a clinical diagnosis. Although there were no differences in mental status, dementia rating, or chronicity of disease, multivariate analyses of WAIS subtests revealed the presenile subjects to be relatively impaired on Performance subtests. Univariate tests of Verbal, Performance, and Full Scale IQ measures were significantly lower in the presenile group. There was no group effect detected for Digits forward, adjusted for age differences based upon performance of 40 age-matched controls, while the presenile group performed significantly more poorly on backward span. Further, significant differences were detected for an embedded figure task, as well as graphomotor speed. These data suggest that patients who develop a degenerative dementia during the presenile period are more impaired than their senile counterparts on age-adjusted measures of sustained concentration and mental tracking.

Biological symptoms of depression.

&NA; Frequency of occurrence of various biological symptoms in relation to intensity of depression and neuroticism was studied in 37 depressed patients. The best indicator of depression severity and neuroticism were, respectively, early waking and excessive dreaming, when the symptoms were studied individually. A group of biological symptoms predicting the severity of depression was found via stepwise multiple regression analysis of variance. No such grouping was found for neuroticism. However, only neuroticism was found for neuroticism. However, only neuroticism was found to be a useful predictor of the biological symptoms when taken as a whole.

Changes in brain ventricular size with repeated CAT scans in suspected Alzheimer's disease.

The interpretation of brain ventricular size in CAT scans of patients with dementia is made difficult by the marked variability in ventricular size that occurs with normal aging. Five patients with probable Alzheimers disease had serial CAT scans. Published normative data were interpolated to estimate the normal rate of change in ventricular size. Over a period of 15 to 35 months, four of the five patients had increases in ventricular size that were remarkably greater than the norms. The data suggest that the rate of change in ventricular size may be of considerable interest in longitudinal analyses and as a neurodiagnostic parameter.

Specific and Non-specific Effects of Skin Temperature Control in Migraine Management

SYNOPSIS

Biofeedback control of skin temperature and cerebral blood flow in migraine.

SYNOPSIS

Skin Temperature Self‐Regulation and Non‐Invasive Regional Cerebral Blood Flow

SYNOPSIS

Menstruation and cerebral blood flow

Gender differences in cerebral blood flow (CBF) are known to exist, with women reported to have higher rates of blood flow at the hemispheric level and to have higher regional flow values in frontal, temporal, and parietal, but not occipital, areas (Gur et al. 1982; Mathew et al. 1986). In addition to these gender differences, there are reasons to expect that CBF may vary cyclically within women across the menstrual cycle. It is known that numerous physiological (e. g , , hormonal, hematological), psychophysiological (e.g., skin conductance, EEG), and psychological (e.g., negative affect, cognitive task buoyance) variables fluctuate cyclically with the menstrual cycle (Jankowsky et al. 1973; Little and Zahn 1974; Vellar 1974; Brovermanet al. 1981; Beckeret al. 1982; Asso 1986). Many of these variables have known or suspected associations with CBFlevels (Ingvaret al. 1979; Mathew et al. 1980; Thomas 1982). If cyclical effects of the menstrual cycle on CBF do exist, such effects would represent a potentially significant confounding variable in CBF investigations utilizing mens~ating female subjects. The present study investigated the stability of CBF in female subjects across the menstrual cycle.

Sympathetic-Adrenomedullary Activation and Migraine

Sympathetic-adrenomedullary activation forms an integral part of non specific stress response. A wide variety of stress-evoking situations has been associated with increased sympathetic activity and output of catecholamines, epinephrine and norepinephrine.1,2,3 Epinephrine, most of which is derived from adrenal medulla, is believed to be secreted in response to acute stress, while norepinephrine, most of which originates from sympathetic nerve endings, is more indicative of sustained emotional tension.2,4 The earlier notion that only unpleasant emotional stimuli evoke the stress-related sympathetic adrenomedullary activity has been discarded. Now, it is well-established that stress is produced by both pleasant and unpleasant emotions and that both are equally capable of inducing physiological changes characteristic of stress response.1,2,3,4,5 Psychosomatic illnesses are usually considered to be those conditions caused or exacerbated by stress.

Longitudinal Changes in Intellectual Memory, and Perceptual Functions in Dementia of the Alzheimer's Type

Dementia of the Alzheimers type (DAT) has been characterized as a primary degenerative disease of the central nervous system which is insidious in onset, steady and progressive in nature, and involves diffuse regions of the brain. While the data-base for neuropsychological patterns continues to develop for single-measurement studies of DAT, there is a paucity of information available concerning the dynamic and progressive quality of the disorder. The present study was initiated to investigate systematically the longitudinal patterns of intelligence, verbal and nonverbal memory, and visual-tactile perceptual functioning in two groups of DAT patients.