Behavioral neuropsychiatry最新文献

With the advent of community psychiatry it has become imperative to reconsider the role and meaning of such basic concepts as ego development, oedipal conflicts, object relations, etc. So much of life in the ghetto has been reduced merely to the struggle for survival. This is even more dramatically evident in dealing with the emotional and behavioral problems encountered among the children. Psychological intervention in any dimension must recognize and adapt or redefine these concepts within the context of the particular cultural and social environment. This varies widely when dominated by violence, disruption, and chaotic life experiences. Cases are cited to demonstrate the problems facing the practitioner who must attempt to treat a host of multi-faceted problem areas.

In this modern age of rapidly advancing medical knowledge and technology there are few conditions as wrapped up in ignorance and prejudice as that known as epilepsy. A large part of the reason for this lies in the concept of the "epileptic person," by which is really meant the epileptic personality. In an attempt to assess behavior and learning in children with seizures, behavior and learning being regarded as opposite sides of the same coin, a study was designed in which totally objective neurological and psychological data was obtained from such a group of children. The evaluation was carried out without any prior knowledge of the nature of the presenting clinical picture, so as to prevent bias from pre-conceived notions. The results show that 70% of the first 200 children showed significant learning defects sufficient to make special educational placement mandatory. Of the remaining 30% some still showed minor learning problems enough to give rise to difficulties in regular classroom situations. Associated with these learning problems were varying behavioral reaction types, varying from the classical hyperactive child with minimal cerebral dysfunction to many environmentally-produced behavior difficulties resulting from faulty school placement due to failure to recognize learning problems. Faculty parental handling due to similar failure to realize the child's limitations also contributed to this. The significance of these findings with respect to the behavior disturbances of the so-called epileptic child will be discussed.

Schizophrenics classified into acute, chronic, and high-low social competence groups were compared in terms of comprehensive social functioning and life stress. Results obtained with 624 patients showed overlap between the two classifications in functioning in eight areas of psychosocial activity. Interpersonal relationships differentiated acutes-chronics while antisocial behavior separated high from low social competence subjects. For stress three areas were common to both classifications. The acutes-chronics differed on work and interpersonal stress while leisure time stress differentiated competence groups. Predictability by comprehensive functioning measure identified readmission variables for acutes while social competence did not. For chronics, comprehensive functioning identified isolated psycosocial factors as predictors.

Issues of control problems in alcohol research, resulting from studies of a possible alcohol placebo effect, are discussed. These concern how the control response is related to the pre-drug response as well as the stability of both.

In order to determine whether sleep onset per se might precipitate the sleep growth hormone (GH) response, sleep EEG-EOG and plasma GH characteristics were studied in 15 healthy young males (AM) sleeping from 8 AM to 10 AM, when REM sleep is known to predominate, and in 14 subjects (PM) sleeping from 4 PM to 6 PM, when slow-wave sleep (SWS) predominates. PM subjects obtained significantly more SWS and less REM sleep than AM subjects. There was wide individual variability in the level and timing of the GH rise during the naps, but GH release was significantly greater during PM naps than during AM naps for the groups as a whole. The difference between conditions reflected primarily the fact that more subjects exhibited frank GH peaks during PM naps than during AM naps. These results indicate that the occurrence of the sleep GH response is not dependent upon sleep onset, and confirm previous reports of an association between the sleep GH response and SWS.

A series of experiments in psychic phenomena were undertaken with a 21-year-old man who claimed to have telepathic ability. An elaborate procedure was devised to render collusion between Transmitters and Receiver ineffective, if not impossible. Results tended to support the subject's claims. Several single responses are reported which seemed particularly noteworthy with respect to correlation in time and content. A Control subject, duplicating the experimental procedure, did not have the overall success rate demonstrated by the experimental subject. The authors conclude that this experiment strongly suggests the possibility of telepathy, but does not prove it.