Your browser doesn't support javascript.
loading
Show: 20 | 50 | 100
Results 1 - 5 de 5
Filter
Add more filters










Database
Language
Publication year range
1.
J Psychiatr Res ; 42(10): 827-36, 2008 Aug.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-17920078

ABSTRACT

Accurate measurement of negative symptoms is crucial for understanding and treating schizophrenia. However, current measurement strategies are reliant on subjective symptom rating scales, which often have psychometric and practical limitations. Computerized analysis of patients' speech offers a sophisticated and objective means of evaluating negative symptoms. The present study examined the feasibility and validity of using widely-available acoustic and lexical-analytic software to measure flat affect, alogia and anhedonia (via positive emotion). These measures were examined in their relationships to clinically-rated negative symptoms and social functioning. Natural speech samples were collected and analyzed for 14 patients with clinically-rated flat affect, 46 patients without flat affect and 19 healthy controls. The computer-based inflection and speech rate measures significantly discriminated patients with flat affect from controls, and the computer-based measure of alogia and negative emotion significantly discriminated the flat and nonflat patients. Both the computer and clinical measures of positive emotion/anhedonia corresponded to functioning impairments. The computerized method of assessing negative symptoms offered a number of advantages over the symptom scale-based approach.


Subject(s)
Affective Symptoms/diagnosis , Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted/methods , Psychotic Disorders/diagnosis , Schizophrenia/diagnosis , Schizophrenic Psychology , Sound Spectrography/methods , Speech Acoustics , Speech Recognition Software , Verbal Behavior , Adult , Affective Symptoms/psychology , Commitment of Mentally Ill , Emotions , Female , Humans , Interview, Psychological , Male , Middle Aged , Ohio , Prisoners/psychology , Psychiatric Status Rating Scales/statistics & numerical data , Psychometrics/statistics & numerical data , Psychotic Disorders/psychology , Reproducibility of Results
2.
Psychiatr Q ; 76(4): 327-39, 2005.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-16217627

ABSTRACT

DSM IV includes three clusters of items that are used to establish diagnoses for the Disruptive Behavior Disorders: Attention Deficit, Conduct, and Oppositional Defiant. In this report, we examine the feasibility of using the items in each cluster to form a rating scale. We studied eighty-four consecutive school-aged referrals to an inner-city child and adolescent Psychiatry clinic. Case diagnosis was established with a clinician's KID-SCID assessment. Parents and teachers rated the 41 DSM items on four-point scales, and completed the Conners' Rating Scales, in English or Spanish. In this paper we report psychometrics of the new scale, the Rating Scale for Disruptive Behavior Disorders (RS-DBD), along with the agreement among parents and teachers, and concurrence between the new scales and the relevant Conners' scales. While, the parent and teacher ratings may provide a useful index for severity of behavioral disturbance in the home and school environments, it will not establish a diagnosis. There was a great deal of comorbidity among diagnostic groups.


Subject(s)
Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorders/diagnosis , Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , Surveys and Questionnaires , Adolescent , Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity/epidemiology , Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorders/epidemiology , Child , Child, Preschool , Female , Humans , Male , Observer Variation , Reproducibility of Results , Severity of Illness Index
3.
Exp Aging Res ; 30(4): 305-31, 2004.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-15371098

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to examine changes in the facial expression of emotion across the adult life span. Two positive and two negative emotional expressions were posed by 30 young (21 to 39 years), 30 middle-aged (40 to 59 years), and 30 older (60 to 81 years) healthy, right-handed women. Photographs of the four emotional expressions were rated by independent judges for intensity, accuracy, and confidence. Special features of this study were the use of a neutral face as a nonemotional control, as well as careful cognitive and affective screening procedures for posers and judges. Overall, the expressions of older posers were rated as significantly less accurate and with significantly less confidence than those of younger posers. Although the neutral faces of older posers were rated as significantly more intense than those of younger posers, there were no significant age-related intensity differences for positive and negative emotions. The results are discussed in terms of theoretical models of aging.


Subject(s)
Aging/physiology , Emotions/physiology , Facial Expression , Adult , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Analysis of Variance , Female , Humans , Middle Aged , Observer Variation , Photic Stimulation , Reproducibility of Results
4.
J Clin Psychopharmacol ; 23(3): 309-13, 2003 Jun.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-12826993

ABSTRACT

Depressed geriatric patients have lower levels of folate (FOL) than controls. Also, FOL supplement can reduce depressive morbidity. One hypothesis consistent with this is that FOL deficiency causes a lowering of CNS serotonin that contributes to depression. The present report is from one site of a multicenter study that compared an SSRI (sertraline) with a nonspecific tricyclic antidepressant (nortriptyline) in geriatric depressed patients. We added measures of FOL at baseline and outcome for 22 depressed patients older than 60 years. Both treatments were effective. At baseline, FOL levels were within the normal range. Higher FOL levels at baseline predicted greater improvement. Further study of FOL interaction with SSRI is warranted. For the group treated with the SSRI, baseline FOL level was a more efficient predictor of improvement, especially for results on a self-rating depression scale (POMS).


Subject(s)
Antidepressive Agents, Tricyclic/therapeutic use , Depressive Disorder, Major/blood , Depressive Disorder, Major/drug therapy , Folic Acid/blood , Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors/therapeutic use , Aged , Depressive Disorder, Major/psychology , Female , Humans , Male , Predictive Value of Tests , Psychiatric Status Rating Scales/statistics & numerical data , Regression Analysis , Single-Blind Method , Treatment Outcome
5.
J Psychiatr Res ; 36(5): 347-53, 2002.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-12127603

ABSTRACT

In this report we compare clinical ratings of flat affect and alogia with objective measures of the patient's speech prosody and productivity. Thirty schizophrenic patients were evaluated with the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) and the St. Hans Rating Scale for extra pyramidal side effects. Their speech was recorded and analyzed acoustically for measures of prosody and productivity. Correlations between pairs of SANS items and acoustic measures (e.g. Vocal Inflection and Fundamental Frequency Variance) were weak. The SANS item and global ratings were strongly related. Ratings of bradykinesia overlapped with the SANS ratings but not with the acoustic measures. The SANS ratings appear to be derived from global impressions, with diffuse confounding of flat affect with alogia, and with bradykinesia. Acoustic analysis has the potential to provide objective measures that may help develop operational definitions of these constructs and enhance clinical assessment.


Subject(s)
Affect , Aphasia/diagnosis , Aphasia/etiology , Schizophrenia/complications , Speech Disorders/diagnosis , Speech Disorders/etiology , Adult , Humans , Male , Severity of Illness Index , Speech Acoustics , Speech Production Measurement
SELECTION OF CITATIONS
SEARCH DETAIL
...