ABSTRACT
Two hundred eighty-five volunteers from a community college were screened on campus for accuracy of their smooth pursuit eye movements (SPEM) by electrooculograph (EOG). Those volunteers with the least and the most accurate SPEM were recalled to the laboratory for a comprehensive evaluation of clinical and demographic characteristics, family history, neurological status, and psychophysiological and biological measures, including SPEM [repeat EOG test and infrared (IR) test], an electroencephalogram, auditory and visual evoked potentials, reaction time (RT), the continuous performance task (CPT), platelet monoamine oxidase (MAO), plasma amine oxidase, and dopamine-beta-hydroxylase (DBH). Low-accuracy SPEM was associated with social isolation, inadequate rapport, eccentricity, and a variety of related schizotypal or schizophrenia-like characteristics, but not with generalized psychopathology or other demographic/medical/clinical history variables. Low-accuracy SPEM also was associated with neurological and psychophysiological abnormalities frequently observed in schizophrenic patients. These results suggest that impaired SPEM may reflect an underlying central nervous system dysfunction that is specifically associated with clinical and biological characteristics related to schizophrenia, even in the absence of overt schizophrenia.
Subject(s)
Arousal/physiology , Eye Movements , Neurocognitive Disorders/physiopathology , Pursuit, Smooth , Adult , Attention/physiology , Borderline Personality Disorder/physiopathology , Brain Stem/physiopathology , Evoked Potentials, Auditory , Evoked Potentials, Visual , Humans , Psychiatric Status Rating Scales , Reaction Time/physiology , Schizotypal Personality Disorder/physiopathology , Social IsolationABSTRACT
Twenty-one subjects with clinically diagnosed dementia of the Alzheimer type were rated on the Dementia Mood Assessment Scale, a new instrument intended to measure the severity of depressed mood in cognitively impaired patients. Ratings were based on direct observation and a semistructured interview of the patient. Interrater reliability was established. There were highly significant correlations between patients' scores on the instrument's 17-item depression subscale and their scores on global measures of depression and sadness. The potential usefulness of this new scale in assessing the severity of depression in demented patients longitudinally or under drug treatment conditions is discussed.
Subject(s)
Alzheimer Disease/complications , Depression/diagnosis , Psychiatric Status Rating Scales , Adult , Aged , Depression/complications , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , PsychometricsABSTRACT
Impaired smooth pursuit eye movement has been proposed as a possible biologic marker for schizophrenia. Preliminary studies have suggested that this impairment may be associated with social introversion and related psychopathology in a nonpsychiatric population. To evaluate the relationship between dysfunctional smooth pursuit eye movement and schizophrenia-related psychopathology, the authors screened a new, volunteer sample of 284 male college students for eye tracking accuracy. Volunteers identified as low-accuracy trackers were significantly more likely to be diagnosed (blindly) as having a schizotypal personality disorder by DSM-III criteria than those identified as high-accuracy trackers. The authors suggest that disordered smooth pursuit eye movement may reflect a vulnerability marker for schizotypal personality disorder.
Subject(s)
Eye Movements , Schizotypal Personality Disorder/diagnosis , Adult , Diagnosis, Differential , Electrooculography , Humans , Male , Mental Disorders/diagnosis , Mental Disorders/physiopathology , Psychiatric Status Rating Scales , Schizophrenia/genetics , Schizophrenia/physiopathology , Schizophrenic Psychology , Schizotypal Personality Disorder/physiopathologyABSTRACT
We studied 18 DSM-III diagnosed obsessive-compulsive disorder patients with the Halstead-Reitan Battery (HRB), EEGs, and CT scans. Results for the group as a whole were within the normal range; however two patients had abnormal EEGs and four showed average impairment ratings on the HRB high enough to suggest organic deficits. More than half of the subjects were impaired on the tactual performance test from the HRB suggesting a possible deficit in spatial perception. These data, however, do not define a single neuropsychological deficit nor do they replicate an earlier report of left frontal lobe dysfunction in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Cerebral CT scans in ten patients, including all those with EEG and average impairment rating abnormalities, showed VBR, asymmetry, and sulcal prominence measures indistinguishable from a matched group of nonpsychiatric control subjects.
Subject(s)
Neurocognitive Disorders/psychology , Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder/psychology , Adult , Electroencephalography , Female , Humans , Male , Neurocognitive Disorders/diagnosis , Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder/diagnosis , Psychological Tests , Tomography, X-Ray Computed , Wechsler ScalesABSTRACT
The authors evaluated whether the dysphoric effects reported by normals given lithium in several recent studies might also be found in depressed patients if detailed self-ratings were used in a double-blind study design. Nine depressed patients were studied at the end of lithium and placebo treatment trials. No overall adverse effects of lithium were found for the entire group, but individuals showed significant inverse correlations between pretreatment dysphoria and depression and the development of these symptoms with lithium, i.e., the less dysphoric and depressed patients (the more "normal" individuals) did report more adverse symptoms while the patients with higher initial symptom scores rated themselves as improved.
