ABSTRACT
Parental and professional responses to questionnaires evaluating a paediatric disability service are reported and the viability of auditing structural, process, and outcome aspects of clinical practice are discussed. Expectations of waiting time to first appointment (met for only 52% of consumers) illustrate structural issues. Process issues are reflected in consumer reactions to outreach work (for example, 94% of parents and 84% of professionals found this supportive). Outcome measures such as consumer satisfaction with the service (76% of consumers reported being 'very satisfied' and 20% 'fairly satisfied') suggest that service aims are being met. Good concurrence of service aims with consumer needs is indicated by parental reasons for referral (for example, 75% for diagnostic help, 73% for a better understanding of the disorder, 88% for practical help), referrers' reasons (for example, 55% for a second diagnostic opinion, 45% due to lack of local expertise), and reports from most other professionals involved with the case that a similar service was not provided locally.
Subject(s)
Child Health Services/standards , Consumer Behavior/statistics & numerical data , Intellectual Disability/rehabilitation , Management Audit , Child , Humans , Parents/psychology , Patient Satisfaction/statistics & numerical data , Process Assessment, Health Care , Quality Assurance, Health Care , Referral and Consultation , United Kingdom , Waiting ListsABSTRACT
Ear differences on a task involving a simple phonetic judgement were investigated in schizophrenic subjects using both healthy normal and depressed patient control groups. A deficit in phonemic differentiation was demonstrated and appeared to be specific to the schizophrenic group. The result is interpreted as supporting the hypothesis of a central dysfunction lateralized to the left hemisphere in schizophrenia.
Subject(s)
Auditory Perception/physiology , Phonetics , Schizophrenia/physiopathology , Acoustic Stimulation , Adolescent , Adult , Depressive Disorder/physiopathology , Discrimination, Psychological , Functional Laterality , Humans , Middle Aged , Reaction TimeSubject(s)
Hearing Loss, Central/complications , Hearing Loss, Sensorineural/complications , Schizophrenia/complications , Adult , Auditory Threshold , Clinical Trials as Topic , Dominance, Cerebral , Female , Functional Laterality , Hearing Loss, Central/chemically induced , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Pindolol/adverse effects , Schizophrenia/drug therapy , Time FactorsABSTRACT
The paradoxical finding of Gruzelier and Hammond (1978) that the electrodermal half-recovery time of schizophrenic patients was shorter and therefore more pathological (cf. Mednick and Schulsinger, 1968) when patients were on chlorpromazine than when they were later withdrawn from drug might account for reports of shorter recovery limbs in medicated schizophrenic patients. Here the same phenomenon was found with normal volumteers when on chlorpromazine but not amylobarbitone in response to orienting tones preceding a conditioning sequence. Other drug influences on electrodermal activity were, in the main, consistent with previous reports.
Subject(s)
Amobarbital/therapeutic use , Chlorpromazine/therapeutic use , Galvanic Skin Response/drug effects , Adult , Arousal/drug effects , Double-Blind Method , Female , Humans , MaleABSTRACT
A group of 16 chronic schizophrenic subjects were compared with 15 age-matched control subjects for interocular transfer of movement after-effects. Contrary to the hypothesis that schizophrenic subjects would show a deficit on this measure schizophrenics showed increased transfer compared to the controls. This effect is not due to response perseveration and is not correlated with length of hospitalization, age or dose of antipsychotic drugs. It is suggested that the effect reflects a deficit in 'inhibitory processes' in schizophrenia.
