The role of pterins in depression and the effects of antidepressive therapy.

Urinary excretion of neopterins (N) and biopterins (B) was measured in 48 patients with depression before and after treatment with placebo, antidepressants, or electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), and in 26 healthy control subjects. Patients prior to and after treatment had a significantly greater neopterin/biopterin (N:B) ratio than control subjects. There was a significant correlation between N:B ratios and the severity of depression and plasma cortisol. As a raised N:B ratio implies failure to convert neopterin to biopterin, it is possible that reduced availability of tetrahydrobiopterin, the essential cofactor for the formation of noradrenaline, serotonin and dopamine, may exert rate-limiting control over the synthesis of monoamines implicated in the pathogenesis of depressive illness.

Nebulised therapy and nursing knowledge.

Authoritative training from a multidisciplinary resource provides nurses with an excellent breadth and depth of knowledge. This study examines the impact of such training on nurses' knowledge of nebulised therapy and shows an encouraging improvement. Follow-up measures are also described.

Structural Equation Models of Factorial Invariance in Parallel Proportional Profiles and Oblique Confactor Problems.

Some problems of multiple group factor rotation based on Cattell's "parallel proportional profiles" and "confactor rotation" are described (see Cattell, 1944, 1966, 1972). Some relations between these classic ideas and contemporary practices in structural equation modeling (e.g., LISREL) are explored. We show how the Confactor approach: (a) is related to Meredith's (1964a) selection model, (b) can be a parsimonious model for multiple group factor analyses, and (c) how this model can be fitted using standard structural equation modeling techniques. We discuss several alternative structural modeling solutions, including (d) selection of a good reference variable solution, (e) rotation of the invariant orthogonal structure by standard rotation routines, and (f) higher-order, latent paths, and latent means structural model restrictions. Mathematical and statistical properties of these models are examined using Meredith's (1964b) four group problem fitted by Jdreskog and Sdrbom's (1979, 1985) LlSREL algorithm. The benefits and limitations of this structural modeling approach to oblique Confactor resolution are examined and opportunities for future research are discussed.

Pterin metabolism in depression: an extension of the amine hypothesis and possible marker of response to ECT.

Urinary excretion of neopterins and biopterins was measured in 23 patients with severe depression before and after receiving electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and 26 healthy control subjects. Patients with psychotic depression and those responding to ECT had neopterin:biopterin (N:B) ratio significantly higher than controls before commencing ECT and positive therapeutic response was associated with reduction of N:B ratio towards control values. As a raised N:B ratio implies failure to convert neopterin to biopterin it is possible that reduced availability of tetrahydrobiopterin, the essential cofactor for the formation of noradrenaline, serotonin and dopamine, may exert rate limiting control over the synthesis of monoamines implicated in the pathogenesis of depressive disorders. The N:B ratio may be a marker for certain depressive subtypes and response to ECT.

Human motivation objectively, experimentally analysed.

The growth of validated objective devices, and of knowledge of ergic and sentiment structure has now, for 20 years, put new instruments (MAT and SMAT) in the hands of psychological practitioners. They have been slow to recognize, however, the theoretical powers in conflict measurement, decision theory, the general dynamic calculus, and structured learning theory which this has brought about. Illustration is given here of the experimental and clinical gains, with a view to the growth of several areas inaccessible to bivariate experiment.

The birth of the Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology.

This paper describes the inception of a scientific movement (the Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology); the individuals who begot it; the two journals and numerous scientific articles which resulted; its effects in stimulating new areas of teaching and of theoretical development; and its international reception as well as its successes and failures in stimulating the creation of satellite societies on the same pattern.

Heritabilities of ego strength (factor C), super ego strength (factor G), and self-sentiment (factor Q3) by multiple abstract variance analysis.

Tested over 3,000 boys (identical and fraternal twins, ordinary sibs, general population) aged 12-18 on Ego Strength, Super Ego Strength, and Self Sentiment. The Multiple Abstract Variance Analysis (MAVA) method was used to obtain estimates of abstract (hereditary, environmental) variances and covariances that contribute to total variation in the three traits. Within-family heritabilities for these traits were about .30, .05, and .65. Between-family heritabilities were .60, .08, and .45. Within-family correlations of genetic and environmental deviations were trivial, unusually so among personality variables, but between-family values showed the usual high negative values, consistent with the law of coercion to the biosocial mean.