Effects of obesity on posture and walking: study prior to and following surgically induced weight loss.

BACKGROUND: We investigate whether in severely obese people a marked weight loss may influence individual postural control and motor activities and then reverse the alterations caused by the extra load of body mass. Recent studies have shown that most severely obese patients have various degrees of impairment of postural control, but only a few studies considered those subjects before and after a marked weight loss. METHODS: Ten obese and ten subjects of average weight took part in our experiment. The subjects were requested to perform four different tasks. All obese patients repeated the tasks 1 year after undergoing bariatric surgery. RESULTS: We have found differences between obese and normal-weight people in the execution of all four work tasks. However, a year after surgery, obese patients showed a change in the execution of only two tasks, keeping the same performance in the other two. CONCLUSIONS: The excess of fat mass alters the execution of some tasks, as confirmed by the improvement obtained after weight loss. For other work tasks, we can hypothesize that the neurophysiological plasticity of the neuro-muscular system would require more time to adapt.

Self-abatement of complex partial seizures.

Seven of 71 patients with complex partial seizures claimed they were able to abate their seizures, while none of 18 with simple partial seizures were able to do so. Self-abatement exercises included highly stereotyped cognitive and physical components unique to the individual. Those who could abate their seizures had attained higher educational status, better social and vocational adjustment, and better psychological adjustment than did the control group of patients with epilepsy. The self-abatement group was also more likely to have right hemispheric electroencephalographic abnormalities. Characterization of the self-abatement group may be relevant to the selection of candidates for behavioral therapy for epilepsy.

Epileptic amnesic attacks: benefit from antiepileptic drugs.

We studied two sexagenarians who had recurrent circumscribed attacks of amnesia. Their EEGs showed frequent bilateral spikes that arose independently from the temporal lobes, primarily from mesiobasal structures. Amnesic attacks ceased after treatment with antiepileptic drugs. Neuropsychological tests demonstrated selective cognitive impairments, and short-term memory improved after treatment in one patient. Epileptic amnesic attacks should be distinguished from transient global amnesia, which is clinically similar.

Temporal stability of the Experienced Control Scale within an alcoholic male population.

Several reports have suggested relations of alcohol abuse to level of control experienced over various life pressures or forces. This study assessed test-retest reliability of the Experienced Control Scale (EC) (Tiffany, 1967) within a male alcoholic sample. The EC was completed on two occasions 1 week apart by 48 inpatients on an alcoholism treatment unit. Resulting test-retest reliability coefficients were .57 for the Internal ratio score, .79 for the External ratio score, .72 for the sum of the two ratio scores, and from .56 to .69 for the four basic scores used in computing ratio scores. Intellectual ability as assessed by the Shipley Institute of Living Scale was unrelated to EC scores and occasionally but conflictingly related to temporal stability of EC scores. Neither age nor education showed a significant relationship to temporal stability of the EC or to ratio scores. Implications of findings for clinical and research applications of the EC are discussed, particularly support for combining the ratio scores rather than treating them separately. Possible determinants of the obtained stability of the EC also are explored.

Disulfiram acceptors and refusers: do they differ?

The present study examined possible personality and mood state correlates of alcoholics' decisions to accept or refuse disulfiram (Antabuse) as past of their treatment program. Subjects were 104 male veterans in an inpatient alcohol treatment program who were offered disulfiram after detoxification and evaluation. All subjects completed the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, the Profile of Mood States, and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Subjects were classified as acceptors (n = 78) or refusers (n = 26) based on their response to staff encouragement to undergo a trial of disulfiram. There were no significant group differences on age, racial composition, or any of the personality or mood state measures, with the exception of a trend (p less than .06) for acceptors to score higher than refusers on the masculinity-femininity scale of the MMPI. Examinations of distributions of MMPI profile code types similarly showed no differences between the two groups. Possible contextual explanations of these results are examined. Findings offer no support for the assumption that agreement to take disulfiram signifies greater motivation or intention to remain abstinent.