Inflated perception of responsibility for harm in OCD patients with and without checking compulsions: a replication and extension.

In a follow-up study to [J. Anxiety Disord., in press] examination of inflated perception of responsibility for harm among individuals with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCs), 22 OC checkers, 24 OC non-checkers, and 25 non-anxious controls (NACs) completed the Obsessive Compulsive Responsibility Scale (OCRS), which consisted of written descriptions of Low-Risk (LR), Moderate-Risk (MR), and High-Risk (HR) scenarios.

Familial association of neuropsychological traits in patients with generalized and partial seizure disorders.

To investigate familial effects of neuropsychological deficits associated with seizure disorders, we studied 65 families, in which 1 member had epilepsy. The disorders included childhood absence epilepsy (CAE), juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) and temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Age-appropriate tests were administered to assess sustained attention, encoding and verbal memory, executive and focused attention and attentional flexibility/impulsivity.

Memory and memory confidence in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Pathological doubt, often found in individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), has been theoretically linked to memory deficits, but empirical evidence for such deficits has been mixed. In contrast, many studies suggest that individuals with OCD have low confidence in their memories. The present study aimed to build upon previous research by measuring memory accuracy and confidence in OCD using ecologically valid, idiographically-selected stimuli.

Inflated perception of responsibility for harm in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

The present study examined the proposition that inflated responsibility is implicated in obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Compared to non-anxious control participants (NACs), and an anxious control group with generalized social phobia (GSPs), we predicted that individuals with OCD (OCs) would exhibit a greater urge to rectify situations involving potential risk, would report more distress upon leaving such situations unrectified, and would feel more personal responsibility if the unrectified situations resulted in harm. Fifteen OCs, 15 NACs, and 15 GSPs completed the Obsessive Compulsive Responsibility Scale (OCRS), which included low-risk, OC-relevant, and high-risk situations.

Thought-action fusion in individuals with OCD symptoms.

Rachman (Rachman, S. (1993). Obsessions, responsibility, and guilt.

The effect of practice on recall of emotional information in individuals with generalized social phobia.

Understanding memory processes in social anxiety is important because these individuals often report negative memories of anxiety-provoking situations and because of the recent emphasis on learning and memory in models of anxiety. The authors examined the effect of learning on memory for negative social, positive social, and nonsocial information using the retrieval-induced forgetting paradigm in individuals with generalized social phobia (GSPs) and in nonanxious controls (NACs). Words were presented in 1 of 3 practice conditions: practiced words from a practiced category, unpracticed words from a practiced category, and unpracticed words from an unpracticed category.

Implicit memory bias for threat-relevant information in individuals with generalized social phobia.

The authors used a noise judgment task to investigate implicit memory bias for threat in individuals with generalized social phobia (GSP). Participants first heard neutral sentences (e.g.

Memory bias in generalized social phobia: remembering negative emotional expressions.

In two experiments, the authors examined memory for facial emotional expressions in patients with generalized social phobia (GSP) and in nonanxious control (NAC) participants. Three main questions were addressed. First, do patients with GSP differ from NAC participants in their overall memory for facial expressions? Second, do patients with GSP exhibit a memory bias for negative versus nonnegative expressions? Third, if such a bias exists, is it specific to angry expressions? The results of both experiments indicated that patients with GSP have better memory for all facial expressions than do NAC participants.

Family distress and involvement in relatives of obsessive-compulsive disorder patients.

Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) affects the lives of patients as well as their relatives. Calvocoressi et al. (1995) suggested that accommodation (e.

Acoustics of a flanged cylindrical pipe using singular basis functions.

The problem of acoustic radiation from a cylindrical pipe with an infinite flange has been discussed in a number of papers. The most common approach is to decompose the field inside the pipe over a basis of Bessel functions. A very large number of basis functions is usually required, with a large degree of ripple appearing as an artifact in the solution.

Automatic activation and strategic avoidance of threat-relevant information in social phobia.

The authors examined the hypothesis that abnormalities in activation and inhibition of threat-relevant information may account for information-processing biases in social anxiety. Individuals with generalized social phobia (GSP) and nonanxious controls were presented with sentences ending in homographs and in nonhomographs and were asked to make decisions about a cue word that followed each sentence. Half of the homographs had a social-threat implication.

Relationship between trauma narratives and trauma pathology.

In this study we examined the relationship between posttrauma pathology and the level of articulation (complexity) in rape narratives recounted by victims shortly after the assault. Degree of articulation was operationalized as the reading level of the narrative as determined by a computer program. Shortly after the trauma, reading level was correlated with severity of anxiety but not with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms.

Lung reduction operation and resection of pulmonary nodules in patients with severe emphysema.

Background: Severe pulmonary dysfunction has been considered a relative contraindication to surgical resection in patients with solitary pulmonary nodules. We report our initial experience with the combined use of lung volume reduction operation and tumor resection in this patient population.

Methods And Patients: Between January 1995 and July 1996, 14 patients underwent combined lung volume reduction operation and pulmonary nodule resection.

Strategies of thought control in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Intrusive anxiety-provoking thoughts are a core feature of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Recent research suggests that individuals use five different techniques of thought control including: distraction, punishment, re-appraisal, social control, and worry. The purpose of the present study was to examine the strategies of thought control used by OCD patients compared to those used by non-anxious controls.

Implicit and explicit memory in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

We examined implicit and explicit memory in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) patients an in non-patients. Implicit memory was measured by the effect of prior presentation on ratings of noise volume. Explicit memory was examined via a recognition task.

Suppression of the emotional Stroop effect by increased anxiety in patients with social phobia.

Anxious individuals are slower at color-naming threat-related than nonthreat-related words in the emotional Stroop task. Recently, Mathews and Sebastian (1993, Cognition and Emotion, 7, 527-530) reported that this Stroop interference effect disappears when snake-fearful students are exposed to a snake while performing the color-naming task. In the present experiment, we had patients with social phobia and normal control subjects perform an emotional Stroop task under either low anxiety (i.

Gastrointestinal consequences of left ventricular assist device placement.

Left ventricular assist devices effectively improve hemodynamic function and reverse renal and hepatic dysfunction; however, their effects upon the gastrointestinal (Gl) system have not been addressed. We evaluated Gl function in 27 left ventricular assist device recipients using interviews, Gl contrast studies, endoscopy, and 99mTc sulfur colloid studies of esophageal transit and gastric emptying. While on left ventricular assist device support (mean duration of 84 days), 19 patients reported early satiety and/or nausea, and 1 was unable to tolerate oral intake.

Implicit memory bias for threat in panic disorder: application of the 'white noise' paradigm.

We employed Jacoby's white noise paradigm to investigate implicit memory bias for threat in panic disorder and in normal control subjects. Subjects heard a series of neutral sentences (e.g.

Fungal infections in left ventricular assist device recipients. Incidence, prophylaxis, and treatment.

The authors reviewed the charts of 26 recipients of a left ventricular assist device to determine the incidence of fungal infections and the clinical course of these patients. Nine patients (35%) had positive fungal cultures. Of these, six had clinical infections and three were colonized asymptomatically.

Noncardiac surgery in long-term implantable left ventricular assist-device recipients.

Objective: The authors describe their experience with left ventricular assist-device (LVAD) recipients undergoing noncardiac surgery and delineate surgical, anesthetic, and logistic factors important in the successful intraoperative management of these patients.

Summary Background Data: Left ventricular assist-devices have become part of the armamentarium in the treatment of end-stage heart failure. As the numbers of patients chronically supported with long-term implantable devices grows, general surgical problems that are commonly seen in other hospitalized patients are becoming manifest.

Developmental dyscalculia and brain laterality.

The correlation between arithmetic dysfunction and brain laterality was studied in 25 children with developmental dyscalculia (DD). The children were tested on a standardized arithmetic battery and underwent a neurological and neuro-psychological evaluation. A diagnosis of left hemisphere dysfunction (n = 13) was based on right side soft neurological signs, performance IQ (PIQ) > verbal IQ (VIQ), dyslexia and intact visuo-spatial functions.

Developmental right-hemisphere syndrome: clinical spectrum of the nonverbal learning disability.

We report the clinical characteristics of the developmental right-hemisphere syndrome (DRHS), a nonverbal learning disability, in 20 children (9 girls and 11 boys; mean age = 9.5 years) who also manifested attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), severe graphomotor problems, and marked slowness of performance. Diagnostic criteria for this study included (a) emotional and interpersonal difficulties; (b) paralinguistic communication problems; (c) impaired visuospatial skills, verbal IQ > performance IQ, and verbal IQ > or = 85; and either (d) dyscalculia or (e) neurological signs on the left side of the body.

Congenital lacticacidemia caused by lipoamide dehydrogenase deficiency with favorable outcome.

A 5-year-old boy had recurrent vomiting and lethargy with lacticacidemia and ketoacidemia since birth. Lipoamide dehydrogenase deficiency was found in muscle and fibroblasts. Therapy with sodium dichloroacetate, thiamine, and carnitine was associated with reduction of the severity and frequency of the decompensation episodes and near normal plasma lactate levels.

Sinister psychotics. Left-handedness in schizophrenia and affective disorder.

The notion persists that psychotics, particularly schizophrenics, are less right-handed than the general population, and that this deviation is pathophysiologically important in some patients. We assessed handedness and psychopathology in 163 DSM-III schizophrenics, 103 affectives, and 112 normal subjects. Although schizophrenics were less right-handed than normal subjects, this difference was primarily due to more mixed handedness among schizoaffectives.