Caregiver food allergy self-efficacy explains the relationship between perceived food allergy severity and burden.

Objective: Caregiver perceived food allergy severity is associated with food allergy burden, while caregiver food allergy self-efficacy has been linked to improved quality of life for caregivers. This study examined the mediating effect of caregiver food allergy self-efficacy on the relationship between perceived food allergy severity and caregiver food allergy burden.

Methods: Caregivers of children diagnosed with IgE-mediated food allergy were recruited from pediatric allergy clinics to complete demographic and medical questionnaires, the Food Allergy Independent Measure-Parent Form, the Food Allergy Self-Efficacy Scale for Parents, and the Food Allergy Quality of Life-Parental Burden.

Neuropsychiatric aspects of multi-infarct dementia and dementia of the Alzheimer type.

Delusions, depression, and hallucinations were assessed in 30 patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) and 15 with multi-infarct dementia (MID). The nature and prevalence of delusions did not distinguish DAT from MID: delusions were present at the time of examination in 30% of patients with DAT and in 40% of patients with MID, and had occurred at some time in the course of the illness in half the patients of each diagnostic group. Delusions were primarily paranoid in type and involved elementary misbeliefs concerning theft or infidelity.

Affective disorders in the elderly.

Elderly patients, just as younger ones, may suffer from the two extremes of affective disturbance known as mania and depression. Either may be secondary to underlying organic causes often requiring specific treatment. For primary disorders, treatment typically consists of pharmacotherapy and/or psychotherapy.

Depression in the elderly: current management concepts.

Fear of possible cardiovascular side effects has prevented many physicians from treating older patients with antidepressants. However, we believe that it is the rare patient who cannot or should not be treated with some agent. Start with a low dose of desipramine, doxepin, or trazodone, depending upon the tolerance for sedation and anticholinergic side effects.

Late-life paraphrenia: an organic delusional syndrome.

Five patients with late-life onset of schizophrenic symptomatology (late-life paraphrenia) were found to have occult organic disorders. Although it was not possible to prove that the organic disorders were causal in these patients, none had any psychiatric illness until late in life and none had any significant risk factors for developing schizophrenia. This study demonstrates the need to investigate the medical and neurologic condition of any elderly patient presenting with a new onset of delusions.

Orthostatic effect of imipramine and doxepin in depressed geriatric outpatients.

Blood pressure measurements were collected from 36 depressed geriatric outpatients (ages 55 to 81 years) enrolled in a double-blind, placebo-controlled study of the efficacy of doxepin and imipramine. Mean systolic postural changes were 25.9 mm Hg for imipramine, significantly higher than the 10.

Psychiatry-important advances in clinical medicine: heterogeneity of dementia.

The Scientific Board of the California Medical Association presents the following inventory of items of progress in psychiatry. Each item, in the judgment of a panel of knowledgeable physicians, has recently become reasonably firmly established, both as to scientific fact and important clinical significance. The items are presented in simple epitome and an authoritative reference, both to the item itself and to the subject as a whole, is generally given for those who may be unfamiliar with a particular item.

Clinical psychiatry and cardiovascular disease in the aged.

The geriatric patient has a high incidence of cardiovascular and psychiatric illness; treatment of either may lead to emergence or aggravation of the other. Toxic side effects can frequently be managed by a reduction in dose or a change in medication. In general, the psychiatric problems of elderly patients, including patients with cardiovascular disease, can be managed despite the cardiovascular toxicity of most psychotropic drugs.