Positive and negative symptoms in the psychoses: principal components analysis of items from the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms and the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms.

The present study investigated the factor structure of the items contained in Andreasen's scales for the assessment of positive and negative symptoms (SAPS and SANS) by use of a series of principal components analyses (PCAs) with oblique rotations of the axes. It was found that the structure could be summarized by three major components labeled negative symptoms, thought disorder, and delusions/hallucinations. Dimensionality could meaningfully be increased to five components.

Measuring nursing outcomes in a psychiatric setting.

Recent developments in health care reform suggest the importance of outcome data regarding the nature, costs, and documented effectiveness of various health care services. While psychiatric nurses believe in the value of the care they provide, the present climate requires that research be conducted to elaborate the outcomes of psychiatric nursing care. This article describes a pilot study conducted on two adult inpatient units of a teaching hospital.

Active propagation of somatic action potentials into neocortical pyramidal cell dendrites.

The dendrites of neurons in the mammalian central nervous system have been considered as electrically passive structures which funnel synaptic potentials to the soma and axon initial segment, the site of action potential initiation. More recent studies, however, have shown that the dendrites of many neurons are not passive, but contain active conductances. The role of these dendritic voltage-activated channels in the initiation of action potentials in neurons is largely unknown.

A paired comparison of dot blot hybridization and PCR amplification for HPV testing of cervical scrapes interpreted as CIN 1.

The rate of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) detection in CIN 1 lesions is quite variable for several reasons. Amongst these, the sensitivity level of the HPV detection system probably ranks supreme. The prevalence of HPV DNA in cervical scrape samples from 234 patients referred for colposcopic investigation of a CIN 1 lesion was compared using dot blot hybridization (DBH) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification.

Integrated ambulatory care resource scheduling in oncology.

In a modern managed-care environment, the scheduling of ambulatory care activities must be viewed as a series of closely related activities rather than a group of unique and independent events. These activities must be sequenced in a logical manner, and linked with a variety of information on other clinical, operational, and administrative activities. This article focuses on such an integrated scheduling system which supports the ambulatory care services at the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center.

Perceptual learning in seeing form from motion.

Some perceptual tasks, such as global stereopsis, have been shown to improve with practice. Paradigms that involve such 'perceptual learning' have been exploited to learn more about the nature and sites of these perceptual tasks in the brain and about plasticity in the adult central nervous system. We found that seeing structure from global motion in some kinematograms composed of tilted line elements required a period of learning.

Effect of transdermal oestradiol on the haemostatic balance of menopausal women.

Objective: To determine the effect of transdermal oestrogen replacement therapy on the haemostatic balance of menopausal women.

Design: Open, parallel group, prospective study.

Setting: Three hospital-based menopause clinics.

Intraventricular morphine for intractable pain of advanced cancer.

Among the most difficult pain management problems are those associated with advanced head and neck cancer, and those in which pain is midline, bilateral, or diffuse. The authors report effective control of intractable pain in 52 patients by injection of small doses of morphine via an Ommaya or a Cordis reservoir into the lateral cerebral ventricle. The technique is safe and effective.

Estrogen and progesterone receptor, human papillomavirus, and DNA ploidy analysis in invasive carcinoma of the cervix in pregnancy.

From 1980 to 1991, 13 patients had pregnancy-associated invasive carcinoma of the cervix: four carcinomas were stage IA; eight were stage IB; and one was stage IVB. Gestational ages range from 8 weeks to 3 months postpartum. Two patients are dead of disease and a third is alive with metastases.

CSF cholecystokinin octapeptide in patients with bulimia nervosa and in normal comparison subjects.

Cholecystokinin octapeptide (CCK-8) appears to modulate appetitive behavior, and in rodents, anxiety-related behavior. The authors studied CCK-8 in patients with bulimia nervosa. CSF concentrations of CCK-8 were measured in 11 drug-free female patients with DSM-III-R-defined bulimia nervosa and in 16 normal subjects.

Reconceptualizing the psychiatric head nurse role.

The increasing complexity and specialization of psychiatric services mandate changes in the management of people and the delivery of health care. These changes have occurred simultaneous with significant progress in the discipline of psychiatric nursing and its evolvement into expanding areas of clinical expertise, higher levels of education, and growing sophistication in research. Such significant changes require that the role of the psychiatric head nurse be reexamined and reformulated to facilitate its alignment with the current realities of the health care environment.

Patch-clamp recordings from the soma and dendrites of neurons in brain slices using infrared video microscopy.

A description is given of the implementation of infrared differential interference contrast (IR-DIC) video microscopy to an upright compound microscope. Using the improved resolution offered by IR-DIC a procedure is described for making patch-pipette recordings from visually identified neuronal somata and dendrites in brain slices. As an example of the application of this technique to electrophysiological recordings from small neuronal processes in brain slices we describe whole-cell current-clamp and cell-attached and excised patch-clamp recordings from the apical dendrites of layer V pyramidal neurons in slices of rat neocortex.

Role of percutaneous cervical cordotomy for pain of malignant origin.

Objective: To discuss the place of, and indications for, percutaneous cervical cordotomy in the relief of cancer pain and to report a series of patients on whom the operation was performed at the Royal Brisbane Hospital.

Setting And Patients: Two hundred and seventy-three patients underwent percutaneous cervical cordotomy of approximately 4000 cancer patients referred to the Pain Clinic, Royal Brisbane Hospital, a tertiary referral centre, in the years 1979 to 1991. Both public and private patients were included.

Intraperitoneal interferon in the management of malignant ascites.

Background: Ascites secondary to malignancy is a major cause of recurring morbidity in patients with ovarian cancer. In patients previously treated with cisplatin, other chemotherapeutic agents are not likely to be effective in relieving symptoms.

Methods: A pilot group of ten patients was treated with intraperitoneal alpha-2B-interferon (alpha-2B-IFN) in an effort to provide symptomatic relief of their ascites.

Positive and negative symptoms in the psychoses. Re-analysis of published SAPS and SANS global ratings.

The validity of the simple dichotomy between positive and negative symptoms was examined by reanalysing the results of published studies using global ratings from Andreasen's SAPS and SANS. Global ratings from our own sample of 114 diagnostically heterogenous psychotic patients were also analysed. In none of the studies was a simple positive-negative dichotomy an adequate representation of symptom structure.

Outpatient laser cone biopsy under local anesthesia.

The authors report on 60 patients who had abnormal findings on cervical cytologic examination, necessitating conization of the cervix. The procedure was done in an ambulatory setting, with a carbon-dioxide laser unit and local anesthesia. The average operative time was 16.

The human papillomavirus status of 114 endocervical adenocarcinoma cases by dot blot hybridization.

The reported rate of human papillomavirus (HPV) positivity in cases of endocervical adenocarcinoma averages 38% (range, 0% to 100%) and, in contrast to cervical squamous cell carcinoma, HPV type 18 rather than type 16 is the predominant type. The HPV positivity rate and distribution of types (status) in 114 endocervical adenocarcinoma cases (37 in situ and 77 invasive) were determined by dot blot hybridization using biotinylated probes to HPV types 6, 11, 16, 18, 31, 33, and 35. Human papillomavirus DNA was present in 27% of in situ and in 44% of invasive adenocarcinomas, and in nearly all histologic subtypes of invasive adenocarcinoma.

Age is prognostic variable in cervical squamous cell carcinoma.

A clinico-pathologic review was performed on all younger (under 35 years) and older (55 years or over) women with a diagnosis of cervical squamous cell carcinoma assessed at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre from 1980 to 1985 to determine the effect of age at diagnosis on survival. 45 younger women were identified: 32 were Stage IB; 10, Stage II; and 3, Stage III. 64 older women were identified: 16 were Stage IB; 30, Stage II; 14, Stage III; and 4, Stage IV.

Preliminary report: placebo-controlled, double-blind study of the clinical and metabolic effects of desipramine in panic disorder.

Fifty-six males and females with panic disorder with or without agoraphobia participated in a 12-week, placebo-controlled treatment study of the efficacy of desipramine (DMI). Twenty-six of 28 patients receiving DMI completed the study; 17 of 28 placebo (PBO) recipients completed 12 weeks. Patients receiving DMI responded significantly better than did PBO recipients as measured by Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAM-A) and global phobia ratings, with a trend toward greater global improvement, but no between-group differences on panic attack frequency were discerned.

The factor structure of the Turkish version of the General Health Questionnaire.

The 60-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) was translated into Turkish and administered to a community sample of 437 Turkish-speaking immigrants resident in Melbourne, Australia. The factor structures of the 60-item and 28-item versions of the GHQ were examined to determine the cross-cultural validity of the four subscales of the 28-item GHQ "anxiety/insomnia", "social dysfunction", "severe depression" and "somatic complaints". Four-factor principal components analyses yielded factors which corresponded to similar underlying traits, but the pattern of symptom loadings differed in several ways.

Chemotherapy and treatment scheduling: the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center Outpatient Department.

The Chemotherapy and Treatment Scheduling System provides integrated appointment and facility scheduling for very complex procedures. It is fully integrated with other scheduling systems at The Johns Hopkins Oncology Center and is supported by the Oncology Clinical Information System (OCIS). It provides a combined visual and textual environment for the scheduling of events that have multiple dimensions and dependencies on other scheduled events.