The public health response to the Chi-Chi earthquake in Taiwan, 1999.

Objective: On September 21, 1999, at 1:47 a.m., an earthquake measuring 7.

Auditory discrimination in female adolescents varying in schizotypal features: preliminary findings.

Earlier experiments have suggested impaired auditory perception in patients with schizophrenia. The purpose of the present study was to investigate auditory discrimination in young adults varying in schizotypal features. Three hundred and forty-nine female adolescent subjects were rated with the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ) and the Perceptual Aberration Scale (PAS) and with questions from the Chinese Health Questionnaire (CHQ) that address non-psychotic, psychological status of the subjects.

Morbidity risk of psychiatric disorders among the first degree relatives of schizophrenia patients in Taiwan.

This study aimed to assess the boundaries of the schizophrenia spectrum and whether inclusion of such phenotypes increases power for linkage analysis of schizophrenia. Participants were 234 first degree relatives (FDRs) of 94 schizophrenia probands in Northern Taiwan who completed a direct interview using the Diagnostic Interview for Genetic Studies (DIGS). Based on best estimate diagnosis, the morbidity risk in the relatives for schizophrenia was 2.

Symptom patterns and subgrouping of schizophrenic patients: significance of negative symptoms assessed on admission.

This study subgroups schizophrenic patients based on symptoms assessed on admission and examines the validity of the subgrouping using follow-up data and other clinical outcome variables. Schizophrenic patients (n=163) from consecutive admission received ratings on the positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS) on admission and during a 1-year follow-up course. An exploratory graphic analysis on the admission PANSS derived four symptom dimensions: negative symptoms, disorganized thought, hostility/excitement and delusions/hallucinations.

Substance use among adolescents in Taiwan: associated personality traits, incompetence, and behavioral/emotional problems.

Background: Despite that adolescent substance use is increasingly prevalent throughout the world and leads to increased risk of progression to illicit drug use, few studies have examined in detail individual features that are associated with such use. We aimed to examine personality traits, incompetence, and behavioral/emotional problems in relation to adolescent substance use and possible interactions between these factors.

Methods: Junior high school adolescents (N = 905) randomly selected from Taipei in 1996 completed a questionnaire consisting of substance use experience, the Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (JEPQ), and the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ).

Deficits in sustained attention in schizophrenia and affective disorders: stable versus state-dependent markers.

Objective: The authors compared sustained attention deficits measured by the Continuous Performance Test in patients with various affective disorders and patients with schizophrenia and examined whether Continuous Performance Test deficits in patients with affective disorders improve with remission of affective disorder symptoms.

Method: Patients with schizophrenia (N=41), major depression without psychotic features (N=22), bipolar disorder without psychotic features (N=22), and bipolar disorder with psychotic features (N=46) completed Continuous Performance Test sessions with an undegraded version of the test and a 25% degraded version in which the stimulus images were visually distorted. Subjects were also interviewed with the Chinese version of the Diagnostic Interview for Genetic Studies.

Cloninger's Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire: psychometric properties and construct validity in Taiwanese adults.

Despite the wide use of the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ) in Western populations as a useful tool integrating both genetic and environmental influences on personality, some of its constructs remain questionable. In this study, we examined the psychometric properties of the TPQ and its relationship with aggression in Taiwanese adults. The subjects were 201 Taiwanese adults of wide ranges in age and educational level.

Genetic heterogeneity in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): gender, psychiatric comorbidity, and maternal ADHD.

The authors examined the siblings of 140 attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and 120 control probands and classified families as antisocial if the proband had conduct disorder or a parent had antisocial personality. Partial support was found for the hypothesis that the ADHD gender effect would be limited to antisocial families. Boys had an increased risk for ADHD compared with girls, but only among siblings from antisocial families.

Diagnostic accuracy of the Child Behavior Checklist scales for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: a receiver-operating characteristic analysis.

The diagnostic accuracy of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) scales for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were examined using receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Three logistic regression models were estimated in an initial sample of 121 children with and without ADHD. These models were then tested in a cross-validation sample (N = 122) and among the 111 brothers and 108 sisters of the initial and cross-validation samples.

Intellectual performance and school failure in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and in their siblings.

We made psychiatric and intellectual assessments of 140 children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), 120 normal controls, and their 303 siblings. The index children were white, non-Hispanic boys. ADHD children were more likely to have had learning disabilities, repeated grades, been placed in special classes, and received academic tutoring.