A psychophysiologic reaction to application of ambulatory blood pressure monitor: fact or artifact?

Background: The study investigated the clinical significance of relatively high blood pressure (BP) elevations during the calibration of the ambulatory blood pressure monitor (ABPM).

Methods: Inferences were drawn from the analysis of differences between 'M', the average of five manually triggered responses, and 'W', the average daytime BP. M-W differences were calculated from ABPM recordings of consecutive patients (N=276), grouped diagnostically, on the basis of ABPM results, into normotensive (71), untreated hypertensive (77), and treated hypertensive (128).

The clinical utility of ambulatory blood pressure and heart rate monitoring in psychiatric inpatients.

Alterations in heart rate and blood pressure (BP) may occur in patients receiving psychiatric medication. Twenty-four-hour ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) monitoring was compared with nurses' conventional vital signs (CVS) for systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) and heart rate (HR) measurements in psychiatric inpatients receiving multidrug treatments. Twelve consecutive subjects were enrolled.

Analysis by gender and Visual Imagery Reactivity of conventional and imagery Rorschach.

Examined here are the effects of gender and Visual Imagery Reactivity in 80 consecutively selected psychiatric outpatients. The participants were grouped by gender and by the amounts of responsiveness to preceding therapy work using imagery (Imagery Nonreactors and Reactors). In the group of Imagery Nonreactors were 13 men and 22 women, and in the Reactor group were 17 men and 28 women.

A simple method for evaluation of Rorschach Imagery Reactivity.

A general scoring system, previously developed for the analysis of pictorial associations within the paradigm of Visual Imagery Sequences, was applied in the evaluation of visual associations to memory images of Rorschach inkblots (Imagery condition) in a comparison with standard Rorschach responses (Conventional condition). The participants, 80 consecutively selected psychiatric outpatients, were divided into Clinical Reactor and Nonreactor groups, according to how productive they were of psychodynamically revealing material during insight-oriented therapy using imagery. For this simple scoring method (which does not include the customary Rorschach scores), conclusions concerning Imagery Reactivity in the Rorschach agreed with those of previous studies using a scoring system more unique to the Rorschach.

Effect of instructions given to reactors and nonreactors to produce visual imagery sequences following an imagined pleasant scene.

15 Visual Imagery Reactors and 15 Nonreactors were instructed to produce Visual Imagery Sequences using as a point of departure a pleasant scene imagined by themselves. Despite these instructions, Reactors developed significantly less pleasant scene materials, more High and Low Affect/Conflict, less Neutral Content, and briefer sequences preceding all Affect/Conflict. Four Reactors and no Nonreactors expressed difficulty in visualizing pleasant scenes.

Clinical applications of Rorschach-based visual imagery reactivity.

A diverse set of findings from recent research suggests the value of visual imagery techniques in clinical practice.

Free visual imagery sequences in reactors and nonreactors.

The technique of Free Visual Imagery Sequences was used with 32 outpatients, M age of 33.9, to determine the differences between Visual Imagery Reactors and Nonreactors as defined in previous studies. Reactors showed significantly more responses associated with Affect/Conflict material, frequently including bizarre and distorted images.

Rorschach-based indices of visual imagery reactivity.

A method using a specially developed Rorschach-based procedure was applied in conjunction with a visual imagery technique in evaluating protocols of 40 outpatient subjects. The subjects were divided into Reactor and Nonreactor groups, according to how productive in clinically significant material their responses were in the imagery condition contrasted to a conventional administration of the Rorschach. A scoring method correctly classified 35 of the 40 subjects as being Reactors or Nonreactors.

Clinical comparisons and Rorschach response differences between visual imagery reactors and nonreactors.

Rorschach cards were administered to psychotherapy patients under two conditions. In the imagery condition, cards were presented to each subject briefly, following which the cards were visualized with eyes closed and any visual imagery sequences were reported. This procedure was preceded by a standard Rorschach administration.

Effects of instructions for visual imagery on Rorschach responses.

The Rorschach was administered to two groups of 12 subjects under two conditions. The first group was classified as imagery Reactors based upon their prior responsivity to imagery instructions during therapy. The second group was labelled Nonreactors using the same clinical criteria.

Specificity and genetic restrictions of the guinea-pig immune response to dinitrophenyl-lysyl-alanyl octapeptides.

A series of 2,4-dinitrophenyl (DNP) octapeptides containing L-lysine and L-alanine were prepared to examine the specificity and genetic restrictions of both cellular and humoral immune responses in inbred guinea-pigs. Strains 2 and 13 guinea-pigs were therefore immunized with Lys4-Ala3-Lys(DNP), Lys3Ala4-Lys(DNP), Lys2-Ala5-Lys(DNP) and Lys-Ala6-Lys(DNP). Only Lys4-Ala3-Lys(DNP) was under Ir gene control and could induce both antibody and T-cell responses in strain 2 guinea-pigs.

Towards a systems definition of psychiatric practice.

Assessment of psychiatric practice has been difficult largely because of the apparent diversity of psychiatrists' theories, procedures, and goals. Searching for a unifying principle, we propose system identification failure (SIF), a defect in data-processing, as the unit of psychopathology underlying all psychiatric disorder (and other behavioral error). Definitive treatment must not only identify and correct the data-processing defect, but also eliminate the secondary symptoms.