3 results
Neuropsychological correlates of schizophrenic syndromes in patients treated with atypical neuroleptics
- S. Moritz, B. Andresen, D. Jacobsen, K. Mersmann, U. Wilke, M. Lambert, D. Naber, M. Krausz
-
- Journal:
- European Psychiatry / Volume 16 / Issue 6 / September 2001
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 16 April 2020, pp. 354-361
-
- Article
- Export citation
-
There is widespread evidence that schizophrenic symptomatology is best represented by three syndromes (positive, negative, disorganized). Both the disorganized and negative syndrome have been found to correlate with several neurocognitive dysfunctions. However, previous studies investigated samples predominantly treated with typical neuroleptics, which frequently induce parkinsonian symptoms that are hard to disentangle from primary negative symptoms and may have inflated correlations with neurocognition. A newly developed psychopathological instrument called the Positive and Negative and Disorganized Symptoms Scale (PANADSS) was evaluated in 60 schizophrenic patients. Forty-seven participants treated with atypical neuroleptics performed several neurocognitive tasks.
A three-factor solution of schizophrenic symptomatology emerged. Negative symptomatology was associated with diminished creative verbal fluency and digit span backward, whereas disorganization was significantly correlated with impaired Stroop, WCST and Trail-Making Test B performance.
Data suggest that disorganization is associated with tasks that demand executive functioning. Previous findings reporting correlations between negative symptomatology and neurocognition may have been confounded by the adverse consequences of typical neuroleptics.
LORAN B. SMITH
- Dr. Steven Cann, Adam Breymeyer, Michael K. Moore, Kendall R. Cunningham, Stephen Ternes, Rachel Goossen, Margie Mersmann, Michael R. Brooks
-
- Journal:
- PS: Political Science & Politics / Volume 43 / Issue 1 / January 2010
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 15 January 2010, pp. 167-169
- Print publication:
- January 2010
-
- Article
-
- You have access Access
- HTML
- Export citation
-
Dr. Loran B. Smith passed away in Topeka, Kansas, on July 24, 2009. He was born on July 23, 1946. He was the son of Gordon T and Edith A (Hibbard) Smith of Medford, Massachusetts. Loran received his bachelors degree at Salem State College (Massachusetts) in 1968, a masters from Oklahoma State in 1971, and then taught at Black Hills State (Spearfish, South Dakota) from 1971–1974 and Augustana College in Souix Falls from 1974–1977. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1980 and taught at Missouri Southern State College in Joplin until 1982. He then came to Washburn University of Topeka, where he taught until his death. While “Doc” Smith (as the students referred to him) published sufficiently enough to be awarded tenure and promotion to professor, that was not his forte. Loran was a gifted teacher. His CV lists 23 teaching awards, including Washburn's Faculty Certificate of Merit, a university-wide teaching honor based on student elections, from 1985–1998. Loran was also extremely active in faculty governance and other service to the university and the Topeka community. He was on the university's faculty governing body from 1996–2006, serving as its vice president in 2002 and president from 2003–2005. He was the chairman of the Social Science Division almost all of the 1990s and he also served as the chairman of the college's curriculum committee during that same time span. As Washburn is an open-admission university, we have retention problems not experienced by most universities. Loran researched, organized, and ran a college experience program for at-risk students. He was very active in ASPA, serving as the Kansas chapter president from 1987–1988, indeed, his auto license plate read “KS ASPA” and was purchased for him by students he had recruited into ASPA. Loran's main area of academic interest was state and local government and he was the election night expert for one of the local TV stations here in the capital of Kansas from 1984–1992. What occupied most of his time and energy outside of his official academic duties was serving as the faculty advisor for a local chapter of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. Doc Smith took what was a typical college fraternity and turned it into a modern association of men that consistently had the highest average GPA of all the fraternities and sororities on campus. It was not unusual for Loran to pay for a student's tuition and fraternity house bill, buy students books, and lend money to a needy student. Loran had a reputation for frugality (his apartment had a TV but no cable, a rotary phone, and he rented all of his furniture and appliances). Loran's tightness with money turned out to be a big benefit for the fraternity. One chapter official put it this way, “Through his notorious tight-fisted watch over finances, the Chapter was able to wipe out a significant debt to the National Housing Corporation ahead of schedule and helped the chapter build a significant savings by 2000.” People who knew Loran thought that he was not married but Loran was married to his job. Not only was Loran in his office nearly every evening until 10:00 p.m., but he was there all day Saturday and Sunday too, and, more often than not, there was a student in that office talking with him.
‘Hyper-priming’ in thought-disordered schizophrenic patients
- S. MORITZ, K. MERSMANN, M. KLOSS, D. JACOBSEN, U. WILKE, B. ANDRESEN, D. NABER, K. PAWLIK
-
- Journal:
- Psychological Medicine / Volume 31 / Issue 2 / February 2001
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 09 April 2001, pp. 221-229
-
- Article
- Export citation
-
Background. A number of studies have suggested that indirect semantic priming is enhanced in thought-disordered schizophrenics. However, research on direct semantic priming has produced conflicting results. The aim of the present study was to resolve some of the ambiguities of previous findings.
Methods. For the present study, 44 schizophrenic patients were split according to the presence of associative loosening into a positive thought-disordered (TD) and non-positive thought-disordered (NTD) group. Thirty healthy subjects and 36 psychiatric patients served as controls.
Results. Schizophrenics displayed increased indirect semantic priming compared with psychiatric controls. When subtyping the sample, TD-patients exhibited significantly enhanced indirect semantic priming compared with healthy and psychiatric controls as well as NTD-patients. Overall slowing was found to be independent of priming effects. Medication, age and chronicity of the schizophrenic illness did not modulate priming.
Conclusions. In line with Spitzer and Maher it is inferred that disinhibited semantic networks underlie formal thought disorder in schizophrenia. For future research, it would be appropriate to: employ indirect semantic priming rather than direct semantic priming conditions; and, pay more attention to potential moderators of the priming effect, most importantly, the prime display duration and the length of the stimulus onset asynchrony.