Purpose: This study examined patients' and surrogates' attitudes about using advance directives to manage end-of-life medical care. It also explored process preferences, or how patients want decisions to be made. Design and Methods: Data come from the third wave of the Advance Directives, Values Assessment, and Communication Enhancement project, a…

Objective: To determine whether divalproex sodium (DVPX) was superior to lithium carbonate ([Li.sup.+]) in the maintenance monotherapy treatment of youths diagnosed with bipolar disorder who had been previously stabilized on combination [Li.sup.+] and DVPX ([Li.sup.+]/DVPX) pharmacotherapy. Method: Youths ages 5-17 years with bipolar I or II…

Purpose: This study sought to determine whether nursing homes comply with residents' do-not-hospitalize (DNH) orders prohibiting inpatient hospitalization. Design and Methods: With the use of data from the nationally representative 1996 Nursing Home Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, a multivariate logistic regression model was…

Objective: The current generation of clinical trials in pediatric psychiatry often fails to maximize clinical utility for practicing clinicians, thereby diluting its impact. Method: To attain maximum clinical relevance and acceptability, the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Trials Network (CAPTN) will transport to pediatric psychiatry the practical…

Through poetry and strips of narrative, this paper discusses the embodied experience of chemical sensitivity and the anthropologist author's and other patients' journey through altered perception towards knowledge, community and transformation in the context of a medical clinic. The narratives are situated in several strands of relevant theory,…

To better characterize fluent and nonfluent variants of primary progressive aphasia (PPA). Although investigators have recognized both fluent and nonfluent patients with PPA (Mesulam, 2001), the clinical and neuroimaging features of these variants have not been fully defined. We present clinical and neuropsychological data on 47 PPA patients…

Studies of patients with category-specific semantic deficits suggest that the right and left cerebral hemispheres may be differently involved in the processing of living and nonliving domains concepts. In this study, we investigate whether there are hemisphere differences in the semantic processing of these domains in healthy volunteers. Based on…

The processing of Prepositional compounds (typical Neo-latin noun-noun modifications where a head noun is modified by a prepositional phrase, e.g., mulino a vento, windmill) was preliminarily studied with a group of six agrammatic aphasic patients, and, in more detail, with a further agrammatic patient (MB). Omission was the most frequent error…

Parkinson's patients have been found to be impaired in learning movement sequences. In the current study, patients with unilateral basal ganglia lesions due to stroke were tested on a serial reaction time task in which responses were based on the spatial location of each stimulus. The spatial locations either followed a fixed sequence or were…

This study describes discourse patterns produced by 46 Alzheimer disease (AD) patients and 53 normal elderly subjects in two picture-supported narratives. Nine measures derived from a cognitive model of discourse processing were obtained and submitted to cluster analysis. Results indicate that discourse patterns elicited from both stimuli were…

We analyzed spontaneous conversational humor production and response among 11 right hemisphere-damaged (RHD) patients, 10 left hemisphere-damaged (LHD) patients, 7 normal controls (NC), and their spouses. RHD patients and their spouses reported a statistically significant decline in the patients' orientation to humor post-stroke. Also, we found a…

A previous study of 10 patients with Broca's aphasia demonstrated that the advantage for producing the past tense of irregular over regular verbs exhibited by these patients was eliminated when the two sets of past-tense forms were matched for phonological complexity (Bird, Lambon Ralph, Seidenberg, McClelland, & Patterson, 2003). The…

Analysis of rates of further suicidal behavior among individuals making medically serious suicide attempts may help to predict suicide and suicide attempt from baseline characteristics of the individual and the index suicide attempt. Data are drawn from a 5-year study of 302 individuals making medically serious suicide attempts with information…

Deliberate self-harm represents a significant, yet it can be argued, a poorly theorized area of concern with respect to women who have learning disabilities particularly in the context of secure service provision. Utilizing ideas from social constructionism we explore how some ways of understanding dominate the professional literature and,…