Dyskinesias differentiate autistic disorder from catatonia

Autistic disorder and catatonia are neuropsychiatric syndromes defined by impairments in social interaction, communication, and restricted, stereotypical motor routines. Assessments of children with these disorders are typically restricted in scope by the patients' limited ability to comprehend directions. The authors performed systematic assessments of dyskinesias on six prepubertal boys with autistic disorder and mental retardation and on one adolescent male with catatonia to determine if this type of information could be routinely obtained. The boys with autistic disorder had more stereotypies and tics, a greater degree of akathisia and hyperactivity, and more compulsions than the adolescent with catatonia. Catatonia was associated with catalepsy and dystonic postures. The authors conclude that the diagnostic accuracy and specificity of neuropsychiatric syndromes may be enhanced by the systematic assessment of the dyskinesias associated with each condition.     

Validation of a brief measure of posttraumatic stress disorder: the Distressing Event Questionnaire (DEQ)

The Distressing Event Questionnaire (DEQ) is a brief instrument for assessing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) according to criteria provided in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.). The DEQ possesses high internal consistency and exhibited satisfactory short-term temporal stability in studies with Vietnam War combat veterans and battered women. In a sample of Vietnam War veterans and 4 separate samples of abused women (with histories of incest, rape, intimate partner abuse, or prostitution and abuse), the DEQ exhibited very good discriminative validity when judged against structured interview assessment of PTSD. The DEQ exhibited strong convergent validity with other PTSD measures and other indexes of adjustment and also exhibited strong convergent validity as a measure of PTSD across ethnic groups in both the veteran sample and the combined women's sample.     

The visual search analogue of latent inhibition: Implications for theories of irrelevant stimulus processing in normal and schizophrenic groups

Latent inhibition (LI) is a robust phenomenon that is demonstrated when a previously inconsequential stimulus is less effective in a new learning situation than a novel stimulus. Despite LI’s simplicity, there is considerable disagreement as to its theoretical basis. Attentional theories claim that unattended stimulus preexposures reduce stimulus associability. Alternatively, it has been asserted that associability is unaffected and that LI is a result of competition/retrieval processes. The present article reviews a series of visual search studies, some with normal subjects, both undifferentiated and divided into low and high schizotypals, and others with pathologies that entail dysfunctional attention, such as schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease, and anxiety. The visual search conditions were designed to model those of traditional LI experiments, while tapping attentional processes independently of the learning scores that index LI. A variety of evidence from these and other studies is used to support the involvement of attentionaland retrieval processes in LI. A model of the mechanism of action of these processes in LI is presented, together with its application to schizophrenia.     

Psychosis and functioning as risk factors for later suicidal activity among schizophrenia and schizoaffective patients: a disease-based interactive model.

The present research explores the relationship of positive symptoms, negative symptoms, and posthospital functioning to subsequent suicidal behavior over a 7 1/2-year period, and examines whether these patterns vary with diagnosis. The results support a multifactor model of suicide risk. Both psychosis and poor functioning show some relationship to later suicidal activity for both schizophrenic and schizoaffective patients. Psychosis may remain a risk factor for suicidal activity for schizoaffective patients, even when functioning is partialed out. This is in contrast to the schizophrenia patients, for whom funtioning seems to mediate the effects of psychosis on later suicidality. In general, adequacy of overall posthospital functioning mediates the effects of some risk factors on suicidal activity within different diagnostic groups.     

Representation of on-line questionnaires in an editable,auditable database

A general way of describing multiple-choice questionnaires for on-line presentation is described. Some of the important features supported include random ordering of and sampling among questions, substitution of specific-question text into boilerplate question and response formats, a limited ability to bypass irrelevant questions, experimenter editing of response arrays, and automatic production of hard-copy versions of the questionnaire for use during computer breakdowns and for archival documentation. All editing operations on both questionnaires and response data create audit trails for future reference.     

Representation by counsel: Right or obligation?

Since the Supreme Court's decision in Faretta v. California (1975), courts have generally permitted defendants to represent themselves, as long as they are competent to do so. The problem lies in the definition of competency to waive counsel, which has been vaguely defined by the courts. Little is known about the frequency of, or reasons for, attempts to waive counsel, about the process of forensic evaluation of such competency, and about the success of such attempts. The authors briefly review the case law on competency to waive representation, report on a longitudinal prospective study of these issues in a population of defendants referred to an inpatient forensic facility for evaluation of all types of competency related to their criminal prosecutions, and discuss the significance of the issue for forensic clinicians. A key question for courts, lawyers, and clinicians is whether a competency evaluation can be invoked to overcome a defendant's constitutional rights to self-representation and bail.     

What Things <Emphasis Type="Italic">Still</Emphasis> Don’t Do

This paper praises and criticizes Peter-Paul Verbeek’s What Things Do (2006). The four things that Verbeek does well are: (1) remind us of the importance of technological things; (2) bring Karl Jaspers into the conversation on technology; (3) explain how technology “co-shapes” experience by reading Bruno Latour’s actor-network theory in light of Don Ihde’s post-phenomenology; (4) develop a material aesthetics of design. The three things that Verbeek does not do well are: (1) analyze the material conditions in which things are produced; (2) criticize the social-political design and use context of things; and (3) appreciate how liberal moral-political theory contributes to our evaluation of technology.