Antidepressant treatment of children: clinical relapse is unrelated to tricyclic plasma concentrations

Plasma concentrations of imipramine and amitriptyline and their desmethylated metabolites were measured in 20 children being treated for major depressive illness 2 wk. and 5 to 10 wk. after achieving drug dosages of 2.25 mg/kg body weight. At 2 wk. all children had exhibited clinical improvement, but by 10 wk. 4 of the 10 children treated with imipramine and 5 of the 10 children treated with amitriptyline had experienced clinical relapse of depressive symptoms. Tricyclic antidepressant plasma concentrations and ratios were comparable in the subgroups of children who maintained their clinical improvement and those who relapsed. There was no evidence of a systematic decline in plasma tricyclic antidepressant concentrations in those children who relapsed.     

Effects of ball color on horizontal perimetry detection

The subjects were 16 college students assessed as having normal, uncorrected visual abilities. Each subject responded to the appearance of each of five variously colored ball sections as they were introduced into the subjects' visual field. Analysis indicated that colors with luminance values greater than 70 CD/M2 (black, blue, green) were detected further in the horizontal peripheral plane than were colors possessing values less than 36 CD/M2 (red, purple).     

Field dependence as a limiting factor in solving a complex learning problem

Subjects in a prior study of complex learning often experienced difficulty in mastering the task because of an apparent reluctance to release one perceptual field and reconstrue the task on a higher cognitive level. It was hypothesized that were this the correct explanation, the faster learners would be more field independent on a measure of field dependence, since independence has been defined in terms of ease in releasing one's attention from the immediate perceptual field. This hypothesis was tested with 22 undergraduate subjects for whom Group Embedded Figures Test scores were correlated with the number of trials to completion on the complex learning task. A moderate but significant correlation supported the hypothesis.     

Frequency of neurologic-psychiatric findings in the late phase following minor and medium severe blunt craniocerebral injuries

The authors present a short review of the pertinent literature and report on their own neuropsychiatric findings following internal craniocerebral injuries, at the same time drawing attention to the necessity of psychological examination. Statistical comparisons with the international literature are complicated owing to the different classifications used for craniocerebral injuries.     

THE EFFECTS OF PSYCHOLOGICALLY BASED INTERVENTION PROGRAMS ON WORKER PRODUCTIVITY: A META-ANALYSIS

A meta-analysis of the effects on worker productivity of 11 types of psychologically based organizational interventions showed that such programs, on average, raised worker productivity by nearly one-half standard deviation. The strength of effects was found to vary by type of intervention, criterion of productivity, contextual factors in organizations, and features of research design. Also discussed in the paper are comparisons of conclusions reached through meta-analysis versus traditional methods of literature review.