American Journal of Psychiatry
- Volume 131
- Number 7
- July 1974
Article
Publication date: 01 July 1974
Pages761–764The goal of psychiatric treatment is to restore the patient to a reasonable state of mental health. Hospitalization is often considered to be an unnecessarily expensive component of a total treatment program. In our zeal to reduce expense, many patients ...
https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.131.7.761Publication date: 01 July 1974
Pages765–768The justification for legal commitment of the mentally ill has come under increasing public and professional scrutiny. While there have been few abuses or errors, certain types of problems are more likely to be reflected in unmerited hospitalization. This ...
https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.131.7.765Publication date: 01 July 1974
Pages769–774Fifty-five young adults hospitalized for mental illness were followed up 10 years after their discharge as a sequel to three earlier follow-up studies. The majority of subjects were still poorly adjusted. The area of greatest competence was in school and ...
https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.131.7.769Publication date: 01 July 1974
Pages775–779The author discusses a study done by a group of researchers sponsored by a grant to Ralph Nader. The study focused on the community mental health centers program of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). It finds fault with the discrepancy ...
https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.131.7.775Publication date: 01 July 1974
Pages783–787Historically, the status of mental health services in the United States has depended upon the economic stability of the nation; much of the financial support of these programs has come from government sources. Since current budget reductions have somewhat ...
https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.131.7.783Publication date: 01 July 1974
Pages788–791The process of evaluating the professional competence of trainees in the mental health field is accompanied by complexities that are more extensive than in other professional fields. The authors draw on personal experiences with mental health trainees to ...
https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.131.7.788Publication date: 01 July 1974
Pages792–797This study of coping strategies reports on interviews with 19 survivors of Nazi concentration camps. The subjects, relatively healthy survivors who were not severely psychiatrically disabled, were interviewed in Jerusalem and the San Francisco Bay area. ...
https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.131.7.792Publication date: 01 July 1974
Pages798–802By means of a questionnaire, the author studied hospitalized mental patients' perceptions of the factors contributing to their illness in terms of the economic, family, and social problems they experienced. Childhood problems of all types were reported ...
https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.131.7.798Publication date: 01 July 1974
Pages803–807The authors studied ego defense patterns longitudinally in 36 hospitalized manic-depressive patients using the Ego Profile Scale. Hypochondriacal and somatization defense patterns were found to be more prominent in unipolar patients at times of stress, ...
https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.131.7.803Publication date: 01 July 1974
Pages808–812The authors designed a study to test the relative efficacy of minimal individual contact versus group therapy, given an equal amount of therapist time allocated to each treatment. One hundred forty-four aftercare patients were randomly assigned to either ...
https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.131.7.808Publication date: 01 July 1974
Pages813–817Primatological, ethnographic, and psychiatric data suggest the hypothesis that male dominance facilitates male-female copulatory behavior while female dominance inhibits it. The author discusses a mother-son pair of rhesus macaques in which two incestuous ...
https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.131.7.813Publication date: 01 July 1974
Pages817–819A neuroleptic (haloperidol) that, in the doses used, is a specific blocker of dopamine was effective in antagonizing amphetamine-induced symptoms in eight patients. This finding suggests that dopaminergic mechanisms play an important role in amphetamine ...
https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.131.7.817Publication date: 01 July 1974
Pages820–821The author presents three case reports supporting the hypothesis that lithium therapy inhibits the effect of amphetamine. He suggests that the pharmacologic mechanisms of action of lithium and amphetamine are directly opposite and that lithium could be ...
https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.131.7.820Publication date: 01 July 1974
Pages822–824Modern principles of instructional design were applied by the authors to an undergraduate medical school course in psychiatry with extremely promising results. The authors presented a description of the program design and instructional techniques to ...
https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.131.7.822Publication date: 01 July 1974
Pages825–827The authors describe a patient who developed acute, disturbing symptoms several months after a spontaneous abortion during early pregnancy. Anamnesis revealed that her symptoms were not the usual symptoms of acute grief but were representative of ...
https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.131.7.825Publication date: 01 July 1974
Pages827–829The authors studied 2,494 homicides that occurred in Harris County, Tex. (Houston), over a 14-year period in an effort to confirm a recent study suggesting that homicides are significantly related to phases of the moon. They found no significant ...
https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.131.7.827